Star Wars: A clash of lords

Chapter sixteen

Lights of red bursted through his eyelids as Nocnor regained consciousness, as he opened his eyes the view port he remembered showing a night sky and a raising sun breaking the dark horizon from its uniformed sky now was filled with rubble. He guessed it was earth but with the red light flashing on it, it could be anything.
The ringing in his ears caused him to wince from the high pitch pain, the control board in-front of him sparked with white and resembled less of his control panel and more of a ship broken from aft to port. He sat for a moment longer to regain some more of his motor skills before standing and hoping to find that the exit was not blocked making his craft his tomb.
Nocnor felt his way along the straps that held him in the seat to find the release button. As his fingers found the familiar shape he pressed it and thanked the stars that it was not linked to the power.
Thud.
He found himself suddenly on the viewport with his chair above him, he knew what it meant the ship was up right with its nose burried. He'd have to climb to the hatch to escape but at least it be less likely to be burried than it was if he had plowed the ship through the earth.
As he struggled to his feat he found his balance was lacking and fell side ways into a terminal that was mounted on the wall. The sheer impact caused it to crackle and spark.
Great if I can't climb this will become my coffin I need to get the hatch open even if I fall back down at least then there would be air to breath. As he eliminated all other thoughts but to get the hatch open he began his ascension along the wall he'd fallen into. Luckily the way the bombers had been designed he found the terminals and conduits to be an adequate climbing frame. He began pondering to himself was this designed to act as a vertical climb incase such crashes happened.
In next to no time he found himself at the hatch door but the terminal was dead, must have broken in the crash. He knew there was a manual override on the other side of the hatch but to reach it he'd have to jump across and hope he caught onto something or he'd end up back at the bottom with a lot more injuries and no source of air.
He braced himself as tightly as he could to the wall and mentally prepped him self for the jump while working out the best way to launch himself across.
With a grunt he jumped and found himself descending quicker than he was moving horizontally. Desperate he flung an arm out to grab onto the wall passing him by. He felt some cables and tightened his grip on them but the weight of him and the speed he fall caused him to release in pain.
No,No,NO!!!
He gripped again at another wire and caught it. Wham. His body hit the wall with such speed he found himself bouncing back off the wall and back into it. Wham. He held on to the cable for dear life.
His other arm lifted in pain as he tried to find another place to hold onto. Then he began to climb again slowly covering the distance he had fallen. Not one part of him did not hurt but he knew the pain was better than suffocating to death. So he soldiered on finally reaching the hatch again and the steel cupboard that housed the manual release. As he pried it open he saw a leaver with aurabesh instructions it was a winch mechanism and with every pull on the lever Nocnor found himself swearing in pain from his arm. The doors began to part and he let out a sigh of relief, there was a breeze that brought the promise of escape on it. He continued cranking the lever in until the hatch was fully opened.
As he climbed out onto the ground that burried his ship he couldn't help but collapse from exhaustion and joy of being free. Suddenly he realised there was a second trail of smoke a few miles from him, then it dawned on him when he went down so did the squadron leader Xifel. He knew what he had to do, no matter how unlikely Xifel survived, he had to get to him.
So he stood grabbed a side arm from the exterior locker of the bomber and began his slow limp toward the smokes origin.