The sky was a sinister grey all over the world as the Earth was going through its third century of nuclear winter. Humanity has long perished under its own hands. Life on the Earth didn't stand much chance either, aside from insects and some plant life forms, nothing survived the war nor the nuclear winter. Global temperature had reached 154 degrees below zero. The Earth was nothing but a snowball still making its course around the sun. The satellites orbiting around the Earth collided amongst themselves with no human there to control them. Some had crashed on Earth allowing brief sparkles of light on an Earth kept in eternal darkness. Other satellites debris and bits created a very thin and almost invisible ring around the planet. Something was about to change as from Earth, despite the thick dark clouds above and the snow falling, a light shone a bright green. It came from outer space, from an object shaped like an arc. The object soon reached the earth and ignited because of gravity making its already bright green flame halo to burst. The Earth was illuminated again as the object pierced through its clouds. The object seemed to accelerate towards the ground then right before breaking through the ground, it glided above the surface of the Earth. It wasn't long before it stopped on the now frozen Pacific Ocean. The object floated right above the ice as its green halo dimmed. A light shone downwards from the object and soon three figures appeared. Standing on what seemed to be close to 7 feet tall, with armor covering entirely their bipedal bodies, the three figures were holding some strange objects similar to guns in their hands. Their frames weren't much different from those of humans, albeit their height and heavier built, and the fact that they had horns peaking from their heads. They looked around and used a language unknown to anyone that lived here. Soon, they moved with military precision towards the lands in the horizon, as storm seemingly approaching in the distance.
It didn't take long before they reached ground although covered with snow. Huge trunks of dead trees forming a sinister forest. The looked at each other through their helmet having sunshields on. The tiny lamps on their suits were making enough light combined to look around. They were all a bit crouched and looking at one direction while walking with their weapons drawn. One of them stopped and lifted its hand signaling them to stop as well. they slid their hand on their weapon and lines formed before a tiny sphere popped off of it and started floating. The being then lifted their wrist and slid their hands on it and a holographic board appeared. Their giant fingers started running through it before they pressed the last button. The floating marbled glowed then pulsed with a blast of frequencies all around. After few seconds the marble stopped pulsing and a glowing trail appeared from the marble towards elsewhere, seemingly indicating a path to follow. The three beings continued their way through the almost silent dead forest. Few miles since they started following the trail, they reached what supposedly were a place inhabited since they were no more dead tree trunks around, just a large open space with barely standing buildings. The beings gasped and looked at each other again. Once more the one in front signaled them to stop, they were probably their leader. The leader crouched and despite the snow falling heavily, they notice something unusual, marks on the snow, prints like those they were leaving behind them. The leader put their hand on the print on the ground and it was terrifyingly smaller than the print…considering the leader was somewhere around 7'5" tall, the creature that made that print should be thrice or four times their size. The leader looked at the others and signaled to stay alert, something, potentially dangerous was around. They hurried up and followed the trail to the middle of the ruins of this town. It seemed that this building had crumbled under its own weight. They couldn't see any form of entrance. One of them, having a blue lamp on their helmet used their weird weapon looking like a staff to touch the ground. The staff stood upright on its own while the being did the same thing their leader did earlier, they slid their hand on the wrist and a board appeared. Soon the staff started pulsing downwards then sharp blades came off from its base on the ground. The staff started drilling the ground with a width large enough for the three being to go through. They all patted their shoulders and could revert gravity enough to float and thanks to a propelling system in their suits, they could fly around. They all got down the hole made by the staff. It wasn't long before they reached an open space, a cave of sort but not quite, the surrounding walls were far too flat to have been made naturally. It was actually an old undergoing base. The three beings landed on the ground and looked around, it seemed the base had been attacked long ago, judging by the carnage they could see. They kept moving like soldiers, each guarding the back of the other. The trail stopped right before a door of thick metal that had been torn open like plastic. The door itself had taken severe damage, but what was shocking was the huge lines of ripped metal, that were also present on the grounds and all over the place…huge traces looking like claws marks, but those were way too large. The leader lifted their hand again and motioned with their fingers. They nodded and all their suits went into an advance form of camouflage making them not only invisible but undetectable by any kinds of vision, they could all see each other and they had a topographic map and ultrasonic blasts allowing them to know what was around and a bit far from them. They reached the door and entered through the cracks. The atmosphere here was even more eerie than outside, this place had known horrifying things, it was too dark to see a thing and with their camouflage on, their lamps turned off. So, they used their ultrasonic system to walk through this place. It wasn't hard, nothing much strange albeit the very uncomfortable sensation of dread heavy on their shoulders. Once again, the leader stopped them as they reached their target. It was a huge sphere that still seemed intact through their ultrasonic analysis. Few years ago, they had received a signal coming from this part of the galaxy, from this planet, a signal that seemed to have been sent centuries ago. It took them few months to decipher what was the meaning of the signal and where it was launched from, then their kind had sent a ship to make contact…they weren't sure if the people there would still be alive considering their message seemed rushed and eerie…it was a call for help. The leader was busy on his holographic board, while the one with the staff reached closer to the sphere that seemed to have high peaks of radiation and something even stranger…there was a repeated sound coming from it, it was slow, different form a heartbeat, more like some neural spikes. The one with the staff looked at the leader then at the one that was bigger than the others. Before they could speak, they heard a guttural sound that made them all crouch and look at their maps, they weren't alone, there were several dots appearing…but that didn't make any sense, there weren't any openings, where do these being came from. The three suited beings draw their weapons, the leader still focused on unlocking the sphere. With a last click, he accessed the very rudimentary technology composing the sphere and it opened with steam coming off and noise. Same noise that made the beings all around to make sounds of death, the biggest suited being placed themselves before the other two and stroke his fists then punched the ground before tracing a line in front of them. A force field made of nanoparticles created a wall that split the room in two, one side with them and the sphere, the other with whatever was running towards their location. The one with the staff then slid their hand on their weapon and it started drilling again this time upwards. The leader looked as the sphere was completely opened, there was a being in a cylinder, frozen yet the cylinder seemed to keep them alive…the leader gasped in enthusiasm but it didn't last long as the whole place started to crumble and big roaring noise echoed around. On their maps, they could see a bigger dot, bigger than anything here coming right towards them. The leader signaled them to go while he locked their suit with the cylinder. They all patted their shoulders and the one with the staff accidentally turned off thee camouflage of their suit and the blue lamp illuminated through this darkness showing abominations…creatures barely understandable, with humongous appearance. They all screamed as the light reached them and the bigger creature now visible growled while charging. The force field held him from reaching any closer but the bigger suited being had to stay in line to maintain the barrier. They screamed to the leader and the one with the staff to leave fast before the barrier breaks. The leader grabbed the one with the staff and placed the cylinder on their suit before ordering them to leave with it. The one with the staff was about to protest but the leader used their board to force the suit of the one with the staff to fly right through the hole made priorly in the ceiling towards the surface. The leader then went closer to the bigger one still holding the barrier against the creatures which stopped forcing and were looking up. The leader understood…they were not able to see them…they were not targeting them…they were aiming at something else. The leader gasped as the big creature jumped towards the ceiling before digging through it, its tail made of spikes gathering all the smaller creatures that crawled on it. The leader understood they went after their comrade and nodded with the big one. They flied up through their path following the one with the staff that had already reached the surface. The one with the staff looked down at the hole and saw their comrades coming and reaching them in a flash. The leader screamed to leave immediately, the creature emerged from the ground and screamed with a guttural sound and not only the creatures following on its tail did start to run towards the trio, but so did many others come from all directions. The trio started flying but the creatures simply started climbing the ruins of the buildings and try jumping at them. The biggest creature roared as bits of flesh dripped from its gaping mouth while running on the ground making it shake. The one with the staff had issues carrying the weight of the cylinder, the big one quickly flied closer and took it. A tongue wrapped around the ankle of the one with the staff who looked at their comrade before being pulled towards the biggest creature who used vertical rows of teeth to devour the poor suited being. The leader screamed and cursed before they and the big one flied higher and towards the ship. The creatures were running on the ice by hundreds then thousands. The big one unlocked the grip they had to the cylinder and placed it on the leader then flied back to the creatures. The leader wanted to come back but the big one simply nodded. The leader cursed and quickly went in the ship and started to get it up. The green halo of the ship started to get brighter. Meanwhile the big one stopped in the air and slapped their hands together before their armor created a huge blast of electrical attacks similar to lightnings. Those pulverized on the spot, some of the creatures, soon the biggest creature growled looking up at the big one and used its tail to pick smaller creatures then sent them flying towards the big one. The latter used lightning attacks from its suit to pulverize each creature but they were numerous and soon, one creature reached them. They started to punch or more like tried to dig into their armor but couldn't. The big one ripped the head of the creature while aiming for the others incoming but they were quickly outnumbered and the weight of the creatures they desperately killed one after the other made them reach closer to the ground. The creatures were dying by the punches of the big one but the biggest creature slammed them with its tail making the big one fly back before rolling violently. The ship was starting to float higher but slowly, it rotated and the leader could see their comrade on the ground, trying to get up as the creatures were still coming at them. The leader deployed the weapons of the ships and blasted few hundreds of the creatures that now were running even more numerous from lands on the ice. The repeated blasts made the ice crack and the rift it created made the big one roll again while they tried to stabilize on the slippery ice. They managed to catch their balance and could see the ship was in good way to fly and looked forward to see the creatures were trying to target it. The big one patted their shoulders and propelled themselves at an astonishing speed on the ice, skating on it before creating a force field ramp over the creatures from the ground. The big one slid on the ramp while the creatures couldn't reach higher. The biggest creature spikes all over its body started to make lightning sparks before it blasted a huge electric arc towards the ramp on which the big one was gliding in an attempt to reach the ship. The leader looked down widening their eyes as they hoped the big one would make it. But the electrical arc made the ramp to burst and the big one was sent off as the ship entered the ascension lock…the leader looked down and screamed as they saw the big one trying to punch as many creatures as they could before being way too outnumbered and the ice cracked below making everything sink…the leader removed their helmet revealing strange facial features, yet close enough to humans, nose, two eyes, ears although closer to that of deer, and of course, horns. The leader punched the board in frustration to the loss of their comrade. The ship soon reached out of the Earth atmosphere and got in space, it wasn't long before it beamed a ray with its green halo, opening a portal through space the warped far from this forsaken planet. The leader sat down, annoyed and mourning their loss…they looked at the cylinder on the floor…and frowned, questioning if this was worth the lives of two people they held dear…especially when the being looked just like a better and seemingly alive version of those creatures…they wondered what kind of atrocities had led their world to end that way…soon, the possibility for such a thing to be a threat for their own kind made them stop the warp and they ended drifting slower in space…not even close to any solar system, just void with stars in the distance. The leader went closer to the cylinder and frowned even more. If this creature was to become a threat like those on its planet, it would be problematic, so it was safer to make experiments onboard and tests of safety…the leader launched the unfreezing process of the cylinder that they had coupled to the biococoon of the ship, so that the being would be in a place where it could breathe the air its lungs was designed for. The leader pulled a chair right in front of the cocoon made of glass where the cylinder was opened to let the creature out. The leader sat and waited for the process, as this was going to be both a discovery and a burden, because this creature was probably, the last of its kind.