Chapter Text
Operation: T A
Location: Spaceship
Crewmates Remaining: 6
Imposters Remaining: 2
It was time for everyone to depart to their respective locations. They were split up evenly into three groups with eight in each group. Well, they had to bring in a cat to make the perfect twenty-four members. It was ill-advised but Crowley was too cheap to get a proper replacement, so in goes Grim.
He was one of the few exceptions that had their place manually selected. As Yuu was his caretaker, Grim was saddled off to the one person that could seldom control him.
Along with him, only two others were granted the same treatment. Lilia Vanrouge was paired with Malleus as his retainers fought tooth and nail for at least one of them to accompany him. The other was Kalim Al-Asim. With his family donating a large portion of funds for the project, Kalim was able to choose any location other than the spaceship. This mercy, however, was not extended to his closest aid, Jamil Viper. As such, Kalim was crying out his goodbyes as Jamil entered the spaceship.
Those boarding were Ruggie Bucci, Trey Clover, Cater Diamond, Epel Falmer, Jade Leech, Vil Shoenheit, Jamil Viper, and Sebek Zigvalt.
Those leaving to Polus were Kalim Al-Asim, Malleus Draconia, Rook Hunt, Floyd Leech, Idia Shroud, Ortho Shroud, Ace Trappola, and Lilia Vanrouge.
The last group maintaining MIRA HQ were Grim, Silver, Yuu, Azul Ashengrotto, Jack Howl, Leona Kingscholor, Riddle Rosehearts, and Deuce Spade.
To the confusion of everyone involved, the teams were selected randomly. Rumors began to spread of how the leader has gone mad with paranoia. There was even a rumor of a traitor in their midst. One of the supervisors put much effort into stomping out that particular rumor. His reasoning along the lines of, “We can’t have discord amongst the crew mates at this time.”
So with the faculty waving their final goodbyes, everyone left to complete their respective jobs. For the first part of the week, everything went smoothly, with the only distressing situations belonging to those bemoaning the fact they could not be elsewhere.
That exact situation was playing out in the spaceship, as Sebek routinely cries out in desperation for not being in the same location with Malleus. It was slightly amusing the first time, but by this point in the trip, everyone tended to avoid him in order to spare their eardrums. At first they claimed they had maintenance or tasks to do elsewhere, before eventually leaving without a word of justification or condolence. Alone, Sebek proceeded to Electrical where he began downloading the necessary data. It was easy work and only needed supervision in case there was an error and needed to be restarted.
Tapping his foot, he measured out the time it would take before he could move on to the asteroids. Everyday was as mundane and infuriating as the last. The only reassurance he had was the knowledge that Lilia would be accompanying Lord Malleus. With him there, his Lord’s safety would be assured.
Click
A faint clicking sound caught his attention. To his knowledge, everyone should be further North of the ship, not anywhere near him. The sounds from med bay would not usually penetrate through the walls into Electrical, so it couldn’t be that. He looked around only to see nothing. The downloads finished at that time as he walked towards the exit of the room with confidence. A small noise like that would not scare him! It was likely some inner machinery part moving in response to his tapping.
What was not expected was the sound of metal screeching further back in the electrical room. Surprised, he ran back in case something broke apart. He was not some clumsy oaf, so surely he did not cause anything to break!
Walking in, he discovered nothing broken, but instead ran face to face with one of his crew mates. It was not possible for them to have entered without him knowing, yet here they were. They looked at him for only a second before pulling out a gun. With a flash, all his senses faded away as he fell to the ground. The perpetrator dashed back into the vent next to him and disappeared.
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“Remember, while these guns have no sound, they have to recharge for thirty seconds before firing again. I’m sure I’ve trained you to not fire them foolishly.”
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Ruggie only took this job for the phenomenal pay. It was shocking for a man like Crowley to offer that much, but seeing how few applied, he must have been desperate. Now he found himself across space waiting for some files to upload. He wasn’t even sure what exactly needed to be uploaded, that information must have been classified for him. Well, if they only needed him to do simple work then all the better. He crossed his arms over his head before turning to look across the room. Epel was in Admin before him, and judging off of the words he let slip, the card swipe was his least favorite chore. Now he stood proudly as he leaned against the wall.
“Whatcha still doin’ here? I’m sure you still have a lot of other things to get to.”
“Ah, don’t worry about me, I’m just taking a quick break.”
“Did the card swipe really take it out of you?” Not to brag but totally bragging, Ruggie was quite nimble and adapted quickly towards the correct way to swipe the card. He smirked as an idea came to mind.
“You know what, I can give you some tips if you give me something in return.”
“Hm, that would be nice actually, what do you want then?
“I overheard Vil saying there were some dried fruits in the pantry. If ya bring me some then I’ll help you.”
“Why do you want me to take them for you? I’m sure you could do a better job.”
“Yeah, but I can’t go anywhere with this thing still working. Plus I want something sweet right now.”
Epel inched closer as he gave the idea some thought. Eventually he grinned and nodded.
“Alright then, I’ll be back!”
He took off to the direction of the cafeteria. Ruggie was left alone again with only the screens around him for company. With only eight of them there, the spaceship could be eerily quiet at times.
By the time the uploading was complete, Epel had yet to return. He wasn’t the type to pull one over him, in fact he even had a bit of respect for Ruggie, so it had to be something else. He waited a bit more before moving out to the hallway.
The moment he did he collided with Epel as a small bag fell to the ground.
“What in tarnatio-! Ah, Ruggie!”
“Hey! What took you so long?”
“Sorry, but Vil rounded the corner and there is no way I’m getting in trouble for some fruit!”
“Hmph, fine. I guess you did get them for me.”
Getting up, he picked up the bag and pointed to the machine in the middle of Admin.
“You’re probably doing it too quickly or two slowly, by bet’s on the former. Measure it out to take an entire second. If you’re still doing it too quickly then count to two.”
“Huh, alright thanks.”
“Yeah, no problem.”
Removing his helmet, Ruggie opened the bag and began chowing down. Epel looked to the sides a bit before talking again.
“I actually still have something left to do in the cafeteria. What about you?”
“I gotta head down to Electric really quickly before moving to O2.”
“Okay, I’ll see you later then, and don’t tell Vil I took those!”
With a wave, Epel turned around and headed back to the cafeteria. Paying him no mind, Ruggie moved down the hall with his snack. Strangely, the closer he got, the more his senses started stirring. Without his helmet on, the smells of the ship started overloading his nose. Heavy iron wafted around him, forcing him to stop eating and place the helmet back on for repite. It was not nearly as bad towards the east side of the ship, the air was far better.
Walking in, the hair on his neck stood up at the dark red liquid on the floor. His eyes followed the stream of blood to its origin. Sebek’s nose was blown away and left a crater in his face. His once vibrant green hair now dyed red as it collected the blood pouring out into the remnants of the helmet.
Stumbling back, Ruggie quickly used the emergency communications equipped in every suit.
“Everyone! He-Sebek, he’s dead!”