Origins of an Icer

Chapter 12

Hangar of the Iron Maiden, 2130pm

Wren crouched low in the shadows of the Aaru, having pretended to practice running the craft in simulations and ring runs when Akifa had come to get him from the craft. Both wore black suits, fitted with extrasensory abilities to alert their helmets when someone came close, Akifa had his twin pistols charged and secured while Wren simply had his size and claws.

Crawling over to the wall that had slid open earlier, Wren crawled in first, punching his claws in to find purchase on the metal wall before starting his crawl downwards, his tail cutting some slits in the metal for Akifa to use as a ladder when he jumped in, sealing the door behind them.

"Fuck it's dark... hang on!"

(Akifa, don't. I have night vision, just turn on your own. We can't afford the extra light in case of getting caught...) Wren took a second, closing his eyes before opening them back up, everything illuminated in a thermal filter as he crawled down. Akifa grumbled softly, trying not to slice his hands on the metal cuts as they made their way down, nearly gagging at the smell when the hall emptied out above a massive trash pile.

"Makes sense... thank god I got a strong filter. How're you?" Akifa turned as Wren doubled over, gagging and coughing up a protein bar's worth before shivering and pulling on his helmet.

"Might've been a smarter idea to do it before getting down here?" he mentioned, smiling softly as he rubbed Wren's back, the Icer chuckling softly.

(Well...it's not the engine room, but we found where all the trash goes. Only... why wasn't this on the map? Why hide it?) Wren crawled down the pile, carefully avoiding anything that oozed or squished under his claws as he rolled to the ground, staring up at the massive room. Piles of trash filtered in from sections above that opened and closed, forming tall, decaying towers of trash as old, forgotten robots kept cycling through the junk, trashing most out of the airlock. Wren carefully walked around the pile they were in as he noticed most of it was abandoned fuel cells, ship parts, ammunition, and a large amount of alcohol containers.

"Definitely hangar detritus... I probably helped with some of this, sorry." Akifa shrugged as Wren shook his head, waving it off.

"It's fine... but why hasn't anything taken care of the trash? The filtration system must be huge if we can't even smell this pile-up through the ship. Someone must work down here..." Wren muttered, glancing around for a door as Akifa took out one pistol, holding it ready before following the Icer. Carefully weaving through the towers of trash, Wren found the back wall to the room, tracing it around before almost coming into contact with the robots.

"They're old... like Earth old, they're way out-dated and out-moded. They should be... well, dead. Why are they still doing this?" Akifa asked, frowning as he watched the fragile robots clinking and hissing steam, picking up tiny chunks one by one to dump it.

(Bit odd... they're only going to certain piles and picking out the same material. It's white, ranges anywhere from long and thin to short, nearly invisible. So strange...) Wren curled up, watching them as Akifa gasped, recognizing the "ball" one pulled from a trash heap, shining it into the light.

"That's a skull..." Akifa pointed it to Wren who narrowed his eyes, looking it over.

(It's long since bleached out... old. Missing several teeth and looks like a long time of decay when it was alive. Do you have any reports on deaths in this ship?)

"No. The Captain promised we'd be notified if anyone died, in case we knew them. I... I've never heard of anyone dying..." Akifa answered, kneeling next to Wren who flicked the end of his tail in thought.