To Hell and Back (Hellworlder pirates)

Ch 71 Into the Frying Pan Pt.IV

Into the Frying Pan Pt.IV

Alwen had just barely turned off the last of her really important machines before the ship's lights cut out once again. Some of her equipment was attached to the ships main power grid and just had to run through a shutdown sequence, others like the handheld MRI scanner needed to have its battery removed manually. The ship went dark, and Alwen once again found herself floating in complete darkness, her heartrate quickened as she began to fear that all their efforts had been for nothing and they were now going to slowly freeze to death without power. Then the red emergency lights flicked back on, and Alwen fell to ground on her side for the second time that day.

Gato, who had been helping her save as much life saving equipment as possible, had been by a counter and had held onto it to keep himself from floating off. He looked around slowly and blinked a few times until his eyes adjusted to the red light. Terran eyes adjusted much slower than her own, so she had been able to stand and get her bearings faster than him. They had just locked eyes and smiled at each other in relief when a horrible ripping sound screeched through the ship.

'It's too early for the Bosun to play his bagpipes.' Alwen thought.

But then the ship's PA clicked on, and she heard the last words she had ever expected to hear. "All hands, prepare to repel boarders. I repeat, all hands prepare to repel boarders."

There was a second tearing sound and Alwen realized that it was the sound of an enemy ship cutting into the hull, not the Bosun's morning wake up call. Without any more conscious thought Alwen reached to her side to confirm Makaze was at her side before she rushed forward to find the nearest gun locker.

A firm paw gripped her on the shoulder "What the hell do you think you're doing" Gato growled.

"The Captain said all hands, that includes me." She shot back as she broke free of his grip.

"You're a doctor," he snapped "This is where you need to be."

She clenched her fist and glared daggers at him, "no, until we secure a safe corridor for patients to be moved through my place is out there, filling the halls with lead and steel until someone can relieve me. Isn't that what you've been drilling into me for the last half year. Didn't you tell me that standing around in the med bay means jack and shit if my patients can't actually get to me. These people don't care if I'm a doctor, they'll break down my door and kill me where I stand. And if you continue to hold me back they'll get us both"

He looked wounded, and she wanted to continue shouting when another rip broke her out of her fury. Without another word she turned and jogged to where she knew the nearest gun locker was, she punched in her specific code, opened the door, and began to slide the basic combat vest around her torso. Right now she didn't have the time to find and put on her special combat armor, right now she had to put some basic armor on and find a point to hold. Marines would have been waiting around in full armor the moment the ship entered combat, now she just had to hold off the invaders until they could relieve her.

Once her vest was on she grabbed a grenade belt and a .50 caliber rifle and moved to the nearest choke point that had been drilled into her since her first week aboard. As soon as she had picked point to hold there was a burst of air and blur of movement as strange armored bipedal aliens began to rush into the Astaroth. Alwen had seen a lot of aliens during her time in space, but these didn't look like anything she had seen so far. They stood a little taller than her or her Terran friends, they had a thick three fingered hands, their arms were short and stubby looking, and their legs bent backwards. They wore large bulbous helmets with dark tinted visors so she couldn't see their faces.