Chapter 23: Escape plan

"I don't care who you are or where you're from, I just want to know the situation of the rest of the station," Sarah, a woman in the room, asked as Owen entered. He found himself surrounded by computers, all facing away from a large screen displaying a detailed map of Talos 1. The map showed various sections lighting up in green, red, and some completely blacked out, setting off alarms in Owen's mind.

"I see you've noticed our map," Sarah acknowledged, catching Owen's gaze as he studied the massive display behind her. Sensing his curiosity, she elaborated, "It's all the information we've gathered on the Typhon population through the survivors who come here. The green areas mark spots with minimal mimic activity, while red indicates heavily populated zones, ranging from phantoms to technopaths. The black zones represent areas that are completely destroyed."

"If so, I suggest dropping the crew quarters down to green along with Hardware Labs and Psychotronics," Owen suggested, prompting a slight raise of the dark-skinned woman's eyebrow, signaling for him to continue. Owen proceeded to explain his journey with Morgan, tactfully omitting certain details until he reached his current point. Sarah nodded attentively throughout his recounting, then turned around to begin making adjustments to the map. As she worked, large portions of red were replaced with green, marking a significant shift in the Typhon activity data.

"This is good, thanks. It seems we can move forward with our plan," Sarah remarked, turning around to face Owen, who simply shrugged, not dwelling much on his contribution. He continued to converse with Sarah, delving into the grim reality of their situation. The description she provided was beyond grim; many had perished to bring them to this point, and a significant portion of the security forces suffered permanent injuries. As a result, non-combatants such as engineers and scientists were forced into combat roles, highlighting the dire circumstances they faced.

"We could really use your help retrieving the fabrication blueprint for the Eradicator turrets located in a safe in the security office off the lobby," Sarah implored, adjusting the large map to display the layout of the lobby, though Owen was already familiar with the station's layout. He remained silent, allowing her to explain the current predicament they faced: a large contingent of Typhon preventing their departure, adding to their urgent need for the blueprint retrieval.

"What comes after I get the blueprint and you kill off the typhon outside?" Owen asked not wanting to waste his time on a fetch quest wit the alpha on his way and as if seeing this seraph spoke again.

"Simple. We heard the escape pods malfunctioned and didn't launch, meaning if we can get there and secure them, our guys can take their time and fix them," Sarah explained, receiving Owen's approval. However, he posed a quick question that had crossed his mind. "Why not use the massive shuttle?" Owen inquired, eliciting a small laugh from Sarah, who appeared visibly amused by his question.

"Simple. We don't have anyone with piloting skills, and secondly, we need one of our 'golden boys' to be on it for it to work— one of which could be dead after being chased by the weird Typhon, while the other is nowhere to be seen. Knowing his shitty personality, he's more than likely hiding in a hideout with enough toilet paper and food to last until rescue— a place I highly doubt he will risk leaving. And that's not even starting on us trying to find where he is," Sarah explained, her tone a mix of frustration and resignation that owen very much can understand as he quickly agreed to help sarah out as this seemed to be the fastest way off this apex food can.

"But before you go take some of our personnel with you as we cant risk you dying without knowing why." Sarah said as she led owen out of the room and up a gravity shaft and into what looked to be a large conference room which held dozens of people all wearing different color suits and armed with a variety of weapons many of which got wilder as he followed sarah through the crowd.

"Hey tony! Joseph! get over here got a job for you" After not to long sarah seem to to hav e found who she wanted as she yelled them over and as they got owen got a good look at them which if he must say one thing about them they looked grizzled and ragged as if they just got out of a warone something that was not to far from the truth as the two of them were both armed with shotguns showing that they held a proper combat role.

"Hey sarah whats up? are we running low on food again?" Tony asked his blond hair and blue eyes giving off a friendly vibe as he spoke.

"No nothing like that i need you two to head out with out new guy over here to get blueprint" Sarah corrected getting a nod from tony who looked over at owen who gave a small wave as he was left with the two guys by sarah soon after.

"Hope we could get this done quickly and be back within the 2 hours" owen said getting a nod from the two as they quickly got ready to leave

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Think i'm improving as a writer! i found it easy to write up to this point without forcing myself so good sign if i do say so myself!