21 agos 2295 anni - Screams in the cold endless of space.

Descrizione:

In the year 2295, within the depths of the crumbling fuel depot known as the Scphacteria, the disheveled Engineering Officer Wascylewski is sitting in the quarters of the observation deck alone. Before putting out his last of many cigarettes, he notices a terminal warning him that a threshold has been reached and requires immediate attention. Wassy puts on a compression suit, brings a case with him, and takes a spacewalk across the station.

The comic goes into a flashback before the Sphacteria was in ruins; an unknown approaching vessel is noticed by the crew of the fuel depot orbiting the gas giant Pylos. Crewmember Park identifies that the ship is an old Wey-Yu freighter sold at auction to a private buyer, She also informs Captain Hassan that the ship contains Hypersleep chambers and that the crew of presumed salvagers may still be in stasis. Communications Officer Rook is less than enthusiastic, believing that they may be pirates.

Hassan decides to board the unmarked vessel in their shuttle, alongside Park, Wascylewski Medical Officer Harrow, and Security Officer Torrens.

The crew board the ship and explore its dilapidated interior, with Hassan calling it a "deathtrap". Wassy notices a massive hole through a wall, citing that something had melted through the bulkhead. As he catches up with the rest, the crew encounter three humans in hypersleep chambers: two male twins and a female. Wassy checks a terminal and observes that their vital signs seem normal. Hassan suggests waking them up, though Torrenson advises against it.

Park flips the switch but something goes awry. The coolant tank breaks and the chambers begin violently overheating, burning the members in stasis alive. The group panics and eventually manage to bludgeon the chambers open, bringing out the horribly charred and disfigured passengers, choking and gurgling and in a state of shock.

The comic flashes forward to Wassy removing his spacesuit after his walk and anxiously scouring the corridors of the Sphacteria. As he turns a corner, he hallucinates an Alien, only for it to turn out to be a mesh of pipes and machinery. As he recovers from his scare, a loose cord blasts steam into his direction, covering his field of view. As Wascylewski looks into the smoke-covered corridor, a real Alien emerges from the mist. Wassy drops the case and runs into the medbay to hide, sitting down next to the corpse of one of the burned salvagers.

A flashback to Harrow desperately trying to treat the convulsing patients and is forced to give them sedatives. Wassy grabs a bottle of alcohol and attempts to leave for his quarters, but Hassan stops him and orders him to begin deciphering the ship's systems. Wassy subsequently recovers data that reveals that the ship's last entry had them exchanging supplies for Chinese Yuan, with only frontier colonies in desolate space (to which Rook heard rumors of a "cholera outbreak") still using the currency. Wassy deduces to the others that if the crew initiated emergency procedures aboard the ship, then the vessel would have autopiloted them to the nearest corporate location, in this case, the Sphacteria. Additionally, he identifies that the ship originally contained eight crewmembers, not three.

Park suddenly contacts Hassan, telling him that she and Harrow need immediate help. As Hassan and the others return to the med bay, they are met with Park and Harrow attempting to hold down the seizing twins, who had already been given a full dosage of sedatives. Suddenly, two Chestbursters erupt from them, and the others watch in horror as the creatures escape from the med bay and into the depths of the station.

There is another flash and Wassy realizes that he forgot the case after his encounter with the Alien and goes back to retrieve it, securing it to himself with medical tape. A sudden hull breach results in him having to perform an emergency override and seal the bulkhead, but not before losing enough air to pass out. As he reawakens, he sees two Aliens by his side, one dragging him by foot down a corridor, before losing consciousness again.

When Wassy comes to, he finds himself cocooned in a nest next to an unconscious Hassan while the two Aliens watch over the both of them. Wassy has a flashback to when the adult creatures recently emerged.

It is established that following Rook's disappearance, Hassan is also snatched into a vent in front of the remaining group's very eyes. Park, Torrens, and Wassy all start weighing up their odds of survival. A panicked Torrenson wants to take a shuttle and retreat into the scavenger's vessel until rescue arrives whilst Park is concerned about Rook and Hassan still being alive.

After a heated argument, the group decides to check up on Harrow, still in the med-bay surveying the last remaining passenger. The three hear a crash and rush to the med-bay where they are greeted by the fully awake female salvager holding Harrow hostage with a scalpel by his neck. Park attempts to calm her down whilst Torrenson suddenly lunges at her with a Stun Baton. She is able to dodge him, however, and Torrenson stumbles into one of the operating tables, revealing one of the twins' corpses to the female. In a state of shock and rage, she brutally slits Harrow's throat and runs away. After Harrow bleeds out in Park's arms, the rest attempt to catch the female passenger. The group is too late, and they watch as she takes the shuttle and leaves the station. The shuttle's umbilical, however, is still attached, causing it to be propelled back into the Sphacteria, violently crashing into it.

The hive, with one of the Aliens moving towards Wassy. Laughter in the distance suddenly lures both creatures away, allowing Wassy to break free and escape the nest with the case he originally set out for. He looks back at Harrow, still unconscious and cocooned, and reluctantly leaves him. Wassy follows the sound of the laughter until he finds a delirious Torrenson, right before the two Aliens he purposely lured out emerge from the darkness behind him.

A final flashback shows Wassy, Torrenson, and Park in the aftermath of the shuttle colliding with the Sphacteria. The three rush to the cargo hold, in which Wassy retrieves a case. The case, that was so important to Wassy in prior flashbacks, is revealed to contain mining charges, the crew's last hope for survival. Wassy intends to lock everyone in life support and "blow the struts from the main deck"; since the station itself is modular, they'll be able to use the module as a pseudo-lifeboat and wait for rescue. Park suddenly hears a noise within the darkness of the cargo bay, and an Alien suddenly emerges and attacks the group. Torrens, traumatized, runs from the scene. Wassy and Park retreat to the observation deck in hopes of solace, and Wassy begins closing the bulkhead, telling Park to hurry. Suddenly, a second Alien emerges. Wassy looks on in horror and despair as the two Aliens incapacitate and kill Park as the bulkhead is sealed, bringing the plot into a full circle from where it began.

Back in the present, Wassy runs away from the two Aliens as Torrenson is killed. He reaches life support, puts on a compression suit from a locker, and prepares the mining charges. Ready to take leave, he notices a bag containing a spare box of cigarettes in the locker. Wascylewski gives into weakness and takes them with him, before an Alien bursts from a ventilation shaft above him and attacks him. In a fit of confusion, Wassy pulls at the bag which accidentally brings the whole locker down onto the Alien. This buys him enough time to detonate a charger and blow a wall into the ship, bringing him into the atmosphere of space. Wassy's compression suit allows him to stick to the surface of the station, but the pursuing Alien emerges. As the creature closes in, Wassy detonates another charge, separating the life support module from the station. As Wassy hooks himself onto the module to stop himself from slipping away into space, the Alien emerges yet again from the smoke, this time missing an arm with acid blood dripping everywhere.

Wassy realizes this and unlocks a chamber containing several oxygen tanks. Wassy holds one up in front of the approaching creature and it's acid blood, floating through space, collides with the tank, blowing Wassy away and the Alien into space.

Inside the module, now drifting aimlessly in desolate space, Wassy breathes a sigh of relief and takes out his pack of cigarettes. A terminal nearby suddenly warns that oxygen levels are critical and begins a countdown, starting at 04:02:56. Wassy, alone, smokes his last pack as the timer slowly counts down.

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