The Slaughterhouse

Anum shouted at Maurice – “WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING??” Maurice gritted his teeth “SHUT UP AND HANG TIGHT YOU DAMNED RACCOON!” The ship rattled as they entered the atmosphere, spiraling down. Creaks and snaps as the heatshields were burning up and getting torn off the hull – ‘Warning! Overheating! Proximity alert! Missile lock detected! Proximity alert! Overheating!’ the ship’s systems wailed! Every possible alert was going off as Maurice tried to dodge the floating island ahead.

“MOVE!” Shouted the raccoon as he clung onto the seatbelts in his co-pilot chair. Maurice slammed his hand onto the control panel – “WORK YOU PIECE OF TRASH” The vertical thrusters coughed and came online for a moment. A sudden jerk ripped the antenna off the top of the ship. Maurice watched it fly off as the ship hovered 2 meters above the surface. He jerked the lever ‘Missile! Missile!’ wailed the alarms. The ship rolled to the side as a deafening screech interrupted the wailing alarms. 

“This is bad!” exclaimed Maurice, his eyes wide as the raccoon’s when suddenly the ship rolled and began falling down while rolling! The missile damaged the hull and the barely functioning thruster, sending the ship into an uncontrolled crash. A moment later, impact, loud crash. Safety systems engaged as expected. Anum awoke in the safety-capsule inside the cockpit, which his chair had turned into, unharmed. Maurice too, awoke in a similar capsule without any injuries. 

Maurice’s capsule hissed as the safety capsule’s door opened. He crawled out and dusted off, looking around – “tsk… there goes Icicle…” Anum crawled on top of his capsule and sighed – “You damned useless rat!! I’ll find somebody else to be my pilot!” Maurice squinted at him – “listen here you trash panda! I’m an opossum! Not a rat! You’re about as intelligent as you are handsome! Not at all!” He huffed, crawling up the sparkling control panel towards the shattered window. 

Anum followed Maurice and shortly after the 2 of them found themselves standing on top of their mangled up spaceship. “I knew hiring you was a bad idea” said Anum. “I knew this entire mission was a terrible idea” said Maurice while looking for a way down. The 2 of them shortly found themselves standing on sand. Surrounding them was a floating island, by the looks of things, deserted and completely dried up. A desert, off in the distance, ruins by the looks of things.

 Their ship had crash landed on a trolley. Tracks covered by a sand dune seemingly lead towards the city. Under the ship, remnants of a trolley, completely annihilated. A wheel flew off from the trolley and landed in the sand a few meters away. At the back, a metallic arm stuck out from under the ship. Anum scratched his head – “ey! Maurice! What the heck did we crash land on?” Maurice grinned – “Oho! A mech! Or maybe an automaton! Who knows! But..” 

He said as he knelt by the only thing left intact of this trolley and construction – “this is some fine engineering! A shame..” he said and suddenly sprung up to his feet- “OH NO! EXTERMINATOR!” Anum sighed – “yes, ofc, your toy, it’s probably fine..” he said and began walking off towards the top of the nearest dune – “Grab my axe while you’re inside getting your damned robot, yes?” Maurice began climbing back onto the ship in silence, ignoring his demands. 

Few moments later, a mech roughly the size of a human leapt out of the destroyed spaceship. In hand he held a, by raccoon standard, large axe, in other hand, a sword, sized for human. The mech quickly ran up the sand dune and handed the axe over to the raccoon. “How is it?” asked Anum as he grabbed the axe and checked it out. Maurice shrugged – “Well, the pasta is gone, but the exterminator is intact, the radiator is damaged, and the fan is out of commission. Will overheat in this blaze fast..”

Anum sighed – “our luck… can it walk to that city though?” he pointed onto the shimmering horizon.” Maurice opened up the helmet of the mech and looked out onto the horizon – “Nav systems are down too, can not gauge distance.. Per my estimate” he squinted – “about 30km away, should make it without overheating, hopefully. Hop on!” Maurice said and closed the helmet back to keep himself shaded from the blazing sun. 

And so they walked in the scorching sun. The mech’s alloy held up well against the heat of the sun, but Anum found himself close to feinting, sitting on the shoulder of the mech. It took them 4 hours to reach the city, but the sun was still high in the sky, seemingly only moving a little. “Guess the days on this planet are quite long..” unhappily exclaimed Anum. Before them now stood a ruined stone wall and the remnants of a city, half devoured by the unforgiving sands. 

Maurice walked the mech into the shadow, shut the mech down and sighed – “core is getting toast, it needs to cool down.. We’re on our own for the next few hours. Anum shrugged – “thirsty, hungry, stranded and without our main fighting power. We’re doomed! Let’s go see if we can find ANYTHING in this god’s forgotten place.”  Most buildings, half buried by the sand, making it quite impossible to enter and explore much. 

They rummaged through the buildings and found no trace of anything or anyone. Seemingly only a couple of hours had passed but the star suddenly seemed to have moved a lot. Long shadows cast by the buildings caused the sand beneath them to cool fast. Maurice admired the anomaly upon noticing it “this planet has an artificial rotation speed, controlled by some external forced, and.. It’s unstable” he observed. Anum laughed – “of course. Next thing you’ll tell me is that there are sand sh..” 

He paused as he looked at the sand moving a few meters away from them.  “You saw that too, right?” Maurice looked in the direction and shrugged – “mmhh, no.. Maybe you’re just hungry?” They continued rumbling through the buildings. At last, an excited shout echoed through the silent ruins – “MAURICE! OVER HERE!” Maurice ran towards Anum’s voice, through the window, and into the room. There he found Anum sitting on a storage shelf – “check this out fam! We got FOOD!” 

As they tore the crates open, they found canned food and dried rations, and even some bottled liquid. Blue in color, in beautiful crystal vials. To their surprise, they could read the labels on all the items. Maurice examined the cans’ expiration dates – “uhhm, expires in: 14768” he shrugged – “what year is it do you reckon?” Anum laughed -”oh judging by all the sand must be at least 15000!” 

He grabbed 1 of the vials and popped it open without reading, chugging the slightly sweet’ish substance that resembled oil by its viscosity. Maurice grabbed he bottle out of his hand- “Are you insane? We don’t know if it could be poison!?” he glanced at the bottle’s label “Fantasia, make your dreams come true!” He raised his eyebrow and then stared at Anum who shrugged – “taste good! I’ll have another!”

Anum feinted, and as he did, a dream came to him “what desire do you have for your looks?” spoke the voice to him in his dream. He shrugged – “eh? I’m happy as i am! Ohhh! Wait! No! I got it! How about, oh yes, like.. Pink pink eyes! Haha!” laughed Anum at the weird fever dream he thought he was having. Before him a mirror appeared where he could see himself. His eyes were pink – “yea yea like that!” And so he awoke a moment later, his eyes pink. 

Maurice took a step back – “what the hell happened to you?” Anum shrugged – “huh? What ya mean?” Maurice pointed at his own eye – “your eyes are pink!” Anum told him about his dream. Maurice shook his head – “L..lets not drink any more of it.” They sampled some canned foods which, surprisingly, were quite fine and tasted alright. Canned fish and canned ‘lamarena’ which tasted like chicken. 

They slept through the night, and spent the morning debating the best course of action. They came to the conclusion that repairing the ship’s beacon system and luring in the Cristerna’s hunter ship was the best idea. If they could manage to crash the hunter ship they could use the parts to repair their own, they decided. “Keep sweeping the system and scanning the planets” demanded a red fluffy cat sitting on the backrest of a pilot’s chair in a spaceship, floating slowly through the solar system where they had previously engaged with Anum and Maurice. A robotic life form silently obeyed the command of the red fluffy cat’s command. The cat eyed the radar and the systems sharply, then growled, its claws sinking into the fabric of the backrest – “Mrrroowww!! I’ll find you” mumbled the cat as its gaze momentarily darted to a banner, with a red claw on it and text above it “Christerna”. He grinned – “Mrroowwsster! I will not fail” 

“HOLY SHIT! Maurice! We’re fu..ed!” shouted Anum as he looked down from the roof of the building onto 7 sand sharks bellow the building, circling the building where they had slept the night before. Maurice walked up behind him and looked down – “ohoh.. We are about to become a meal, not to a damned hunter but to some sand sharks” Anum shrugged – “if you were any more useful, we wouldn’t be here!” 

Maurice growled – “If you didn’t take on a mission requiring us to go into the Christerna’s territory you damned greedy fool!” Anyway, I need my mech to deal with those, and that’s at the entrance to the city!” He glanced at the roofs of the buildings and sighed – “I can’t make it on roofs, will have to step down.” Anum shook his head – “hell na i’m not about to become a bait!” 

Maurice shrugged and walked off – “Well i’m not about to get killed trying to get to mech, and you can’t pilot it either.” “Grrraaa! FINE!” shouted Anum, his gaze darted to the nearest roof and a power cable hanging off from it – “I’ll lure them away, be quick!” Maurice nodded – “ready? Set! GO!” He dashed off in the opposite direction from Anum, jumping to the next roof over, and then the next 1. At the same time, Anum leapt down onto the power cable.

 Its movement disturbed the sand, attracting the sharks, 5 of them. 2, seemingly sensed the small vibrations coming off from Maurice running on the roofs, as they swam in the other direction, following the opossum pilot.  Anum gritted his teeth – “STUPID ANIMALS!” He let go of the power cable and pulled his axe out. He landed on the sand, and in that moment, a shark came up from under the ground. Anum’s excellent reflexes allowed him to jump up just in time, land on the shark’s snoot. 

He rode up with the shark, standing on its nose, and as they reached peak height, he brought his axe down into the shark’s jaw, slitting it open. His gaze darted down the street in the direction where Maurice ran. One of the sharks turned, but the other kept pursuing the opossum! He landed on the sand and began running towards another building, sharks jumping out of the sand trying to take a bite of the brave raccoon as he skilfully dodged every attempt. 

Maurice landed on the sand and looked over his shoulder at the commotion behind him – “That psycho really fighting them?” Suddenly, his vision was obstructed by a massive jaw flying right at him. He froze for a moment out of fear before dodge-rolling to the side. Sharp pain spread over his body, his tail was missing – “AAAA!!!” Maurice gritted his teeth and sprinted off with all his might. The shark was fast on his tail, or.. Lack of thereof. 

A powerful blow hit him from below as another jump leaped out of the sand at the opossum. He coughed up blood and found himself flying a few meters into the air, below him 2 sharks now, his ribs shattered – “Gahh!” Maurice landed and rolled on the sand, quickly jumping back onto his feet and continuing his sprint, although slower now due to the sustained injuries. He leaped through a window of a house, ran through it and out the other side. The mech suit was just on the other side of the wall before him.

1 of the pursuing sharks leaped out of the sand once more. He jumped up just in time to land on the foul beast and ride it up high enough to leap over to the rooftop of the building on the other side of which the mech awaited. Over the roof and straight down onto the mech’s shoulder. Maurice quickly got into the pilot seat and powered the mech on. The mech jerked to life and readied its sword in an instant. 

A massive jaw once more before him. The mech’s eyes glinted in the sun, a hum, a creak, a screech. The mech stood on the other side of the shark, the shark behind it fell slump onto the ground. Its head rolled on the sand a meter away. The other shark quickly jumped onto the corpse, devouring it. Temps were rising, Maurice’s time was limited. He switched the mech to full speed and dashed in the direction of Anum. 

A minute later mech leaped into a jumping shark, sending it crashing into the ground. Then, it landed with its sword piercing into the ground. A painful screech came from the short it had just pierced. The other sharks quickly scattered out of fear. Maurice aimed the sword and threw it with the mech, it flew straight as an arrow and embedded itself into sand where it killed another shark. He turned and leaped onto a building where Anum laid on the balcony. 

The sight before his eyes shocked him and sent him into a momentary panic, as he watched his companion, without a leg, bleeding out onto the sandy balcony. Blood oozing out of his mouth, the racoon glanced upon the mech standing on the balcony railing – “Ah..you got it, pal..” said Anum in between coughing – “How bad is it?” the helmed of the mech opened up and Maurice jumped down from it onto the balcony, bleeding from the stub of where his tail once was.

He took the simple shirt he had on him off and began wrapping it around Anum’s leg  – “you’ll be fine!” Anum grinned at him – “Ey, pal.. I hated you, but it was fun, fam..” Maurice wrapped the shirt over his leg, using it as a tourniquet. He slumped down and groaned – “ughh! We’ll be fine!” He turned to look at his companion, Anum, whose body was slumped, his eyes closed, his chest not moving. Maurice gritted his teeth – “Farewell, bastard”

Maurice lost track of time as he grieved his companion’s death. Breathing was getting harder. Coughing up blood – “Ughh! Damned ribs tore up my lung, I better get moving” he crawled back up to the mech’s pilot seat, looking down at the dead body of his companion once more – “I.. I’ll have my revenge” The night fell suddenly and the mechs temperatures dropped, Maurice switched it to overdrive and sprinted towards the crashed ship. The next few hours were spent taking apart the mech 

At last, the dying opossum connected the final set of wires. The ship’s core hummed to life, the lights blinked, and the opossum sighed as he looked at his half dismantled mech – “Farewell, exterminator.” He slumped against his mech, which stood a meter away from the ship, and passed out. 

What awoke him was an all too familiar sound of a cat’s hiss – “HISSSS!!! HOW DARE THEE!” Said a cat, standing on all fours, before him. Red fluffy fur swayed gently in the blazing breeze. Maurice barely managed to open 1 eye, wheezing as he struggled to breathe – “There you are, huntr Grah…” he wheezed as he glanced at the hunter vessel parked on the sand behind him

He barely managed to lift his arm up and hit the remnants of the mech with his knuckles – “got a f..avor to ask of you.” The cat walked closer to him – “GRRROWWLL! How dare my prey die not by my claw!??” The opossum grinned as he closed his eye – “Take the .. exterminator.. It deserves, better than to rust away on this shit…hole..” The cat looked at the remaining lower torso and legs of the mech – “And why should i take that junk?” 

Maurice took a deep breath and coughed – “Well, if you won’t, it’ll take you to HELL!” He pressed a button in his hand. The mech’s core hummed as it began to overheat. Suddenly, a robotic life form leaped out of the hunter vessel, landed behind the exterminator, ripped the core out of the mech’s body and tossed it into the distance. A bright flash soon blinded the cat as it meowed angrily. Soon after, a wave of dust and sand hit them.

The robotic life form picked the dying opossum up by the neck and brought it up to the cat. The cat blinked and hissed – “Foolish, but a good attempt!” Sand shifted in the distance as sharks began to swarm towards the area of the explosion. The cat jumped on top of the robotic life form as it walked towards the nearest shark. Opossum coughed up blood some more – “Damned hunter! B… cursed!” The cat laughed – “nyahhaa! Don’t die just yet! But soon, little opossum! SOON!” grinned the cat.

Cat watched the shark approaching them leap out of the sand, jumping towards them. The robotic life form quickly stepped aside and tossed the dying opossum into the shark’s mouth – “A DEATH WORTHY FILTHY LIKE NYOUU!” shouted the cat. Maurice closed his eyes, accepting his fate, to become a meal. His death was quick as the shark ripped him up. The cat watched with a grin – “Nyaahhaa! Job well done, I say! Thank you, fishies!”