Out of bounds

[Sombs]

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Day 1 - Location unknown

"Alright, people, so the situation is as following.

We blindjumped into an area we currently can't identify. There are no stars around us, and the only stellar body we know about is this giant black hole. It appears we're not yet affected by it in a harming way, otherwise we would be dead already, so do not worry about it for now. We have lost Darrel Hodges, Veronica Cummings, Rafael Glover, Kevin Boone, Kyle Wheeler, Insa Bockmeyer, Cedric Vaughn, Collin Bush and George Poole. Tasha Wright is heavily injured but Dr. Carr managed to stabilize her." There was a short break before he continued. "The Apahanta took heavy damage from the fight with the Cultist VS-0074. Most systems are either offline or only barely functioning. Commander Aguilar already published the current repair orders, we will start with the sensors, then the engines, then life-support, then everything else. Truth being told, we won't be able to repair the ship completely without a shipyard. We probably don't even have enough spare parts to do much more than very basic repairs on the fly. The priorities are set to ensure we buy ourselves more time, enabling us to scan our surroundings to get a general idea of this system's layout and contents, and to get us further away from the black hole, for self-explanatory reasons.

The situation never looked as grim as it does now. We lost good people. Not just crew members, but friends, and to most of us, members of the family. But this is not over yet. We are still in danger. We can't rest yet. We now need each other, to work as a unit. To survive this horrible situation. To bring us home without further losses. Together.

All those who can help with the repairs, stick to the prioritized things. Everyone else, try to help the others by cleaning up the ship. There are debris everywhere. We need clear paths and access to all important parts of the ship." Another break.

"I'll get us home, people. I promise it."

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The hangar was the last place Ezrael expected to find his best friend, Chief Engineer Leon Isley, however the ship's AI informed him about him being here. Matter of factly, the young blonde sat ontop of the nose of the Handsome Rover, the black Jitano the Apahanta always kept with it as a scout drone. A flashing light was emitted by the welding tool as a Kishiro Service Robot unmounted one of the weapons of the drone. Not noticing the Captain, Leon twitched in surprise when Ezrael announced his presence. "Hey fuckboy!"

"Captain," Leon simply returned, only gifting Ezrael with a second of a glance before watching the robots working again.

"Ouh, formal," Ezrael mumbled quietly, following the Chief Engineer's look. "What's this?"

Sighing, Leon took his blue shield glasses off, raking his gloved fingers through his blond hair. "Unmounting the peashooters to mount makeshift repair tools."

"Ah, I see." the Captain returned. "The Commander's idea, I guess?"

"No, mine. The Commander wanted me to do something else, but with the Rover we can speed up things considerably. And we can repair the sensor array from outside, which is something we shouldn't do if we are close to a giant radiation source such as a black hole. Right now, we're protected by the shields. As soon as they fail, the radiation could be harmful to us. Like the Omicron Sigma black hole, or the one in Omicron Phi. Our EVA-suits can deal with cosmic background radiation and maybe some Omicron-typical anomalies, but we don't know anything about this anomaly out there and how close we are or how big it is. We had one guy who could have told us just by looking at it, but he died on medical bay."

Ezrael looked up, away from the robots and over to Leon, who stared at the Captain. It was a look he knew. Leon was angry, at him. Taking a deep breath, Ezrael made another step closer towards the Handsome Rover, for the moment avoiding eye contact with Leon. "I understand you're unhappy with the current situation, Leon. I'm just glad you're alive, you know."

"Yes, I am alive. For now. Many others are dead. Because of you. You and your constant desire for adventures and playing the hero! Half of the crew is dead and you marsh in here with your sunny mood and your self-centered smirk while I sit here, somewhere in the nowhere, next to a black hole on a wreck of a ship that was already barely working with a skeletal crew, following the orders of some hedonistic idiot, and I try to repair the horrible damage that was caused by your decision to jump into a battle that was not ours, hoping I'm not the next one who dies as a result of your incompetence!" Shaking and exhaling heated, Leon's face got slightly red from the anger. Ezrael however just glanced at him, blinking. Remembering the last time Leon was angry at him, he was glad there were a good amount of meters between them, as otherwise Leon would have punched him, which would have lead to him knocking Leon out. That would have slowed down the repairs considerably.

"You can hit me once we're back home as often as you want," Ezrael returned in a calm but firm way. "The crew has full trust in your capabilities as Chief Engineer. If you need anything, just tell anyone to bring it to you." Looking around for the moment, Ezrael inhaled audibly before turning around to leave the Chief Engineer alone.

Watching the Captain leave, Leon put on his shield glasses again, trying to calm down again. Then he turned to his side. Not far away from him sat a young woman. Annie Reese, a mainenance technician of the ship. Ezrael wasn't able to see her there, yet she heard everything. Eyeing Leon for a few seconds, she said nothing. Just like he did as he continued to work.

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Uncharted System Stories: 18 | 32 | 34 | 37 | 38 | 85

Templates: Character | Transmissions

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