"We're entering the atmosphere now, sir." One of the officers said.
"Good, good." Captain Grassé said. "Take us as close as you can, we can't afford any loss in accuracy to distance."
"Yes, sir."
"Lieutenant, status on the Pelicans?" Grassé asked.
Dr. Hewlett quickly nudged Cortana with her elbow.
"They're a few thousand feet above UNSC-11 and closing, sir." Cortana said, mildly confused, before remembering that she was in a Lieutenant uniform. She knew that if she was still an actual construct she wouldn't have forgotten this. She was quickly realizing what it meant to be 'only human.'
"Good. Gunners, stand by." Grassé continued. "I need a map on screen, now."
Cortana pressed a few buttons to transmit all the information on her screens to the Captain's, and she heard the Officer on the terminal on the other side of the Bridge do the same.
There were multiple Flood life signs all over the surface of the base, not allowing for any visible landing zone for the Pelicans. The plans of the installation showed multiple anti-air turrets, and the scanners indicated that most of them were still operational.
Grassé noticed this the moment the information hit his screen. "Open fire on the turrets closest to the Pelicans and work your way out." He ordered.
Suddenly, the scanners indicated that one of the Pelicans had taken damage.
"One of the Pelicans has taken a hit, sir!" The other radar Officer said. "It's taken… both of them, sir, both of them have been hit!"
John!! Cortana's mind raced.
"Keep firing on the turrets, there's nothing else we can do from up here." Grassé ordered, watching the radar blips that represented turrets disappear one by one.
"Both of them have spun out, they're going to crash!" Cortana exclaimed.
"Plot where they're going to hit and put it on screen!" Grassé replied.
Cortana hastily did that, hearing the other Officer begin to do so a second sooner and finish several seconds faster. Only one of them actually had to do it, but both radar Officers were expected to do it to help eliminate the possibility that one of the terminals or scanners were somehow defective and giving faulty information.
Cortana was visibly strained already, a mix of having to think back on how to do what she was asked, and being unable to think of anything but John.
"Calm down, you can do this." Dr. Hewlett whispered.
Cortana just wiped her forehead in response, having trouble thinking clearly. All she had to do was watch over John like she had done a hundred times before and she was failing miserably.
"Change target to the estimated crash zones." Grassé ordered. "Avoid destroying structures as best you can, they'll need cover once they land."
"Both Pelicans have hit, sir!" The Officer said.
"Life signs?" Grassé asked.
"Only five remain in either one, sir." Cortana blurted.
"The Chief?" Grassé asked.
"Can't distinguish between him and anyone else from this range, sir." The other Officer replied.
Cortana buried her face in her hands, her mind racing. If there were ten Marines per Pelican and now five were dead in each, it was a coin toss if John was alive or not. Wait, no, there was also a pilot to each Pelican, so if there were only five life signs per, that meant that 12 of the 22 were dead. That meant a…
Cortana grew even more worried and frustrated with herself that she couldn't figure out the odds that John was alive in her head. If she was still a construct she could have computed it instantly! Cortana was only vaguely aware of Dr. Hewlett nudging her again.
"Sir, I'm picking up a massive energy spike!" The other Officer yelled.
"The installation's shields?" Grassé asked.
Cortana glanced at her screens and realized right away what it was.
"Negative, sir, its 11's MAC gun!" She exclaimed.
"What? How could the Flood have figured out how to work that??" Grassé demanded.
They of course knew from the plans of UNSC-11 that it had a MAC gun for anti-air defense, but the Flood had never figured out how to use them so nobody expected it. One thing was painfully certain though, and that was that a round from a MAC would slice through the Flapjack like butter.
"We're being targeted, sir!" The other Officer yelled out.
"Concentrate all fire on the MAC gun!" Grassé ordered. "How long until it's charged to fire?"
"It's already at 95; they must have put the installation's defenses on standby before we got here!" The other Officer said.
"My god…" Grassé said, before activating the ship's communications channel. "…brace for impact!"
Cortana grabbed hold of her console. "Go strap yourself in!" She yelled to Dr. Hewlett and pointed out into the hallway. Hewlett nodded and ran out.
"How long until-" Grassé began.
The Flapjack suddenly shook violently, and a deafening blast was heard only for a second before nothing could be heard at all. Cortana's head slammed hard into the radar terminal, and then she fell off the chair, bounced off the ground, and rolled across the floor. The red alarms flashed, doing nothing but add to the disorientation everyone was experiencing.
After a few seconds Cortana's hearing returned. She was face down on the floor, and in front of her she could see a splash of fresh blood. Her head was pounding, and it seemed hard to move at all.
Everyone slowly dragged themselves to their terminals.
"Status report!" Grassé demanded.
"We've lost everything behind the Third Parallel, sir; we've literally been sliced in half!" An officer yelled.
There were three imaginary divisions in the ship, called Parallels, so divide the ship into quarters.
"Emergency seals have already activated."
"We've lost all weapons and we're running on 30 power, not that it'll do any good since we just had our engines sliced off!" Another officer yelled.
"The MAC has begun to recharge!" The other radar Officer added.
Grassé wiped his brow. Everyone was staring at him, waiting to give the order they already knew was coming.
"...abandon ship." Grassé slowly said.
Immediately everyone jumped from their terminals and ran down the hallway. Cortana did her best to keep up, but she was getting increasingly dizzy.
"All hands, abandon ship. Repeat, abandon ship!" Grassé called through the comm. channels.
"Holy hell Cortana!" Dr. Hewlett yelled over the alarms once she saw Cortana.
"What?!" Cortana yelled in confusion.
"You… never mind, come on!" Hewlett replied.
Cortana and Dr. Hewlett ran down the halls towards the escape pods, alongside a growing number of other deckhands.
Cortana wasn't thinking of John at this point. She wasn't thinking of anything that could be expressed in words. The fact that she was dizzy and in severe pain all over was barely registering. All she could think of was getting to an escape pod. And yet, in the back of her mind, she knew that if she was a construct she would still be formulating complete and logical thoughts.
Cortana and Dr. Hewlett got to the escape pods and crammed into the nearest one. It quickly filled with other deckhands, filling all the seats in just a few seconds.
The last officer in slammed the door behind him. "GO!!" He screamed at the pilot. There was a brief hiss as the chamber pressurized and life-support kicked in, and the escape pod exploded out of the Flapjack and into the very edges of Earth's atmosphere.
"Jesus Cortana!" Hewlett said, wiping Cortana's forehead with a cloth she retrieved from her pocket. Cortana had no idea what Hewlett was doing until she noticed that the cloth was quickly coated in blood. When she hit the radar terminal she must have cut herself on the screen.
The pilot of the escape pod quietly cursed to herself over and over. They had escaped death in the Flapjack but were flying straight for another, for the only possible crash site in range was right there on UNSC-11. They were about to land in the middle of a Flood infestation.
