Chapter 3: First Encounter with a Primitive Species
"What?! C-Captain!" Before he could finish his sentence, she had already begun to run off into the distance.
---
"It shouldn't be long before those pirates are able to catch up to me." Right now, Silas was running through the rocky dunes all around him with the canister still in hand. But after this much time, he was exhausted. If not because of the exploration suit he wore, his forehead would've been covered with sweat.
"I can't keep this up for long," he said, glancing at the canister in his hand. The darn thing was simply too heavy to keep carrying on his person. If he wanted to escape the pirates and find a place to regroup, he would need to abandon it. That, or...
A hysterical thought crossed his mind. "I've been wondering just what shit is inside this. Now, I don't think anyone would mind if I took a look." He muttered with a smile.
Dropping the canister with a thud, he entered the very code he'd used to lock it back when he and his squadron had taken possession of said item.
With a few clicking sounds, followed by the sound of pressurized air being spewed into the atmosphere, the canister opened from the middle, revealing what looked like a simple rock. Judging by the rust and dirt that covered it, the thing looked quite ancient, if he did say so himself.
"This is the item that caused all this?" Silas raised a brow and picked up the artifact with his hand.
Holding it within his grasp, he couldn't help but frown because the thing felt ordinary.
Nevertheless, he didn't buy that for a moment. As a seasoned veteran who has been doing this sort of work for nearly a decade, he knew there was no way the corps would place their interest in anything without value.
"Huh?" Just then, Silas felt the object in his hand tremble.
CREEGFGHHSD
With the emergence of a disorienting sound, the old-looking sphere in his hand suddenly melted away. Strangely enough, it didn't spill through his fingers but began to seep through his exploration suit.
'Just what on earth is this shit?' He didn't panic, perhaps due to the ease at which he could calm himself or the fact that he knew panicking wouldn't do anything. In the blink of an eye, he felt a strange sensation, as if something was suddenly flowing through his veins.
[Notice: Xenolock System Activated]
[Notice: Life Form Detected]
[Notice: Initiating Bonding Protocol]
[Notice: Bonding Protocol Initiated]
[Notice: Bonding Protocol Complete]
[Notice: Xenolock System Has Bonded to Host]
Silas heard a series of voices in his head, but he was simply too caught off guard to do anything. From the moment the artifact showed signs of movement till now, while seemingly long, only a few short seconds had gone by. In less than 3 seconds, the object had bonded to his being.
Rather than feeling distressed, he was secretly happy. He knew that if Megacorp wanted this item back, they must pry it from his corpse first.
As for what this thing was capable of, he had no idea. All he knew was that it referred to itself as a Xenolock. Whatever that meant wasn't his concern for the moment. He glanced in the distance and noticed what looked like the border of a large grove.
'If those pirates continue to chase after me, that place should have ample cover. The dense vegetation should protect me from upward attacks while also making sure their movements are restricted like mine.'
---
Not long afterwards, Silas was almost upon the grove, but all of a sudden, the ground beneath his feet began to tremble greatly.
"Impossible, did they catch up already?!" He spun around, but the pirates were nowhere in sight.
It was at that moment that he saw something leap out from the forest in front of him. A creature about 5 meters tall, resembling a cross between a woolly mammoth and an African elephant, hurried out of the thick grove.
The earth wailed in protest to its stomping. Silas's pupils constricted at the sight of the creature whose raging path was the very one he was on. He knew that this planet, although somewhat desolate, might have the possibility of birthing lifeforms; he just didn't expect to find that very life like this.
His hands unconsciously reached behind him to grab his plasma sniper, but before he could, he heard a great roar come from within the grove. The next moment, a blur shot out from mid-air to land in front of the creature.
The alien beast trembled in fear, as if solidifying the idea that the main reason for its distress was the very creature standing before it.
The new addition had landed in-between the charging alien beast and Silas, whose hands were now on his plasma sniper.
In that brief moment, he saw that the intruder resembled a humanoid, though bearing skin with a dark hue, with signs of carapace all over its body except on areas where its joints should be. It had long black flowing hair that fluttered in the wind, four muscular arms, a face that had four symmetrical thin lines on it, as if it could split into four pieces. It wore what seemed to be a primitive-looking attire composed of the hide of dead beasts, used to cover only around its waist and chest, which had very little carapace, indirectly highlighting its durable yet curvy figure.
While a humanoid, Silas instantly got the feeling that this seemed to be a female creature rather than a male. As for why that was, it was because of the two screens he saw floating above the figures of the charging alien beast and the unexpected visitor.
[Status]
• Species: Quadron.
• Tier: 1
• Gender: Female.
• Status: Compatible
[Initiate Subjugation: Y/N]
[Status]
• Species: Mollygrey
• Tier: 1
• Gender: Male.
• Status: Incompatible.
Silas wondered what it meant when it asked him to initiate subjugation. Perhaps it had something to do with gender, but he didn't have much time to think about it right now.