Hux pushes her and Darial backwards, behind himself as the fake Knights of Ren advance. They don't get far, however. Kylo appears around the corner of the hallway, approaching from in back of the blobs. His lightsaber flares to life, reflecting off the black wall panels.
Kylo holds out a hand as he storms forward, and the imposter in the center is ripped off his feet. He's yanked backwards by the force, sliding into the force user's waiting grip. Kylo doesn't even slow his pace forward, driving the red crackling beam into the blob's chest and throwing him aside. The other two charge at him, but they don't stand a chance against the lightsaber.
Soon the hallway is littered with pieces of the blobs, each one breaking down into chunks of goop. The leftover pieces of black clothing smoke slightly, singed from the heat of the lightsaber's blade.
Hux wrinkles his nose at the burnt smell in the air. "Good timing," he admits begrudgingly.
Anika tries to withhold a gag, still not used to the repulsive sight of the aliens' remains. You'd think it would get less disgusting every time ya see it, but nope. Darial isn't faring much better. Her face is noticeably pale, mouth gaping open as she looks ready to vomit.
"Why are you still on the planet?" Kylo demands, his mask moving from Hux to fixate on Anika. "The pods-"
"Have all been used in the nearest station," Hux interrupts smartly. "Hence why we were making our way to-"
He's cut off by another violent quake, a roaring noise quickly growing louder. Anika cringes at the painfully loud vibrations. She's barely able to stay on her feet, stumbling as the ground feels like a boat rocking on an ocean. She covers her ears to the deafening sound, staggering sideways when her balance fails. Kylo catches her, his arm wrapping around her to keep her upright.
There's a ripping noise, similar to how a boulder would sound if it were shredded apart. Anika looks around, fear striking her when she notices the crack in the floor. Further up the hallway, the fissure appears. It tears itself wider, the base's structure groaning around them under the strain. Time to go.
"We need to move," Kylo yells to be heard over the sound of the building fracturing. "Now!"
She hangs onto him as he leads her, stumbling and half running, towards the hangar. Anika looks back, spotting Darial and Hux keeping up with them. Almost there. Almost there! She tries to focus on how close the ships are, even as the ground continues rumbling. This quake is more persistent than the others, the energy clearly reaching a critical point.
There is a chorus of bizarre noises from the building, echoing around them as they rush into the hangar bay. It sounds like everything is falling apart. Kylo pulls her forward, only to come abruptly to a stop a moment later. Despite the rows of shuttles and TIE fighters, there is one vessel conspicuously missing.
"Where the fuck is my ship!?" he shouts in disbelief.
"We don't have time for this, Ren," Hux shouts back. "We'll take my personal shuttle!"
Anika tugs Kylo forward, ignoring the sounds of fury issuing from under his helmet. They follow Hux and Darial towards a shiny, black ship. There's a crashing sound behind them as the doorway to the hangar gives way, the ceiling caving in. Chunks of metal and permacrete collapse in a messy pile, sending dust billowing up into the air.
They pick up the pace, rushing onto Hux's shuttle. Kylo immediately takes over the controls. "I'm going to kill whoever stole my ship," he rants. "They're dead."
Hux gives an exaggerated eye roll behind his back as the engines start up. Darial sits besides Anika, still looking shellshocked. She grabs her friend's hand, trying to give her a reassuring smile. But their liftoff from the shaking floor of the hangar bay is less than smooth, when Kylo has to swerve suddenly to avoid falling permacrete. The ceiling above them is giving out, raining down debris.
"Buckle up!" he orders. Anika quickly snaps her harness into place, double checking that Darial got hers secure. Her friend is trembling, probably from a combination of the cold and nerves.
"It's fine, this is fine," Anika insists. Darial's fingers clamp onto hers, eyes widened with panic. This isn't fucking fine, we're all going to die! "Totally fine!" she repeats loudly, the smile on her face fake enough to probably look delusional. Fine, fine, fine, we are all just FINE. Denial always was one of her talents.
"Watch out!" Hux shrieks suddenly, the ship veering sharply as another massive piece of permacrete falls in front of them.
"I see it," Kylo grinds out.
Anika tries to stop looking out of the viewport, her anxiety getting the best of her. The hangar is breaking apart, probably like the rest of the base. I hope everyone got out okay… How had the blobs been able to sabotage the weapon? How did none of the techs catch it?
"Ren, you're going to fly us right into-"
"I know what I'm doing!"
Hux huffs loudly, hanging onto the back of the copilot's chair. They swerve again, the ship nearly turning vertical. The harnesses keep both her and Darial in their seats, but Hux loses his grip. He struggles to hang on, as the ship slips through the only part of the exit that hasn't been blocked by rubble. When Kylo flips them back into the proper orientation, Hux goes down. Anika mentally records the sight of him falling, to use at a later time when her sense of humor is more functional.
Hux glares from the floor at the back of Kylo's helmet. "Excellent flying," he remarks, voice dripping with disdain.
"As if you could do any better," Kylo retorts harshly.
They even out after clearing the base, beginning the ascent upwards. Kylo is piloting aggressively, pointing their shuttle up at a steep angle. They'll need to clear the atmosphere before they can jump into hyperspace, and they need to do it in a hurry. The tremoring of the planet beneath them is a constant, rumbling threat.
Good news is… The weapon might be salvageable after this, since it's dispersing the energy throughout the planet. Bad news is… Well, the planet wasn't the greatest anyway, right? Hopefully there is even a planet left, after such a catastrophic failure.
Hux picks himself up, settling into the copilot's seat. Anika lets herself sneak a peek towards the front of the ship again, scanning the view. It looks like they're almost clear to jump to hyperspace. Hux gets on the comm system, which sounds like a jumble of transmissions.
"We're going to be okay," Anika says quietly to Darial. Her friend nods, attempting to give her a weak smile.
Kylo punches in coordinates, and there is the telltale sound of the hyperdrive starting up in the rear of the shuttle. But it's quickly followed by a loud, clanging sound. Kylo's mask jerks around, staring back towards the engine room.
No…
"Did you have your shuttle checked after mine was sabotaged?" Kylo asks tersely.
Hux splutters. "Well-Of course, yes! I-I put it on the maintenance priority list-"
"You put it on the list?" Kylo growls. Another clanging sound echoes from the back of the ship, before Anika detects the distinct scent of smoke.
Why would you not make sure your shuttle hasn't been tampered with, you bantha's ass!? Kriff! With all of the sabotage going on, it would only be sensible to double check something like that. Anika feels a renewed urge to slap General Hux.
"Take over piloting," Kylo orders, rising from his seat to turn towards the source of the commotion.
"Ren, I'm hardly qualified," Hux objects.
Kylo ignores him to storm through the ship, and Anika joins him. The door to the engine room slides open to reveal a haze of smoke in the air, tinged with the hint of burning metal. Figures. That just figures. Can nothing go right lately?
He rips his helmet off, tossing it down angrily to reveal hair that is messy with sweat. Kylo kneels by the hyperdrive to examine it. He struggles a moment removing the cover plate, and Anika bites her tongue until he finds the release latch. When it comes loose, a fresh plume of smoke wafts into the air.
"I'm going to exterminate an entire species," Kylo threatens quietly.
Her eyes widen at his furious tone, but she doesn't object. The blobs have made themselves more than a little annoying, what with the multiple times she's nearly died due to their actions. Might actually die here, if they've meddled with the sublight engines too…
She squeezes by him to look at the engines, but realizes there isn't much she can do without a tool kit. "There has to be a repair kit on this ship, right?"
"Should be, unless Hux put that on a list, too," Kylo retorts bitterly. "Do you think you can fix the hyperdrive?"
Anika laughs faintly. Probably not, but what does it hurt to dream? "Um… I doubt it. I'm going to check the sublight engines first, though. If we lose those too, we'll be in real trouble."
"Smart," he concedes. "I'll look for the repair kit."
He disappears from the engine room, and Anika jumps when the hyperdrive starts clanging again. She jerks forward to disable it at the emergency switch, figuring it's better to be safe than sorry. Don't want to explode our ship in the vacuum of space, do we? Though the image of a frozen Hux drifting through the universe, bouncing off of asteroids, is moderately entertaining.
Later
The sub-lightspeed engines are fine, but the hyperdrive is far from it. Anika can tell whoever did the sabotage was less than sophisticated with a wrench. Mostly because they left said wrench inside of the engine.
"I think this is what we heard clanging," she announces, holding up the spanner for Kylo to see. They literally threw a wrench in things. I wonder if blobs understand irony?
"How's it looking?" he asks.
"It's looking like a lot of damage," she says, sighing. She attempts to extricate herself from beneath the engine, straightening. "I don't think I can fix it with what I have available."
His expression is tight with repressed anger, and he nods once. Anika frowns, rolling her shoulders to try to work out the kinks from crawling under the machinery. She wishes there was more she could do to help the situation. Unfortunately, they are stuck in the middle of empty space, without a working hyperdrive.
"Well, at least we're far enough from Starkiller that an explosion won't kill us now," she says, trying to find anything positive in the situation. They've at least avoided imminent death. That's some good news, right?
"That's the only good news," Kylo replies. "A small shuttle like this isn't meant to go far on sublight fuel. We'll run out of gas before we reach the nearest inhabited planet."
Swell. She can't help but remember his earlier threat, to exterminate an entire species. It was sounding more and more like a plan. The blobs had gotten on her last nerve, and if they managed to get out of this, she'd like to personally melt the rest of them into globs of goo. Stupid blobby fucking jerks.
She studies Kylo's face for a moment, noticing that he looks beyond stressed. She sighs, considering their next move. "You said we won't make it to the nearest inhabited planet," she points out. "What about uninhabited?"
He considers that. "We'll have to check sensors to see if any are close enough," Kylo replies. "I know there are some unexplored ones around the base, but I'm not sure if we can make it."
She ignores the way that admission twists her stomach with nerves. It feels like someone's tied a knot inside her belly, her anxiety rising at the claustrophobia of the situation. She really doesn't want to be stuck, floating on a tiny shuttle, with Hux and Kylo bickering nonstop. Where's a med droid with sedatives when you need it?
Kylo heads back out towards the front of the ship, and she trails along behind him. Darial gives her a hopeful look, but she shakes her head slightly. Her friend's face falls.
"Is it fixed?" Hux asks from the copilot's seat.
"No. We don't have what we need," Kylo answers, taking the pilot's seat.
"We'll send a distress signal, then," Hux decides, reaching forward towards the controls. He doesn't make it far, however. Kylo snatches his arm, stopping him.
"Send a distress signal to who?" he demands. "Do you want to advertise the coordinates for two of the top command officers of the First Order?"
"We can direct the signal to the bridge of the Supremacy," Hux protests.
"We have no guarantee their comms officer isn't a blob," Kylo argues harshly. "This shuttle has minimal weaponry. Without a hyperdrive, we're easy targets."
Hux drops his arm with an irritated sigh. "What do you suggest then? We drift in space?"
"The Knights can find us," Kylo points out. "They're headed to the Supremacy to clear evacuees from the base, and then I will bring them to us."
Hux's lip curls in a sneer of contempt. "Ah, of course. You can summon your lackeys with the force. That's such a better plan."
Hux's disdain for the force is clear in his condescending tone. Anika feels her heart race at the anger growing on Kylo's features. Well, this isn't good…
The two men openly glare at each other, having set off each other's temper. Kylo's jaw is locked so tightly that he doesn't even bother replying. The last thing I need is for you two to start fighting like a pair of bull kath hounds. Anika scrambles to defuse the anger between them.
"Did you ever hear that joke about where a pilot parks his spaceship?" she asks, blurting out the first thing that comes to mind.
Hux's eyes narrow with disbelief, his face slowly turning from Kylo to look at her. "Excuse me?"
"A parking meteor," Anika answers, smiling awkwardly. Hux just stares at her, unamused. Great. Corny space jokes, brilliant idea. Nothing eases the tension like someone making an ass out of themselves.
Darial speaks up finally. She still sounds a little shaken as she tries to make a suggestion. "I think we all just need a moment to calm down. Is there a dormitory on this shuttle, Armitage?"
He stands immediately. "Yes. I'll show you."
Anika moves out of his way, sending her friend a grateful look at successfully splitting up the two men. When they've left the main area, she takes Hux's seat up front besides Kylo. He says nothing, bringing up the star map projection between them. Stars, planets, and moons swirl lazily in an orb between their seats.
Kylo studies it silently, enlarging their current sector. She stays quiet too, letting him focus. But that unfortunately leaves her with her thoughts, which are currently full of doubt. Maybe I shouldn't have suggested the plan with the sprinklers. The blobs probably went after the weapon when they saw what we were doing.
She can't help but think this might be her fault. Anika had been certain it was a good plan, but now-
"It was a good plan," Kylo says, interrupting her thoughts. "They would have successfully sabotaged the weapon at some point, regardless of what plan we enacted. They clearly had the access and ability to hide it from diagnostics."
"Oh… Right," Anika agrees lamely.
"Anika?"
She looks up, finding Kylo's gaze fixated on her from the other side of the star map. Through the blue haze of the projection, he looks like his emotions have settled for the time being.
"What?" she asks uncertainly.
"Don't doubt yourself. It wasn't your fault," Kylo reassures her quietly, his eyes holding on to hers.
She gives him a small smile, the strangeness of the situation striking her. At one point not that long ago, she would have been a nervous wreck sitting beside the Commander. Now she's looking at his unmasked face, fighting the sudden urge to reach out for his hand.
The moment passes, however, when Kylo's eyes skip from hers towards the star map, which has rotated to a new angle. He leans forward to adjust it, focusing in on a turquoise planet ahead of their trajectory.
"There," he decides. "We should be able to make it to that world before the engines cut out. We'll wait on the surface for the Knights."
Anika eyes the pretty blue sphere skeptically. "Is there anything in the databases about it?"
He brings up the available information, shaking his head. They can both see the lack of information on the world. The only thing displayed is the coordinates, and a name that consists of numbers and letters randomly assigned to the planet at the edge of wild space.
Anika takes a deep breath, hoping to feel optimistic. It doesn't work. Instead, she has to ignore the bad feeling she has about the planet. We'll just camp out there until the Knights of Ren show up with their big, stinky ship. It'll be fine… Nothing can be worse than Planet of the Mushrooms, right?