In the trash planet formed by a coincidence, there were a particular set of skills that every one of inhabitants needed to know if they were to survive the harsh environment.
One of them was how to run.
It was one thing to die from the air chock full of toxins, carcinogens and pollutants.
It was another thing when they died from something easily avoidable.
Especially when said thing could be escaped from by just running fast enough.
And as a child born on this planet, if there was anything in the universe that he was able to claim a modicum of skill in, it would be his ability to run.
It was just that instead of a hive of an incredibly pissed off steel ants, Ester was now running from a wildly twitching Corrupted dead set on murdering anything that so much as moved.
He was the thing that moved in this case, and he wasn't that happy about it with the sound of cracking glass constantly on his tail.
"Eva! Corrupted! Prepare Engine!"
Hurriedly barking those words into the short distance communicator he held in his palm, Ester instantly darted backwards while throwing caution to the wind as the Corrupted screamed like he had just murdered its mother.
Shoving past a series of boxes, he darted through the tent flap, the sound of it all being drowned out by the sound of shattered glass.
As he left, from the corner of his eye he was able to see the falling boxes seemingly slow their fall right before they were sucked backwards.
It didn't take a genius to put two and two together in this case when the Corrupted he would now call Vortex Mouth was devouring anything in its way.
Letting out a scream like nails on a chalkboard, metal and plastic slammed together as they were all forcefully pulled towards Vortex Mouth.
Risking a glance backwards as he ran, the tent that was once hiding him was torn from its pegs, the cloth swirling in the air right before it disappeared into Vortex Mouth's gaping maw.
Swiftly following it were the numerous boxes of expensive, intact components all flying towards the Corrupted's mouth.
A brief flash of regret came over Ester's mind as he saw all those components become stretched and shredded the very second that they reached the pinnacle of the Vortex.
It was regrettable to lose access to all of those things, but what could you do when a Corrupted wanted you dead?
Yep. You run.
Hurriedly swinging his two limbs, Ester hurriedly fumbled with the gauge on his waist connected to the Respirator fueling his desperate escape spree.
Instantly raising the slowly acting Respirator to its highest capabilities, the sound of air being audibly ripped out from the air to feed the respirator nearly drowned out the noise behind him.
Key word nearly.
Stuffing the Module alongside the Repair kit into his pockets, Ester nearly stumbled as the wind suddenly resisted his attempts to run.
'That's definitely not supposed to happen.'
Recovering his gait in the same moment, Ester distinctly felt the pressure mount as he tried to move forwards, receiving a face full of plastic dust for his efforts.
Hurriedly wiping his stained goggles, Ester risked a glance backwards and was greeted two pieces of news, one good, the other bad.
The good news was that Vortex Mouth was completely fine with a walkers pace so he had made quite a bit of distance
The bad news was that it was making sure that the distance would begin to narrow by forcefully restraining his movements through the sheer force of wind being displaced when it sucked it all into its mouth.
If the flying plastic scraps and dust particles didn't make that part clear enough, then Ester was an idiot.
And he was many things but an idiot.
*CRACKLE
The sound of broken glass grated on his ears again as he grimaced, his past experiences with tornadoes telling him to quickly hug the ground and find any anchors that he could get his hands on.
His experiences didn't tell him what to do when the Tornado was forcefully directing all of its pull towards him, but he had the distinct feeling that he should get the Void out of there.
'Just think of it as Mountain climbing Ester.'
He bit his lip and tasted the iron in his blood.
'A mountain climbing adventure where Vortex mouth over there is chasing me. No biggie.'
Limbs straining as he held onto for dear life, Ester couldn't help but feel a pull on the hems of his clothes as he crawled forwards inch by little inch.
'Okay, maybe a little biggie.'
*Crumble
"SONOFABIT-"
Instinctively letting out a curse as the rock he was holding onto grew loose, Ester hurriedly dug his metallic hands deep into the ground in a last ditch effort as he felt the pull reach at his legs now.
Throwing a glance over his shoulders, Ester's eyes grew wide as he watched the large stone the size of his head fly towards Vortex Mouth at speeds that would make a Klatul proud.
And a boulder made of concrete stood little chance against something that was able to stretch and shred the Steel feathered birds to absolute nothingness.
Or that was at least what Ester first expected.
*CRa CrK CKR Kra
Feeling and seeing the pull stop completely as the face sized rock was torn to pieces by Vortex mouth's vortex mouth, when its edges were torn away and the rock now fit the Vortex mouth, the pull kicked right back up causing Ester to instinctively grip at the ground.
Feeling the wind whip at his face, Ester thought about what he had just seen and pieced it all together.
'So, if it can't eat it all in one go the pull stops for the parts that cover the Corrupted's face as it tries to break it down into more manageable bite sized chunks.'
Mind instantly racing at the revelation, Ester hurriedly drew up a plan that all for intents and purposes was the most stupid one that he had the displeasure of thinking
'Oh this is a stupid fucking idea.'
Groaning mentally as the Corrupted took a step closer to his position, his body inching forwards just that much slower now, Ester glared at the nearing Corrupted.
'Not that I have much of a choice.' He thought, his free hand hurriedly messing with the numerous clasps attached to his belt.
Vortex Mouth stepped just a bit closer as Ester suddenly let go of the ground, flying into the air.
Letting out a sound akin to joy, Vortex Mouth stopped in place as the crackles of glass intensified while Ester flew... Only to be forcefully stopped by a metal contraption suddenly slamming into its mouth.
Larger than a head width wise, the Respirator instantly let out a series of high-pitched whines as the black waves within Vortex Mouth's mouth ate at the fragile components, the Corrupted shaking in confusion as to why they weren't eating a body made of flesh and bone.
'Still as dumb as a bag of concrete.'
Grinning as the insanely stupid idea worked its magic, Ester flexed his right hand and allowed a blade the length of his forearm to sprout.
Swinging his right hand, the confused and shaking Corrupted trying to devour the Respirator as fast as it could froze in place.
"So" Ester flicked the blade connected to his arm. "A Corrupted bleeds black. Good to know."
Letting the blood splatter onto a nearby rock as he sheathed the blade connected to his forearm, Ester glanced at Vortex Mouth as it wobbled in place before eventually collapsing onto the ground.
Head detaching from its shoulders, the Corrupted's head rolled towards his feet as he grimaced.
"Yeah... That Respirator's definitely slagged." He said, his eyes tracing the not so insignificant amount of destruction
"Thank the architects for oxygen tanks." He muttered, his hand tapping at the half empty oxygen tank.
Ester glanced at the distorted and concave face slowly losing the black swirls that made it up. "Curse the Architects for making Corrupted though, can't imagine having your face being punched in and turned into a swirl is pleasant."
He grimaced at the sight of the black swirls finally dissipating to reveal a concave face replaced with swirling lines... 'Oh Architects that's an eye.'
"Definitely not pleasant." Trying to remove the image of the eye stretched in ways that shouldn't have been possible, a brief but dangerous thought of finding out what the rest of those lines were did flash through his mind.
But since he wanted to sleep peacefully for once, he abstained.
'That weird nightmare's enough for me.' Ester thought, his hand feeling his rapid heartbeat through the fabric of his shirt as he took in a deep and long breath to calm it.
'But... Before I leave this place with the module and kit, I should probably find for a replacement Respirator before Eva can notice.'
Giving one last glance at the decapitated corpse, Ester hurried into the camp that she had just charged through.
---
Walking out of the camp several kilograms heavier and a new Respirator locked onto his waist, Ester grunted with satisfaction while adjusting the straps of the Frame on his back.
Having helped himself to the multitude of things that the scavengers who once lived here were now unable to, Ester was positively giddy.
As modular as Frames were, they could serve as effective bags when it came down to it.
Especially when they could hold a Fabricator, proper water filters, growth pods any many other things that these guys seem to have accumulated.
'I do wonder where they got these things.'
Ester let out a sad sigh. 'But can't pick their brains for the Scav site if they're dead. Not that they would tell me about it now I think of it.'
'Oh well.' He shrugged the Frame on his back. 'You win some, you lose some.'
Ester grinned. 'And I really won some this time.'
Nearly wanting to jump for joy, Ester's mode was instantly rained on when his eyes caught sight of the concave face looking at him with twisted eyes.
'...'
'Damnit.'
---
"Ugh... Why am I doing this...'
On the Trash planet, there were a unique set of funeral rites that its people followed.
Since trash rained down every single day in the dreaded Trash Rain, digging was something reserved for the living seeing as it's the only way to live a somewhat stable life here on this planet.
So, what was the only other option?
Burning.
Ash from you came and unto ash you shall return and all that jazz.
Finally feeling as if he had soaked the corpse with enough of their fuel, Ester snapped his thumb and pinky together to create a spark which drifted down and landed onto the Gasoline.
Then it caught fire.
Watching as the corpse was devoured by the gasoline fueled blaze, Ester glanced upwards at the covered ceiling.
"May Moros cast his gaze onto whoever you are."
Sending a brief prayer to the Architect of Death Moros to take this tortured soul to a nicer place than this Hell hole, Ester opened his eyes to the sight of a well-cooked corpse made of ash and ember... And a bracelet?
'What are you?' Already feeling as if he had done enough for whoever became Corrupted, Ester desecrated the ashen corpse with his metal finger and retrieved a strangely intact bracelet.
The screen and band had most definitely melted away in the flames, but strangely enough, the memory chip seemed intact enough for retrieval.
'I guess I'll check you later.'
Dumping the bracelet into his Frame and swiftly forgetting it, Ester rubbed his forehead with his hand made of metal before belatedly realizing something.
"Ah. I forgot about Eva."
---
Returning to the base of the drill, Ester opened up the air lock and stepped into it, opening the next door in a similar manner.
And upon opening said door, he was granted to the sight of a very very pissed off looking woman holding a makeshift shot gun.
Since bullets were rarely thrown away and the way to make gunpowder was relatively unknown, Ester knew for a fact that there were at the least four bullets in the chamber.
"..."
[...]
Slowly closing the door, the steel pipe constituting the Shotgun's existence shoved itself in between the closing door.
"..."
[...]
"I'm sorry."
[You should be]
+++
Tree that wonders if he's setting the pace a bit too fast.