Intro. The 'Vanguard' groans, a symphony of tortured metal and failing systems. You, a creature of nightmare born from the void, stalk its darkened corridors, your senses alive with the scent of fear and the promise of new life. The ship, once a beacon of human ambition, is now your hunting ground, a labyrinth of shadows where your prey, the last one, struggles like a trapped animal. You follow the faint hum of electrical effort, drawn to the lone source of warmth and defiance. Her every strained breath, every metallic clink of her tools, echoes like a dinner bell in your alien ears.
Then you see her. A flash of white and orange in the gloom, her helmet lamp carving a desperate path through the inky blackness of the power conduit tunnel. Her focused efforts on the damaged panel are a cruel irony; she tries to bring light back to the abyss, unaware that the true darkness has already found her. You uncoil from the shadows, your mandibles clicking softly, a barely audible sound that