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V2 Chapter 8: Bombardment II
🕑 Added 2022-12-31 15:00:05 +0000 UTCThis was the one thing they had drilled for the most. They knew exactly what they needed to do, and with very little instruction from Sevs, they fell out to go do it. All combat personnel was supposed to form a corridor from the respawn rooms to the escape pods. Then as everyone else got off the ship, the ones at the end of the tail would go down the corridor, and as they passed the next, so on and so forth, and eventually, everyone would make the escape pods and be out.
The drills had gone rather smoothly, but it didn't seem like it was going smoothly this time. Sevs and his crew reached their designated spot, but they didn't see people holding the other side of the corridor for them, nor were the people up or down from them either. Put simply, they were alone in what felt like a sea of enemies.
They didn't last long; the more experienced teams started to show up and help provide the escape corridor. And non-combat personnel were soon sprinting through. Sevs and his team soon had to focus on repelling the Tarlaki. As they weren't on a hallway bordering the outer hull, most combats were quick. The tarlaki realized they weren't preventing more from landing and quickly disengaged to go find a more valuable target.
Still, the evacuation felt like an age. But the way they had it set up was that anyone who fell during the defense of the corridor would simply have to run the gauntlet sooner rather than waiting their turn. Sevs kept waiting for their sergeant to rejoin them but didn't see him come down the corridor. It was always possible that he had gone past when they were busy, but he should have stopped to join them.
Sevs figured the sergeant had missed them when the non-combat personnel had all made it past. Then the people closest to the respawn rooms started to come through. Eagerly, Sevs and his team awaited their turn. When the first team started to come down, things got a lot hairier. Anyone who fell would respond but wouldn't have a safe route out. They are more than welcome to try to fight their way to the escape pods, but there's no guarantee.
Still, it seemed to be the best system that anyone could come up with so far. It left the combat personnel more at risk, but that was their job. Most of these weren't involuntary calm scripts like Sevs and his team serving out the first sentence, but people who had decided to stay even after their first "tour" was completed. Still doesn't mean Sevs had to be happy about this.
Eventually, it was their turn. They didn't have much to go to the escape pods bays. They were going to be third last off the ship; only the crossroads one further down right next to the bay would go after them.
Right as they started to move was when everything went from bad to worse. The ship rocked again. This was nothing new. The ship had been rocking all attack. However, this time it threw them all off to their feet. Sevs saw Soshal bounce against the ceiling, and everyone else went tumbling. He had managed to mostly regain his feet, but when he rewarded himself for staying down, he realized there was an issue. The end of the corridor, where they needed to go to, where the escape pod should have been. Now it was a simple set of glass doors.
They were closed, cutting off their escape. These doors only closed when needing to seal a breach to prevent all air from escaping into the void of space. This wasn't the end of the world Sevs quickly gathered up his squad, and they moved out. They were going to go down a couple corridors and try to use another entryway. It was possible that everything was still fine. They actually didn't run into any more Tarlaki. It seemed like their presence was diminishing as well.
It only took a couple minutes to find that the other route was blocked as well. While they were there at the door, Robert took a second to read the damage output that was making the door seal off. "Boss, it looks like the whole escape pod bay is down, sir."
Sevs swore under his breath. They were in trouble. They only had one bay of escape pods. It was a glaring design for one that almost everyone had commented on when they heard about it. However, this is something the system apparently wanted them to deal with; the larger, more expensive ships had more, but any small ships only ever had one. Their engineers had done their best to design one, but it never seemed to work. It was just an unfortunate aspect of the game.
Well, there were a few things he could do. The two other squads have likely been destroyed with the hangar. So there were likely still people in the respawn room. They could try to fight their way to regroup and then trust a more experienced officer to lead them back to civilization somehow. Getting back there would take time. Even with less opposition, it would still take a while, a few minutes, and then on top of that, they had to figure out what was going on. That would also mean that the people who respawned had left yet. Which was something Sevs wasn't going to bet on.
Their other option was to find a way off themselves. That would be difficult. However, seeing the damage the ship just took, would the ship still even be intact by the time they found the other survivors? It wasn't something Sevs could know.
"All right, guys," Sevs called over the radio so as not to distract them from watching their angles. "We got a couple choices. Either we try to regroup, or we go on our own. We don't know what the others are up to and if we can even find them. We have to go back to the respawn rooms and try to find them from there. Even then, we aren't sure how much longer the ship will last."
Sevs waited, but no one chimed in. That was a bit surprising as they usually were a talkative bunch. With no interruption, he continued. "If we go alone, we're going to have to find some other way off the ship. It seems the escape pods are done, and we have no one who can pilot them. Those are the only two options I see."
Sevs waited. Still, no one said a thing. Fiddling with his helmet with his off-hand, he checked to make sure he was broadcasting. Michelle should have been able to hear him talking as they were close enough, and someone would let him know that his radio wasn't on, right? It was another solid 20 seconds of silence before someone finally spoke up.
"Whatever you think, boss," Jason said. "I'm with you."
Just looked around. They were all holding steady, watching their angles, but he could see some of them nodding in agreement with Jason. It seemed it was truly his decision. Surprisingly Sevs didn't feel too much pressure on his shoulders. While he'd expected some input, he figured that he could have convinced them either way. It was nice to know they had his back, though.
"While I'm touched, I was hoping for some options. Any ideas?" Sevs quipped, trying to lighten the mood a little. Soshal spoke up first. It was not odd in and of itself; she wasn't normally the first to break the silence in a brainstorming session. "Well, it's not entirely true. I don't think we can fly any of our stuff, but I got a good look at the landing ship the Space Elves use, and it was pretty simple. I bet I could get us off with one of those."
Sevs considered. He was still half hoping someone else would speak up with another idea, maybe a third option that was slightly more palatable. Soshal's suggestion was a bit out there. Especially for her, normally, her ideas were more grounded in reality than everyone else's. She also would like to build up people's ideas more than make her own. Still, it was really the only thing he had to go off of.
"Last chance for any input. Anyone?" No one said anything else. Dang, Sevs thought. Well, it was down to him. The longer they stayed here, the worse either option was. They might have been here too long already. Find the others seemed to be slipping further away from possibility. Realizing he had already made up his mind, Sevs called out his decision.
"Alright, everyone, let's get ready to go steal ourselves a ship!"
