Back From The Dead

Consciousness comes slow to Sarah, a gentle hand slowly leading her out from her dreams, she sees images fly past her minds eye, glimpses into what was and what should be.

{if Private Johnson Is Alive = 1} Hey.. sarge..? You feeling alright…? “You hit your head pretty bad there..” Standing over Sarah is Private Johnson one of the men she had managed to save from the doomed pods. {endif}

{if Private Johnson Is Alive = 1} “Uh… yeah… yeah I’m fine… what happened…?” Asks Sarah as she slowly sits up, looking around the room to find only Johnson and Milo present. {endif}

The others, Cho, Sinclair, Winters and Wilson, they’re all missing, no bodies present.

{if Private Milo Is Alive = 1} “I’ll tell you what happened, the Warden ate shit..! We’re stranded Sarge..!” Shouts Milo as he walks to the far side of the room where a massive chunk of wall is missing. {endif}

Slowly Sarah pulls herself to her feet, her head spinning as a dull ache permeates the back of her head, when she rubs it with her hand her fingers come away red.

{if Private Johnson Is Alive = 1} Uh… don’t worry Sarge… we’ll have Winters take a look at that when we get back to camp…” says Johnson as he joins Milo at the new window. {endif}

The room is as chaotic as she expected it to be the tables and benches are bolted to the floor but everything else, cups, silverware, trays of food, it’s all scattered across the skeleton of the galley.

The eastern wall is partially missing with bent and broken metal having fallen away to reveal the landscape of the world outside.

The landscape is rocky, red sand covers the ground along with dust and rocks, there’s precious little vegetation to be seen nor civilization as far as Sarah can see, not far from the crash site are rocky outcroppings and piles of debris that obscure vision of what lay beyond the region.

It appears to be in the grip of night as the stars are eerily visible, the moon casting an ominous pale light over the domain, and it’s in this moment that it occurs to her how cold it is.

The only mercy is that the atmosphere appears breathable, as would be standard for a company operated planet as old as this one, no doubt there’s already whole cities built around atmospheric terraformers supplying the entire planet with oxygen.

It’s readily apparent that she won’t be exiting the ship this way, below is a 60ft drop into hard ground if she survives the fall she’ll really wish she hadn’t.

{if Private Johnson Is Alice = 1} “This way Sarge… we already know the way back, it’s annoying but it’ll work…” Says Johnson, bidding Sarah to follow behind. {endif}

Sarah steps out into the hallway connecting the various rooms of the Crew Deck together, the crash wasn't any **** here then it was on the galley, grating is cracked in places, metal wall tiles have fallen off revealing the bones of the ship that lay behind them.

Down the hall she walks, eventually reaching the dreaded gap from before, thankfully it seems the ship has run out of gas to burn as the wall of flame has disappeared.

The hops the gap in the grating and reach the elevator which appears to have been decommissioned as when Sarah gazes down into the shaft, she finds the platform in a heap at the very bottom of the shaft.

{if Private Milo Is Alive = 1} “Yeeeeeeah… that’s why we couldn’t bring you with us the first time… no offense Sarge, but you’re too heavy to carry while climbing those ladders.” Says Milo as he peers down into the elevator shaft next to Sarah. {endif}

With the elevator out she’ll need to use the maintenance ladders to climb down to the Engineering Deck where presumably a way out will present itself.

She creeps into the shaft, standing on the ledge of the internal structure, taking care to not slip and fall into the depths as she shimmy’s over to the utility ladder that’s thankfully not been disturbed by the crash.

It’s only now that Sarah can appreciate the efficiency of the ships lifts as what would have been a 10 second wait is now an arduous process of climbing down the shaft that takes a little over a minute.

But at last the trip is done, Sarah reaches the Engineering Deck, where much of the damage appears to have been incurred.

The area still bares a slight resemblance to the hanger, bits of shattered or crushed metal still have the paint markings the hanger held. The space where the armory sat is completely absent in its place is a room sized window overlooking a great canyon, if any gear survived the crash it sure as fuck isn’t here.

The door to the maintenance bay is still closed, it looks intact even, if the maintenance bay did sustain any damage, Sarah can’t see it from her current position.

Along the western wall of the hanger rests the broken down remains of the Cheyanne, from Sarah’s reckoning it must have slid across the floor and crashed into the wall which combined with the crash itself tore a massive chunk out of the hull, enough to escape through

{if Private Johnson Is Alive = 1} “just through there Sarge” says Johnson pointing to the opening as he and Milo head for the portion of missing hull. {endif}

Sarah continues for the opening, passing by the maintenance door in the process when she hears the sound of metal groaning, hydraulics straining. Coming from the maintenance bay.

Sarah turns, reaching for her sidearm as the door begins to give, a crack opening in the door that slowly grows wider and wider until a shape can be seen within.

It’s Danials, the Android who had warned Sarah about the pods, along the side of his normally pristine face is a large, noticeable gash and one of his eyes are missing, but aside from that, he appears undamaged.

{if Private Milo Is Alive = 1} “Holy shit… I was wondering where the synth was… we never found a body but figured he got crushed up in the crash…” says Milo, speaking more to himself then to anyone else. {endif}

“Ah, Sargent McClintock, I’m glad to see you’re well.” Says Danials as he steps out of the maintenance bay before allowing the steel jars of the hydraulic door snap shut behind him.

“How long have you been in there…?” Asks Sarah as she lowers her gun, holstering it once more.

“I had entered the maintenance bay shortly before the crash had occurred, after conversing with Mother it became apparent to me that impact was inevitable and so I sought to collect supplies for the coming hardship, unfortunately the door malfunctioned before I could rejoin you in the galley.” Says Danial’s his voice ever calming and serene.

“Ah… alright… well… let’s get going then… we gotta find the others…” says Sarah as she turns to begin making her way out of the skeleton of the USS Warden in the distance a continuous stream of smoke can be seen, it must be the other survivors!