Snippet #1401614

Thaddeus' upper body was completely inside the broken panel of an engineering terminal. He had found it like this a good fifteen minutes ago, which he considered lucky. Breaking into any of the other terminals might have harmed the delicate wiring inside. There were scorch marks around the edges of the plasteel panel, as if had been blasted open. He was carefully navigating through various wires when a heavy spark shot out onto the arm of his enviro-suit. Psssssht!

He rubbed the spot vigorously on his arm where the spark had landed. Smoke drifted off lazily for a moment, but no breach or flame. He checked the wiring again, this time with slight thermals turned on so he could find heat. All of the connecting wires to engineering were stripped and unevenly cut. "Skipper... it looks like I ain't gettin' into engineerin'. Someone manually cut off all connections with that portion of the ship. Also, be careful around these ole fashioned terminals. It seems they pose a fire hazard. Wait a second, I think I see a connectin' wire... lemme... Oops."

The lights all over the ship went out suddenly. "Uh, sorry, Skip."


Down the dark hallway past the blast doors and through the propulsion and life support systems a small light began blinking. A whirring sound started and red emergency lighting began flashing slowly all over the ship.


"Skip, that wasn't me. I think some of the automated systems are still intact... Skip?" Thaddeus reached down to his belt and pressed the comm. Nothing. He pressed it again. Nothing. Thaddeus continued to talk to himself out loud, it always made him feel better in the void and it worked here. Kind of. "Gonna hafta switch providers, no service. Damn Galactell."

He slowly extracted himself from the panel, looking around. All was black, no thermals or lighting. He flicked on his HUD lighting. The doors he had come through were shut, with a grunt of effort Thaddeus propelled himself at the wall nearest the control panel with his hands and feet. He pressed a few buttons on the panel. Dead.

Sweat began to bead on his forehead. He tried to regulate his breathing, a sudden movement then a crash behind him. "Arrgh! He turned around, and shot his handcannon twice in the direction of the sound. Ping! Ping!

It was only one of the plasteel tiles above him, it swung violently from the force of his soft bullets. He looked above the tile at the darkness of the inner recesses of the ship. Robert Fost came ot his lips almost like a mantra. "Let him get off and he'll be everywhere around us, looking out of trees and bushes 'till I sha'n't dare to set a foot outdoors."