Work Text:
WELCOME TO THE SKELD.
PLEASE TYPE IN YOUR CREDENTIALS AND CADET ALIAS.
Name:
Position:
Height:
Weight:
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Name: [REDACTED.]
Position: Human.
Height: [REDACTED]
Weight: [REDACTED]
THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION, PLEASE PREPARE TO BE TELEPORTED.
WELCOME [REDACTED.] TO THE SKELD, FACILITY FOR SPACE RESEARCH.
HOPE YOU HAVE A PLEASANT RIDE.
TELEPORTING IN, 3
2.
1.
INNERSLOTH COOPERATIONS OFFICIALLY WELCOMES YOU TO OUR FACILITY,
PLEASE WAIT FOR YOUR FELLOW CREWMATES.
When they opened their eyes, fluttering eyelashes revealed a room with stark grey walls, seeming to be made out of a sturdy metal material, an airlocked door perfectly sealed from the cold of space, rumbling flooring stumbling their balance as they were reaching their destination, aqua metal boxes thundering under the impact.
No one seemed to bother sitting on the safely strapped seats of the transportation rocket, all of which standing up in some faraway corners or leaning against the chilly material that was the walls.
A crewmate with a red jumpsuit approached one with a white variation of their spacesuit, goggles toppling on the pale-suited individual’s helmet, doctor’s coat wrinkled in places.
“Hi, are you the doctor that is hired here?” A surprisingly young voice piped out from the echoey visor of the bright helmet, sounding like being in the early 20s at most, body language incredibly open and brash, arms placed by the seemingly male’s sides like a pair of wings.
The white crewmate looked like they were just snapped out of their thoughts as they flinched by an inch, turning the dark visor of their helmet to the male, tilting their head sideways. “Uhhhh, no? I’m just wearing it for fashion.”
The crimson male seemed to be disappointed as the gray cap of his helmet slipped down his visor, the man barely catching it just in the nick of time. “Aww, a small shame. That would be cool if you really were big man. I’m Tommy by the way, I just got recruited to check up on the ship too!” The male lifted his helmet to reveal a flood of blond messy curls, cyan-blue eyes piercing into the other’s expressionless visor, face even younger than the impression caused by his voice, hints of baby fat hanging from his cheeks.
The goggled other also lifted his perfectly clean helmet, similar hazel curls tickling his nape, silver-rimmed glasses reflecting a pair of squinted caramel eyes at the young man in front of him, inspecting the crimson-suited person from top to bottom discreetly.
“Aren’t ya’ a fucking kid? What’s a kid doing here on a space mission?” The man adjusted his glasses to peer at the young crewmate in front of him with more precision, the male in question’s eyebrows furrowing angrily at the question.
“I’m no kid you dickhead! I’m 18, very much an adult! You’re just saying that with your old ass brain that knows nothing but determines everyone younger than you a heckin’ teenager, have you lost your cane back at home grandpa?”
“You got a mouth on you, don’t cha’?” The brunet man flicked the forehead of the young man, a smug smirk growing upon his lips. “That just proved my point that you are indeed a child with such pettiness.”
More profanities could be heard from the red crewmate, creative insults flying out of his mouth as the other plugged his ears with his fingers, expression unfazed yet mildly intrigued at how the other could spit such interesting death threats.
Suddenly, another crewmate wearing a dark green spacesuit lifted the young man by his armpits, leaving him hanging in the air screaming, while the assaulter held him tightly by his arms. “Sorry about him, he gets feisty when people talk about his age. And a complete menace to be around. I’m Tubbo, hope we can get along.”
The white-suited man seemed startled at how Tubbo, who was shorter than Tommy, could easily haul the other up without any issue at all, slightly appalled by the seemingly young man’s strength. “Wilbur, and I don’t mind, it’s quite fun to blabber with someone on such a boring mission ahead.”
Tubbo shrunk his visor back into his helmet with a simple button by the side, revealing coffee-colored bangs hanging over his eyes, a quick flash of aquamarine irises seen under the waterfall of hair, nodding in appreciation from the answer. Another crewmate approached the trio with that, purple suit specially tailored to fit their highly tall stature, standing intimidatingly above all of the three.
“Tubbo, Jack says Niki needs Tommy’s help with something.”
“About what? He’s in the timeout corner right now.”
“THE HECK DO YOU MEAN TIMEOUT?”
“Ignore him, Ran.” The purple-suited individual seemed to sigh behind his helmet, twiddling his fingers in front of his chest.
“Niki says she thinks she found a hole in her suit, so she needs someone who has a least a bit of sewing skills to fix it.” Tommy immediately blushed at the implication that he could sew, stuttering at the statement as Wilbur stared at the man halfway in the air, chuckling under his breath.
“Oh okay. Off you go then, prick. Try not to cause Jack or Eret too much of a headache this time.”
“Fuck you, bee boy.”
“Touché boss man. Thanks a lot.” At that, the crimson-suited crewmate hopped off Tubbo’s tight hold, blowing a raspberry before storming off to a small crowd of crewmates with pink, yellow, and blue suits, fussing over the pink crewmate’s pants, which should be Niki according to Tubbo.
“Having fun bullying a child, Wilbur?” A slightly nasally voice caught back Wilbur’s attention from the chaotic trio, turning to see a blond man in a lime green suit, hair tied into a small ponytail by his nape, glacier eyes cold yet kind.
“It technically isn’t bullying if it was in self-defense Phil.” The man playfully quipped back at the blond a few inches shorter than him, another pink-haired man accompanying the duo with a, you know it, pink spacesuit.
“But you were tempted to.” The deep voice from the individual donned completely in pink deadpanned, crimson eyes half-lidded as per usual like he was tired of life and Wilbur in general. The statement wasn’t a question, just a fact.
“I mean if we’re talking about the definition of bullying-”
“Oh please do not start that Wil.” Another unheard voice also popped out from nowhere, his orange suit a tad too baggy for the individual’s stature, ginger hair mixed with hints of gray and white tickling his forehead with wild bangs, beady russet eyes similar to a fox’s staring at Wilbur with the contradiction between horrified and annoyed.
To no one’s surprise (except you maybe, Hi :)), Wilbur’s expression immediately went soft, pulling at orange suited man’s cheeks as the victim stared at him with eyes similar to a dead fish’s, narrowed and soulless.
“Aww hello little man, where are your ears Fundy, you need to be the furry .” The sentence caused someone on the far side of the room to splutter at nothing in particular since liquids weren’t allowed in the rocket, for now, Fundy sighed loudly at the action.
“But it’s gonna’ make them say the thing.” In the most deadpan voice possible.
“Fundy.”
“It’s gonna’ make them say the line.”
“Don’t make me drag you into a corner to chat.” Fundy groaned at the threat (?) loudly with pinched-up cheeks, grumbling something unfathomable as he put on a fox headband from a pocket in his suit.
“GOOD BOY!” Wilbur immediately let go of the man’s cheeks, clapping hysterically at the helpless action.
“GOOD FURRY. GOOD FURRY!”
“NOOOO-” The scream of Fundy sent any in the room to snicker loudly or either under their breaths, the man in question blushing immediately at the mass teasing.
”Okay, let’s cut Fundy some slack shall we?” A voice as deep as Technoblade’s rumbled, yet a tad smoother than the pink-suited man’s, the purple crewmate who was apparently named Eret popping up from beside Niki, Tommy, and a blue crewmate with a buzz cut.
“Yeah, I think we’re arriving at the base soon, so let’s just chill for the moment. Fundy looks like he’s going to burst a vessel.” The blue crewmate cut in, nasally voice similar to Phil’s in a way, joking at the orange man’s flushed face.
“Speaking of, Phil would have a higher chance of that since he’s so old,” Tommy smirked, causing the lime-outfitted man to sigh loudly, saying nothing at the tease.
“That’s enough chaos for today Tommy, and also you Jack.” Niki, whose pink suit was fixed rather nicely after her and the young man’s hard work, ruffled the red crewmate’s blonde curls, the boy in question crouching slightly in distaste, yet he did nothing to stop the action, the man in a buzz cut huffing at the light scolding.
“Finally someone who can help me put him in timeout.” Tubbo flung his head backward dramatically, ‘Ran’ picking up the dark green-suited man by the armpits too, who yelled profanities similar to how Tommy reacted minutes ago.
“And I’ll put you in timeout too if you keep being a menace.”
“RANBOO YOU CUN-” A rumble of the rocket interrupted the young brunet as it was nearing the Skeld base, signaling that their friendly banter should be put to the side for now, as it was time to get serious.
Putting a whole space facility base in maintenance was no easy feat, especially since it was in the middle of nowhere at all, hence the meaning of a space research base. All members of the crew were also handpicked by the best of the best to make sure the base was in order by itself, recording data of the mysterious space areas around it, sending codes of information safely back to Mira Headquarters, where every ounce of newly found information is sorted and analyzed. The Skeld was a formerly abandoned military spacial base from the late 1900s, after it was abandoned, it was transformed to be built for searching new galaxies or planets nearby, as well as space activity or whatnot. So there they were, staying at the Skeld for a couple of days to make sure the base was properly managed, as well as transporting some new information to the Mira base.
Everyone on the crew shared a knowing glance as the rocket whirred much harder than before, blue wings by the rocket rumbling frantically as the space cold crept onto the metal, blasters losing their intensity level by level as they neared the base, landing on a port nearby the cafeteria.
“Are we ready boys?” Tommy’s voice echoed under his visor, earning multiple nods from the crew.
“And women,” Niki added as she lifted her hand minimally, the flower hat on her helmet shifting from her movement.
“Yes yes, and women. I sure love ‘em.”
“Typical Tommy,” Tubbo added, a sprout accessory on his head dangling downwards suddenly, causing the man to push it back up with a gloved hand, annoyed.
“Anyways, time for adventure! I think our tablets have all recorded our tasks, correct?” The crimson-suited man continued, ignoring his friend’s comment. Many sounds of confirmation were said as all picked up their tablets to inspect, words only understood personally.
“Cool, let’s all meet up here when we all finished up our tasks! See ya’ later alligators!” The man chirped as he sped towards the corridor to his left, which should lead to the Medbay or Upper engine if they remembered correctly.
Many also walked away after a few short sentences of luck wished upon the others, going in different directions depending on which task they want to complete first, except for two, staying by the cafeteria table.
Wilbur should have at least teamed up with someone to go to Electrical. How dumb it was for him to be the first to head toward the Storage corridor, where there contained a floating box spinning in circles on top of a giant crate. He had to do a double take to see if his glasses were working or not, or if his visors were dirtied from grime. But no, the box was actually spinning like a roundabout.
The man in white decided to ignore the weird paranormal box, heading towards another corridor by his right to Electrical, where his tablet beeped that he had 3 tasks there; that the wiring was a bit faulty, that he needed to divert some power to Security where it may have needed a bit more power than necessary, and downloading some new data. That definitely wasn’t a lot of tasks and a hell lot of work compiled into one singular place, yep.
Honestly, the echoing corridors were rather creepy when you were alone, metal-enforced boots thumping on the hollow metal flooring, bolts against your feet as you walked across dimly lit corridors. There was a faint sense of unease that settled in his stomach as he walked into the Electrical room; red, yellow, blue, and black wiring crushing under his feet. There were so many wires Wilbur would rather wonder about the purpose of life rather than find a few singular faulty wires, it would be like finding a needle in a haystack.
Though thankfully, there was a panel that contained the major wires connected to every room in the base behind the humongous light box, which was basically a wall full of switches and red-black lights that symbolized what light was or wasn’t working or whatever. Wilbur wasn’t exactly the expert in mechanics, though he knew the abridged version and the basics of fixing simple delicate machinery.
His white-gloved fingers pressed on the ‘Download’ button on a luminescent screen by the corner of the room, the animation of a mini crewmate waddled above the loading meter, 10%, 32%, 58%-
Wilbur couldn’t help but wonder what we’re the others doing, maybe pranking others’ work progress or just focusing on shooting down space trash zooming nearby, that sounds rather fun. The thumping sounds of a crewmate approaching the Electrical room echoed by the hearing functions of his helmet, the man flipping up his goggles to inspect which unlucky soul had arrived to accompany him in his tasks.
“Oh hey [REDACTED.], fancy seeing y-“
A thundering bang of a pistol sounded from an instrument the recently arrived crewmate held in their gloved hands, a bullet embedded deep into the forehead of the coated man, a small stream of fresh blood dribbling from the deadly hole where metal pierced.
“ Huh-? ” Wilbur muttered, staggering a step backward before toppling onto the cold metal floor, eyes glassy from the lack of life that no longer lingered.
The other crewmate simply brushed off a few lone specks of blood on his sleeve, as well as the smell of gunpowder that would stay for a while at least, leaving the white-suited man on the floor, kicking away the corpse to the side. The ventilation system was just enough for 2 to cross, perfect for one line individual to hop in.
Without a second thought or look at the murder that took place behind them, the bloodthirsty crewmate hopped into the vent as fast as they could, to avoid any suspicion if someone was to cross by there.
They had a few more targets in mind alright, let them make no haste.
“ AHHHHHHHH-! ” A bloodcurdling scream sounded from the Electrical room soon after, an emergency button was pressed frantically on her tablet, a signal being sent to all tablets immediately, that all of them should gather around the huge table in the Cafeteria urgently.
“Why did Niki call us here, did her suit tear again?” Tommy grumbled under his breath as he set his head on the sky blue plastic round table, visor lifted to breathe air more smoothly.
“Maybe, but she isn’t the kind of person to call an Emergency Meeting just because of things as simple as that.” Eret debated, flamingo head accessory flung across her shoulder now, dark sunglasses shimmering under her royal purple helmet.
“Let’s not make conclusions that fast, she’ll explain she arrives.” Phil being the usual peacemaker in the situation, soothed most who were also equally confused by the whole situation.
2 sets of footsteps sounded from the back of the giant table, Jack holding Niki by her hands and shoulder, visor lifted to reveal the woman pale and heavily breathing, having yet to calm down from something. The buzz-cutted man bore a serious expression across his face, also pale as if they have seen some brutal atrocities in front of their very eyes.
“What happened?“ Fundy ran towards the duo, hopping out from the plastic bench to steady the both of them, leading both towards the table where everyone sat, most also boring wary expressions now.
“We- I- We saw in Electrical- Wilbur’s dead .” Niki finally managed to squeak out a couple of words after a few attempts, hands clenched into tight fists as she inhaled yet another heavy breath.
Silence filled the table except for a few discreet shuffles of spacesuits, all 7 crewmates staring at the duo with mixed emotions; confusion, terror, disbelief, grim, nervous, or surfaced neutrality.
“What do you mean Wilbur’s dead - You’re joking right…?” Tubbo questioned, dark pupils shivering slightly by aqua irises, a nervous smile spreading across his face.
“We’re not joking, dead serious. Have we ever joked about shit this serious?” Jack hissed, his breath steadying by a tad bit now, yet his hands still shivered.
“He- He was shot by a gun between the eyes, we don’t know who did it, when we arrived there to do our tasks, he was already lying on the floor-“ Niki stopped midway through her sentence, wincing at the harsh memory of the man who lay on the chilly metal lifeless, eyes a void of anything under his cracked visor.
Tommy jumped up from his seat suddenly after the statement, face blank from any emotion as the young man stormed towards to corridor leading to the Storage room, hands gripping and unwrapping repeatedly. “I’m going to check, there’s no way someone would betray us like this-”
“Tommy-”
“Tommy, calm down-” Phil and Ranboo both stood up at the same time, attempting to calm the young crewmate down from the news. But before anyone could utter another word, the airlocked doors leading to every corridor from the Cafeteria slammed shut, missing Tommy by a whisker as he stumbled onto the ground from shock, cyan eyes wide.
“Okay, what the fuck is happening.” The crimson-suited man muttered angrily, fishing out his tablet to who in the world toggled the doors to slam shut, merely missing him to smash him to death . His cerulean eyes narrowed as nothing showed up in his control panel, that someone had to override their permission over the base to the point they were the first priority now, and that they had no control over the ship.
“Definitely something dire alright. Someone hacked the base. We can’t get out before the unknown guy deems us worthy of exploring the ship now.” Technoblade grunted as he brushed a harsh finger over his own tablet, scrolling through the setting of the base, now a brilliant red, the signal that they weren’t in control of anything this time.
“So what, do they want us to kill ourselves till no one is left like the Hunger Games?” Ranboo laughed nervously, arms surrounding himself in the comfort of the spiraling plot of their journey. No one had signed up for dealing with traitors within their ranks, which wasn’t included in their training, nor had they signed up for being detectives for a murder mystery.
“Or we could, you know, pull an uno reverse on them and eject them out of the base.” The pink crewmate offered, eyebrows scrunched, grimacing at his tablet.
“Ah brilliant suggestion, how do you say we find them out then? That is totally not difficult at all.” Tubbo snapped sarcastically, slamming down his hand on the table startling a couple surrounded by the plastic disc.
“Tubbo it’s not worth it to argue now, what’s important is that we find out the traitors.” Eret placed a hand on the younger crewmate’s shoulder, soothing him by patting him on the back slowly, a tired breath sighed out of the green crewmate’s mouth.
“Yeah- You’re right. Sorry Techno for snapping at you.” The young crewmate muttered apologetically, a hand wrapped tightly on his other arm, earning a nod from the pink man.
“Okay, so that most of us have calmed down, let’s just- Gather up everything that happened so far. So I and Niki found Wilbur dead by the download panel in Electrical, there weren’t any clues as to when the murder happened, I checked.” Jack clarified after inhaling a few more deep breaths, “After that, Niki immediately clicked the Emergency Meeting button, summoning all of us here. There is at least one person who betrayed us, seeing by how they could hack the base too, there isn’t zero possibility they have an accomplice either, or more.”
“So what you’re saying is-” Tommy whispered in a breathy voice, teeth gritted together from his still open visor, eyebrows scrunched, hands curled into a fist.
“It should be incredibly obvious by now, but yeah, every one of us could be the traitor. What’s worse is that we can’t contact headquarters right now since Communications are still out of order.”
Just as Jack finished his sentence, a countdown sounded from all of their tablets, beeping rapidly in red neon lights upon their screens.
Proceeding In:
5s.
4s.
3s.
2s.
1s.
No one was ejected. ( Skip Vote .)
Only 9 remain.
Everyone stayed in their seats frozen, heads going in overdrive from what in the ever living world was going on, they weren’t trained for dealing with passive-aggressive life threats.
Another Emergency message popped up rapidly on their tablets, now, it wasn’t just their tablets going off, but the whole base blaring with flashing crimson sirens, and metallic beeping sounds going off from the speakers all around.
Oxygen Depleted in 30 (0/2 )
Oxygen Depleted in 29 (0/2 )
Oxygen Depleted in 28 (0/2 )
“FUCK-! EVERYONE HURRY TO ADMIN AND O2 QUICK!” Eret yelled, every crewmate in the room hopping out of the bench in a frenzy, flocking towards their respective places to fix the urgent crisis without thinking, like it was their second nature to protect the whole base.
Except for 2, who smirked at each other under their visors, tablets showing the control panel behind their backs, dilated eyes staring at the flashing siren.
Tommy ran towards the Admin room as fast as he could, it was just his luck he was just sitting by the corridor nearest to that room at the table, he didn’t even realize that every single door was malfunctioning, slamming and shutting at random times, missing the young man by a whisker again as he slipped into the room just before the airlocked doors crushed him by the waist yet again, sprinting towards the panel that controlled the Oxygen flow in the whole base.
To be extremely honest, he was still quite, no, incredibly freaked out by how there was a traitor among them, especially when they had shown no mercy that they would be willing to kill someone for whatever reason. He’ll make a very stern to Headquarters to demand a raise after they’ve found out the traitor, and Tommy would make sure they pay the full price for killing Wilbur.
He still couldn’t believe that the chaotic, bright, and charismatic man he had met for just a few minutes could cause such an impact across the crew, Tommy especially. Denial was a cruel thing, and he can’t believe the white crewmate was dead until he saw solid proof.
A yellow piece of memo paper was stuck on the machine where it controlled the Oxygen, 5982, it wrote with chicken scratch handwriting, he could just almost think it was his doing.
Trembly red gloves clicked on the respective numbers on the metal panel, his tablet reading that one machine was already dealt with, and now all of the ship’s fate was in Tommy’s hands. That totally isn’t stressful at all, surely.
5.
9.
8.
2. As soon as his finger pressed on the number 2, the blaring red siren throughout the base and his tablet ceased, the young crewmate toppling on the ground, heaving deep breaths of comfort.
He did it. He actually did it in time. “ Thank goodness- ” He breathed in a wispy voice, opening his visor to breathe in more precious air into his lungs. Tommy would never not acknowledge the importance of air after that, that was scary as fuck .
A rapid thump of footsteps rang by the corridor outside, a familiar toy blob of an alien peeking out from the doorframe, revealing a crewmate that Tommy recognized immediately, smiling at their sudden presence.
“Ohhh, [REDACTED], I actually did it in time, thank fuck that was scary.”
“ Proud of ya’, king. We’ll have one less thing to deal with then. ” The crewmate huffed gratefully, stomach twisting under their spacesuit as Tommy finally stood up, back fully unprotected from anything.
“Yeah, let’s go back to The Cafeteria, we’ll have to talk to the others more about Wil-” Before the crimson crewmate could finish his sentence, the door to the Admin room slammed shut, the other crewmate’s tablet in their hands, the luminescent screen of the control panel of the base full on display. Tommy’s eyes widened at the realization, hands creeping behind his back to fish out his tablet for the Emergency Button-
A long sharp needle pierced his abdomen within a fraction of a second, [REDACTED]’s stomach boring an abysmal hole full of yellowed teeth, stained with hints of pink blood, beet red tongue impaling his stomach, Tommy coughing out a handful of blood onto the floor as he hung mid-way through the air.
“[RE]- [REDACTED]...?” He managed to mutter as the sharp paranormal shrunk back from his stomach, thumping him onto the hollow metal floor, a flood of sticky blood flowing from his wound, shaky cyan eyes meeting the other’s cold gaze as they stepped towards him.
“How- How could you-”
“ I’m sure Wilbur would appreciate some more company. Say Hi from me to him, okay? ” The crewmate smirked, lifting up their visor, eyes bloodied and full of microvessels. Their stomach yet again opened up, sharp tongue once again penetrating the throat of the red crewmate, coughing another blob of blood, splattering across the other’s boots.
“You’re- not- [REDACTED]- are- you-?” Tommy managed to cough out the words, before more blood dribbled out from his wound and mouth, dripping onto the floor with silent plops.
“No, I am not. You may call me the Imposter of [REDACTED]. Anyways, I’ll see you on the other side. Good night. ” The raspberry-red tongue sliced the young man’s throat as the final blow, cyan eyes warping to gray from the lack of life, the Imposter letting the crewmate bleed out further, walking away from the foul-smelling substance.
The vent caught the individual’s eye within their line of vision as they cleaned away excess blood on their spacesuit with a handkerchief, giving the corpse one last look before prying open the screw.
2 down, 8 more to go.
Jack ran towards Electrical from O2 immediately as soon as the siren stopped blaring, leaving Fundy and Niki behind him as he almost slipped on the metal floor, he could almost see Niki heading towards the Navigation room with Fundy nowhere to be seen.
He needed to prove to the others what they saw wasn’t fake, concrete proof that there was indeed a murder that happened in that damned room, or else no one could believe something so preposterous. Well, they technically can, seeing by how they had actually hacked the base, but still. Evidence was needed.
The buzz-cut man couldn’t even a flap of something behind him as he sprinted across the base, the sound of blood pumping in his ears was too loud, not to mention his rapid heartbeat-
“ Hey Jack, hold on! ” Someone called out behind him, before the dark blue crewmate could turn his head to see who was it that called him, a violent pang of pain radiated across his back, flecks of blood mixed with mucus splattering on his visor from the impact, falling on the hollow floor uncontrollably.
Menacing slow footsteps were approaching him, but he still couldn’t move from the harsh amount of pain that pushed him further onto the floor, only managing to squeak open his eyes to see who his assaulter was.
A familiarly colored pair of boots stood in front of his restricted vision, pupils trailing up to see if it was actually them that did the deed, shivering at the implication of who they actually were.
“ [REDACTED.]-? ”
“ Not exactly. ” The crewmate-, no, the traitor squatted in front of the man, an abnormal mouth littered with yellowed teeth smirked smugly at the blue-suited man, long pink tongue flicking like a snake’s.
“You fucking bastard-” Jack managed to huff out with gritted teeth, earning a guttural laugh so strange yet gurgly from the alien’s throat.
“ You’re a little too mouthy for your own good, yeah? Now I think it’s time to finish the job. ” The individual lifted up a dagger smeared with his own blood, stabbing him once again in the back as he coughed out once again in great pangs of pain.
“ I’ll send your regards to Niki when this is all over. ” That was all the man heard before everything turned black, the dagger stained heavily with his blood dripping onto his visor, heartbeat ceasing to a stop step by step. The crunch of his artificial antenna snapping into two from heavy feet, losing all of his five senses all at once.
3 out of the game, 7 more to deal with.
“TOMMY!” A young crewmate shouted as he flung himself onto the other’s corpse, droplets of tears flowing under his visor as a purple crewmate held the green-suited man by the shoulder tightly, lips trembling under their helmet, crystals above his visors clinking against each other as they violently turned their head the other way.
Ranboo clicked the Emergency Meeting button with trembling hands, heterochromatic eyes avoiding the gruesome sight in front of him. They didn’t want their last image of their friend to be his corpse, yet they knew they still had to face the truth in some way or another.
Tommy was dead. From something that pierced his stomach and throat, long and thin. But how exactly? There was no weapon in his brain that had that sort of outcome, even longswords had wider wounds, not to mention someone would definitely know if someone brought a sword onboard.
The duo said nothing when they trudged towards to Cafeteria, the door slamming shut once again as they entered, causing Ranboo to flinch.
“Tubbo, what happened?” Niki questioned, tone undeniably nervous and concerned as she flocked over to the duo to help them to their seats, sliding her pink headset onto her shoulders to listen to them properly.
“To- Tommy’s dead,” Ranboo answered in his companion’s place, a few surprised gasps sounding out from the members of the crew.
“What the fuck.” Eret breathed, hand lifted halfway in the air to comfort the duo who were extremely close to the deceased youngin, yet Tubbo’s stern watery gaze stopped her.
“He- He was pierced through the stomach and throat by some very thin weapon, I and Tubbo were headed to the Cafe to hopefully see someone to talk to, and that was when we saw him-” The purple crewmate sucked in a deep breath, the ending of their sentence obvious to all, a chilling silence filling every nook and cranny of the room.
“Wait. Where’s Jack?” Niki questioned suddenly as she swept her head around the room to spot traces of her friend, cold airlocked doors silent and ruthless, not even budging nor giving any hints.
“Niki, look at your tablet.” Phil offered as he held up his own further in his face, scrunched up pale eyebrows easily seen under his visor.
The pink-suited crewmate wasted no time opening up her tablet to check upon it, a pop-out window showing up out of nowhere; a link towards the Medbay statistics by default. With a small bite on her lip, she clicked on the link, the screen switching towards the originally restricted section that no one could access, 10 moving or still lines filling her screen.
An entirely straight line was by 3 people’s names; Wilbur, Tommy, and Jack.
“Is this-”
“Yeah, that’s the heart-rate monitor attached to our suits. I found it completely on accident when I was waiting for Tubbo and Ranboo to arrive.” The lime crewmate answered straightforwardly, a slight grimace on his wrinkled face as he stared on at the lines.
“Wasn’t this restricted last round though, do the traitors want to jeer at us to give us clues-?” Fundy muttered, clicking at his screen that bored the same few lines, deep in thought.
Something then clicked in Technoblade’s head, cold eyes swerving to face Fundy’s own beady black. “How do you know there is more than one traitor, Fundy? And how can you assume their motives that quick?”
The orange crewmate’s expression turned panicked at that, pupils shifting from side to side, “I- just think that one traitor wouldn’t be able to kill so many people that fast, just a speculation, yeah- I’m just assuming their motives-”
“I’m only asking for your opinion Fundy, why do you sound so nervous?” Technoblade stood up from his seat, facing the other man face-on, “Or are you hiding something shady from us?”
“Oh yeah! Fundy, weren’t you and Jack alone by O2 when I headed to Navigation?” Niki swerved her head towards the man with realization, stern eyes meeting Fundy’s rapidly blinking ones.
“I know this sounds really bad, but it really isn’t me I swear! Jack ran off towards Shields after we fixed the Depletion-”
“You would still have enough time to catch up to him then. Besides, didn’t you hate Wilbur for teasing you too much? I remember you told me once you didn’t like it one bit.” Eret added, face grim from every implication that compiled itself onto the crewmate.
“Well, yeah- But that isn’t a well enough reason for me to kill him though, that would be too petty of me to do so.”
“I don’t know man, it sounds like you do something petty like this, you also sound too nervous for someone who would be innocent.” Tubbo seethed quietly in his seat, standing up to his full height in front of the man a few inches taller than him, anger easily decipherable on his face.
“I saw Techno and Phil by the left side of the base, if both of the bodies were on the right, and Niki wouldn’t kill Jack, there’s only one left who is the most suspicious…” Eret muttered under his breath in thought, leading most of the crewmates by the table to swerve their heads toward a particular crewmate.
“A show of hands who thinks Fundy is the traitor.” The green-suited man stated, raising his own heavily suited arm.
Eret, Niki, Ranboo, Technoblade, and Phil all raised their hands, steely gazes placed upon the orange crewmate, who staggered backward from his seat.
“Guys, seriously- Can we seriously think about this, would I be so obviously nervous if I was indeed the traitor, I would be a shit actor if everything was that easy from the start-” Fundy debated, yet the countdown on their tablets interrupted the man suddenly.
Proceeding In:
5s.
4s.
3s.
2.
1s.
A grabbing claw appeared out of nowhere on a panel by the ceiling, clutching the orange-suited crewmate by the waist before he could do anything of use at all, stretching the robotic arm far towards the ejection airlock by the top right of the Cafeteria, throwing the man straight into the immediately closed door slammed shut.
Fundy repeatedly thumped on the glass, visor open to reveal he was saying something, yet the airlocked doors produced no sound at all after his obvious rejections and debates.
And then. The gate that led towards the abysmal chilly universe was opened, sucking the orange-suited man into space in a fraction of a second, leaving all other survivors breathless from how fast the ejection was, not that they had used it to eject an actual human outside before.
Fundy was ejected.
Only 6 remain.
And with that, eerie silence once again filled all individuals on the table, staring at the airlocked door where a former crewmate was sent out to die -
Before anyone could say anything, their tablets and the whole base once again blared with the same sirens as the last round, red flickering lights obscuring their dark vision.
Reactor Meltdown in 30 (0/2)
Reactor Meltdown in 29 (0/2)
Reactor Meltdown in 28 (0/2)
Reactor Meltdown in 27 (0/2)
No words were needed this time, every crewmate sharing a knowing nod across the table, still numb from how they had sent a friend to his death seconds prior, but now they had another life-or-death situation to deal with, mourning can be pushed for later.
Every single person rushed to the reactor from different directions, except for the same 2 who always stayed.
The duo smiled, sharp teeth grinding against one another on their mouths and abdomen. A few more to go. Victory had never felt so close and sweet.
Eret ran towards the reactor as fast as she could, Niki following by her footsteps as they swerved by the Upper Engine, twin sounds of footsteps thundering against the hollow metal flooring. She almost tripped over an exhaustion pipe, but that was no biggie. What’s most important is that they travel in duos at the moment, there was clearly at least one more traitor among their ranks if crises were still able to be activated. But who? Had they assumed wrongly that Fundy was the traitor all along, or was there still an accomplice from at least one of them? Eret didn’t know, but dealing with the reactor was most important first, other thoughts can be left for later.
Before she knew it, the two of them had reached the Reactor, both sharing knowing eyes as they sprinted to opposite sides of the room, Niki running towards the bottom direction while Eret headed for the top.
Frantically, she peeled off her baggy glove attached to the metal ring that avoided any bacterial infections or air pollution, smacking her bare palm on the biometrical recognition panel, scanning her strands of DNA across her palm with a red laser, returning to a clear cyan as the robotic font above it read; REACTOR NORMAL.
Eret could also hear Niki sigh a breath of relief behind her, more footsteps approaching as they swiveled around.
“Oh you guys made it in time,” Phil remarked as he stood by the entrance, the alien blob on his helmet wobbling as Technoblade walked by his side, who nonchalantly was fixing the placement of his crown.
“Yeah, thankfully. That was so sudden too, so there might be at least one traitor left-” Niki analyzed as she walked towards the duo with Eret, none of them seeing a toothy crooked smile on Phil’s helmet as they approached, a lengthy tongue piercing the pink crewmate’s helmet as soon as she came to their radius.
"Jack sends his dearest regards."
Eret stared at the blood that splattered across his helmet, dribbling on her suit in slow drops as time seemed to go on without her, eyes behind sunglasses blown completely wide as Niki toppled onto the floor, dead.
“ Phil- ” The cock of a gun met her temple before she could continue, white milky eyes meeting the raven block of a pistol barrel right above her eyes, Technoblade’s stomach opened up to reveal a ravine full of razor-sharp teeth, long tongue licking at the blood that spilled from her companion’s skull, a subtle smile across his helmet sinister and cold, that they knew victory was in their hands.
“ Why are you doing this?” Her voice compressed into a whisper as she held up her arms in surrender, and she had no weapons on her to fight, the guillotine above her neck so closely felt.
“ You see, we need a few more vessels for us . ” Phil- No, the Imposter sneered, a sharp tongue licking away the blood that was splattered across her helmet. “Humans, such fragile but easily manipulated creatures. You all followed the rules we set for you, so these are the consequences you didn’t take your chance to eradicate us.”
“ But we’ll never die, we will survive from the space cold, prying ourselves on the nearest creature that lingers. ” The pink Imposter added, curling its tongue around Eret’s waist, and squeezed.
“ Your kind will never get rid of us, no matter how hard you try. As long as you stop evolving, you can never beat us. ”
“ So farewell. Or in human terms, see you in hell and in the afterlife, dear Eret. This was your run. ”
"Though,"
"We will never die."
BANG!
(Only 2 remain.)
Tubbo didn’t know how to feel when he saw the two crewmates sprawled onto the floor, eyes glassy from the lack of life, blood smeared upon the bodies of two familiar crewmates that stood above them, cracking necks turning to face him and Ranboo with blood-smeared mouths.
It was just their luck they had chosen the longer route to reach Reactor, Tommy’s body was gone from its original place as they scoured the Admin room, no trace of anyone that died across the whole ship.
This was definitely something paranormal happening upon them, their hearts turning cold as soon as they heard the BANG! of a pistol as they neared the Reactor, fearing that another had fell victim to the unknown traitor.
And there they were, not one, but two traitors stood before them, alien teeth and organ covering their protected bodies, eyes wild under dark visors.
“Phil- Techno-” Ranboo muttered as he stared at the crewmates sprawled n the floor nearby, a hole piercing Niki’s helmet just like Tommy’s, matching Phil’s needle-thin tongue that flicked by his open abdomen; a smoking hole by Eret’s chest, a shiny black pistol in Technoblade’s bloody hands that matched the description of Wilbur’s death.
Two traitors were right before their eyes, and they were too late to save anyone. Even Fundy, who was innocent .
“Here comes the last members of our plan. ” A throaty voice so different from Phil’s rattled, disfigured helmet turning to face the horrified duo.
“ You lost, Tubbo and Ranboo. These are the consequences of your actions. ” The thing inside Technoblade cackled, the thin line on the pick helmet breaking free, revealing dirty yellow teeth, layered like a shark’s, breathy laughter echoing across the room.
“ You followed our guidance, so these are the consequences of your misplaced trust. ”
“ You followed our rules, and that is what led you to your undeniable demise. ”
“ So, good night to you as well. Like your beloved friend Tommy.” Phil ended, releasing his tongue like a whip across the duo’s necks, and the last thing they saw before everything went black, were the faces of Phil and Techno staring at them, smiling sadly yet smugly at the ones they’d killed.
Victory
Imposters: Technoblade Philza
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