That Which Nightmares Wrought

[Sarah_Kerrigan]

A creature summoned by Sarah's dream finds a home in Tier 7.

The streets were rife with trash; abandoned remnants of civilization that had tried and failed to establish itself this low beneath its poverty line. Criminals ran amuck and the pungent aroma brought many that had not grown accustomed to it, to their knees with persistent nausea. Although what else is to be expected - from landfills the leftovers and the scrapped wreckage - from the forgotten troubles of the Empire, their ‘lost’ memories of new beginnings, and the cost of order in what otherwise would in fact be considered an unstable society? It is among all the ruined tolls and pains of akin world-builders that care naught for those beneath them, that the possibility of insanity takes root. Those that are left to rot, become corrupted to the core. Although, life always finds away even in the insane, the enfeebled and forsaken parts of all realities. It exists.

A beast crawled about on all-fours, sniffing at the ground. Dog-like in form at a quick glance, but a studied gaze would see the horrible truth: a monster with fangs, spikes, tendrils and teeth. The purple flesh seemed hardened round a grey carapace, as though grown, then birthed with exact proficiency - an exact copy of what had came before it. Whence it came, it either could not recall, or simply did not care. And although its arrival left it disorientated, a quick survey as a trained spotter, gave it new-found purpose, a reason to exist.

It made light grunts upon finding out new scents and scouting their ultimate burial mounds, and uttered high pitched squeals at those shadows that challenged its presence. It may have been fast, scuttling and darting about, but it knew well enough that it was the only of its kind in the immediate vicinity. Its strength came through number and stealth. Any time any of the vagrants would draw close - perhaps wondering what it was that lurked about in the dark - it found a new hiding place. The creature would loiter, find a new scent and thereafter move on into other decrepit places. Caring little for why it was here, and even less about where it was.

It kept out of the way of the gangs of streeters; the loosely bound formations of humanoids it barred its sharp and many teeth at, and glared at through piercing-yellow eyes. Occasionally as it passed, rushing by, it would latch onto a wall or a broken bit of structure, lunging forward with a clawed appendage and swinging itself quickly around a corner, so as not to be seen by the chem-addict injecting his or herself (as the case may be) with a newfangled drug or mixed formula. Sometimes though afterward, it would linger studying the human’s reaction to the injection with an analytical mind, but never long enough to be discovered. Throughout most of its first night, it studied Tier 7 of Coruscant that was now its home, and its internal clock ticked on.

The morning after it had been summoned passed slowly. Many of those probed the night before now slept wherever they had fallen and passed out. Others though were fresh in the eyes, and actually treading along new territory, thieving what little of value they could find in the pockets of those still alive, and those that were dead. A few times, the menace had been seen and the onlookers had threatened to surround it entirely. However, a few quick springs forward and it bounded away from those whom were not so light-footed. Although bred to fight, this creature could understand when its prey was so feeble as to not be a threat. As the smell of death crept through every crevice of the locale, it determined that these were the castoffs of whatever lived here, and not worth any time or risk that came with pursuit and subsequent extermination. Information was needed, not blood and death.

Yet the thought solved nothing of its predicament. It’s not as though it lacked purpose: it knew it needed to procreate, to continue on adapt to any change as best it could, but the haze that enveloped its mind clouded most of its perceptions. It left only vague possibilities of where its kin may lie, and then no guarantee that any existed at all on this world. There was only that pang - the empty feeling - and the reverberation of a linked existence other than its own herein. Drawn across an incredibly distance, it would be foolish to seek it out, despite that fact that it could be tracked high above the current elevation. The attempt would most likely lead to an untimely demise. Still on its own, it could not permit its own destruction to serve that, which on this planet, did not exist. The information in its mind would at some time, prove useful, and until then it would remain alive.

The musing inside the now ever so quiet mind, left it vulnerable. A simple miscalculation, a lone misstep, and a single footfall too close, let its presence be known. Several figures stood tall. They appeared for all extents and purposes human, and seemed certain that the grotesque hound-like thing that peered at them, was not a product of their imagination, or a drugged-up hallucination, but instead real. They reacted as most do upon that which they do not know or understand, violently. Sprinting forward they donned what weapons they had, knives, shivs a hold-out blaster a few had - that probably did not work in the first place - and sought to intimidate through sheer number. They yelled a lot of what it assumed to be profanities, and made clumsy attempts to stab and strike it. A few laser-bolts missed their mark as well.

Nimbly the horror leapt, ran and outmaneuvered the sluggish humanoids. This they did not like, so they shouted more and others came. But by the time they arrived, they only saw their own brethren. In the meantime, it had slipped between a hole in their defense. Then, continued to trot further and further away. Finally, it latched onto the wall of one of the many smog-ridden factories that once brought rapid progress, and climbed as high as it could. There for a time it knew it needed to rest. With the thudding of its heart slowing, it shut its eyes and fell into a brief respite. When it would stir again, it would scout and learn more of the species that shared its home. After all they would need to be dealt with. Around where it laid a small tumor of gray grew and it breathed lightly, dreaming of a Terran with fiery red hair and striking green eyes: a telepath like itself. The creep crept from no apparent source whatsoever.

[Dark Link]

It was time to awaken.

The hibernating creature became increasingly aware of its own existence, of its own being. It felt the crackling of its joints, the twitching of its muscles, the beat of its heart. With each passing moment, the being's senses helped it gain knowledge of its immediate proximity. It saw the darkness surrounding it, heard the waving motions of its limbs, felt liquid caressing its skin. As its long slumber gradually came to an end, it gave way to a sense of agency and control; the creature ceased to drift near motionlessly where it had always been and began to interact with the world around it.

Yet, as soon as the creature gained awareness, restlessness began to set in. Its cradle, that was so warm and comforting before, had become small and constraining. It barely moved one of its pincers when it already managed to hit upon the limits of its habitat. No matter where it touched, all it could find were rough and sturdy walls. Realising just how limited the space it inhabited really was, the beast started to panic. That place no longer felt safe....in fact, with each passing moment, the mere act of being there felt more and more agonising, even suffocating. It wanted to be elsewhere, anywhere....it wanted out!

The being hit the shell enveloping it with its appendages, but it remained intact. Undeterred, it struck another blow, but the walls would still not give way. The creature found itself caught up in a frenzy; with all its might, it pushed along the limits of its proverbial cage while it continued to smash at it with its extremities. For a while, it seemed like this was a fruitless endavour, but instinct and sheer desperation kept the creature going. Finally, after numerous impacts, the shell began to crack and became increasingly fragmented. Emboldened by its progress, the beast continued to pound the walls with its pincers again and again and again...

At long last, the egg burst open in an almost explosive manner, sending pieces of its sturdy carapace flying and splattering the vicinity with leftover yolk. Emerging from its confinement with a low, yet victorious, growl, the crab-like organism spread its wings. Without much effort, it lifted itself in the air and remained hovering in place just above the ground. Though the creature felt a burning sensation in each one of its many small beady eyes, it still forced itself to examine the area.

Though it was certainly brighter than the inside of the shell, the outside turned out to be a world of twilight. The sporadic neon lights covering the ceiling provided just barely enough illumination to prevent the area from being completely submerged in shadows; even then, some of the devices were in serious disrepair as they were either flickering or had ceased to operate entirely. The ground was a wasteland, a literal junkyard with innumerable objects littering the ground as far as the eye could see. Industrial machines hummed in the distance, processing a variety of objects into disposable fragments. The place where the being saw all of this from was a small concrete dome, its walls littered with cracks. Whatever its original purpose was, it had long been lost to the passage of time.

Before it could do anything else, the levitating being felt something touch its mind, a weak and raspy voice echoing in its thoughts. Turning around, it saw another creature lying on the ground not far away from itself. It had the same purple flesh as the floating beast, but looked more like a dog with a raptor-like head and prominent pairs of claws and teeth. Though it seemed far better equipped to defend itself, it was wounded...severely. On the side of its body, there was a gaping hole where a significant section of its stomach should have been. Though the organism had somehow managed to survive and recover from some of the damage, it still lacked large chunks of its flesh, some sections even exposing bones and internal organs. Its head lied in a puddle of purple slime, the creature's mouth occasionally opening to take a small bite in an attempt to sustain itself.

The culprit responsible for the creature's wounds was immediately apparent....its own blood dripping from its claws. Though it had managed to survive on its own well enough, the being realised that it stood no chance by itself in the long run and that a colony needed to be established. Yet, no matter how far and wide it searched, it could not find any of its fellow kin; as far as it could tell, it was completely alone in that world. Lacking the means to achieve its intended goal, the beast had only one alternative left in order to try and ensure the survival of its species. It sought a relatively safe refuge and, in the face of its own sense of self-preservation, sank the razor-sharp nails into its own body and dug out chunks of its own tissue.

Thanks to its hyperactive DNA, the flesh did not simply rot away; instead it joined together into a mass which, over time, subsequently morphed into the species' primal state. From this almost experimental process emerged a purple maggot-like creature with a segmented, multilegged body; it contained the genetic information of any of the species' breeds, allowing it to evolve into any of them. As it had no one else to give it instructions, it followed what the dog-like beast wanted from it. The worm lookalike transformed into an egg....and eventually, into the levitating organism it was at the time.

Not knowing whether or not its moments were numbered, the clawed animal glanced at the newcomer with its yellow eyes. Using whatever meager concentration it still had, it telepathically connected with its kin. In spite of being a newborn, the floating beast was not lost or afraid....upon contact, it knew exactly what it needed to do. Buzzing in confirmation, the crab-like entity moved towards the center of the ruined structure. Laying down on the floor, silk threads burst out of its orifices and gradually covered it in a white, soft residue. Instead of taking a more firm shape, the casing pulsated as though it were an organ.

The creature inside it began to morph once more, the cocoon itself changed in order to accommodate the transformation. As time passed, it sprouted tendrils and swelled to an enormous size, almost pushing the limits of the dome that was concealing its existence....