Chapter Text
The barren landscape of the asteroid is like every other mining asteroid under Mira’s oversight. Empty, aside of course the mining equipment and central to all, the space elevator. A space elevator which is the destination of the group of six. The group is all pretty much identical aside from colour and of course-- purpose.
“This is it then, the elevator to the Skeld!” Of course before they file in, Maroon pulls out their paperwork. Double checking and squinting at the papers even as the others line up waiting for the elevator to touch down and let them aboard.
“You betcha!” one of their companions, banana coloured nods the top of their body before leaning over. “You sure about this Maroon? I’ve heard--”
“Of course I’m sure!” They shove the papers into their jacket and press their hands onto their sides leaning back slightly. Quickly taking a moment to glance around and confirm who’s there, a white, green, rose, and gray set of crewmates. “We need to do this Banana!” they indicate the elevator as it touches down with a thud. “And if this is the only way then—”
“Alright! Alright, lets get aboard already!” They let out a squawk as Banana pushes them into the elevator, grumpily adjusting their cap and quickly taking a seat beside the green coloured bean. With a last huff they settle in and watch impassive, almost bored as the tv flickers and starts off.
Somewhere to the side Banana snorts about the mashed up words and someone else, probably the rose coloured bean grumbles about having see and heard it all before. Until--
“Hi I’m Green! You’re White aren’t you? I think I saw you on TV” and without missing a beat Green turns around and also greets the rose coloured bean. “And you’re Rose right, from—”
“Well obviously!” Rose cut Green off, narrowing their visor at White. “And of course, hello White-- fancy seeing you here.” A finger is sharply jabbed in the direction of the right bean over a grey one who lets out their own squeak at the action.
“Oh, hey... Rose!” White greets, before quickly almost beaming at Green. “I get that a lot, because I’m on TV a lot. Probably because of all my hard work.”
“Hard Work?” Banana is the one who cuts across, their visor arching slightly. “I’ll believe that when I see it. Anyway hi, I’m Banana, and that’s Maroon my best friend!” they roll their visor slightly at the enthusiasm, all in good humor. Banana turns and motions to the last member of the group. “And what about you?”
“Oh?” the gray coloured bean startles, worrying a little bit at the lab coat they’re dressed in. “I-I’m Dove. I-- well that is...” they poke their fingers together and Maroon sighs. Leaning back they just nudge Green to press play, not really interested in hearing anything more really.
“Let me tell you!” unfortunately, it seemed like White did NOT get that memo, Maroon slowly rested their face into their hands as the privileged bean started to explain their life story. The only one nodding along as if it all made sense was Rose. “What’s your equally as enterprising life story?”
“I’m an unpaid intern!” Green sounds far, far too cheerful for that statement. Maroon slightly raises their face back up as Banana echoes the statement.
“Anything else?”
“Oh! I grew up on a Worm Farm!” Green continues and Banana tilts their upper body in a way that Maroon knows they need to intercept.
“I’m actually here thanks to Mira News—” Maroon pushes themself up, closing their visor with a sigh. “They want me to report on how the Celebrities enjoy this trip that they won. But while I’m here I’ll also be doubling as a second engineer.” Their part done, that seems to be the unspoken signal for everyone to turn to look at Dove who squeaks.
“Uhm... I uh-- well I’m here for my residency” they poke their fingers together, not quite able to look at anyone. “I’ll be here to-- to help make sure that everyone is nice and healthy!” By the end they seem to gain confidence, straightening up and looking at everyone with a steel in their gaze.
“Nifty!” and with that the video starts playing again-- in fast forwards.
While the rest of the group handles that Banana scoots themself over closer to Maroon. Leaning towards their friend the bean whispers, just barely audible in the space one last check in.
“Are you absolutely certain about this Maroon?”
“Of course Banana, we have to do this!” they push their friend straight and pat down their jacket fishing out their camera. “Mira is definitely hiding something, we have to expose them. And even if I wasn’t sure—”
The Orange on the tape makes one more verbal declaration as they speak. Something about sick days before the tape continues and a dry-ice fog is utilised to fill the room. Clearly a set up for a dramatic entrance.
“Me, But now I’m real! Welcome to the Skeld.” Orange poses in a way that has Maroon arching their visor slightly, is that supposed to be cool? “We’re so happy to have you amongst us! Or is it ‘among us’? I always forget which one is grammatically...”
“It’s too late to back out now...” Still they join everyone else in politely clapping to Orange’s presentation of themself. Even if they can feel Banana’s roll of the visor at it.
“That’s right it’s me!” Orange straightens up, holding a red rubber ball in one hand. With a sinking realisation Maroon sinks down into their chair. Oh no-- a bonding exercise. “Now, when you catch the trust ball, you have to say a fun fact about yourself.” Gently Orange tosses the ball up and catches it with the same hand. “My fun fact is I have two different pairs of shoes, one for normal day wear, and one for when I’m feeling sumptuous.”
Of course the first one to catch the ball after that was White-- Maroon and Banana both leaning away and Rose glaring even as they spoke their fact. After which White looks at Rose before shaking their head and Banana catches the trust ball next.
“Uh-- Well, my fun fact is—” Banana seems to hesitate for a moment, looking at Maroon before coughing. “Anyway I have a distant cousin on the Skeld-- my fun fact will come up when we meet them,” and with that Banana just hands the ball over to Maroon, not even bothering to throw it.
“Oh, okay!” Maroon squeezes the ball slightly, absently wondering if they could pop it before choosing to go with something harmless and fun. “So-- I grew up on Polus, so I have both a Winter and Summer coat, right now I’m in between coats so sorry Green if you get put on shed clean up duty--” they awkwardly toss the ball towards Green and Dove unsure of who will actually catch it--
Which turns out to be neither as they both immediately fumble the ball and then awkwardly watch as it rolls over to Rose who cheerfully picks it up, flicks one of the cat ears on their headband, and strikes a pose.
“I guess it’s my turn then!” Rose declares, making their costume tail swish and pressing a hand to their chest. “Obviously as you all know, I run the most top tier gossip and gaming channel on MiraTube! And you all should like and subscribe for ALL the best news about Mira! Reminder, that’s RoseCatmate_Purrs the channel!” Rose flicks a hand one more time, almost mocking before the ball is thrown.
This time Dove manages to catch it. For a moment it looks like Dove won’t say anything before they sigh and start to speak.
“Uh, I—” Dove falters again, before shaking themself, pressing down on the ball and firming up. “I used to intern in the tech department, but I think my true calling is in medicine. So now that I’ve finished my years of medical school I’m here to take my residency under Dr. Blue!” They really puff up now, tilting their head back and holding the trust ball with sparkles in their visor. “I am really looking forwards to one day been just like them and saving lives all over Mira occupied space!”
It looks like Dove is really proud of that, talking about their passion with much more confidence. Which only leaves Green left to share their funfact-- which Orange cuts off to quickly usher them all into the ship instead. It makes Maroon a little bit uncomfortable really, but there’s nothing to really be done as they’re lead through the ship.
“Oh that’s a lot of...” they only vaguely take note of what Orange is saying as they pull their camera out-- taking first the obligatory photos and then focusing instead on “Are-- Are you sure that the Ore+ is secure like that?” Banana’s words cause Maroon to snap around.
Banana is worrying at the side of one of the giant crates, looking up at it with their green and orange beanie in hand.
“Of course it is! Safe in hand with our two Geologists!”
“B-but--”
“I'm a geologist, Cyan is a gemologist.” Black cuts across, Cyan nodding beside them at the statement.
“Oh that’s--”
“That’s not what the paperwork says!” Orange is far, far too cheerful to tolerate-- as it is everyone quickly scrambles as Black becomes threatening over things, the next stop been the reactor room.
“Hey! This is where I’ll be--” Maroon brightens up, almost eager as they take in the room, the reactor especially. Only to be cut off as a nearby vent is flung open. Causing pretty much everyone in the room to scream, or cry, jump or other. “Oh HELL--” Maroon spins around to stare at the lime coloured Crewmate, “Am I that…”
“Yeah-- Yeah you are...” Banana confirms, looking a little bit sickly after the shock. Holding their hands just under their visor and shaking. “So-- is that--”
“This is Lime, our engineer.”
“I’m also an ordained minister!” Lime confirms, which makes Maroon lean in a bit.
“Hello Lime!” The engineer squints at them, pressing down in the vent with a narrowed visor. “I’m Maroon! I’ll be helping you fix things this trip!” There’s something strained as Lime’s visor only seems to further narrow, before just like that the other Crewmate is gone. For a moment, Maroon falters, before. “Oh are we going to--” Banana catches them by the back of their news jacket.
“You can vent chase them later Maroon!” they huff. Narrowing their own visor at the vent and promising that this conversation isn’t over. They will be following this up again later. Also it’s been a while since they had met someone else who could do vent chases really, so it makes them kind of twitchy and eager. Maybe Lime will be fun to be an engineer with.
The security office is empty. Which doesn’t seem safe, but they don’t really get the chance to ask as Orange just shrugs and moves along down the list. And here, Dove steps up more eagerly. Stopping outside the Medbay and--
Somewhat embarrassingly, they don’t think they actually hear anything that the doctor says. Too distracted by the bright vibrant blue, the silky soft look of their fur and that timbre of voice.
“You're the most attractive person I've ever seen.” They aren’t quite sure if that voice is them or Green beside them. Meanwhile Banana makes a gagging sound and Dove starts excitedly speaking about looking forwards to studying and learning under Dr. Blue.
“Let’s not Objectify the Hot Doctor” Orange vaguely scolds and they can only nod, distractedly following after into the cafeteria. “And this is the Cafeteria. I think maybe we can skip this very boring, very fair working environment.”
“Wait! We can’t skip!” Banana cuts across, trotting out into the center of the cafeteria before Orange can continue to push the group along and waving towards the kitchen. Following the motion Maroon realises that there’re two crewmates there, looking back at them seriously. “Hey-- Yellow...” Banana’s hand drops a little bit for a moment.
“Oh--” Yellow wipes their hands with a towel before coming over, visor narrowed and focused on Banana. “It’s the saltless cousin I see.”
“Surprise-- I took the internship.” Banana rubs the back of their head and looks anywhere but at Yellow.
“Right” Yellow sounds most unimpressed with Banana who wilts under the attention. “And how many beans are you been paid?”
“We don't need to discuss our rate of beans...” Orange awkwardly chuckles and attempts to deescalate the situation while Maroon pulls out a notebook, they are definitely going to follow up on this with Banana later.
Without any hesitation, Yellow lifts up and throws Orange away, in one very smooth moment. Banana is left there blinking as Yellow continues, Green coming over to join the multiple overlapping voices confirming that they’re been paid nothing because they’re unpaid interns.
“I cannot believe this-- I thought you were smarter than this Banana” Yellow drags one hand down their visor before poking at Banana not unkindly, but sharply. “And you know those Mira cheapskates will barely have stocked the food for us let alone you and--”
“Look-- look! I couldn’t just--” Banana waves their hands around and motions to Maroon. “Besides you know us Yellow! And I know you!” it’s with a beam and quite a lot of cheer “You’re the best chef I know, you and Brown-- I’m sure you’ll be able to make me plenty of saltless food and all else I could...” Whatever Banana says next Maroon doesn’t quite catch but Yellow’s visor only furrows all the more before they whirl on Orange.
“Give me that!” The trust ball Orange is holding is snatching in one swift movement. “Unpaid internships favor the wealthy while being a capitalist exploitation of inexperienced workers under the guise of helping them achieve their personal and financial dreams.”
“Preach”
Orange quickly gets them to scurry out of there, indicating that the next stop is the Captain. Captain Red, who Maroon finds themself frowning at and unimpressed by. Especially when they hand the wheel off to White of all crewmates. Only shortly after does the last member of the crew walk in, the head of security a purple crewmate who kind of looks familiar in fact Maroon is sure--
Before they can tap Purple’s shoulder and ask, something happens. The ship is struck by an asteroid to pretty much everyone’s horror. Except for White and Rose who both say that someone will fix that and Purple rather aptly declares that “We have to fix it!”
Afterwards everything happens really fast.
There’s a giant hole in the side of the storage room. Maroon finds that their visor can’t leave it once there, the open abyss of space all too obvious and visible... it’s not helped by the rest of the chaos either. A wrench goes flying and they can hear Banana’s own expression of alarm, especially when they discover that they’re one of the ones falling.
Still somehow, they whip out their camera and start snapping. All the while Banana holds them by the back of their jacket.
“Really Maroon?!”
“Oh come on! You know this would be perfect for--” They cut off as Yellow slides past them, only caught by Brown. In the distance they can hear Orange and Green’s own exclamations as they tumble towards the death hole to space as well. “Right-- Okay, I get the point.”
“I can’t pull you back up Maroon--” Banana’s frantically looking around, visor scanning the room desperately as they can feel themself slipping in their jacket. “I can’t-- I--” They catch sight of Orange stumbling further down, the trust ball that flies and-- “THAT’S IT!”
“Orange!” Blue’s voice rings out over the chaos of the room, the loud roar of air been vacuumed out into space. “Where are the rest of your Trust Balls?”
“Rest of my Trust Balls? What are you talking about? I only have one!” Orange tries to insist to absolutely everyone protesting, that’s the biggest lie that has ever been lied for sure. “Okay, Okay!” Orange’s hands wave and rather conveniently the crate that had caught them proves to have the rest of the trust balls in it. Unfortunately, a single crewmate isn’t enough to push it over. With a moment or two of hesitation Banana drops them both to join Orange. Black, Cyan and Red soon join and with some effort.
The balls all tumble, rushing towards the hole and with one last loud puff of air it’s stoppered. Maroon lies on the ground for a little longer while Banana mutters something to themself and smooths down their shirt before walking over and helping Maroon up.
“We’re alive” Banana says and Maroon nods. “We’re alive...” the second one sounds... off and Maroon looks sideways at their friend who’s focus seems to be elsewhere. Banana’s focus only returns to the group when Blue begins to speak, congratulating everyone. Which of course Captain Red can’t just leave but--
All the same they clap. Doesn’t hurt anything they suppose.
Maroon cheerfully hums bringing the speciality pizza over to the table that they share with Banana. Only briefly pausing to give a motion to Lime that promised a vent chase later. They really, really hope that Lime will be as familiar with the routine as them. Should prove to be a good bit of fun and a neat way to learn the layout of the land so they can get to their engineering tasks that much quicker--
Meanwhile of course. “Man I knew Mira was cheap but that was something else...” Maroon sets the pizza down and slides it to Banana who frowns before taking a slice. “And here I thought it would be hard to get dirt on Mira and what they’re hiding. But no, it’s just the stuff everyone already knows.”
Their friend hums, non-commital which makes them somewhat slouch before pushing themself up to more easily observe the room. It sure is a cast of characters, of nearly every colour of crewmate to. Nothing really stands out, though they do take note of Dove by Dr. Blue clearly discussing something and Rose appears to be bullying Black-- or well bothering Black likely about their MiraTube channel--
They also take note of Red-- and Purple...
“Hey, that looks..”
“Oh that’s got to be some kind of workplace harassment” Banana nods along without Maroon needing to finish the statement. Yet before either of them can get up to go and see if Purple needs help Green starts asking about White-- Which yeah--
Maroon looks around, taking a headcount. Something in their bone sinks, stomaches dropping to the floor. Where is the other contest winner, the one they’re supposed to be keeping track of and reporting on--
“Oh.” Green’s voice cuts across and it’s with relief they see White step into the room, though something is off. “There you are!”
And...
White...
splits...
apart...
“Oh... Oh no...” Banana’s hands snap up to cover the space beneath their visor again. Visor wide and locking onto White. Or rather White’s now dead body. Of course... Maroon has to raise their camera to snap a photo...
They do still have a secondary mission after all. “So... Mira definitely knew this was a possibility right?”