Emergency evacuation in progress
25 Jan 2020Declaredsomnium
It's not often that one feels danger in the black, true large scale disaster levels of danger. Electra is going through that right now.I've heard my canopy creak and crack in the void. Felt the sudden rush of air in the split second before my remlock slams around my head. That puckers ones anus at superluminal speeds.
Sat in the INV C H Lightoller, I felt something far different; horror. Unmitigating and unrelenting horror.
Caustic green sludge bubbling away on the hull, and an entire section of one of the four arms missing. My god, how many people were thrown out into the vast emptiness with that?
The spinning hadn't stopped, thankfully. Doing an evacuation in microgravity would be an utter pain.
The flight controllers, usually so calm and collected, were in full panic mode when they spoke of the situation over the voice comms.
Inside the station was far worse. Bathed in red emergency lights, entire sections of the internal structure floated freely. As I began to dock, my ship slowly starting to get too hot. An entire section was engulfed in a fireball, the raging inferno propelling more debris around.
My ship, while aimed and built for the job of evacuating. It was limited by size. A total of seventy six people. I cued up the jobs and made a mad dash for the entryway to help direct people to the various cabins. The going wouldn't exactly be up to the usual standards of Imperial luxury, but given the fact that the passengers were escaping from an oven, I don't think they minded. Besides, I could stuff more of them in this way.
They were scared, fuck that they were shitting themselves. The entry way for my ship was filled with the smell of smoke and distant screams rang out. People reached out with begging hands and soot covered faces.
No one ever thought it would happen to them, and these people were proven wrong, in the biggest way.
It didn't take long for the passengers to get themselves situated. I retook my seat. Hull heat was far from great, but they would be worse in a moment as I requested clearance to undock. The moment that hangar door opened, the heat shot up, and I could hear my passengers scream in fear. Sweat beaded my brow, and I waited for the moment I was free of the docking clamps. One heat sink launcher fired into the maelstrom of the dock, and landing gear retracted.
Flying between the dock and the rescue ship doesn't leave one for much downtime. As I sit here, hours later, a cup of coffee in hand. I'm only a few megametres away from Cavalieri here in Electra.
God I can see the fires burning from here.
It's going to be a bit chilly for me tonight. This system is still an active warzone. So I'm running as cold as is possible. Only my life support is on. Ice glistens on the canopy. I've got five more days of this, and already I can feel the urge, get my anaconda, load it with as many AX weapons as possible, and kill them all. The righteous anger is pushed away.
The people need help, they need to see, even in this alliance system so far from the bubble, an Imperial Ship flying in, and taking them to safety. They aren't alone, and we aren't going to turn them into slaves.
Well, this CMDR isn't.