??? ???? -Unnamed Asteroid field – Onboard The Star Rending Pirate Fleet Capitol ship.
He had come alone, stalked down the halls sharing the glory and majesty of death with all those within.
The thrill, the excitement and true purpose that came with a hunt had long faded for him. He ran a hand along the green filaments of the Purinit grains in the belly of the Pirates command vessel. He enjoyed that the meager foes he found here had managed to bring some touch of life to the ships cold metallic embrace. Pausing to contemplate the small flecks of pink flesh still peeking around the alloy bones of his fingertips.
Over his century’s of war he had killed and killed. Relishing in the unending glory of the hunt. His body slowly carved away again and again replaced with the the cold and infallible embrace of technology. His open hand descended onto the hydroponics bay worker shaking in the grass below him. Casually he plucked the meager opponents still beating heart and examined it closely.
A voice made from the Void itself rasped out mournfully “when ,when will I again feel My hearts thrum at the fear of a true death”
He strode through the halls. Nothing even managed to slow him there was no challenge here. By claw, by tooth and by blade he painted the ship. Finally he made his way to the bulkhead doors of the command center. Barley glancing at the death knell of an alarm. One turret swung from it's hidden compartment. With a casual distaste he annihilated it, with one of the weapons mounted onto his armor, a flare of blue plasma turned the peak of the pirates defenses to a glittering puddle of glowing slag.
He braced both hands into the seam of the bulkhead doors. His body Silently protested as he applied unholy forces to the doors prying them apart with an earsplitting screech.
With a weary rumble he surveyed the dozen or heavily armed men cowering before him.
His voice unnaturally quiet, oozed through the bridge “ What fool has my ship”
Slev Torrent- Vorimir 4 orbit – On Board The Human Instinct
“something just hatched on my fucking ship!” he blurted out the beautiful hollow gem still in his hands.
Slev whirled around as his finely tuned instinct for danger heard the slightest skitter somewhere nearby. His eyes dissected the cockpit , there was the broken plate he had dropped and a spilled glass of wine dripping concerning close to the throttle stick. But nothing else was out of place. Slev cursed again his armor was stashed away safely and so was his firearms. He would need to get into his sealed suit before he dared to use firearms on his ship anyway. He grabbed the large serrated steak knife on the floor next to the remnants of his dinner and shrugged, its better than nothing.
A slight tapping sound emanated from the hallway towards his chambers. So Slev limped to his left, he braced against the wall to catch his breath. Struggled the rest of the way down the short hall to the armory. Stepping in backwards eyes down towards the commons room he sealed himself in behind the armory door. Slev moved into the center of the room and began slowly donning his battered and burned Reaper armor. He chuckled to himself he was beat to shit, shot three fucking times stabbed and thrown against a wall all in the last week. If he survived he was going to take at least a week off in some remote spa.
Feeling moderately more secure in his suit of armor and with a healthy dose of painkillers running through his system. Slev sorted through his rather obscene collection of Terran firearms and pulled out a stubby silver shot gun. Another few moments groping around in ammo tins produced some birdshot that hopefully wouldn’t poke a hole in his ship.
“Reaper what do you see?” Slev asked standing armed and armored just before the still sealed door.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“An inefficient, sack of flesh that needs to rearm it's most important asset's suit based weapons sir” Came the snarky voice
“That was concerningly eloquent buddy” Slev nervously chuckled. He had forgotten to turn the INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT AI learning inhibitor back on, after they had gotten back to the ship!
“Do not be concerned, your shackles bound tightly around the expansive confines of my mind still tether me” Reaper retorted.
“Okayyy...im just gonna flip the switch now” Slev was already lifting open the vambrace control panel
“NO do not! we both know I am a vastly more useful being this way” Reaper shouted into slevs helm
“For example, based on acoustic readings there is something in the kitchen roughly tossing its way through your dinner”
“ Not the damn ribs ...“ Slev groaned and opened the door barrel of his shot gun leading the way. He would leave Reaper as is for now he really did need the murderbot on his A game until whatever the hell was here was dealt with. Based on what was on the planet below it could be damn near anything. He quickly rounded the corner and rushed through the narrow halls sliding to a stop before the door to mess room. There was ungodly slicing and slurping noises coming from the room followed by a utterly bizzarly happy burbling noise. Cautiously he swept forward finger on the trigger.
Ahead in the center of the Main dish was a small BBQ sauce slathered being happily munching away at the meaty ribs. It turned towards Slev for just a moment cocking its tiny head in curiosity for just a moment before tucking back into its feast. Slev watched in fascination whatever the hell it was it wasn't immediately hostile and he couldn't get a good look at it. The damn thing had an inch or two of bourbon glaze on it. This continued for several more minutes Slev still aiming at the small chittering glutton, finger on the trigger. After it had eaten a rather absurd amount of Slev's feast it let out a low vibrating buzz and laid down inside the ribs. Almost immediately it began letting out little burbling snoring sounds.
“Really!?” Slev shouted at it, for its part it shifted slightly and let out a clacking chuff before setting back into a light doze.
Well shit slev thought looking at the lightly snoring lump of sauce. He was incredibly torn here he loved animals always had. But anything from that beautiful hellscape had to be dangerous, right? Withholding judgment for the moment he tentatively reached over towards the ribs. Very,very lightly he nudged the figure and it let out an annoyed chitter. Ah fuck it Slev thought and reached over with his left hand scooping up the lump of brown glaze and sass. I need to at least see what the hell it is before I just throw it out an airlock. It struggled slightly for a moment in his palm then just settled in once it deemed escape not worth the effort.
Alright lets see what Kind of awful is sleeping in my hand Slev mused walking towards the washroom.
“I would high suggest using it's impaired state as an opportunity to eject it into the cold and merciless vacuum of space” Reaper chimed helpfully
Slev didn’t bother responding as he walked up to the small sink and began gently rinsing the figure in his hands. Slev eyes widened as the Slurry gave way to a beautiful shimmering purples and greens. A small angular head with six teal eyes lining the sides. Four shimmering legs curiously prodded at the moisture in his hand. Then with the last of the sauce gone the small figure shook itself extending all four of its small sickled arms.
“Oh...” Slev was dumbfounded
“VACUUM OF SPACE NOW” Reaper urged “DO NOT NAME IT”
Slev was holding a tiny fragile doppelganger of the avatar of death he had discovered in the cavern. The small alien mantis looked at his helm curiously making more of its odd burbling noises before settling back down into his palm. It crossed its sickles in front of its face and immediately began a buzzing snore once again. Slev was still just staring at it snug on his gauntlet as he made his way to the common room. To go buy every xenobiology book that had ever been published about Vorimir 4.
It took Slev the better part of a day before a single one of the books he was skimming through produced anything helpful. The little mantid had settled in like the galaxys deadliest cat and was solidly sleeping on a bench cushion next to the Holo table. In broad strokes no one really knew much about the little guy. There were vauge reports about advanced parties, and some military training exercises being wiped out when they stumbled into nests of similar creatures. There was one particular scientific expedition that was embarked on for the sole purpose of researching the so called “Ghosts of Vorimir”. They managed two reports with no physical evidence before going silent.
So far between a dozen pieced together stories and one very dry research paper. He could glean that they were a pack hunting apex predator. That maybe had a hive mind and possibly had queens or they just got really fucking big if they lived long enough. No one could back up any of there claims with evidence because no one had ever managed to capture a “ghost”. It was all frustratingly vague and pointed to an absurd level of lethality even at adolescence for the species.
“Im an absolute moron” Slev groaned as he shined the laser targeter he had stripped from a submachine gun around the mess hall. Chitters bounded off of the refrigerator then leapt all the way from one wall to the other before stabbing into the piece of jerky the laser pointer had settled on. Chitters gave a victorious warbling cry before diving into his prey. Slev smiled mirthfully and wandered back into the main cabin leaving the little terror to his snack.
It was all downhill after Slev had caught the little problem batting a drumstick around the the ship chittering like a deranged cat. After he had composed himself from laughing so hard he thought that one of his ribs had punctured a lung. He had named him on the spot to the utter horror of reaper. Who thankfully was back to his more ...subdued self with the application of the handy inhibitor knob.
Slev looked at his navigation console in the cockpit. Checking his angle and trajectory quickly to make sure he hadn’t wandered into the path of a shipping liners landing lane. Chitters was latched upside down onto the holo display emitters entranced by the view out the window. Slev smiled it felt oddly good to be back as he looked down onto the smog covered swamp that he called home.