Snippet #770056

Rushing through the crashed LC warship, rifle at the ready, at a regular interval behind his point man, Andi and the squad he took with him made it to the detention black just ahead of the Black Guard troopers.

The ship itself had been a mess, and they'd had to take detours more than once on finding cooridors or doorways to twisted or smashed or full of toxic waste to be navigable. But now they were in the detention block, thank God.

This part of the ship didn't seem to have fared much better than the rest. More than a few cells were smashed from impact shock, and his sensors told him there was a hull breach . . . and a human lifeform. It was barely alive, but it was inarguably human. Andi rushed ahead of his point man to the cell.

Wrestling the warped door open, Andi saw the man lying on the floor, barely alive and gasping for air. The raspiness of his breaths also told Andi he was extremely dehydrated. "Spare breathing apparatus and a canteen!" Andi yelled to the Rangers behind him, trusting them to obey.

The canteen came first, and Andi poured a bit of water across the man's parshed lips, letting some fall in but not much. He then grabbed the breathing apparatus when it was offered to him and secured it onto the man. A muffled hiss told Andi the oxygen-rich compressed air that was part of the standard breathing apparati for the UCS had activated, and when it had Andi spoke to the barely-concious man, "Do you speak English? Are you UCS or Dynasty? How long have you been here?" He paused between each question, but went on hoping one would get through.