He watched the battle progress without emotion. He already knew who would be victorious, had known from the moment his sensors had picked up the arrival of both ships. The only question was how much longer the smaller, less protected craft would last. He doubted they would make it more than a few minutes and was proven correct almost exactly three minutes later. With nothing more to see, he turned away from the screen and returned his attention to an elaborate console, refocusing on his work until an alarm blared indicating that the scanners had picked up an object entering the planet's atmosphere. Returning to the sensors, his hands flew over the panel as a small transport was identified on screen. Survivors from the captured vessel no doubt. Frowning, he studied its descent, easily recognizing that it was moving too fast to make a safe landing. Rushing from the room, he ran to the nearest exit, climbing the ladder and releasing the hatch in time to see the vessel fly low overhead, it's bottom catching the tops of trees as it disappeared out of sight.
Darci Kutter bit back a scream as the transport shuddered, the pilot struggling to avoid the dozens of smaller enemy ships still attacking the research vessel that they had just barely escaped from. The transport was cloaked and so far undetected, attempting to gain enough momentum to successfully maneuver into a jump. A bigger problem was that Carl Broach was only an amateur pilot, but of the six people that had made it to the transport before their ship had surrendered to the huge alien vessel firing on them, Carl was the only one with any flight experience.
"Hold on!" he shouted as they launched into the jump that he had managed to prepare for with Argle Francis, the only scientist on board, and currently in the copilots seat looking ready to throw up.
The ship began to shake with such intensity that Darci's teeth knocked together. She was certain they would be ripped apart if it continued, and Carl's panicked face was shiny with perspiration as he desperately tried to steady it. Instead the ship went into a spiral and they emerged prematurely from the jump, reappearing above a small planet located on the other side of the solar system from where the attack was taking place. Carl managed to slow their speed but the damage had been done and he was unable to keep it on track. Alarms were blaring and sparks were flying out of consoles as he desperately tried to maintain a course for the planet.
As the ship hit the atmosphere, Darci closed her eyes against the sight of the earth hurtling toward them. She heard the woman next to her screaming but her own voice was mute from terror. She felt the ship level as Carl maintained some control but even she knew that the landing was going to be much faster than was safe. Opening her eyes, she saw that they were flying low over fields and trees and in a blink Darci was sure she saw buildings. As the nose of the shuttle dipped and the ground rose to meet them, she squeezed her eyes shut and dug her fingers tighter into the arms of her seat.
The first contact came with a bone rattling jolt and the screech of metal hitting stone. They began to break apart, wind, dirt, and rock flying wildly through the gaps in the ship. Darci's last memory before blacking out was the right side of the shuttle disintegrating and the screaming woman next to her suddenly going quiet.
She regained consciousness to the acidic smell of smoke. Moaning, Darci opened her eyes, very much aware of just how much her body hurt. Something wet and sticky was covering most of her face, gluing her eye lashes together, and it took her a moment to realize it was blood. Panicked, she couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from. Her head, like her body, hurt too much to narrow down one specific area of injury. She tried to move her arms, the left one shrieking in protest but the right working although it felt stingy and raw. Using the ripped sleeve of her uniform jacket, she wiped the blood from her eyes and tried to focus on her surroundings.
The transport lay scattered in large pieces but her seat was still secured to the shell of the main compartment. But it was also the only seat still attached in the rear of the shuttle. She remembered the woman beside her - whose name she had never learned - disappearing as the ship initially ripped open. To her left she saw Garrett Dole, a research assistant and coworker, still strapped to his seat but the seat itself ripped loose and on its side. One side of his skull was caved in and his arms and legs were twisted. Darci choked back a scream and tore her eyes away, only to have them settle on the front of the shuttle where Carl was wedged between the shattered control panel and his seat. He was obviously beyond help. As was Argle, who had been thrown from the shuttle upon impact and now lay splattered against a large grouping of rocks that had abruptly halted the ship's momentum.
Darci moaned and fought back nausea as she quickly averted her eyes once again. She gingerly attempted to move her neck. It was sore but didn't appear to be injured. She turned her head and slowly scanned the shuttle but there was no sign of the other man who had been seated with Garrett. She could only assume that he too had been ripped away as they broke into pieces. She was the only one left.
Horror and panic began to overwhelm her and she gulped in deep breaths as her chest tightened. She was alone, injured - possibly seriously - and no one knew where she was. The panic intensified and it suddenly felt as if her harness was strangling her. She desperately jerked at the release, finally feeling it let go as she tumbled to what was left of the floor of the shuttle. Lying there moaning, she was sure that her left arm and possibly a couple of ribs were fractured. After gingerly touching her sticky forehead, she also determined that the blood was coming from a wound to her forehead. Since head wounds were known to bleed profusely, she couldn't tell how serious it was. She didn't know if her legs were injured because the pain was so great that she couldn't get to her feet. Laying on the floor, she began to cry as the desperation took over. A moment later her despair suddenly shifted to anger. There was no way in hell she was going to lie here and die!
"You - are - not - giving - up!" She gasped between dwindling sobs. Remembering the building they had flown over, she set her mind to get there, even as her common sense tried to convince her of the futility of her plan.
She began to crawl toward one of the holes in the side of the shuttle, gritting her teeth against the pain that emanated from what seemed like every part of her body. Her progress was slow but she kept her gaze focused, through the hole, on a single tree that stood approximately twenty yards away. If she could get to that tree then -. Then what? Her brained screamed. You can lean against it and die? There's no help coming!
"Shut - up!" she growled, vaguely aware that she was arguing with herself and noting that this was not exactly the first time she had done that, "The tree...focus on the fucking tree Darci!"
As she reached the hole, Darci thought that she heard an engine but dismissed it as a symptom of her head wound. She had heard Argle tell Carl the planet was no longer inhabited as they broke into its atmosphere. Reaching out with her right hand, she pulled herself out of what was left of the transport, slowly dragging the rest of her body only inches at a time. She was about to reach out again when movement caught her attention and suddenly a pair of black boots appeared in front of her. Certain that she was hallucinating, Darci closed her eyes for a moment then opened them, only to find the boots still there.
"Help -." she croaked, slowly raising her chin, her eyes trailing up black pants - a long black coat - a man's body - and his face.
She screamed, then passed out, her last thought being that she would be dead soon like her companions.