Two Dead Worlds

Chapter 1: The scouting team

A.N. Unexpected crossover, huh?

"I didn't sign up for that."

The following statement was said by a man, who wore a metal suit of armor. There wasn't a single opened place, everything was covered by a strong alloy. He was wearing a black shirt above the metal, and his helmet looked like a skull, which was a source for his nickname, which later became a full name. Instead of his right arm there was a wide blaster, emitting a green smoke. The man narrowed his pupiless green eyes at the corpse lying in front of him.

The creature had hunchbacked, bipedal reptilian build with long humanoid arms. It was roughly nine to ten feet tall, with a thick and resilient brown hide, who knows how many shots were wasted to kill that nasty killing machine, powerful muscles and twelve-inch-long, razor-sharp claws which had previously left large dents on the man's armor and turned his clothes to shreds. The armored leader kneeled and tilted the creature's heas, wondering if his wife would allow to put its head at the wall.

"What in the blazes is this thing?!" One of the squad members asked.

He, along with three other comrades, was wearing a light, dark green combat armor, with one part covering the chest and shoulders entirely, another two plates were protecting the knees. There were also dark green helmets made from the same material. Beneath that were grayish woolen pants and sweater. There were also black gloves and boots. But their appearance was something unsettling. Three of them had green skin, while the one remaining had blue one. There was a reason for that, they weren't humans, they were ghosts.

The souls of the dead beings had a society of their own. And where was a society, there was the government. And the group's orders were simple - to scout ahead for any contacts with humankind. Because two hundred and twenty years ago the Ghost King commanded to cut off any connections to the opposite plane of existence. Now, for a reason known only to him, he decided to come back. So far the scouts were greeted only by the carnivorous beast. Not that they hadn't encountered the creatures like this in their own world, but the horned beast was unexpected.

"How should I know?" Their leader made a rhetoric question after cutting off a piece of hide and stuffing it in one of his small belt bags. He then got up. "Our mission still stands."

"No offense, Captain Skulker, but I don't recall these beasts walking around the Human World."

"Oh, I'm surely the one who would know. But who knows what changed in these two centuries?" Skulker pried sarcastically. "Move out."

The group followed their leader. The place the portal led them to what looked like an abandoned factory. There were multiple crippled and rusty machines, the dust was everywhere. It was extremely dark around there, but the clock showed it was only three p.m. They were like walking targets, with their bodies glowing with otherworldly aura like the bright lightbulbs. It was hard to be scouts with such a factor, that's why they weren't the most powerful ghosts. To compensate for the lack of power, they wielded silvery blasters, which fired with something in between the plasma and laser.

The scouts went into the office part of the former factory. They would have passed that, but Skulker suddenly noticed a blinking screen of the terminal. Just what he needed. The man approached it and tapped on the keys, while his subordinates shifted nearby impatiently. Skulker meanwhile accessed the terminal and read through the information. There was nothing interesting: the shipments dates, the news about RobCo and RepConn's cooperation, several documents. The latest message was dating to the twenty second of October, two thousand and seventy seventh year. The captain cursed under his nose, but still downloaded the information into the special device.

They continued going. There was no sign of life around. Finally they found something - a corpse. There was a skeleton lying on the floor in one of the corridors. Despite the absence of flesh, the suit was in an acceptable condition. So he didn't die from that thing. The factory couldn't just close with a corpse lying on the floor. Something happened. Something sudden and unexpected. Later they found even more of them.