The team had all retreated back to the hold which was now clear of prisoners. Evie plinked a finger against the event horizon of the portal and scoffed.

“This is shit. We’re a step away from home,” complained Sam.

“Nothing we can do,” grunted Raoul stoically.

Bob had spent the last few hours stripmining the Hagrutship for materials and devices. He had become intolerable. All he would talk about was improved schematics and increasing the effectiveness of the fleet he was building above Earth and on the moon.

“The humans started the rebellion and the rest of the passengers got dragged in when the Shrell panicked. What does that tell you?” asked Flash.

“Rebellion results in collective punishment. It was merely unfortunate that there were no higher levelled passengers to maintain order. The Shrell are strangely ineffective when it comes to combat," said Felicity.

“Combat. Even their abilities all sound like manual or tech workers. The only reason they lasted as long as they did was because they were largely immune to casters. We would not have a similar problem on the Kipragtsek,” Felix added. Felicity shot him a scandalised look. “Not that we would!” he added hurriedly.

“The mission isn’t complete. There are a handful of Shrell left in the engineering sections. We need to get rid of them. Move them I meant! They won’t let me go over the systems in there!” said a passing drone carrying half a ton of bronze looking metal it had pulled from the corridor's walls.

“Don’t go messing with those machines Bob! How long are we going to be stuck here until another ship comes by to pick us up? Weeks? Months? We need the life support systems.” Vic’s voice brooked no argument and while the drone paused for a moment it gave a spidery shrug then scuttled off on six legs.

“Nah, we’d be fine on our own.”

“I’d rather have a bloody spaceship around us,” muttered Reg.

“What’s Zeeg up to?” asked Evie.

***

“So you wish to die?” asked the giant lurcher, from where she was sitting opposite the Captain.

“I am an outcast. You do not understand what that means?” it replied.

“I do not. Please elaborate?” she said gently. Zeeg was fiercely loyal and protective of her team and packs but found it difficult to empathise with beings outside of that circle.

“You don’t want to know,” the Captain bubbled. “Let us just say that I am now fair game to every being in the universe. I had it all,” it deflated with a farting noise and its tentacles curled up. It looked like it was giving itself a many-limbed hug.

“Why not return to Earth? Someone with your knowledge and experience would be highly valued.” Zeeg was confused by the nihilistic apathy the creature was exhibiting.

“I will not leave my ship.”

“Why were we ordered to sterilise it? Why not rescue the crew?”

“The Alliance takes a harsh view on mutiny. If you allow one to happen you are treated the same way as the rebels,” it said sadly.

“How is that motivation? How often does this kind of thing happen?”

“It never happens! I am the first in ten thousand years to lose control of a voidliner! It is motivation,” the Captain continued in an icy voice, “because if you don’t immediately contain the rebels you are dead as well. Outcasts never live for long.”

“They don’t lose access to the system?” Zeeg queried.

“Of course not. Once you start gaining Essence it cannot be taken back. Sometimes savage worlds go rogue. I’ve sent many teams on missions to eradicate them. The only way to take back the system is to kill the species.”

“Noted. How did your rebellion take place?” Her voice was even and steady but the Captain became agitated, violently twitching with limbs thrashing around. Zeeg was keeping herself intangible so the occasional flailing arm that passed through her wasn’t an issue.

“Your species-” it snarled, “-refused an order. Life support was deactivated but they escaped their hold and went on a rampage. They released the other species! They kept yelling something about Spardatus.” Zeeg gave a half bark, half laugh. “You mock me?” demanded the Captain, drawing itself back up to its full height.

“No. They were making a joke with what they yelled. What was their mission?” Zeeg cocked her head to one side and focussed on the twitching squid-thing.

“They were to go and serve as a second wave trial for a newly assimilated world.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“They were mostly over level thirty, what kind of species would it be fair to send them against?”

“Oh, it scales on a number of factors. Levels aren’t the be all and end all, savage,” grumped the Captain. Zeeg carefully ignored the insult but she was filing them all away in her mind. She found herself content with this being's fate.

“I am a canine, not a savage,” she replied mildly. “What will you do now?”

“I’ll deal with it myself!” with a manic bubbling sound it rushed over to a panel and began tapping at screens. Zeeg felt her hackles rise. The alien was insane. How an entire species could be kept caged on these ships, with no grass or skies, for generations and convinced they were blessed escaped her but she had seen fanatics in the past. People who kept cats came to the top of her mind in that category.

If this Shrell was like a cat owner the creature should be treated with extreme caution. And disdain but in the current circumstances caution felt more appropriate.

“The engineers are countering me. Savage, go kill them!” barked the Captain as it moved to a new set of screens and began poking at them with multiple tentacles.

“Countering you?” Zeeg asked.

“Opposing my commands. Shorting the logic loops to trigger the final defense. They are without honour! Kill them, now you filthy beast!”

Definitely a cat person. Zeeg considered her options for a moment.

Zeeg! Kill the Captain now! It’s trying to blow the fucking ship! Bob sent via her implant. She leapt forward, phasing back into the physical world and snatched the beast around what passed for its neck. With a savage shake, which she made as savage as possible, she flicked the creature across the room where it smacked into the wall with a wet splashing noise. It slid down the wall as its limbs organised themselves underneath the main body and then drew itself back to its “feet”, turning to narrow its coal black eyes at the dog.

“So now you want to kill me?” it hissed.

“You were trying to kill us all. I’ve heard that over short distances bipeds can outrun a quadruped. They have less limbs to organise before they can get up to speed.” Zeeg grinned, two inch fangs gleaming in the lights reflecting off the polished walls. “I suspect I have the advantage here.”

She blurred forward and slammed the Captain back against the wall. Tentacles squirmed out and wrapped around her torso, starting to constrict. She phased out, the tightening bonds snapping through her body to smack against themselves.

With its main limbs tangled after her escape she re-entered the physical universe and did something she generally considered to be beneath her. She had seen the Dragon fight. Its body transforming into an amorphous thing, every inch of its flesh capable of becoming a weapon at a thought. Zeeg found the idea distasteful but in the current circumstances, due to the level difference it seemed better to swallow her pride. Among other things.

She dissolved into a series of flashing jaws that shot forward on columns of flesh to rip and tear at the Captain. Grey blood sprayed as tentacles were ripped away and flesh gashed open. The bulk of her body dragged itself along, using the clinging mouths to heave forwards and envelop the body of the Captain.

A blur of violence followed. Tentacles would slip out and lash at the ever shifting dog, most of the time landing in a spawned mouth lined with fangs. A few landed, knocking bits of the dog away but the blows were never enough to break off a part of the shapeshifter and deal real damage.

Less than ten seconds later the Captain was a bloody rag of a creature, dripping grey where the many maws gripped it, shoving it against the wall. Zeeg’s normal head grew out of the back of the thing the rest of her body had become and she sniffed at the Captain's face. A tongue slid out and swiped up its right cheek, leaving a line cleared of the grey goo that passed for blood in a Shrell.

She coughed, spat out the aliens blood, and her multivariate form contracted. There was a popping noise and grey liquid poured out of the bottom of the tangle the two fighters had made of themselves. With heavy breaths she gradually returned to her normal form, shaking vigorously before briefly turning incorporeal to let the rest of the muck fall away from her fur.

Team report:

1 Outcast Shrell Captain killed. Essence per kill: 17167680177564

Essence gained per team member: 17167680177564

Teamchat:

Traveller: Holy shit.

Stormwitch: Now that’s what I’m talking about! Good girl!

BestDoggo: Bob asked me to end the Captain. It was attempting to destroy the ship.

NumberOneDorisDayFan: Good girl. I’m sending a drone up to harvest the body.

Felix: Have you no respect?

NumberOneDorisDayFan: Waste not want not.

BestDoggo: There isn’t much left. I can confirm that it tasted bad. Worse than a cat!

John blipped Zeeg back to the hold and sent a spiderbot over to gather up what was left of the Captain as well as begin examining the technology on the bridge. Zeeg sat down and shared a doggy grin with the rest of the team. Evie gave her a thumbs up as Raoul walked over and gave her a rub behind her left ear. She tilted her head and leaned into it.

“I cannot condone harvesting the body of a sentient,” said Felix.

“Fine, I’ll just take some samples and then we can bury it,” snapped Bob. They all glanced around at the floor of shiny metal.

“We can do the whole Spock thing. John can blip the body into space,” the drone offered as a compromise.

“We should get them levels!” chuckled Evie, utterly unconcerned about the corpse of the Captain and trying to get everyone else back to what mattered.

“No. If we level we’ll face tougher challenges. It’s like the fucking waves,” said Vic angrily. “If we keep the Essence unspent we won’t get dropped in the deep end and can level our way out of a tough situation.”

“Oh c’mon! We’d be a match for the Monarchs with all of us at level sixty three! We could just go home!” Evie replied.

“How? We can’t just portal there. We’re on tour and there’s no going home early. Best to hold on, kiddo. If we face a problem we can’t deal with, then we can jump up and cheese it,” John said, crossing his arms which clanged against his armoured chest.

Evie snatched off her helmet and scowled at her dad. He reciprocated and his gleaming ruby eyes made her look down. She threw her helmet off to one side and it skidded up against Doris’ foot.

“Fine.” She looked up and grinned, mercurial as ever. “At least we’ve got a shit load of levels when we do decide to get them! How awesome is it going to be to jump up so many levels at once! Hell, I can almost see the appeal! Deferred gratification, you know? We could end up with enough Essence to jump like fifty levels at once! That will be a rush!” she finished happily, moving to pick up her helmet.

“What about the engineers? They didn’t want to die. Maybe we can get them back to Mars?” said Flash.