The Red Tail

[zJack7331]

I sigh, reaching across to the FTL drive switch, flicking it off. 'Why?' I mutter to myself, 'Why am I doing this?'
Just at that moment, I hear a small hiss from the room behind me; as I sit up, startled. That's the sound of the airlocks being opened. I slowly reach to my right, fingers curling around the barrel of a pistol. I flip it around, grasping it, as I stand slowly up, pushing my chair back. I inch towards the door, but find it opening as I approach it. I raise the pistol, but I'm too startled to pull the trigger - it's a Mantis.. towering over me, pincers raised. I stagger backwards, raising the pistol, squeezing the trigger twice. Nope. Nothing, damn it. I feel myself pushed back, straight into the control panel.

We struggle for a while, my arms beating back it's pincers, until I finally gain the upper hand and strike the creature in some sort of weak point, near the throat. It collapses backwards, twitching feebly for a minute or two, before I have the decency to reach down, and put the damn thing out of it's misery.

One Mantis? That means there's more. I grimace, quickly sliding out a combat knife that I'd completely forgotten I had, and walk through the open door. I advance on the..thing - I don't know what to describe it, connected to the airlock. Must've been how they got in - anyway, I shut the door after stabbing a hole through the weak fabric, making it unusable. Anyone in there is going to die of asphyxiation..or falling into space.

I allow myself twenty seconds to take a deep breath, imagining something nice, not like the horrible Mantis that are attacking my ship.. then I advance forward, hitting the button to open the second door, walking through it.
I immediately notice blood splattered across the walls to my front and left, and notice a Mantis chewing the innards of my door operator. I stride forward, striking the exact same spot on this Mantis before it can notice me, but I the blade bends feebly against it's hardened coating.. - what is this? It spins around, causing a large gash to appear on my cheek. It begins to bleed instantly, as I strike out randomly with the bent blade of my knife. Nothing. It looks like this is my end.
The Mantis reaches forward, picking me up in between it's two front pincers, and strikes forward. It's going to cut my head off, sever me into two, I realize. Two seconds before it does.