บท 27: Chapter: 5.1
Chapter: Landfall
Part: 1
Space Station Zeta-IX
There was a strange feeling of amusement in the air once Greybrand voiced out her brilliant idea, by which they meant completely nutters, of using the escape pods s makeshift bunkers.
Katerina and Lynx gave each other a look of bewilderment before the engineer decided to humor the Inquisitor. She was desperate, after all, and dying people can turn really nasty when despair takes the seat of reason.
"I could take a look..."
The engineer seemed to be on a role for a while now, almost as if she had taken it upon herself to be the harbinger of bad news for the Inquisitorial group. She pulled up the blueprint of the Space Station again and snorted,
"We are right above the damned thing."
Before Greybrand could ask what she meant, a second voice cut in,
"And exactly what are we hoping to achieve by hiding in those little pods?"
Lynx's voice made everyone turn back to her, she was leaning against the wall with her leg bent under her. The medic seemed more pissed than everyone else and Greybrand wondered if that was just the adrenaline coming down or the fact that their situation was hopeless.
"How long will the pods hold up to re-entry anyway?"
Rico chuckled,
"Yeah, not even a goddamn chance in hell to make it there before the station is turned into a giant hunk of molten metal."
Greybrand shot her a nasty look before turning back to the Engineer,
"What were you saying?"
Katerina pointed to the floor and grumbled,
"We are right above the escape pod bay. There are two dozen 'Emperor's Grace' Escape Pods in the bay, but we probably won't make it there before gravity makes pancake out of us."
Greybrand was a bit disappointed by the Engineer's reply, even though she could've guessed as much if she'd just remembered how escape pods work.
"Damn it! What are we supposed to do then?"
The engineer shrugged before replying,
"Maybe pray that the greenskins don't tear this place to shreds before the planet rips us all apart?"
"Or,"
Came a deep feminine voice from one of the three heavily armored figures standing nearby,
"We can do this."
Enyo aimed the plasma pistol she had swiped from the armory at the floor some distance away from the group and fired. A blinding blue light of concentrated plasma particles being weapon fired later, the group was looking at a hole at least one meter in diameter.
*Whistle*
"That's nice."
Enyo muttered as she holstered the weapon, not noticing the bewildered look of those around her.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"
Came a loud screech as the Engineer started to pull at her hair,
"YOU ARE GOING GET US ALL KILLED!"
Even Enyo's fellow armored allies seemed surprised, no one had expected her to actually fire a charged plasma shot without even thinking twice. As for the engineer, her hair-pulling was justified not much later, her reaction caught everyone's attention though, just for a couple of seconds before they realized the implications of what Enyo had just done.
"That is indeed a hole in the floor."
Rico pointed out the obvious,
"You can shoot through the ship's flooring?"
Mumbled Lynx in amazement.
Greybrand took in what she'd just seen and processed the effects of their new path, this was, surprisingly, an angle to the problem that she hadn't thought about.
"You do realize that the station needs that floor to be intact, right? If we lose the floor the rest of the station would begin to de-pressurize, right?"
Enyo shrugged,
"So what? These are designed to survive in that kind of environment right?"
She tapped her helmet and shrugged as if that was the end of their problem.
"But I don't have it..."
Greybrand mumbled, causing the rest of them to look at her. She was wearing the Inquisitorial clothes, bar the gold ornaments, and a flak armor beneath the night black cloak... unlike the combat armor that the rest of them were equipped with.
"Oh... Right."
Enyo's sudden realization was met with a chorus of groans from the others as they took a glance at Greybrand's uniform. Katerina facepalmed and gestured at the Inquisitor,
"Of course, only the Inquisitor doesn't have the right gear for this. The universe works in funny ways, it seems."
Lynx shook her head wryly while tightening the gauze around Rico's cauterized arm,
"Why did you even follow us here if you didn't have the proper equipment? That's basic safety precautions!"
Greybrand muttered something in response but didn't reply with a counterargument, they were right after all, she didn't have everything she needed to survive in a low-pressure environment. The flak armor would protect her against some bullets and shrapnels but it didn't have an oxygen tank... or even a proper helmet.
Elena, the Guard Captain, shrugged and,
"We don't have enough time to argue about this. If we're going to make a move, we need to decide quickly. Enyo, can you do anything to assist the Inquisitor in breathing in a vacuum?"
Katerina looked at her with a deadpan expression,
"I can't create air out of thin air, and I don't have any spare helmets or oxygen tanks with me."
Elina sighed and pointed at Enyo,
"Well, it's decided then... Enyo, you are carrying the Inquisitor."
Greybrand grimaced, she didn't see this coming, not by a long shot. She was an Inquisitor, carried around like a child! That's preposterous...
"I assume you're just going to pick me up and run me as fast as possible towards the escape pods?"
Sometimes, there are things more important than pride, and living was pretty fraking important.
As Enyo lifted the Inquisitor in her arms, she felt the woman stiffen slightly out of resistance. Greybrand may not be an experienced Inquisitor, but she was still pretty damned proud of being one. The idea of being manhandled like this was not something she enjoyed, even though she had the hots for tall strong women.
She struggled a little against Enyo's grip but quickly gave up when she simply picked her up in one hand, like a fraking sack of potatoes, and walked towards the hole she had just blasted through the floor. The edges were still blistering hot and the floor below seemed like a puddle of molten metals.
The station trembled under the stress of a sudden entry into the atmosphere, the floor buckled and warped slightly as the pressure inside began to build up, threatening to tear apart the station from the inside out.
Enyo held Greybrand closer as she felt the floors begin to shake,
"How's your fear of heights?"
She screamed at the Inquisitor, loud enough to be heard over the screaming metal.
Greybrand wanted to remind her of the comm-link in her helmet but decided against it and shrugged,
"Don't worry, I won't wet myself."
The Inquisitor's heart skipped a beat as Enyo jumped through the hole. She was carrying her in her arms and there was no chance that Graybrand wasn't going to die once they reached the other side. She closed her eyes tight, holding her breath with her muscles tensed, waiting to die, she kept this up until she realized that she hadn't died, she was still breathing.
"Well, that was a new sensation,"
Greybrand said through a tight-lipped grimace.
"Can't say that the idea of my legs dangling in the air while the rest of me is being carried is exactly appealing."
She tried to relax and go along with it, hoping for a swift transit, all the shaking and rumbling was not exactly a calming experience.
Enyo didn't answer and instead began to run, carrying the Inquisitor like a football player, holding her close in one arm and running as if her life depended on it. Behind them, she could hear the dull thuds of metal boots landing heavily on the floor as the rest of the squad began to jump through the hole and followed after them.
After a few painful minutes of running, Enyo stopped and set Greybrand down in front of an escape pod,
"You might want to get in, just in case this thing decides to become one with the planet,"
She said, indicating the station's main facility with a flick of her head.
Greybrand wobbled like a heavily drunk cat and stumbled over to the hatch of one of the escape pods, as she tried to get it open, a beeping sound caught her attention,
{BEEP} SYSTEM LOCKDOWN {BEEP}
"What the frak?"
She tried again but it still didn't open, something about the space station entering the orbit and a breach on deck and protocols demanding a lockdown.
"Oh, for the sake of the Imperial throne, now? Of everything that could go wrong now, this?! It's like the God Emperor hates my fraking guts!"
Greybrand cursed and banged the hatch with her hand, the escape pod's hatch seemed to have a mind of its own and didn't want to cooperate with the Inquisitor. The cogitator was beeping wildly, showing every sign of the machine spirit's noncompliance... wait, cogitator?
"Ah, right..."
Greybrand reached beneath her color and took out the Inquisitorial Rosette, a small, unassuming object, relatively plain and adorned with a single motif and a simple motto. It never ceased to amaze her how much authority this simple piece of gold could grant her, with it, she could override any cogitator in the imperium, relinquish the service of an entire chapter of Adeptus Astartes, and so on.
Right now, however, she was busy pressing the switch at its base, causing a small latch to open up and a pair of miniature mechadendrites latched onto the cogitator, overriding all commands and protocols in a matter of moments.
The pod's hatch opened with a hiss, revealing space enough for ten armored individuals,
"Come on ladies, we haven't got the time to buy tickets."
Shouted Elena as she shoved in her subordinates one after the other, trying to cram as many of them inside as possible.
Greybrand grumbled before moving to a second escape pod, opening its hatch in the same manner, and felt herself stumble as another group of armored women jogged past her and into the pod. Remembering that the space should be enough for ten people, she breathed a sigh of relief that lasted all of six seconds before she saw the pod filled to the brim by several armored figures, cramped up like sardines in a jar.
Of course, their armor had to be twice as large as standard stormtrooper carapaces!
A series of loud creaks echoed through the bay as bits of insulation and material floated around as the Space Station's artificial gravitation system started to fail. Greybrand growled and finally saw an empty pod, and jumped in with a sigh, closing the pod quickly. She had enough time to reach out and buckle herself to the seat before an explosion rocked the pod and she found herself lurching forward, the belt knocked the air out of her, and before long, it too snapped.
Greybrand crashed into the wall and slumped against it, holding onto whatever she could to regain her bearings, she was pretty sure that she had heard a bone snap from the jolt but the pain never came, instead, she felt a dull numbness in her body, her head throbbed like a drum and she felt dizzy.
She groaned before struggling to stand again, she felt like she was about to puke, and tried to grab something to support her weight. Finally, her hand coiled around a surprisingly soft cable, and as she tried to put more weight onto it, something slapped away her hand.
Greybrand froze, her breath caught in her lungs. Her body tensed as she tried to catch up with the new information her mind was registering. She closed her eyes, her brow creased as she realized the truth. She wasn't alone in the pod, and then, a sharp, feminine voice slashed through the silence,
"What do you think you are doing, Mon'keigh?"
=*=
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