I awoke pinned to a wall. I looked around feeling fuzzy. My senses slowly came back. First the sound, an alarm was signaling, I recognized it. Their was a breach in the hull somewhere. Next came feeling. I had what felt like a large open wound in my back. It felt like I was fused to the wall. I tried to pull away and felt a strong sucking feeling. I quickly put two and two together. Hull breach, stuck to the wall, strong suction. I was was currently a plug keeping the air from escaping the room. I put my arms behind me and pulled with all my might. Wind swirled around behind me and I felt the skin of my back tearing as peeled away from the sharded metal hole. I struggled through the suction and pain and with one strong push I broke free.
I hit the floor but failed to catch myself. My face plowed into the grated floor. Within a few seconds, the wind began slowing, the room had sealed itself. In a few minutes their would be no air.
At the Fedorin they trained me for this. I quickly replayed the training. Step 1: Exhale all air, if I took a deep breath it would rupture my lungs.
I exhaled....Whats next?
I have about 15 seconds to do something once the air is gone, after that I will have passed out.
I looked around the room. A large metal panel lay on the floor. I needed to push it against the wall while the suction was still strong.
I got up and rushed toward it. This dash already used most of the air in my lungs. I took a fast breath and quickly exhaled. I felt a small burning in my lungs.
The plate was not heavy thank goodness. I lifted it and chucked it at the hole.
With a slam it stuck to the wall, the suction dented it slightly but it still did not completely seal the hole. The suction was growing weaker. If it got too weak there would be nothing to hold the plate there. I remembered a hammer on my tool belt.
I unholstered it and began beating the plate to fit the wall. I was running out of air, another small breath, more burning. Within a couple of hits the suction began doing the rest. The plate crinkled and began to dent into the hole. Suddenly it became quiet again. All I heard was the alarm.
I began to black out. Falling to the floor I desperately gasped for air. Each breath brought burning to my lungs and only gave me slight reprieve.
My mind was failing. I struggled to think of how to open the bulkhead and escape.
I was dying and I knew it. I remembered a picture of Nova. I fumbled to grab it. My fingers couldn't grip it. So I violently ripped at my shirt pocket. I wrenched her picture from my pocket, lungs burning, mind failing. A wave of emotions swept over me. I stared at her crumpled picture. She stood, poised to fight in her Kels Dorata robe. I wanted to hold her. I loved her, but she didn't know. She had always been out of my league. I would die without ever telling her I loved her. My vision began to blur.
I couldn't let that happen. She had to know... I would do anything. Even if it meant getting up and opening this bulkhead. My body jerked as my nerves gasped for energy. I crawled across the rough floor. The taste of iron crept along my tongue. She had to know. I had to show her.
Blood flowed down my lips, when I breathed nothing happened but more pain.
I reached the door, I tried to figure out the buttons to open the door. But my mind couldn't focus. So I used the one thing I had left. Rage.
I stood, defying the universe. My body screamed for me to stop. But I didn't care. I violently beat my fists against the console. My knuckles started to bleed. All my pain turned to rage. The console was obliterated but still no air. I gripped the bulkhead and pried with all my might. I screamed as my body cried in pain. I kept pulling harder. I felt my muscles tearing. She has to know I screamed with every of strength. Then a screeching sound followed by a gust of air.
I put my face up to the breach in the bulkhead. The cool air swept into my lungs and cooled the burning. I could taste the cool moisture across my tongue.
The door then screeched open grinding against the wall where I pried.
I fell into the hallway. My lungs had torn, my back burned as my raw skin was exposed to the cool air.
I had done it. I couldn't believe it. I looked at the bulkhead. The four-inch steel had been pried back. I looked at my hands. The knuckles were bloody pulps. I thought I saw bone underneath but I wasn't sure. My fingers were bent backward in a weird position. I tried to grab it with my other hand to bend them back. Then an all-new rush of pain swept over me. First, my hands felt cold, then excruciating pain. I had broken my fingers opening the bulkhead.
The adrenaline was finally kicking in though. The pain started to disappear and my heart rate increased. I got up and steadied myself against the wall.
I noticed alarms going off again. I tried to remember what was happening.
It took only a few seconds to remember. We lost communication with Dagonian HQ and then were promptly attacked. Who attacked us... I stood thinking.
Kroto Rebellion. I limped along doing my best to reach the Oxharl's cabin.
I rounded a corner an found several dead crew members. Many had smoldering holes in their chest. The air wreaked of burnt metal and melting flesh.
A flash of light followed by a loud pop. An explosion of sparks fell from the ceiling. I turned expecting to see the shiny armor of Krotion trooper, ready to kill. But instead, it was only wires, arching and flashing.
I then came to a room with windows that faced the Phagodin's hanger. I looked out to see a gut dropping view. A Krotion dropship sat glaringly in the hanger. Rebel crew swarmed the hangar floor, bullets and lasers swept here and there. The dropship had entered without destroying the bay doors. How was this possible?
I watched as a Krotion Hyperion leaped from the dropship. It landed on its large biped legs and crouched easing its fall. Regaining posture it stood at least 20 feet in height. It turned, unfurling its large shield. The shield was metal with pulsing red energy plates on the front. I recognized their function. As our crew fired their energy weapons at the large mech, it's shielding absorbed the energy charging its weapons. The plates unfolded to hide the entire mech, all but parts of its feet, the large guns on top and the glowing blue lights that formed a line down the front of the mech.
The rebels fell back under the cover of the Hyperion as it lit up the hanger. It blasted pulses full of different energy types. Gamma rays, EMP, light, radiation. Within no time it will have killed everyone in the hangar.
It was strange. It looked as though the rebels had just boarded. But I saw the dead crew in the halls. Had they forced the rebels back into the hall? Perhaps a few of the rebels made it past our crew. But how did they get in? The hangar was untouched. I had to be careful, it was likely that there were rebels within the ship.
The adrenaline wore off, and the familiar pain crept back. I rushed to the cabin, I knew what I had to do. But I didn't know how to save the crew. Assuming the rebels had not made it to the cabin, I would open the hangar and open all the rooms and seal the cabin. That would suck the entire ship of air and pull everyone into space. But I knew that meant the crew too. I tried to justify it. I knew the crew in the hangar were likely already dead. But what if somewhere, there were crew, holed up in other rooms like I was. There was no way to know. Maybe everyone would be dead by the time I reached the cabin and opening the hangar would be the best choice.
I reached the cabin. It was empty. But there was no evidence of a battle, no dead crew, no captain.
I sealed the door behind me. I struggled to decide. I saw the faces of the crew flash in front of me. Then I saw the masked oppressors. The cowards in armor. Troops who hid behind their mechs and shields. But then I also saw Dagonians. The description fit them too. Limitless empire of troops with shielded faces. Armed with law and justice.
I went to the controls and began trying overides. I remember the captain had a book of overide commands. We always thought that it was a bad idea to keep a book of that kind of information just laying around, but I was now glad for it, although deep down I wished he hadn't. Frantically I searched for it.
Ah ha! Got it. I ran back over to the console and began typing. My broken fingers limply pressed keys. I fumbled several codes.
Then I heard screeching. A piercing sound. I looked at the camera, the rebels began cutting away at the door to the cabin. I tried to look at the camera for the hangar, but it showed static, I was hoping it would show a room of dead crew and full of rebel troops to ease my conscious, but no such relief was given.
I managed to open the hangar doors, but the bulkheads remained closed. I heard the familiar popping as the hangar lost pressure. I imagined the Kroto troops frantically running to their ship. Those who didn't make it would die a death that I was not so unfamiliar with.
