I close my eyes and took a deep breath, there was something about the air, something gentle and soothing and yet dangerous at the same time. I didn't know what it was, but the fact that I was still alive meant the air was good enough and I was tired of the oxygen from the spacecraft.
I could immediately feel the pain in my body receding, another strange phenomenon.
I saw movements out of the corner of my eyes and I turned to look, in the distance, I could see two figures, both dressed similarly to me, assisting each other to walk.
"Commander!" The moment I got close, their eyes lit up with the same look I've seen for years. It was hope.
'Heh, if only they knew…'
I ignored the voice and instead, focused on the two survivors. I recognised them, Faris and Nerissa, two veteran soldiers that joined my team a few years back. They were very talented, too bad they had me as their commander.
"Anyone else?" I asked and they both shook their heads. I could see the sadness in their eyes at the loss of their teammates.
I was feeling quite down too, it was my duty to keep them safe and now, in the blink of an eye, I've lost all of them except for these two.
"Any idea what happened?" I asked. I didn't miss the flash of horror and dread in Faris eyes. He was still visibly shaken.
"I was close to the cockpit when it happend…. It appeared out of nowhere, forming fully in less than a second before pulling us in."
I glanced at Nerissa who shook her head, "I was far out back, at the engine room. All I felt was an intense turbulence before everything went dark."
I looked back at Faris, his suit was also in tatters, both their suits were.
"What exactly was it?" I asked. I already had my guesses, but I needed to confirm them. I need to be able to gauge the level of bizarreness of the world.
"I want to say a black hole,...." Faris paused for a moment before raising his head to look at me, I felt my skin crawl at the amount of fear in them.
"But something is telling me a black hole would have been better."
I took a sharp breath, wincing a bit as an equally sharp pain shot through my body. I took another quick glance around before my eyes landed on the cube in the sky.
"Did you also receive the strange notification?" I asked.
"Yes sir."
"What do we do, commander?"
"We need to leave here first. Look around for any supplies we can salvage, prioritise weapons. We meet back in ten." I ordered before walking towards another direction.
—
Exactly ten minutes later, the three of us gathered together once again. This time, we all had backpacks on our person. There were more things that survived the crash they I expected and I also noticed that a large section of the spaceship was missing, most likely the mid section.
'Thats the largest part of the ship. If everyone was gathered there, then it's no wonder they are gone. They might not be dead….'
"Where to captain?" Faris asked.
"I don't know. The beast roar came from that area," I pointed towards out north, "we'll head in the opposite direction. Our objective is to look for a relatively safe space to camp."
I turned around to look at my teammates, making sure to maintain eye contact.
"I'm sure you've noticed too, out injuries, while not serious enough to cause death, have all been mostly healed miraculous. This can only mean in thing…. They don't classify as injuries to the beings that dwell here."
"Another bizarre planet…." Nerissa muttered.
In the Stellar Alliance Defence Force (SADF), there was a grading system for unexplored planets and ecosystems. Under the grading system is a category known as Bizarro.
Planets and ecosystems under this category were the strangest throughout the entire galaxy. They were particularly notorious because their unpredictability. You never knew what was coming.
This further led to a sub grading system under Bizarro, one that aimed to give us a general idea of how bizarre this planet or ecosystem was, and it had nine grades of F-rank—SSS-rank.
"How bizarre is it?" Faris asked.
But there was one more rank, a tenth rank that signified only one thing, the moment bizarre graduated to something far more dark and sinister, something eldritch.
"Ex."
***
Deep within the lush rainforest of Xythris was a large settlement, one that was populated by one of the overlord races of the planet,
Medusae Espera, a race of glowing humanoid telepathic jellyfish.
They had large black beady eyes and a humanoid face, neck and torso, but the rest of their body was that of a typical jellyfish from earth, including the large bulbous jell-like cap on their heads.
Unlike all yhe other races, the Medusae race lived in peace and harmony amongst eachother, but their peace was only temporary. This was because they faced the same trouble all other races on planet Xythris faced,
"Ferelith, out scouts have reported sightings of a bizarre looking space pod." a particularly bulky Medusae male spoke. The one he was addressing was a female if the species, one that shone with a gentle radiance different from the rest of her clan. It was obvious that she was different.
She had a slender and dainty body, different from the large and bulky or short and small builds which were more common for Medusaes.
As she heard the man's words, her large beady eyes narrowed. Although she was young, she gave off a strange vibe that made her seem wiser than she looked.
"It's too soon… they shouldn't be here yet."
"I know. I'm guessing these visitors might not be who we think they are." The male Medusae spoke.
Ferelith was quiet for a moment before she suddenly made a decision,
"Vaku, I want you to lead a small team to check out the situation. Watch from a distance and do not approach unless the situation calls for it."
Vaku nodded his head, gave a slight bow before floating off.
Meanwhile, Alderic and his team had no idea that some certain individuals had locked in on them.