Chapter Text
Chapter 1 – The First Mistake
Another planet, another wasteland. Dominator leaned against the control panel, watching the barren rock turn lazily beneath her warship. The scans were coming in, but the results weren’t promising.
“Tch. Seriously? This dump has nothing?”
A Dombot beeped beside her. “Correct! All resources depleted. No viable fuel detected.”
Dominator groaned, rolling her eyes. “Great. Another dead world.”
That made three in a row. Something was off about this system…normally, even “dead” planets had SOMETHING left. But here? No lava, no seismic activity, no energy signatures. Just dry husks of rock.
Another Dombot chimed in. “Anomaly detected below surface.”
Dominator perked up, she picked up her legs off the command board only to drop them on the floor “Finally something interesting!”
A projection flickered to life, displaying a deep fissure in the planet’s crust. Something beneath it was giving off faint energy signals weak, but unusual.
“Hmph. It’s probably just residual heat,” she muttered. “But I’m bored, so let’s check it out.”
The Dombots beeped in acknowledgment as she marched off toward the airlock, her larger masculine armor encasing her.
Planet Surface
Dominator’s sneakers crunched against the dry, fractured ground. Her armor hummed with power, protecting her from whatever thin atmosphere remained. The air smelled wrong, stale, empty, like a place that had been dead for a long time.
The fissure loomed ahead, splitting the ground wide open. Steam curled from its depths, carrying a strange, metallic scent.
Dominator stepped closer, visor scanning for anything useful. “Alright, where’s the fun part?”
The ground shifted slightly beneath her. Something shallow inside the planet's plates watched on.
But she didn’t notice. Her attention was on the heat readings faint, but still there. Maybe this planet wasn’t completely tapped out.
She smirked. “Heh, guess I’ll dig a little deeper.”
She turned away, tapping at her glove’s wrist controls—
Yet in the background it made its move
Something small and black slithered up from the dry ground’s crust, nearly silent against the rock. It was no bigger than her palm, a soft gooey black blob with however changing tendrils attached to the main body (like a spider or octopus) with the same texture.
It slipped between the seams of her armor. Her sensors didn’t even register it.
Dominator didn’t notice. She was already heading back to the ship, thinking about how to tear open the planet’s crust.
Aboard the Warship…
Dominator stretched her arms as she entered one of the ship’s lower chambers, away from the usual hum of the Dombots. “What a waste of time...”
Her big armor hissed and unlocked, shifting away as she powered it down.
Metal plates retracted, revealing her more casual attire, slinking through the hallway she immediately froze passing by a mirror
Right over the heart symbol on her crop, something was latched onto her chest.
A black soft mass. Gooey, with thin tendrils thick at the base but thinning out the farther it reaches towards her sides securing itself tightly onto her, slowly fusing into her skin.
Her stomach dropped.
“What the— EW?!”
Panic surged through her. She grabbed at it at the main body, fingers digging into the mass, trying to yank it off but it stretched still clinging tightly like it was part of her.
Her breathing picked up in frustration . “Get off! Get the hell off me!” She pulled harder, muscles straining.
She began digging and clawing at the unknown alien but to no avail and so she paused to take a break while still in front of the mirror her back and neck arched down, she was still breathing heavily and as she continued she began to notice the mass quickly matched the rhythm of her own breathing pattern, as the realization hit she lifted her body up from the slumped position staring at herself in the mirror in a worried stance…
Looking at her chest where the alien was she noticed it had turned a sort of deep red in the middle of the main body but gradiently turned back to black especially on the tendrils…the tendrils? No longer ONLY on her ribs now
two on either side followed over and up her clavicle bone...up her neck…up her cheeks to the near bottom of her eye almost looking like it was connecting with her drip styled eyeliner on the ends, she could see it moving slowly up her body when she started to notice its assent she could even just faintly feel it!
As she examined herself an extreme sharp pain caused her to let out a frustrated yelp in pain especially on her chest, she felt something slick and unnatural through her eyes then what followed was an immediate intense headache,
She clutched her face, hunching her spine as she toppled backwards, her own sensory input completely occupied but just noticing the Dombots aggressive marching steps towards her direction brought by the sounds of Dominatior’s screams.
…she felt so hazy, yet warm, something was so comfortable though…