Chapter Text
"Ghost ship. Dead ahead. Proceed with caution. Or don't, that would be equally desirable," the Warden, his lovely definitely-not-stolen AI, drawled.
Dream scoffed at it before hearing what it'd actually said.
Derelict vessels weren't all that uncommon in the grand scheme of things. The Wastes were violent and empty stretches of the Void, far from habitable worlds and by extension, help. They were hotspots for pirates, smugglers and slavers, though there was rarely a distinction between the three. So it wasn't weird to find a ghost ship out here, no, what was odd was that Dream didn't recognize that maker of the craft.
Almost every ship maker in the galaxy put a unique magnetic signature into every one that they made, that way someone could identify the ship and the company that made it at a glance. This didn't have any sort of signature at all. It felt no different than an asteroid and, had his AI not piped in that they were quickly approaching a ghost ship, he would have just passed the thing by.
His AI had piped in though, and Dream was absolutely checking out the derelict vessel. He urged his ship, if you could even call something that was barely bigger than an escape pod a 'ship', closer to the abandoned vessel.
It was a hulking mass of metal, feeling almost Elytrian Warship-like in proportion, though Warden commented that it was significantly uglier than one when Dream had said that out loud. Dream wouldn't know at any rate, visual aesthetics weren't really his forte.
Nightmare, his little O-Fighter, cluncked quietly as it set down in what was presumably a hanger, its magnets engaging to have it stick in place. And then it started floating up again.
This ship. This ship didn't follow universal docking protocol.
Ok.
Alright then.
That's fine.
He clicked his face plates in annoyance before pushing away to grab a helmet.
"I am required to inform you that the hunters are rapidly approaching, ETA T minus three tenths." His antennae twitched in irritation. Great. Fantastic. Just what he needed right now.
"Awww, Warden, you do care about me. And that's fine, I can be in and out in one," Dream twisted the helmet on, seals engaging with a hiss, and got used to the feeling of hearing sound through surround speakers rather than directly.
"00001. The fact that I did not terminate you when I had the chance is a constant and recurring regret of mine. The fact that I cannot is a problem that I will figure out how to rectify."
The airlock doors slid shut behind him and clicked as the air in the little room rushed into holding canisters, "You always say such nice things to me. Really know how to make a guy feel loved."
The second airlock clicked open and the Void rushed in like an oppressive blanket of silence. The vacuum of the Void killed any and all sound present as there was no air to transmit the sound through. Losing a major sense was always disorienting, he felt lost and confused before his other senses compensated and the feeling of electrically dead walls pressed in on him.
Dream whistled lowly, his AI faking the sound bouncing off surfaces, and suddenly the ship's interior came into focus. What was really strange was that it seemed like all the ship's doors were open. Every room showed the signs of being ripped apart by the Void's violent call. Boxes and papers, tables and cabinets, personal items, nothing was spared.
It was incredibly weird to not feel the hum of electricity, the weight of gravity signatures, the sounds of hustle and bustle that typically come with ships of this caliber. He whistled again, Dream needed to be in and out.
In and out.
Grab supplies, rations, anything vaguely interesting, and then get the End out. He only had around eighty hundredths left and time was ticking fast.
He passed by things that felt like bedrooms and made his way to more open parts of the vessel. The hallway height was significantly lower than standard, leaving him awkwardly pulling himself along it, careful to scrunch in his limbs to avoid bumping into anything.
He found something that resembled rations but the Warden informed him that it was full of a powder containing high amounts of trimethylxanthine and Dream hissed. Hesitated. Grabbed it. Poison may come in useful, even though he didn't want to hurt his hunters, he may have to at some point. He also grabbed a bunch of other stuff that seemed vaguely edible before leaving the room.
The longer he was on the ship the weirder it got, he had already erased almost all his expectations of the place and he was still getting surprised. As Dream floated further into the metal corpse of the ship he started to feel the zing of electricity in the walls, for the first time since he'd left Nightmare.
"A large amount of energy appears to all be routed into the room to your left. I am required to tell you to be careful."
Dream's face plates clicked at the AI's words, revealing serrated back facing teeth. Kicking off the wall behind him he was sent spinning into the room next to him. The energy felt almost overwhelming after the dead nothingness throughout the rest of the ship. It buzzed around his plates like he was wrapped in live wire.
"Oh! That's. That's a lot of electricity." Dream whistled. The room flashed into his notice as the fake bounce back reached him again. The electricity all stopped right in front of him. He reached forward, something clicked under his claws, he jerked his arm back but it was too late. The box, identical to the dozens of powerless ones lying next to it, opened with a shudder.
*
Tommy woke up freezing. The oxygen hit his brain and he sluggishly fought to open his eyes against flashing red lights. The chill had seeped itself into his bones and now refused to leave.
The cryo suit he was stuffed into only seemed to make the cold worse. He reached for the helmet release and, just as he reached the clasp, metallic talons grabbed his wrist and pulled it away from him.
Y'know, thought Tommy, panicking only a little, this is pretty shit.
He shook off his exhaustion as he looked up at the thing holding him. It had two sets of arms, one much larger than the other, a long flat tail, and legs that looked like a cat's with backwards knees and shit. It was wearing something that looked sort of like a space suit, if space suits were lime green, had no glass to look out of, and were made for weird raptor-looking bitches. Tommy came to the quick conclusion that he wasn't looking at a human. Which wasn't that pog if you asked him. Just not great.
The monster just held onto him, weirdly still and occasionally moving its head in little circles. Tommy did his best to casually take back his arm but its grip just got tighter, and Tommy didn't feel like getting his hand taken off today because wow this bitch was really strong.
With a twitch, the green bitch spun off in the direction of the door with Tommy in tow and he had no idea what was going on, or why the ship was so dark, or why the emergency alerts were on. All he knew was that everything was cold, he hurt like hell, and that he was getting pulled through The L'Manberg by something he was beginning to think was actually an alien.
Tommy was feeling the regret of a man that'd laughed at the '2020's bingo I'm hoping for aliens' posts.
The almost familiar ship passed him by in flashes. It was empty. Space had ripped it to pieces and the ship showed signs of a battle. Bullet holes and coin sized burnt circles littered the walls, floor and ceiling. A fight had taken place here.
A fight had taken place here and he hadn't even known. He'd been laughing with Captain Bo on the bridge ("Captain Tobias Bo? I'm here to-" "Oof that's stuffy, just call me Tubbo.") and gossiping with Lieutenant Bo (They were married. Ran had just laughed when he'd asked about the whole last name situation.) in the cafeteria, what felt like yesterday.
It'd been a day just like any other. Right?
Red lights and blaring sound blasted from the required emergency alert boxes in every room. "I can't lose you too."
"I'm a big man, Tubbo, too big a man to die!"
The Captain laughed humorlessly, "Yeah. Yeah you are Tommy."
He was really cold.
A day just like any other. That's all it had been.
He didn't know what they were or why they were here, all Tommy knew was that they were huge and had powerful weapons. A smoking mark sizzled where his head had been not even a second earlier.
The thing in front of him snarled and lunged, the weapon making the same whining sound as it had before. It was too close. He couldn't dodge this time. Tommy tried anyway. The pain felt like it hit him before the bolt did. It burrowed into his left arm like hundreds of worms made of fire, and then the arm went numb entirely.
Tommy fell limp. The barrel of the weapon was where the things mouth would probably be if it weren't wearing a helmet. It lined up another shot. It was going to hit, this time some place worse.
Tommy knew he was going to die.
A hand closed around his upper arm and yanked him into an adjacent hallway. Ran's terrified face stared right into his own. And Tommy? Well Tommy couldn't seem to stop laughing.
The alien continued its path through the L'Manberg, clearly with no real idea where it was headed. He was being dragged past crew quarters when he spotted it out of the corner of his eye. His huge red backpack, the white embroidered "Fuck Space" clearly visible. He wanted it. He had no idea how long it'd been sitting in the vacuum of space, or if anything inside survived, but that didn't really matter to him. He wanted, no, needed it back.
There was only one problem with that.
It was just out of reach and he was being pulled through the cargo-ship like an unruly dog.
He tried pulling his arm away, but just like any time he'd tried before that didn't get him anywhere. His gaze landed on the wall rungs that were used to help mobility in low gravity. And grabbed one.
Both him and the Green Bitch stopped moving instantly. The backpack couldn't have been more than three meters away. It was right there. He felt a tug on his arm.
"Fuck off, alien bitch! Let me go!" It couldn't hear him, Tommy knew that, but it made him feel better regardless.
"Tubbo? What the fuck are you doing?!"
"Saving your life."
"What? No! Tubbo, don't do this. Don't! You coward!"
"Better live a coward than die a hero Tommy. Live. Live for m-"
The Bitch pulled a little harder this time but Tommy was stubborn. He was not going to let go of this rung until he got his stupid backpack back. This was his hill and he was going to die on it.
He pulled and it pulled harder. He wasn't going to give up. He wasn't. And then he collided with the backpack with a huff as the Green Bitch let him go without warning. The fucker. It just stared at him, silently. Waiting as he quickly put the backpack on.
He attempted to get the hell out of dodge but it was significantly faster than him. He'd only shot forward by four wall rungs before it latched onto him again.
This was so incredibly unfair.