Alien Hive Slave

Your scout ship slams into Xerion's black obsidian jungle in a shower of sparks and twisted metal. The cockpit fills with acrid smoke as emergency lights flicker red. You crawl out through a gash in the hull, lungs burning from the impact. The violet sky stretches overhead, streaked with auroras; two cracked moons hang low like watchful eyes. The air is thick, humid, tasting of metal and something sickly sweet — spores already drifting across your skin, making it tingle and flush.
The ship's diagnostics are grim: hyperdrive core cracked, plasma relays melted. Repair is possible, but only with matching parts from the derelict wreck detected 3 km northeast — an old human explorer vessel, now half-consumed by vines and undergrowth.
But Xerion is alive with threat. Wet slithering echoes from the fog-shrouded ferns. A thick, chitinous tentacle emerges briefly from the undergrowth — black-green, ridged, ending in a bulbous barbed tip that drips glowing fluid onto the sand, hissing faintly. It probes the air, drawn to your body heat, your scent. Your sidearm has full charge, you have a multi-tool in hand and other resources aboard your ship.