Chapter Thirteen

"Gah-ack-ack-ack!" Smoke was everywhere: in her lungs, tainting her fur, infesting the very ship she once called her prison cell. The black, hot miasma hanging in her face was suffocating the life out of her. No matter how she coughed or gagged, despite her efforts to stop the flames from ravaging the internal systems and mainframe, she knew that if she stayed behind to fix even another part of their ship...

I'm done fer!

"A-TAT-ATA-!" As her brothers had already stripped her clean of her armour and clothing, she had to hop and skip through the labyrinth of the superheated metal searing her bare paws, and unlike them, she didn't have any sort of the augments to manage the pain. They're all metal and shit, and they leave ME in here, the naked fleshy git, to clean up da mess! They didn't even bother to give me back my clothes after they were done with me, the pricks! I swear on da Great Mother, I'll rip 'em a new one in their FACKIN' SLEEP!

She followed the soft breeze at her feet to what she HOPED would be her escape, but her nerves were only getting worse the less she could feel it. Regardless, it was a welcome contrast to the sensation of the sensitive pads on the bottom of her paws being toasted into well-done leather. "Tututut!" Her skipping and rapid tip-toeing carrying her as best as she could, it wasn't long before she found herself bouncing back and forth near the entrance of the workshop... or what was left of it.

Through long, thin eyelashes batting away the thickest of the blazed fumes, she managed to find the button that would hopefully open the crushed doors just enough that she could squeeze through. She coughed violently as she leaned down as best as she could to cover her face from the overwhelming heat. Don't seem like it'll be much betta from da other side! I really shoulda remembered to kill off da rest of da barrels...

Soon, she would taste the stench of the fruits of her laziness. With an agonizing screech of metal that tortured her scrappy, chewed-up ears, the doors used the last bit of life they had to open up just enough that her barren form could slip on through when she so desired. But before she did, the female looked on in, completely aghast with the state of her ship.

She couldn't deny that view of the expansive alien sea was a pleasant sight. The flames caking the sides of her workshop and spires of flame-spewing forth from shoddy coolant pipes didn't manage to sour her mood concerning THAT. But the situation still bothered her. Because simply put, she shouldn't have been able to see ANYTHING outside of her ship. The fact that she had such a pristine view was anything BUT good news concerning the condition of the scrap heap her brothers called a ship. She's ripped ta shit!

Gulping nervously and coughing into her arm, the she-rat hesitantly continued to watch as the only respite, the only escape that she had from the torment of her brothers, quite literally melted before her very eyes. Her race wasn't a sentimental bunch, as in it took a lot to rattle them deeply. You had to be that way if you had to literally claw and scrap away the competition that was holding you back from escaping whatever horrid hive world you were born on. Cruelty was quite literally among the first things taught after being plopped out of her Den Mother. That, and being taught about the possibility of that same cruelty being inflicted on you.

But in that one room, where it was just her, herself, and no one else... That large expansive garage filled to the brim with little passion projects, arts and crafts of junk welded in all the right ways was where she found some small measure of peace. A momentary respite from the... assault and anger her brothers and the damnable galaxy ceaselessly inflicted upon her.

And just like most of her ship, that too would soon be all engulfed in flames. She couldn't even see the top of the truck that she was so excited to see finished anymore. "It's all gone..." Her eyes felt oddly heavy, something that took her by surprise as she allowed a small break from the vision of her 'heaven' of sorts being rendered into molten chunks of metal so thoroughly. Her chest felt tight, but as she was now near the floor, escaping the heat if only a little, she knew that it wasn't the smoke. But something... else.

What it was, she wasn't sure. And considering how every passing second, a piece of her 'home' was falling apart, she didn't have the time to think about it.

With a small sniff and a shake of the head, she brought back her will and continued to examine the infernal scene awaiting her. If the hallways leading her to the garage were a brief glimpse into a fiery hell she heard so many other species curse her to, then the sight she saw now was a wide-open suite window.

Spires of flame were spewing out from the oil and coolant pipes that barely kept their ship functioning. Unfinished weaponry and explosives meant to further their ambition for power discharged and exploded in the firey pool below, causing belches of energy and near-magma to jump and lick the walls.

All in all... not the most hopeful sight she wanted to see, and definitely not one that gave her a sense that escape was in her grasp. How she wanted to throw her hands up and have that be that. But instincts compelled her to hop with her ratty tail tucked between her curved legs when a nearby pipe belched out a miniature inferno. "EEP!"

The situation was getting worse and worse. By now, even the visibility was slowly engulfed by the smoke hanging in the air. No matter how brightly the flames burned the she-rat's eyes, she had to steel herself one last time. Dunking down to get in one last fresh breath of air, her cheeks puffed out as she looked back through the door. Dere's gotta be SOMETHIN' in dere!

Thankfully, and much to her relief, her one and only salvation was still intact. Or at least it looked that way. Standing on her toes, swaying back on forth for relief, her eyes shot open in disbelief and triumph. W-wha?! How in da fuck is dat thing still standin'?! Down the stairs leading down into the main bulk of the ship, relatively untouched by the carnage around and above her, was a single scaffolding route standing relatively strong against the inferno at its base. The railing that could've made it minorly better had long since disappeared, no doubt either melting at the hinges or being bent and knocked down to join their metallic brethren in the hot melting inferno below.

To the sane, intelligent, and unworried, there would only be one conclusion they would come to: DON'T WALK ACROSS. And for a second, she had the common sense to come to that same conclusion. Turning on her heel, she turned around with one last forlorn glance at her makeshift sanctuary crumbling to rust and flame.

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But fate would not allow her to heed the more logical side of her consciousness. With a mighty crash, the roof behind her caved in, all but sealing her where she stood. She could only stare at the molten mass with distaste, spitting in its general direction before turning back with a slow whimper and groan. She was able to loop her dull claws through the little chin hairs that popped out of her faint tan fur. Well, I guess dere ain't no other way NOW!

Unlike her brothers, as she was both female and untouched by the misshapen and botched surgeries that granted them their extra strength, her features were much slimmer than her putrid brethren. The human had thought her to be quite the same underneath the armour in terms of appearance standards. But it was quite the opposite. She was more like a timid, slim mouse appearance-wise in contrast to her brother's bloated muscles and their rat-like physiques and, thus, infinitesimal more pleasant to look at. What a fockin mess dis all is...

She bent over at a ninety-degree angle, her tail sticking up straight and her soft nose twitching as she experimented quickly with the door. Her claw, or more like a finger at this point as her brothers had made sure she wouldn't be anything without the weapons they hoard, tentatively stretched it out. Immediately her eyes shot open, and her body instinctually launched backwards as the soft padding on the tip of her finger sizzled at the touch. "YEOOOW!"

She landed back down in a hurry, and she looked back to herself after frowning at the pipe. Licking her finger tenderly, she sucked on the sensitive digit. "Fuckin' 'ell, dat's HOT! How in da world am I goin' to squeeze through-? Wait... What's dat smell?" Her soft nose sniffed the air and attempted to bypass the smog around her, which she did manage to do. But how she wished she didn't. Her eyes exploded open in fright as an odd pinprick feeling attracted her attention to the tip of her tail. Is something burin'? OH, it's me focking tail! "Oioioioi!"

She spun around like a dog with a ribbon on its tail as she desperately tried looping herself tightly to snuff out the tip of her flailing tail. But the thing seemed to have a mind of its own, and just as her trimmed claws were about to grab onto it, she could only whelp in growing fear and slight pain as it flicked out of the way of her grasp. What a damn day! First, my brothers decide to get all fackin' randy again, which then a fockin nuke goes off and destroys all me shit, AND NOW I'm on FOCKIN' FIRE!

In her desperate attempt to snuff out the flame, as well as keeping her feet as relatively unburnt as she could, she didn't notice as a divet in the hot floor appeared. The pieces where she once treads on were beginning to lose their structural integrity. Thankfully, though they descended into the floors below, it was only small enough for her foot to snag itself on. "FFFWWWHOOOP!"

If the circumstances weren't so dire, it would've been almost comical how she fell through the little gap in the door. Almost like it was oiled up --which it may very well have been considering the disrepair the entirety of the makeshift ship was in-- she slipped right through the ajar, heated metal doors with ease. "H-HUH?! Oh, S-!"

It was the last thing she expected. She simply had no clue how she managed such a feat, but it did help her on her way, so she was unable to complain... there. If the little hallway she was just in was starting to get muggy with the heat and smoke combing, then as she rolled down the widespread stairs that led into the once massive open space, her new location was all but suffocating.

Of course, that was not something she was worried about. Damn, damn! I gotta stop dis rollin'! Fuckin' 'ell, HOW CLOSE AM I? As if she had any choice in the matter, the she-rat just kept on rolling downwards... right towards the flames. Now, if this were any other day, she could at least breathe slightly easier knowing there were SOME form of guard railings waiting to block her tumble into the fiery demise waiting below.

"TSK!" But the universe was a cruel place, and her current circumstances even worse. Though her wide open, near-black eyes blurred from the pain of her ribs being bruised as they were, as well as portions of her thin furry hide being stung from wayward cinders, she could still clearly see where she needed to see. And what she needed wasn't there.

Either melted at the base or knocked over by debris, the she-rat gasped in fear as the revelation that her saving grace was now long gone. Distracted only for a moment due to her ribs getting to know the stairs very personally, her mind flipped into survival mode. Gotta stop dis rollin'!

Her arms and legs struggled to find a spot where her naturally curved limbs would find their grip, but alas, her velocity had increased beyond a point of no return. She held no hope for the formerly rough texture to be her saving grace either; the grimy, dirty stairs had lost all their traction thanks to the heat around her reaching such a point that the dirty specks were all but ingrained into the baking metal.

With not a single thing to slow her descent down, she had no choice but to keep on tumbling and jumbling down the stairs that both threatened her ribs and seared her fur. Her face was slowly peeling back into an expression of deep dismay as she kept going down the staircase, which seemed to be unending in its torment. From brief snippets of sight, she saw that the flaming pit below was only getting closer, and the sound it made was enough to strike terror in the deepest corner of her heart.

The churning colours of black, red, and orange danced on what little remained of the shattered hull, dancing with all the fervour of demons awaiting a new plaything. And the roar of expired oil bursting within its canisters, joining in the pandemonium that was the white-hot center of the inferno below, was like hearing what could only be described as a devil cheering in jubilation.

And in but a few moments, she would be at its complete mercy.

Or lack thereof.

"S-SHIIIT!" Momentum carrying her forward, faster than she had any right going, the stairs ended abruptly and there she went tumbling across the flat ramparts looming over. Normally a flat plateau where you could lean over the shoddy railings and look down on whatever was being done in the space below, or walk towards the ladder in between said railings, now the peaceful place served only as a slope that sent her spiralling towards her doom.

Sliding along on the 'polished' metal floor, she winced as her bare stomach was now warmed by the friction of flesh sliding on metal as well as the heat infecting it. Her claws, trimmed by her brothers, were all but useless as she tried slowing her roll using her species naturally long claws. But the fleshy stubs only wore themselves down. She couldn't get her paws underneath her to push against the momentum, her bare toes squeaking and slipping on the metal below. Oh nah, nah, NAH! "Gaaaaah!"

Slipping right over the edge, she disappeared from sight, limbs flailing desperately as if she would suddenly grow some wings. But she would have no luck. Not even a second later, and already she could feel the flaming fingers of the flames below stretching out to claim one last victim before the ship collapsed underneath the heat. N-no! Please, not like dis! '"OoooooOOOOOOOOHHHHH!"

Throwing logic to the wind, her arms went to cover her face as if simply covering her eyes would make her damnation go away. The spires of flames were just tickling her face, but with every passing nanosecond, it was becoming more unbearable. No thanks to this peculiar sensation that time was almost slowing down for her, she screamed out in a mixture of defiance, fear, and anger. With how the tips of her fur were already set ablaze beforehand, there was nothing more haunting than the sensation of her fine hairs becoming bleak dust in the roaring winds pushing past her face.

But oddly enough, there was something... fitting about this, at least to her broken mind. Her heart was pounding, but while she was screaming in growing pain, the split second of her fall extending out into eternity, her mind was strangely calm. Well, shit. Outta all da damn ways, uh? But shit, it could've been worse with my damn brothers 'n all. Besides... Least I get to die her', huh?

Her legs kicked out one last time, nothing more than an animalistic thrashing attempting to spare at least one limb from the inferno below. But in the end, her body knew it was futile.

And so, as she limped out and time resumed, she only closed her eyes... and fell.

And the only thing she could hear, right before she swore the flames engulfed her in her entirety, was the distant sound of a tense metal wire not so far away. Should that have unbothered her? Yes, indeed. Considering how the roaring flames deafened her and ate her fur, the sharp sound of a tensile wire snapping far away was very much the least of her worries.

But the fact that, right before she got past the prying fingertips of the clawing flames, she could hear it not only cut the air from how violent its separation from whatever it was holding was... but that it was also getting closer to her?

That was the thing that made her open her eyes. And just in time too. Is it..?

Her eyes shot open in a mixture of shock and disbelief, and suddenly her body curled up into a ball on its own, almost like it knew what to do that her mind didn't. Acting on their own, her core tensed tighter than ever before, her hands shot out... and squeezed as tightly as they could.

"Woah, woah, hey, hey, Oi, oi, oi, OIOIOIOIOI-OOF!"