26 Mortar and Fire

Lights surround the room floating in the air, the Budvarittsma completely visible once again. The being from before sitting with its knees pressed against its chest, Svartur standing over it while the Gambler lays on the floor, hands on his visor. Svartur kneels down to its level and it looks to him. "My name is Svartur, I'm guessing you don't have a name, yes?"

It nods, "I do not have a name."

"I'll give you a name then, how about... Mobius."

The being nods once again, "I am fine with... 'Mobius.'" Saying its own name repeats the voice recording of Svartur saying it to Mobius.

"Can you transform your body?"

"I can."

"Can you transform into a human?"

"Are you a human?"

"I am."

"You are wearing a mask, yes? What do humans look like?"

Svartur rubs the back of his mask before leaning in close to Mobius, Pauldron pulling up pictures of people, muscle fibers, et cetera. "Like this," He scrolls through some images before stopping, "Or would you want a different form?" Svartur then pulls up images of other races, going through all of them one at a time.

"Human..." It says in almost a whisper.

"You want to be human?"

"Yes."

"How would you like to look?"

"I will come up with something." It freezes in place, not moving from where it is sitting. Svartur taps Mobius with his finger but it doesn't budge.

Svartur sighs, heading over to the Gambler and sitting beside him. "What a stressful situation... instead of finding something I can handle, we found something like this."

"Do you have any idea in what it could be?" The Gambler asks, looking over to Svartur while still on the ground, laying flat on his back, arms and legs spread apart from each other.

"No clue. It has robotic parts but it moves as a person should. It has muscle fibers but it has gaps with its exoskeleton visible underneath, covered with a transparent plastic-like substance. Frankly, I haven't got a clue how it's possible for such a thing like it to exist."

"Aren't there robot people built like it?"

"No, what makes it really special is the material it's made out of. Completely organic. It's impossible to create something like that without it rotting or seeming fake. Artificial skin is a thing, but you can still tell what it's made out of, it's not tough, feels exactly like skin, but him, it's rough like a carapace, every bit of it, yet it moves as skin should. That shouldn't be possible, it's why armor has gaps or layers of metal connected together, thin so it can shift places, but he doesn't have that. The plastic gaps are the same material as his body making it obsolete for there to be gaps in the first place."

"I get what you mean now."

Before their eyes, Mobius starts forming a body. Its skin forms bouls before settling back down, the skin changing color, the scales on his body shiver, blinding light encasing it. This repeats throughout its entire body for an hour until finally stopping. The scales turned into detailed tattoos on his arms and legs which flare up momentarily from time to time, its body male, eyes dilated, black and devoid of life, hair flicked back, black.

He raises himself off the ground, neck cracking all the while, his movements jittering. "What's happening?" Svartur asks.

Mobius looks to Svartur, "Changing." Slowly it's movements become more natural, smooth as an actual human should move. "Done." He shakes his head, turning to Svatur. "This is my human form."

"That's badass." The Gambler comments. "We need to get you clothes though..."

***

"What an interesting ship..." Svartur comments, pulling himself into the ship and walking around its interior. The Gambler sits next to Ren, lightly moving hair off of her face intermittently. Mobius enters with a military suit on, heavy armor strapped around his torso, parts of his pants stuffed into his boots. He adjusts the gloves and looks to Ren.

"Who is the girl?" Mobius asks, adjusting his collar.

"Girlfriend." The Gambler presses his lips together, cheeks flushed with red, "Still can't get used to it." The Gambler sighs, "I'm such an idiot, can't get used to someone who I've been with for years now..."

Mobius blankly stares at the Gambler for a few moments before leaving. The Gambler gets up but is stopped by Ren grabbing his hand. The Gambler spins around to look at her, she rubs her eyes, "Who are you?"

***

"It's what I thought would happen." Svartur examines Ren, a confused expression comes across her face. "Amnesia, severe too. Do you remember anything?"

"No?"

The Gambler gives a pained expression before sitting back down next to her, "What do you remember if anything."

"What do you mean?"

"Name, something like that?"

"No, I don't."

"Do you remember what you are?"

She shakes her head.

"Well... you are Ren, the Cakas'mirilin. We are in a relationship." The Gambler points to her and motions to himself.

"Okay..." She furrows her brow and starts thinking.

The Gambler sighs, "I'm so..." He sighs again. "What the hell do I do now?"

Svartur puts his hands on his hips, "Nothing you can do, bide time and find things that could help her remember."

Mobius peaks in from the door, "We have company."

Svartur spins on his heels and makes his way off the ship. He jumps down, landing on the ground, spinning on his heels once again to look at a group of people standing before the ship, some examining, some hitting it with a rod. They all wear hazard suits, one of them wearing a more haphazard version of one, holes in the suit wrapped in a cloth to block the ash from touching him. They look to Svartur.

"This your ship?"

"No, a friend's," Svartur answers quickly, hand on his rail pistol. "Who are you? Looters, Raiders?"

One of them points their rifle at Svartur and before Svartur could take out his own weapon, he is shot down. Svartur collapses. "Next is whoever is inside." One of them comments, looking closer at the ship, "Have to find a way..."

"We could smoke them out, he left the door to the ship open," They point to the airlock hack, a ladder running below it.

"Good choice." Before he could even take a step forward, a ringing explosion of a sound comes from below him, the world spinning, everything stinging until he finally slams against the ground, farther away from where he actually was. Almost about to faint, he looks to the bottom of his body... nothing, his bottom half had been torn off. But how... he didn't care how, the pain was too extreme and then, he died. The other man back away from Svartur as he rises off the ground, the remains of their friend spread across the ground in front of them.

Svartur looks to them, "You can't beat a rail pistol." He points it at the rest and they fire onto Svartur as he fires the pistol one again, tearing into one of them, taking one half of their collarbone and an arm with it. Bloodstains the concrete ground as he groans and screams, clutching his missing half, staining his hands before dying then and there.

Svartur once again rises, when he should be dead, he is not, standing before them with a red gleam coming from the goggles of his mask. Svartur, with his offhand, takes out a long blade from his waist and throws it into one of their throats, "What the hell are you doing, fire until he's dead!" They begin firing upon Svartur once again, this time, he does not fall he walks. Tearing past his clothes as he fires into them. Ligaments in their legs tearing as the bullet comes through it, bone-cracking, an entire part of their body being destroyed within seconds of the bullet touching them.

Clothing torn, Svartur sits upon the bodies of many, grotesque versions of their original selves, guts spewed onto the rubble. Svartur sighs, Mobius peaking his head out from the ship, "What happened?" He asked.

Svartur looks to the destruction around him, back to his clothes and armor before looking to Mobius, Svartur's gasmask remaining unharmed. "They weren't very friendly."

Mobius nods, ignorant of how absurd the situation really was. The Gambler pushes past Mobius and looks to Svartur, "What the hell...? Have you..."

Svartur chuckles, "Are you wondering how I'm still alive?"

The Gambler nods.

Svartur attaches the rail pistol to his belt, managing himself. "Well, I need new clothes now, I left my bag in there so I got lucky," Svartur climbs up the ladder, "You don't need to know how I live."

The Gambler's eyes widen, "I guess I don't." He moves out the way, Svartur entering.

The Gambler takes a glance outside, seeing bodies strewn across the ground, "If it wasn't for the masks, I would be vomiting by now. Killing a human might be too far..." The Gambler falls to the ground and closes the airlock.