Slithmorphin, planet of the guilt-snakes

Who: Seymour, Dr Keto, Cassandra, Brittany, Davie and Captain Amber FeBuggure
Where: Medibay
When: As Seymour was wheeled in
It was lucky that Wildflower had already finished his examination of Castillo's blood, Keto looked back at the corpse from the vial of grey blood he'd been scrutinising, and the body had melted away leaving nothing except a very small patch of hair. Keto raised his eyebrow and looked at the pink tree, who shrugged with a leafy rustle.
He peered into the cold cupboard where he'd stored the first Castillo corpse, and it too had dissolved, leaving only a sticky residue and a small clump of copper brown hair.
That was when Keto noticed a commotion in the medibay, he looked up and walked into the main room to see a blood stained Seymour. He was in a bad way, his skin was charred and bleeding, and there were two bloodied stumps where his legs should have been.
Keto picked up a medical clipboard and took a look at it, then at Seymour, and then back at the clipboard.
"If you'd just like to walk this way to the examination room..." He joked. But the only response he got from Seymour was a moan of pain.
Wildflower wheeled Seymour behind a curtain and started cleaned off the dried blood. Keto prepared some special ointment which he smeared over Seymour's stumps to stop the bleeding.
"So..." Keto said, holding up the two disembodied legs. "What shall we do with these?" He turned them over in his hands. "They'll never sew back on. They're useless. Might as well chuck them in the bin I suppose..."
"You jolly well better not!" Seymour shouted, trying to sit up in bed.
The curtain was pulled back to reveal Amber and Brittany.
"How are you?" Asked Amber.
"How do you think I am?" Seymour said sarcastically pointing to his stubs. "I'm half the man I used to be!"
"It's a good look..." Brittany said, trying to be convincing.
"Seymour, that bomb was meant for me. I'm really sorry-" Started Amber but she never got chance to finish the sentence.
The creature that Davie had described burst out of an overhead vent and snatched one of Seymour's legs with its massive arms, and then started chewing on it. It jumped down onto the bed, knocking Seymour onto the floor where he writhed ungracefully. With the creature standing over him, Keto called out from further away "Leave him, he's done for, he doesn't have a leg to stand on!"
Almost at the same time, as if responding to the entrance of the creature, Sgt Wilson sat upright in his bed and threw Wildflower across the room. He stood and walked like a zombie towards the mutant creature, somehow the venom in his skin causing him to behave irrationally.
Davie reached for his gun, and shot the mutant in the head. It dropped to the ground, oozing grey blood, its body melting in a similar way to Castillo's.
This didn't stop the possessed Sgt Wilson however, who wrapped his muscular hands around Davie's neck. Davie pushed back, knocking ointments flying. He urged everyone else to leave, and the medibay was quickly evacuated.
Outside, Amber caught her breath. Around her, the crew looked at her for orders.
Wildflower's investigation into Castillo's DNA pointed to a planet called Slithmorphin, where Humans shared the planet with indigenous shape-changing snakes called "guilt-snakes". After some investigation, they discovered that the JMC had established a base here in the last few years.
"So... this DNA..." Amber asked. "Does it explain why There are so many Castillos that all look the same? Are they all clones?"
Wildflower shook her head. "The two Castillos definitely weren't clones. They were some other species that used the guilt-snake DNA to alter their appearance."
Amber held a hand out to stop Wildflower. "Wait, so all these Castillos could be some sort of alien?"
Wildflower shrugged. "Or GELF. But we don't know what they are, because their original DNA has been masked so well."
-------------------------------------
Who: Rosette, Rufus, Efof, Davie, Justin
Where: Slithmorphin, planet of the snakes
When: 1 day later
The Starbug had deposited a team in a dense jungle, so their ship wasn't spotted by JMC radar. They had a few hours walk before they reached the human settlement and the JMC base.
"Remind me again why we're here?" Justin asked Davie.
"To kick some JMC ass!" Davie said enthusiastically. Next to him, Rufus showed him a map of the base on his psi-scanner. He pointed to the large comminications tower. "T-t-t-he location of the J-J-J-JMC HQ is a secret. We need to find where they are to s-s-s-stop them." He then showed them a photo of a box that looked a lot like a wifi router. "This box encrypts their location data. If we c-c-c-collect this, I can find their HQ."
"Then we can kick some JMC ass!" Said Davie.
"So what are the 'guilt-snakes'?" Efof asked, peering through the jungle wondering if he'll see any.
"T-t-t-they change their s-s-shape to something that will make you feel guilty." Rufus explained. "It's a d-d-d-distraction technique before they -k-k-k-kill you."
After half an hour of walking they all stopped for a rest. Efof left the group for a minute to do a handstand behind a tree, and when he'd finished some movement caught his eye. From behind a bush of thick vines stood his father, who was shaking his head and looking at him with disgust.
"Dad?" Efof said, rubbing his eyes. He knew his father died a long time ago in the destruction of Ffion, but here he was standing there in the jungle of a far away planet.
"You left us." His dad said. "You left me and your mother. What was it son? Why didn't you want to be around us?"
"Of course I wanted to be around you!" Efof said, stepping closer.
"Then why did you leave?"
Efof felt a tear growing in his eye. "I didn't mean to leave for very long – how was I to know I wouldn't see you again!"
His father continued shaking his head. "How could you leave your mother. Shame on you!"
Efof felt guilty, and forgot his warning about the guilt-snakes. His father turned and walked deeper into the jungle, and Efof followed shouting "Dad, Dad!"
It was Rosette who pulled him back, explaining it was a trick.
They continued towards the base, and they started to see tall buildings poking over the tops of the jungle, but they were still in the territory of the guilt-snakes.
<Tag – anyone else want to have an experience with a guilt-snake?>