Major Robert Sawyer carefully made his way through the wrecked corridor of the
Lee's Vengeance.
Everything on this mission had started right, with getting the correct requisitions, the right personnel, and enough firepower to take the Abandoned Frontier without issue! How it had all gone so horribly wrong was beyond the man, but he had several culprits with whom he could lay the blame on.
While it was all well and good to be able to assign blame on those who were both culpable and convenient, he had to get out of there first! The man knew that taking any of the elevators on this ship was suicide, so he'd have to navigate his way to one of the hangars on foot. It wasn't ideal, but it was the only option he had available to him.
The major continued walking, making sure to step carefully, as he didn't know what was solid and what was not. He made his way down, opening a few emergency hatches for lower decks as he moved. Robert was halfway to his destination when he turned a corner and was facing the barrel of a gun.
"Hold it right there!" the soldier growled.
"Bains, put that weapon down! He's one of ours!" a feminine voice snapped, making the soldier jolt before he lowered his weapon.
"Apologies, sir! I'm just a little jumpy," the soldier apologized.
"Accepted, this time. Don't do something that stupid again," Sawyer drawled.
His tone made it clear he was too tired to even try dressing down the man. The soldier breathed a sigh of relief as he turned and regarded the woman who stood with the soldier. She was one of the officers who was down with him in the base on Prodosia! He smiled at her, grateful that she was there, or he might be a smoking corpse at that moment.
"Name and rank, now," Sawyer demanded of the pair.
"Byrons, Amanda T., Lieutenant," she replied crisply.
"Bains, Roger F., Sergeant," the soldier told him.
"Well, Byrons, what exactly are you two doing down here?" Sawyer questioned.
"Trying to find a way out, sir, same as you! We're also searching for any survivors, hoping that we can get them to one of the hangar bays," she replied.
"Forget searching for any survivors. We need to get off this ship and we need to do it now! If any survivors have complete control of their faculties, then they can join us. If they don't, then they will slow us down and could compromise our escape. I won't have any dead weight preventing us from getting back home," Sawyer stated bluntly.
Byrons was a little taken aback, but she nodded, as she didn't want to chance invoking Sawyer's ire. She had heard stories of how ruthless he could be, but the woman didn't believe them. The lieutenant had thought of them as hearsay and bullshit concocted by those jealous of everything Sawyer had achieved. Now, she was seeing that maybe there was some truth to those rumors after all.
Sawyer then gestured to Bains, indicating that he should take point. Nodding grudgingly, Bains hefted his weapon and stepped into the lead, with Sawyer and Byrons following behind. They moved along through the corridors, making sure that they were clear and intact before proceeding.
As they walked through the wreckage, they encountered a few more survivors from the aftermath of the battle. A few were hale enough to move on their own two feet, but half of the survivors they found couldn't. Per Sawyer's orders, they were left behind, as the man was adamant that these people would only slow them down. A few tried protesting against this, but quickly found themselves staring down the business end of the major's weapon.
Not wanting to join the dead in their eternal rest, those who protested quickly clammed up and moved along. It took them a while, but the group, which now numbered just under a dozen, finally found an intact hangar. Out of all five hangars that were on the
Lee's Vengeance,
only hangar three remained somewhat operational. As they arrived, they saw they weren't the only ones planning themselves an escape.
Inside the hangar, an entire cadre of engineers bustled about, performing every check possible on the frigate that was docked there. Sawyer smiled at this, happy to see that the soldiers of the Confederacy weren't slacking on the job. He stepped forward, startling the men and women there. Then they relaxed, happy to see that Sawyer had survived.
"Major Sawyer! Glad to see that the detonation didn't claim you, sir!" the lead engineer said, as he stepped up and saluted the man.
"It'll take more than one simple explosion to end me! How's the frigate looking?" Sawyer questioned, looking the ship over.
"It's still in one piece, miraculously! Everything still functions, just not at peak capacity," the man stated.
"Very good! We about ready to get underway?" Sawyer asked.
"A few more checks and we should be ready to go! Hop aboard and we'll get ready for launch!" the man enthused.
"We are not launching this ship in the traditional manner," Sawyer stated seriously.
"But sir, we'll need to if we're to get clear of the ship!" the engineer told him.
"Negative! We'll have to do an atmospheric vacc launch so we don't get ourselves blown to bits! The ship that eviscerated the
Lee's Vengeance
is still out there! What do you think they'll do if they see us on their holos all of a sudden?" Sawyer asked brusquely.
The engineer paled a little, having lived through the disaster that was the ship they were on. If that ship was still out there, ready to pounce on them... the man shuddered at the thought. He saw the major's point and nodded in agreement.
"Yes, sir! I can rig up a control module that we can activate to drop the containment field and launch us out of here," the engineer said.
"Get on it! The sooner we're out of here, the better!" Sawyer ordered, as he and the surviving officers climbed aboard the frigate, each one of them manning a station inside the ship. Half of the engineers hustled, doing everything they could to get the device ready. The other half slipped inside the ship, getting to their positions for when they were ready to turn the power and the engines on.
"How much longer?" Sawyer questioned, as patience wasn't his strong suit when the chance of being apprehended was hanging over him.
"It should be ready just... now!" the lead engineer told the man.
"Good! Now get in here, unless you want to be left behind!" Sawyer told him.
"But sir, what about them?" one of the other engineers asked, gesturing to the remaining personnel who were wounded but alive on the hangar floor.
"What about them?" Sawyer asked in a snarky tone.
"Shouldn't we bring them aboard and try to..." the engineer started before he was cut off.
"Only those who can stand on their own two feet can come with us. Everyone else is being left behind. Besides, we can't have any witnesses to tell of our passing," Sawyer told him rather coldly.
"But sir, this is wrong!" the engineer protested.
"If you think so, then go and join them," the major said calmly before shooting the man in his knees, finishing it up with a gut shot. The man screamed in pain as he collapsed, surprised at the sudden turn of events.
"Throw him off this ship and let's be ready to get under way," Sawyer said coldly.
Gulping, a couple of engineers and officers picked up the man and took him to the airlock. While what they were doing was wrong, they were all acting in a manner of self-preservation. If the major did something this cruel to someone who protested against his orders and actions, they didn't want to know what the consequences would be for direct disobedience.
Once they arrived at the airlock, the officers stepped away and headed back to the bridge, as there was no room for them. The engineers holding him whispered something in his ear, then threw him bodily away from the ship. The door shut behind them as the man fell to the ground with a grunt of pain.
"How long before the device is ready to activate?" Sawyer questioned as he stared at the lead engineer.
"It has to charge the circuits! Two minutes, sir! Not a second more!" the man replied a bit fearfully.
"You had better be right about this!" Sawyer growled, not liking that they were being held up like this. He then started a timer to see if the engineer was being truthful. If he was, he'd spare him, as the man was only trying to do his job. If not... well, he knew who he'd have to watch if anyone started dissenting against his orders.
******************************
The engineer who was thrown out, Dravek by name, inched his way towards the doorway that would lead to the corridor outside the hangar. He didn't know how long he had, but he knew he had to get there soon! The men had whispered to him that the device the lead engineer had put together needed some time to warm up and charge the circuits. But that time was limited to two, two and a half minutes at most.
Not one for wasting time, the man continued to crawl and reach for the doorway, hoping he'd make it in time! He was nearly there, just a few meters away, when he could sense the change in the atmospheric pressure. The field was about to collapse and suck him and the remaining engineers out into space and to their deaths!
Just then, a figure hobbled through the door, taking in the scene, and looking down at Dravek. It was a woman, an officer going by her dress and insignia, and she stared at the ship hopefully. He grunted as he moved, catching the woman's attention, and she stared down at him.
"What the hell happened to you?" she asked, her low alto voice sounding like music to her ears.
"Sawyer! Get out! They're doing... a vacc launch!" he warned, trying to ward her back through the door.
"Shit!" she yelped and almost turned to leave. The woman stared down at him, then cursed under her breath and bent over, grabbing him by the arms.
"Leave me! Save yourself!" he moaned.
