The Dark Creature

The following is a star-ship audio log from a crew member of the USS Hangelman during its final hours of communication before its disappearance. The following content is disturbing.

It came out of nowhere. It surprised us all, but in all honesty it shouldn’t have. We knew what we were looking into, we knew the danger. It started like a normal day; we were just approaching the target planet and were preparing the salvage cannons for excavation. It was one of the dark planets in a restricted sector. Our captain was always a curious man, so curious that he may have killed us all.

 Earlier, he told the Star-Ship committee that if human kind wanted to progress, we needed to find out what was on the dark planets, because there were more of those planets than the regular variety and that he would oversee an operation to excavate one of the mentioned planets. They warned him of the dangers and told him that if something were to happen he would not have their backing. He told them about how big of a mistake they were making in not trusting him. We would soon learn that he was wrong however. So very wrong… 

When we entered the planet’s atmosphere our power cycled like it had a short in it, but we continued anyway. We landed on a clearing and started to set up for the excavation process. I was one of the cannon operators so I was awaiting the go ahead to begin. As I was looking down at the planet, I could see why from space it was so dark. The soil and rock looked a sickly black color, like it had been corrupted by some foreign entity. That’s when I noticed it. The ground was moving, but not quickly, it was moving slowly. Like ooze. I went to tell the captain that maybe we needed to reevaluate the situation, because we had no idea what we were excavating. He immediately wrote me off and said that if I left my post again that it would mean a write up, so I went back to my station as the excavation was about to begin. I felt chills go down my spine when I saw part of the ground shift quickly back and forth like it knew what was about to happen. That’s when I knew something was wrong. 

Once we began it seemed normal. The dirt, stone, and ores were being pulled into the ship and loaded into the storage containers. I was just monitoring my cannon when I saw something at the front of the ship. It looked human but… but it was on all fours and slightly bigger than a human. It apparently noticed the ship mining out its home and came to investigate, but then it did something I wasn’t expecting. Mind you, I had seen a lot of indigenous life forms, but all of them usually would react the same way once they noticed the ship. They would turn tail and run, but this one… It climbed onto the ship’s hull and began to dig its way through. Ripping the black hull away like it was toilet paper. I got up and ran to the bridge. I walked over to the captain and told him that something had started to make its way in to the ship and I explained what the animal looked like and how easily it removed the hull of the ship. 

The captain looked at a monitor and then looked at me, and said, “The computers are not showing any hull damage and it hasn’t picked up any life forms on this planet. I think you need some rest. Why don’t you go to your quarters and await instruction, and don’t worry, someone else will take over your station.” I started to resist, and then he continued, ”By the way, your rations for the day have been halved and you will be receiving a write up for leaving your post again. No one will stop my moment to shine!” Then he had some of the guards escort me to my quarters. I walked away frustrated, angry, and terrified. How could he just blow me off like that without at least making sure nothing was wrong? What if that thing got in here? I tried to calm my thoughts once I returned to my quarters to lie down. It took me forever to go to sleep, but when I finally did, I had a nightmare.

 I saw the creature from the dark planet hovering over my bed looking down at me. I could see its features better now that it was so close. It was at least eight foot tall when it stood straight up. It had hands like a man but…he also had tendrils jutting out of his back. His skin was the color of the planet and was covered in…what appeared to be blood. His face…his horrible face…it had a sadistic smile on it that was much bigger than what it should have been. His giant bug eyes were bright white and didn’t have pupils which made a distinct contrast to his skin. For a moment he just stared down at me, but then he roared in my face, his smile twisting into this terrifying sea of jagged teeth and then I woke up. 

I must have been asleep for a long time because we had already finished the excavation and were heading back to our sector. But something was wrong…the lights were out and the emergency lights were on. I got up slowly, grabbed my gun, and walked to the door. When I entered the hall I vomited. There was blood dripping from the walls and mutilated bodies everywhere. 

I recovered as soon as I could and walked towards to the bridge trying to avoid stepping on anything. It was the same story there, blood and bodies everywhere. I could hear a noise coming from the captain’s chair. I walked over as quietly as I could and looked over. I saw the creature in my dream chewing on the captain’s skull and ripping off chunks of meat from his body. It hadn’t noticed me yet, so I backed up and walked to the escape pods after checking one of the monitors for the ship’s current coordinates. 

When I got to the first one, it was gone and so were all the others. I guess everyone had the same idea I did to get out of here. I decided to go to the maintenance area and see if I could find a communication device in there. I found the one I’m using now. I’m trapped in the storage area at the back of the ship. It must have noticed my scent and followed me, because I can hear it moving around outside the door. I can hear it growling. If anyone can hear me, please help…the coordinates to the ship are… 

[Door crashes open, and the monster roars] 

“NO!!! PLEASE DON’T KILL ME!!!”

[The sound of flesh being ripped is all that can be heard and then the audio cuts out]