17.1: Battle with the Corporates II pt 1

Lusac lifted himself up another level and then scrambled forwards and around several turns to reach the nearest exit to the weapons section of the fsylan network. The forward weapons were situated dead center of the sector, so it was going to take time to get anywhere that wasn't devoid of air. He gulped heavily from the breathing apparatus which held less than three minutes of life support.

Crawling through the tubes burned up a lot more oxygen than sitting at the panel had, meaning those last breaths of air were gone sooner than he anticipated. The mask stopped providing anything breathable by the time he reached the section door leading to Non-Vital Systems, sealed shut from the suppression system.

Blackness started at the edge of his vision as he numbly attempted to unlock the door and get himself back into a proper atmosphere. His fingers struggled to press the buttons in their proper sequence to activate the unsealing mechanism. Lus started to doubt if he'd actually make it as he realized he would have to manually slide the door apart, something he wouldn't have strength for with the last of his oxygen gone.

As his vision tunneled further, the last thing Lus saw was the door sliding open on its own, something that wasn't supposed to happen if the suppression system was active. With his last conscious thought, Lus slid his mask from his mouth as he collapsed forwards. His lungs heaved with the new found air, and slowly the darkness receded from view.

Lusac gasped greedily at the air flowing to him from the rest of the fsylan network which hadn't been shut down by the explosion response. A set of blinking lights warned that he wouldn't have long to make it over there before the doors resealed, and he forced himself to crawl to safety, just past the currently open door.

"You alright, Lus?" Yrqw asked once again in the comm piece.

"Just great," he replied, lying on his back as he waited for his body to fully recover from the near asphyxiation as the sector he just left resealed itself. He started up at the mess of wires running along the ceiling of the tube, grateful to be alive.

"We need the power from secondary gravity too," the Kremel informed him. "Dre-Shawiv is worried we might have to start pulling life support or shields in order to get the rest of the boost."

"On it," Lusac responded as he rolled over and started back through the tubes. As much as he wanted a break, they weren't out of trouble yet. At least he was already in the right section, otherwise he'd have to go all the way around the closed off Weapon's Section which would have taken a lot longer than they had.

The ship lurched, slamming Lus against the wall of the tube as he crawled, and his backpack caught against one of the wall supports. It took even more of their precious time to free it. He attempted to move forward, despite the other jolts, cursing every step. Obviously they'd taken inertial dampers down a few notches to fuel their last push for escape.

Lus arrived at the panel for Secondary Gravity and pulled it open to reveal a jumble of wires and lights.

"This isn't right. Secondary Gravity is pulling way more power than it should," he murmured to himself. He set to shutting the system off and diverting all its energy back to the engines for Becky using the same method as before.

"Done," he informed Yrqw once the task was complete and he was freely floating in the tunnel. It was going to be an awkward journey back to the corridor, but at least it would give his knees a break from crawling.

"Get out of the fsylan network. Dre said we're going to pull life support from the tubes first."

"Will do," Lusac said, eager for an excuse to escape the cramped space that had nearly become his coffin.

"Wait a second. That boost was enough. Where did you get the extra power, Lus?" Yrqw asked.

"It was all in Secondary Gravity," he answered truthfully.

"Unbelievable. Well that's all we can do from our side. Now it's up to Oaty and the weapons crew to get us out of this in one piece. You might as well come watch with the rest of us in Systems Control."

"Right. On my way," he said.

Using the walls, he pushed himself forwards, gliding down the tube. While it should have been easier to navigate this way without the need to crawl, having a backpack on made it a lot harder to manage his movements in the space without getting caught on something. Wires, supports, and panels all tried to get their share of his pack or his uniform, forcing him to go slow and untangle himself every few yards. The ship continued to pitch occasionally, but without gravity, it wasn't as difficult to deal with.

His arm strength was exhausted by the time he reached the door out of the fsylan network, and it was a relief to fall into the corridor, where the familiar tug of gravity resumed its pull on his body. Lus's desire to watch their escape outweighed his desire to rest his aching body. He climbed down from Deck 3 where Non-Vital Systems was all the way back to Deck 8 where Yrqw and the others waited.

When he entered the large room, he discovered almost everyone watching two large holoscreens. One displayed the sensor data, showing where the Argo was in relation to the Corporate ships while the other gave a view from the front, making it seem as if they were in the pilot's seat.

Lus pulled the comm unit from his ear. Somewhere in the shuffle of things, he'd lost the ability to tap into the general band, but they were piping the chatter through the speakers so everyone could listen in as they waited.

Dre-Shawiv remained at the consoles near the engines alongside one of the other engineers, both of them shouting and furiously typing away at the buttons in front of them.

"Lus," Becky called out. She paused for a moment as she took in his appearance, but her smile resumed as she motioned him over to where she and Yrqw were standing to watch the final confrontation.

"Seems like you had a rough time," she noted once he got closer.

"You don't seem so well off yourself," he replied, taking in her frizzy hair and grease smeared face.

"A few of the power conduits decided to try and blow up," she explained.

"The rear turrets went ahead and did blow up."

"Shut it," Yrqw silenced them. "Some of us actually care about surviving this whole thing."

They all turned their attention to the holoscreens. Lus frowned as he counted half a dozen Corporate ships surrounding the Argo. Oaty was once again trying to take evasive action as several missiles zoomed towards them.

"That's not good," Becky whispered.

"What?"

"The shots are headed straight for the front, starboard shields, but I drained the power from those for the engine boost. If they hit, they'll tear straight through the hull."

Lus sucked his cheek. That was very much not good.

"Brace," Becky shouted as the blimps on the sensors reached the model Argo.

Only a few people around them took her command seriously, and they all let go after several seconds of nothing happening.

"Missiles hit the rear starboard shield," Nippy announced over the speaker.

Becky blinked in surprise. "An unlucky shot for the Corporates. A few yards more, and we'd have taken a direct hit."

"Or rather a lucky shot for us," Yrqw said. His tight face spoke to the volume of concern he held about their chances of surviving this encounter.

"Approaching the breach," Oaty's voice sounded.

"You're coming in too fast, Oaty," Cewi warned him. "The ship will get ripped apart without front shields."

"I know what I'm doing," he bit back.