The Skyefall

After years in space finally the colonials ships passed into the Khrysis System.  The armor plates raised as they passed Cayrn and its many flaring rings, allowing the occupants to see through the transparent window paneling.  People gathered around the open windows to watch as they traveled through the system toward their new home.  Others were unaware of the progress that had been made as they were in their cycle of cryo sleep and would not wake for a time.

The pilots watched diligently as they navigated the stars and debris through the system.  Radars remained normal as they passed by Cayrn, displaying no disturbances or objects in their flight path.  Life went on as usual on the ships as they continued their long journey.  The ships followed the strict flight paths mapped out before launch as they neared the planet.  

Without warning the were bombarded by unknown objects and knocked off course.  Crashing and clanging of metal and rock echoed through their halls as they were hurled off course, yet their radars showed nothing.  Fires broke out in the engines of some of the ships, other the unarmored window paneling was torn open, killing anyone nearby by ripping their bodies out of the ships. Those who were awake spiraled into panic, screams were heard from the civilian halls as the ships shook violently under this assault.

The five civilians ((that I control)) were in a panic, they didn't know what to do so they just followed the reactions of whatever crowd they were in, avoiding anything obviously dangerous such as the unarmored window panelings.

The securion however quickly went to work trying to keep people organized and safe while also avoiding the danger areas where people have already begun to die, trying to efficiently cut losses of life.

Tara Kennedy had just seen Cabot off to school was about to drop Taylor at daycare and leave her family's private quarters to make her shift at the ship's medical ward when the violent shaking began. Terrified, she immediately latched all the locks and activated her door's alarm code, fearing something more than turbulence. Little Taylor, who had been toddling across the floor, fell and whacked her head. Even before the little girl had a chance to begin screaming, Tara rushed over and flung herself onto the floor to shield Taylor with her body.

Cole, Tim, Jesse, and Hyaku, where one of the central mess hall area's having just come out of a shift in the Hyper sleep chambers and were getting well deserved real food in their stomach. When the shaking started they didn't do much more than just getting alittle more observznt. Once alarms and screaming started happening, they Began trying to Get people to shut up and stay calm so they don't mindlessly run into death. If the central Mess hall is at all safe, they'd try to stay put as much as possible.

Of the team, only Gregor was in cryostasis for most of the trip to the nature of his cyberware and his age. He was peacefully unaware of the events.
Orion, Jericho, and Val where in a common area, watching space roll by. When the ship shook, the three watched in horror as they saw the sidings of ship ripped off in another sector. Some froze in panic, but Orion immediately recognized the danger. He began leading people away from the sides of the ships, closer to the center.

Ami, Brook, and Hector were in the exercise section of the ship, working off the effects of atrophy. Equipment began tipping over as the place shook. People were tossed about. The characters took cover in whatever way they could.

Leo and AR-BOT were working near the engines when the collision occurred. Whole engines burst into flames. Leo managed to escape with only some burns and a few cuts. The heat was unbearable, and smoke filled Leo's lungs. AR-BOT helped him away from the flaming engines, and the too stumbled off to the infirmary.

Outside the paneling people could see their assailant as the ships began to descent from the damage. Those still nearby would see hundreds of rocks barreling toward them. The largest cast terrifying shadows on the hallways as they coursed through space toward the number of ships. People still in the outer halls froze in fear, other panicked and began to shove, push, and fight their way through to the inner hall.

The Khrysis Project's specialized military units were spread thin throughout the ships. They gathered just inside the outer halls of the ships and attempted to lead civilians to safety of the inner halls.

"Elijah I need you..." the young man heard over his intercom as he pushed through the fleeing people toward the dangers of the outer hall. He stopped briefly as crashing was heard from the other side and his commander fell silent. He took a deep breath as he pulled his helmet and latched the brackets at his neck. He continued moments later, having only been feet from the door to the outer hall it took little time, the door hissed open into an air lock. As the door closed behind him the other opened and his choked. Instantly the gravity was countered by an unrelenting draft pulling him toward the glass. Blood splatter covered the walls s bits of flesh and cloth were ripped through small holes in the panels. He looked round for anyone who might have been able to hold onto something, cringing when his eyes found his commander's body floating lifelessly in the air. His helmet was shattered and blood flowed from a quarter sized hole in the side of his skull. Elijah smashed the airlock closed, backing against the other doors and falling to the ground.

"They're all dead."

"SHIT!" A woman's voice rang through the bowels of one of the maintenance bays. "IF YOU WOULD KINDLY ENGAGE THE MOTHERFUCKING EMERGENCY ACCUMULATORS AND PRESSURE STABILIZERS, INSTEAD OF STANDING THERE LIKE A DUMBASS," she screamed in a heavily accented voice at one of her fellow maintenance techs over the wailing engine, "THAT'D BE GREAT."

The voice belonged to Camilla, who gripped tight to a ladder as the ship bucked and swayed. She had grabbed an emergency flight suit and slid into it before buckling a heavy flight helmet on, working her way downwards into a deeper section of the ship. A status report was playing over her earpiece, and she relayed it to the rest of her team as she climbed down, fire extinguisher in hand. "Something is hitting us! We're losing altitude and have at least three engines offline. Pressure is dropping drastically in outer areas but the hull is secure, for now. I want atmosphere back at 100% and all authorized airlocks shut in ten seconds! We need to prepare for fucking evac if we can't get this shit back online in MINUTES, people! Move, goddamnit!"

In the Kennedy's quarters, Taylor's cries rang through the hallways even as her mother tried to comfort her. Her little forehead was bleeding, and Tara only moved enough to check that the wound was not deep enough to warrant immediate attention. She pinned her back to the floor, holding her tight as she flailed and struggled. Furniture and dishes flew around them, crashing into the walls and shattering down onto Tara's back as she fought to keep the little girl shielded.

As the civilians remained panicking and moving with the safest groups of people trying to keep their focus on surviving and not watching the blood horrors unfolding all around them in the chaos that this ship had succumbed too. Securion, on the other hand, continued doing it's job. Securing.

James Matheson, the leader of the securion switched his com link over to the frequency the rest of the ship's working crew was on and yelled into it "What the actual fuck is going on!? My team and I are trying to keep as many people safe and away from problem areas as possible but if this keeps up we're not gonna be able to save too many! What hit us, and what should we be telling these people to do, where do we go to preferably NOT die!?"

When Military and Security personel began getting people to the inner parts of the Ship, Cole had Jessi come with him , for hyaku to help any injured, and for timothy to try and make sure any lifesupport systems for their area of the ship stayed active. He and Jesse would approach the military personel and let them know that they could help get people inside and situated and that they could go back out to secure other sections.

"What's going on out there?" the pilots broadcast across the emergency channel.  Others responded with their ideas but from where they were they couldn't see anything of what was happening.  "Commander Reese, status update now!  What's happening out there."

Elijah shivered in shock as the airlock closed and left him alone in the small room.  Voices echoed in his head over again but they made no sense to him.  He pressed the com speaker in his helmet, only his breathing could be heard overshadowing the eerie silence behind it.  

"Commander Reese! Do you copy? Commander!?!" the pilot shouted back against the silence.

"They're all dead." finally he spoke.

"Who is this?"

"Captain Elijah St. John.  The windows have been breeched, they're all dead." he spoke between heavy breathing.

"Listen, captain...we need you to tell us what's happening.   Could he see how he it happened?"

"No." his voice cracked.

"Please, more people will die if you don't tell us how to get out of here.  What happened out there?"

"They...there is nothing left.  Just holes in the paneling...and blood."

Matheson got on the comms again and replied quickly "I'm not sure what exactly is hitting us, but whatever it is, it's ripping holes in the hull, entire unarmored panels are gone. People are getting ripped out of holes in the hull, I don't have a good view point of what's going on, but from what I have seen we can't take a lot more of this."

While Cole and Jesse and Hyaku were busily helping security and wounded, Timothy had found what probably was some maintenance interface to Ship systems and had connected his computing device. ( laptop, tablet, holographic wrist mounted thing.... don't know what the standard would be XD) and had gotten into the ships systems and interfaced with the pilots comm system. A young sounding voice would pop in. " Um, Hi there. If you have any survivors that need direction. the central Mess hall seems to be structurally sound and stable at the moment. I'm monitoring the structural alerts. If you don't mind terribly I can try to fix radar? it sounds like somethings interfered with it since you know something hit us and your saying you can't see anything. Could you also give me the access code to life support and surveillance? You Comm officers should focus on stabilizing the engines that are still stable, I can go through lvl by lvl at this terminal and close bulkheads and siphon off life support to save power and relieve the extra venting pressure from those holes...... I don't really need the code, but it'll be quicker if you give it to me than if I need to break your fire walls, that'd take me a few minutes." Tim waited patiently for the Flight deck officer or commander to respond, while he was cycling through unimportant systems not protected by further security and shutting down anything that wasn't absolutely essential, like any of the entertainment and recreation area's, and he'd dim the lights in most sections by about 1/3, he also turned off all the food service machinery except for refrigeration and the beverage dispensers, though anything caffeinated was turned off, people didn't need to be jittery

Leo, still hacking up a lung, noticed a group scrambling to get a pressure value stabilized. He broke off from AR-BOT and pushed his way through the group.
"Shove off!" he grunted. Leo began hastily switching the valves and locking off exposed sectors of the ship. Equipment still sparked and the ship rumbled. "What the fuck is happening out there!" AR-BOT heard intercom orders and guided injured folks away from the destruction.

Jericho, Orion, and Val continued moving towards the inner sectors. Jericho noticed a wave of people rushing down a hallway as a door closed shut before they entered. He stopped short and ran over to it, pounding on the door and messing with the locking interface. "They can't fucking-Hey open this goddamn thing up, there's people on the other side!" It was Orion who grabbed him and flung him away.
"You keep going, soldier. Those people are as good as dead, and you're needed here." He roughly pushed him forward. The three heard an almost deafening crashing sound from the other side. Terrified screams ensued in their sector. They had no time to think but kept moving forward.

The others, Ami, Brook and Hector had made it to a safer zone where a good number of people were contained. Ami was able to help out and see if anyone was injured, or needed attention. They could do little else as they listened to the cracking and groaning of the ship and felt the fear of everyone in the room.

"Matheson and St. John, this is Garcia in the Central Maintenance Hub," the accented voice said over loud status alarms blaring. It should have been her supervisor reporting, but frankly she didn't give enough of a shit to wait for him. "Structure is stable but engines are offline and we are losing altitude. I am reading dozens of tiny, high-velocity impacts on the outer hull and rapid depressurization - my guess is space debris or...comets?" She was unsure of what to call them; she was a damn mechanic, not a scientist. "I second that all non-techs should get to the deepest interior of the ship in case we lose pressure in any other bays, as soon as fuckin' possible. Any one of the airlock sectors can be compromised. We need to get engines and external sensors back online, and central pressurization stabilized - and prep for evac in case we can't. Navigation, get me a guess on how long we can coast with no engines before collision, and anyone in Environmental, how long the pressurization will hold without repair?"

As she spoke, she had clipped a tether onto the bottom of the ladder and the other end onto the back of her emergency flight suit. With her helmet fastened tightly, she waded into the engine bay, a tool kit in one hand and a fire extinguisher tucked under the other.

Moments later, a modest female voice came quietly over the comm. "This is Dr. Nguyen from Medical. I will be setting up emergency triage in the mess hall. Please get any wounded there immediately." She and several of her available staff were already making their way from the infirmary, where they would prioritize wounds and hopefully get everyone treated as efficiently as possible.

"Mess hall..Understood. Securion ison it's way, we'll gather anyone we see along the way." He turned off the comm and turned to the rest of his team "At least someone knows what the hell their doing..." He then started to bark orders "ALRIGHT! EVERYONE FOLLOW ME AND MY TEAM DOWN TO THE MAIN MESS HALL IN THE INTERIOR OF THE SHIP UNLESS YOU WANT TO END THIS JOURNEY WITH YOUR INSIDES OUT OF THE SHIP. MOVE IT!" His harsh voice and words immediately spurred on the scared crowd to start moving, the securion team keeping them in a group and organized and they moved them quickly but cautiously through the ship.

"Meteorites..." the pilot spoke solemnly.  "Hey kid I don't know who you are but don't be an idiot okay?  I'm going to set you up a direct link to our engineering block and maintenance hub, do what either I say or what they tell you to do.  Got it?"   The pilot stopped and switched over to public broadcast throughout the ships.  

"We are receiving damage to the outer halls of the ships from an unseen meteor shower. People, please do not panic, move quickly and safely into the inner hall and stay away from any window panels. Please stay calm and move toward the inner halls of the ship where you will be safest and stay away from any window paneling or exterior walls."  The he set the message to repeat and dialed back into the emergency com listen to the increasing number of people channeling in and frantically screaming.

"It's unlikely that the engines won't take more damage and as it is the ships are too close together.  If we try to coast through this not only due we stand the risk of collision but we also have to consider the fact that it one of us is lost, the explosion may reach the others."

Doors closed and soon thereafter a deafening crash could be heard from the other side. Immediately following were sounds of a wind tunnel, screaming, and breaking of bones.  As Cole and Jesse continued the lights began to flicker, certain portions of the halls were without any lights at all.  As they passed the next airlock doors leading to the outer hall they heard a small child crying.  Looking from a distance they could see the doors were partially ajar by something, but what they couldn't tell just yet.

Jericho and the others continued down the halls as lights dimmed and almost vanished in this section of the ship.  Soon they would be traversing the maze of halls in utter darkness, following perhaps the sounds of other voices or airlock doors hissing open and closed.  

Matheson may hear in the shorts ahead of him a frantic group of civilians fighting their way inside the inner hull, disorganized, bloody, and barely holding onto their humanity as they trampled the weak and slow, crushing them underfoot to rush inside.  Behind them the meteorite assault had already broken through the outer hull and was volleying the walls of the inner ship.

Elijah sat against the door of the airlock facing the outer hall as the meteorites assaulted the door before him. He was in shock, barely staying sane enough to respond to the questions from the pilot when a voice echoed through his head causing him to shut down. He stared blankly at the door as it was scratched and dented, the sound reverberating through his com to the emergency com channel. Everyone could hear the grating sound of the metal being bent and torn but to sound of movement.

Timothy sighed, " aslong as it isn't stupid and beurocratic, has anyone thought of shutting down gravity in the outer sections of the ship, it'll mitigate alot of damage to the interior" Tim was already navigating to the gravity systems when he asked simply waiting for an ok.

Cole and Jesse stayed mostly in the mane corridor that led to the mess hall as to not get locked out of the section. They moved cautiously toward the airlock. Cole trying to calm the child that he couldnt see. " hey kid, where are you..... we can help if you talk to us and help us find you. it's gonna be alright" Jesse was mostly quiet wishing for the safety of a higher perch and a high powered rifle of some kind. All the same Jesse's eyes, better then Cole due to rigorous training searched the darkness.

"Fuck," thought Leo. He could feel the heat coming from the engine rooms. Scalding hot steam and black smoke was mixing in the air. That's when he heard the broadcast. "We're just going from one goddamn mess to another... He could hear metal grinding against metal and the roar of ship parts being torn away. There were still other engineers here, trying to get things under control. To Leo, it seemed like no use. They'd either die from more engines blowing, or another hit from the meteors. He decided to run.
"We're not doing anything here. I'm getting the fuck out, I suggest you do the same!" He pulled a switch on a wall as he left activating the engine room's fire system, a chemical spray for extinguishing and smothering electrical and liquid based fires. He exited through the sliding door, proceeded down the hallway and took a ladder towards the upper halls.

When the lights dimmed out on Jericho, he almost went into a panic with the rest of the crowd.  Val placed a hand on his shoulder as Orion spatted orders to everyone to keep calm. "Don't worry, it's probably a failsafe of the ship to conserve energy... Either that or the meteorites are screwing up the wiring." She added, "Someone better keep these citizens from falling into hysteria, huh?" Despite Val's dark humor on the situation it managed to muster Jericho into a more productive state. He nodded, "Yeah." Jericho joined Orion in barking orders. They navigated people through the black corridors by their memory of the ship, towards the communal spaces near the command center.

More people anxiously flooded in from side doors and other chambers. The flock would inevitably begin to scatter down each door that opened. Still Orion and Jericho would try to shout above the screams and shove their way to the doors they thought were correct. Every now and again, the hallways would quake and the awful screeching sounds of the ship could be heard. Jericho gritted his teeth. If all went well, it seemed as if the next few hallways would take them to the center.

H.4.X turned to his team "Get these people to safety, I'll be handling...that. Jason, Jared, come with me" He gestured over to the group of people trampling each other. He walked over and in his loudest, most intimidating and commanding voice shouted over their screams while hauling a few of the people who had fallen, who weren't trampled and dead, to their feet, then immediately beginning to grab people and make them slow down slightly to try and help some of the people on the floor "If you want to get to safety you're not getting through me unless you've slowed the FUCK down and stopped fucking CRUSHING OTHER PEOPLE!" He sounded rather angry at what these people had done, but in reality, he was just trying to get them to get slightly organized. Jason and Jared began herding people into a more organized less ridiculous crowd, all three of them made sure these people saw they were armed, lest they try and lash out in their fear. H.4.X was in control.

Garcia was wading through debris in the shaking underbelly of the ship, fire extinguisher tucked under her arm, and trying to relay messages on behalf of the engineering crew. Either her supervisor was dead, or hiding somewhere with his thumb up his ass. Who cared, and what was he going to do anyway, fire her for doing his job?

"Nav, what if we disable all non-essential engines? It will give you at least some control back, maybe veer us away from the other ships and prevent a - what?! GODDAMNIT! FELA DA PUTA!" A hissing noise came over Garcia's comm, followed by a string of profanities in Spanish before she cut her transmitter off. The chemical spray had showered out into the hallway that Garcia was in, essentially blocking her from getting any further to repair or manually disable any of the engines. She struggled to wipe her helmet visor clean to be able to see in the already darkened maintenance bays.

-

In the Kennedy's room, Tara picked up her Taylor and retreated into the bathroom where there were no unsecured objects to fly around. She was alone, with no one else to help her. Tara shut the door and, grabbing a flashlight, quickly examined the bleeding gash on her baby daughter's forehead. Amidst the metallic shrieking of the ship and the commotion down the hallway, Tara had not actually realized one sound that was missing from the chaos.

Taylor had stopped crying and was silent. Completely silent. Her eyes fluttered backwards, as if she were about to fall asleep.

"Oh my God," Tara sucked in a sharp breath. "Oh my God, baby, come on. Stay with me. Taylor! Taylor!! Stay awake!" She laid the girl down on her back and immediately began to administer first aid to the wound while screaming to keep her awake and conscious. Her pulse and breathing were stable, but the bleeding was severe. Tara could not allow herself to panic. Skull fracture? Concussion? Head wounds always bleed a lot. Pressure. She ripped down a stack of folded bath-towels and used them to apply pressure directly to the center of the gash across her forehead.

"Taylor! What's your favorite food!"

"M-...macaroni and cheese, Mommy..."

"What's your favorite cartoon!" She pulled a second towel over the wound as the first one became totally saturated with blood.

No answer.

"What is your brother's name! What is your middle name!"

"...Cabot..." She didn't try to respond to the second question, as if she couldn't hear it.

"What color is the sky!" Another bloody towel. A pause. "Taylor, you need to keep talking to Mommy and stay awake! What color is the sky!"

Taylor looked confused, as if she were falling asleep again. "It's...it's b-black, Mommy..."

-

Dr. Nguyen and the few available members of her staff made it to the mess hall, toting along a few gurneys and whatever equipment they could carry with them. Of course, the most serious injuries would have to be dealt with in the infirmary where the other doctors would hopefully be ready and waiting, but Lien would play an important role in screening them out to help the most people in the shortest amount of time. She witnessed the trampling in the hallway and, frowning, flagged down the nearest security agent. Her voice was steady and calm. "Could you stay right there next to me while we work, please. We can not help them if they panic." She gave him a quick but meaningful look, relaying that she knew very well how much danger she and her staff could be in. She raised her voice slightly as she got to work setting up her makeshift table, prepared for the rush of wounded. "Please, the most injured come forward first, and the rest of you line up so we can get to you as fast as we can."

"Mayday! The engines received heavy damage, I don't know how long we can keep this..." the distress call from another ship intruded into the com link before screams and metal filled the air with deafening screech. With the radar down the pilot of the carrier Echo, against his better judgement, shifted the controls of the ship to a command panel. He quickly typed in the necessary code and raised the armoring shielding his position from the meteors. He sharply turned the ship off course, turning the engines into the blunt of the meteors as another ship on his port side veered towards this one. He hadn't even had a chance to tell the kid to turn the gravity systems off, with those still on people and objects alike were thrown as he veered away from the fiery wreckage.

"All ships veer hard to your starboard side, veer hard right now! Transport carrior Khrysis has lost control and turning directly into us! Move your ships now! My radar's come back online, just follow my instruction." he lied without a second thought. With Khrysis lost the Echo would take the full force of the meteors...maybe he could save some of them.

The kid heard voices outside the airlock and started screaming for help, most of what she said was incoherent word fragments between sobbing breaths. They wouldn't likely be able to tell what she was saying but at least she was saying something. As they got closer to the airlock they could make out what exactly was holding the door open. A small arm was hanging motionlessly between the heavy metal frames, blood still dripping fresh from the area being crushed by the force of the locking mechanism. As they peered inside they saw its owner was the source of the cries. A young girl, maybe ten, maybe not, it was hard to tell in the flickering lighting especially with most of her body shrouded by the door and overshadowed by something behind her.

As Leo and the others ran out of the engine hall the ship jerked harshly to the side, throwing them back into nearby walls and doors. The lights in the halls they escaped to were very dim but still functioning. Soon after the ship's harsh move the sound of rocks against metal rang out against the walls in front of them.

Just as the mob was starting the slow the ships unexpected movements threw them against the walls, against each other, and forward against the Securions who were trying to organize them. The already panic people fell into hysteria as they all tried to push themselves up off the ground and through the others who had fallen on top of them. Three Securions, armed as they may be, were faced with a terrifying horde of writhing panic lost to reason.

The soldier looked at the doctor and nodded as he moved himself infront of the medical team. People frantically flooded into the mess hall, pushing, shoving other, knocking them down. He attempted to reason with the new arrivals but was pushed back by their panic. When the ship veered to the side he was thrown to the side and crushed underneath some of the horde. He groaned in pain as other stepped on his back, legs, hands they brought themselves to their feet. He choked, unable to bring any air into his body with the weight of them on top of him. Blood began to roll down his face and out of his mouth but he couldn't move.

"Well good, this is what I needed, I wanted THAT to happen, I wanted this to be the way my day turned out."
H.4.X mumbled annoyed to himself as the crowd got out of hand, he shouted to the rest of his securion team "JUST MAKE SURE NO ONE GETS KILLED, AND THAT THIS LOT MAKES IT INTO THE MESS HALL." So the Securion team turned it's efforts from trying to organize the herd of people, to just trying to direct them to the mess hall, and make sure that people who fall are quickly picked back up. The other part of the securion team who went ahead with their group of civilians got to the mess hall and immediately sent any injured over to the make shift medical area.

Alisha sighed and broke off from the group, mumbling something about needing a coffee. Toria ran over with the injured and Immediately called over the bulk of the securion group and they immediately went to work forcefully organizing the group and picking the trampled man off the ground so he wasn't crushed any further by the horde of scared people. As Toria was making sure that all happened, Jovan spoke to the doctor as he hoisted the man up off the ground "We have two medics coming in shortly, when they get here, they are at your disposal."

Alisha walked back to the group saying something about strangling whoever turned off the coffee.

Tara was thrown hard against the wall of the small bathroom, smashing her shoulder into the corner of the counter as she held Taylor down to prevent her from getting hurt any more. The bleeding had finally stopped and her pulse and breathing were fine, but the little girl was completely unconscious now. With no other options, Tara screamed as hard and loud as she could, hoping someone might hear her.

-

"You son of a bitch," Garcia was shouting at Leo as she made her way back down the dark hallway and towards the ladder to make it out of the soaked maintenance bay. "I could have saved some of the engines and - " Her voice was cut out by the ship veering hard to the side, and Garcia went flying, first smashing into the wall and then rolling into one of the open engine bay rooms. The tether attached to her suit pulled taut just as she was caught only an arm's length away from one of the malfunctioning engine turbines that was left unsecured after one of the initial explosions had blasted away its security grate. The turbine spun rapidly, and she hung in suspension, screaming and cussing and praying aloud as she grappled onto her tether and held it tightly to try and regain her balance during the ship's maneuvers.

-

Nguyen's face blanked in fear for a moment as she witnessed the mad horde advancing on her. The security guard that was buried and trampled underneath the stampede was only a small indication of what these terrified people were capable of. She screamed for them to stay back and get off of him, but she could barely be heard over the commotion. She stood behind the table, unsure of what she could do now, and prepared to run if the crowd was too much for security to tame.

She looked at the Securion, her expression gravely distressed as she pointed out the other security officer that was being trampled. "Do you see what is happening? Those people will kill each other, and us. I don't think we can operate safely here with this many at once. They're panicking."

"Hello. Hello?" A pleasantly pitched robotic voice plugged into Elijah's intercom. It spoke over a bit of static with a vague accent, possibly Australian. "As yes, this is the frequency I think. Excuse me, captain? I noticed your radio has gone silent, do you hear me?" The voice was AR-BOT. While guiding folks to the safer areas of the ships, he had been monitoring radio conversation. In case there was some way to help. "Your last broadcasts indicate you may be in danger. Can you hear me alright?"



Leo heard a lot of things. He heard a Hispanic sounding women launching profanities at him. He heard a series of crashes followed by screams. He heard voices over an intercom. Then he heard the familiar buzzing of an engine and the Hispanic woman again. When the rest of his senses caught up, he could see he was pinned against the walls of the ship. He could feel gravity pushing down on him, and the pounding headache he had. He could taste a bit of blood in his mouth. He could also feel the the ship swerving, and the urgency in the woman's voice.

Leo looked around and saw the woman dangling there before an exposed turbine. For a brief moment it felt like he was watching a movie from the past. The way the turbine spun seemed all too familiar, like he was replaying a memory. The feeling was gone as soon as it came and he snapped into action. He staggered over to where she was and extended out his mechanical arm. With his free arm he braced the tether. "Hey, grab on!"

Garcia, seeing her chance at rescue, wasted no time in grasping Leo's arm firmly. The cool feel of metal surprised her, but she didn't falter. Her fire extinguisher had tumbled out of her grip earlier and crashed against the opposite wall, falling into the corner, and she had clipped her toolkit onto her side. Even then, she was light enough to lift up easily using the extra leverage from her tether, and Leo pulled her up to safety beyond the doorway.

"Thanks. You prick." She panted a few times, probably more from surprise at realizing how close she came to being vivisected by the turbines than from actual physical exertion. "We have to get the hell out of here. I don't know who else is alive that can operate the evac pods. I don't think we're going to save the ship..."