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MillionNovel > The Protogen Generation > Disaster

Disaster

    LUCAS''S P.O.V.


    It''s been 3 hours since we tried to jump into hyperspace. We were still orbiting Aureon, thankfully.


    Scott, who was directly behind my seat, and he was still frantically going through different spacecraft systems. None of us could figure out why the jump failed, and almost killed us in the process.


    “Have you heard anything back from mission control?” Asks Vita.


    “No" replies Avera, still fidgeting with the radio. “Are you sure this isn''t broken?” She says looking in Scott''s direction.


    “It could be,” responds Scott, “The long range antenna might have been snapped off with all the stress”


    “What about the short range antenna?” Asks Michael.


    Avera sighs, “It''s not giving us anything either”


    Scott undoes his seat harness, “We are going to have to do an EVA and check it visually”


    “Alright you are authorized to do that,” Avera says, “And check for any other damage”


    “Will do” responds Scott, “Come Michael, you are helping”


    Michael undoes his harness and pushes himself out of his seat. Together Michael and Scott pull themselves over to a ladder at the bottom of the cockpit.


    They both go down the ladder to the airlock, which opens on the bottom of the EX-5.


    MICHAEL''S P.O.V.


    I go down the ladder and enter the EVA bay that is below the cockpit. It''s a cramped little room with a couple eva suits and a door to the airlock.


    Scott and I start removing our Flight suits. I take off my gloves, boots and everything else until I''m only in my jumpsuit.


    Scott detaches a white eva suit from the wall and proceeds to put it on, and I do the same as him.


    The EVA suits are similar to our flight suits. The only difference is the flight suits aren''t as reflective, and they can''t carry as much oxygen as the EVA suits.


    I put on the legs, then the torso. Followed by that I put on my boots, and then gloves. Grabbing the helmet I put it on as well.


    “Comm check.” I say, making sure my microphone is working in the helmet.


    “Loud and clear” says Scott


    “And we have you guys up here” says Garrett


    “Alright, we''re going to go out now” says Scott through his helmet.


    “Confirmed” Avera says.


    Scott twists open a small know on the airlock door, and then the door opens outwards toward us.


    The both of us make our way into the small airlock. Considering I''m one of the larger protogens, trying to fit in an airlock with a bulky EVA suit on is not my definition of a fun idea.


    Anyhow, the both of us still manage to fit. Scott closed the door and seals it shut. “Get your tether attached,” he says.


    Wiggling my arm down, I clip one of the white tethers to my suit.


    “Ready?” Scott asks, ready to depressurize the airlock.


    I turn and look over at him, “yeah”


    Scott hits a panel on the side of the airlock, with a faint hiss the airlock depressurized.


    I shuffle my arms forward and unlatch the outside door, swinging it outward.


    “remember, if you see anything unusual, report it,” Scott says while pulling himself out of the airlock.


    The airlock on the EX-5 is weird, because its located on the bottom of the spacecraft, right in the middle of the heat shield. it''s kind of hard to get in and out of since there aren''t many handles to grab a hold of.


    Once Scott gets out of the airlock, its my turn and I pull myself out as well.


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    I follow Scott as we both crawl on the heat shield to a ladder, letting us go from the bottom to the top side of the EX-5.


    Once I reached the ladder, I saw a breathtaking sight. You could see all of Aureon, a beautiful blue atmosphere dotted with blue stirred up clouds.


    Looking closer, stuff about the planet began to look strange…


    “Does anyone else see this” I ask, trying to figure out what''s wrong


    “What did you find?” Scott asks, already well on his way to check the antennas


    Then I see it, “The coastline, it looks wrong.. I don''t recognize that landmass right there” I say, pointing towards the planet


    “I don''t recognize it either, but we shouldn''t be worrying about that right now,” says Scott, removing the panel off an antenna


    “This looks fine,” says Scott in a surprised tone, “The antennas don''t have any damage.”


    Avera chimes in, “ Then why aren''t we receiving anything?”


    “I don''t know!” says Scott, clearly frustrated.


    “Well can you at least check for any of the damage?” Lucas says, changing the topic, “That could explain why”


    “Yeah thats what I was thinking earlier” says Scott as he puts the antenna cover back on.


    “Did the heat shield have any damage?” says Garrett through the headset


    “I did not see any damage or cracks,” I say as I grab a small foothold on the side of the fuselage and tether myself to it, “I didn''t see any damage anywhere else”


    “Well that''s good,” Scott says, “but that still doesn''t explain why we haven''t received any radio signals”


    “Well in that case you both should come back in” says Avera.


    “Alright, will do.” Responds Scott


    “Wait,” I say, “I wanna get one last look from out here”


    “Fine” Avera says, Definitely annoyed.


    I get my foot into one of the footholds on the top of the fuselage, at that point I was practically standing on the top of the spacecraft, looking upwards towards the planet.


    Ya know, at this moment, I really have to compliment space. It was cold, lonely, and it tries to kill you. But when it doesn''t, when it lets you live, it is majestic. Here I am, weightlessly gazing upon my home. No cares, no burdens, nothing.


    “You done yet?” says Scott, on the ladder, read to go back to the airlock


    “Yeah yeah,” I say, and begin to step out of my footholds.


    Then something catches my eye. A small sparkling thing. It looked like a star, except it kept getting bigger.


    Suddenly it stopped growing, And flew right by at a high speed. It looked like a chunk of metal, or maybe a rock.


    I almost jump back, “Oh fuck!” I yell through the intercom


    “Report?” Avera says


    “You good?” Asks Scott, pearing his head over the side.


    “Large chunk of debris- It flew right by our right side”


    “What?” Lucas says, “We didn''t see anything from here”


    Then I see more pieces of debris. They looked to be far away, but they were quickly getting closer.


    “Hurry! We gotta get inside!” I yell at Scott.


    I begin to double my pace, and scramble to finish undoing my foothold.


    Then another piece of debris flies by me, just a couple feet away from my head.


    Quickly I grab one of the handles on the fuselage and launch myself towards the ladder. I grab a hold of the ladder and do a 180 degree, caused from how fast I was going.


    I begin to work my way down the ladder, and then I look up and see more chunks of metal fly by


    It didn''t take me very long to reach the heat shield. But before I could start going towards the airlock, Avera brings up some bad news.


    “We have had multiple impacts!” She yells, “Everyone get on your helmets!”


    I scramble towards the airlock right behind Scott. We are about to make it into the airlock before the EX-5 gets hit again.


    Then… a large, large piece of debris hits us. It tears through the top of the right wing and smashes through the right vertical stabilizer.


    It sends the craft into a spin, launching Scott and I off the ladder, away from the EX-5.


    After a couple seconds, we reach the ends of our tethers, yanking us right back towards the spacecraft.


    I''m sent towards the side of the fuselage, and I put out my hands to brace for the impact.


    I slam into a jagged piece of metal, and it rips into my EVA suit, right into the side of my chest.


    Suddenly I''m hit with a sharp, piercing pain. “GAH-” I yell, clutching my side.


    the EX-5 was still spinning out of control, because of this, I was quickly pulled off the jagged piece of metal.


    The suit sealed itself to maintain its pressure, but I was still bleeding badly underneath.


    I yell into my mic, “Fuck! I''ve been hit! My suits been punctured!”


    But I get no response.


    I''m dragged along the torn fuselage, and I find another piece of metal sticking out to grab ahold to. With one arm I grab the metal piece and hold it with the tightest grip I can muster.


    All the while more tiny pieces of space debris peppers the EX-5. A small piece of metal went straight into my lower leg, making me grit my teeth even more.


    Bam.


    To my horror I feel an impact on my helmet. My ear begins to hurt as well, and small blobs of blood begin to float throughout my helmet.


    “Michael!” Scott''s voice calls in my headset, “You still there?”


    “Yeah,” I say, “Everything hurts…”


    “Where are you? Are you still with the EX-?” He asks, "Is your suit holding pressure?”


    “I''m uh… Right side, and my suit is still holding pressure” I respond to him, “My helmet is filling with blood and I can''t feel my leg”


    “Shit,” Scott says, I''ll be there to help in a second.”


    I breathe a sigh of relief knowing Scott is still there.


    He soon comes over the side of the heat shield, slowly crawling his way towards me. He takes an extra tether off of his belt and tosses it towards me.


    I catch it and clip it to my EVA suit, that way I can''t float away.


    I let go of the jagged metal and grab the tether, then I start to pull myself towards Scott.


    Without saying a word he turns around and begins to go back towards the airlock with me in tow.


    I notice the craft wasn''t spinning as badly now, Which meant Lucas and Avera were still trying to control it.


    During the crawl back though, I notice a reasonably sized sealed puncture in the neck of Scotts EVA suit. He seemed to be just fine, I didn''t see anything else wrong with him.


    “You okay?” I ask him, “There''s a puncture under your helmet,”


    He responds tiredly, “oh… Im alright”


    We reach the airlock and go back into it, and I close it behind us.


    I notice the cabin pressure is still high, which means the inside of the EX-5 wasn''t damaged.


    Scott pressurizes the airlock and opens up the hatch to the cabin. Slowly, he pulls himself out of the airlock.


    I quickly undo my tether so it doesn''t get tangled up, and follow Scott.


    He climbs up the ladder and enters the cockpit. “Vita… Michael needs your… help.”


    “Alright,” she says, “Garrett help Scott,” she orders him.


    I make my way up to the cockpit to make it easier for Vita to help Mr.


    “whats …our status?” Scott asks in a dragged out sentence.


    “Hydraulic lines 2 is dry and line 3 is leaking,” Lucas says, “The heat shield is okay, but I don''t know if we would structurally survive re entry”


    …


    “Scott?” Avera asks, trying to look back from her seat.


    No answer.


    “Scott answer me-” Vita demands.


    He doesn''t move or react to it.


    Instead, he goes limp.


    “Is everything okay back there?” Lucas asks, still fighting the controls.


    “Scott is unconscious” Vita says as she takes off his helmet.


    Bits of blood begin to stream from his suit, right from the back of his neck.


    “Oh my- stop the bleeding!” She yells at Garrett.


    Slowly I begin to feel myself slip out of conciseness.


    “Im… dizzy-” I say, before everything goes black.


    LUCAS P.O.V.


    “Hurry! We gotta get inside!” Michael frantically yells in his intercom.


    “Wait is there debris?” Garrett asks from his seat.


    “They saw something go-” says avers before getting cut off by a small noise.


    tink!


    “What was that?” I ask.


    Then it happens again.


    ping.


    Then again.


    “I… don''t know this time” Avera says.


    Then the noises get louder. The high pitched noises turn into louder, heavy thumps.


    “We are getting hit by debris,” Avera says, “get on your helmets!”


    I scramble to turn around to grab my helmet, but I don''t grab it in time.


    A loud bang reverberate through the fuselage as the EX-5 is thrown into a crazy spin.


    Vita, who had unbuckled her harness to grab her helmet, was thrown into the ceiling.


    “Vita!” Garrett cried out, and he begins to unbuckle his harness to help her.


    “Garrett don''t!” She says, “stay in your seat!”


    He finishes unbuckling and begins to fly out of his seat. He twists before hitting the ceiling and lands on his knees, similarly to a superhero.


    I turn my attention back my job, getting the EX-5 under control. I move my side stick around, trying to counter the spacecraft''s spinning.


    The spin starts to slow down until Avera yells at me.


    “Lucas- Your helmet!”


    I look down to see my helmet had begun to work itself free from where I put it, and it started to fly towards me. I instinctively put my hand out to stop it, but it didn''t do much.


    It went straight through my hand, and into one of the windscreens, leaving a sizable crack.
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