Battle for the Unknown Planet

“This isn’t going to provide any form of shelter mind you but its the best I can do in a rush. Damned hard planet to break apart and with the little time we were given won’t do much besides slow them down,” said Yovel, working ahead on the six foot tall wall of solid iron that surrounded their home base.

“Why didn’t we just teleport back to the ship?” asked Dylan.

“Advanced tech within these aliens lets them sense our teleporting signals and ambush us from a distance. Avoids that by going into orbit above the surface,” explained Yovel.

“When we landed it was all desert, what have they even been feeding on to develop so fast?” pondered Dylan.

“Clearly their able to adapt to extreme heat or cold, which also tells us they might not need to eat as we would understand. Machine life could create organisms like this perhaps?” guessed Yovel as he dropped the last slab of metal they had been dragging towards the wall structure.

“All we really know is they appeared near our landing site some hours after we disembarked and they’ve killed everyone except us. Able to rip the body to pieces like chewing gum and never lose the strength or dexterity capacity with each kill. Wish I knew how to fight against that. We’re officers not soldiers,” said Dylan, dropping onto one knee and curling his arms around himself as he stared across the barren landscape at the approaching crimson flood.

“Should last for some time yet. One last trick,” said Yovel. He reached into his suit and pulled out something long and white from an inner pocket.

“I thought we were told not to bring any artifacts with us!” exclaimed Dylan.

“Well we follow the protocols for a reason. If we’re discovered first then tried to hide so it brings up a clone gun and pulls the pin from the device in his hand. A harmless puff of white dust shot out into the air filling the atmosphere, then moments later more of the same shot out from within the crimson flood, giving off enough white to camouflage the escape of Dylan and Yovel as they headed back towards their ship as the crimson swam disappeared into the freshly laid wall of iron.

The two held breathless to avoid detection as holographic blue suited aliens with curious frames walked right passed the two human’s hiding spot and went straight into their hidden base.

The stood and dusted off the charade of the dust projectile and leaped over the wall back onto the ground below. The sight of twisted metallic fragments crookedly perched upon cones of dirt jutting from the sand soon came into view.

“Did they discover our ship already?” whispered Yovel, eyes squinting as he took in the nightmare scene of metal shards buried and suspended dozens of feet into the air by tendrils of black and blue power thin enough nearly to be mistaken for thread.

Dylan tilted his head to the side, spinning in a slow circle as he observed the entire surrounding area with growing dread. “No evidence anyone even attempted to reach the ship whatsoever.”

Yovel nodded, pulling him by the arm away from the area. “If their discovery capabilities are as powerful as their destruction ones then our plan to save ourselves with this ship won’t work and will only alert them to a possible escape. We need to look for something else, anything and be quick about it.”

A crackling hissing static interrupted the conversation and a red emergency light attached to their suits flashed brightly as an artificial voice all too familiar to the officers spoke out. “Earthlings, you’re choices are to surrender and return to your planet or submit to your death. If you are attempting to flee the planet you are too late. Your planet has been destroyed completely and there is nowhere left to flee. You will be promptly destroyed just like the rest of your race.” ​