Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived Perseus Arm

Tiko

Tiko

Draconic Administrator/Mentor
Administrator
Mentor
Nexus GM
as written by Ronin

On route between Volaria to the Andromeda Galaxy...

Spacetime moved in a tempest. Wormholes opened like cosmic-windows and gave glimpses into alien universes. Foreign galaxies spiraled across an empty void. Unnamed worlds formed and shaped before their eyes. Life took root. Technology and art flourished. Empires rose. Resources withered. Living things suffered and died. Stars exploded. Sentience died in spectacular apocalypse and oblivion ruled all. It was the history of existence in an instant. From nothing to nothing.

And then it came.

From a jagged tear in spacetime it lifted its leviathan head, a writhing mass of worms and scales, formless and hideous. Its body writhed and wriggled like a nest of insects, morphing and coagulating into geometric impossibilities. Claws thousands of miles long lifted into the black expanse of space in silent tribute to the void. A mouth large enough to swallow planets whole looked at the passing envoy as a dark-spirited child looks at a bird with a broken wing.

It roared, soundless and terrible. A wave of radiation and cosmic force careened into the envoy of ships, likely sending them spiraling out of control unless their ships were sufficiently stabilized. With wormholes frantically openening and closing on every side of them, there was no telling where they would end up if they lost control of their ship.

If they survived the blast, they would suddenly be assaulted by another force - gravity. The monster was as large as a planet. Its gravitational pull was crushing. The ships would find themselves pulled slowly but steadily toward the mass of the beast, wriggling worms from its body reaching out to snag any ship that strayed too close.

____

as written by Tiko

The Rising Sun was among the closest to the rift torn open by the leviathan, and the roar broad-sided the ship to devastating result. The hull buckled, and bits of debris and paneling where torn free and sent spinning through space as the ship lost control. Caught dead-center, and at such close proximity, it took the full brunt of the wave with little to dampen it.

Within the bridge, people where throw to the floor, or into control consoles as alarms sounded through the vessel.

"Damage report!" barked Commander Nayar.

"Sir, our navigation systems are down!"

"We're caught in a gravitational pull!"

Shouts and reports filled the bridge as Nayar dragged himself back to his feet.

"Get us-"

Nayar's orders where interrupted as the Rising Sun collided with one of the un-shielded Taiyou ships that had been spun out of control and into one another's paths. The damages where catastrophic as an explosion rocked the ship further, and many of its systems went offline. The smaller Taiyou ship tore along the length of the Volarian vessel before continuing along its own descent towards the monstrosity that had appeared in their midst. The wreckage of the Rising Sun was left to vanish into the remnants of a wormhole that swiftly snapped closed behind it.
 
as written by Tiko

The spacetime storm had wrecked its havoc, and when the Rising Sun re-appeared, it was drifting through space, seemingly dead in the water. The interior was a hive of activity though as fires tore through passageways, and the crew responded to combat their spread. Entire sections of the ship where being evacuated and sealed off so that the fires could be vented out into space, but for many aid came too late.

Wounded where accumulating in the med bay, some with blunt force trauma injuries inflicted during the collisions, and others who had suffered injuries from the fires.

Through it all, alarms blared through-out the ship even as they tried to get their systems back online. With their navigation systems down, they could be spiraling straight into a sun for all they knew.

Little did the crew and passengers of the Rising Sun know that they had re-appeared in an uncharted and desolate stretch of space far from any known civilizations. It was likely the rest of the envoy would presume the Rising Sun destroyed, given the damages it had sustained before vanishing into a wormhole. Not that anyone would know where (or when) to begin looking for it even if they had cause to think it might have survived intact. The wormhole had closed behind them, and adding to their predicament was the fact that the spacetime storm had moved them through time, as fluidly as it had space - a fact not yet ascertained by the crew.
 
as written by Script, Ranger, Tiko, RoxyRose, Sokka

When the ship had been struck, Ira had been thrown unceremoniously out of his bed, letting out a cry of surprise as he was tossed through the air. He spun in the air and caught himself on the edge of one of the other bunks, managing to just about land on his feet, albeit slightly bruised. "What was-"

He was interrupted by the second impact, of the taiyou vessel striking the side of the Rising Sun. This time, he managed to hold himself steady. The lighting of the room sparked, and went out a moment later as the sound of explosions filled the ears of the men and women within and alarms began to wail.

"You just had to mention being thrown into the vacuum of space, didn't you Tahir?" Ira muttered in the darkness, "Is everyone alright?" he called out, trying to fumble his way through the room to where his gear was stashed.

____

Arjuna slowly got up after having been thrown from his bunk as well. There was an intensely sharp pain in the fold of his left wing. "Ugh... I think my wing was snapped. This is why I don't like tightly enclosed spaces. Ow. What the hell happened?"

____

Tahir was sparred being thrown from his bunk, as he was instead thrown up against the wall, inside his bunk. The second impact cracked his head against the frame of the bunk though, and blood ran down his brow as he pressed a hand over his eyes to stem the explosion of pain.

He reached out with his mind to try and get a feel for what was going on as his other hand pulled himself up to a sitting position by the bunk overhead. His mind was too disoriented from the head blow to maintain a good sense of control though, and he was assaulted by emotional chaos. Fear, pain, anger.

He managed to narrow in on Jaya though.

"The Ambassador is on the bridge," he told Ira and Arjuna while he tried to regain his senses.

____

"Then that's where we need to be." Ira snatched up his vishtafa and activated it, letting the crystals' glow blossom into a small but functional light source. He frowned when he saw Tahir's head injury, "You're hurt. You going to be alright if we just leave you?" he asked. The only response he got was a hand waving him off towards the door, and an expression that didn't invite argument.

Another small explosion sounded somewhere else in the ship, sending vibrations through the floor. "Fuck, what the hell happened?" he muttered, "We must have been hit by something." The princeling glanced across to Arjuna, "You good to go? We need to get up there fast."

____

Arjuna nodded at Ira before grabbing his own vishtafa. "Yeah. Let's go."

____

Takshak was not one for small enclosed spaces. The entire trip so far had put him on edge, though he had fared well not to let his troubles affect him.

Moment earlier, he had left his bunk in search of food. Though, it wasn't time for a meal, he was the type that ate when he felt like it, not in such an organized manor.

The floor beneath his feet began to shake, before the lights flickered and alarms sounded. Dire reaction instinctively brought out the defensive side of the avorian. Looking behind him, and to the front, he was dead in the middle of the hall. It was the same distance to either exit. Above his head, the metal light fixture had released itself from the hinges. Takshak flew with all of his might ahead towards the hall exit, but the door was jammed. It wasn't registering his I.D., the access light was stuck on red.

With his back against the door, he braced himself as the ship continued to shake, and sounds of explosions in the distance sounded. Though panic was rising up in his throat, he still managed to remain calm. He didn't dare to move, undoubtedly the Ambassador was on the other side.

____

Kim was running on a treadmill in a rec room when the whole world seemed to lurch. Equipment remained fairly stationary as it was bolted down but anything that wasn't was tossed around the room, including Kim and many of the others. A few weights flew like projectiles across the room. The man to her left took a weight to the head and a splatter of blood was added to the chaos.

Kim felt herself slam into the wall alarms began to blare she steadied herself but was thrown again when the second collision occurred. Groaning she stood as did a few others, she noticed the body of the man who had been hit with the weight. Staggering across the room towards the fallen man.

"Shit what the hell was that! " She groaned as he got to the man. Unfortunately she could already tell it was too late. "He's dead, is anyone else hurt?" She asked aloud looking around as she saw a few others shakily recovering from the chaos.

____

Once they were out into the corridor, they had the emergency lighting to guide them, and so Ira powered down his vishtafa. He could see the glow of flames at the far end of the hall, but thankfully in the opposite direction to where they were going. There were shouts coming from up ahead though, and he frowned in anticipation.

As they rounded the corner, the reason for the shouting was obvious. Part of the ceiling had caved in, cutting off the corridor with a tangle of metal and cabling. A number of crew members were trying to clear the debris to make a path to the bridge.

"Stand clear!" Ira called to them as he and Arjuna approached. "I'll clear a path."

Once he had space, he took a breath, holding his position and focusing on the blockage. By the looks of it, the main obstacle was section of panelling that was wedged in place, having torn through the side-wall. It was thick, but if he could unstick it, it wouldn't provide much of an obstacle once it had been knocked flat.

He drew back, dropping into a ready stance and strapping his vishtafa to his back to free up his hands. After a long, focused breath, he struck. His fist slammed into the metal panel near where it met the wall, denting it, but the panel didn't budge. Miraculously, neither did Ira's hand break. A second strike, then another, and another. With each blow the metal gave slightly, bending against the hole in the wall it was lodged in.

Finally, Ira swung a final powerful punch, and the panel caved enough to dislodge. It slid forwards with a grating noise and clanged to the floor of the corridor. Some cabling still impeded progress, but there was enough room to get by. It'd do.

"Let's move." he said, ducking through the gap and onwards through the hall. As they moved through the ship they encountered more crew members moving to fight fires or otherwise deal with the fallout from whatever had happened. The damage was evidently widespread.

Before long, they broke out into a hallway, at the end of which was a familiar figure struggling with a locked door. "Takshak! Glad you're in one piece." he called, "We're on our way to the bridge, the Ambassador's there. Tahir got a read on her. That door going to open, or are we going to have to force it?""

____

Arjuna wasn't able to do much with the pain in his wing holding him back. He could merely follow Ira for now. When they arrived in the hall where Takshak was, he saw a gas pipe leaking fumes only mere feet from fire. "Oh shit!" He grabbed Ira and pulled him to the ground with him as the gas ignited. Luckily, it wasn't one of the major gas lines, so the ship remained intact. The lights, however, were shattered as the hallway burned. Arjuna slowly sat up while holding his head. "Ugh... Not fun. Everyone okay?!"

____

Takshak made out the sight of Ira, and Arjuna towards the opposite end of the hall.

"It won't read my identification, I was hoping it would reset..." He was interrupted mid-sentence, at the sound of gasoline fumes whirring from a loose pipe. The flames that danced shortly below the break, changed colors from bright orange, to light blue.

Just as the guardsman heard his comrade utter his exclamation, Takshak extended his arm out to his front, activating his wrist guard. The shield would protect him, and the door, from any flames that would reach out.

Within seconds, the fumes had burnt up, and only small flames danced around the frame of the hallway.

"I'm alright! Ira?" He had confidence that the avorian was fine, though they needed to breach the doorway. Turning his back to the two, the avorain attempted to turn the emergency hatch. It turned, stubbornly, but the door didn't budge. He lit his vishtafa, to look closer at the hatch. Still, nothing. "Seems force is our only option." He pressed his hands along the outer edges of the door against the seals, "Though I'm pretty sure the my vishtafa won't be enough force."

He turned back, and contemplated the strength of the three men combined. He still wasn't convinced. His eyes then traveled to the ceiling of the hall. Though it was falling through, there were surely tunnels that led to the other side of the door. It was never intended for it to be caving, so the ducts would be accessible at this point.

____

The crew fared better on the bridge where the external damages hadn't reached, but even there they hadn't been without their wounded.

Men and women where in various states of recovery from the impact, and while many had already picked themselves up groaning and in some cases injured, others lay motionless where they had been thrown haphazardly into command consoles and walls.

Sparks crackled and popped from damaged wiring and one crew member was putting a small fire out with a hand-held fire-extinguisher.

When Commander Nayar came to, he was leaned up against the navigation table, where one of his crew had been trying to rouse him. His head felt like it was about ready to split in two.

His XO had taken point in directing the fire-crews to combat the spread of the fires across the ship.

"I'm fine," Nayar managed to slur as he was helped to his feet. "How long was I out?"

"Eight minutes," Kakkar answered. "We have fires spreading through here, here, and here," he indicated on a large schematics map they had laid out. "We had fuel lines erupt here, and it took out all the compartments through here." His voice sounded grim as his finger ran down the length of compartments that had been lost. "The fire-crews are over-whelmed."

The Ambassador it would seem had been momentarily forgotten in the chaos, save for her attendant who was looking around the dimly lit bridge, squinting through the flickering lights and occasional sparking wire.

"Lady Jaya?" he called out as he stepped past a motionless crew member. "Lady Jaya? Ambassador?"

____

Ira pushed himself off the ground with a whistle, "Thanks for that." he said to Arjuna, getting to his feet and glancing backwards as the smoke cleared. "This whole place is coming apart except the door we want to get through." he muttered, moving forwards to examine it.

After a moment he shook his head, "There's no way we're getting through this by force. It's designed to take punishment. We'll have to find another way up, there must be another route if we detour a bit." he said, turning away and gesturing for the other two to follow.

He paused, then, his eyes following Takshak's. "I don't think so," he added, "I see what you're thinking, but I don't want to clamber into a cramped crawlspace in part of the ship that's already starting to fall to pieces. There's probably loose wires, fuel lines and all sorts of things up there. It'd be suicide. C'mon, let's find another way around."

____

Takshak chuckled, an odd sound considering. "I imagine it's reinforced for a situation such as this. To keep whatever fires all of these wires start, from breaching the bridge. Fucking space travel..."

He aimed his wrist light up into the hole in the ceiling, clearly viewing the sparks and loose wires. "I suppose that makes sense. Did you study your navigational map of the vessel?" His question was directed to Ira, clearly implying that he, himself, hadn't. Each of the Royal Guardsmen had a strength, and a weakness. They made a complete team. Takshak's strength was the fact that he seemed to always remain insanely calm during the most craziest of situations. Seeming to face their death, and possibly fail at their mission to protect the Ambassador, was a crazy situation indeed.

He also seemed to have a knack for medicine. Noticing Arjuna's wing sitting at an odd angle, running to catch up to the two avorian's, he reached within his jacket pocket and pulled out a small glass vial. It was a liquid mixture of local herbs that he had mixed together himself for pain; headaches, sprained wrists, twisted ankles: the normal injuries a guardsman would sustain during training. He had never broken a wing, or injured one at all, but surely, it couldn't hurt. He tapped his comrade's other shoulder, and held out the vial. "Might help manage that pain, and keep you on your feet longer." It was a well known fact, that when an avorian's wing took injury, their balance became off.

____

Arjuna accepted the medicine. "Thanks. I studied the navigational map while Ira here was playing on his tablet. Follow me." He led them through the corridors, but had to make several detours due to impassable blockages. They finally managed to find maintenance tunnels that would take them to different parts of the ship, including the bridge. He lit up the inside of it using his vishtafa and looked around. "It looks to be intact, though I'm sure some parts aren't. If the one to the bridge is blocked off at some point, at least we can access other areas that might prove more successful. What do you two think?"
 
as written by VPRK

“I’ve got three more, we need to clear some more beds!”

“We’re only staffing burn wounds first, everyone else will have to wait.”

“Are you serious? I’ve got two midshipmen bleeding with head wounds, another completely unconscious, and you want me to tell them to wait?!”

“Unless the next three people you bring in here have a couple of years of medical training, everyone’s going to wait.”

The words blended in a chaotic cacophony amidst a dozen other conversations echoing within the walls of the medical ward. The Rising Sun was designed with a complete medical ward to handle the droves of crew manning the massive capital ship, but design and training failed to meet the chaos of a complete outbreak of trauma now flooding through the large open hatch. The enlisted personnel serving as medics aboard the ship were little better than young men and women who were sorted into the medical profession. Training was a few months of basic and skills learned on the job, but the job wasn’t one that called for a great deal of traumatic stress with widespread serious injury to so many of the crew.

Until today.

“His heart rate is going to fluctuate and could go tachy if we aren’t careful, so I want you to stay with him and have a syringe ready. No mistakes, okay?” The steel eyes of the ship’s Chief Medical Officer locked on the nervous expression of the medical midshipman across from her.

Major Adhira Batra let a hand linger on the shoulder of the downed crewman for a moment before surveying the rest of her domain, the MedBay little better than a riot as crewmen were limping or carried in from all over the ship to seek treatment. Enough reported in with major burn victims to warrant immediate treatment while the rest were staffed in order of severity. More than few were being turned away for minor injuries or anything that could wait.

A trained flight surgeon, Batra wore a basic slimline utility uniform, although the majority of her form was covered by the traditional white coat. White was a relative term today, however, and she knew this particular coat would be destroyed before the day was over due to exposure.

“Get me the XO or whoever is left in command,” she said, running her hand beneath a dispenser of cleanser and scrubbing them together as she approached one of the administrative aides trying in desperate futility to maintain some semblance of order in the chaos. Taking the handset, Dr. Batra spoke with the cold and calculating bite that she’d come to be known for, lacking the tenderness of bedside manner when it came to dealing with the issues of military bureaucracy.

“This is Batra. I have more wounded then I have beds. I need to set up one of the auxiliary cargo areas as a trauma spillover ward. And I need a sitrep on the Ambassador. In person would be better since…” The call cut off as the sound of a code being called from across the room drew the doctor away, almost momentarily placing the Ambassador’s recent visit to the MedBay out of her mind.
 
as written by Sokka, Script, Ranger, VPRK

Lieutenant Kim Yee burst into the crowded med bay helping carry a wounded soldier.

"We need some help over here!" She shouted, they had been making their way from the gym when they had found this fellow severely wounded with large pieces of metal lodged in his midsection. He wasn't dead yet and Kim hadn't planned on leaving anyone to die. She and a squad mate had rushed here carrying the semi-conscious man.

She still didn't know what was going on around here. Clearly something bad had happened, For all she knew they could be blown to smithereens by Concord warships momentarily or there could be a hostile boarding party on the ship. She was going to need to get the a SITREP from the bridge after she got this guy safe.

____

"I'd say anything's better than staying in the part of the ship that is literally on fire. Hopefully the sealed doors are a sign that they're containing things better elsewhere." Ira said, starting forwards into the maintenance tunnel. "Let's go."

It was a narrow passageway, intended for access to some of the ship's internal mechanisms, but it would serve them well enough. By the looks of it, they were reaching an area of the ship that hadn't gone to shit in the impact. Most of the maintenance passage seemed undamaged aside from a few dislodged panels and wiring come loose.

It didn't go all the way to the bridge, however, instead ending abruptly at what appeared to be a dead end. "There should be some sort of..." Ira murmured, before nodding his head, "Ahah."

He flipped a latch on the wall, and a section of panelling detached outwards into a hallway - one that was actually meant for getting around. Stepping out, he looked left and right. Nothing seemed to be on fire, at least obviously. There was a label on the wall a short way down the hall showing their location, "Where are we in relation to the bridge?" he asked Arjuna, pointing at the sign.

____

Arjuna looked at the sign. "Yeah. Follow me." He led them down significantly less hellish corridors until they reached another entrance to the bridge. He held his ID card in front of the scanner, but it wouldn't read it. "Alright. Plan... which plan is this again?" He grabbed the wheel and slowly turned it as it made an irritated noise. It finally gave way and he was able to turn it more easily, opening the door to the bridge.

____

”We need some help over here!”

If Adhira had a credit for every time those words had been spoken by someone barging through the open hatch of the Med Bay, she would have long retired somewhere warm and by the water rather than continuing to work the cold and vast expanse of space. The Chief Medical Officer scanned across the visible swarm of the room before realizing that for that single instant, Major Batra was the only member of the Rising Sun’s medical staff that was literally doing nothing for the cause.

“What’s your status, Marine? We can’t staff anyone else until someone in Command…” The doctor’s words ceased immediately as she rounded the corner and caught sight of the bleeding from the man’s midsection. She could only thank the spirits, ironic as that was for her, that the Marine had the common sense not to have removed the shrapnel before bringing the man in.

“Get him over here, now,” she said, turning and finding a bed where a young engineering hand has just been administered an injection for pain and was being shuffled off and out of the Med Bay to make room for the next casualty.

Then the power went out. For five or six seconds, the Med Bay was plunged into darkness as the emergency battery backups for the medical equipments screeched in terror at the prospect of being cutoff from the ship’s warmth and power. Eventually, the secondary lights came back online.

“Do you have any what is happening here, Marine?” Batra didn’t bother to look up as she spoke, working with brutal surgical efficiency to cut away the clothing around the area of the impalement. Her assessment was already clear – there was virtually no way that this man was going to live. Still, it was her duty to try, at the very least to ease the suffering before he shuffled off.

____

Kim helped bring the man to a nearby bed. She relaxed slightly as the she finally had somewhat of a moment to breathe and recover. She turned to the other marine that helped her get the man there. "Got gather up the rest of the squad and get some gear, and get some for me too if you can then make your way back this way." She said to the man who gave a brieft nod before breaking into a sprint out of the medbay.


"Negative I haven't had a chance to get in-contact with anyone. I'm guessing you haven't had contact with bridge Major?" She asked. Kim looked around as she the doctor worked things were crazy here. But Kim knew they both had a job to do. And even though medical assistance was needed it was clear they all needed to figure out what was going on. Kim began looking around for a comm set.

____

Morphine. Whether it was the easing effects of the powerful medicine or the body’s natural reaction to handling the amount of shock and trauma endured by such a painful injury, the man was slipping away from consciousness. Even the doctor couldn’t give an honest word as to whether the man would live to speak another word, but better to die in sleep than awake and writing in pain.

“He needs surgery,” she spoke, not so much to the female Marine who had carried the man in with another comrade as much to herself, continuing to audibly mumble notes and observations about the man’s condition, most of which focused on the fact that she didn’t have the staff, space, or ship’s power to handle the surgery that stood between his life and death at the moment.

Finally, word from the Marine broke the doctor from her concentration, dragging her back into the moment and clarity. It seemed, at least for the time being, that the influx of injured into the Med Bay was finally slowing.

“Sadly, no,” Batra spoke as one of the chief assistants came over and relieved Batra at the side of the Marine. They would have to work to slow down the bleeding in the hopes that he would live long enough for a surgical removal of the shrapnel and repair of the wound to stop the internal bleeding, but there was little that could be done until the power was restored.

The Major stepped away from the bed and began scrubbing the blood off her hands once more, her actions bringing her around the corner and closer to the Marine that had brought in her wounded comrade.

“I tried calling up for some information about what is happening, but we haven’t heard anything. The line is working, there’s just no response on the other end. I suppose the fact that you are here and not fending off an intruder should be a good sign.”

She tried to manage a smile, but it was a faked pleasantry. Batra wasn’t known as a smiling and warm personality and she had no strength to manage any theatrics given their situation.

____


Kim sighed internally, "Hopefully I haven't heard anything that has signaled to me that we've been boarded. Too much damage, plus I haven't heard anyone claiming to have been shot." Kim stated.

"But you never know we're vunerable if the ships this bad. Kim said finally locating a hand set and turning it to the local Marine frequency. She wasn't sure how many other of her fellow Marine officers were still around but she knew she had to get on their cases. They might not have been hearing from up top but there were protocols in place.

"Lieutenant Yee reporting in all active personnel report to your in to your officers and assist in damage control and security sweeps. "

"Well this is chaotic, Major anything you need of the Marines?" Kim asked.
 
as written by Architect

The crack of sparks raining down around him was what brought Amrit back to consciousness. As his eyes fluttered opened he was immediately assaulted by pain throughout his body. He brought a gloved hand up to his face in a feeble attempt to wipe the grogginess he felt away. With his fingers he noticed there was a small lump on the right side of his forehead. As his back ached Amrit let his head fall back, feeling it thump against the side of a large metal pipe.

He blinked several times. Another shower of sparks rained down on him. This time they seemed to bring the man back to his senses, and he looked around.

He was in engineering from the look of it...although it was certainly different than what he was used to. Debris was everywhere, the main lights were out, and the only thing saving him from utter darkness was a combination of auxiliary lamps and some sparking electronics. It was dark though, and he felt unnaturally alone in the shadows.

Another shower of sparks seemed to bring with it the answers to his unasked questions.

He'd been doing a routine maintenance check when something had happened, something that had caused the whole ship to rock violently. He remembered a fire breaking out in one of the engine rooms...he remembered grabbing an extinguisher and trying to control it. There had been another violent rock though, and he was slammed into the wall. He remembered trying to get to his feet and get back to work. But there had been one more loud explosion, and he remembered not being able to breathe. He remembered the sound of air being sucked past him as he was pulled towards some evil force.

He remembered watching his fellow crew members tumbling across the metal ground as they were dragged by some invisible demon. He remembered looking back, and seeing a gaping hole into the vacuum of space. It was hungry, and it sucked in anything that wasn't bolted down.

That included him and his fellow engineers.

He remembered slipping, and flailing, fighting desperately for something to hold onto. He remembered his back slamming against something that brought him to a stop, his ribs crying out in agony at the impact. And Finally he remembered as a co worker's toolbox slammed into his head and knocked him out.

Amrit groaned as he got to his feet under yet another rain of sparks. He couldn't sit around any longer. He stumbled along the wall in the dark to a communications terminal. Quickly, he tried to connect to the bridge.

"Hello is anyone there? This is Engineering. Come in, is anyone there? We've suffered a lot of damage here."

There was nothing, not even static. In his frustration he slammed an arm against the side of the terminal. "fucking comms are down..." He growled to himself. As he sighed in an effort to calm himself, Amrit looked around. There was no one else around him...

He tried not to think about it too much and made his way down the corridors. Soon he reached a bulkhead, and when he looked through the small window his heart sank. What was supposed to be a long hallway towards the rest of the ship, there was nothing. From what he could see, it looked like something had torn a hole the size of a football field through the ship. He could make out the other end, where twisted and scorched metal looked back at him.

He heaved another sigh. Perfect. Now what? He turned around and tried to think. He was cut off, but not entirely out of hope. He navigated the corridors the best he could and managed to find a maintenance room. While in the other sections of the ships, this rooms were mostly much smaller and used for general janitorial maintenance, in Engineering these rooms held vital tools and supplies in keeping a ship running smoothly.

Amrit walked up to a locker and pulled it open. What waited inside of it was his salvation: an EVA suit, for emergency structural repairs. He wasted no time in putting it on. He made sure the battery operated magnetic boots had an adequate charge, double checked the oxygen tanks, and made sure the tanks for the maneuvering jets were full.

Soon he was back at the bulkhead, his breath hot inside of the suit's helmet. He clutched an emergency E-Tool in one hand, he figured it might come in handy, seeing as he had no idea how the rest of the ship was. He took a deep breath.

"Just gotta get to one of the ship hangars, there'll be someway inside there."

With a nod to self-assure himself, he grabbed onto the bulkhead's manual override and begun to turn.
 
as written by VPRK

The lieutenant actually managed to draw an honest grin and a breath of laughter from the doctor at the open offer for help from the Marines.

"Sure, just have a dozen or so stop by the commissary and pick up medical degrees and the rest of them build me a hospital. That should do it." The dry wit and sarcasm served barely to thinly shield the stress building beneath the surface as the pressure of handling the situation and the frustration stemming from the lack of information from the bridge mounted.

"In truth, we could use a few extra hands if you could part with a few men to move some supplies to one of the auxilary cargo bays, we're going to need that extra space for spillover once we stabilize some of these patients."

The power flickered again, but this time no more than a second in the darkness.

"Excuse me, lieutenant," Batra nodded before curtly turning and head toward the back of the bay where a monitor began to emit several alarm chirps.
 
as written by Knosis

Jaya woke to the sound of groaning men and women, the sparking of damaged wires, the smell of smoke, and near darkness. She had lost her balance, and being as light as she was, was thrown rather far from where she had been standing upon impact.

Slowly she tried to push herself up, and failed. Her arms were shaking too badly, and she was only just able to roll herself over from where she laid. Her head was pounding and every movement nearly made her sick to her stomach. Reaching up to feel the wet sticky substance on her brow, she pulled her hand away looking slightly confused by the blood that covered her fingers.

What seemed to be coming from the distance, she started to realize someone was calling for her. Oh yes, that's right..

"I'm here.." She managed to mumble, attempting to sit up once again, this time by pulling herself up instead of pushing. It fared no better, and the best thing she could do was to sit against something. At least she wasn't laying on the floor now.
 
as written by Tiko

"Sir?" Lieutenant Darzi spoke up. "Major Batra is requesting use of one of the auxiliary cargo areas for the wounded."

"Find out what she needs to make it happen, and get her the personnel," Nayar answered. "Anyone we can spare."

"The rescue parties are saying we don't have enough shuttles for the search-and-rescue efforts," Lieutenant Agarwal interjected. "The collision with the Taiyou ship took out a lot of our reserve vessels, and half of our launching tubes," he explained.

"Well what do we have? Tell them to start converting our bombers and recon ships, and anything else that can hold passengers, and get the damn things in the air," Nayar barked.

"Yes, Sir."

More than a few of the crew had been vented out into space through the efforts to extinguish the spread of the fires. Those who had their gear on, would be floating out there waiting to be recovered.

____

Back down in the med bay, the administrative aide that had been left juggling the handset called out for the Major.

"We're a go on the cargo area. They're sending a detachment of marines down to help." There was a pause before the aide added an update on the Ambassador. "The Ambassador is on her way as well, they say she's injured."

Slowly but surely, a semblance of order was beginning to emerge from the chaos. Unfortunately the information on the state of the Ambassador was sparse enough that it could be anything from a minor scratch, to something more critical; though, given the physical frailty of the Matriarch's niece, it was oft best to air on the side of caution where the young avorian woman was concerned.
 
as written by VPRK

The word of the Ambassador's need of medical care was a cause for concern, but selfishly Batra was more relieved that they were back in communication with the bridge and that they could start restoring things to some semblance of normal with a makeshift recovery bay and the extra hands on their way to the Med Bay.

"Very good. Anyone who isn't in danger of going critical or can walk themselves to the bay needs to transfer over. I'd like to have my Med Bay back in shape within the next thirty minutes."

"Doctor, we think we've got enough power to handle the surgery if you want to attempt it now."

"Very well, let's go in. If we don't try it now, he'll die anyway."

The Marine Lt. Yee carried in was unconcious, but the schrapnel had to be removed and the internal damage repairs, or at least the bleeding stopped. There was still no better than a one in three chance that the man would survive, but if they had enough power to attempt it, there was really no other choice.

Batra began to gather her supplies with one last visual sweep on the Med Bay. Aides were beginning to divide and separate those that would stay and those that would be transferred to the spillover ward. Content for the time being, she issued her last directive to the aide.

"Alert me immediately when the Ambassador arrives. Give her Trauma Two, she'll need some privacy."
 
as written by RoxyRose

Takshak, though he trailed behind the Ira and Arjuna through the hatch door, was first to notice the medical staff member wave an arm their way. "There she is!" He spoke to the other two, and made the distance in less than four steps. Takshak had a bad habit of using his flying ability is every occasion, it would unnerve quite a few people when he did it indoors.

"My Lady!" the avorian, kneeled to her side, stepping into the space that had been taken by the med tech, "You're alive, thank goodness." He looked up to Najiv, and nodded his head in gratitude, apparent that he had seen to her safety during their time detour to her aide.

Around his neck, he had tied a bandanna. It would appear that the Ambassador's wound was not serious, as the woman had stated, but was still flowing with blood. "I'm going to tie this around your head, ma'am, to stop the bleeding, while we get you to the med bay." Though it was phrased as a statement, he was seeking permission, still.
 
as written by Sokka

Kim had taken up residence in one of the Corners of the Med bay. She was pointing at supplies which needed to be moved. "All of this gear needs to get down to the Cargo bay on the double!" Kim said over a head set. She had just changed into a fresh uniform though she still looked like she had gone through hell. A small pistol was holstered at her hip.

"Yee to Rhino squad, report on your sweep." Kim said through her headset.

"All clear no signs of any hostiles so far but large areas of the ship are unreachable and cannot be checked." A soldier stated over the comm.

"Alright I don't think we've been boarded, Command wants us to focus on medical support. I want you to find me a clear path to the cargo bay from the medbay." Kim stated. "Once there assist in the set up and assist in emergency treatment." Kim said.

Great Kim thought to herself. Kim looked up as she overheard that the Ambassador was on her way to the medbay. Kim nodded slightly that couldn't be a good sign. Walking over she approached Batra.

"Alright I've got Marines setting up the cargo bay and moving supplies. Many of them have basic medical training so they are at your disposal along. The field medics are out locating wounded. Is there anything else you need Major?" Kim asked.
 
as written by Script

Ira hurried over to Jaya's side, crouching down beside Takshak. "Jaya, are you alright?" he asked. The use of the Ambassador's forename might not have been strictly appropriate from a guardsman, but given that the two were also cousins, the formality frequently slipped Ira's mind. He offered her a comforting friendly smile, "You ought to take better care of that head of yours, cuz, or all your wiles will start to fall out." he teased.

He waited for Takshak to finish fastening the bandana, then moved in to support the young ambassador's weight. "If you think you can manage, I'm going to help you to your feet, alright?" he said, "Then we'll get you down to the medbay."
 
as written by VPRK

Surgery on a flight deck, or the Med Bay of a Volarian capital ship during an unprecedented emergency, was little like the controlled environment of a civilian hospital back on Terra. Rather than a carefully-made and fully-informed decision made by a patient and their loved ones with the long-range thoughts of quality of life, the decisions were made in split seconds by medical personnel with little consultation of anyone other than their own judgment of what would save a patient's life. Quality of life after did not factor into the decision. You preserved life.

Batra worked quickly with one assistant on the impaled Marine. Luckily, the shrapnel had not splintered further and looked to be easily removed. The issue, of course, would be stopping the bleeding and allowing the body an opportunity to heal over time, assuming that the damage to the internal organs was not exactingly lethal already. There was also post-operation infection to consider, couple with the numerous burn victims already crowding the Bay. All would result in difficult decisions she would have to clear with the Commander, but for now it was the life of the Marine and little else in her mind.

She worked quickly, with ruthless and calculating efficiency. The blood supples on board were stocked well, and thankfully the Marine was a common type and there was more that enough to supplement the lost quantities while they operated. The shrapnel had missed most of the major organs, although the idea that the Marine would ever serve again in the field was highly doubtful. Better a living desk jockey than a dead rifleman, Batra warranted.

With the most difficult of the procedure complete and the patient stablized, at least for now until they waited to see if the body's natural clotting agents would be able to handle the internal damage, Batra stepped out of the secure surgery pod. A surgical head cover wrapped over her dark hair, the major puling down the matching mask from her face as the Marine lieutenant approached her again with a new situation report.

"No, you've done more than enough, Lieutenant. You have my thanks, this isn't the most glorious assignment for someone take up," she said, breathing a sigh of exhaustion as she allowed her body to slightly come down from the tension high of precision surgery.

"Your friend is stable, for now. I honestly can't tell you if he's going to pull through or not. Some things are better left in higher hands than ours. We've done everything that we can." She offered the condolensces as if the man were already dead.

"So many wounded," Batra said, leaning back against the supply counter with another sigh, wiping her brow with a sleeved forearm. "I wish I could tell the Commander our strength and the possibilty of getting enough crewman for operation, but I don't even know enough about our assignment to make an educated guess. Still no word on the Ambassador?"
 
as written by Ranger

Arjuna had hurried over with Ira, but thought it better to stay out of the way. He didn't want to crowd her anymore than she already was.
 
as written by Knosis

Jaya blinked, seemingly dazed at everyone who came up to her. Every new face, every thought and every sound brought an agonizingly sharp throb to where the blood trickled down from her head. Did they not understand that they were causing her pain? "Yes, go ahead." She said to Takshak. "A moment, please, Ira.." She whispered.

Her head dipped slightly, and the color drained from her face as she felt faint. Her eyes drooped closed and she focused on taking in slow deep breathes to try to level herself again. Oh how she wished she could fall asleep like this, forget about the worries for now. Exhaustion suddenly washed over her, and it took all she had to pry her eyes back open and realize they were waiting for her still. She had always been abnormally frail, even for an Avorian.

"I think I can manage now.."
 
as written by Architect

In. Out. In. Out.

The only sound he could hear inside of his helmet was the sound of his own breathing. Amrit tried his best to ignore it, but it was nearly impossible. It was a terrifying sound, and he suspected he was one of the few who felt that way. He didnt run into many people who understood what it was like to be scared of your own breathing.

Floating in the nothingness of space made you afraid of a lot of different things. His very life was being threatened by forces that were completely invisible. He was not afraid of some monster or another human being, but the laws of natures. Physics. Many things were drilled into his head during EVA training, but one of those that stuck with him the most, was the possibility of being thrown into space, doomed to float helplessly until his oxygen tanks ran dry.

It was a scary death to imagine. As such Amrit found he had an intense dislike for floating. He ached to activate the maneuvering jets mounted on his shoulders, but he knew it would be wiser to conserve them as much as he could. Staring ahead, he estimated it would be another eighty seconds until he would reach the debris on the other side of the metaphorical chasm.

He took this time to turn his head and look around, surveying the damage to the ship and it's surroundings. He could see bits of metal and ship guts floating through space alongside the ship. When he peered still further, he could make out humanoid silhouettes, a sight that made his blood run cold.

When his hands met with the metal that had been waiting for him, Amrit felt a small amount of relief. For him, the worst was over. He turned to look back at the damage once more. From where he was, he could only come up with a guess as to what caused such damage. Something had caused major power cells to become unstable, the resulting explosion had left a huge wound in Engineering...

Unnervingly close to the FTL.
 
as written by Tiko

Picking their way through the floating bits of wreckage and bodies were an array of shuttles and small recon ships searching for survivors - however few there might be.

Among those searching where junior pilot Tara Rivedi, and her ECO, Lieutenant Rohtak Kapoor.

The shuttle wasn't particularly large, designed to seat a pilot and an ECO or co-pilot, with room for light cargo, or a few passengers, but it would serve to ferry survivors back aboard the Rising Sun.

Tara edged the small shuttle through the bits of broken debris with practiced hands, but every so often their vessel was jostled as they where struck by pieces of twisted medal that floated around them.

"Damn it, Tara. Where the blazes did you learn to fly?" Rohtak grumbled from the back of the shuttle as he was jostled again.

"Do you want to get up here and fly this thing?" Tara bit back. "No? Then shut up and hold onto something," she muttered as she threaded her way past a rather large hunk of the ship's hull that had broken free.

They missed a collision by scant centimeters as it glided past, but they where through the worst of it. As the debris drifted further from the ship it was fanning out and making it easier to navigate through.

"Hey, I think I see someone," Tara called back to Rohtak who moved up towards the front of the shuttle to get a look.

There holding onto the broken hull fragment was a man in an EVA suit, and their spot light came to focus on him.

"Good job," he told her as he clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Pull up along side there, I'm going to depressurize us so we can bring him in," he told her as he moved towards the back of the shuttle.

She moved carefully to bring the shuttle up alongside the hull fragment and a moment later Rohtak opened the shuttle side-hatch, gesturing for Amrit to take his outstretched hand.
 
as written by Script

Ira nodded quickly, and put his arm around Jaya, supporting her weight as he helped her to her feet. "We'll take it nice and slow for you." he said with a reassuring smile as they started for the door of the bridge. With any luck, the ship would stop falling apart around them and the route to the medbay would be clear. He assumed that if it hadn't been initially, by now it would be, since people would've been making their way there since the hit.

The hit from what, though? He still didn't know that. But Jaya's safety was more important than figuring that out. Someone in medical would probably know.

Thankfully, the trip down didn't take long. Like he'd predicted, the way had been cleared by response teams as a priority so that the injured could be readily taken there, and most of the route was undamaged due to its location in the ship. Ira grimaced as they entered the chaos of the medbay - it was clear it was overstretched - and looked around for the person in charge.

"The ambassador needs assistance!" he called out.
 
as written by Architect

Amrit's hands met metal and he breathed a loud sigh of relief.

The worst part was over.

Now he just had to find a way inside. He thought about heading to the docking bays, or maybe a life boat hatch. But before he could think too far into a plan, Amrit was blinded when a bright light was shined on him. He brought a hand over his helmet's visor instinctively, and peered out into the space. Much to his relief a ship had spotted him.

Well, that went a lot better than I thought. He thought to himself as he waved his hand at his rescuers.

When the ship pulled up alongside and opened a hatch, Amrit wasted no time in pushing off of the debris he clung to. He triggered one of the jets in the suit and nearly barreled through the guy standing in his way and into the ship.
 
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