Stardust Café: DDS.

~~~

Raining. It was always raining, in the Junkyard.

He stood in a clearing amid piles of junk; twisted husks of automobiles and old metal plating, piping twisting out of it at odd angles.

He was tall and had messy brown hair, and wore a uniform that marked him a member of The S.D.C. Clan. His was a basic black, with gold lining a pattern along the jacket and sleeves. He stood in the middle of the clearing, hands up, head down as they swarmed around him.

They wore grey single-suit uniforms, each marked with a variation of Orange stripes to designate their rank. They mostly wielded machine guns. Taking up positions behind chunks of ruined foundation and the remains of a downed airplane, and other chunks of rubble scattered around the area, until he was completely surrounded.

A man, with short, wildly spikey black hair appeared just outside of the ruins of a wrecked airliner, as if he’d been hiding inside it. Kurai, leader of the Exzellas clan.

“Well well, S.D.C. Member.” He cheered, sounding as if this were more a formality than a planned meeting. “How odd that you’d call the Exzellas out like this.” He smirked and raised a revolver. “So let me ask this once… Why did you demand this meeting?” His eyes narrowed. “Or should we gun you down right here?”

The young man shook his head. “No, I’d prefer not to be shot.” He shook his head. “But I don’t know why you were called here, if it even was to discuss something. Because you see, I’m not the leader of S.D.C.”

Yes, it always rained in that purgatory, the Junkyard. And it’s inhabitants have only one objective:

“It’s a trap!” Kurai screamed, lunging back into the airliner.

There was a tense moment among the clan members. Had their leader finally snapped?

Then the bullet struck the first soldier. The young man they had been intent on was already moving, drawing two handguns and firing on the Exzellas troops behind him.

“It’s a sniper!” an Exzellas screamed. “We need to find the sniper! Stay under cover!”

But more fire was coming as two people charged down the hill towards the young man, both wielding machineguns. A man, and woman. They fired on the fleeing Exzellas troops, until only a handful remained, huddled behind the Airliner.

Defeat the other clans, to ascend to Nirvana.

“What took you so long?” The young man side, shaking his head.

“Shut up Darth.” A voice came over a small headset along the back of his head. The voice echo’d from the other two fighters aswell. “Coff was having trouble lining up a good shot.”

Darth ignored the garbled ‘Hey, cut me some slack!’

He glanced towards the airliner. “Nice work, Star, Miso.”He nodded. He motioned to their hiding place. “We’ve clustered them over there. Kurai, and about three or four are left.” He pressed a button on his collar. “Vane? Suggestions? Grenade maybe?”

“That could work.” Vane’s voice came over the headset.

“Alright.” Darth said, motioning towards them. “Lets finish this off-“

However, before they could even clear the chunk of ruined building where they’d run to, Something shot down from the sky, kicking up a cloud of dust that washed over the battlefield.

“What was that?” Miso asked, tapping his headset.

“I can’t get a visual.” Coff’s voice came up next. “What about you guys?”

“The dust is starting to clear.” Darth sighed and looked out towards the crater. “It looks like... an egg.”

“An egg?” Vane called. “What?”

But it was. An enormous egg-shaped craft; made up of multiple tiny ‘cells’ across its surface.

“Yeah.” Miso agreed. “Not sure what exactly it is…”

However, suddenly each cell lit up in pattern; making the surface seem to ripple from the bottom to top.

“I think its doing something guys. Maybe we should get out of here-“ Star whispered.

Then it shot them. Or so it appeared; The whole egg suddenly burst into light. The light flew and spiraled, and came right at them, striking and going straight through them, to hit someone else.

Then, everything went dark.

~~~
When Darth awoke, Star and Miso were setting up aswell.

“Ugh…What hit me…?” Miso groaned.

“I Can’t remember.” Star sighed. “But it hurts.”

“Weren’t we here fighting the Exzellas?” Darth asked, and turned to point at the airliner.

The ground around it was caked in blood. A few bodies were littered nearby.

“Whatever happened here wasn’t normal.” Vane said over their headsets. “We should regroup.”

“Right.” Miso agreed, and the three started up the hill, eventually reaching the top, where they greeted Coff, and continued over to where Vane was stationed.

“Should we head back to base?” star asked confused. “That didn’t go quite as we planned it.”

“Might aswell.” Coff said. “We’ll ask if anyone there sa-“

Suddenly, a hand grasped her back and Coff leapt out of the way. An exzellas man stood there, clutching his side. “What…what was that?” He gasped, reaching for Star, the next closest. When she shirked out of the way, he reached for Darth. “What did you do to Kurai? To us…?”

“What’s he talking about?” Miso asked, disgusted.

“Urgh…You… turned him into a monster.” The man said, hunching over and beginning to glow. “He killed them… he…argh… killed them all!” With a feral scream, the man suddenly exploded in a burst of white light.

In his place, stood a man, grey-skinned and skeletal, on its knees. And seemingly fused to its back, was a scorpions body, its legs arcing out infront of him, its pincers replacing his arms. A large stinger arced up from behind it.

“Oh my.” Vane gasped. “That’s not good.”