Objective 3- BYOO: Survive
Tags: No one (Open, if you're a rescuer.)
Slip held on tight to the console, as the
freighter barreled down towards the surface of the barren moon. Alarms were blaring, and the crewmembers could be heard shouting to each other as they tried to regain control. This shouldn't be happening, it was all going so wrong. Why did Slip come out here?
Since the SJC had received the call for help, they quickly mobilized forces to go and rescue those that were stranded, and to figure out what happened, and how they got stranded. It had all gone smoothly, until
they showed up. Those...
things had attacked the ship, seemingly getting inside the ship. At first, SLip thought that they were his hallucinations, and that he was accidentally projecting what he saw to the crew. He had assured the crew that there was no danger, that what they were seeing was from him.
He had been so, so wrong.
They had screamed without even making a sound. It had reverberated in the heads of every person nearby. A high-pitched, horrifying wail. Everyone in the corridor was affected, instantly filling them with fear, terror, and panic.
But Slip had gotten the worst of the blow. It had left him
shaken, as if he had stared Death right into its eyes, and then it had spoken to him. The
thing had locked eyes with him before it had given the scream. The sound seemed directed at Slip. It had even continued to stare him down after it gave the soundless wail. The being made it very clear to Slip.
It was here for
him.
Then, the creature began attacking the crewmates. Before they knew it, another one of those monsters had shown up. However, strangely, instead of going straight for Slip like they seemed to want to, they instead proceeded deeper into the ship, and Slip ran to the bridge to report the situation. Security crews were sent to try and stop the beings before they caused too much damage. They were toying with their prey.
And they had no way to stop them, nothing they had tried had worked. Then, all hell broke lose. They lost control of the engines, and now they were on a direct collision course to the moon.
Slip watched through the viewport of the bridge as the surface came ever closer and closer.
"Do we have control?" Slip asked a technician.
The technician looked at him and shook his head.
"Negative, we've tried everything, but nothing is working! We still don't have control!"
"Have you tried rerouting the power through the secondary couplings?"
Once again, the technician shook his head.
"We already tried that, it didn't work. Like I said, nothing we've tried has worked. The reactor is going, I suspect that when the ship hits the surface of the moon, it will be highly unstable and at risk of exploding."
Slip grit his teeth. Damn, there wasn't enough time to fully restart the engines. Even if there was enough time, the crew was too busy with the
things to be able to fully recycle the engines.
Slip could hear the fighting over his commlink. It wasn't going good. The beings were basically moving through the ship unhindered by the opposition of the crew. None of their weapons were working against the beasts. It wasn't going good.
The communications officer was busy trying to send a distress signal out to the Silver fleet. However, her efforts would be in vain. It would seem that long-range communications were down.
No one knew what was happening.
No one knew that they were in trouble.
And no one knew where they would crash.
"Comms are out, I can't send a distress call!" She said to the people on the bridge.
"So we're on our own then." Slip said, tightening his grip. He looked at the captain of the ship.
"We don't have a lot of time. Captain, we need to go, now."
The Captain thought about it, then, she nodded.
"Agreed, sound the alarm. Evacuate the ship."
The comms officer nodded and turned back to her console. She hit a button, and activated the ship's intercoms.
"All hands, abandon ship. Repeat: abandon ship. The ship is lost." She said. Slip could hear the message echoing down the halls.
"Alright, let's get to the escape pods." He said, then, he and the other crewmembers of the bridge ran out into the hallway headed down the corridors for the nearest escape pod. Other crewmembers were also scrambling around, running to evacuate before the ship crashed.
Soon, the small group arrived at the pods. Other crewmembers were already climbing in and launching off. Slip spotted an open pod nearby. He could hear the sounds of fighting in the distance. Some people were trapped by the beings, and were attempting to escape. There was nothing he could do about that, though. They couldn't be saved.
Then, suddenly, everyone around Slip started shouting, yelling, screaming, and running in panic. Slip turned, and saw it. One of the monsters was in the same corridor as him. It slashed through multiple people, shredding them. Blood splattered across the walls, and the bodies fell to the floor. Then, the being locked eyes with him. It seemed... aggravated by his presence. It started flying at him at a considerable speed. Slip activated his lightsaber and, once the creature was in range, slashed at it as it slashed at him. He managed to dodge its attack, ducking under it, and moving behind the thing.
But his lightsaber passed straight through the being. He stared in amazement at his lightsaber for a short period of time before turning back around quickly. The monster turned around to face Slip. So, it was true, his weapons would just pass straight through it. The being stared into his eyes, then lunged at him.
In a last ditch effort, Slip used to Force to reach out with his mind and mentally strike the creature. Then, he felt it. He gasped in shock and pain, and the creature shrieked in agony, stuttered by the sudden attack that pierced its mind.
Slip could
feel the insides of its mind. There was such hatred, directed completely at Slip for seemingly no reason. The creature was fairly intelligent, and he had no doubt that it was studying his mind to find out his weaknesses. He could feel the
agony in the creature. This... this
abomination shouldn't even be alive. It shouldn't exist.
Just like Slip. Neither this creature nor Slip should even exist in the first place. And yet, here they were.
Then, the absolute
terror and
fear flooded his mind. His entire mind was filled with it. Slip was completely shocked, even paralyzed. It was so overwhelming. He wanted to scream, to move, to do anything, but he couldn't do anything. He was defenseless. The pure panic took over his body. He felt trapped, lost, confused. Were these thoughts his, or were they the monsters? Was the monster attacking him, as he had used his mind to attack it, or was this what it felt? Perhaps it was both.
Somehow, Slip managed to will the strength to hit it one last time with another attack, using the Force to shatter its concentration and to focus on its own agony. Slip managed to stumble away from the creature. He deactivated the lightsaber and clipped it back to his belt with shaky hands. His body felt cold, heavy. His limbs felt weak. His head was dizzy and light. His vision kept on wavering in and out, though he was sure that his eyes were open. But most of all, he felt
ALONE. Other people were still scrambling around, rushing to get into the escape pods before the creature recovered. But he couldn't feel them in the Force. Strangely, for the first time, he didn't feel anything. His mind was blank, and the Force... he wasn't sure where it was.
By a hint of luck, Slip managed to stumble into an escape pod. He could vaguely make out the Captain, the comms officer, and the technician from the ship. He could just barely feel their presences in the Force, only tiny pinpricks of light, in a far away place, at the end of whatever tunnel he was down.
As they were about to close it, somebody yelled.
"Wait, don't leave me behind!" Slip, in his drunken-like state, was vaguely aware of this. He saw a young man at the mouth of the escape pod, starting to climb in. But then, suddenly, something grabbed them. Slip might have had the senses and mental capacity of a vegetable at the moment, but he knew what had grabbed the man.
The monster was back. The man grabbed onto the inside pod. He was half in, half out, with the thing holding his legs.
"Please, help me!" He pleaded, struggling against the beast.
Slip, with his last remaining strength and willpower, leaned towards the man, and grabbed his arms. He struggled against the monster, tugging on the man. The other people inside the pod also moved forward to help the man, trying to pull him in.
But the monster was strong, and they struggled against it.
"Pull me in, pull me in. Please! I don't want to die!" The man begged.
"It's too strong, we can't pull him in!" The Captain yelled.
"Pleasepleasepleasenononodon'tletmedieIdon'twanttodie! Don't let me go!" He sobbed.
"I'm not... letting go..." Slip managed to say.
"We need to pull him in quickly, the ship is getting closer to the moon!" The technician reported, tugging on the man's right arm.
Slip looked at the being. He could see its glowing eyes staring into him. He had to do it... But, he couldn't, it could kill him if he tried to fight the creature once more in this state. But... he had to. He pieced together his last remaining energy pierced its brain again. He felt the monster, once again, overflow his brain with horrible thoughts and feelings. He felt the connection falter as he nearly passed out from the exertion. He managed to push out one, final attack onto the monster, before he closed the connection.
It was a weak attack, but it was enough to make it falter. They managed to pull the man a little bit further into the pod, so that only his knees were out of the pod. The young man lifted his right leg, the leg not being held by the monster, into the pod for a better foothold.
"Come on, pull!" The comms officer said.
Then, an automated voice filled the pod.
"Surface detected. Ship trajectory: crash course. Lifeforms detected within pod. Auto-launching." Said the emotionless voice.
"What?! NO NO DON'T LAUNCH YET!" The man yelled.
Then, the hatch for the escape pod slid shut, right on the man's leg. The man fell towards Slip and the crewmembers, now that there was nothing pulling against him. Slip felt the escape pod launch, the rumbling of the pod as it departed and fell towards the surface of the moon. He heard the engine kick in, to control their descent down to the surface.
Then there was the screaming.
Slip looked, and saw that the man was missing the rest of his left leg below his knee. Where it should have been, was an empty, void space, and a horrible, bleeding hole with muscle, blood, and Slip swore that he saw bone.
The man's leg had been cut clean off. It was still on the ship, since it was nowhere to be found. The other members of the pod were trying to surpress the flow of blood, and were trying to find the medical supplies. They were shouting at each other over the man's wails of pain and agony. Another wave of agony hit Slip. He felt the panic bunch up inside him, he could hardly breath. Why was the Force abandoning him, except when there was pain? He could still barely feel the signatures of the other people in the pod, as if they were far away. What was happening? Why was this happening?
Slip fumbled around and grabbed his lightsaber. Within the confines of the pod, he activated it, the green glow lighting up the interior. Then, he slowly brought it to the man's bleeding leg. If Slip didn't do something soon, the man would bleed out.
He held his lightsaber to the wound, carefully stroking it over the man's leg. The stinging mad the man scream and wail even more, but thankfully two of the crewmates were holding him down and still. Slip worked carefully. Well, as carefully as he could, with his weak limbs, and fading vision. He passed the blade slightly over the wound, cauterizing it.
After thirty seconds of this, and when Slip was certain that the wound was no longer bleeding, he deactivated the blade, and collapsed to the floor. He could hear the crewmates calling his name, but their voices were muffled. He felt them shaking him, and turning him over onto his back to try and get him to wake up. He could only see their silhouettes, not the specific details of them. He only saw them as shadows, and theirs speech was muffled by his fading mind. To Slip, they weren't here. He could barely even acknowledge their presence, no less even identify them.
He turned his head to the left. He saw his lightsaber laying on the ground. The blade reflected the light inside the pod. It reminded him of the creature's eyes, and how it pierced into him.
And with that, Slip passed out, exhausted.
The crewmates made sure to check if he was still alive. He was still breathing, and he still had a pulse. They were relieved, because Slip had been the only one to even make the monster falter. The man missing part of his left leg was still in tremendous pain, but now he was calming down, and his screams of pain had now turned to silent sobbing.
And their pod fell to the surface of the barren moon, led by gravity and the engine on their pod. Countless other pods fell, and the ship continued its descent to the surface.
Only time would tell how many, if any, survived this encounter.
May the Force have mercy on them, if the Force was even still with them.
