Gavin walked the halls with blurred vision and a searing headache. From behind he could hear her, “Oh, Gavvy! Where do you think you are going?” He had built this place, panel by panel, but it felt like it was fighting him. Every nook and cranny seemed as mundane as any other. He glanced back over his shoulder and he saw her goggles glowing in the dark. He tried to stand firmly, but the damage had been calculated. “Gavvy, I’m not used to you being so poorly prepared. You usually have a million escape routes.” He hesitated, fear settling in as she tossed the industrial tungsten hammer back and forth between her palms before twirling in her palm with purpose.
He wanted to tell her he was looking for them. His stashed weapons, his hidden compartments, the various tunnels he had scattered among the halls. But he couldn’t find any of them. He just wanted out. To escape. As he pressed himself back against the wall, he heard a slow metallic screech come up the hall. His blood ran cold and his knees buckled as he fell to his rear.
As the lights flickered and her goggles filtered for movement, she was glad to finally have her prey. She laughed, “Nowhere left to run, little thief.” She could hear him in her head and growled, “I know this isn’t a game. I was just-” He wasn’t impressed, speaking to her again. She tried to block him out. She needed to focus. She heard the screech in the halls ahead of her. She whispered to him, “Don’t go anywhere. We have a lot to discuss.” She followed the sound, adjusting her goggles as she started tracking the sound. Moments later, she only felt the brush of wind before her momentum stopped and warmth began to spill down her chest. She tried to turn her head but couldn’t. It wouldn’t take long for the task to be done for her.
The insectoid face seemed cold and detached from the claws impaled in her neck. It sighed, “Missed your arteries. A shame that you might live.” As if suddenly realizing she was a person it said, “Tell me, how many of you have intruded upon my domain? If you tell me I promise that I will make the end swift.” Tak’Nasi tried to speak but the words wouldn’t come out. “It appears I severed your vocal cords. That makes you worthless to me.” She pulled back her arm, angled it to align perfectly with her target’s forehead and ended it in one swift darting motion. As the prey turned to naught but ash her face grew dissatisfied. Drawing her claws along the wall and allowing the sound to guide her way, Gavin stared at her in terror. She smelled his blood in the air and turned to face him. She peered into the darkness as though trying to pierce steel.
His blood ran like ice water, feeling the predatory hunger of this creature. His blood staining the hallway was only making him more tempting a target as the monster’s mandibles seemed to shift in hunger. His plans had failed. He was going to die here, alone and with no exits. This was it. He tried to prepare for the end. To
Make his peace.
He suddenly felt his mouth obstructed and felt a cold hand pull him into oblivion as his awareness slipped away into the darkness.
The Insectoid Huntress could hardly see in this dull light, but her heightened sensitivity to sound made hunting these mice skittering through the halls of her domain as simple as breathing. She could feel their heartbeat on her carapace, their breathing echoing through her mind. Following her instincts to hunt, she found another of these pretenders. As the figure turned to face, her they froze, their stillness making it hard to be precise in her assault, but their trembling bones creaked in the silence of the hall. She lashed out faster than the eye could see, her claws embedded deep into the shoulder of her prey. Their ragged breathing began to echo through the halls again as she heard the telltale drip of blood. Perhaps the past morsel had been an exception? She pulled the helpless creature closer, asking, “If you tell me your intentions for trespassing, I will make your end swift.” When the figure was silent, she decided it was not worth her time and pierced the poor thing’s heart. When the creature was supposed to be slowly dying their last in her hands, instead the figure disintegrated once more. Again, another foe gone without a single trophy to claim. There was something inherently wrong.
What was worse is that the ship kept growing warmer. She felt her instincts screaming at her to seek shelter. That she was being hunted. Still, lacking any grounding for this instinct she simply prepared herself for any surprises and continued her purge of those who would dare defile her home with their sickly souls. As the power surged and the lights flashed once more, she caught the glimpse of a figure at the end of the hall and prepared herself to face her hunter. She waited for the assault in the dull orange light from the chemical lighting, but upon the lights igniting again, the figure was gone. She reached out with her senses but this heat was overwhelming her. The humidity was dampening the sound, the heat overwhelming the sensations her body was giving her. Feeling effectively blind, she centered herself and awaited the foolish creature who dared to believe themselves her equal. As she did, she heard a voice speaking to her that was not the one slumbering or any in the hall with her. The voice taunted, “You have no idea what power is.” She looked around the halls, tried reaching out with her senses, but she sensed nothing but impending dread. The voice spoke again, “You know nothing of sacrifice. That power will change nothing.”
She shouted, “Show yourself, Hunter! I will slay you as any prey!” The voice laughed, the sound echoing through her body. She taunted, “You hide because you fear me. You hide because you are aware of my power and that you would not last more than a mere second against my-”
“You hold no power. You were always hollow.”
These words did more than strike the monster. The one beneath began to stir as well. She hissed, “I AM POWER! I AM VICTORY!”
“Your definition is out of date.”
She jammed her claws through one of the walls, shouting into the empty halls, “I will not entertain these empty words! My victory is absolute!” She struck the wall many times more as she began to dig for where this rat was hiding. She would defeat him the way she had any other foe. She would feast upon his innards and mount his head on her shoulder to strike fear in other misguided prey. When she broke through she saw the figure again for a fleeting instant before they vanished into the inner workings of the ship. She laughed, “I found you, prey.”
The voice rattled her soul once more, “You know what I am. I am not a shadow in the walls. I am your hunter.” The hairs on her body began to bristle as the heat in the air became even more oppressive. “You feel me as I approach. How I shadow your every step.” She turned, the heat in the air seeming to shimmer in his outline. She ran at him, lashing out but hitting nothing but the air. The heat mirage walked past her, the light seeming to take a clear shape to her eyes. While all else was blurred and unclear, the phantom of her past stood in front of her, facing away dismissively as he often had.
“You are no part of this world! You are a phantom of what never was! I have never known defeat!” She charged the figure again, lashing out at him. When she expected to hit clothe and flesh, she was instead felt her blow cast aside. Lashing out with a kick, she felt it captured and her entire mass cast down the hallway. She rolled quickly to her feet, like the killing machine she is and she charged it again, but he turned, his laughing face bypassing her blow entirely as a heavy fist struck her thorax and rocked her whole body. Trying to recover she saw his leg come down with a powerful kick that knocked her into the steel floor. Her ears ringing, the world began to blur in the poor lighting. When the light would flash she would see an armored in his place but when the low lights returned it was him. Her murderer.
He scoffed, “You were never a warrior. You lacked something. So you resorted to deception and cunning.” She lashed out again and again, but would keep being struck with blows she could never seem to deflect. He stated firmly, “I was the one person you couldn’t lie to. And you hated that. Because you have always been a coward.” Again, his words gave her a jolt, the one below shifting once again. Just like she always had. He smirked his loathsome smirk, “As long as you fear my echo, you will never be strong.” The lights flashed right before the armored figure jammed a cattle prod between her plates. As her world began to fade and she joined the other in the the realm of dreams, all she could see was his phantom laughing at her as she fell below the surface.