Drone - Acid Potency

Becker gets cores four and five into the system before his new friend, the x-ray corpse, melts through the window. Acrid smoke billows from the newly formed hole as the creature’s body sluices into the control room. If it wasn’t for the raging winds that whip over Lake Peacock, Becker wouldn’t be able to breathe through the sulfur stench.

He shields his eyes on reflex. A splatter of acid lands on his earlobe.

“F ck!”

He pulls the yellow fluid off, and it’s melting his fingers.

“Shit!”

He wipes those on his uniform. The blood begins eating through the cloth.

“F ck!”

Glancing at his left hand, he finds the yellowing bones of his thumb and forefinger. He blew those off in an explosion once as a kid—fireworks. The replacement grafts were so good that losing them feels just as horrible the second time around.

When the acid finally reaches the skin of his chest, it’s like being flensed with a blunt knife. Becker roars in pain, then gags on the scent of his own melting meat. His ear is still burning, and it’s bad news if a drop lands on his neck. With a quick motion, Becker tears off his shirt and—using the clean fabric—pinches the wounded part of his ear.

He pulls as hard as he can. Every inch of weakened flesh comes away in a tortured strand. He presses more clean fabric to the burn on his torso, fusing it to his skin, giving more food to the acid.

The x-ray corpse eats through the upper deck, slurping onto the lower level in a fluorescent mess. Becker scrambles backward as its skull splits like a melon, spilling even more fresh acid over the floor plates. A huge hole takes the scanning console, Arthur’s corpse, and half the dump console—officially ending the mission.

***

Alien: Into Charybdis, Chapter 28