The Exodus fleet, interstellar space
The Exodus fleet had been making steady progress through Yamataian space unhindered, due to it taking unused trade routes so as to not bother merchants or SAoY ships. It was now entering the independent frontier zone.
The fleet had passed by many trade stations on their way towards parts unknown, and were running low on fuel. Word had been passed down from the higher ups to every member of the fleet that they would be taking a detour through a small gas nebula to replenish fuel for the fleet's fusion reactors.
Being cooped up on a ship for long periods of time was not Kryss' faveourite thing to do in the universe, pretty far down on that least in fact and so the blonde had spent most of her time hanging out in the bar or in one of the phys rec areas doing some moderate training. She was hardly a body builder but that was no excuse not to stay in shape, especially if she wanted to get back to work soon as she found a way home.
Hearing about their lack of fuel gave her a new factor to work with as she did her usual pushup routine, maybe an escape at whatever station or ship they stopped with. Assuming they had to stop with another craft... Guess that's a work in progress plan then, "Ah well something will turn up sooner or later I guess." She said alound to the empty room around her.
Sienna, like Kryss, was also bouncing off the walls - literally, in the former's case - albeit for a different reason: spending so much time in FTL was uneventful, dull, and so, so, so, so, so boring. It, quite simply, was no fun at all - thus she'd spent the majority of her time in the bedroom, in the gym, and in the bedroom some more. She was, at the moment, skipping around the overcrowded (and already cramped to begin with) confines of the Exodus' bridge, eager to finally be doing something after the previous week of pure unadulterated boredom.
As the fleet entered the nebula the ships were buffeted by what seemed to be currents in the gas of the neubla caused by gravitational fields. Strange crackles of static electricity surrounded the ships of the Exodus fleet as they pushed further inward, using their gravity systems to collect gasses to use in their fusion reactors.
An announcement from Tim Aricson alerted the ships of the fleet to stay clear of static heavy areas however...
A single broadword was too close to one and too slow to follow orders. A wicked bolt of stellar lightning struck the hull of the Sentry and crackled along its length. Thrusters spluttered and died and short range communications sprung up, calls for help were audible on the bridge.
The shortest person on the bridge gasped in horror - "No!" - and paused mid-skip, whirling to face Aricson as she did so. "We have to help them, because..." - she paused as a mixture of panic, concern, and horror crept across her features - "...because we can't just leave them behind. Not with all those children onboard, since that wouldn't be nice to them at all, and they're so fun and energetic and awesome to be around!"
Kryss felt the vibrations and slight wobble as the ship was pushed about, taking a break from her exercise she sighed and wondered what was happening now and with no sounds of intercomms or alarms she assumed nothing bad had happened. She hadn't had much contact with the others on the ship since the night at the bar almost a week ago when the men all saw her as a bitch and the captain was dragged off by a woman with questionable intentions.
"Well something is defintely happening and you wont get answers sitting around here." Kryss groaned, standing up and working a kink out of her shoulder before heading back to the bed she'd barely used all week to grab her communicator. "Hey just felt some shudders, what's happening up there?" She sent to, what she assumed was the captain's line but couldn't be too bothered checking.
Tim looked at Sienna for a moment. "Well, I can't flaw your logic. Leaving them would certainly not be nice. Besides that, the families on board that ship represent our future wherever we end up. Sienna, I want you to take a team of engineers over to the Sentry and see if you can get its downed systems operational. If you can't, we'll have to evacuate the occupants onto the other ships in the fleet.
Then he keyed the intercom to talk to Kryss. "Listen, we've entered a nebula, but there appears to be some sort of naturally occuring static discharges in here, one of which disabled one of our ships. Do you have any experience with ship repair?"
Now more alert than a moment earlier she pulled on her jacket and transfered the call into her earpiece as she headed to the bridge. "What kind of damage are we talking, I've dealt with some issues of electro-static overloads but not quite this scale. Scientifically, the same principals should still apply..." She spoke quickly and clearly, cursing herself for being so far away when the notice of refueling had been played. "And more importantly, how bad is it, have we had word from the other ship yet?"
"We've got communications still, but the news... well it's bad. Life support is down and there's only so long they're going to last over there. In addition to that problem their engines seem to have shut down entirely, and they're drifting."
The hyperactive human's eyes widened in horror, because she knew - oh, how she knew - what a lack of oxygen could do to someone.
Kryss nodded to herself as she ran, engine failure meant they would need a fair bit of work to get started after a system shock, possible damage to the reactors on top of that which could be putting life support systems in danger of failure. "Tim, don't panic on me but worst case scenario their life support will fail very soon and that is one bitch to restart with internal damage. Have them get engineers to focus on having backup power handle life support, go dark if need be but they don't have much chance without it."
Kryss knew it was a grim time and they didn't have a second to spare, if only she'd finished getting the Horizon database condensed onto that drive she could use their scenario program. "I'll be at the bridge in about 2 minutes, I assume you're scrambling teams to go assist with evac by now and if you're not get on it now!"
Soon the engineers met with Kryss and Sienna down at the closest airlock to the drifting Sentry and prepared their vacuum suits. "Alright, we don't have any time to waste." One of them said, "Sienna, I'm gonna need you to help attach a flexible docking tube to allow us to transfer the crew and civilians in there over to the Exodus without taking a spacewalk, if it comes down to that."
"Ms. Black, you're gonna help us try and get the systems of the Sentry back online. We'll be going in through the engineering section airlock, so you and two of us will be splitting off from the main group."
Kryss nodded already double checking her own suit and comms, "As much as faith in our ability is good, we have lives at risk. Have the bridge scan for any rogue debris in our area and begin the evac immediately, the people with rare professions first, women and children as priority if they carry an apptitude." She stopped and pondered, did these people actually do that kind of documentation on their citizens? Well they'd just have to stick with women and children otherwise.
"Also have the bridge keep a comms line open with the least hysterical person in the Sentry's command staff, I need as much info before I get there to lesson troubleshooting time."
Kryss and her two accompanying engineers made their way to the rear of the Sentry as Sienna and her group attached the docking tube. Evacuation was soon underway, but it was slow going as the hysterical families milled about in a panic. Even some of the trained crew members on board the ship had joined the throng of panicking people.
As Kryss boarded the Sentry, the damage in the engineering section was clear even before the airlock finished cycling. Alarms were audible through vibrations in the ship's hull agitating the air inside her helmet. As the door opened the flashing red floodlights illuminated the engineering bay and bolts of electricity flashed from pieces of metal occasionally.
Kryss winced, it was not quite as bad as she expected but was still severe non the less, the sparks were tell tale enough. "Allright you two, I'll appologise now but I don't have time for nicely worded requests so if I tell you to do something just do it, if something seems wrong with what I've told you to do let me know we aren't perfect all the time and in this situation the combined intelligence of three is more useful than a leader and two blind sheep."
It was gruff and blunt but the situation was too unstable to worry about niceties, if they didn't understand that it's their problem getting offended. "We need to check the emergency power levels and generators first, if the life support goes then so does everyone else. Additionally I want constant updates from their engineering teams on the status of the main reactor, we dont want that going off either."
Sienna was doing her best to avoid getting trampled by the literal human wave attempting to squeeze through the all-too-narrow docking tube's confines. "Don't worry peeps, everything's going to be a-okay~! Keeping' calm and carrying' on, though, will make things even better, because when everyone tries to squeeze through the airlock, nobody gets through. Woman and children first, okey-dokey?"
The civilians seemed to calm down. Slightly. There was still a good amount of pushing and shoving, but people seemed to be moving more steadily now. However, progress was slow going, and it would be a long time before everyone was evacuated.
Meanwhile down in the engineering section of the Sentry, the two engineers set about following Kryss' instructions, first tending to the generators and checking the emergency power levels.
"We've got enough emergency power to last maybe a half an hour at best, and the life support is down completely. Once the air in here gets unbreathable that's it, anyone not in an environment suit is toast."
A crackling came over the radio to Kryss and Sienna. It was the Sentry's local engineering team, informing them of the situation. "Ms. Black, I've got bad news. The fusion reaction in the main reactor is sustaining itself, but when we lost power coolant stopped pumping. It's only a matter of time until it goes supercritical or melts through all the decks unless we cool it down."
The headband-clad human barely missed a beat as she continued skipping, hopping, and twirling around while playing a decidedly realistic version of Crowd Control Simulator YE 40. Best not to say something about it, 'cause that would scare everyone and trample me, and I can't dance if I'm underneath everyone-hmmm...
She "paused" the game for a moment by deftly sidestepping her way to the side of the cramped and - for others, at least - claustrophobia-inducing corridor, reaching for a pack of gum as she did so.
Unfortunately, the designers of the spacesuit she was wearing had neglected to provide her any pockets - or she'd forgotten to snag some before heading over to the airlock. D'ohhhhh!
It was probably a case of the latter, knowing Sienna. Game...resume~!
"I hate, FUCKING hate, electrical damage. This bullshit is so hard to clear up with no working systems gah." The blonde pounded her fist against a wall, letting it slide down slowly as she went quiet. "Sienna I want an update on the evac, you two. We're getting that life support on and the cooling working even if only for 30 minutes. We have to buy as much time as we can, Sentry engineering, I'm sorry I don't know your name to address you but send several people to work on the backup power with one of mine, the rest need to be gathering what we have to fix this cooling issue."
"We-Ooh hey, you're pretty cute~~~" was what Kryss heard in reply; Sienna had just began to reply when she'd noticed that one of the civilians onboard the ship was attractive - as in, if I wasn't in a space suit I'd strip down and bonk you right here right now attractive. "Oh, yes, that's definitely a nice p-oh, oopsies! What were you saying?"
As the crew and passengers of the Sentry slowly filed through the airlock and docking tube, the engineers that Kryss had requested arrived to meet the single engineer that she had dispatched. They began to work on the backup power systems, which were online within three minutes of the engineers starting work. Ten minutes later, the life support systems were back in working order.
There was now power, but only enough to power either the life support or the coolant systems of the main reactor. However, there was also a chance to get the main reactor back online if Kryss played things right, and that would give her a chance to power up all the essential systems of the ship.
Having this information relayed to her, Kryss froze for a moment, a million thoughts going through her head at once. Life support or coolant, explosion or suffocation, it wasn't a choice she wanted to make but had been faced with it none the less. They could work on cooling the reactor and get it back into working order, which would power the life support systems but that would leave them with a quickly diminishing supply of air.
"Sentry, are you able to depressurise every sealable room that's not occupied and reroute life support to the only inhabited ones? It may give us enough time with what oxygen we have left to get the reactor working and restore more power." The blonde spoke quickly into her comms hoping there was some way to do both but knowing it was unlikely.
"We can try, but there could be complicati---" There was a burst of static on the line as the ship shook. When the comms cleared up Kryss was able to hear rapid fire speech over them. "---et me some ID on where that shot came from!"
"Oh so there's pirates now too? Brilliant just brilliant. Bridge, don't even bother trying to return fire you're more likely going to send this reactor into meltdown than win..." Another lightbulp flickered to life in her head, they wanted a ship right, and didn't know about the reactor couldn't possibly. "What's the ETA of all the civilians? We may be able to scuttle the Sentry and take out the pirates, or at least damage them. Exodus bridge, redirect shields to face the Sentry if possible, we may not know where the shot came from but it was likely that side of you."
The mention of "pirates" flipped something buried in the innermost depths of what passed for Sienna's brain, causing her to stumble ever-so-slightly as she stayed for a moment too long in the mass of human flesh occupying the center of the corridor and brushed up against a small child. "Whoopsies! Sorry about that, little one~!"
"We can't!" Aricson said to Kryss, "If we activate our shields the gravitic shields will sever the docking tube!"
Pirates? Like, the ones that go "YARR" and have birbs on their shoulder? Wait...
While this was going on, the evacuation of the civilians stopped as the semi-orderly procession devolved into chaos. The civilians were either cowering or making a mad dash for the docking tube, which resulted in a massive jam.
ONO! "Everything's going to be safe, everyone! Remember, peoples, we all gotta keep it chillin', because the docking port is too smol for everyone to..."
The pirate assault didn't let up as the pirate mothership came into view. Black market powered frames and powered armors spewed from its cargo holds, the Powered frames quickly latching onto the hull of the Sentry and tearing off weapons systems intact.
The former commander of the Sky Guard's 22nd Cruiser Task Force froze mid-sentence, for something didn't make sense to her: she didn't like pirates, of course - no self-respecting officer would - yet she felt...sorry for them? Why...? Why would I...?
Kryss shook her head, they'd wasted too much time and now these pirates would strip the Sentry, either take it or blow it up and either way the civilians in the docking tube would die or become prisoners if you considered that lucky. "Don't mean to be the bringer of bad news, but now that the pirates have shown themselves. Those people are all dead anyway unless you have some ultra precise weapons on that ship to deal with these boarders."
Kryss began making her way towards the exit she'd come in through, "We can't stay here any longer we have to pull out. The risk just increased exponentialy, there's nothing more we can do here that would mean anything if the pirates got ahold of us."
Aricson seemed to freeze up. He had never faced a situation before that could not be resolved through the application of tactics or bravery. A no win situation was alien to him, and to the ex-Skyguard personnel.
In the past the day had always been won by heroics or strategy, but never before had any of them encountered a situation in which neither could help.
While he was frozen up, the gunnery crew on the Exodus began to fire their laser turrets at the armored frames, but it was too little too late. Frames were already swarming the Sentry.
"Ma'am, what do we do?" The bridge crew of the Sentry asked.
"I DON"T KNOW!" Kryss barked a little too harshly, "I'm not a military commander, I'm not a leader, I design tech and I manage an office building." She stopped and leant against a wall in defeat, she couldn't lead these people, she couldn't save them. "Sienna, if you have any way of moving these people now would be a good time, this ship is being torn apart inside and out and there's nothing I can do."
Sienna wasn't really listening at the moment - not with...something...occupying her thoughts. Why did I...?
Suddenly, the main generator came online, but it was too late. Several armored frames disabled the engines of the sentry and began to push it away from the Exodus.
The docking tube tore, and the depressurization caused Sienna to be thrown from the airlock in a violent fashion. Civilians screamed silently around her. A small child - the same one she'd collided with earlier - reached out to Sienna, tears freezing in the cold vacuum of space.
One of the engineers felt the ship accelerate, and ran over to the airlock in the engineering bay, and slammed on the emergency open button.
The engineers without environment suits grasped at their throats as their eyes bulged, and Kryss too was thrown from the Sentry along with the team she had brought with her and a few engineers who had the foresight to be wearing environment suits.
Sienna's mind frantically tried to keep up with what was happening around it. WHA-? I'M IN SPES-?
Before she had time to collect herself the ship was being depressurized at an alarming rate, Kryss was quickly spinning out into space with the remnants of the engineering crew. Some, like her, could only stare at the unfolding horror while the majority made up the horrors.
Towards the front of the ship she could see the docking tube, destroyed and floating limply as more of the Sentry's crew and passengers were thrown mercilessly to a cruel fate. The blonde couldn't move, couldn't speak and simply watched with the growing feeling of failure and guilt in her mind.
The pirates pushed the Sentry towards their mothership, and after getting it within the range of the FTL bubble of said mothership, jumped away with their captives.
Sienna's mind then finally got around to the task of processing what was in front of her. "No."
It was happening. "Nonononononono..." she whispered to herself, vision blurring with tears as she realized what she'd just witnessed. "No..."
It was happening all over again.
Kryss blinked as she watched the Sentry be stripped of useful gear and survivors, the corporate liaison had never witnessed something like this and had hoped never to see one, although here she was living a nightmare.
"... Tim, I'm sorry, I didn't know what else to do. Myself and a handful of the engineers from Sentry are here along with your two, we. We're coming back now, prep the airlock." Kryss said plainly before she made her way towards the Exodus.
The leader of the Exodus fleet was silent. He simply didn't know how to process the scale of the loss he had just witnessed. A whole ship, complete with crew and civilian passengers lost in a matter of minutes to a single pirate ship.
He sent word down to the various airlocks, "Prep the airlocks for egress." His voice was dull and empty.
Mattrick was ejected violently along with everybody else but he was one of the few fortunate souls to be wearing an environment suit, his spinning form had crashed into something (or someone) in all the chaos and the impact had knocked loose a few flakes of the anti-fogging agent he used to keep his helmet clear. The chemicals began to sting at his eyes and naturally they teared up to try and remove the irritant - at least that was his excuse for his reaction to the massacre that sat before him.
"...shit..." was all the man managed to mumble out as the floated away from the Sentry, Mattrick had never been an overly somber person... but it was hard not to be in the current situation.
"NO-eeep?!?" One auburn-haired human's shriek of rage, frustration, and - most of all - fear was abruptly cut off as something smashed into her from behind and washed away the rising red-hued mist in her mind with the liquid nectar of adrenaline and training. The mist was still there, of course - it had been for a long time, ever since the auburn-haired human's "childhood," and it would be back - but for now it was gone, and Sienna Nelson was back. "...Heyos," she said over her suit's short-range comm; a pause, then "Tim...we...I..."
Her tear-stained voice trailed off, then returned. "Are we...are we gonna recover the bodies of our friendly-friends...?"
"Everyone out there... recover who you can..." Tim said, still in the same emotionless voice. "I'll prepare a funeral ceremony."
--- Some time later ----
In the cargo hold of the Exodus, the crew and civilians onboard were gathered in space suits, and those lost had been placed in airtight body bags. "... And so we commit the bodies of the fallen to space." Aricson said over the radios of everyone present. "Duty. Honor. Self-sacrifice. Death does not diminish these qualities in those who have passed. Everyone who is with us now, be it in body or spirit, knows of these qualities." "Be they civilian or crew, all of us came on this journey to preserve the honor of our people. We all did our part, did our duty to each other in order to ensure that as many survived as was possible. And most of all, we all know sacrifice." "We all left our lives behind us to persue a better life. We all knew that if it came down to it, that we may have to make the ultimate sacrifice for our fellow passengers on this journey." "These souls who have given that most precious of sacrifices, to you we offer our thanks, and we promise to ensure that it will not be in vain." The floor of the cargo bay magnetized and the door opened, there was gentle decompression as the partial atmosphere kept in the cargo bay left it, and the bodies drifted out to space slowly. Aricson turned, and saluted the bodies, and the entire crew of the Exodus saluted as well. A camera was streaming this to ever other ship in the fleet, and aboard each of those ships the crew was saluting too. Saluting those lost.
Sienna snapped her arm up in a crisp, perfect salute - the first time anyone else could remember her doing that - and did her best to not break down sobbing in front of everyone, as that just wouldn't be keeping it chill. Bittersweet strawberry-flavored tears still flowed freely down the sides of her cheeks, though - because she knew it was her fault.
If she hadn't messed around so much, if she'd actually been able to pay attention to what she was doing for more then a handful of seconds...
Those people - and that young child, whose name Sienna would never know - would still be alive.
Kryss gave a slute of her own, nothing fancy but enough to communicate her meaning, she too was sorry for her own mistakes. As much as she told herself she couldn't have known the better way to do it at the time, guilt still lingered. The incident had been unforseen and was too sudden for anyone to have known how to react with a level head, yet in these moments of guilt the blonde was still sober.
She owed them that much, making herself suffer through instead of escaping with intoxication. "I'm sorry, may you rest peacefully..."
The Exodus fleet moved on, the people within the ships all mourning their losses, but all knew that nothing could be done.
Soon all of them would have plenty to occupy their minds.
The Exodus fleet had been making steady progress through Yamataian space unhindered, due to it taking unused trade routes so as to not bother merchants or SAoY ships. It was now entering the independent frontier zone.
The fleet had passed by many trade stations on their way towards parts unknown, and were running low on fuel. Word had been passed down from the higher ups to every member of the fleet that they would be taking a detour through a small gas nebula to replenish fuel for the fleet's fusion reactors.
Being cooped up on a ship for long periods of time was not Kryss' faveourite thing to do in the universe, pretty far down on that least in fact and so the blonde had spent most of her time hanging out in the bar or in one of the phys rec areas doing some moderate training. She was hardly a body builder but that was no excuse not to stay in shape, especially if she wanted to get back to work soon as she found a way home.
Hearing about their lack of fuel gave her a new factor to work with as she did her usual pushup routine, maybe an escape at whatever station or ship they stopped with. Assuming they had to stop with another craft... Guess that's a work in progress plan then, "Ah well something will turn up sooner or later I guess." She said alound to the empty room around her.
Sienna, like Kryss, was also bouncing off the walls - literally, in the former's case - albeit for a different reason: spending so much time in FTL was uneventful, dull, and so, so, so, so, so boring. It, quite simply, was no fun at all - thus she'd spent the majority of her time in the bedroom, in the gym, and in the bedroom some more. She was, at the moment, skipping around the overcrowded (and already cramped to begin with) confines of the Exodus' bridge, eager to finally be doing something after the previous week of pure unadulterated boredom.
As the fleet entered the nebula the ships were buffeted by what seemed to be currents in the gas of the neubla caused by gravitational fields. Strange crackles of static electricity surrounded the ships of the Exodus fleet as they pushed further inward, using their gravity systems to collect gasses to use in their fusion reactors.
An announcement from Tim Aricson alerted the ships of the fleet to stay clear of static heavy areas however...
A single broadword was too close to one and too slow to follow orders. A wicked bolt of stellar lightning struck the hull of the Sentry and crackled along its length. Thrusters spluttered and died and short range communications sprung up, calls for help were audible on the bridge.
The shortest person on the bridge gasped in horror - "No!" - and paused mid-skip, whirling to face Aricson as she did so. "We have to help them, because..." - she paused as a mixture of panic, concern, and horror crept across her features - "...because we can't just leave them behind. Not with all those children onboard, since that wouldn't be nice to them at all, and they're so fun and energetic and awesome to be around!"
Kryss felt the vibrations and slight wobble as the ship was pushed about, taking a break from her exercise she sighed and wondered what was happening now and with no sounds of intercomms or alarms she assumed nothing bad had happened. She hadn't had much contact with the others on the ship since the night at the bar almost a week ago when the men all saw her as a bitch and the captain was dragged off by a woman with questionable intentions.
"Well something is defintely happening and you wont get answers sitting around here." Kryss groaned, standing up and working a kink out of her shoulder before heading back to the bed she'd barely used all week to grab her communicator. "Hey just felt some shudders, what's happening up there?" She sent to, what she assumed was the captain's line but couldn't be too bothered checking.
Tim looked at Sienna for a moment. "Well, I can't flaw your logic. Leaving them would certainly not be nice. Besides that, the families on board that ship represent our future wherever we end up. Sienna, I want you to take a team of engineers over to the Sentry and see if you can get its downed systems operational. If you can't, we'll have to evacuate the occupants onto the other ships in the fleet.
Then he keyed the intercom to talk to Kryss. "Listen, we've entered a nebula, but there appears to be some sort of naturally occuring static discharges in here, one of which disabled one of our ships. Do you have any experience with ship repair?"
Now more alert than a moment earlier she pulled on her jacket and transfered the call into her earpiece as she headed to the bridge. "What kind of damage are we talking, I've dealt with some issues of electro-static overloads but not quite this scale. Scientifically, the same principals should still apply..." She spoke quickly and clearly, cursing herself for being so far away when the notice of refueling had been played. "And more importantly, how bad is it, have we had word from the other ship yet?"
"We've got communications still, but the news... well it's bad. Life support is down and there's only so long they're going to last over there. In addition to that problem their engines seem to have shut down entirely, and they're drifting."
The hyperactive human's eyes widened in horror, because she knew - oh, how she knew - what a lack of oxygen could do to someone.
Kryss nodded to herself as she ran, engine failure meant they would need a fair bit of work to get started after a system shock, possible damage to the reactors on top of that which could be putting life support systems in danger of failure. "Tim, don't panic on me but worst case scenario their life support will fail very soon and that is one bitch to restart with internal damage. Have them get engineers to focus on having backup power handle life support, go dark if need be but they don't have much chance without it."
Kryss knew it was a grim time and they didn't have a second to spare, if only she'd finished getting the Horizon database condensed onto that drive she could use their scenario program. "I'll be at the bridge in about 2 minutes, I assume you're scrambling teams to go assist with evac by now and if you're not get on it now!"
Soon the engineers met with Kryss and Sienna down at the closest airlock to the drifting Sentry and prepared their vacuum suits. "Alright, we don't have any time to waste." One of them said, "Sienna, I'm gonna need you to help attach a flexible docking tube to allow us to transfer the crew and civilians in there over to the Exodus without taking a spacewalk, if it comes down to that."
"Ms. Black, you're gonna help us try and get the systems of the Sentry back online. We'll be going in through the engineering section airlock, so you and two of us will be splitting off from the main group."
Kryss nodded already double checking her own suit and comms, "As much as faith in our ability is good, we have lives at risk. Have the bridge scan for any rogue debris in our area and begin the evac immediately, the people with rare professions first, women and children as priority if they carry an apptitude." She stopped and pondered, did these people actually do that kind of documentation on their citizens? Well they'd just have to stick with women and children otherwise.
"Also have the bridge keep a comms line open with the least hysterical person in the Sentry's command staff, I need as much info before I get there to lesson troubleshooting time."
Kryss and her two accompanying engineers made their way to the rear of the Sentry as Sienna and her group attached the docking tube. Evacuation was soon underway, but it was slow going as the hysterical families milled about in a panic. Even some of the trained crew members on board the ship had joined the throng of panicking people.
As Kryss boarded the Sentry, the damage in the engineering section was clear even before the airlock finished cycling. Alarms were audible through vibrations in the ship's hull agitating the air inside her helmet. As the door opened the flashing red floodlights illuminated the engineering bay and bolts of electricity flashed from pieces of metal occasionally.
Kryss winced, it was not quite as bad as she expected but was still severe non the less, the sparks were tell tale enough. "Allright you two, I'll appologise now but I don't have time for nicely worded requests so if I tell you to do something just do it, if something seems wrong with what I've told you to do let me know we aren't perfect all the time and in this situation the combined intelligence of three is more useful than a leader and two blind sheep."
It was gruff and blunt but the situation was too unstable to worry about niceties, if they didn't understand that it's their problem getting offended. "We need to check the emergency power levels and generators first, if the life support goes then so does everyone else. Additionally I want constant updates from their engineering teams on the status of the main reactor, we dont want that going off either."
Sienna was doing her best to avoid getting trampled by the literal human wave attempting to squeeze through the all-too-narrow docking tube's confines. "Don't worry peeps, everything's going to be a-okay~! Keeping' calm and carrying' on, though, will make things even better, because when everyone tries to squeeze through the airlock, nobody gets through. Woman and children first, okey-dokey?"
The civilians seemed to calm down. Slightly. There was still a good amount of pushing and shoving, but people seemed to be moving more steadily now. However, progress was slow going, and it would be a long time before everyone was evacuated.
Meanwhile down in the engineering section of the Sentry, the two engineers set about following Kryss' instructions, first tending to the generators and checking the emergency power levels.
"We've got enough emergency power to last maybe a half an hour at best, and the life support is down completely. Once the air in here gets unbreathable that's it, anyone not in an environment suit is toast."
A crackling came over the radio to Kryss and Sienna. It was the Sentry's local engineering team, informing them of the situation. "Ms. Black, I've got bad news. The fusion reaction in the main reactor is sustaining itself, but when we lost power coolant stopped pumping. It's only a matter of time until it goes supercritical or melts through all the decks unless we cool it down."
The headband-clad human barely missed a beat as she continued skipping, hopping, and twirling around while playing a decidedly realistic version of Crowd Control Simulator YE 40. Best not to say something about it, 'cause that would scare everyone and trample me, and I can't dance if I'm underneath everyone-hmmm...
She "paused" the game for a moment by deftly sidestepping her way to the side of the cramped and - for others, at least - claustrophobia-inducing corridor, reaching for a pack of gum as she did so.
Unfortunately, the designers of the spacesuit she was wearing had neglected to provide her any pockets - or she'd forgotten to snag some before heading over to the airlock. D'ohhhhh!
It was probably a case of the latter, knowing Sienna. Game...resume~!
"I hate, FUCKING hate, electrical damage. This bullshit is so hard to clear up with no working systems gah." The blonde pounded her fist against a wall, letting it slide down slowly as she went quiet. "Sienna I want an update on the evac, you two. We're getting that life support on and the cooling working even if only for 30 minutes. We have to buy as much time as we can, Sentry engineering, I'm sorry I don't know your name to address you but send several people to work on the backup power with one of mine, the rest need to be gathering what we have to fix this cooling issue."
"We-Ooh hey, you're pretty cute~~~" was what Kryss heard in reply; Sienna had just began to reply when she'd noticed that one of the civilians onboard the ship was attractive - as in, if I wasn't in a space suit I'd strip down and bonk you right here right now attractive. "Oh, yes, that's definitely a nice p-oh, oopsies! What were you saying?"
As the crew and passengers of the Sentry slowly filed through the airlock and docking tube, the engineers that Kryss had requested arrived to meet the single engineer that she had dispatched. They began to work on the backup power systems, which were online within three minutes of the engineers starting work. Ten minutes later, the life support systems were back in working order.
There was now power, but only enough to power either the life support or the coolant systems of the main reactor. However, there was also a chance to get the main reactor back online if Kryss played things right, and that would give her a chance to power up all the essential systems of the ship.
Having this information relayed to her, Kryss froze for a moment, a million thoughts going through her head at once. Life support or coolant, explosion or suffocation, it wasn't a choice she wanted to make but had been faced with it none the less. They could work on cooling the reactor and get it back into working order, which would power the life support systems but that would leave them with a quickly diminishing supply of air.
"Sentry, are you able to depressurise every sealable room that's not occupied and reroute life support to the only inhabited ones? It may give us enough time with what oxygen we have left to get the reactor working and restore more power." The blonde spoke quickly into her comms hoping there was some way to do both but knowing it was unlikely.
"We can try, but there could be complicati---" There was a burst of static on the line as the ship shook. When the comms cleared up Kryss was able to hear rapid fire speech over them. "---et me some ID on where that shot came from!"
"Oh so there's pirates now too? Brilliant just brilliant. Bridge, don't even bother trying to return fire you're more likely going to send this reactor into meltdown than win..." Another lightbulp flickered to life in her head, they wanted a ship right, and didn't know about the reactor couldn't possibly. "What's the ETA of all the civilians? We may be able to scuttle the Sentry and take out the pirates, or at least damage them. Exodus bridge, redirect shields to face the Sentry if possible, we may not know where the shot came from but it was likely that side of you."
The mention of "pirates" flipped something buried in the innermost depths of what passed for Sienna's brain, causing her to stumble ever-so-slightly as she stayed for a moment too long in the mass of human flesh occupying the center of the corridor and brushed up against a small child. "Whoopsies! Sorry about that, little one~!"
"We can't!" Aricson said to Kryss, "If we activate our shields the gravitic shields will sever the docking tube!"
Pirates? Like, the ones that go "YARR" and have birbs on their shoulder? Wait...
While this was going on, the evacuation of the civilians stopped as the semi-orderly procession devolved into chaos. The civilians were either cowering or making a mad dash for the docking tube, which resulted in a massive jam.
ONO! "Everything's going to be safe, everyone! Remember, peoples, we all gotta keep it chillin', because the docking port is too smol for everyone to..."
The pirate assault didn't let up as the pirate mothership came into view. Black market powered frames and powered armors spewed from its cargo holds, the Powered frames quickly latching onto the hull of the Sentry and tearing off weapons systems intact.
The former commander of the Sky Guard's 22nd Cruiser Task Force froze mid-sentence, for something didn't make sense to her: she didn't like pirates, of course - no self-respecting officer would - yet she felt...sorry for them? Why...? Why would I...?
Kryss shook her head, they'd wasted too much time and now these pirates would strip the Sentry, either take it or blow it up and either way the civilians in the docking tube would die or become prisoners if you considered that lucky. "Don't mean to be the bringer of bad news, but now that the pirates have shown themselves. Those people are all dead anyway unless you have some ultra precise weapons on that ship to deal with these boarders."
Kryss began making her way towards the exit she'd come in through, "We can't stay here any longer we have to pull out. The risk just increased exponentialy, there's nothing more we can do here that would mean anything if the pirates got ahold of us."
Aricson seemed to freeze up. He had never faced a situation before that could not be resolved through the application of tactics or bravery. A no win situation was alien to him, and to the ex-Skyguard personnel.
In the past the day had always been won by heroics or strategy, but never before had any of them encountered a situation in which neither could help.
While he was frozen up, the gunnery crew on the Exodus began to fire their laser turrets at the armored frames, but it was too little too late. Frames were already swarming the Sentry.
"Ma'am, what do we do?" The bridge crew of the Sentry asked.
"I DON"T KNOW!" Kryss barked a little too harshly, "I'm not a military commander, I'm not a leader, I design tech and I manage an office building." She stopped and leant against a wall in defeat, she couldn't lead these people, she couldn't save them. "Sienna, if you have any way of moving these people now would be a good time, this ship is being torn apart inside and out and there's nothing I can do."
Sienna wasn't really listening at the moment - not with...something...occupying her thoughts. Why did I...?
Suddenly, the main generator came online, but it was too late. Several armored frames disabled the engines of the sentry and began to push it away from the Exodus.
The docking tube tore, and the depressurization caused Sienna to be thrown from the airlock in a violent fashion. Civilians screamed silently around her. A small child - the same one she'd collided with earlier - reached out to Sienna, tears freezing in the cold vacuum of space.
One of the engineers felt the ship accelerate, and ran over to the airlock in the engineering bay, and slammed on the emergency open button.
The engineers without environment suits grasped at their throats as their eyes bulged, and Kryss too was thrown from the Sentry along with the team she had brought with her and a few engineers who had the foresight to be wearing environment suits.
Sienna's mind frantically tried to keep up with what was happening around it. WHA-? I'M IN SPES-?
Before she had time to collect herself the ship was being depressurized at an alarming rate, Kryss was quickly spinning out into space with the remnants of the engineering crew. Some, like her, could only stare at the unfolding horror while the majority made up the horrors.
Towards the front of the ship she could see the docking tube, destroyed and floating limply as more of the Sentry's crew and passengers were thrown mercilessly to a cruel fate. The blonde couldn't move, couldn't speak and simply watched with the growing feeling of failure and guilt in her mind.
The pirates pushed the Sentry towards their mothership, and after getting it within the range of the FTL bubble of said mothership, jumped away with their captives.
Sienna's mind then finally got around to the task of processing what was in front of her. "No."
It was happening. "Nonononononono..." she whispered to herself, vision blurring with tears as she realized what she'd just witnessed. "No..."
It was happening all over again.
Kryss blinked as she watched the Sentry be stripped of useful gear and survivors, the corporate liaison had never witnessed something like this and had hoped never to see one, although here she was living a nightmare.
"... Tim, I'm sorry, I didn't know what else to do. Myself and a handful of the engineers from Sentry are here along with your two, we. We're coming back now, prep the airlock." Kryss said plainly before she made her way towards the Exodus.
The leader of the Exodus fleet was silent. He simply didn't know how to process the scale of the loss he had just witnessed. A whole ship, complete with crew and civilian passengers lost in a matter of minutes to a single pirate ship.
He sent word down to the various airlocks, "Prep the airlocks for egress." His voice was dull and empty.
Mattrick was ejected violently along with everybody else but he was one of the few fortunate souls to be wearing an environment suit, his spinning form had crashed into something (or someone) in all the chaos and the impact had knocked loose a few flakes of the anti-fogging agent he used to keep his helmet clear. The chemicals began to sting at his eyes and naturally they teared up to try and remove the irritant - at least that was his excuse for his reaction to the massacre that sat before him.
"...shit..." was all the man managed to mumble out as the floated away from the Sentry, Mattrick had never been an overly somber person... but it was hard not to be in the current situation.
"NO-eeep?!?" One auburn-haired human's shriek of rage, frustration, and - most of all - fear was abruptly cut off as something smashed into her from behind and washed away the rising red-hued mist in her mind with the liquid nectar of adrenaline and training. The mist was still there, of course - it had been for a long time, ever since the auburn-haired human's "childhood," and it would be back - but for now it was gone, and Sienna Nelson was back. "...Heyos," she said over her suit's short-range comm; a pause, then "Tim...we...I..."
Her tear-stained voice trailed off, then returned. "Are we...are we gonna recover the bodies of our friendly-friends...?"
"Everyone out there... recover who you can..." Tim said, still in the same emotionless voice. "I'll prepare a funeral ceremony."
--- Some time later ----
In the cargo hold of the Exodus, the crew and civilians onboard were gathered in space suits, and those lost had been placed in airtight body bags. "... And so we commit the bodies of the fallen to space." Aricson said over the radios of everyone present. "Duty. Honor. Self-sacrifice. Death does not diminish these qualities in those who have passed. Everyone who is with us now, be it in body or spirit, knows of these qualities." "Be they civilian or crew, all of us came on this journey to preserve the honor of our people. We all did our part, did our duty to each other in order to ensure that as many survived as was possible. And most of all, we all know sacrifice." "We all left our lives behind us to persue a better life. We all knew that if it came down to it, that we may have to make the ultimate sacrifice for our fellow passengers on this journey." "These souls who have given that most precious of sacrifices, to you we offer our thanks, and we promise to ensure that it will not be in vain." The floor of the cargo bay magnetized and the door opened, there was gentle decompression as the partial atmosphere kept in the cargo bay left it, and the bodies drifted out to space slowly. Aricson turned, and saluted the bodies, and the entire crew of the Exodus saluted as well. A camera was streaming this to ever other ship in the fleet, and aboard each of those ships the crew was saluting too. Saluting those lost.
Sienna snapped her arm up in a crisp, perfect salute - the first time anyone else could remember her doing that - and did her best to not break down sobbing in front of everyone, as that just wouldn't be keeping it chill. Bittersweet strawberry-flavored tears still flowed freely down the sides of her cheeks, though - because she knew it was her fault.
If she hadn't messed around so much, if she'd actually been able to pay attention to what she was doing for more then a handful of seconds...
Those people - and that young child, whose name Sienna would never know - would still be alive.
Kryss gave a slute of her own, nothing fancy but enough to communicate her meaning, she too was sorry for her own mistakes. As much as she told herself she couldn't have known the better way to do it at the time, guilt still lingered. The incident had been unforseen and was too sudden for anyone to have known how to react with a level head, yet in these moments of guilt the blonde was still sober.
She owed them that much, making herself suffer through instead of escaping with intoxication. "I'm sorry, may you rest peacefully..."
The Exodus fleet moved on, the people within the ships all mourning their losses, but all knew that nothing could be done.
Soon all of them would have plenty to occupy their minds.
