The Landing Bay

They didn't look back when they heard the commander shouting towards her guards. They weren't interested in stopping and observing, or even helping, when the Sandanian voice suddenly stopped spitting commands, and there was a splashing sound coming from that way. The screams for help or shouts for mercy, nothing made them phase or even questiong what they did. They ran for their lives, commanded by their most basic instincts, as well as any kind of logic their minds were able to muster. The enemy seemed to have every advantage over them, including psychological, and the most logical thing to do was simply to run.

They passed another airlock, opened this time, but didn't stop to see whether to lock it or not. There was a screen nearby with some alien markings, and just looking at them was giving Mark a headache.

"The landing bay... is just... ahead!... The spaceships... Should be there..."

Kaliasi, who was clearly exhausted at this point, pointed out.

"And? Can you even fly something like that?"

"I'll figure it out... On a go."

The moment they passed the last airlock, they could see the landing bay for ships and shuttles. It wasn't wasn't as huge and grandiose as Mark would've imagined. It looked like a hangar, with smaller ships parked in a row, each of them in a painted area on the ground, but there were a lot of them missing.

There were only six of the smaller ones left, each similar in both size and shape to school buses. Some of them even had a familiar, yellow paint splattered across the hull.

There was, on the other side however, one bigger one that had a symbol of what looked like three fingered closed fist, surrounded by a circle of stars. It looked like a brick, was even red, a huge brick with like two guns mounted on the side, and a smaller caliber, but still the size of someone’s fist mounted in front. Kaliasi pointed at that one.

"We will take this one... Buy me some time!"

She said and ran to the mentioned ship.

"How the fuck am I supposed to do that?!"

"Figure it out! Look around, think! You are capable of that, right?"

Mark cursed silently and looked around while Kaloasi tries to override controls to even enter the ship. The familiar, dreaded stomping noise was returning, and coming close, which meant they didn't have much time. He approached the shuttles and saw like a computer console near the row where they were all parked. It looked locked. Without any better idea, he moved his arm with the cuff that still smelled like burned chips and held it to the terminal for a second.

"Welcome, user."

Mark almost jumped up, scared, when the console responded to that.

"Are you even scared of computers? Fuck me, those primitives..."

Kaloasi must've seen him just now and commented.

Mark shook his head without response and was checking the options, the user interface was showing up on his cuff and was still interactable, despite the damage. After few seconds he stepped away. The interface for the shuttle control was still on, even when he walked for a fair few steps, which could be quite useful.

He looked behind shuttles, and was checking out the tall, at least fourty feet high wall with lots of shelves that were storing some alien equipment on it. Mark didn't see any use in any of them, nothing really looked like a weapon. But then he began to think.

"Kaliasi, what do you use to unload ships and move cargo from them to storage area?"

He asked.

"You are such a primitive, of course we are using... Holy fuck, you actually got a half decent idea! It's there, in the corner, see if you can run it by yourself... Haha, finally I'm in!"

"Does that mean we can fly away already?"

Mark asked, hopeful.

"Na-ah, not yet. I only cracked the entrance controls, still need to break through the piloting desk security, and then figure out how to start this thing."

Mark saw her entering through the small hatch, and that was the end for their little conversation. He came to the corner, and saw a shape under a huge tarpaulin. He grabbed it, pulling it down, and smiled.

"Oh, yeah. You'll do."