Here There Be Monsters

A painful silence emanated through the dark, purple room. The only light being the gentle purple in the walls and the gold of a Shipmasters armor. Rohen’ Telcamee had been sitting, avoiding the hateful gaze of the Shipmaster and the easier yet more threatening smile of the Prophet next to him.

“It is a most interesting situation we find ourselves in, is it not Rohen?” The Prophet of Compassion politely asked.

Before he could answer however, the Shipmaster interjected.

“Noble Prophet, let me rid you of this filth from your sight, he is faithless coward and traitor to the Great Journey” The Shipmaster growled out as Rohen curled into himself.

The Prophet raised a hand and the Shipmaster silenced.

“Why don’t you tell us what happened Rohen?” The Prophet asked with a kind tone laced with a hidden threat as Rohen sat up straighter.

“W-We were engaged above the human moon of Lerion, our forces on the ground were pushing the humans back until several of their ships appeared.” he swallowed thickly “Then came the explosions, our shields had been dropped to bombard the ground so we were struck by missiles from the ships, but then they came..” Rohen trailed off, staring into the distance.

“Who?” Came the insistant voice of the Prophet

-

Smoke, smoke was all Rohen could see. Their ship had been hit by a missile from the damned humans as they were heading to the gravity lift.

“Get up!” came the voice of the Ultra leading his Lance

Above him, Rohen could hear the vague sounds of footsteps interspersed with heavy metallic bangs.

“W-what’s that” came the panicked voice of the Unggoy

“Humans” the Ultra replied with a disgusted growl

Rohen scrambled to his feet, grabbing his Carbine as the smoke ahead of them began to clear, but before it could a massive barrage of bullets tore through the smoke, flashes of gunfire being visible inside it. As the gunfire started Rohen looked to the Major for orders…

...only to see his body being mangled by bullets, the grunts around him suffering the same.

As quick as he could, he tried to scramble down the side hall, only for a single bullet to find its place in his leg, causing him to roar in pain as he crumpled to the floor. Behind him he could hear the heavy metal footsteps of whatever was there.

Looking around, he spotted a maintenance panel which the Yanme’e used to access the maintenance halls. Dragging himself to his feet, he stumbled towards the panel as fast as he could, removing it and squeezing himself inside. However, he inadvertently caught his injured leg on the door causing him to cry out.

There was silence.

Until the thunderous footsteps came his way.

He scrambled to grab the panel and place it somewhat correctly as the footsteps neared, only managing to have jam into the wrong position. Having done all he could, he recoiled away from the panel and back into the hall as he could see the figure through the gaps in the wall, a metal beast, bristling with weapons as it covered him in shadow..

He held his mandibles shut with his left hand and used his right to help him move away, being as quiet as he could and muffling his cries of pain. Just as he rounded the corner he heard the horrible sound of metal being bent and then snapping as light flooded the hall he was in.

He came to a stop as he heard what could almost be described as a growl coming from the hall before the footsteps started once again, getting quieter and quieter. Rohen slid to the floor, trying to ease his hysteria and fear of whatever that thing was, but the distant cries of death and gunfire would not allow it.

-

“Impossible!” Came the angry roar of the Shipmaster, the Honor Guards behind him drawing their weapons.

“Silence Shipmaster!” he barked, causing the Shipmaster to storm away, shoving the Guards as he did so.

“Rohen?” the Prophet asked as he noticed Rohen was completely catanoic, his mandibles quivering as he stared into nothing and kept talking

“I moved, as quick as I could, I tried to make it to the Hangar but every door was littered with bodies! I didn’t know what else to do!?” he yelled out as he grasped his head, feeling the fear and helplessness once again.

-

Rohen had lost all sense of time, his scrambling through the hot and dank ducts left him tired and aching. The constant screaming and gunfire with echoing silence between each event gnawed at what little composure and reason he had left. While his bleeding had long since stopped since cauterized his wound with his plasma pistol.

He considered trying the hangar again but the piles and piles of bodies he saw told him all he needed to know, their ghastly smell becoming a permanent fixture on the vessel. Within an hour those beasts had taken the ship apart, killing any they came across without the slightest bit of hesitation, taking down all the comm-

“That's it, the Bridge” he thought

He looked and listened in case any of the beasts were near before moving as fast as his injured leg would allow him. If he could get to a bridge he could activate the distress beacon and alert the rest of the Fleet, the Shipmaster wouldn’t have let the ship fall prey to them. After fifteen long minutes he arrived at the door to the Bridge. To his shock there was no blood, the halls were as clean as ever, and it even seemed that the smell permeating the rest of the ship seemed to fade away from the haven on the other side of the doors.

Rohen shook the panel in front of him free and stumbled out into the hall, taking some liberating breaths as the doors to the bridge slid open…

...to reveal a massacre.

The crew had been slaughtered, their bodies strewn about with bullet holes and scorch marks having desecrated them. Rohen was at a loss, his only chance to warn the fleet, to ask them for help, was gone. But as his eyes drifted, he saw them, two stood on the control platform, one tampering with the ship while the other scanned for survivors. Rohen’s mouth gaped and closed repeatedly as his will shattered, he took a step back.

Then another.

And another.

As he turned, he came face to face with a wall of metal. Before he could even react, the beast had him by the throat as it began choking the life out of him, lifting him up to its height as if he was nothing. But as looked into its face, he knew, this was no man.

Rohen felt his vision going dark, but was snapped out of it by a roar as the Shipmaster charged out and stabbed the beast in its side. For a moment he felt the hand stop, followed by it releasing him and sending him to the floor as he gasped for breath. He saw the Shipmaster who grinned in satisfaction having felled whatever these were. But it was short lived.

The beast turned slowly and methodically, sword in its side as it came to face the Shipmaster. Before he could run it had grabbed his helmet and dug its fingers in as the Shipmaster tried and failed to escape, crying out in pain as the second hand came and joined the first. With one resounding snap, did both the helmet and head break apart, his corpse falling to the floor as the beast removed the sword without a care.

There was no thought in his mind now, simply an instinct, Run. And so he did, Rohen charged back into the maintenance halls and made for the escape pods, his vision clouded by his lack of oxygen, but his body unwilling to let him slow to breath.

Bursting out of the walls he ran into one of the escape pods and set a course to send him into orbit.

-

Rohen had devolved into tears and fearful shaking as he finished his story.

Across from him the Prophet remained quiet and considered what he had heard, with a gentle touch to Rohen's head, the screaming stopped and he looked up.

“You are a brave warrior Rohen, I shall inform the others of what I have been told,” he said as his chair hovered him away.

“Shipmaster, you will tend to his wounds, won’t you?” The Prophet asked before he left

“By your word, my Prophet” the Shipmaster replied as he turned to face Rohen

“Their names” Rohen called out, “they called each other ‘Ballista” he finished as the Prophet left.

As he hovered away, the only sounds left coming from the room were the forming of a sword and then a strangled cry.

“‘Ballista’, what a strange name” thought the Prophet as he carried on.