1st Pov
Space is boring. I can say with certainty after spending by my count nearly 13 days floating in that space is boring. Initially I spent the first week adjusting to my new body and learning to control it, in the initial stages I had to make a manually and pronounced effort to control and shift my body, but after a week of practice with multiple trains of thought each analysing what's happening I managed to get moderately good at shifting parts of my body on demand. I still haven't got to the point I can shift my whole body at once without massive amounts of effort and a decent amount of time, but I can morph a small part of myself into a sharp spike relatively easily.
Another thing that has changed is over the past 13 days in space, the constant training with my multiple trains of thought caused my intelligence stat to go up and for my comfortable amount for trains of thoughts to raise to sixty five. I also improved my control over radio waves and began decoding what I believe to be human made signals.
I think this because these signals are far more uniform than the random static, I've been picking up this entire time. Throughout this time, I rapidly improved and levelled up a number of skills.
[Radio wave Manipulation Lvl 17/100 (+10)]
[Shapeshifting Lvl 15/100 (+14)]
[Enhanced Intelligence Lvl 11/100 (+10)]
[Techno Organic Body Lvl 9/100 (+8)]
[Slime Body Lvl 9/100 (+8)]
Looking over my levelled up skills I'm quite happy with my progress, though I really wish to do something else. Sitting in space is comfortable to me and all but I really want to train my other skills without having to mutilate myself.
Snapping out of my boredom the train of though I assigned to monitor radio signals picked up a signal that's slowly getting closer to me. Shifting my body in what looks like a squint I stare deep into the darkness between me and the earth, looking for whatever caused the signal. Not finding anything after about an hour of looking, I un squint and put my focus back on leveling up my skills keeping one train of thought monitoring signals.
9 Hours Later
After a few hours, the source of the signal got far closer and I'm now able to see a tiny reflective pinprick in the darkness between me and the earth. Looking at the signals coming off this speck I see a signal that is far denser than the other signals around me, looking closer at this signal it appears to be carrying information. Spending a few minutes analysing this new type of signal the pinprick got close enough for me to see it looks like a probe. Coming within a few metres the probe turns around and retro thrusts to slow down, grasping the signal of the probe that is now a few metres away from me I determine this signal is likely a camera feed.
At the moment I'm not able to decode the signal fully as I don't understand how it works, but I figure that with time I'll understand. Watching the probe slowly get closer and closer to me I feel excitement build within me. 'This is my ticket down to earth'
After a few minutes of waiting the asteroid touches down on me, the claws on the probe dig deep into the mimicked matter I use as a shell to hide my true body within. Feeling the probe touch down on me, I discreetly extend a tentacle up the probe's legs to the main body. The main body of the probe is about 1.5 metres in diameter and 1 metre tall with a cylindrical shape, round top, and flat bottom. On the underside of the probe, I see multiple different tools fold out from within the body of the probe, taking the provided opportunity I slip my tentacle into the probe and start looking for something important.
Meanwhile back on earth the eager astronomers watching through the camera of the probe start to notice some malfunctions in the control system. Watching the broadcast footage one eagle eyed intern notices a black tendril wrapped around the leg of the probe. Rushing forward the intern approaches his boss and points out his observation. Elon noticing what the intern pointed out angles the camera to get a better angle. As the camera rotates the video feed begins to glitch and cut out, in the eyes of all present in the control room everyone sees a thin blank tendril wriggling into the probe before the probe shuts down.
Back with the protagonist they were unaware at this moment that they'd been seen.
Disconnecting the power supply in the probe I take a second to control my body, shifting my body where the probe rests and absorbing it into me. With the probe now in me, I start connecting with all the parts. Redirecting the thought trains that were leveling up skills I put the full extent of my brain power into analysing the probe.
1 day later
Twenty four hours after I first absorbed the probe, I believe I've come to a basic understanding of how the parts work. At my current understanding there would be low chance of me recreating the probe, but with what I understood from it I will be able to decode basic radio chatter. Even better then now understanding radio chatter is having a way too accelerate myself. Reconfiguring myself and shifting the probe I move it to the surface of my body with the thrusters aimed away from myself.
Fiddling with the internal components of the probe I disconnect the antenna array and reconnect the battery. With the probe set up I use my omnidirectional vision to aim the thruster in the complete opposite direction to earth, once aimed I adjust my body to firmly grasp the probe before activating the thruster.
Not surprisingly the results weren't too noticeable, I could feel myself accelerating but probably at about only five metres a second. After an hour of accelerating the thruster on the probe runs out of fuel and shuts down. Opening my quest menu, I check the time left before reaching earth.
[ Wait until you fall to earth (27 hours: 12 minutes: 35 seconds)]
Looking at the decreased time I breath a mental sigh of relief, luckily thanks to this probe I won't have to spend weeks more in space. Now though I had a separate problem to deal with, at the current speed I'm travelling it will be immensely painful entering the earths atmosphere. I had theorised a few different solutions to this problem during my time in space and I had decided on a course of action.
My plan was to use a combination of my shapeshifting and the typhons ability to condense themselves into a smaller form and climb inside the probe. Once in the probe I can merge with it and reconfigure it to act as a shell around my body during re-entry. The other option I thought about was randomly encountering a satellite and hoping it has thermal shields, but I figured this would be unlikely.
Implementing my plan, I begin trying to condense myself, using most of my trains of thought I spend a few minutes shrinking myself to an adequate size before seeing myself into the probe. Once in the probe I merge with the metal casing and start bending it with a combination of technological body and matter manipulation to form a shell, hollowing out the inside while at it.
After a few hours of work I manage to fully encase myself in the remains of the probe and hunker down. At this point its all luck if I successfully reach the planet.
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3rd Pov
Back on earth it had been over a day since the probe had gone offline and those in the know were panicking. In the same control room, the probe was initially launched from three men could be seen scrambling around a series of computers frantically typing.
"Elon, we need to call the government, this thing has shown signs of intelligence and it's heading right for us." – Josh
"No, the government will try and take whatever this creature is. Imagine what we could learn from a alien organism, the government would just lock it away in a deep bunker." Seemingly insulted by josh's remark Elon snaps at him, on the screen in front of Elon a chart can be seen with a timeline below. On the timeline it shows the time the probe went offline and how almost exactly twenty four hours the unknown meteoroid began accelerating towards earth.
On the screen to the side of Elon a screen shows a side by side imagery of the meteoroid turning into a black liquid before condensing and climbing inside the probe. Finding the last screen shows a video of the now reshaped probe with no signs of the meteoroid.
"What we need to do is figure out where it will land and get there before anyone else" – Elon
Elon after saying this walks to the far side of the room where a screen can be seen showing all the predicted paths for the alien's descent. Unknown to both Elon and Josh, Neil sitting quietly to the side of the room had just sent out an email to one of his friends in the FBI.
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3rd Pov Elsewhere
Nick fury wasn't having a good day, five minutes earlier one of Fury's most trusted confidants had brought him a concerning email intercepted between an astronomer Neil and the FBI. After reading through the entirety of the email nick fury was officially concerned. If the data in the email was to be believed an independent astronomer found a peculiar meteoroid before taking his findings to a more established astronomer. The more established astronomer then contacted his peculiar billionaire and together without any government permission they launched a probe towards this meteoroid.
Normally just this much wouldn't enough to concern Nick, but what came after the probe made contact with the meteoroid concerned fury. Within the email a static video of a black liquid like substance wrapping around the probe could be seen, if the rest of the data in the email could be believed the probe shutdown seconds after this video was sent.
Now coming to the present time Nick fury was watching a video of the supposed meteoroid shift into a liquid before climbing inside the probe. Finishing the video Fury's face darkened as he reached for a phone on the desk next to him. Dialling a number Fury talks for a bit before hanging up and putting the phone down before turning back to the data in the email.
Five minutes later a knock can be heard from the door to fury's office, hearing the knock fury turns towards the door and presses a button opening the door. Walking in through the door is a beautiful woman, the woman has a perfectly sculpted body, delicate and sharp face, and long silky red hair. This woman is Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow, she is a close confidant of Fury and an excellent spy and combatant. Behind Natasha a short man standing at 173cm follows her through the door. The man has a bow strapped over his shoulder, is wearing a sleeveless black vest and is clearly very fit. This man is Clint Barton aka Hawkeye another close confidant of Nick Fury.
Turning to the two new people in the room Fury address's them with a serious tone of voice.
"Natasha, Clint. I have a very important mission for you."
Pressing a button on his desk shutters close over all the windows and the door behind the new occupants closes. Once the room is sealed wooden panels slide up on the walls to reveal screens imbedded in the walls, turning to the screens nick fury gestures with his hand towards the screens as a video begins playing.
"Recently we intercepted a concerning email involving a chaotic billionaire and a famous astronomer. This video was imbedded in the email and has something of great concern. Your mission is to head to the predicted landing and stop anyone from interacting with the entity until its motives have been determined. If it has hostile motives, we will carpet bomb the area and attempt to eradicate it, if it has positive motives, we shall attempt to contain it and study it. Do you understand your mission?"
Finished speaking Fury swivels his chair to face the two other people in the room, with murmurs of acknowledgment Fury waves his hand to dismiss them as they leave his office.
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1st Pov – Some amount of time later
Resting within the repurposed remains of the probe I watched as the time in the quest menu counted down.
[Wait until you fall to earth (19 minutes: 42seconds)]
Looking at the time it wouldn't be long now till I got to the surface, I had begun to notice minute trembles a shake in the probe about a minute ago. My running theory was I had started entering the outer layers of the atmosphere, just at the stage where the probe can hit some air molecules.
Over the next few minutes as I got closer and closer to earth, I felt the probe continuously heat up, at the moment the heat wasn't too bad and I can handle it but it would probably get worse.
Once the countdown gets to less than five minutes, I feel the probe violently shaking and deaccelerating, along with this the probe rapidly starts to heat up. Using my tendrils I desperately hold onto the probe as I get shaken in all direction, whilst this isn't as bad as the kaleidoscope hell, I went through it is still incredibly uncomfortable.
As the heat continues to increase, in a contradicting scenario I feel the heat have less effect on me. The shaking also slowly stops rattling me around as I get more comfortable plummeting towards the planet.
Taking the chance to glance at the system countdown now I can think I see.
[ 4… 3… 2… 1…]
Before a violent impact rips through the probe tearing, it to pieces and causing my liquid like body to splat apart from the force of the impact. Dazed I lay there, scattered across the crater my impact formed, for a few minutes before recollecting myself and controlling all my parts to reform in the centre of the crater.
Bringing my parts together I control the density of my cells and start forming myself a body, no more asteroid for me. Starting from my legs I build two bipedal legs with a denser section in the centre to act as bones. Thinking about it I decide I want to try being female in this life, so continuing this thought I build up to my pelvis, from my pelvis I build my torso two round mounds resting at the top of my chest.
Going by instinct I begin to form a tail extending from my tail and wings from by shoulder blades, forming two arms, one on either side of my torso I end the arms with hands with five digits. The ends of the digits I form long talons, moving up to my head I form a head. At this moment, my shapeshifting isn't proficient enough to mimic human flesh, so accounting for this I form my mouth as an extended draconic snout lined with razor sharp teeth. For my eyes I don't really need eyes but decide to have placeholders to seem like weakness's.
Where the eyes typically are on a human two glowing misty orbs float, the orbs form the same shape as a human eye with the outer section being a crimson red, the pupil in the centre of the eyes are purple slits with colour blended on the edges into the crimson outer parts. From the top of my head two curved horns form, the horns extend about 20 cm and curve to face the space above the top of my head. The horns end in sharp points that look like needles, for my hair a cloud of mist forms around my head similar to the effects around typhons in the prey universe.
Reflecting on myself I'm quite happy with my first try, I'll have to improve my form and polish it up a bit because at the moment I look like a cloud of mist in the shape of a female humanoid with draconic features. Hearing a sound at the edge of the crater I see a human standing on the edge of the crater looking down at me.
Not wanting to deal with this at the moment I instead decide to run away and turn towards the opposite crater edge. Running I'm far faster than I initially thought and blur out of the crater at over 150km/h leaving a trail of black mist with red and purple strands fading behind me.
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3rd Pov – Natasha Romanoff
Today was an interesting day for Natasha, earlier her boss Director Nick Fury had called her and her close friend Clint into his office. What Natasha wasn't expecting was for Fury to reveal what was believed to be an alien organism heading straight for earth. That conversation led to the current circumstance where Natasha was sitting in the middle of the Australian dessert staring up into the sky at a flaming meteor heading straight towards her and Clint. Getting in her car with Clint in the passenger seat Natasha began driving towards the meteorite crater a kilometre from where she was sitting.
Quickly arriving at the meteorite crater at the edge of a forest Clint climbs a tree to get a angle into the crater. Whilst Clint climbed Natasha ran up the edge of the crater to look into it, reaching the edge of the crater Natasha can see small fires, metal scraps and most predominantly a black goop with purple and red colour accents scattered across the entire crater.
Touching the communication device in her ear Natasha turns to face the tree Clint was climbing.
"Clint, do you see this?" – Natasha
"Yes, I can see it. Be careful" – Clint
Moving her hand away from her ear Natasha carefully walks around the edge of the crater towards a small piece of the black goo resting on the upper edge of the crater, reaching into her belt she unclips a small test tube and reaches towards the goop. As Natasha's hand approaches the goop it seems to ripple, seeing the ripple Natasha snatches her hand away and steps back.
Watching the goop, she sees it start sliding towards the centre of the crater. In the centre of the crater, she watches the goop pile together, as the goop piles it seems to condense and shape. Continuing the goop continues to pile up and condense forming a humanoid figure.
After a minute in front of Natasha is a 3 metre tall female humanoid, the humanoid has shifting mist like skin that seems to float around it as both a liquid and gas. The figure is mainly black with red and purple accents forming patterns similar to scales in parts, from the torso of the humanoid a large sharp and spiky tail extends around 2.5 metres, the tail appears to be covered in black scale with red and purple mist glowing out of the gaps in the scales. The figures feet follow a similar shape to a human, the feet are covered in the same black scales as the tail that extend up past the knees to just below the mid thighs, the toes of the figure are five large talons spread out to maximise the surface contact. Further up the figure Natasha see's two large draconic looking wings extending from the figures shoulder blades, the wings have a approximate wingspan of five metres with sharp talons extending from each of the bone like fingers in the wings. The membrane across the wings looks to be a mix between flowing crimson and purple mist and black tendrils. Turning to the figures arms Natasha see's two normal human arms with scales up to the mid forearms. On the hands of the figure small sharp claws extend from the humanoid's hands. Turning to the figures face its head snaps in her direction and she looks into it's purple and red glowing slitted eyes that appear like leaking mist. Looking at the draconic snout of the figure Natasha see's long sharp black teeth with crimson and purple energy leaking from the gums and throat. Finally, Natasha see's two 20cm long horns extending up in a slightly leaned angle above the figure's forehead.
Then as quick as a speeding car the figure blurs out of the crater towards the forest, leaving a fading trail of black mist with crimson and purple glowing highlights.
Natasha turning to Clint still up in the tree, reaches her hand to her ear and speaks.
"We need to contact the Director."