Chapter Text
The glyphid limped through the caves.
Its back leg was wounded. It had lost its grip, and fallen down a titanic hole. By some miracle, it had survived the fall. But now it was hungry, and it desperately needed food.
Food was hard to find for an injured glyphid.
There was a noise.
The glyphid stopped, and listened.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
RATATATATATATATATATA
Gunfire.
Dwarven gunfire.
SCREEE!
ROAR!
Other glyphids crying in rage. Crying in pain.
Its brethren were fighting the dwarves.
Dwarves, in glyphid territory.
Other glyphids had chittered that dwarf meat was tastier than anything imaginable. But they were also very dangerous. A single dwarf had the strength to destroy an entire swarm.
The glyphid was in no condition to fight. But it was starving. It decided that its need for food outweighed the risk.
The glyphid followed the sounds of the fight. Perhaps the other glyphids managed to overpower the dwarves this time. And if they didn’t, it could at least feast on its fallen brethren.
BANG! BANG!
SCREEEEEeeeeee…
Silence.
The fighting was over.
The glyphid creeped into an open cavern.
There was something long and metal that stretched across the cave floor.
Something the dwarves made.
The glyphid grew curious.
It crawled up to the thing, and gently brought its foreleg to it.
Tap.
Nothing happened.
Tap tap.
Nothing.
Sniff sniff.
Definitely dwarven, but still nothing happened.
The glyphid lost interest.
It limped further down a tunnel. The metal thing continued the same way.
Sniff sniff.
The glyphid stopped.
Sniff-sniff-sniff.
Dead glyphids.
Food.
The glyphid limped as fast as it could, completely ignorant of potential danger. It didn’t care. It was too hungry.
It found the corpse of a swarmer, lying on the cave floor, torn in half.
Without hesitation, the glyphid gobbled down one half of the swarmer.
Adequate taste. But not enough. Needed more. More food—
CHU-CHIK!
The glyphid stopped and turned around.
A dwarf was standing on top of the metal thing, aiming its weapon at the glyphid.
It hissed, and backed away, keeping a foreleg on the other half of the swarmer. It was in no condition to fight, but it wasn’t about to give up its meal if survival was on the line.
The two stared at each other in silence.
The dwarf noticed the glyphid’s broken leg.
It lowered its gun.
It said something.
The glyphid didn’t understand dwarves.
The dwarf reached into its pocket, and pulled out something triangle-shaped. It held it up to the glyphid.
The glyphid sniffed the triangle.
It smelled like several different things, but mostly meat. Was the dwarf offering the triangle… to eat?
The glyphid attempted to grab the triangle with its teeth.
The dwarf let go.
The glyphid took a bite out of the triangle.
Chew
Chew
Chew
It took another bite.
Chew chew chew chew
It gobbled up the rest of the triangle.
This was the most delicious thing that the glyphid had ever eaten.
The dwarf reached out a hand toward the glyphid.
The glyphid hissed.
The dwarf briefly stopped, but then continued.
The glyphid kept hissing.
The dwarf gently placed its hand on the glyphid’s head.
The glyphid stopped hissing.
The dwarf brought its hand back and forth.
It felt… pleasant. Soothing even.
The glyphid began to purr.
The dwarf then brought its hand away, said something else, then climbed on top of the long metal thing, and slid away.
The glyphid wasn’t satisfied with one triangle and some light petting. It wanted more. It needed more.
It climbed on top of the metal thing, careful not to use its wounded leg, and crawled after the dwarf.
Chapter 2
Notes:
I have equipped Beast Master on my Engineer and Driller. It is indeed a fun perk.
Chapter Text
“That was a little weird,” Engie thought as he skated down the pipe. “I gave up my lunch, but at least I saved myself a few bullets for later.”
The pipe continued down quite some way. It turned to the left. It turned to the right. It climbed up a hill (from the top of which, Engie jumped off and spun in the air like a ballerina), and then descended almost straight down. It even made a loop-de-loop at some point.
Oh yeah, a chunk of the construction costs for this pipeline were definitely going to come out of Engie’s paycheck. It would absolutely be worth it though. After all, if you’re gonna be paid to mine liquid morkite on a hostile alien planet, why not have a little fun on the job?
Engie ducked for speed as he entered another tunnel. If he remembered correctly, there was another hill coming up, and the air he could get from the jump would be downright lethal (literally, he might die from the fall without quick and careful use of his platform gun).
It was too bad he didn’t think to request a camera from Mission Control. Then again, he doubted that management would think too kindly of miners using company equipment to record videos of themselves “pulling off sick-ass pipe-surfing stunts”.
He felt the wind rush past his face.
Here it comes.
Any minute now…
Any second now…
Glitter.
What was that?
Gotta stop.
Engie drew his trusty pickaxe, and thrust it into the wall next to him.
CCCRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrr...
His board slowed down to a stop.
He pulled his pickaxe from the wall, and let gravity slowly pull his board back the way he came.
He saw the glitter again.
An Enor Pearl was buried inside the rock wall.
“Bingo!” Engie thought. “Just what I was looking for.”
He hopped off his board, and got to work digging out the pearl.
Tick!
Tick!
Tick!
Tick!
After a few hits with the pickaxe, the pearl came loose, and fell out of the wall, into Engie’s embrace.
It was humongous, more than half the size of his body.
“Oh boy. Management’s gonna pay big for this girlie. Once I repair this pipeline, I’ll take ‘er back to the refinery-”
Screeeee...
“Ah, hell.”
Engie turned to see a glyphid limping towards him, struggling to stay balanced on top of the pipe.
“Oh, it’s you.”
The glyphid stood in front of Engie, and stared up at him, expectantly.
“What? You want more sandwiches?” Engie asked. “Hate to break it to ya’, but I only had the one.”
The glyphid didn’t respond.
“Did ya’ hear me? I said I ain’t got no more food! Now go on! Off you go!”
It tilted its head to say that it couldn’t understand what Engie was saying.
He shrugged as readjusted the grip on his pearl.
“Look, bug. I got places to be, and gems to deposit. So if you don’t mind, I--”
SCREEEEEESCREEEEESCREEEEEEEEEEE
The cry of the swarmlings took Engie by surprise.
He hastily dropped the massive pearl, allowed it to roll off the pipe to the cave floor, and reached for his plasma grenades.
Before he could throw them, a swarmling leapt to his face, and found a grip in his beard.
“Get off! Pesky bugger!”
Engie grabbed the swarmer and tossed it away. By then, three more swarmlings had leapt onto him, knocking him off of the pipe.
He rolled and flailed on the ground, screaming, “Get off! Get off!”
SCCRAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!
Engie felt something swoop over him, knocking the swarmlings clean off.
He looked up to see that the glyphid he had given his sandwich was now fighting against the swarmlings, roaring to keep them away.
“Are you... defending me?” Engie asked as he got up.
The glyphid didn’t acknowledge him as it gnashed its teeth at its former brethren.
The swarmlings gathered in front of it en masse. They were intimidated, and a tad confused, but they were slowly advancing.
One particularly brave swarmling snuck around the bigger glyphid, noticed its wounded leg, and leapt onto it, sinking its teeth into its flesh.
SCREEEEEEEEE!!
The glyphid shrieked in pain. It tried to kick off the swarmling, but it held on tight.
The other swarmlings got braver, and some of them also leapt onto the glyphid.
It curled up and rolled back, desperately trying to knock them off.
This fight was not going in the glyphid’s favour. If it went on for much longer, the swarmers would tear it apart.
Engie knew that this was the perfect opportunity for him to escape. He could grab the pearl, skate back to the refinery, and be absolutely no worse for wear. But this glyphid saved his life, and he’d be leaving it to die. He just couldn’t live with that on his conscience. After all, “Leave no dwarf behind.” (Okay, glyphids are not dwarves, but that’s beside the point.)
Engie raised his pickaxe, and slammed it into the swarmling that had bitten into the glyphid’s leg.
SPLAT!
He grabbed another swarmling, and crushed it with his bare hands. He kicked a third one straight into the wall.
The glyphid managed to roll back onto its feet, and gave another roar.
SCCRAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!
The swarmlings again backed away from Engie and the glyphid.
“You know what I think?” Engie said as he pulled a plasma grenade from his belt. “This is the perfect time for a light show.”
He tossed the grenade into the swarm, then hastily grabbed the glyphid (which complained through a series of screeches and chitters), and dived away from the resulting series of bright purple explosions.
PI-CHOOM!
PI-CHOOM!
PI-CHOOM!
PI-CHOOM! CRACK-CLANG!
Fssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhh...
A commanding voice spoke through Engie’s headset. “Engineer, come in. We’re detecting heavy damage on Pipeline 3. What happened?”
“Ah, bloody hell,” said Engie. “The explosion from the grenade must’ve hit the pipe.”
“You blew up the pipe!?”
“No, no. Well, not intentionally. See, I got attacked by a bunch a’ swarmlings, an’--”
“Nevermind, it doesn’t matter, get it fixed!”
“Right away, sir!” Engie said in a sarcastic tone as he stood back up.
He looked at the pipe, and saw that it was now spewing out foul black liquid over the well-cooked remains of the glyphid swarmers.
“Yeah, that looks pretty bad,” he said. “But nothing some duct tape and a few whacks with a wrench can’t fix.”
He looked back down at the glyphid, who was now patiently seated next to him.
“I told ya, I ain’t got any more food,” Engie told it. “But I’ll tell you what.” He reached for the enor pearl he had dropped, and rolled it gently toward the glyphid. “You watch over this for a little bit, and I’ll see what I can do about that leg o’ yours. Deal?”
He prodded the glyphid’s front leg with the pearl.
At first, it didn’t respond.
Then, it tapped the pearl with its foreleg, gave it a sniff, and climbed on top of it.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
Content, Engie turned his attention to the pipe, and went to work fixing it.