Dear Journal,
What did I do to piss God or whoever off so badly?
So there I was sitting in my little shuttle as it zoomed through the empty void of space. It had a great view out the front window, and a convenient little view screen where I could see my starting location, ending coordinate, and current position. I was moving way too fast for my tastes. It was only going to take me about five minutes. I start talking when I get nervous, and the only one who was there was Dick, so I guess he’d have to do.
“So, once I get there, what do I do”? I could here him sigh over the loudspeaker.
“As I said before, kill everyone on board. It shouldn’t be hard for someone of your particular physiology.”
“But there are 75 of them!”
“That’s only how many the ship can hold, not the number necessary to crew it. There could be as few as 30.”
“That still sounds like a lot.”
“I didn’t want to tell you about this before you left, since I didn’t feel like arming you while you were right in front of me – just call it sentimental quirk of mine -, but if you look in the compartment to you left I believe you’ll find an old friend.”
I looked to the compartment he had indicated and opened it. “Aww yiss.” In the compartment was the alien lava sword I’d been given from enemy number seven of the pirate blue-giraffes right before Twinkle-Toes had decided to see how space felt without a spaceship. Next to it was one of those vests that Mama had been wearing. There wasn’t a gun like she’d had, though.
“In case you don’t know, that’s your fusion sword you had when your ship docked-” I don’t care what he called it, it was an alien lava sword, “and a military combat-harness mark 2. It’s equipped with one of the later models of personal shield generators this station has to offer. Pulse-guns-” nope, ray guns, “have to be genetically sequenced to their users, and while I was able to do that I didn’t think your particular fighting style would really utilize a gun all that much. Thankfully the combat-harness merely needs to be on you. Put it on and hit the large blue button at your left hip. That will activate the generator. The sword I did genetically bind to you. To turn it on press your thumb to the indentation you see in the middle of the hilt. Turn it off in the same way. Any other questions?”
“Yeah, what are these guys probably armed with?”
“They knew you were here, so I’d expect that after the initial shock of your attack wears off they’ll start grabbing anti-tank pulse-guns.”
“That sounds wonderful. Reminds me of a walk I had in a park once. Or maybe it was a slum in Chicago, I can’t quite recall. How many shots from an anti-tank ray gun could I survive?”
“Probably just one, and that’s only if you aren’t hit in a vital area.”
“Okay, how many shots can my shield take?”
“About the same.”
“Excellent. Any other good news you want to share with me?”
“I project your chances of success to be about one in five.”
“Aww, don’t lie to me Dick, you wouldn’t want me to become too overconfident.”
“You’re right. Lying is wrong. One in ten.”
“Ok you can stop now.”
“That’s good, because our communication will start to be noticed even by their paltry sensors if we keep talking much longer. For my sake, good luck.”
“Fuck you.”
“I’d rather not.” And with that final remark he cut off communications. Dang it, I had a bad but snappy comeback to that. It may or may not have included the words “your mom”. My anger evaporated when my communications lit up again, this time with a distinctly alien voice. I had no idea what they were saying, but it sounded similar to the way in which Shifty had talked, albeit in a slightly deeper, more threatening voice. Whoever was talking to me suddenly stopped, and the silence was just begging for a response. To bad Shifty on the floor wasn’t going to be much help.
I decided that the best course of action was to deal with this situation in the same way that humans in space had dealt with similar situations. In this particular case my mind went to the heroic actions of Han Solo. I pressed my thumb to the alien lava sword. Its edge burst into a red light – that unmanly giggle of delight did not come from me – and I stabbed the speaker the voice had come out of.
I guess that console, which was the only console in the small shuttle, held a few more things than just communications, because a whole lot of lights when out the moment I stabbed it. The sword worked like a light-saber though, and I was so happy with it that it took me a moment to see what else had happened. Thankfully I was in space and I had momentum so I wasn’t going to slow down. I just hoped the voice on the other side of the speaker could tell I’d just had a massive systems failure and would come pick me up, because I sure didn’t know how to do anything in this ship except push the red button and open the left hand compartment.
Apparently they could, because my ship lurched in a direction uncharacteristic of it’s previous vector, and a black ship significantly larger than the blue-giraffe’s cargo ship suddenly appeared above me. Holy shit it looked intimidating. It reminded me vaguely of the shape of a grub, except this grub would have had six arms at the bow, aft, and mid-ship, arrayed in a star-burst formation around the hull, each sprouting what was unmistakable some form of gun, although I hadn’t the slightest idea as to what kind of weaponry they would be sporting. Thankfully, none of the weapons were pointed at me, and my shuttle was being dragged by some invisible force into an opening in the ships belly.
All that I needed now was C3-PO to start shouting that we were all doomed because my main reactor was down or something. That’s what it felt like as my ship was swallowed by the lizard-ant death-grub (I have a way with adjectives I know). The bay door closed and the lights of the shuttle bay turned on. I remembered that the shuttle’s window was heavily tinted in case you looked at a sun, but I still swore and ducked beneath the console when the lights revealed a group of 20 or so lizard-ants running into the room, all wearing combat-harnesses, although they looked a little more battered up than mine, and ray guns that looked similar in size to the one Mama had used on me.
They apparently couldn’t see me though, because they passed my windshield, with me staring out of it, and even looked right at me, but still crowded around my door in relaxed poses, holding their guns to their sides. They obviously where here to expedite the massacre of everyone else on board the station. That thought got my blood boiling. They didn’t even look like they were bothered by the prospect! Several of them seemed to be laughing.
Their actions urged me to a charge, and I pushed against the door to begin the destruction in my righteous anger. It wouldn’t budge. “Now, wait, how does this open?” I looked around a while. I think it had closed on it’s own when I was in the cargo bay. Stupid Dick, he hadn’t told me how to open the door! Well, I had a light-saber. I stabbed the door and began making my own door. I heard panicked shouts from the other side. Oh right, they thought they were going to use this for a return journey. Holes don’t make for the most space-worthy of crafts. I had only finished half a side of my addition to the shuttle’s hull when the door was opened from the outside. Right, doors could do that too.
The door had been opened by a brutish lizard-ant, which is hard considering they already looked rather barbaric. He looked at me, looked at Shifty’s body on the floor, then back up at me. I don’t know if he was ever able to complete the thought, because the moment he looked at me for the second time I got over the shock of his rather unpleasant visage and launched myself at his face, lava sword sweeping in an arc parallel to the ground that culminated in a beheading. The shuttle bay erupted into chaos. Ten of the closest lizards apparently had gone to the pirate blue-giraffe school of close-quarters combat, and they thought it prudent to whip their guns and attempt to draw a bead on me rather than giving themselves room.
Three full armed swipes was all it required to pacify those who hadn’t backed up upon my arrival in the middle of the group. The remaining nine had taken cover and were now firing at me behind barriers. I was hit several times. Ow. Those shots hurt. Shaking it off I leapt for the nearest lizard-ant, hiding behind a large crate. Two more leaps put me on top of it, from where I sprang atop the unsuspecting lizard-ant from above, leading with the sword. I cleared the remaining targets in the bay in a similar manner, jump-flying about the cargo room in great 4 meter leaps. There was one smart guy who kept changing his position on me. When all his crew mates had been eliminated, he was still up and sprinting across the room away from me, firing over his shoulder with surprising accuracy while he talked at a device on his shoulder. Crap.
I had grown up in significantly greater gravity that this ship, though, and I had adrenaline. I sprang after him, not bothering to run but merely leapt, even using a wall at one point to extend my jump to an astounding 7 meters. I caught up to him in 4 seconds and jumped over him, landing in front of him and driving forward with the sword, which found its way into his gut. He made a gasping sound and raised his gun with his last strength. I did not want to be hit with that thing at this close range, so I desperately yanked the sword up, splitting him from his gut through his neck. One thing about this sword is that it cauterized the wounds, and I was blood-stain free even after going through 20 of lizard-ants.
“Heck, if all my encounters go like that I’ll be done with thing in no time.” Journal, let me give you a hint. If things seem to be going your way, never, under any circumstance talk about it out loud, and avoid thinking it if you can. The moment the words left my mouth the ship made a sound. It was the kind of sound that made one think about something extremely powerful turning on. Then an ominous hum began to emanate from the entire ship. I knew that sound. That was the sound the cargo ship made when it was traveling.
+Shit that’s the FTL drive!+
Why they started moving I’ll never know, but I still had a job to finish, so I couldn’t really worry about it right now. I moved into the next section of the ship. I only realized after the fact that I’d forgotten to turn on my person energy shield Dick had provided. Oops. Silly me.
Captain YecTal sat on his bridge, comfortable for the first time since this mission had started. UtMot had apparently been successful in his mission, seeing as how his shuttle was even now being stowed in his ship’s hold. He had to admit, his engineer’s had been right. This old ship was still suited to this kind of task. The Robalin may not be known for their ship’s weaponry, but when it came to bio-weapons and stealth they were some of the best.
“Shuttle is docked Captain,” reported BecMeq. He was new, and overenthusiastic, but he knew what he was doing. “Eraser team on are entering the cargo bay.”
“That will be fine, Ensign. There’s no need for me to know what order they are entering the shuttle.”
“Sorry sir.”
“Sir.” Commander VulHam’s voice issued from the bridge’s speakers. YecTal sighed. Couldn’t his crew do anything without his guiding them through every single step?
“Go ahead.” YecTal groaned.
“Our sensors were right. The shuttle seems to have gone through heavy systems failure before it reached us.”
“Any idea why?”
“None that I can tell sir. We’ll open it up and . . . hold on . . . what the fuck is he doing! We need to fly in that thing!”
“Excuse me commander, what’s happeni-” sudden screams and curses issued from the speakers.
“He just flew out of the shuttle”! “Take cover”! “Back up back u- oh shit”!
“What’s happening someone tell me what’s going on! Ensign, give me video feed of the cargo bay!”
“Video feeds went down when we got too close to that solar flair. The engineer’s haven’t fixed them in the cargo bay yet.”
“Well get me something I don’t care! Thermal imaging, UV anythi-” a voice that was doing something other than swearing or screaming leapt out of the speakers.
“It was that creature UtMot was supposed to be bringing in sedated! It’s up and it killed UtMot and now it’s killing everyone in the boarding party! It has a fucking Fusion Sword!” A tell-tale scream issued from the speakers. “He just took out WilHelm!” the voice shouted. “We keep hitting it and doesn’t die! It doesn’t even slow down! We’re just pissing it off, we need back u-” the transmission cut into static. The bridge was silent with fear. YecTal couldn’t allow it to show, although he himself was frightened. UtMot had said he knew the correct dose of sedative! Now he botched up and dropped demonspawn into his cargo bay!
Controlling his fear and anger, YecTal stood up, allowing his men to see him proud and tall. Calm. “We were prepared for this eventuality. Everyone get on your combat harnesses. Officers arm yourselves with the anti-tank pulse-guns. Flood every compartment of the ship with Yavim-8, I don’t care if it won’t do any good.” Thankfully every member of the crew had been given immunity to the deadly virus Yavim-8. UtMot had expounded in length upon the creatures incredible immune system, but every little bit would help. Besides, it couldn’t be completely impervious.
“Ensign, set a course out of this star system. I don’t want to be detected while we’re dealing with this mess. Once we’ve cleaned it up we’ll come back and deal with the crew still left on the station.”
“Where should I set it, sir”? Gosh darn it. Had he not said out of this star system?
“I don’t care!” YecTal roared. “Set it for the other side of the galaxy for all I care, we’ll be done with this in two hocs (5 minutes) anyway!”
Turning on his heal, YecTal, already in his advanced Mark V combat-harness with personal security-field and shield – a gift from his wife – plugged the anti-tank pulse-rifle he had set aside for himself. Adjusting the sheath of his ceremonial Fusion Scythe, although he might have to use it soon, he set to trying to clean up the mess UtMot had left for him.
The first corridor I entered outside the cargo bay was empty. That boded well for Dick’s theory that there might not necessarily be a full crew compliment. I sprinted towards what I was pretty sure was the bow of the ship when something that looked like steam started issuing from air vents in the ceiling. I couldn’t escape the colossal amount of it, but it didn’t seem to hurt me, so I just ignored it. It screwed with my visibility though. I suddenly wished I wasn’t carrying a glowing sword. I turned it off, running as quietly as I could. A noise up ahead made me pause and crouch, willing myself to become one with the steam. I suddenly wished I’d taken Yoga or something.
A group of 5 appeared out of the steam in front of me, but didn’t shout in alarm the moment they rounded the corner. They couldn’t see me! Yet. One of them had a significantly larger ray gun, to the point that it had to be supported by a shoulder strap rather than have him lifting it only with his arms like the other in the group were doing with their smaller counterparts. Not wanting to lose my advantage, I leapt at the one with the big gun, turning on my lava sword and bellowing as I flew through the air. I landed 50 centimeters in front of him and laid about me with my sword like a infant given a wooden spoon whilst playing with his siblings. In case you were an only child, I basically just whacked everyone over the head with it, but when you’re using a lava sword instead of a spoon, it’s rather effective.
The small group never stood a chance, as they were too close together and too unaware of my pretense to be of any real danger. The problem arose when another group heard the commotion and entered the fray before I’d finished up with the first group. I was finishing up with the only remaining member of the first group when he was liquified and a massive energy pulse shot through him and took me in the waist. At least, it would have had I not been wearing the lovely personal shield Dick had given me. I wasn’t wearing it for long. He had been right about it’s capacity, the thing shorted out after one hit, at least I think that’s what the smoke and sparks meant. It didn’t matter though, they had kept me from getting hit by one pulse, and that was all I needed.
I jump-flew in a zig-zag patter, avoiding the shots they threw at me. They were so slow, they always seemed to be shooting at where I had been a second ago. I felt like a movie action hero but in real life. Once again I went for the one with the anti-tank ray gun first, then finished off the auxiliaries. They kept making these convenient little clumps for me, all I had to do was swipe around with the lava sword a few times and I had nearly gotten everyone one way or another.
The next hallway had another group of five which I finished off in the same way, except for one little guy armed only with a pistol – poor bloke – who broke away from the main group, which earned him a quick sprint and the failure of one of the doors in the hallway that he tried to use as a barrier. I don’t know what they make spaceship door hinges out of, but they need to find a better alternative.
The next room was a common lounge like the one in the cargo ship, except it was significantly larger and had a group of 10 ant-lizards spread out in a semi-circle around the door I’d just come through, all waiting for me, their guns pointed straight at my chest. Dang, this one was going to require a lot of jumping.
The search and destroy parties had been an absolute failure, and YecTal had lost 15 good men because of his foolishness. He’d basically split his men into serving sizes! Now his men were fighting a defensive battle, digging into strategic fighting ground or choke points.
“I can hear it in the hall outside.” PitRuk, YecTal’s tactical officer, said over the bridge’s speakers. “What was that? Did you hear that sound? Did he just rip a door off it’s hinges or something”? Normally that would be a joke. It wasn’t funny this time. The sound of the door opening could be faintly heard, accompanied by PitRuk’s shout.
“Open fire! Shit, someone draw a bead on him! Fuck, hold still! Friendly fire friendly fire watch you’re aiming! Don’t aim at where he was you idiots! Ha! Take that yo- crap he’s still up! Someone take him down take hi-” PitRuk’s yell was cut off mid-word. His radio continued transmitting, but other than a few shots and a quickly stifled yell, there wasn’t much more to hear.
The remaining bridge crew had all turned a garish shade of grey, even though their skin was green. YecTal hoped he didn’t look the same. Making his voice as confident as possible, he shouted for no other reason than to snap the bridge out of its collective trance. “Well? What are you all staring at? It’s coming from the starboard side of the ship! We know which door he’s coming through.” The bridge had four doors, two leading to opposite sides of the ship, the other two leading to the halls where you could access the escape pods. It spoke of the valor of this crew that none of them even glanced at either of those two doors. “Find your cover and prepare to deal with this abomination which thinks it can cross a Robalin crew and live to talk about it!”
As the bridge crew began setting itself up, YecTal surreptitiously began entering his command code into his captains wrist-console, readying the automated self-destruct, setting it to the voice activation setting of the shortest countdown available: one hoc (2 minutes 30 seconds). If this creature was going to kill him, which seemed likely, the least he could do would be to drag it down with him.
After the common lounge I hit the engine room, at least that’s what I assumed. A massive glowing tube stood in the center of the room, making the sound that eminated through the ship as it propelled it in speeds defying rational thought. There were also a total of 15 lizard-ants arrayed around the room, all too far apart to score a multikill on any of them. The moment I entered the room they opened fire, and I did the exact same thing I’d done in the last room. I did my best impression of a Mexican jumping bean. I actually don’t know what those look like, or what they even are, but the words form a picture of little kidney bean wearing a sombrero bouncing around like an entire bag of unpopped popcorn contained in one bean, and I figured that’s pretty much what I looked like, minus the sombrero.
I was actually getting really tired, but I jumped my little heart out. The number of pulses coming my way was ridiculous, and I had to be careful I didn’t jump into any. As it was I was hit multiple times by smaller pulses, but I was mainly just avoiding the big ones. There seemed to be three lizard-ants with anti-tank ray guns, and they were the first I went for. Flying past one I scored a slice across his face. Leaping down to another I bore him to the ground as the lava sword stabbed down through the crown of his head. The last guy was on the other side of the room, so I decided to take a roundabout way of getting to him. Wrong move. Halfway through my first leap one of his shots hit me. Well, half hit me, but it was enough to drive my breath away and fling me off course. I hit a wall of consoles and fell to the ground.
I rolled – see there’s that move again – and the wall behind me was obliterated in a shower of sparks and debris as it was assaulted by 12 heavy ray guns and an anti-tank ray gun. I sprang to my feet and made a jagged bee-line for Tanko-the-crazy-demolition-lizard. He missed on his next few shots, and his failure to score a successful hit on his fourth shot lost him the privilege of taking a fifth. And to keep his life. After Tanko it was relatively simple to get through the rest. I think I was so bruised that I wasn’t even noticing the heavy-pulses anymore, although if I lived this, which was looking more and more likely, I was going to wake up in some serious pain the next morning. Thankfully my abuse of alcohol had made me very accustomed to pain in the morning.
Once I was finished with engineering I looked around. The FTL drive had stopped humming. I guess shooting out all the consoles in engineering affected it or something asinine like that. Whatever it had been, we weren’t moving again any time soon. Counting up in my head I figured out how many I’d gone through so far. 60. Dick you lying little whore!
Letting my rage fuel my flagging limbs, I set off to the last pair of doors ahead which I hoped would be the last room.
In a desperate ploy YecTal had ordered the bridge door’s sealed. He had felt a moment of hope until a Fusion Blade suddenly appeared through the door and began melting it down. Oh. right. The thing had a Fusion Blade, because that’s all YecTal needed. It seemed life heard how disgruntled he was with it and suddenly decided to throw him a bone. The Fusion Blade shorted.
+That’s why they aren’t supposed to be used to cut through bulkheads+ YecTal thought smugly. Then the door shook in its frame and a massive dent appeared in the door.
+Are you fucking kidding me!+ he shouted in his mind, but outwardly he set his jaw and waited for the door to buckle. It didn’t take long. One of the storage crates kept in engineering suddenly burst through the door. It looked like the thing had used it as a battering ram, which wasn’t an encouraging thought since those crates were extremely heavy. The crate flew into the room and fell on YecTal’s chief science officer who had been crouching too close to the doorway. The creature flew into the room a second later. It literally flew, soaring in a dive and tackling a hapless lieutenant.
The bridge crew opened fire, but it was just as PitRuk’s one sided shouting match had indicated, the thing was too fast. It would jump to one officer, crush his neck, steal his gun, and then throw the gun at it’s next victim. The throws were insanely powerful, and YecTal watched in amazement as it’s throws were shown to be just as deadly as it was, which didn’t help as most of the projectiles hit him. His personal security field, able to block solid objects, was overwhelmed after two hits. Soon YecTal, bloodied and firing with only one arm, the other two broken, and Ensign BecMeq were the only two alive. The Ensign didn’t fare any better than his crew mates, but to his credit he continued firing until the end. He did offer one thing to YecTal that the others hadn’t, however. An opportunity. The creature was slowing down. Ha! It had taken on 67 Robalin warriors alone with just a Fusion Blade and it was tired! Apparently 68 was one too many. Killing BecMeq, it stood still a moment longer than it should have and YecTal finally found his aim.
He pulled the trigger and the anti-tank pulse-gun responded with a massive kinetic pulse which took the creature full in the gut, flinging it across the room where it slammed against the wall and slid down to the floor behind the helm’s console. YecTal could see the bridge was in flames due to the multitude of sparks coming from broken displays broken by pulses which only seemed to miss, but he would deal with those later. YecTal walked around the console, limping after being hit by several of his crew mates pulse-guns, to where he could see the creature gasping for breath as it lay on the floor.
+Good heavens. It’s still alive+
He wasn’t one to gloat, and aimed his gun at the creatures head to finish the job. He let his gun get a little too close. The creature, suddenly alive again, though YecTal couldn’t explain how, yanked his gun from his arm, snapped it in two and threw the pieces at him. YecTal grunted as he forced one of his already broken arms to take the brunt of the impacts, which hurt like hell, and knocked him from his feet. He scrambled to his feet as quickly as he could, seeing the monster charging him. YecTal drew the curved blade of his Fusion Scythe and swung it at the creature. It dropped to the ground, the sword whistling over its head. It kicked him from it’s lying position, sending it’s foot up into his midriff and flinging him across the room in the same way the anti-tank pulse had to the creature.
As he flew through the air, YecTal’s mind, sharp despite the pain, knew he had lost. Before he crashed into the wall and unconsciousness, he managed one word: “Activate.” The computer registered it’s Captains final order.
I took too long taking out the second to last lizard-ant remaining on the bridge. For my pains I received an anti-tank round straight to the stomach. It picked me up and flung me 6 meters where my flight was abruptly halted by a wall. Ow. Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow OW! It kind of hurt, but I shook it off. Really I was fine, it was nothing, it just felt like it’d put a fucking hole in my gut. Thankfully I had fallen behind a console and Captain ‘Roids had to walk around it in order to get to me. I was happy to see he was limping. The guy was tough, I’d give him that. Most of his fellows had buckled after getting hit in the chest with one of the their friends guns that I had thrown, but this guy had taken 4 and was still up. Then he stuck the gun in my face. Rookie Mistake. Sensing that the battle wasn’t over yet, my adrenaline surged once again. Whew, that felt good.
Grabbing his gun I broke it and threw the pieces at him. That knocked him down and I rolled back to give myself some breathing room. When I finally got to my feet and the world stopped spinning – maybe I should start rolling less – I could see ‘Roids standing up. I charged. He pulled a Lava Scimitar from a sheath on his back and swung it at me. Dang I wish I had my sword still, we could have had a light-saber battle. He was too slow though, which is why I was able to dodge his very well timed strike by dropping to the ground. I didn’t think I’d have enough time to get up, so I kicked him from my position on the ground. It was significantly more effective than I thought it would have been, flinging him across the room. Heck, maybe I should have been kicking guys all this time.
As he flew through the air he croaked out an unintelligible word. I guess the computer understood him, because red lights started flashing all over the place and a bunch of symbols appeared on every display that wasn’t leaking sparks. It was similar enough to the few science fiction movies I’d seen that I didn’t stop to question what it was. Self-Destruct sequence.
+Shit!+ I had to find a way off the ship, and fast. I grabbed Roids’ Lava Scimitar – I doubted he would be needing it anymore – and ran to one of the doors that I didn’t know where they led. You could call it coincidence. Or maybe it made sense, since I hadn’t seen any escape pods during my entire time here, but when I went through that door I entered a long hall that ran the entire length of the ship, and on the right wall was the entrance to escape pod after escape pod, at least I assumed that’s what they were as each was like a little cockpit with two oddly shaped seats. I clambered into the nearest one and looked for anything I recognized.
My eyes found the red button. I knew what to do with that. I had just placed my finger on the button when a bellow sounded behind me and ‘Roids, all lively once again, flung himself into my pod and started hitting me with a flurry of kicks and punches, even from his fractured arms. He hit my elbow and my finger jammed into the button. The pod was ejected in a quarter of a second of pressing the button and we were shooting through the stars away from the ship in another quarter second. As he fought me, my respect for him grew, but at the same time I pitied him. He was even more hopelessly outmatched than if he’d been carrying a ray pistol. Still, I wasn’t going to humiliate him, and I reached up past his furious but weak blows and snapped his neck. Now I had the problem of limited space and a dead Ant-Lizard. Great.
You know, they don’t make escape pods with comfort in mind. Or engines. I could just float. Waiting. Without water. Or food. At least I had life-support. Yeah. I was getting pretty thirsty by day two. I passed out after that. I really need to stop doing that. I miss a lot when that happens.
“Soldier Manthlel! Get up! you have a new bunkmate.” Manthlel groaned. Why did squad leader Trxcl seem to try and find any excuse to wake him up? He hadn’t meant to spill the bleta broth all over the commander’s favorite book, really. Ok, maybe he hadn’t tried all that hard to stop it, but it wasn’t something he’d purposely planned out and maliciously executed. But Trxcl actually seemed to hate Manthlel for it. After all, a new bunkmate was hardly something worth waking him up over.
Manthlel changed his mind when he saw his Bunkmate. He was the strangest, smallest creature he had ever seen, although he’d heard the Corti and a few other species were shorter. Never seen them for himself. Pink skin, brown hair, short but . . . dense, and thin. It didn’t look too healthy. “May I inquire as to what it is Sir?” Manthlel said carefully. He wasn’t supposed to ask questions but Trxcl wasn’t that strict, just a jerk.
“I wish I knew myself. We scrapped it out of an escape pod about a ric (30 minutes) ago. Medic says he’s never seen the like before, but it’s not like he actually has a medical scanner. We found a Fusion Scythe and a dead Robalin in the pod with him. The Robalin was wearing the insignia of a ship Captain from the Robalix war. We don’t know if this thing is a criminal or a patriot, but at this point it seems like command is so desperate for men they’ll take either. It didn’t have any identification, or even a translator, but it can obviously fight, so they told me to find a room for it and unless it’s an idiot it can be used for cannon fodder. I told them I’d take it and thought you’d be the best to look after him.” Trxcl smiled. “He’s your responsibility now.”
“What if he attacks me!” protested Manthlel. “We don’t know anything about him! What if he’s a psychopath?!”
“You think he’s too much to handle? For you? A hardened Dominion soldier? Please. I don’t want to hear about this again.”
“Yes sir.” Manthlel intoned with an inward groan.
“Good.” Trxcl turned on a heel, shaking his head as he retreated. “Poor thing. Doesn’t even know it was just drafted into the army.”