I walked through the dense foliage, looking at all the weird and fantastical plants this world had to offer.

  "First time on an alien world huh, hoping it doesn't kill me just yet" I thought to myself while scanning the area around me, I don't know what kind of shit this place has in store for me, that fucking robot didn't even give me a hint on what the hell is living in here.

  As I continued walking through the jungle, I spotted a large pink fungus growing on a purple tree's bark, it was releasing pinkish spores into the air, the wind carrying it away into other parts of the jungle.

  "Alright what the fuck is that thing" I said while moving away from it, the thing was as big as a pickup truck and the amount of spores it released was covering the place.

  "Yeah I'm not messing with you" I said quickly changing where I was walking to avoid the area of the spores, I'm not risking turning some sort of zombie by inhaling too much of it's spores or something.

  I traveled onward, the leaves crunching beneath my feet while avoiding the direction of where ever I heard a sound, I am not risking my life for investigating something I shouldn't have.

  As I walked, I saw in the distance a bit of a clearing for what seemed to be a road, I hastened my walk as I saw this and quickly reached it.

  "This is a road!" I said to myself, looking at the dirt road in front of me, there might be some activity going on here, if it's human or alien, I don't know, but it's probably the latter.

  Under the shade of the numerous trees that filled this world I followed the road down hoping on finding a human settlement to find help and get away from equinox.

  During my travel, I cautiously watched anything around me for movement or any signs of me being followed or watched, my gaze scanning the tree lines for any signs of movement, "If somethings watching me, it better pray I don't see it first", I muttered, before stopping cold on my tracks, the trees had parted, and a damned base was in-front of me.

  My eyes were steady on the entrance, unsure if it's human work or alien, I looked around, looking for any signs of activity or noise around the base, I was met with a deafening silence from all around me, as if the base was abandoned despite not showing any signs of neglect.

  I walked up to the entrance, and put my ear on the door to listen for anything in it, "What the hell am I doing", I whispered, as I gently pressed on the door, unexpectedly the door moved as I pressed on it, and that's when it hit me. the heavy metal stench of blood.

  In a panic I shut the door immediately, "Shit, what the fuck happened in there." I muttered, trying to catch my breath, but my thoughts were spiraling.

  I stood beside the door, my thoughts still racing from what might be inside, "Nothing jumped at the door when I opened it.... or slammed it shut, maybe it's okay." I thought, though I didn't believe it myself.

  I steadied myself, preparing to see what was in the base, My hand pressed on the door, beads of sweat falling off and splattering on the floor, as I opened the door, it hit me again, the metal stench of blood, "God fucking damn it" I grumbled, the smell was not getting any easier to deal with.

  I took a deep breath and pushed the door open revealing a burned and ravaged room, "Oh shit" I groaned as I had unknowingly stepped into a puddle of blood, I traced where the blood came from and saw the half eaten head of a soldier, his skull caved in, brain matter spewing onto the floor, the right side of his face was gnawed off, revealing tendons and mangled muscle.

  My stomach churned at the sight of the corpse, "Holy fuck... what the hell happened here", I groaned, while stepping closer to inspect the corpse, As I leaned in, I noticed the uneaten side of the face, pale white skin, a sharp jawline, brown eyes with intact eyelashes, no doubt this guy was a human."Well," I muttered, "at least I know people are here."

  I stood up, my boots echoing in the destroyed base, stepping over burned papers, monitors and glass, I observed the other corpses, their wounds only consisting of one gash on their throats with almost surgical accuracy, "The thing that did this went in quietly at first to assassinate them one by one." I thought to myself, looking at the way the creature attacked it's victims with one strike.

  "It probably got caught by one of them and that started the fight destroying the room... probably the person with the half eaten face." I said, in the corner of my eye, I saw a cylindrical shape from behind the corpse with the half eaten face, "Is that a gun?", I went toward it and crouched down.

  "Alright, get outta here." I said, as i picked up the corpse, it's brain matter spilling onto the floor even more, warm and slick, blood spilled onto my gloves, staining them a dark red, I dropped the corpse to the side, the body landing with a wet thud, and to my disappointment, the gun was split clean in half, having one precise slash right through the middle of it, "Just my luck huh... couldn't get basic gear from that AI and can't even find one working gun." I groaned in annoyance, as I got up.

  I searched the base, but it was filled with nothing but destruction, the walls were riddled with burned holes, objects in disarray and burnt from what seems to be a chase, I noticed the blast hole from the left side of the room, the holes from the wall were larger than my fists, "A vehicle maybe?" I thought to myself, " A vehicle was shooting from outside of the base and some soldiers were probably chasing from inside the room which explains the holes in front of the room."

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  I walked to the next door, my steps echoing in the destroyed room as I stepped out into the god forsaken outside again. Just ahead I saw a pair of tire tracks cut through the road like fresh scars, "Looks like I was right."I muttered, following the tracks to find them.

  After a few minutes of following the tracks for a few minutes, the tracks veered off the road and tore into the forest, leaving a path of destroyed trees and trampled vegetation, I eyed it's warpath into the forest and glanced at the road still running alongside it. "Not risking going into the jungle, the road runs close enough, good enough for me."

  I followed the road, occasionally glancing at the path of the vehicle in the jungle. after a while another base came into view, its outer walls torn open, not with precision, but like something massive had hacked into it with a scythe.

  "Is every base here ripped apart, I can't catch a break" I grumbled, while stepping toward it to investigate. As I got close I once again smelt the stench of blood but this time mixed with the sour reek of decay, I furrowed my brows in discomfort and peered into the room through the torn walls and once again saw bodies, all of them brutally crushed, their spines shattered and bones pulverized into mush, their organs were strewn about the room, flies hovering around the corpses, drawn to the rot.

  "Fucking hell." I said in disgust as I covered my mouth to prevent myself from puking "Hopefully there's something in use of here." I scanned the room for anything of use, In the middle of the room, I saw a hatch covered by blood and organs, I walked toward it and removed the bits of organs near it.

  I opened the hatch, the blood flowing into the room down below as I do so, a ladder leading down into what seemed to be a safe room, I waited for a moment to see if anyone would come near it, after a moment of waiting, nothing came into view. I slowly descended down into the room, keeping an eye over my shoulder as I do so.

  The room came into my view, untouched by the destruction above, plasma rifles lined the walls, grenades hung neatly on racks, battery cells stacked in crates and armor in display cases. "Looks like lucks finally blessed me." I said grinning, eyes locking on the weapons, I Opened the display case and wore the armor, purple in color and tight fitting, "Feels like I'm some sort of power ranger." I said inspecting the armor

  I grabbed a plasma rifle off the wall and took 6 battery cells, I inserted one of them into the plasma rifle, the rifle spawned to life, glowing a menacing blue, I then took a batch of 4 grenades off the racks.

  I fired the plasma rifle one time, shooting a blue beam into the wall infront of me, leaving a scorch mark on the wall doing so, satisfied I ascended up the stairs to eave.

  Opening the door of the base, I froze, A creature is standing in front of the base, it resembled a preying mantis, around 180 cm tall. It was slightly bloodied and seemed to be exhausted, I stared at it, unsure of what to do. "Hey buddy.." I said nervously at this creature, the creature clicking it's mandibles as I talk, "We can let each other be alright, I don't want to fight." I said my finger on the trigger of my rifle ready to shoot.

  It clicked it's mandibles again this time louder, and more aggressive, I held out my hand. "Don't be rash" I said as it screeched loudly, it lowered it's body and began to charge at the door. I slammed the door shut, but the creature dented it heavily, the force of it knocking me down, "AH fuck!" I groaned in pain as I got up, the creature than appeared to the side of the base, pausing as it stared at me through the torn walls.

  I picked up my rifle and began to shoot at it, the creature covered it's face with it's hands, it's scythes stopping the majority of the plasma bolts. As I shot at it to make it cover it's view, I took one of the grenades and activated it, the grenade flew through the air, the creature looked up from behind it's arms, to observe me as I stopped my fire, only to be met with the view of an activated grenade right in front of it, the grenade exploded, throwing the creature backward from the force, the creature was disorientated from the blast.

  I took this opportunity to book it through the front door. I sprinted as fast as I could into the forest to hopefully make it lose track of me, As I ran, I Heard the sound of a door being thrown open from behind me, the creature was already up, and was pissed off. it screeched loudly again as it chased me.

  The creature's footsteps and shrieks getting louder and louder as I ran, I activated another grenade and held it in my hand, just before it blew up on my face, I threw it toward the creature. The grenade this time didn't catch the alien off guard as it, covered it's face from the blast with it's arms, dust and vegetation blew around it, but the creature was only slightly slowed down by it, as it once again began to chase after me.

  "Holy shit, I'm dead" I said as I ran for my life, Suddenly I hear a vehicle slowly driving, I looked in front of me and see a group of soldiers with an armored vehicle driving around, The group of soldiers saw me just as I saw them, then the turret on the vehicle aimed at me and fired, the sound of the firing frightening me, I dropped down as fast as I could to avoid the plasma, the creature jumped into the trees at the sight of this, and the turret attempted to follow it along with the soldiers firing towards the tree tops.

  The creature disappeared into the canopies, the soldiers shooting at random all around them, stopping only after a few moments of no activity from the creature, as they stopped the creature jumped at the vehicle turret from above, slicing the gunner apart, the soldiers upper body being sliced into pieces and being thrown to the side, before the soldiers could react, it jumped down onto the group and began massacring them, their blood and guts decorating the field.

  In the chaos, I ran to escape the creature, running as far as I could until I couldn't run anymore, I had ran for over 10 minutes, I sat beside a tree, panting heavily from the exhaustion, my vision blurring from the exertion.

  "Shit, too dehydrated, I need water" I said getting up despite the exhaustion and began waking aimlessly looking for a source of water, as I traveled, I thought about my journey so far, In not even 24 hours I went from being an underpaid miner to an unwilling member of an organization to being thrown in onto a planet filled with dangerous creatures and soldiers that want to kill me for no reason. "I wanted my life to have some exciting action, but I didn't mean this sort of action, god fucking damn it" I groaned in annoyance, Up ahead I suddenly saw a stream of flowing water, I ran toward it as fast as i could to drink.

  "finally" I said in relief, drinking the ice cold nectar of life, as I did so, A purple gleen shone in the stream in front of me, I stopped drinking to glance at the object in the stream, "what the hell is that?" I plunged my arm into the water and from it, a purple shard as big as my hand, "This is what that AI wants me to get for it?" I said while inspecting the shards, I put it onto one of the pouches of the belt and I got up, now searching for shelter. after a few minutes I found a cave.

  In the cave, I gathered a bunch of wood and leaves into a pie, I got my plasma rifle and shot the leaves, the plasma burned the leaves, starting a cozy campfire.

  "I'm beat." I said in exhaustion laying on a makeshift leaf bed, "Hopefully I live through the night so I can find some food tomorrow" I said looking at the roof of the cave in contemplation while the sound of the night wind slowly made me drift to sleep.