"So...this is your last one?"
"Yeah..."
"Um...Are you sure y-you don't want to get anyone to watch besides just me?"
"I'm sure..."
I took one more look at the task list on my panel, just to double check.
TASKS:
Admin: Swipe Card(COMPLETE)
Admin: Fix Wiring(COMPLETE)
Admin: Upload Data(COMPLETE)
Weapons: Clear Asteroids
Lower Engine: Align Engine Output(COMPLETE)
"And you've got an upload in Admin after this, right Cyan?"
"M-hm."
"...Okay, then. We haven't got much more to do."
The asteroid shower shown on the radar was a bit too close for comfort at this point; if I'd waited much longer to take 'em out, we'd have had to rely on the shield system to take care of the mess. And even if it CAN disintegrate asteroids, it'd take a beating in the process, so it wasn't exactly the most practical option.
The rocks came slowly, and all I had to do was aim and fire at 'em and they'd be reduced to nothing but a cluster of pebbles afterwards...Not hard. Already had five down, and there were only twenty shown on the radar map.
"So...once we all have our tasks done, and after the break...what do we do, then?"
"I don't know, Cyan."
"Oh...Will we, um...p-play it by ear?"
"Guess so."
"Okay..."
"Is Purple Jr hangin' in there okay?"
"I think he's tired...You think we should put him down in Medbay to rest once we finish everything?"
"Whatever you think is best..."
Task Completed
...That was it. I was done.
"Alright, Cyan...Before we go into Admin, though, I wanna make sure Blue and Lime aren't there. He said he had to upload data from the cafeteria before...And if he was lyin' about that, I wouldn't be surprised to see him standin' there waitin' for his next victim."
"...What about Lime?"
"Same goes for him and his supposed task in O2...It has to be one of them. So don't get to close to either until I sort some more things out."
Just as we were heading back into the cafeteria, Blue and Lime were coming out of the right end and heading up through the room...It seemed like Blue had caught onto the idea that neither of them were to be trusted, so he made sure keep both Lime and himself as far away from us as he could.
"This way, Lime...I-I don't want to scare them."
"Sure you don't. Otherwise you'll never get your chance to catch 'em off guard."
...He didn't bother arguing back at him. With the two of them in the cafeteria, we were in the clear...for the time being, at least. I still thought it wise to keep lookin' over my shoulder in case either of them tried to pull something at the last minute.
"Oi. Brown."
Black was the one to approach us instead...Cyan backed towards the wall screen with his tablet and adjusted his hold on Purple Jr, pretending not to pay us any mind; he had a feeling it was about to get ugly again, and he didn't want to be a part of the mess...And I was anticipating the same thing.
"...What do you want, Black?"
"Um...Am I still in Group 1?"
"Unless you wanna be the next one to end up dead, then I wouldn't suggest leaving it."
"Right, right..."
"Is that all you wanted to ask?"
"...No. It's not."
"Then what is it? We haven't got all day."
Another sigh came in through my radio, and he finally looked up to face me.
"Look...I've been doin' some thinking. Ever since we met up back on HQ, seems to me, I...well...Not gonna go easy on myself, but I've been a bit of an arse towards you, for one stupid reason or another. Guess I never really took you seriously when I should have. And, ah...Well, it was because I decided to ignore what you said during our second meeting that ended up with Yellow bein' offed. And to put it simply, I...I feel pretty stupid about all that, so...I'm sorry."
...I was not expecting him to say anything like that.
"And if Yellow can hear me, wherever he might be, I hope he knows that...I'm sure he'd like to."
I searched the dictionary in my head for the words to answer him with, but if they were in there, then the bastards decided to elude me and keep me standing there in complete silence, makin' me look like an idiot...Eventually, I stopped looking for them, and I just heaved out a sigh of my own and shook my head.
"I know...This whole thing is a right mess, innit?"
"Don't remind me..."
"It's not your fault, mate."
"Part of it is...I dunno what my problem is, but it seems to me that there are a lot of lives I could've saved if I'd been more on my toes. Look at all of the innocent people we've seen drop dead within just the past week. Three on the rooftop, and four on this ship so far...We'll never get those lives back. I failed them...And I'm probably gonna fail the rest of you."
"Well...You've done a better job at it than the rest of us prob'ly could have?"
"Alright, who are you and what did you do with the asshole I worked with on HQ? At this point, the change in your attitude is almost sus."
"Would an Impostor know that you didn't even know what that term meant a week ago and that I had to explain it to you?"
"...No. Guess he wouldn't."
"I just...thought I should give you the credit you're due, is all. It wasn't your fault Yellow was offed; that was my doing, along with Red and Lime."
"...Hold on."
I rose my hand and stopped him right there...It was at the same moment that Cyan's upload finally went through.
"That's done...Um, I didn't really pay attention t-to a lot you guys said, since it's not really any of my business, you know...What's going on?"
"Wasn't it...Lime who said that Yellow pulled out the gun on Purp?"
"Yeah, that's true."
"And...Red, the first Impostor, said that Lime primed the shields on their way up to the cockpit, and Yellow, who turned out to be innocent, said that he never saw the light come on, plus that Red never went up to the window to see it for himself."
"...Also true."
The three of us stood there lookin' at one another for what felt like ages.
"...You guys thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?"
Cyan held tighter onto Purple Jr.
"I think so...B-but is it enough proof?"
"Well...If you have your doubts, then we better check up on the situation with-"
BEEP
BEEP
BEEP
The emergency alarm blared throughout the Skeld again, and I took a look at my panel to see what was happening.
TASKS:
Admin: Swipe Card(COMPLETE)
Admin: Fix Wiring(COMPLETE)
Admin: Upload Data(COMPLETE)
Weapons: Clear Asteroids(COMPLETE)
Lower Engine: Align Engine Output(COMPLETE)
REACTOR MELTDOWN IN -29...28...27...
"Not this shit again..."
"Come on, we gotta get down there!"
Black lead the pack towards the rear end of the ship, and we got there right at the ten second mark. He and I placed our hands on the scanner to right the wrong while Cyan watched the doorway.
REACTOR NORMAL
...Honestly, if that's all you need to do to fix a reactor sabotage, then why didn't the Impostor botch up O2 instead? It takes more time and less of a risk to put in a code in two separate rooms than it does to do THIS.
"Wait a minute."
...It turned out, Cyan was thinking the same thing I was. And he knew something seemed off about that.
"Guys...Aren't Blue and Lime supposed to be on the opposite end of the ship?"
"They are."
"If the Impostor knew we were able to fix the reactor that quickly, then...why didn't he do the O2 instead? It would put us in a bad spot if either of us decided to get too close to him, wouldn't it?"
Hiss...
"What was that?"
Black and I stuck our heads out of the reactor room exit...The doors to the upper and lower engines had been shut on us, and so were the security doors.
...We were trapped in there. And we couldn't even look at the cameras to see what was going on.
Cyan turned to face me again.
"You don't think one of them is going after the other over there, do you, Brown?"
"If he wants us all locked in here, I'm guessin' that's what's happening."
"Who do you think it is?"
"You know, Brown...Lime was the only other brit on the Skeld, so I took a bit of a liking to him...But if it turned out the seemingly American Red was one for the hammer and scythe, then who's to say Lime ain't either, if they can fake the accents that well?"
"Wouldn't surprise me."
Cyan raised a finger.
"...Didn't the Soviet Union dissolve in 1991?"
"'91? Holy SHIT, mate, that's the year I came into this world, that's crazy."
"Is now really the best time for a history lesson, you two?"
"...Yeah, prob'ly not."
Hiss...
"Doors are open! Let's go, come on!"
We were able to get past the right engine and pass by electrical, but just when it seemed we were in the clear...
Hiss...
"Now the storage doors!? Are you shittin' me!?"
"Whoever's doin' this knows how to time things, that's for sure."
"What's the plan for when the doors open, Brown, you got any?"
"Maybe...You think he shut the cafeteria doors too?"
"Probably. He knows as well as we do that it's a straight shot from the left engine...But the doors apparently don't stay shut for too long. If one of us heads up that way, then by the time they get there, they'll probably be opened by then. We can close in on them from either side and listen in on what's happening from there, and if it turns out things are goin' south between the two, we intervene."
I turned to face Cyan.
"Cy...Can you stay with Purple Jr and make sure he's safe while we-"
"No."
"...'Scuse me?"
He gingerly put Purple's orphaned son down on the ground and looked back up at me.
"You need all the help you can get. And I'm not going to see you put yourself in that much danger after what you did for me...After what you did for ALL of us."
"...What do we do about Purple Jr, then? We can't bring him into harm's way."
"I don't think he's going anywhere right now. Look."
We all looked down to find that he'd finally nodded off, and he was leaning against the wall.
"...Impeccable timing, mate."
"Sure is, Black."
"Okay...I'll go up through the cafeteria. You and Brown head through storage, you got that?"
"I was thinkin' the same thing."
"Great. let's go."
Without missin' another beat, he flew back the way we came and disappeared around the corner.
"...You don't think the Impostor's already killed his partner and is waiting outside the door for someone, do you, Brown?"
"It's a possibility...If you're worried, than you can duck and charge."
"Just considering all the odds...That's what you've been doing."
Hiss...
To our good fortune, nobody was there waiting for us, so we quietly made our way into the next room and towards the door on the opposite end...Once we got out of storage and passed comms without seeing anything yet, we put the brakes back on and hushed up our boots as they padded across the tile floor.
It was when we entered shields that I put a hand up, signaling for us to stop.
"What is it...?"
I put a finger up to my visor before answering him.
"...They're talkin'."
We listened in on the dialogue coming from the hallway...Blue didn't sound very pleased by whatever situation he was in.
"I...I did not want to believe it when Brown said you were behind it."
"I don't want to hurt you, Blue..."
The sound of a gun being loaded made itself present.
"...But you need to decide who you're with here."
That was Lime speaking, but his accent had taken a leap from the United Kingdom all the way to the orient...We peered around the corner, and the sight that beheld us was a shocker, if I ever did see one.
Lime had his pistol aimed just inches away from Blue's visor, the silencer on the front of its barrel removed, and the latter was pinned against the wall.
"Mother of God, it IS Lime..."
Cyan cracked his knuckles and rasped a question to me.
"What do we do, Brown?"
"Get closer. His back's turned to us; maybe we can take him by surprise..."
We barely dared to breathe as we slinked through the hallway and turned the corners to get to him.
"No...I refuse to take up Red's stead. Look what you've done to these people. You killed a father, you framed an innocent man...You are the scum of the earth, and I am glad I got the chance to work with good people like Brown."
"Hm..."
We heard the hand gun click as he readied his finger on the trigger.
"Well...I guess that's too bad."
"Cyan, what are you-!?"
"We're not get to him in time!"
"Cyan!"
It all happened in a split second. A flash of light blue, a startled yelp, the ear-splitting sound of an unsilenced gun firing...an agonized scream as the victim fell to the floor.
"CYAN, NO!"