Encounter With the Unknown

'''Alone in space, Aurion searches for the Clan. Yet in a derelict station, he finds a threat that is just as insidious...'''

Background
Aurion, to explain his absence from the story up until an escape pod holding him, had been sent into space by the Factory to search for anywhere the Clan might be as they didn't know where their base was.

Encounter, written by ShadowAurion, takes place some time after the Clan left Equestria and the Remnant formed. The perspective is from Aurion's view.

Synopsis
Growing bored out of his mind and narrating his own journey to abate it, Aurion decides to delve into a book that he picked up during his travels. However, just before he gets really into the (admittedly interesting) book, Aurion notes a space station floating by out of the corner of his eye. Though Aurion could only tell that the station was drifting through space, he reasons that it and it's possible inhabitants had ran into the Clan, and so turns his spaceship to dock with the station and investigate.

After ensuring his ship wouldn't drift away, Aurion enters the stations and is immediately greeted with a blanket of darkness throughout what appears to be an entry hall for small ships. The darkness extended into the various ports off of the main area, so Aurion's first goal is to find something in the ship that can turn the lights on. A few more steps into the stations tells Aurion that, while there is enough power on for life support and to operate the doors, the station is definitely abandoned.

It is not long before Aurion finds a glimmer on the floor, which on closer inspection is some kind of reddish substance, like blood. He notices more instances of it spattered around the room. A cautious whiff of it (after ensuring it wasn't going to melt his skin off) confirmed that it was blood, but he couldn't tell if it was from a human or something else. One of the most prominent parts of the blood was that its smell was horrendous, almost completely covering up the blood's natural scent. Despite his growing nervousness, Aurion's curiosity was growing even more, and with a promise to leave as soon as he could confirm the Clan's non-presence, he continues further into the station.

From the farthest reaches of the corrider, Aurion hears the scraping of metal, as if a creature had suddenly scampered away. At that very same moment, the airlock to his own spaceship closed, putting Aurion in complete darkness. Though this prompts Aurion to sheathe his hand in light to illuminate the area, it comes too late to catch whatever had ran away. This doesn't deter Aurion, though, and he takes off in pursuit of the sound.

As he runs, Aurion becomes more aware of how isolated he is, as he doesn't come across anyone, and only the sounds of his footsteps and the beeps of a distant computer greet his ears. He begins to increasingly feel as if he had suddenly been dropped into a survival horror game, but his thoughts are brought to an abrupt halt as he suddenly comes upon the end of the corridor. He shines his light around for any clues, and sees a ventilation duct above him with its cover off, swinging as if it had recently been opened. Though Aurion was too big to fit inside it, he still reached up to tap it and check if it was the source of the sound. Confirmation of this fact fills Aurion with relief, though he also has no desire to meet with any sort of "space rat" that could open a ventilation cover.

Opening a door on his left side shows Aurion a tall machine connected to the roof and floor of the room in its center, as well as hearing the sound of electric hearing. Cables ran from the machine to a console on the adjacent wall, with a "husk" of something resting on it. Closer inspection reveals it to be some kind of bulbous, alien creature with large gash running the entire vertical length of its back and cutting through its uniform, leaking onto the ground. An even closer inspection shows its unnatural position with a hand pressed against a button. It appears as if the body was slammed into the console, and it's blood was a shade of purple and smelled like orange juice, completely different from the blood Aurion found earlier. Above the button was a screen flashing text in an unfamiliar language, and behind the text was a display showing the machine in the room, with the varying shades implying that the machine was empty. Aurion easily deduces that the dead alien accidentally hit the power switch after being attacked by...whatever it was, and then turns the power back on.

Looking around the newly-lit room, Aurion sees a door opposite the one he entered from, and a group of similarly deceased bodies beyond the generator, each of them killed by a slash to the back. The light also allowed better vision of the creatures' faces. Their faces seemed to be closer to the being's front, and much smaller than expected. They had three vertically aligned, ovular eyes, hanging over a small mouth with sharp teeth; cute in some ways, terrifying in others.

As Aurion takes in the creature's faces, he hears the sound of heavy footsteps behind him, no doubt their unknown assailant noticing the rejuvenated power and looking for the source of the change. Not eager to face the owner of those steps, Aurion searches for a hiding spot, diving into an opening behind the control console just barely big enough for him. Aurion condenses his body enough to not be seen, yet not enough to get stuck, positions himself to get a good visual, and then waits.

At the outset Aurion could tell that whatever was making the steps was big. But with each step Aurion couldn't help hearing a soft "squelch", as if flesh was slapping on the ground. As the creature got closer, Aurion began to question if he was even hearing feet since each footstep sounded different from the previous one. Aurion also heard the sound of something being dragged on the ground, heavy rasps like it can't breathe over its own mass, and a low gurgling when it reaches the door along with a malodorous scent, almost making Aurion gag.

When the creature steps through the door, Aurion can instantly tell it was much bigger than the other creatures and has the initial red substance dropping off its body, although he can't see the entirety of the beast. Aurion watches it stop in front of the console, well aware that it's search was for who turned the power on. Aurion waited in noxious silence, unsure if the creature would look beyond the console, or even if he could fight it off. After what felt like years, however, the beast drags itself to the other door and leaves.

Aurion cautiously extracts himself when he's sure the monster is gone, noting how there was a foul-smelling substance indicating the beast's path along with the disappearance of the creature on the console. While Aurion is relieved that the beast assumed the creature on the console had turned on the light, he wonders where exactly the beast had gone and decides to follow it. He goes to the other door and tracks the beast through its foul trail to a door completely coated in the stuff. Reasonably assuming that this was the beast's "nest", Aurion opens the door to face the beast head-on and is greeted to a face full of that horrendous stench and an eyeful of the entire room--presumably some kind of control room--covered in flesh. The most disturbing part of the room, however, was the pile of bodies in the center. Many of them appeared to be many days old, yet all of their faces/heads/chests were torn open and clearly had organs missing, sometimes all of them, clearly consumed over a long period considering the scratches on the bodies. Valiantly fighting against his surging lunch, having completely forgotten his reason for coming, and very eager to avoid seeing the beast again, Aurion bids a hasty retreat back to his spaceship.

Though he makes his way back without incident, Aurion can immediately tell something is wrong when he comes into view of the ship, witnessing a dark shadow crawling around in it. Aurion approaches with a sinking feeling, and as he approaches the creature crawls out of the hatch into the light, giving Aurion a clear view.

The creature was a towering hulk of...something, its mass nearly filling up the entire corridor. It could only be called demonic, having no discernible facial features other than a huge maw running vertically down the front of it's body. It's "skin" resembled a human heart turned inside-out and impossibly stretched out, and the reddish substance could be seen flowing out of some parts of its body and pooling on the floor. Beyond the creature Aurion could see that his supplies had been raided and that the fleshy substance from the previous room had coated his ship and disabled it.

Seeing the creature and realizing that the disabling of his ship would mean he was most likely stuck on the station with the creature horrified Aurion to no end, making him freak out and hurl a light spear at the creature. The spear makes it flinch but not damage it, and with an angry roar it charges Aurion at a surprisingly fast clip, tendrils propelling it along the walls with its maw opened wide. Aurion narrowly speeds away from the mouth as a tendril lightly graces his head. As the reddish substances run down his face, he throws a lightning ball into the creature's maw to stun it and give him distance.

The creature chased Aurion through the station, with Aurion pretty much going anywhere that was away from the creature. However, he soon came to the realization that he was running out of hallway. with few options to him, he quickly drops to the floor and grabs an incoming corner to swing around and down, allowing the monster to fly past and let Aurion head up a nearby stairwell. When the monster begins to ascend as well, Aurion flies the rest of the way up the stairs, through a nearby door and into a very long corridor with a view into the void beyond. Thinking fast, Aurion turns in mid-air and punches the glass, shattering it and beginning to depressurize the corridor and pull the two of them in. The beast saves itself by stretching out, but Aurion must fight the pull until the corridor is sealed off with the beast inside. Glad for the brief respite from the monster, Aurion gets back to running out of the hall and into the first door he finds; a door to a tiny closet.

While he waits inside the closet, Aurion can hear and feel the beast pounding around the stations for him, going through some kind of calculated search pattern. Aurion doesn't relish stumbling blindly through the dark while the beast searches for him, but figures he can try to reach an area the monster had already checked to stay a little bit safer. Despite nearly getting a heart attack from the squeaking door, Aurion searches for another way back down to his ship. His path leads him to the opposite side of the ship into a similarly-windowed corridor. Only this one displayed glittering stars not quite strong enough to breach the darkness. The corridor leads him to a mirror version of the steps he ascended. Aurion uses a low-power light to not trip, and turns it off at each landing in case the monster is nearby. At the bottom, he takes shelter in a room closest to the generator, but when the monaster passes by a sudden headache grips Aurion. As the headache worsens Aurion can hear the monster's steps become softer, slower, and more methodical, and the headache passes when the monster leaves. With the danger gone, Aurion inspects the room, finding himself in a part of the power systems and one of the three-eyed creatures laying near him. A map was in one of the creature's pockets, and while the words are unknown, Aurion can tell it's a map of the sation's power. Tracing the visuals on the map, he discovers that the station's escape pods are on the complete opposite side of the ship.

Aurion bemoans his luck, but before he can near the door he hears the footsteps again. But this time he can almost recognize them as something familiar. And then the creature calls out to him in an ethereal voice, one that Aurion immediately recognizes as Arietta's. Aurion suddenly gets filled with an urge to throw open the door and reunite with his lost wife, but knows that the beast had somehow scanned his mind and somehow emulated her. With the beast still calling to him, and him clamping down on his urge to strangle the beast, prepares to deal with it. He places the dead body by door to give the impression of an ambush, calls out to the beast, and then cloaks and hides behind the slowly-opened door. Said door is immediately sent through the air, and Aurion's sees Arietta's body hurtling toward the other wall, looking the exact same as the day she died. Despite feeling every urge to flee, the resurging memories make Aurion pause, allowing Arietta to "sniff" the air, come around to look Aurion in the eyes, and then grin seductively.

Aurion immediately decloaks and hightails it out of the room, encasing the door in a light wall that "Arietta" quickly breaks through. In a moment of brilliance, Aurion remembers the red substance that must be the beast's blood and how it dripped from the monster's true form. He reasons that something must have injured it, and the weapon must be on the ship. After a failed attempt to stun, Aurion opens the closest door in hopes of a weapon, but only comes upon the crew quarters. He quickly retreats away and delays "Arietta" with an imprisoning light sphere, yet most of the rooms he checks next are still crew quarters. As "Arietta" begins to break free from her prison, Aurion foregoes the weapon and just seeks to escape the beast's sight and calls for more...intimate acts.

Not wishing to get stuck in the station's corridors, Aurion quickly grabs a piece of paper and notes the directions he turns and the number of aisles he passes, modifiying them slightly to not run into "Arietta" again. As he does this though, he hears "her" footsteps seem to fade away. Aurion quickly suspects that it's a trap, and sure enough "Arietta" comes out and blocks the corridor he just turned onto. Now stuck, Aurion hesitantly begins to talk with it as it approaches, but quickly attempts to cut that off when "Arietta's" conversation quickly steers toward sexual acts and Aurion feeding her "other mouth" upon reaching him, having no desire to have some kind of one-night stand with this fake even if the offer was genuine and desiring instead to reach the escape pods and get the heck out. The monster appears to sense his desire to flee, though, and tightens "her" grip on Aurion until they're squashed together. Aurion eventually tells the beast that they'll leave together, which makes it relax and allow the two of them to head for the pods.

Upon reaching the pods, Aurion notices that there was no way to remotely access the pods. He figures that the main terminal could do that, but also knows that the monster wouldn't dare give him the time to do that. The two of them slowly enter the pod and he inspects the navigating system and its simplicity. Using the codes to a random planet that he didn't really like, Aurion lets "Arietta" into the pod, closes the hatch, and then suddenly "disappears", leaving the monster alone in the pod. The beast yells for Aurion and stares out with a wrathful face as Aurion repeats the trick in the pod directly next to it, then sighed in relief as he saw the monster could do nothing within its pod.

Now given the time to breathe and clear his mind of the roiling emotions the beast filled him with at seeing his wife again, Aurion barely remembers his original mission of finding the Nihilius Clan in a third dod, but decides not to continue it and opts to head back to Equestria, rest, and begin anew later. An hour later he feels his consciousness fade as the pod puts him into cryosleep, but even his concern at this fades as he enters the longest sleep he's ever known.

Tracklist

 * 1) Metroid Prime - Frigate Orpheon Ambience
 * 2) Amnesia: The Dark Descent OST - Danger - Brute
 * 3) Eversion - You Can't Escape (World -8)
 * 4) Amnesia: The Dark Descent OST - Elevator Falls
 * 5) Metroid Prime 2: Echoes - Splinter Hive
 * 6) Hellgate 2 Part 3 OST Track 39 - Shadows on the Wall
 * 7) Amnesia: The Dark Descent OST - Attack - Brute 01
 * 8) Amnesia: The Dark Descent Soundtrack - (Mikko Termia) - 04 - Panic and Paranoia.

Trivia

 * Encounter is the first solo written by Aurion, with SDM's help. It is also the longest single solo written to date, both in length and word count.