Chapter Text
3 months prior to the Kerberos Mission Incident
You hovered by the shuttle whilst the two scientists explored the moon’s surface before you. You were the second mission to reach as far as the moon of Neptune known as Triton and the scientists seemed to excited to be able to get their own soil samples whilst you found it to be rather cold and unpleasant. You had been unable to get in contact with the base since arriving on Triton, some interference was making it impossible to relay a coherent message and you felt, in the pit of your stomach, that something wasn’t quite right. You felt safer the nearer you were to your shuttle, your pilot training told you that if you were in trouble the closer you were to the shuttle the sooner you’d be able to get away.
“Hey, come and look at this, it’s really cool,” one of the scientists shouted at you, beckoning you over with his hand.
You hesitantly looked back at the ship and then at the scientist again before heading over to see what they were so excited about. Just as you reached them and they started explaining their findings to you, your shuttle exploded. You all ducked for cover to avoid injury from the flying debris.
“What the hell?!” you exclaimed as you and your companions poked your heads out of your hiding place.
“The ship! It’s gone! How do we get the samples home?!”
“Calm down Jim, we’ll just put out a mayday signal from the portable radio in this kit.”
“Easier said than done, Joe. Since the ship can’t get any signal I doubt that thing will.”
“Anything’s worth a try, (y/n), don’t be so pessimistic,” the older of the two scientists, Joe, tried to calm everyone’s nerves whilst he assembled the emergency radio with shaky hands, “Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is the Triton Mission. We are located near the scheduled landing site. Our shuttle has exploded so we cannot return to Earth. There are three people in need of recovery. Assistance required as soon possible. Over.”
The radio was silent for a few moments before it started to crackle.
“Roger that, Triton Mission. A rescue shuttle will be with you as soon as possible. Over.”
The two scientists looked at you with a look that told you that you had been wrong about the radio. You just shrugged and sighed. Logic told you that it shouldn’t have worked unless the interference had cleared but it all seemed a bit too coincidental for the it to clear just after you shuttle became unusable.
“Look!” Jim exclaimed as he pointed toward the dark, starry sky. Approaching them was a vessel, “we’re saved!”
You exchanged a look with Joe. You both knew that something wasn’t right now. There was no way that a vessel sent out from Earth could have reached you by now and the next closest mission was on Saturn and it would be a minimum of several hours before they would be able to get to them to provide any help. Jim was already waving the ‘rescue’ shuttle over. It didn’t look like any craft that you had seen before.
“This is bad,” you gulped as Joe nodded, sweat beading on his forehead. Tentatively you both followed Jim towards the vessel.
Two, tall being stepped out of the ship followed by several smaller ones. They were like nothing you had ever seen before. Their eyes were pupilless and yellow, their skin, and most notably their fur, was differing shades of purple. What caught your, and the scientist’s attention most though was the two protruding shapes that were coming out of their heads.
“They look like cat ears…” Jim mused next to you.
“Huge, purple space cats?” you agreed, a slight smile forming at your lips. You smile faded quickly as the shorter and broader of the two approached you, his protruding fangs now clearly visible. The second of the two followed with the other beings, some sort of robot you assumed.
“W-W-Who are you?” Jim questioned as a look of despair crossed his features. It was fairly clear to all of you that these guys weren’t here to rescue you.
“I am commander Prorock of the Galran Empire. You are now our prisoners. You cannot leave this planet so I’d advise you come willingly,” the shorter, broader alien announced. There was something sinister in the way that he spoke that frightened you.
“No, we’re not coming with you. They’re coming to rescue us so we can’t come with you,” Jim protested although you were fairly sure that he had worked out that they had been tricked by now. He turned away from the aliens and ran for it, only for one of the robots to shoot him in the back. He fell less than five feet from you with an ear-splitting scream.
“Who’s next?” the alien who called himself Prorock asked with a smirk. You and Joe looked at each other, having a silent conversation with your eyes. Neither of you could see a way out of this where you got back to Earth so the choice was to die now or become a prisoner and perhaps die later.
You took a deep breath and stepped forward, holding your hands up like you would if you were asked to by the police. You fought the urge to cry and tried to control the trembling of your body as you walked towards the two aliens. Joe followed behind you. You stopped in front of Prorock and glared up at him. He chuckled.
“Brave woman. Stupid woman,” the next thing you knew you found yourself on the floor, you face throbbing from the impact of his hand colliding with it. You spat out blood onto the floor from your tongue that you had just bitten into. You were angry now, not angry enough to do anything that might get you killed but angry enough to continue glaring at the alien, no monster, in front of you.
Joe was a quivering wreck beside you and Prorock grabbed hold of his arm and hauled him onto the vessel.
“Thace, bring the woman.”
The taller alien hadn’t said a word but did as instructed and dragged you to your feet and onto the spaceship.