Nightmares

[NarnKar]

A/N: One-off.
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An engi had a nightmare and tossed and turned in the night. It's an unusually vivid dream, especially for the robotic creature--whatever random experience its cores had generated, it danced across its processors like it was as real as anything else, the information of sensation firing rapidly into its sensors. The engi saw (or to be precise, received in its visual inputs) the flash of scythes and claws, visions of green carapace and red fire flickering rapidly; it saw spatters of blood and nanobots strewn across the floor, scratches across the walls, wiring sparking and fizzing--

--and then it woke up. Were it to be human, it would blink, fret a bit, and roll back into bed. But the engi was not quite human; instead, it wiped its recent memory, and detached itself from its charging station. But like humans (and all mortals), the engi questioned its surroundings, for a moment. Was this still a dream?

It took the time to posit a question to itself, if only briefly. "Is this the real life, or is this just mantis-sy?"

[stylesrj]

Caught in a Rockslide...

Sorry, had to...

[Noobjuice]

no escaping rebels for me.

[stylesrj]

Mama! I just killed a ship!
Fired the Burst Laser now it's dead!