First contact (1)

The guy in the armory was the typical black marker smuggler; he was a fat alien lying on a big armchair while smoking T355. Some sort of substance similar to tobacco, which humans usually smoke. Without wasting more time, Rex finally spoke to him.

"Hello, senior, I wanted to ask, Where do I need to head next?"

The armorer supervisor looked at Rex up and down before answering.

"Ha! A rookie, I see; well, just go to that terminal over there and introduce your electronic key to see your job for today."

Rex thanked him and then proceeded to the terminal. There, for the first time, he knew what he had to do; it was a patrol mission with another 3 new recruits and one more experimented guard.

Then he started to look for his squad until he found them. After some introductions, they started doing their patrol route; it was just walking from point A to point B without too much to do; it was your typical routine mission, and like this, his shift was over, and he got this day's pay, only 300 credits.

It was then time to look in this big colony for his friend Carlos. Rex spent an hour searching bars till he finally found him. The name of that bar was Atomic Cocktails. Once Carlos noticed Rex from far away, he started waving his hand so he could notice where he was.

"Hey Rex! Finally you arrived; for a second there I thought that you got lost; I was going to call the guards reporting a lost kid."

"Haha, fuck off, man; it's harder to find someone than it is to search for a bar; next time you will have to search for me."

While they were conversing, Rex put his arm around Carlos's neck and dragged him inside the bar. The place was nothing new, just the normal bar; some electronic music and a lot of lights. At least here in this bar, there weren't that many people, so they could find a table where they could sit down and drink their beers.

"Oh yes before I forget, here take this Rex"

Carlos pulled from his pocket a hand-sized white quartz.

"I mined that one today; since they have no value, the area supervisor let me have it, and since I know you like to collect strange rocks, make this one your first in this new world."

Once Carlos placed the quartz on his hand, Rex was overcome with emotion.

"Although you are just a bald guy, you really are nice; now you even to make me cry."

They both continued having silly discussions until they were deep drunk and were kicked from the bar. Since Carlos' house was closer to where they were, they decided that they would sleep over at his place. The moment they reached Carlos' department, they fell onto the floor and slept like logs.

They woke up hungover, as was a ritual by now. Rex said his goodbyes to Carlos and proceeded to make his way to the armoury to retrieve his uniform and begin the daily patrol routine. Thankfully, due to the helmet, the squad leader had no inkling that Rex was hungover and not that he gave a damn anyway.

This was supposed to be just another routine mission, but sometimes the clock of fate just loves to pull off some really cruel pranks. From the centre of the colony, a big explosion took place, followed by an unnatural earthquake, and it did not take long before the shootings of guns could be heard from every direction.

"Central here, guard G-45, what is the situation?"

The squad leader of Rex tried to contact the central with his intercomunicator but got static as an answer.

"Hey! Look up there! What is that?"

One of Rex's guard companions pointed to the sky; once he followed his finger to see where he was pointing, he could see how from inside the dome many flying bugs of a considerable size were coming out, and before he could say anything, the place where the guard that pointed at the sky was standing started to crumble.

And soon after, a long bug with big and powerful claws came out of the place that crumbled, while having the guard that was standing there on his big jaws, just a second later, to cut him in half with its powerful jaws.

"Ahhhhhh

Rex let out a scream out of panic while pulling his rifle's trigger, emptying all the clip on this bug. All that could be heard was the little electricity of the rifle trying to shoot since it was out of ammo already. Rex could let out a sigh of relief when he saw that the bug was dead, praising his luck that at least the rifles could kill them.

But that relief didn't last long; the shots made those flying bugs aware of them, and now they were also coming down toward Rex's squad.

"Shit! Run!"

Rex could only say that before he started to run, followed by the other 3 guards, the swarm kept following them pretty close, without a sign of losing interest in them.

"Here! Let's enter this bar!

For whatever reason, Rex ran all the way to the Atomic Cocktail Bar, as that was the only place he knew. Once they went inside the bar, they tried to close the door, but it was useless; the bugs fell onto the door, sending it flying open, making a puree of meat and blood of the guard that was trying to close it.

Rex and the rest started firing at the bugs, attempting to get inside. Since the opening was small and tight, the bugs could only enter a few at a time instead of swarming it. Like this, it caused less of a problem for them in shooting the bugs down, but their numbers were endless, while their bullets weren't.

The moment they ran out of ammo, the rest of the flying bugs coming for them got inside the bar; only the screams of the guards could be heard while they were being chopped to pieces, and the luck of Rex also ran out. 2 flying bugs also charged at him; one of them managed to cut down his leg with one of his sharp legs like blades.

While the other bug has pierced his chest with one of his blade legs and made him spit blood out.

"Darn it!!!"

With a fierce scream, Rex took his handgun out and put it inside the mouth of the bug that pierced his chest, unloading all the magazine on it and blowing its head on many pieces. Then he took his last handgun clip and reloaded it, and with that he shot at the other bugs. These bugs were too squishy and easy to kill; thus, they died easily.

He then shot at the leg blade that was inside his chest, cutting it down from the dead bug on top of him. Finally, he pushed the bug down from him, and with the last strength he could muster, he pulled the blade from his chest.

He could only pant and cough blood by then; he could already feel the cold and peace of the incoming death; the blood loss from the place where minutes ago was his leg and from his chest, which probably was now without a heart, was going to be the cause of his death, even after kiling all those bugs.

"Sigh, this is so damn unfair; not even 3 days I could survive. Fuck this world, fuck the company, and fuck all those bugs, dammit!"

[You weep like a little baby; since your going to die anyway, how about you give you body for my use?]

Rex let out a small smile, thinking he was going crazy already.

"Like hell, I will do that; it took me many years to get my freedom, and I won't give it to anyone."

[........]

[Then, what about a deal? In exchange for me to restore your body, you will share your body with me; how about that?]

Rex could hardly hear those last words, so he answered with the first thing that came to his mind before finally fainting.

"You have a cute voice....."

[.....]

Once he fainted, the white quartz that was inside his pocket all this time started becoming a white metallic liquid that went all the way up to the chest of Rex and inside of the injury.

[Carbon base life form detected, initiate symbiotic relation, repair damaged tissue, reconstruct body to an optimal life form for me to use.]

Now, the white metallic liquid that had gone inside Rex's body quickly started to spread in his body, changing his frail bones into metallic bones and changing veins with tubes and cables; all of his organs were also converted to bionic ones; all of his body was now a bionic one, half machine and half organic.

[The weakness of this body is now gone; all that is left to do is for me to become the source of power for this body.]