Fraternity of Ashes

[aarluuk]

Hi, I'm a new user here. I started permadeathing in FTL in December so I am new to the whole die in space scenario. But it is a really fun game that I enjoy dipping into now and again.

I enjoy writing and I have been inspired by FTL when thinking of a short story idea. I hope this is the right forum for short stories. Here is part 1 of Fraternity in Ashes. Click the link if you would rather read it on my blog.

http://aarluuk.blogspot.com/

Fraternity of Ashes, Part I

Stubborn bolts and sweat. Too much sweat. Macyruth wiped the wrench for the fourth time with a red rag. The young ensign swayed under the heady tang of fresh blood, grease and fear. The pounding on the hull stimulated another tiny stream of urine she could not stem. As fear darkened her cargo pants Macyruth bit back her tears, stuffed the rag into her breast pocket and worked the bolt once more. The bolt moved. She attacked it again and it moved, again. It was soon free and spinning within her fingers, the bloody, oily fingers allied to her at last. She removed the two remaining bolts and opened the panel. LEDs blinked in desperation and Macyruth did what she could to placate them. As the lights winked from panic-red to tranquil-blue, Macyruth allowed herself a breath. The white data stream flowed once more around her. Beneath the pounding on the hull a tinny voice lit up her grey cell and reminded the young ensign that she was not completely alone.

“Macy?”

Macyruth crawled to the intercom. She gripped the microphone between bloody fingers. “I’m here Era.”

“You alright?” asked the captain. “I’ve got fires raging all around you, here on the display.”

“I’m alright,” Macyruth stammered. “The walls are holding.” Macyruth looked about her cell, the engineering compartment adjacent to the main engine room. Tapping the monitor to the right of the microphone, Macyruth watched the flames lick the bulkheads outside engineering. “Can you put out the fires?”

Macyruth leaned her head against the bulkhead. It should have been cooler than it was. The hull pounded three more times before the captain answered. “No. I can’t. The door controls are fried and I can’t fix them from the bridge.” Macyruth shook her head as the captain took a long breath. “Macy?”

“Yes?”

“They are coming Macy.”

Salt upon her lips, Macyruth gripped clicked the send button on the microphone. “I know,” she said.

“Macy,” said Era. “Macy?”

“Yes?”

“It’s the Mantix, Macy.”

Macyruth nodded. “I know,” she said. The sweat on Macyruth’s forehead began to steam. She lifted her head from the bulkhead and wiped the hair out of her eyes. “Where is Sooq? Is he on the ship?”

“Sooq? I don’t know, Macy.” They both heard the pounding on the hull. It was duller this time. Closer. “The fire won’t have got him, Macy. Rocmen are fireproof.”

“I know,” Macyruth pushed herself onto her knees and sat back on her heels. She focused on the patchwork ceiling. It was a maze of aluminium coveralls and hex-shaped fire-panels. “I just thought he might be able to come to me.”

“I don’t know, Macy.”

A faint smell of dark treacle hung upon the walls. Macyruth watched as the compartment began to steam. She clenched her muscles and her jaw. She trapped the fear inside. “Era?” she said. “Era, I am going to die in here.” Macyruth clicked the send button several times. The click, click of the microphone replaced the pounding on the hull. “Era?” Macyruth’s tongue was gritty with the taste of burning sugar. The walls steamed with a brown glow. “I am going to die in here.”

A twist of corroded gears above her forced Macyruth to look up. One of the hex panels was receding into the gloom of the crawlspace above engineering. Macyruth drew her defender from its holster. The mini-mortar was charged. She swiped the safety release with a coded print from her thumb. As the hex panel disappeared Macyruth pressed the defender into her temple. The weapon’s sensor tasted her skin and screamed a warning. Macyruth stared at the open panel above her.

“Ms Macy?” said a hollow voice from within the crawlspace. “Put away your defender, Ms Macy. Put it away and I will come down.”

The defender protested a moment more before Macyruth thumbed the safety and let the weapon rest on her thighs. She did not blink or lower her head. The panel opening framed a silica head, thin with opal flakes of shale. The rocman dropped into the room, landing with a blunt thud upon the deck. Shale cascaded to the deck in a flurry of shaped edges. Sooq smiled at the young ensign on her knees before him. Macyruth lowered her gaze from the panel and acknowledged the rocman with a nod.

“Ms Macy,” said Sooq. “We must go now.”

Macyruth took the rocman’s hand and pulled herself to her feet.

“Era is dead,” she said, holstering her defender.

“Yes,” Sooq said. “And the mantix have boarded The Redtail.”

“And the fires are still burning.”

Sooq nodded. “They might be our only defence for the moment Ms Macy. We should not try to put them out. Not just yet.”

“That might be fine for you, Sooq, but I will burn up in here.”

Sooq looked around the compartment. We might be able to get you inside the reactor nacelle. It will protect you. The mantix will not find you there.”

Macyruth shook her head. “If they get the engine online then I will be fried inside the reactor. No, it is better to die out here.”

“Ms Macy,” Sooq said. “The mantix will not get The Redtail’s engines online. No one will. When their ship leaves The Redtail will be stranded.”

“Then what is the point, Sooq?”

“The point is to not to die at the pincers of the mantix.”

“Then kill me now, Sooq,” Macyruth drew the defender and thumbed it into action. “Or let me do it,” she said. The steam turned to smoke as the walls began to evaporate. “Kill me Sooq, or let me do it.” Macyruth held the defender to her chest. “Let me do it, Sooq.”

“No Ms Macy. Not yet. Not while we have a chance.”

“A chance?” Macyruth stared at the rocman. “You said we were as good as stranded here, with or without the mantix.”

“The mantix have a ship Ms Macy.”

To be continued...

[aarluuk]

Fraternity of Ashes, Part II

http://aarluuk.blogspot.com/

The smooth cylinder of the starboard nacelle hummed as it spun slowly within the haze and smoke of the main engineering room. Waves of fire rolled up the walls and crashed upon the ceiling to break once more upon the grilled surface of the floor. The rocman spilled handfuls of stony matter from his arms and hands as he worked the controls of the engine nacelle. Sooq slowed the cycle long enough for Macyruth to crawl onto the pallet within the spinning tube. He held the cap open until the ensign had crawled as far into the nacelle as she could.

“I am not going to fit Sooq.”

“Bend at the knees Ms Macy,” suggested the rocman. He pushed the cap closed.

“Sooq. Wait,” Macyruth cried. “I am not going to fit,” she repeated. Caged tears streamed through the grime upon her face. Sooq stared at the ensign with diamond-hard eyes.

“Ms Macy,” Sooq soothed. “Try to calm yourself, Ms Macy.” A harsh clicking penetrated the surging surf of licking flames. Sooq rotated his stony head to look.

“What is it Sooq?”

Framed within the fiery doorway, the mantix boarding party prepared to enter engineering. Two of them. They must have come through the crawlspace, Sooq thought. The purple thorax armour of the mantix reflected the fires raging in The Redtail’s stricken engineering section. The mantix twitched.

“Quickly now Ms Macy,” Sooq pushed the cap almost closed. Macyruth locked her arms and pressed against the cap.
“I am not going to die in here Sooq.”

Sooq held the cap with one hand while he prised his left eye loose with the other. “Take this Ms Macy.” Sooq pushed his hand into the nacelle and placed his eyestone into Macyruth’s soft hands. Her arms relented.

“Sooq?”

“It is an eyestone Ms Macy. Look at it glow. As long as it glows you are not alone.”

“Sooq? What if it stops glowing?”

“If it stops glowing Ms Macy, then I am dead.” The nacelle cap closed with a dull clang. Sooq ran his hand over the controls and heard the hermetic seal sing into place.

The rocman scanned the engine room. The mantix boarding party were stabbing their way through the adjoining storage hold. The rocman positioned himself within the flames rolling along the bulkhead. His body sooty within the fiery surf, the rocman melted into his surroundings and waited.

The lead mantix clicked her ommatid-visors through an ever increasing magnification of lenses. Her head flicked through one hundred and eighty degrees scanning every facet of the room before entering. The multiple angles of repeating views shone inside the ommatid-visor. The two mantix clicked to one another before entering the confined space of engineering. A command click from the Orthopterax reverberated within the mantix helmet. The mantix acknowledged the commander with two distinct clicks. Resting on her posterior legs, she secreted another layer of adaptive armour. The sickly gel coat crisped in the heat and turned black. The mantix moved into engineering. The nacelles spun in the centre of the room. The mantix moved forwards, her back to the bulkhead wall. The breaking of her left posterior legs was the first the mantix knew of the rocman’s ambush.
Sooq continued his attack. Grasping the mantix’ left raptorial arm he tried to break it in two, just like he had done with her posterior legs. The mantix was too fast. Raking her right raptor across Sooq’s forearms she splintered the rocman’s assault. Shale glanced off the mantix’ armour as she retreated into the best fighting stance available. The crippled mantix pushed her metathorax along the floor with both raptorial arms; her pincers catching and halting in the metal grilles beneath her. Sooq advanced.

The mantix twitched as the fires licked at her remaining posterior legs. The rocman advanced. As the fires rolled over the mantix’ metathorax she squealed, her mandibles opening and shutting within the triangular helmet. He advanced.

Flames washed over the mantix as she leaped at the rocman only to be held within his stony grasp. Her body slid beneath her as the rocman pushed her back into the flames. Locked in his blistering embrace, the mantix melted into the rocman’s arms. Sooq watched her burn. Her purple armour turned black. As the ommatid-visors popped, the compound eyes within dissolved like overripe caviar. The rocman laid the mantix’ remains in the fire and witnessed the final stage of her cremation.

He did not mourn for long. With a powerful thrust of raptorial limbs the second mantix ejected the rocman from the sanctuary of the flames. As Sooq landed heavily upon the grille the mantix was upon him, raking her thorny limbs across his shoulders. The rocman’s arms were almost severed as the mantix cut through the graphite strata that gave the rocman his biped form. As the mantix reared back for another slashing attack, Sooq slammed his forehead into the mantix’ prothorax. The collision threw the lightweight insect off balance. Her raptorial arms flailing, she landed awkwardly on three of her posterior limbs. Sooq gripped an apical claw as it slashed past him. He broke it off and watched as the mantix’ compound eyes bulged. The rocman’s fractured arms twisted in the heat from the fire. The mantix recovered her attack and pressed forwards into the rocman’s advance. She quickly severed both her opponent’s arms. The rocman charged forward with his most effective weapon, his head. The mantix dodged the rocman’s feints and counter-feints. Sooq continued his torpedo attack until the mantix caught the tip of her left posterior limb in the grille beneath her. Sooq stamped hard upon the trapped limb. Gel spat and smoked as the mantix limb tore free of her body, the mantix pivoted on the three remaining. With a lucky strike from the thorns lining the inside of her right raptor the mantix removed the rocman’s right eyestone. Sooq fell upon her. The rocman pummelled the mantix to the floor with his body. Boxed into a corner, surrounded on three sides by engineering carts and containers, the mantix and rocman flailed upon the grilled floor. The flames licked down the bulkhead wall towards them. As the mantix struggled beneath him the rocman slammed his head into the mantix’ chest, her visor, her chest, the floor, her chest. He struck the mantix blindly, repeatedly until she gelled beneath him. Mantix organs swilled around the rocman’s knees. Sooq sank into the body of the mantix as the body of the mantix popped and spat in the heat.

The soft magma glow of the eyestone leaked through Macyruth’s fist. Her eyelids shut tight the young ensign swayed to the constant thrum of the spinning nacelle. The pallet upon which she lay crumpled dug into her back. There was little room for the defender she gripped to her chest, the sensors of the barrel mere millimetres from screaming a warning. Macyruth waited to die, again.

To be continued...

[aarluuk]

Fraternity of Ashes, Part III

http://aarluuk.blogspot.com/

The nacelle spun slower and slower. The air evaporated out of reach as the ensign’s protective cocoon became a coffin. Macyruth gasped as she fiddled with the inside of the nacelle cap, smooth and unyielding. Macyruth drew the defender from where it lay on her damp chest. Sweat frothed upon her skin. With the defender levelled at the nacelle cap Macyruth pressed her eyes closed and the trigger, she pressed the trigger with a scream. Blood burst from Macyruth’s ears as the nacelle cap was blasted across the length of engineering. The cap clanged off the bulkhead, spinning to a stop upon the grilled floor. Macyruth gasped her way out of the nacelle. She cut her hands on the torn metal edges. The fires were extinguished, as was the oxygen. Another fire raged in the young ensign’s chest as she willed one foot in front of the other towards the cabinet containing the breathing apparatus. Macyruth blasted the lock with another round from the defender. She had the breathing button positioned over her mouth and nose a few seconds after the cabinet door swung free of the lock.

She breathed.

The chaos of engineering closed in on the young ensign. Fire-black walls, charred instruments, the room was black and burned but for a feint orange glow from within the nacelles. Macyruth started towards it. She holstered the defender and plunged into the nacelle. Beneath the pallet was the eyestone. Macyruth retrieved it and slumped to the charred floor. He was alive, thought Macyruth. Barely so, but alive. Macyruth stood and sifted through the rubble with her eyes. As she moved through the debris Macyruth found the signs of a struggle. In a deeper black of charred clumps and obsidian-slick smears of waste, Macyruth recognised the outline of the rocman. She approached and lifted his head and torso out of the mess of black material beneath him.

“Sooq?”

“Yes, Ms Macy,” the rocman said. He was black and blank without his eyestones. Macyruth pressed his eyestone into one of the empty caves in his skull. Sooq tracked her face with a smile. “There you are.”

“Yes, Sooq. Thanks to you.”

“No thanks necessary.”

Macyruth slipped onto the floor next to the rocman. “What now Sooq?”

Sooq tilted his head in the gloom of engineering. “I am afraid you have work to do Ms Macy.” The rocman paused. “I am afraid I will be of little assistance.”

“Are you dying Sooq? I don’t think I can do this alone.”

“I am not dying, but I am less than alive, Ms Macy.”

“I don’t understand, Sooq.”

“I am a rocman Ms Macy.” The ensign nodded. “We tolerate fire because we carry fire within. Magma. A heart of magma, if you will. You have seen me shale?”

“Yes.”

“We shale as we grow. So long as the magma within is not extinguished we will continue to grow. If we did not shale we would become as boulders.” Sooq smiled. “Some of my best friends are boulders.”

“Boulders?”

“Yes. Shaling is a choice Ms Macy. Even now I can feel the magma turning inside like brimstone.” Sooq saw the confused look on the ensign’s face. “I am getting fat Ms Macy. If I don’t work out I will become round. Like a boulder.”

“Oh,” Macyruth said. “I get it.”

“Now Ms Macy, you must be strong again. The mantix will be wondering about their crewmates.”

“Where are the mantix? The ones that boarded our ship.”

“You are sitting in them.” Sooq chuckled as Macyruth fidgeted in the soot and charred remains of the mantix. “Ms Macy,” Sooq said. “You are going to have to be brave if we are going to survive this.”

Macyruth stopped fidgeting and looked at the rocman. “What must I do?”

“You are going to have to board the mantix ship. Easy now,” the rocman said as Macyruth leaped to her feet. “There are only two mantix remaining. I burned the others.”

“I can’t do it Sooq.”

“Ms Macy,” the rocman commanded. “If you don’t do this you will die. I will die.” Sooq softened his tone. “I do not wish to see you die Ms Macy.”

Macyruth sank to the floor. She leaned close to the rocman. She traced a finger around his fractured arm socket. She looked at him and nodded. “Okay Sooq. Okay. Tell me what I must do.”

“Ms Macy?” Sooq tilted his head forward.

“Yes. Damn it. I am ready. Tell me.”

“There will be two mantix aboard their ship. The Orthopterax, their commander, she will be on the bridge. Another mantix, a male, will be in engineering. You must kill him first and disable the engines. He will be easy enough to kill. One shot with your defender will suffice.”

“One shot?”

“He has no armour, Ms Macy.”

“And the Orthopterax?”

“Yes, she will be a challenge.”

Macyruth stood and paced in front of the rocman. “How do I get aboard?”

“The mantix ship is still attached to The Redtail. You will be able to board through the airlock.”

“They won’t be guarding it?”

“Yes, of course. But not like you think. The mantix do not have systems like you humans. They rely on more primitive means.” The rocman closed his eyestone.

“Sooq?”

“I am sorry Ms Macy. I was thinking of a friend. It was he that told me of the differences between the mantix and humans. Between the mantix and everybody else. I was held by slavers before joining the crew of The Redtail. Era, your captain, he freed me after dropping into uncharted space and taking on a slaver. There was another slave on that ship, a mantix. I cannot pronounce his name. He was killed in the struggle. We were imprisoned together for many months.” The rocman scuffed a foot against the charred remains of the mantix. “He was a good friend.”

“How do I get on the ship, Sooq?”

“The mantix ship is protected with a sensory system. To defeat it you must pass for a mantix, a female – only the females are allowed to leave the ship.”

“And how do I pass for a mantix female, Sooq?”

“You have to wear one Ms Macy.”

To be continued...

[aarluuk]

Fraternity of Ashes, Part IV

http://aarluuk.blogspot.com/

Macyruth wrinkled her nose at the black, gelatinous mass oozing between her fingers. Macyruth smeared it on her arms, her legs, across her belly, her chest; she even lay on the floor and rubbed her back in it. The young ensign looked at the rocman.

“Well?”

The rocman nodded. “Your hair and face Ms Macy.”

“Oh come on, Sooq. I stink already. Don’t make me rub my face in this crap.”

“You want to defeat the mantix sensors?” Macyruth nodded. “Then you need to cover your entire body Ms Macy.”

Macyruth took a handful more of mantix goo. “You better not be smiling, Sooq,” said the ensign as she plastered her ponytail with the blood of the mantix.

“Not at all Ms Macy.”

Macyruth started on her face. The ensign removed the breathing button for a moment. The rocman stopped her.

“Not the lips Ms Macy. It won’t agree with you.”

Macyruth replaced the breathing button. “Is it poisonous?”

“It will make you vomit, certainly.”

“I want to do that already, Sooq.”

“You’ll need to clean your thumb at least Ms Macy.”

“What? Oh, the defender.” Macyruth cleaned her thumb with one of the few rags not to have succumbed to the flames. She stopped and twirled before the rocman, arms outstretched. “Well?”

“You’ll do Ms Macy. Now, how much oxygen do you have left?”

Macyruth pulled at a length of plastic tubing hanging from the breathing button. The chemical inside glowed a pale orange. “I’ll have to change it soon,” she said. “There are at least four in the cabinet.

“Take them all,” said the rocman. “You don’t know how long you are going to be.”

The young ensign paused on her way to the cabinet.

“I don’t know how I am going to do this, Sooq.”

“Don’t think about it Ms Macy. I will be with you,” the rocman struggled to his feet. “Now, get the breathing buttons and we will make our way to the airlock.”

Macyruth stuffed the breathing buttons into the deep pockets sewn into each leg of her cargo pants. She checked the defender. It gave a low hum as she thumbed it into action. Macyruth stared at the defender vibrating gently in her hand. I am going to have to use this soon. She mused. I was ready to kill myself. Surely I can kill another? Macyruth followed the rocman through engineering. But you couldn’t quite do it, could you? She closed her eyes for a moment. No. I couldn’t. Macyruth shook her head and holstered the defender. The clip held eight rounds.
Sooq led the way. He stopped at each door. Macyruth opened the access panel and punched in the code to override all the locks. Door after door slid silently into its recess in the bulkhead. At the fourth door the rocman stopped.

“This is it Ms Macy. I can’t come with you any further.”

Macyruth trembled. “I’m not sure Sooq. I don’t...”

“Relax Ms Macy. You can do this. The sensor will not be alerted. You are far too disgusting to draw any attention to yourself.” Macyruth smiled. “That’s it Ms Macy. Now, open this door, climb up into the mantix ship and take the first corridor all the way to engineering. It will feel as though you are going up. You are not. Don’t think about that.”

“The mantix? He will be in engineering?”

“Yes. He will not be expecting you. Not you or anybody else. Shoot him quickly in the upper thorax. One shot Ms Macy.”

“The noise?”

“Don’t worry about the noise. As soon as you fire the defender the smell will alert the Orthopterax. You must move quickly. She will be coming for you.”

“Where will I go? Where do I go from engineering?”

Sooq did not look at the young ensign. “Quickly now Ms Macy. Open the door and climb into the ship. I will be waiting for you here, once you have cleared the ship.”

“Sooq?”

“Go Ms Macy. Get in there.” Sooq shoved Macyruth towards the door with the side of his stony body. As she opened the access panel he turned and walked away. In a matter of seconds she was alone.

The door slid into the bulkhead and Macyruth drew her defender. The area around the airlock securing the two ships was charred but otherwise undamaged. Macyruth looked up into the foreign ship. A translucent green light lit the interior of the mantix ship. The walls beneath the green casing were ribbed with swirls and polyps. Beads of light pulsed in different directions. Macyruth, holding her defender before her, used one hand to pull herself into the mantix ship as she climbed the rungs of the airlock ladder. She paused as her head approached the lip of the airlock. Macyruth peered into the empty corridor. She continued. Once inside the mantix ship, Macyruth straightened to a slouch in the hive-like tunnel. Claw marks scarred the floor. The beads pulsed before her. Macyruth followed the pulsing beads of light towards mantix engineering.

A single shrill beep bounced off the walls. Macyruth spun the defender in an arc around her, sucking heavily on the breathing button. She sucked again at the button. With a lightheaded gasp, Macyruth smiled as she fiddled with the breathing button. Discarding the used unit on the floor the ensign replaced the button with a new one from her pocket. The red glow from the plastic tube diffused into the green glow of the mantix corridor. Macyruth tugged at the plastic tube of the new unit and was rewarded with a blue glow of fresh chemicals. Macyruth wiped her brow and continued along the corridor

The bend in the corridor before her brought Macyruth to a sudden stop. In the green light of mantix engineering she saw a mantix male picking at various fronds protruding from the walls and a large pulsing carapace in the centre of the oval-shaped room. The mantix engineer moved nimbly between the various alcoves recessed into the walls. Macyruth moved into the room, keeping the carapace between her and the mantix.

The mantix stopped. The antennae on his triangular head twitched as he turned to face the intruder. Macyruth levelled the defender at the mantix. Her target wobbled. She steadied her aim with both hands. Still her target moved. Macyruth sucked at the air from the breathing button. It trickled through the unit and clogged the ensign’s senses. Macyruth’s chest heaved. The mantix stood before her. Macyruth squeezed the trigger, slow and steady. She squeezed off four rounds in succession, another two and the mantix started to go down. One more round finished off her target and the breathing button filtered the air anew. Breathing again, Macyruth stalked around the carapace to find several holes in the wall and a wounded mantix lying on the floor, gel streaming out of his left eye. Macyruth raised the defender. She held it in a firm grasp. Two hands. Finger on the trigger. She fired. The defender powered down a second later as Macyruth emptied her stomach on top of the fusty remains of the dead mantix.

To be continued...

[aarluuk]

Fraternity of Ashes, Part V

http://aarluuk.blogspot.com/

The young ensign slid in her own vomit. The leafy walls slipped through her fingers and the defender fell with a soft thud upon the body of the dead mantix. The mantix’ chest caved in as Macyruth broke her fall upon the enemy’s body. She swayed as a rush of heat blushed her cheeks. Removing the breathing button, Macyruth voided her stomach once more. Wiping the gruel-coloured waste from her lips she pushed herself away from the mantix’ corpse and rested her back against the engine carapace. She breathed in, the button still in the palm of her hand.

“I can breathe?” she rasped aloud. “Damn, I can breathe.” Macyruth allowed herself a smile. “Now what?”

The defender lay just out of reach. The red ammunition light in the handgrip shrugged a useless rhythm and Macyruth shook her head. “One shot,” she mused. “I used eight.” The pale green light of the interior bullied the ensign with a neat hole for each of her misspent rounds. “I am going to need another weapon.” Macyruth pushed herself to her feet and rested a palm upon the engine to steady herself. A quick glance at the mantix engineer revealed no weapons beyond the razor-sharp teeth on the inside of his raptorial limbs. Macyruth pushed herself towards the mantix, grabbed the apical claw of the left raptor, slammed a foot into the cleft between the mantix’ prothorax and shoulder, and pulled. The limb separated from the mantix’ body with a schlick. The ensign was armed. Macyruth trimmed the limb of sinew and goo until she was left with a serrated club. She slipped her right hand into the open claw and closed the pincers around her fingers for protection. Macyruth took a deep breath and started towards the corridor.

Macyruth pushed herself along the corridor, past the entrance to The Redtail; she wasn’t finished clearing the mantix ship. The farther she moved away from The Redtail, the sweeter the air became. The young ensign sucked in great lungfuls, skipping forwards with each breath. The pulses of light on the corridor walls danced alongside her as long fronds lifted at her arrival and waved in the wake of her passing. Macyruth slashed playfully with her raptor, jabbing and thrusting along the passageway until her progress was barred by a tangled wall of sawgrass. Macyruth stopped. As the ensign reached out with her left hand the first layer of sawgrass enveloped her mantix-smeared hand and wrist. The sharp blades wrapped around her forearm and then tugged the ensign through the wall, into the space beyond, where she fell at the four feet of the Orthopterax.

Macyruth flexed her fingers within the pincer grip of the mantix limb. The Orthopterax had yet to move anything more than the antennae on top of her head. Macyruth’s back ached but she did not move. She looked up at the Orthopterax, following the pulsing beads of hot light visible beneath the surface of the Orthopterax’ translucent skin. The mandibles moved and Macyruth wretched at the sickly vibrations emanating from the mantix’ jaws. The mantix twitched all four of her posterior limbs and advanced upon the ensign stopping just short of Macyruth’s feet as a pulse of light behind the Orthopterax illuminated the ship’s proximity sensors.

Between streams of static a human voice halted the mantix. “Redtail this is The Kestrel. Please respond.”

Macyruth stared at the Orthopterax as the mantix whipped her triangular head to an alcove that pulsed with light. Macyruth gripped the limb of the dead engineer and sliced it in a determined arc towards the Orthopterax’ front posterior limbs. The teeth of Macyruth’s weapon bit into the Orthopterax’ right forelimb and embedded itself in the mantix’ shell-like exterior. Macyruth tried to pull it free. The Orthopterax hissed. With both apical claws she gripped the ensign under her armpits and threw her across the room.

“Redtail, this is Kestrel. We are approaching your coordinates. Understand you have...”

Macyruth landed hard on the smooth floor of the mantix ship’s bridge. She pushed herself to her feet as the Orthopterax scuttled the short distance towards her. The mantix stalled as Macyruth’s weapon, caught within the bulkhead fronds, trapped her right posterior limb. The Orthopterax’ mandibles stretched wide as she hissed and spat at the entangled limb.

“...taken the necessary measures as requested...”

Macyruth pushed herself to her feet and ran around the mantix. The Orthopterax tugged at her limb, whipping her head back and forth as Macyruth darted from one blindside to the other.

“...have visual. Waiting on your command.”

Macyruth ducked under the Orthopterax’ flailing raptor, the apical claw snapped at the ensign’s ponytail. Macyruth gripped the nearest posterior limb, kicked her foot into the Orthopterax’s thorax and pulled. The Orthopterax hissed, wrenching her entangled limb free of the bulkhead fronds. The mantix’ momentum pushed Macyruth off balance. As she fell the ensign felt the mantix’ limb rip free in her hands. Macyruth lay on the floor with the limb on top of her.

“Redtail respond. Please respond.”

Macyruth felt dizzy as the air thickened around her. Pushing a breathing button into her mouth, Macyruth kicked her way along the floor, dragging the mantix’ limb behind her. Fronds dripping down from the bulkhead irritated her eyes as the ensign pushed against the bulkhead. The Orthopterax, mandibles crashing open and closed, spat at the young ensign as she advanced. Macyruth pulled the Orthopterax’s broken limb towards her body. She pushed the base of the limb against the bulkhead as the Orthopterax hissed forwards and launched herself at the young ensign.

“Redtail. We are initiating launch. Respond.”

Macyruth screamed.

“Respond.”

Macyruth gripped the limb in both hands as it penetrated the Orthopterax’ prothorax. The mantix slid down her own limb towards Macyruth. The young ensign screamed as the Orthopterax spat in her face and opened Macyruth’s cheeks with a slice of her mandibles. The hiss of the mantix died long before Macyruth stopped screaming.

“Incendiary away. May God be with you, Redtail.”

To be continued...

[aarluuk]

Fraternity of Ashes, Part VI

http://aarluuk.blogspot.com/

Macyruth clapped her hands over her ears as the proximity alarms of both vessels, mantix and human, wailed as the mercy missile launched from The Kestrel raced towards them. The ensign burst through the sawgrass fronds from the mantix bridge and into the corridor, her clothes spotted with blood like a rash. Halfway along the corridor, Macyruth saw the aperture that led back into The Redtail. The mantix ship bleeding air through the airlock and into the hold of the human ship. Sooq stood directly beneath, staring up at Macyruth as she appeared above him.

“Ms Macy? You are alright?”

“Sooq? Can you fly this ship? We need to break off and get the hell away from The Redtail.”

“Something approaches Ms Macy?”

“Yes. Era must have launched a distress buoy. But there’s no time for that. There’s a missile locked on to The Redtail. We have to leave now.”

“I can fly the ship if you can get me into it.”

“What?”

Sooq shrugged his empty sockets.

“Damn. Okay, we need a rope.” Macyruth looked around the corridor. “Engineering,” she said. “I am coming down.” Macyruth climbed down the first few rungs of the ladder before dropping into the hold. The combined wail of the sirens intensified.

“There’s no time Ms Macy.”

“But I can’t leave you here Sooq.”

“And I don’t wish you too. Let me crawl onto your shoulders and you can shove me through the aperture.” Macyruth stared at the rocman as Sooq walked over to the bottom rungs of the ladder. “As I begin to climb you just need to steady me. We will make it Ms Macy.”

Sooq climbed onto the bottom rung as Macyruth pushed at his rocky behind. As the rocman’s head entered the mantix ship Macyruth pushed with one hand, holding onto the ladder with the other. “Go Sooq.”

“My legs Ms Macy. Push them inside.”

Macyruth pushed the rocman into the corridor and scrambled into the mantix ship.

“How do we...?”

“Part the fronds on either side of the aperture, Ms Macy. There should be a lever, like a stick. Pull them in the opposite direction they are pointing.”

Macyruth pushed her hands into the fronds to the left and then the right of the aperture. “Nothing, Sooq. There’s nothing here.”

“Look again Ms Macy. You will find the closing mechanism. You just need to part the...”

Sooq pitched forwards onto the ensign as The Redtail reeled under the impact of the missile. The rocman continued through the aperture to land on the floor of the hold beneath the opening. The interior of The Redtail flickered into darkness at the same time as her alarms were silenced. The glow of the rocman’s single eyestone was all Macyruth could see of her crewmate.

“Sooq?”

Sooq looked up at the young ensign. “I am here Ms Macy.”

Macyruth paused to wipe hair out of her eyes. “We need to get you out of there.” Buckling metal twisted and wrenched at the connection between the two ships.

“No time,” Sooq closed his eye. “Close the hatch Ms Macy.”

“I can’t find the lever,” Macyruth screamed as The Redtail twisted again with a banshee shriek. The mantix siren intensified. Macyruth spun around the aperture as a second missile slammed into The Redtail. She collapsed through the gap, landing on top of the rocman. Sooq opened his eyes as the shudder of a third missile slammed into the mantix ship above them. Flames from the detonation flashed along the fronds faster than the expulsion of air could extinguish them. The little air that the rocman had captured within the sealed bulkheads of the tiny hold below the mantix ship fuelled the flames within the mantix ship.

“I am going to die in here Sooq.” Macyruth gripped the stony chest of the rocman. The flames above them reflected in the rocman’s eyestone, creeping down the walls.

“Yes, Ms Macy.”

“Will you die Sooq?”

“We all die, Ms Macy.”

“Yes, but the flames...”

“The flames won’t hurt me. That is correct.”

The young ensign wiped sweat from her eyes. “Sooq?”

“Yes, Ms Macy?”

“Don’t let me burn, Sooq.”

“No, Ms Macy.”

Macyruth closed her eyes as the rocman spilled her off his chest and onto the floor. Sooq pushed his head against the bulkhead and scuffled onto his knees. As the flames licked the back of his head the rocman sat with his knees astride the young ensign’s chest.

“Close your eyes Ms Macy.” Macyruth nodded shutting her eyes tight within the close confines of the hold. The rocman raised his head.

“This time I die, Sooq,” Macyruth whispered. “Promise me?”

“This time we both die, Ms Macy. I promise.” Sooq threw his head in a downwards arc as The Redtail split into four twisting pieces and the ashes of friend and foe alike merged within the dead of space.

The End.

Well, that's the end of a short story within an FTL inspired world. Back to playing the game itself, I guess.