What If a Huge Kraken Lived in Space

You're sitting at a coffee shop on Mars, keeping your head down, trying not to

draw any attention to yourself. It's crowded and many people are singing, dancing,

and talking loudly about life on Mars. Your drink arrives and you sip on it. So far,

no one recognizes you. You're wearing a cloak with a large hoodie to cover your

face and disguise yourself from everyone. Someone accidentally bumps into you and

sees your face. The music stops and now everyone is staring at you. You have

nowhere to hide or run. You ignore the leering eyes and keep sipping on your

beverage. An old bearded man sits in front of you, amazed to be in your presence.

So it's true. No one believed you would make it. He says, you don't reply and

continue with your drink. Everyone else gathers around you. Another man speaks.

Well, are you not going to tell us how you escaped from the clutches of the

space crackin? Everyone gasps and shock. No one has ever made it to tell the tale

of the crackin except you. Your plan was to find your messenger to take you to a

spaceship far away from this planet. But it's too late now that everyone knows

you're here and the messenger fled knowing all the attention was on you. You lay

back your hoodie and explain what happened two days ago. You're in your full

gear ready to make the voyage into deep space. You have a solo ship that's

designed to maneuver through all the obstacles in space. You prepare the rest

of the gear and fuel up. Everyone is watching you knowing that you might not

make it back. But the crackin has been floating in space for too long,

disrupting shipping containers bringing in goods. A small ship like yours can

sneak past its acute sense of smell and vision. But larger ships will get

destroyed. You made it your mission to find this crackin and study it. If you

learn its ways and patterns you can figure out how to get rid of it. Everyone

says they're goodbyes and you lift off. You know that it will be a very long

way to get there. Possibly three days in the emptiness of space. You saw some

quick footage of it but no one knows exactly where it sleeps or if it even does

sleep. You put on some tunes and set your ship for cruise control. You make

some notes and set the camera to document yourself while you prepare

everything you need. You also have some cameras outside recording everything

that moves. Even thermal sensors to catch living creatures floating in space.

After a few hours you exit the save quarters of Mars and enter into the

hostile territory. There is no place to hide or anyone to help you. A few little

ships like yours pass by now and then. They watch you going further to the

crackin. You notice many floating signs powered by machines warning you about

the crackin. The cameras start recording and you begin your video journal which

is transmitting to your network at home. So far nothing. It's quiet and dark.

Hours pass and you're just floating in the middle of nowhere. You almost feel

like you want to turn around. But then you pick up something in the sensors. You

see a large live object nearby. You turn off the lights and slow down your ship.

You resume recording and start talking to yourself explaining everything. The

object is getting closer and closer. You move aside to avoid it and latch on to a

floating rock. But you still don't see anything. Out of nowhere you see some

glowing jellyfish like creatures flowing together in a cluster. On your thermal

sensors they appear to be large objects. But in fact they are just little creatures.

According to your studies these creatures are some of the main foods for the

crackin. So they're probably running away from it. After a few minutes the

creatures float away and you launch yourself out and turn the lights back on. A

few more hours pass and you still see no crackin. Suddenly a whoosh shakes your

ship and you're thrown slightly off course. You notice that a large object has

spiked your thermal sensors and left. You keep going and check the playback

settings to see if your cameras manage to catch something. You try to look

carefully but it seems like a gust of wind blew past you. Which is weird because

there is no wind in space. You check the thermal sensors and notice that a

large object shaped like the crackin has zipped past you. It's still around and

it has probably caught your scent. Your systems got some DNA particles and are

studying them. After a while they show that the crackin skin can change colors

according to its surrounding. Its skin is thick and made up of some cosmic

fluorescent material that is new to any creature you've ever come across. The

system continues studying it. After a while the crackin goes off your radar and

disappears. You circle back trying to find it. People back on Mars can see the

data and already have information about its size and skin quality. They even see

some footage you've managed to catch. As you continue driving towards it you

open your flood lights trying to see anything. Your cameras are still rolling.

Suddenly the crackin changes skin color and appears right in front of you.

Its large tentacles flash around whipping nearby space debris. Its large eye

that's as big as a bus looks right at you. It opens its mouth and you see layers

of sharp teeth circling like a grinder. It has a large beak that can break your

ship easily. It starts flashing its colors rapidly as a way to warn you. It shoots

out some liquid to move in a no-gravity space environment. It's moving towards

you until it launches itself. Your ship has an auto force field for protection but

it can't sustain the powerful bite of the crackin. After only a few seconds the

shield breaks and your ship spirals down to another planet. You crash landed in a

swampy land. Your ship has survived but it can't take off. The analysis of the

crackin is ready. It shows that it doesn't need oxygen to breathe and its DNA is

evolving. Now that it got a bite of your force field it can adapt itself to create a

bio force field of a similar nature. But you crashed on a planet that is foreign to

you. You put on your safety suit and observe the environment. The atmosphere is filled

with nitrogen and sulfur. You get out and walk around. It has similar gravity to that

of earth. As you venture through the swamp you start

seeing little skin particles similar to those your ship has caught. The liquid below

you is some foreign substance that seems to be deteriorating your suit so you opt to

hover. The trees are strange and seem to be living off the atmosphere but there is

no sign of life anywhere. Suddenly you see a huge crater that leads to the center of

the planet. You enter it and see some ships similar to yours. It seems that the crackin

knocked them off course and they all crash landed on this planet. Many of them seem to be

intact while others are completely obliterated. Your sensors pick up another reading. It senses

another creature dwelling in the center. You try to get closer. You're doing your best

to be as gentle as possible but you feel the ground shaking below you. You duck down

and try to avoid the rocks falling overhead. A large tentacle pops out of nowhere and

then another and another. It swings itself out and crawls in the open. According to

your system studies this crackin is 10 times larger and even looks different. It doesn't

spot you but it can sense that you're around. It starts thrashing the planet trying to

find you. It knocks your ship. You try to find a way to start it but it's missing a piece.

You find another abandon ship and take out the part that you need and put it on your ship.

Your suit has an auto repair function that allows you to fix your ship without the tools.

After a few minutes it's ready for takeoff. You power up your ship even though it's damaged

and lift off. You manage to sneak past the crackin. Everyone at the coffee shop is silent.

Many don't believe your stories. They had stopped receiving live transmissions before you

were knocked off by the space crackin. Out of nowhere in alarm rings and warns that the crackin

has arrived. Everyone rushes off in a panic. You hear a voice in your head. It's a bunch

of gibberish but you start getting visions of the crackin talking to you. It knows you're here

and it's coming for you.