The Anatomy of Wind: Beware!

Despicable Discovery at Proxima Centauri B!

Aboard the STEED 7, there were 25 crew and a Robot. Everyone, including me, had piloting skills just in case. Well, I have to admit that my skills were more Virtual Reality-based. In real life, I never sat in a pilot's cabin flying a ship, but theoretically, I was a co-pilot.

Machines double-checked the ship for every single criterion and they allowed us to board the spaceship. After wearing space suits and strapped on, an automated voice came from the cockpit saying that we had 10 seconds counted down.

All others except the pilot and his co-pilot were sitting in the main fuselage, with our seat belts on chatting.

"Initiating detaching procedures", which was an AI Voice.

After a few seconds, we were in space. We proceeded with the current speed for like 200 miles and then we heard pilots from the cockpit over PA saying that in the twenty-second countdown we had been preparing for the hyperjump.

Although outside the ship it was completely invisible because it had no mass due to the vacuum surrounding it, inside everything was intense. Luckily, we'd been trained to tolerate high levels of G forces. The maximum G force during the hyperjump was only 6, but it felt like being underwater at depths of over a thousand!

"Turning off artificial Gravity. a ship will hyperjump in T minus twenty seconds, twenty, nineteen, eighteen…." The countdown went on while we were breathing and preparing for impact.

Everyone took a deep breath and the ship super accelerated. The hyperjump was supposed to be about 30 seconds, so everyone could make it without suffocating or having blood oozing into the brain.

Everything went according to plan and after thirty seconds, the AI said "Artificial gravity, on". That's when we knew that the hyperjump was over.

We stood up and went in our assigned directions. My job was also to help the Mechanics Team, and since the ship was in perfect condition, we just played cards with the rest of the crewmembers who had nothing to do.

We were too far away to contact our families, and we still had two months left to go. So we made ourselves occupied. The mission was to go to Proxima Centauri B, explore the new world, look for signs of life and collect shreds of evidence and samples, then return to the ISS.

After one month, we landed on a strange Earth-like planet. Proxima Centauri looked exactly like earth, except it had the giant sun and two moons floating up above it.

The captain wanted us to set up our camping shelters because we were about to spend a week on that Planet exploring and doing everything, but Jason ordered that we stay on STEED 7 because we didn't know what dangers were lurking in the wilderness.

That day, we didn't do anything regarding stepping out of the ship except arrange our sampling tools.

On Proxima, a day lasts for 23 earthly hours, which is tolerable by the human body. At dawn, we were both excited about going out to feel what the sky smelled like.

According to STEED's sensors, the atmosphere was 80% oxygen, a gaze of 12, and the temperature of 25 °C, so even though it was so hot, we were able to survive without our suits.

The planet had water, plantations, forests, mountains, and swamps that looked so beautiful. On the other hand, it made me wonder if there weren't any other creatures adapted for those conditions, since I knew that Aliens were real.

The captain sent 3 astronauts to go out to check what was outside but in the short vicinity of a square kilometer around the ship, and secure the perimeter. He ordered them that they must have their suits on all the time. 

We had landed on a mountain which was surrounded by a swamp.

They were equipped with laser generating devices, surveillance cameras, and poles. After two hours, they came back.

The next day, all the entire crew went outside except me, who was in charge of surveillance cameras looking out, and the captain, who was sleeping.

They found water and brought some samples of soil, water, air, and plantations. All samples were being taken by the Robot because Captain Jason ordered us not to touch anything with our bare hands nor to ever go outside without spacesuits.

There were 23 people outside in teams of 3 and two, 2 of them went out of the secured perimeter and others collected samples inside the perimeter.

Afterward, the pilot woke up and asked me for the report about the cameras. While looking at the camera, we noticed something strange!

First, we heard a big rumbling behind the secured perimeter!

"Captain, you need to come and look at this," I said, sounding terrified.

"What the heck is that thing?" he said, taking a closer look at the video being transmitted by cameras on the security fence.

It was a large humanoid creature with a bald body, three legs, a Crocodile-like head, with webbed hands and it was walking upright. It looked like it was aquatic, living in those swamps.

"Wait, there are two more of them coming toward the laser perimeter."

I noticed two other creatures wiggling on the ground. They were small but they were growing faster and transforming into big creatures too in seconds.

The captain rushed to the cockpit and contacted everyone outside, ordering them to come back inside quickly! Unfortunately, they were too far away from STEED 7.

They were close to the spot where the creatures were.

He continued to shout, ordering them to come back inside as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, I focused and adjusted on the other angle of the camera and noticed the two torn-out space suits, near the transforming creatures. That's when I knew that two of the creatures were actually our colleagues!

I warned the captain about what was happening and he told them what was going on. They tried to run on their way back to us, but it was like running in water. The gravity on the planet made them feel heavier, so running was very challenging.

The Robot is automated but can also be controlled remotely. While the captain was calling all others inside, he accidentally merged the communication lines between ISS, STEED 7, and crewmembers so every one of them was seeing and hearing what was going on.

I used the sample Holding Robot to shoot at the creatures but it was nothing compared to their sizes. But instead, it seemed like they were deaf, relying on vision. They followed the sparks of the g*n and went toward it. The first one got killed by a laser perimeter and others jumped over it. They were so fast that nothing could escape from them.

I was conveying new information about them to the captain through our radios, which were being audible to the ISS too.

Eventually, the creatures surround the crew because of their glowing suits. The captain ordered them not to move a muscle and turn off the lights on their suits. That's when one of them tripped on the scorpion and the lights went back again! This time it was her flashlight that fell from her hands, illuminating everyone. The creatures noticed them and snapped everyone with their tongues like frogs or chameleons! They were so long that no one escaped those snappings. They shattered the spacesuits and many crew members directly died, and those who didn't die were transformed into those creatures in a few seconds. It was their venomous saliva, which had symbiotic effects, that turned everyone in contact into a three-legged creature.