>>5550707Your breath hitches in your chest and your body freezes, a dread thrill racing down your spine to paralyse you with its icy embrace.
“What have I done?”
Smoke swirls and rubble stills.
Your vision begins to return.
Where before stacked crates and a welding tank stood, now only devastation remains.
A thought vaguely passes through your mind, that the mixture of welding gases used aboard the TPN Coober Pedy burn hot but slow - explaining the bright and concussive nature of the blast. The results are clearly self-evident. Crates lie strewn across the deck, some intact, some less so. The lumpy silhouettes you can make out through the smoke cloud are unrecognisable. More, rubble perhaps, trapped enemies? Or even…bodies?
You gasp, terror spiking at the thought.
Could anything…anyone have survived that explosion? You didn’t think it would be so violent or else you’d never have even suggested such a course of action. Guilt and shame war over your frozen mind until, finally, they are usurped by worry and responsibility.
You drop your weapon and force your leaden limbs to move, jerkily at first, but then in a dead sprint towards ground zero. Shaking, you activate your comm, breathlessly calling out your crew by name.
“Skyeskal, Clifton! REPORT!” you demand.
There is only static.
"KIRO! CLEO! ANSWER ME!" you scream, to no reply.
“Coen, I think my comm is busted again.” You switch tacks desperately, “can you reach them?!”
“I am receiving no signal from them, Sir.” He replies woodenly.
“Dammit, come help me look for- ack!” You trip over some debris in your haste and lose your footing, tumbling head over heels at the edge blast zone. Disoriented you look up into the still obscuring smoke cloud - the life support systems evidently not receiving enough power to clear the air efficiently.
You pause for a moment in your vulnerable position as you hear something shift. Weaponless, the thought crosses your mind that maybe the plan to barbecue the remaining boarders may not have been entirely effective in its execution.
What will you do?
>Be still, you can’t see them and they can’t see you (probably). Wait for Coen to arrive as backup and hope your own noisy arrival won't be investigated.>Run. The enemy surely is still alive and you can almost feel the spines aligning with your head through the smoke.>Fight. Surely the enemy can’t have survived such a terrible explosion unscathed. Maybe even your basic CQB training will be enough to finish a weakened opponent off.>Start digging. Your friends are potentially dying or worse in there. Every second might be the difference between saving a downed crewmate and… not. Bet on the cover of the crates protecting your crewmates and destroying your enemies.>Something else. Write in. 