The alien creature stood apprehensively at its workbench. The creature was humanoid in shape, and looked like a cross between a reptile and a bat. It was roughly seven feet tall, had a pair of wings and a mouth full of serrated fangs. Its body was shaped like a letter S: its back was hunched and its knees protruded outwards at an alarming angle. Its eyes were a yellowish colour and gave off an eerie light. The area in which it worked was dark and musty. The air smelled of paper but didn’t have a chance to circulate. There were no windows, or any other holes that led outside. This was the planet Doomlock, and its atmosphere was both unbreathable and toxic for any living organism. One breath of it would set your lungs aflame and you would burn from the inside out. No-one was sure if you died from suffocation or the burns first. The creature looked at its screen to see a flashing icon, indicating that the Biowave Generator was ready for testing.

“Bring me the test subject!” he (it appeared to be a male judging by the tone of voice it used) commanded. A panel slid across the wall, and a trio of shorter, less menacing aliens emerged, dragging behind them a body-shaped object. As the object neared one of the failing light sources, it became clear that it was, in fact, a body, just a very badly kept and mistreated one. It more closely resembled a mutilated zombie from a horror film than a real human being, but human it was. It was missing an arm, and the other hung limply by its side. One of his ribs extended from within his chest like a sword stabbed through his back. His clothes were ragged and torn, and smelled of sweat and blood. This particular human being was (understandably) not in the best of moods. He struggled briefly but was swiftly knocked unconscious by one of the aliens. The head alien pressed a large and imposing button on his keyboard. A device fitted to the side of the computer sprung into life, and a green tube attached to it started to glow; fluorescent in the half-light. The single overhead light in the room flickered on and off. Slowly at first, but with increasing speed, the mutilated human began to change. His bony limbs grew elongated and sharp. His missing arm grew back with a greenish tint. His fingers and toes bent in unnatural directions, snapping back into place with resounding cracks. His nails tapered to a point making them sharper than knives. His head was the last thing that changed. His teeth tilted in their sockets and gained a layer of protective bone. A fang sprouted from each side of his mouth. All over his body, a green slimy substance oozed from cracks in the skin. His spasms ceased and his eyes acquired the same yellowish colour as the aliens. The man screamed.

“Perfect,” the head alien said confidently. He didn’t sound the slightest bit surprised. He clicked his fingers and a ray of light impaled the former human. Its head exploded, sending green ooze flying about the room. The body crumpled to the floor. He tapped a few commands on his keyboard, and suddenly the very ground began to quake. The computer screen fizzled and switched off. The head alien abandoned it and instead walked briskly along a new passageway that had opened into a hangar-like building. Inside was a gigantic beam cannon affixed to an equally large green tube, filled with the same experimental liquid. Under his breath, he muttered, “Now, the humans will pay for what they did to us... all those years ago...”