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It had been their crew’s first time on one of the paid moons. They had been doing well on the free moons, carefully taking their time to explore and learning how to deal with the monsters one by one. Sure, there had been mishaps and sometimes that ended in death, but that was just what it was like working for the company. They had found others to take the place of those who died and continued on.
But then the quotas started getting larger. They could find scrap on the free moons, but the extra items they had tucked away in case they couldn’t meet quota were getting less each time. Soon even their stores would run dry, and without that buffer they would surely be fired, which was an unknown fate they feared.
In the end it was a risk in order to maximize profit.
They had decided on 85-Rend, the easiest of the paid moons and also the cheapest to travel to. It was a massacre.
The first of the crew had gone down to a turret. It should have been an easy crossing, dart across the doorway to the other side while the turret is turned away. Even if it did spot them, it would take a bit before it started firing, leaving them with more than enough time to cross if they did it one by one. But when the last member was crossing, a snare flea dropped out of the shadows, clamping around their crewmate’s head and making them unable to see where they should be going. Before the others could double back to help, there was a click followed by the sounds of a series of loud bangs as the turret was soon firing wildly. By then, it was too late for their crewmate to get out of the way.
Death didn’t faze them anymore. After leaving the body by the entrance they continued on.
Darkness crept around them as they walked further into the mansion. The flashlights could only be used sparingly, and the three of them traded off which one of them was lighting the way. Sometimes they would spot an ever-lit hearth, casting odd flickering patterns onto the walls ahead of them, like creatures watching from the shadows. They tensed at the thought of the monsters that called this desolate place home.
A crewmate tripped over an unseen obstacle in the darkness, crying out in pain. The light of the flashlight swiveled over to reveal a thick white web entangling their leg.
“Shit,” was muttered softly as the person examined the web. Now that the three of them were paying attention, the corners were decorated with the white threads. A door to the side that they had missed was filled with them, like silvery white veils that hung from the walls and ceiling concealing hidden traps within.
The crewmate stood and yanked their leg out of the web entrapment, but they took a step back as they did so, standing in front of the door leading into the dense webbing. The brief moment that the flashlight flicked off their form to scan the surroundings, there was a shout. Flashing back over, the light only lit an empty door, and a dark shape headed deeper into the nest of webs. They were dead.
“Let’s get out of here,” one of the survivors hissed, and the two of them turned to flee. But the mansion was maze-like in shape and size. They turned corners and backtracked through paths that they barely remembered, until their last flashlight flickered and died.
Soon after a thumping came, the sound of wooden legs hitting against the floor and the creaky squeal of moving wooden joints. The two of them immediately froze, careful not to move even an inch as the noise grew closer and louder. In the darkness they were unable to see, only hear, as a series of clicks rang out as the nutcracker slowly scanned the surroundings.
“Shit, shit.” The other crewmate was breathing heavily, looking off at something behind them. “I can’t do this, I’m sorry.” Then they were running off on their own, leaving the other one by themselves.
The remaining crewmate stood still, frozen in place and not chasing after the other. In the darkness they heard the bang of a gun, once, twice, and then silence. After a couple minutes the wooden thudding sounded up again, slowly fading into the distance. They were alone.
I’m not getting out of here alive, the chilling thought washed over them as they slowly continued onwards. Walking forward they let the blue light of the scanner wash over their surroundings every few feet, knowing it was their last alert to an enemy. Brushing their hand over the peeling paint on the wall they continued onwards, using that to feel where the path turned or doorways opened up.
The mansion creaked and groaned around them, with the distant sounds of monsters scurrying across the wooden floors. Every once and while there was the dim light from a lit hearth, or a fancy lamp that had been abandoned on the ground. They stopped for none of it though, knowing that it would only hinder their chances of getting out alive at this point.
Turning back to glance at the way they had come, they spotted a pair of glowing white eyes. A bracken was watching from the shadows behind them, like a void staring back with promises of death.
They sighed and their shoulders slumped, as they dropped the dead flashlight they had been carrying. It wasn’t as if they feared the end, they had taken this deadly job with full knowledge that it would one day end with their demise. Honestly, they were surprised they made it this far.
At least the bracken will make it painless, they thought watching the twin eyes hide around a corner. Knowing the bracken would only strike when they were no longer looking, they turned back around and continued the way they were going.
But the killing blow they expected never came.
Every once and a while they would see white eyes from a doorway, watching them silently at a distance. Maybe it was because they kept meeting eyes with the bracken that it didn’t go for the strike, since they avoided attacking if they were briefly spotted. But at the same time, they were not deliberately watching for the bracken, having long since accepted that this is where they would die.
After a bit they spotted the eyes again, and this time headed towards where they saw them, following it deeper into the building. It darted off as soon as they met eyes, hiding out of sight. The employee paused at the doorway, knowing that following the bracken would only lead to their death faster, but they still took another step.
I can’t find the exit, they thought. I haven’t got a warning about the ship leaving soon, so it’s still here, but I likely won’t make it back. And hitting quota will be even harder alone. It’s not like I have anywhere better to go.
Step by step the darkness swallowed them further. Now and then they would spot glowing eyes from a doorway and would turn towards them, leaving their life in the hands of the bracken. Soon, the paths began to feel familiar though, as if they had walked through them before.
Maybe I’m going in circles, they thought with a sigh, but still continued to head onwards.
After turning into a room following the bracken’s eyes, the employee spotted a dim glowing light to their right through a doorway. A wooden banister could be seen, cracked and worn, that likely was not stable enough to stop anyone from tumbling over the edge on the other side. They walked towards it slowly, afraid that it was only a mirage, before stepping into the light.
Before them was the entryway to the mansion, the tall ceiling overhead and the whitewashed walls surrounding them like a cocoon. They collapsed, tears building up and running down their face inside the suit. Survival might not be impossible after all.
They glanced back at the darkness, only to see a pair of glowing eyes. Even though they knew it was likely entirely an accident the bracken had led them to the exit, it had still saved them. Without it, they would have likely died alone in the depths of the mansion.
Standing up, they waved at the bracken, who was little more than a pair of glowing eyes in the shadows. They blinked, and the eyes were gone, vanishing back into the maze of the mansion.
Their shoulders slumped and they headed down the stairs to the entrance, stepping out through the doors into the dark snowy expanse. The towers leading back to the ship glowed harshly, acting as beacons attracting both wanted and unwanted attention. Their suit, able to pick up on the time once outside, suggested that it was growing late into the night.
Just outside the door was a pile of loot that the crew had left to later carry back to the ship. A body was also slumped there, which was their crewmate that had been killed by the turret within the mansion. Kneeling down, the employee sorted through what had been gathered, taking only the items that were light and didn't make noise. It wasn’t enough to make quota, but maybe they could scrape together enough scrap to survive.
They somehow made it back to the ship alive, having to silently creep around blind dogs where they had dared not even to breathe. After pressing the door shut button, they dropped their items, not bothering to hide the sound. Walking over to the computer panel, their shoes hitting against the floor with a metallic clanking, they reached for the lever. Yanking it down, the ship whirred to life around them, and slowly took off to return to the expanses of space.
The ship repressurized with air safe for humans and they yanked their helmet off their head and raised a gloved hand to their face, unable to hold back tears anymore. Stumbling over to the bunks, the employee collapsed on the floor next to them, leaning against them for support.
I survived, ran through their mind endlessly, along with the dead bodies of their crew flashing through their thoughts. They sat there for a long time, staring up at the ceiling of the room as they slowly processed the day. Eventually they collapsed onto the lowest bed of the bunks, not mine but is there anyone left who cares, and fell into a dreamless sleep.
The next morning they stood at the computer console on their ship, as they munched on a flavorless compressed food bar. It was unappetizing, the texture dry and grainy, and it crumbled in their mouth leaving only a faint impression of cinnamon among the feeling of sawdust.
Clicking a few keys they typed ‘bracken’ and waited for the results to appear. The information that popped up was short and lacking, all stuff they already knew. Their crew had studied the monsters, reading what they could find on them, and that was part of the reason why they had gotten this far. Knowing how to deal with the monsters let them live longer in the end, not that it had saved them on Rend.
With a sigh they closed the terminal and looked over at the blue screen at the top of their ship which stared down at the employee. A number in bright blue stood out to them, their quota, with only 2 days left to meet it. It seemed almost impossible.
For a second, they toyed with the idea of going back to one of the free moons. It was safer there, but the loot was less, and with no one left except for them they would be unable to hit the quota. While they had never missed a quota, they doubted the company would send them home or let them off with a slap of the wrist if they failed.
With a determination to at least try and make it through alive, they reached for the lever to land the ship on Rend once more. The metal was cold under their hands, and resisted moving as they yanked it down. The lights flickered as the ship prepared to land once more on the cold moon.
It didn’t take long to get back to the mansion, trudging through the thin layer of snow that softly coated the ground and muffled the sounds around them. The ground before the doors was bare gray concrete, marked only with a pale bloodstain where their crewmate’s body had been just yesterday. Despite leaving some scrap right outside the doors the other day, it was now all long gone.
For a moment they hesitated at the doors, but they already knew they were out of other options. Pushing them open, they walked into the dimly lit main entrance room, white-washed walls and shelves filled with crumbling books enclosing them. Shadows creeped in the corners, and the doors behind them slowly slid shut, blocking out the sounds of the wind and their frigid chill.
They wished it was silent inside the mansion, but instead it felt too loud within its space. Far off sounds of whirring and clicking, alongside the mansion creaking as it shifted in place. The noise echoed in their ears, each crick and thud magnified as the employee found themselves unable to tear their focus away from it.
Taking a deep breath, they headed further into the mansion, walking up the rough wooden steps to the second floor, which seemed barely able to support their weight. They remembered seeing scrap up there when they had been leaving, and while the monsters had likely rearranged the exact locations of the scrap, there might still be some up there. It was at least better than going down the routes they had taken last time with their team, as they did not want to be reminded of their deaths.
They paused at the top of the banister and looked over at the door the bracken had led them out of yesterday. It led into darkness, and for a second, they were disappointed that there was no pair of white eyes watching them.
They took a step towards the door, pausing, before forcing themselves to turn around and go through a doorway on the opposite side of the second floor. I had been lucky yesterday, they tried to remind themself, I will not be lucky a second time.
Using their flashlight sparingly to break up the darkness whispering of danger, they peered around corners and through old passages. They never wandered too far into the mansion, flinching at every loud sound and shying away from shadows. At some point they had seen a white web strung across a ceiling, which they turned away from and walked in the opposite direction, closing the doors behind them as they went as a kind of barricade.
Slowly they began to gather a pile of loot at the entrance, but it was only a few items and nothing that was worth much in the end. They wished for their crewmates, both to reassure them and to help with the search, however they knew that they would never be able to work with them again despite their desires. It was already noon, and they considered returning to the ship, however they instead decided to enter the mansion again, as they had only one more day left to meet quota after this.
They decided to try one of the doorways on the lower floor this time. Given the choice, they would prefer to remain upstairs, as these rooms would only remind them of their crewmates’ deaths, but it was better than heading deeper within the mansion. While they had emptied out some of the lower rooms yesterday, the monsters might have moved some of the scrap from deeper within closer to the exit.
Walking in through the entryway they flickered their flashlight on and scanned the room. There were two paths branching off, one of which was unnaturally dark and a pair of white eyes shone from the entrance. The employee jumped at the sight, almost dropping their flashlight. The eyes retreated around the corner as quickly as they had appeared.
They paused, not expecting to run into the bracken again. While they had no reason to assume it was the same bracken as the one that helped them out yesterday, they felt that it had to be. They mentally flicked through everything they knew on brackens before landing on the knowledge that they don’t like to be stared at nor do they like to be cornered. Brackens must also be quite territorial, they figured, considering they had never seen more than one bracken at the same time.
For a moment they hesitated, looking from one passageway to the other, before deciding to head down the one with the bracken. It could have killed them yesterday and it didn’t, so maybe it wouldn’t today either. They were more worried about accidently cornering it and causing the bracken to panic rather than the threat of it killing them. They had already long accepted their death, but they did not want to harm the creature that had helped them out.
Following the bracken, they were led deeper into the facility, and as they did so, they were careful to only look at the bracken out of the corner of their eyes, not wanting to stare at it in case the other found it uncomfortable. Along the way they spotted no other monsters or turrets, and instead found tons of loot. Sometimes they would have to stop following the bracken and bring the loot back to the exit, as they could only carry so much.
The bracken would follow them when they headed back, watching from the dark corners. Even when they had their back turned to the bracken it never struck, instead only watching from a distance. A couple times they heard the leaf-like protrusions on it softly rattle, but not once had they felt threatened. Instead, it felt like a silent companion.
They poked their head out of the mansion to see that it was quickly becoming late. If they wanted to get back to the ship before the dogs and giants began their slow patrol of the area, mercilessly hunting down anything they noticed, they had to leave. Ducking back inside, they spotted a pair of glowing white eyes out of the corner of their vision in the doorway of a dark hallway. They raised a hand to wave, not bothering to speak as they knew that the bracken didn’t understand human speech.
The eyes vanished for a second, before reappearing in the same doorway. The bracken poked its head out of the entrance, allowing the employee to see its reddish skin slightly in the dim lighting. It awkwardly raised up one of its hands, clearly not used to the motion, and moved its arm up and down in imitation. It didn’t seem to have the fine motor control over its hand and arm that a human did, making the movement stiff and unnatural looking.
Watching the movement the employee paused, their breath catching at the sight. It was the first time they had seen one of the monsters attempt to mimic them before. They smiled, waving once more at the bracken, then turned towards the door and left.
They made it back to the ship safely, having taken several trips to successfully carry everything back. After taking off, they turned back to scan the items on the ship, surprised to learn that they had more than enough for quota. They honestly had not expected that they would be able to make it this far after all of their crew had died.
It hurt to know that they were alone now. The crew had become their family and while they knew that it was likely that their crew members would die, they had at least expected the rest of the crew to be there to grieve with them. They never expected to be this alone in the vast depths of space.
They picked through the rations, eating nuts and dried jerky, while using up one of the last packets of hot chocolate mix to make a cold chocolate-flavored drink. There were no team members here to fight them for the last of the packets or share the food with. It had never tasted so bland before.
After eating they went to sleep and woke up the next day stiff, choosing just to lay in the cold bunk for a bit before forcing themselves up. It was the last day before quota. They didn’t need to do anything, as the bracken had already helped them gather up the scrap they needed to continue to survive. And once they met this quota, they could request to be put on a different team, so that they would no longer have to work alone. Although there was always a possibility of being placed on a team that was unprepared or would purposefully leave new team members to die. However the risk was worth it to avoid having to scavenge alone, which only increased the chance of death.
They found themselves standing over the lever that would bring the ship back down onto the moon, staring down at it intently. They had walked over to it on autopilot, instinctively knowing that the sooner they started a day the better their chance of survival was. However, for once they didn’t need to go down.
They rested their hand on the lever, thinking of the bracken that had been so helpful to them the last couple of days. Maybe it was because they were lonely and the bracken had been the one to help them in their darkest moment, or maybe it was because they didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye. They pulled the lever and the ship descended to Rend.
In and out, they thought trudging through the snow that coated the moon. I find the bracken, say goodbye, and leave.
The mansion appeared unchanged. The corners were still shadowed and dark hallways led off into areas that they could not see into. Even after having wandered through this mansion the previous two days, they still felt as though they did not know their way through the winding paths.
Peering in each of the doorways one by one they did not see the bracken. They even tried calling for it, only getting silence as an answer. Maybe it isn’t awake yet. With a shrug they tried one of the downstairs paths, not intending to wander far from the exit. Along the way they picked up a key and a rubber duck, which still softly quacked when squeezed.
As they headed back towards the main foyer of the building, thinking of poking their head down another path, they recalled that they had passed a locked door earlier. They could not recall if the door had been locked yesterday, but they had a key and figured they might as well open it. Likely, there was nothing behind it, but they were still waiting for the bracken to show up.
They slid the key into the lock, unlocking it with an easy turn of the key, and reached for the doorknob, intending just to take a quick look in and see what was there. As they did so however, a loud rattling came from behind them, like the sound of tree branches hitting against one another in a harsh breeze.
They jumped at the sound, spinning around to catch the bracken out of the corner of their eye. It had been standing behind them, continuing to rattle even as they caught a glimpse of it.
Still not looking at the bracken directly, as they were afraid that would make it angrier, they stepped away from the door. As they did so, the bracken seemed to calm down, no longer rattling and instead sneaking away to lurk out of the darkness of one of the doorways. Once it had done so, a loud thumping of footsteps started up from behind the door, followed by a series of clicks indicating a nutcracker scanning the room. The monster was clearly on the other side of the door the employee had been about to open, and they had almost walked directly into where it was patrolling.
Realizing that the bracken had saved them again, they let out a breath they didn’t know they had been holding. They hadn’t felt fear around the bracken until the moment when they had suddenly realized it was behind them, afraid that this would be the end and that their judgment of the creature had been wrong.
“Thank you,” they said, turning towards the bracken.
The bracken rattled softly in response, and although they knew the bracken didn’t understand them and was likely just responding to the sound, the noise still caused them to smile softly. The bracken ducked behind the corner of the doorway it was hiding in the shadow of, vanishing for a moment. The employee stood still, uncertain if they should head after it or not, when the bracken’s eyes appeared once more. It seemed to be expecting them to follow it.
They had just meant to duck in and out, since they weren’t in dire need of scrap at the moment. Plus, if they joined a new crew, they couldn’t exactly bring the scrap they had gathered with them, it would have to all be sold anyway. Staying here was just putting them more at risk, even if they had the bracken helping them out.
But this might be the last time I ever see this particular bracken, they thought. The idea made a faint feeling of unease settle over them. They did not want to be alone again, and the bracken felt like a ray of light in the mansion interior, even if the creature itself was cloaked in shadow.
Taking a step forward they followed the creature into the darkness.
Just like the day before, the bracken led them through the mansion, bringing them to scrap left around. The quality of the scrap wildly varied, as the bracken didn’t have a concept of how valuable each of it was, but they still dutifully grabbed all of it and moved it back to the entrance. It was less than they had gathered the day before, but they wanted to get out of the mansion earlier, before more monsters woke up.
“I hope to see you again someday,” they said, as they awkwardly balanced a painting and a cube, walking past the bracken into the lower area of the foyer. The bracken rattled softly at the noise, watching them from the dark void of the doorway.
They were almost at the exit when there was a sudden banging as a door was kicked open across the hallway by a nutcracker. It was likely the same one they had heard earlier. Immediately they froze, gripping tightly at the painting and daring not even to breathe, as the nutcracker strode into the room and stopped. The head clicked open to reveal the eye and it slowly scanned the room in a series of clicks as it turned.
The painting was large and unwieldy, their grip on it not having been stable from the start. As the employee focused on keeping it from falling from their grasp, as the movement would draw the nutcracker’s attention, they failed to notice their loosening grip on the cube. It slid from their fingers, and as they tried quickly to reach for it on instinct the painting slipped and fell.
Both items plummeted to the ground, hitting the ground with a bang, dust stirred up by their descent. The nutcracker unfortunately noticed the movement and swung around towards them, raising its gun for the shot. Immediately they jumped to the side, hoping to use the bookshelves that lined the foyer to break the line of sight, when there was a bang and a searing pain in their arm.
The bullet had grazed them and a red stain slowly began to spread across their suit around the scratch, with blood dripping onto the ground. They ignored the pain, ducking behind the bookshelf, but it was only a temporary hiding spot, as the nutcracker would now be hunting them. They needed to get out.
From around the corner of the bookshelf there was a loud rattling where the bracken was, like a snake giving warning before it struck. The nutcracker didn’t seem to care, the loud thuds as its feet hit the ground quickly approaching the corner the employee was tucked behind. As it appeared, raising its gun for the next shot, a black shadow emerged behind the nutcracker, white eyes shining from the darkness.
Before the nutcracker could fire, dark red hands reached from the shadows around the eye of the nutcracker and squeezed together. The eye was destroyed within an instant, blood dripping down the wooden body as it fell backwards with one final bang. The bracken lurked around the form for a moment, as if checking that it was really dead, before going to hover around the employee.
They stood there in silent shock, blood pooling in the sleeve of their suit and dripping down from their wound. The nutcracker, a terrifying monster that had killed one of their crewmates and almost them, was dead in an instant, its life ended by a creature that cared for them for reasons they didn’t understand.
The bracken came to stand at their side and slightly behind them, staring at the injured arm intently. It let out a soft rattle once they took a step away from the nutcracker’s corpse. Blood dripped down their arm forming small spots of red on the ground which only led the bracken to hover even closer.
Walking towards the door, they leaned on the metal handle for a moment, looking back at the bracken behind them. It ducked out of their direct line of sight, still staying close to their bloody arm as it did so. It rattled softly as if realizing that they wanted to leave. They knew it was unlikely that the bracken would follow them, and possibly even dangerous for it, but they could not live in the mansion. Eventually they would die of starvation or dehydration, if one of the monsters didn’t kill them first.
Slowly, they pushed open the cold metal door and held it open, looking back within at the bracken that had stopped just before the threshold. It rattled softly again, ducking around the corner so that only its glowing white eyes were looking back at the outside. Patiently, they waited, blood slowly forming a puddle on the ground below them. It was dark outside as the sun had just set, and the wind howled through the snow blowing up gusts of white powder. The dim tower lights shone harshly on the surrounding landscape, making it appear eerie and in some ways scarier than even the inside of the mansion.
After a bit the bracken seemed to have seen enough, and slowly crept outside, ducking behind the employee as if it was unsure of where to hide. There were no small dark corners for it to wedge itself into in the vast white stretches of snow. It was, after all, an ambush predator.
Slowly they made their way back along the path to the ship, following the towers. They spotted an eyeless dog at one point, but it passed by without hearing either of them, the bracken more silent than they could ever hope to be. Eventually the ship appeared out of the snow, like a beacon of hope in the darkness.
As a practiced reflex, they carefully looked around the corner of the ship before going in, knowing that sometimes eyeless dogs would poke their head in to see if there was anything worth eating inside. The ship was well lit, scrap littering the floor, and empty of anything dangerous that could kill them.
They walked inside, brushing their hands along the bare metal, feeling safe now that they were back. Turning around, they looked at the bracken, who was instead lurking in the doorway of the ship, only its eyes peering around the corner. It rattled the flower like spines a little more harshly than they were used to, although still not as loud as when it had faced off against the nutcracker.
It took them a bit to realize that the ship's interior was way brighter than the inside of the mansion had ever been, the harsh light instead filling the space and bouncing off the dim metal. To the bracken, who had never left the mansion, it was likely overwhelming.
They flicked off the light switch and the bracken finally entered, slowly moving around the ship before settling under the table that was beneath the monitors. It was a pair of white eyes in the darkness, staring up at them as they walked over to the screens. They smiled at it, careful not to look at the bracken directly, and reached for the lever that controlled the ship. With a sharp yank on the handle, they were off, the two of them heading up into space.
They were no longer alone.