The hangar was quiet, the engines ran smooth, and the guns ran cold. But the fires burned hot.
Raven opened her eyes and stared around her modest bedroom. Trying not to wake the sleeping figure beside her, she quietly got out of bed and put on her uniform.
"You know you can't sneak out," her girlfriend, Shatiil, said.
"One of these days, I will," Raven replied.
Shatiil just shook her head and laughed. "Come on, let's get to the bridge, see what trouble's going on now."
As Shatiil rose, Raven once again looked at her girlfriend's fine figure, much like Raven's own body. Raven stood above Shatiil, with Shatiil being 1.6 meters tall, and Raven being at 1.7 meters.
They were both slim, and slightly muscular. Shatiil had a slim, curvy face framed by light brown hair, usually pulled back in a French braid. She also had jade green eyes, Raven's favorite color.
"I think you're appreciating me a little too much," Shatiil teased.
"What can i say? Im a lucky girl."
The pair walked routinely to the elevator, waiting for it to open.
The doors opened to reveal the other 4 major members of the bridge crew. Shatiil and Raven stepped in, and the elevator continued up towards the bridge, where they would arrive half an hour before their underlings.
Immediately upon the doors opening, she was greeted by the Night crew.
"Captain, auxiliary reactor 2 has failed, the flames are spreading through sectors a10 through g19. there is no external damage, but the main reactor is in severe danger."
"Thank you. Dismissed commander. Gastille, shut down the reactor now! John, full alert! Kay, Jewel, secure all munitions and lock down the guns. Shatiil, put out a distress signal.
Everybody rushed to their stations to try to reverse the catastrophe. Their fingers flew over holo-displays and pressed buttons.
"The fire is going to spread to the fuel silos. Gastille yelled.
"Im calling it. Abandon ship, Shatiil, go. I'll put out the SOS signal, you put out the AS order.
"All hands, abandon ship! I repeat: All hands, abandon ship!" Came Shatiil's voice over the intercomms.
The crew scrambled towards the turbolift heading to the escape pods, but at that moment, the volatile hypermatter fuel escaped containment and the ship exploded.
As the hunks of the ship fell to the planet's surface, they burned. And they burned bright.
The 6 people in the bridge were thrashed around, then thrown when gravity systems failed.
The crew fumbled to grab onto something to brace themselves, and the blast doors closed. But the blast doors could not keep out the horrible screaming and wailing of tearing metal.
Then it all stopped. All except the crew.
The bridge snapped open with a horrifying shredding sound and the bottom half of the wreck was crushed.
Shatiil was rammed into the navigation console.
John, the security officer, ended up laying in the primary tactical section.
Kay, the primary tactical officer, was slammed into a collapsed beam, having a half meter of rebar driven through her chest.
Jewel, the secondary tactical officer, had flown out of the shredded bridge.
Gastille had followed Jewel to her death.
Raven had ended up laying with her legs hanging into the primary tactical section, battered and broken but alive.
When Raven first came around, she dragged herself to Shatiil, tears streaking her face and dread plaguing her mind.
When she looked at her girlfriend, she looked away, horrified at the long gash running from shoulder to shoulder. Shatiil's uniform was coated in her own blood.
In her adrenaline-aided stupor, Raven stood and stumbled over to the medkit recessed in the wall. Returning, she collapsed next to Shatiil and opened the medkit.
"Captain, don't. lay down, I'll take care of you. Both of you, i should say. now lay down, and rest." John said as he limped over.
And with John watching over them, Raven submitted to the agony, and fell into the blackness of sleep.
Raven woke to dim light, in the early morning, and had to wait a few minutes for her eyes to clear. When they did, she wished she hadn't woken up.
What she saw was a nightmare. The front of the bridge was gone, and Shatiil's leg was bent in an odd way. Then she saw Kay.
Kay had been impaled on a length of rebar sticking out of a collapsed support. Dry blood coated the floor underneath her, and crusted upon her uniform.
Raven heaved, and curled up into the fetal position. Soon, she gave in to the shock and fell asleep.
When Raven was next woken up, ot was the middle of the night. There were scratching noises coming from the turbolift shaft, and grunts. Raven didn't have time to look for a weapon before a clone commander appeared at the entrance.
The commander turned to help another into the bridge, who did the same for the person behind him.
"hello? Is anyone alive? you, check them, you, see if there are any spare supplies." the commander said.
"these two are alive!" One of the clones said, pointing to John and Shatiil.
Raven reached out to the commander, trying to stand up to greet him.
"I found another one alive!" called the commander. "Im commander Ruiz, and i assume you're captain? Well, we're here to help you."
"Commander, you don't know how thankful we are for-" john started.
"Hold your banthas, sit down and slim yourself nice and calm. tell me what you need done, and we'll help."
"Shelter, food, water, everything. and a way to free her without killing her." John said, pointing at kay.
"She's alive?! By scott, she's a lucky one isn't she? No offense but, simply put, she should be dead!"
"Commander, could... you help us? I think i broke my left arm." Raven croaked.
"Yes captain, commander Ruiz at your disposal. Greaser, check her, and Lotto check to see if we can get her out of here." Ruiz ordered.
The clones went about their tasks as Ruiz tended to Raven's wounds.
Ruiz went about feeling around Raven's body, feeling for broken bones. He found two broken ribs and a sprained ankle, and confirmed that she had indeed broken her left arm.
Ruiz got up and started talking with john and the two troopers. Raven didn't hear anything, but she caught grim looks flashing across John's face.
Raven managed to stand up and limp over to the wall where Shatiil lay and sat down next to her head. John noticed, excused himself, and sat down with Raven.
"Want a status report captain?" John asked.
"John... always a man of protocol. But anyways, go ahead, hit me with it.
"Well, the ship is broken cap." John joked dryly.
"But really, we're in trouble here. Ruiz is having supplies brought up here from a camp outside, but we're gonna run dry in a few days. Shatiil is heavily injured, and let's not talk about Kay." John reported.
"How are we looking? You and Shatiil i mean, how are you two doing?" Raven asked.
"I'm mostly alright, got a broken rib and a concussion, but Shatiil got it bad. She got that laceration across her breastbone, and broke her right collarbone, fractured the other one. broke 4 ribs, her right ankle, and shattered her right femur. She also got severe whiplash and is heavily unconscious."
Raven felt dread run down her spine, and asked the question weighing her down.
"Will Kay survive?" Raven asked shakily.
"huuuhhh... well, she's alive so far, the rebar missed her vital arteries and organs, but im afraid that if she moves the rebar might puncture something. She might get an infection, and that would be lethal. She could survive weeks laying there if we took care of her, but moving her? Ask a doctor." John said, his temper flaring.
Poor john, Raven thought. He's been looking out for 3 injured people without sleeping, he's devoted if anything.
"John, go to sleep. that's an order, you need it."
"Yes captain," John said, falling asleep quickly. "Thanks Rave." he mumbled as he drifted off.
Raven looked after her charges, and eventually Ruiz relieved her of watch duty so she could aslo sleep.
When it turned dark, the group of clones had hoisted up a large crate of supplies. This crate included: rations, water bottles, and extensive medical supplies.
"Captain, Captain wake up." Ruiz said, shaking Raven awake.
"Yeah... Yeah what's up Ruiz?" Raven answered, albeit very groggily.
"The supply crate arrived, and that means that i need to put a cast on your arm for now."
"No, i can wait, take care of everyone else first. That's an order."
"Well captain, orders fulfilled. We already did treat everyone else, and John warned me you would say that." Ruiz said, with a hint of regret.
"John how many credits did you just make hmm?" Raven called.
"Fourty!" John said happily.
Raven sighed and silently offered her arm for Ruiz to treat. As he carefully wrapped the bandages around her arm, Raven looked at Shatiil.
Her entire torso was covered in a body brace. Her right leg was also in a cast and her head was draped with a cryogel-pack. Then Raven looked past Shatiil.
Kay was laying on the floor, the rebar still impaled through her chest. Her arms were wrapped in casts and she was covered in small patches of bandages.
"Captain, this may hurt. try not to move." Ruiz suggested.
Ruiz applied a static charge to the bandages, and they shrank, heated up, and melted their adhesive coating. The charge stopped, and the adhesive quickly solidified, locking the fabric tightly in place.
Raven only grunted, and after a minute of getting used to it, she directed her attention to Ruiz.
"How did you get Kay out?" Raven inquired.
"Ask john, i wasn't here for that," he said quietly. "John! Get over here."
"what's up?" John asked as he walked up.
"Tell her about Kay." Ruiz said.
"Ah, from the beginning then. Supplies came with a plasma saw, just for Kay. The two clones held the rebar to prevent it from moving at all, and i cut it. Ruiz went to the camp to do something, lucky him, because he's actually a little squeamish." John said with a light chuckle.
"Really? I'll have to tell his company about that. Publicly. in front of Ruiz." Raven said, with a mischevious smile.
"Oh, you might want this too," John said, handing her an auto-zipline. "we're leaving for the camp in the morning, which is in about 5 hours, so get some sleep if you can."
"Alright, sounds fun. Real fun..." Raven said, dreading using her one good arm to slide down the elevator cables.
Raven leaned back against the wall again and closed her eyes. As she drifted off to sleep, she lost herself in her thoughts, and eventually fell asleep.