The SMoDIN office door opened into secondary lobby "B" of Michener Station. It was dimly lit with a lower than normal ceiling supported by bare metal walls. On one side immediately forward of the group was a large ceiling to floor doubly reinforced transparent durandium window into space, it was additionally reinforced by a currently open metal shutter, to the side of the window was a pulled
lever just above a green light labelled 'SAFE'. The view of the window offered sight of a docking arm extending from the left with the letters "ARM 1B" painted on it, it appeared to extend at least 100 meters away from the main body of the station. A single Red Hill Class transport was docked to the arm, and another has just disconnected and is starting its run to a safe distance to engage FTL drives. The docked Red Hill is being serviced by a pair of large cranes connected to a huge station structure to the right of the window, conveniently identified by 'CARGO BAY 1B' in large letters painted on the side. The cranes were large and long enough to span the gap between the arm and the bay and were hastily loading the remaining Red Hill.
On the left were entrances to two tunnel-like hallways, lit signs above them indicated '
MAIN STATION' and '
ARM 1B'. A terminal between both entrances displayed the following:
Code:
FLIGHT INFORMATION
1. ISC Fairbanks II, Full Capacity, Departed, ARM 1B
2. ISC Fairbanks I, Almost Full Capacity, Departing, ARM 1B
3. ISC Old Town, Departing in 10 Minutes, ARM 1A
4. ISC Hard Times, Departing in 20 Minutes, ARM 2A
5. ISC Big Bus, Departing in 30 Minutes, ARM 1C
6. ISC Mayflower, Redirected/Cancelled, ARM 2C
On the right side was the same, two tunnel-like hallways but this time labelled '
ARM 2B, CARGO BAY 2B' on one and '
CARGO BAY 1B' on the other. The terminal between the two entrances displayed the following in a scrolldown fashion:
Code:
CARGO CONTRACTS
1. Consignment 4768, 100 Tons, Accepted by ISC Fairbanks II 5 minutes ago
2. Consignment 2323, 100 Tons, Accepted by ISC Fairbanks I 5 minutes ago
3. Consignment 9982, 150 Tons, Accepted by ISC Fairbanks II 5 minutes ago
...
And the list went on and on in that manner, it appeared both ships accepted a massive amount of cargo contracts in the seconds immediately after the bombing.
The hallway was empty, presumably because no ships capable of accepting passengers were docked in any of the arms attached to Lobby B. As though on cue from that conclusion, a group of four sciency adult men ran screaming from the 2B tunnel across the marine group and into the tunnel leading into the main station before Maik's group could react. They did however catch a glimpse of the words "NAM AEROTECH - PROTOTYPE DIVISION" printed on the sleeves of their labcoats. Belatedly, the PA system came back to life.
"WARNING! WARNING! GUNFIRE DETECTED IN: CARGO BAY 2B. SMODIN PERSONNEL ARE CONTRACTUALLY OBLIGATED TO INVESTIGATE: CARGO BAY 2B. EMERGENCY LOCKDOWN TO BE AUTOMATICALLY ENGAGED IF MANUAL ALARM IN: CARGO BAY 2B IS NOT DISABLED."
At this point, a pair of innocuous drones floated into view from the 2B tunnel and continued on towards Dixie.