Kouji scowled. No word from Ryoshi or the medics. Sekiko was - unfortunately - being herself. They had some new moron with a gun, as if Janus wasn't bad enough. A crewman had just died after being assaulted by a fucking slug. And as if they really needed more problems, there, outside, an MBT aiming it's main gun in their general direction. He longed more than anything else for someone else to make the decisions for him... One commander unconscious, the other possibly dead; "Anyone... have any bright ideas?"
Some sort of electrical spark triggered one of the ship's engines for a second, causing the craft to suddenly jerk sideways and smash its nose into a fuel station at the edge of the parking area it had crash-landed in. Strangely enough, this could be considered lucky, as the tank's first shot missed because of the movement and the round impacted in a flash of fire into the fuel station's convenience store section, obliterating food and drinks within.
The pilot turned his head, and laughed. "Well, we're all going to die, sparing Sekiko mysteriously returning from a concussion or one of you finally making yourselves useful. Or perhaps something less miraculous, but that's unlikely." He laughed, and made another inquiry as to the state of the engines. He knew the answer already. The fires were under control, but they couldn't launch and expect to survive. He wondered about the weapons systems of the spacecraft, though he knew full well that none onboard could operate them.
The tank fired another round, and this one found its way into the ship's upper mid-section, destroying the crew quarters and one of the back-up generators. Nepleslian soldiers were beginning to surround the ship, preparing to assault.
Janus grinned. "Go down fighting, Kouji. You know ship can shoot. You figure out, we cause problems for them." The large man was quickly loading (or reloading) every firearm on his person, and his small squad of backup shooters were following the same lead. Kouji shook his head and laughed, happy enough that someone - even Janus - had taken the weight of decision making. Today had not gone well.
"Alright, give me as much time as you can." Kouji quickly released the seals on the airlock. They could open it by hand, as much or as little as they wished to. His next actions were simple: randomly test every aspect of the control system that he had never used in search of the weapons system.
The ship seemed rather uncooperative. The only weapon that seemed to want to work as the one on the bottom of the ship's nose, which gave Kouji a flickering holographic screen to target with. One of the Nepleslians (another civilian, no less) launched a missile into the ship's rear that exploded with enough concussive force that it blew out all the non-Zesuaium windows in several nearby buildings, showering the attacking tank with glass. The dust from the collapsed skyscraper was so thick that the sun was nearly blocked out, and seeing more than twenty feet away was impossible.
Some sort of electrical spark triggered one of the ship's engines for a second, causing the craft to suddenly jerk sideways and smash its nose into a fuel station at the edge of the parking area it had crash-landed in. Strangely enough, this could be considered lucky, as the tank's first shot missed because of the movement and the round impacted in a flash of fire into the fuel station's convenience store section, obliterating food and drinks within.
The pilot turned his head, and laughed. "Well, we're all going to die, sparing Sekiko mysteriously returning from a concussion or one of you finally making yourselves useful. Or perhaps something less miraculous, but that's unlikely." He laughed, and made another inquiry as to the state of the engines. He knew the answer already. The fires were under control, but they couldn't launch and expect to survive. He wondered about the weapons systems of the spacecraft, though he knew full well that none onboard could operate them.
The tank fired another round, and this one found its way into the ship's upper mid-section, destroying the crew quarters and one of the back-up generators. Nepleslian soldiers were beginning to surround the ship, preparing to assault.
Janus grinned. "Go down fighting, Kouji. You know ship can shoot. You figure out, we cause problems for them." The large man was quickly loading (or reloading) every firearm on his person, and his small squad of backup shooters were following the same lead. Kouji shook his head and laughed, happy enough that someone - even Janus - had taken the weight of decision making. Today had not gone well.
"Alright, give me as much time as you can." Kouji quickly released the seals on the airlock. They could open it by hand, as much or as little as they wished to. His next actions were simple: randomly test every aspect of the control system that he had never used in search of the weapons system.
The ship seemed rather uncooperative. The only weapon that seemed to want to work as the one on the bottom of the ship's nose, which gave Kouji a flickering holographic screen to target with. One of the Nepleslians (another civilian, no less) launched a missile into the ship's rear that exploded with enough concussive force that it blew out all the non-Zesuaium windows in several nearby buildings, showering the attacking tank with glass. The dust from the collapsed skyscraper was so thick that the sun was nearly blocked out, and seeing more than twenty feet away was impossible.
