Chapter Text
“Are you absolutely sure?” The figure reached with its long, gangly limbs to pull levers and push buttons – a completely unnecessarily extravagant procedure he was half-convinced was designed for the sole purpose of mocking him.
“What do I always tell you?”
With a sigh, the figure responded, “A scientist can never be absolutely sure of anything… Yeah, the sun’s definitely going to explode before tomorrow, yup.”
“Oh, eat it. What’s the bearing?”
“Forty-ffff-... four- no, five. Forty-five… east… And seventy-two down.”
Only silence came over the radio.
“...Do you copy?”
“The fuck-? No, I don’t copy! Seventy-two?! Where the hell’d you get that?!”
The figure growled. “It’s what’s on the damn screen, what do you want from me?!”
A sound of annoyance crackled through the speaker. “Wipe. the damn. screen.”
“Wh-... O-Oh… Twenty-two. Twenty-two down.”
“And it’s not ‘down’, dumbass. In space it’s nadir.”
“Oh, nadir, zenith, whatever the hell- You know what I meant!”
The radio crackled a bit more.
Then…
“You… really want this to work, don’t you?”
The hunched figure recoiled in confusion. “The hell do you mean? Of course I want this to work. Why wouldn’t I?”
“No, it’s just-... It’s-... You really think it will work? They’ve found us before…”
“Don’t you start. We planned this out perfectly. It’s leagues from the nearest patrols. We’re almost done, we just need to get these last guys in.”
The radio crackled again.
“Ridley… You-... You think… we’ll finally get Her someday? End all this sovashit?”
His lanky arms droop from the tension. “...Gah-... C’mon, man… don’t ask something like that now.”
The radio seemed to crackle louder. Or maybe it was his imagination.
“You think-”
Silence.
After a beat, Ridley reached for the transceiver. “Repeat.”
Nothing.
“Hell, Gorman, repeat! Repeat! You got cut off!”
Nothing.
“Damnit, we’re almost there, stop fucking around!”
Silence.
“H-Hey… this really isn’t funny, man…”
It crackled to life once again.
“No. It isn’t, is it?”
The voice was wrong. It sent shivers up Ridley’s exposed spine.
“I imagine it’s pretty fuckin’ terrifying for you Pirates.”
Cold sweat dripped down his scaly face. He wouldn’t make a single noise.
“I hope it is. I hope you bastards piss yourselves just thinking about me.”
His breath hitched.
“Ah-! Heard you… Whiny little birdy… Gonna cry over your friend? Gordy, or whatever the fuck?”
He doesn’t answer.
Not even when he hears Her arm cannon charging.
“Hey. The bitch might still be alive. Wanna say something so I don’t boil his brains?”
“...D-Don-”
A loud popping noise causes the inner mechanism of the speaker to break. The jury-rigged equipment was already falling apart as it was.
“Fuck… Fuck, fuck… Just… gotta-”
His arms flailed and his chest heaved as he continued guiding the craft.
“Please, please, please, not-... Not them…”
It was almost docked. Once it hit hyperspace, it could-
“Hey, watch this.”
The beast flinched as a cold voice intruded his own ear. His earpiece. She’d started broadcasting on open channels.
But before he could even piece together what she meant, he heard it. The firing of a super-missile.
“NO!”
“YES!” She cheered as if scoring a goal in a game.
Frantically, his limbs thrashed, desperately trying to seat the craft in the proper cargo magnet-hook before hyperspace could-
A streak of light. That was it. That’s all it was. All the warning he had before being forced to watch the entire dock be subjected to a blast strong enough to flash-vaporize small amounts of cordite. The vacuum of space was no buffer, either. The jettisoning of gasses and other trace elements meant that it could be heard even through said vacuum.
“Popcorn. Just like we used to make on Zebes… You know… before you bastards destroyed it.”
Ridley wanted to bite back with some comment about a lack of corn on Zebes, but before he could, he flinched again and flung the device from his ear as another loud pop ruined it as well. He sat, shivering. Desperately hoping that the Zoran peoples’ afterlife was real, and that the children would be granted safe passage. At least that way, they won’t ever have to fear The Hunter ever again…
“Excellent work, as usual, Commander Aran. If you keep this up, we’ll run out of medals.” Admiral Haden scrolled through the digital report. “The only casualties were the hostages, then?”
“Correct, sir.”
“Hm… Shame we couldn’t get that stipend, but any day when we kill Pirates is a good day, isn’t it, Aran?”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself, sir.”
“Of course you could. If you used that silver tongue of yours for anything other than cleaning my asshole, you might just be something in this damn outfit. Instead, all you have are these medals with no hope of promotion.”
“I hope to run out of room on my uniform, sir.”
He couldn’t help but chuckle at that.
“Well, you might get your wish after all. Got another one lined up for you, still hot. A mole. Find him. Don’t kill him until we know how much he leaked. And find that out by whatever means you deem necessary.”
She smirks.
“With pleasure, sir.”
An alien was logging data into a computer terminal. Its crustacean-like pincers weren’t so great for typing, but their science team had literal tons of engineers to work out those kinds of kinks. Apparently, some of that tech was reverse-engineered from The Hunter’s ship. When the Pirates failed to activate it after boarding, they learned that she uses Her Power Suit to link with it directly. Similarly, they’ve found ways to design terminals they can hook their claws inside of and use micro-adjustments to simulate more dexterous digits like the humans have.
“Your rations go bad, too?”
He paused, then continued. “I thought rations weren’t supposed to go bad.”
“Heh. Now, you would think that, wouldn’t you? And yet-...” The disruptor held up a nutrition bar that smelled awful.
“Gah-! Gross! Leave me alone, I’m doing a serious report!”
He paused. “...Oh… The dock-?”
“Yes,” he snapped. “The ‘dock incident’.”
The meddlesome Pirate was abashed. “You… hear about General Ridley?”
His claw froze as he sighed. “Yes.” He continued his report before adding, “I was on comms when I heard it… the popping…”
The other gagged for reasons that had nothing to do with the spoiled, nutrient-dense ration. “Stars… Those children-...”
A seemingly unbreakable silence fell between them. Until a third voice intruded.
“They’ve all found their families, one way or another.”
Snapping to attention, the slacking Pirate threw out a salute. “G-General-!”
He waved a hand in dismissal. “It’s alright…” He stepped closer -- rather, crawled, showing himself in the light of the terminals. He was already easily twice their height when hunched as he often was. It was difficult enough to procure their ships, let alone ones he could actually fit inside, so he practically made it a habit to minimize the space he took up. “The Hunter destroyed them all. The only reason they didn’t make it onto the transport is because I was moving too slowly. Too carefully. I should have known they would track us no matter how we evaded them… but now I know they’re smart enough not to broadcast when they’ve caught on.” He tapped his ear. “I was listening for them, you know. Ready to bail if they found us. But She didn’t let us know when She did.”
The Pirates sat rigid, paralyzed.
“Keep that in mind from now on. And spread the word. Never become too confident. The Hunter has, and always will, find unique ways to torment us. But never lose sight of our goals, even through your fear.” He hesitated, wondering if he’d successfully presented himself as a wise and merciful leader before stalking away into the corridor.
The two remaining aliens released their held breaths.
“How can someone like him be so terrifying?”
Returning to his report, the busy Pirate formed his thoughts before replying. “He feels responsible for bringing The Hunter upon us. Right from the beginning. He was there on Her homeworld when Her colony was destroyed.”
The other Pirate gaped. “Is that true?”
He nodded. “The Hunter spoke of it. Said she saw his wings in the air when Her family was destroyed in the blast.”
After a deep breath, he whispered, “Did he cause it?”
Snapping back, the worker hissed, “Of course not, fool! Ridley went to make a trade, not destroy the entire supply!”
“...Something smells funny about that story…”
“Something smells funny about you. Go throw that stupid ration out the airlock and get back to work! Or at least stop bothering mine!”
With a snort of disgust, the slacker stomped away.
Ridley clenched and unclenched his frightening claws. He wished, not for the first time, that he was born a different species. His mind was sharp and his body was nigh-unkillable. Two factors that had saved his life countless times. And yet… he could never hold a lover, or embrace a friend without it being a near-death experience.
Shaking himself of the sudden bout of self-loathing, he sighed and answered the incoming call. He wouldn’t let his nerves get in the way of this vital deal.
“Finally.” The pale face on the screen already looked irritated.
“Is the line secure?”
The face scrunched with contempt. “What do you take me for?”
He returned the scowl with an eerily calm expression. “A desperate man.”
“...Fair enough…” The man eyed the imposing figure from the other side of the screen. “You look smaller than the reports say."
A smirk touched Ridley's lips. “I slouch.” Then his expression hardened again. “Did you call just to comment on my posture?”
He understood the meaning: Get to the point. Before She finds them. “A packet is being uploaded as we speak. Wait to isolate the data and enter the code I sent in the last batch. Do not open it before isolating it. It’ll corrupt your entire system otherwise.”
“What’s the price this time?”
“A seat.”
His glowing amber eyes narrowed somewhat. “Hmm…”
“I’m obviously not charging upfront this time. After all, the data’s already halfway done transferring. Take your time and think on it. Just not too long, or you’ll be getting your fancy seat stained in blood and other, less pleasant fluids.”
He grimaces. Ridley didn’t like the idea of taking this packet without promising him a place within their rebellion. It didn’t feel right. At the same time, they couldn’t just trust him so easily. It could all be an elaborate honeypot.
The man turned his head to look at something unseen. “I better wrap this up just in case. Just don’t forget about me, okay?” The call ended abruptly.
The dragon-like figure sat staring into his monitor for some time, even after the [Packet download complete] message flashed several times.
His claws tapped a steady rhythm on his own seat.
A shrill, mechanical voice echoed from a nearby speaker,
{More hands for more work. Many hands lost.}
He closed his eyes and saw the faces of those whose deaths wracked his conscience. "Please don't remind me, Mother."