Beep..beep..beep, the sounds of beeping and sparks were constantly sounding out, a dark interior occasionally lit up, giving glimpses of a body that had been, not even ten minutes ago, joyfully watching a program on his hologram.
The creaking of the metal hull that had been eviscerated let it be known to all who entered that the ship was in a horrible state and wouldn't be safe to live in.
Within this tragedy, a breath suddenly sounded out, and following this, a series of coughs sounded out.
"Wha- where am I?" A man said while groggily holding his now injured head, disorientated he lifted his face and began to look around. He saw that his surroundings were seemingly wrecked, and after a moment's notice and a shake of his head, he began to remember.
He was Ridge Glovee, second in command of the battleship H.C Heart, tasked with the mission of finding out what happened to the colony planet in the Coro system that was going to take a max of ten months to complete, supposedly.
From what he remembered while they were making the journey to the Coro system to find out why communications had been cut off, transmissions from the home system of Earth had also been cut off, not without leaving an ominous message that simply stated, " Don't come back."
After contemplating with the crew for ages on what that meant, Ridge decided to just take a break and watch something entertaining that he had luckily downloaded before any sort of communications got cut, then out of nowhere, a red alert began to sound out, and one thing led to another, which brought him to the present time.
Scratching his head and slightly wincing in pain, he sat up and carefully moved towards what was the doorway to try and get out. Before he did this, however, he first grabbed a mask that was luckily undamaged as well as an oxygen tank that was within a compartment underneath his now disheveled bed. Luckily, while the lights seemed to have been shut off, everything else was in ok condition, just shaken up and thrown around the room, mostly.
Feeling around, he also found a flashlight that was in the emergency compartment placed in everyone's quarters. Turning it on, he was blessed with sight, and of course, he was now also able to see the undamaged spacesuit that could allow him to survive in the harsh environment of space without the protection of a ship and its many amenities. Better to be safe than sorry, he thought to himself. Simply grabbing the suit and putting it over his current uniform, he took some time to set up the flashlight and carefully suited up piece by piece.
The grey suit was almost skin-tight and capable of withstanding even a bullet shot at point-blank range, not to mention the heat and cold of space. Of course, exposure to all three things for too long would deteriorate the suit and lead to the eventual demise of whoever wore it.
The occasional sparks within the room, as well as any creaking, left no doubts within his mind that he should hurry up. After suiting up, he grabbed the flashlight once again and moved to the doorway. It was primarily electronically based; however, in case of emergency, there was supposed to be a lever to the right of the door that would open it manually if the electronics were simply roasted.
Looking at the panel that was cracked, Ridge shook his head and then pointed the flashlight towards the right of the door where the manual switch should be located. Seeing the compartment within the wall, he opened it up, firmly held the lever, and then pulled.
Putting all his strength into it, he finally, after a very cumbersome amount of time, pulled it down and watched as the door slowly opened. Letting out a quick breath and having made sure the lever was locked in at the bottom, he nodded to himself, then went back into the compartment to grab the extra oxygen tank. He also fully masked up and made sure that his suit was airtight.
Unfortunately, there weren't any weapons available, so he could only leave barehanded besides the flashlight. The ship itself had around a hundred crew members, so there should hopefully be someone who made it out like him. He didn't even know if they were still floating in space or not. His room, unfortunately, was in a position on the ship where there were no windows that would allow him to see personally.
From what he recalled, they were just about halfway to the mission objective, meaning it was highly likely they were still in space since there weren't many planets to crash into for most of this journey.
Ridding himself of these thoughts, Ridge walked through the dark hallways of the ship with only his breathing and footsteps being heard alongside the occasional sparks that showed up from the ripped cords and wiring. From his room, there was only a straight hallway, and then there would be a left turn as well as a right turn. Assuming everything was fine in the engine room, it would be best to go right to look for any survivors.
Walking through the debris and making his way to the end of the hallway, he flashed his light to the left and saw that there seemed to be some damage, but nothing serious that would endanger the engine. As he was wondering about where to go, a sudden pop of inspiration appeared in his head: the engine room.
"How could I be so dumb?" he murmured to himself, eventually moving left and straight towards the engine. The ship itself was powered by a sort of nuclear reactor and although he wasn't knowledgeable enough to fix it if the reactor was damaged, he could still make sure that the backup power in some of the excess battery storage that was used for situations like this was turned on so that the lights and also life support system was kept on and operating at full capacity. This would also help the others who might be unharmed.
As of right now, considering that the lights were turned off, it was highly likely that the life support system was being powered solely by an automatic energy storage that could run out at any moment, so it was best to make sure the extra storage was connected and online.
Finally passing most of the debris and bypassing any security doors that had now been opened, he made it to the final door, which read engine room. Opening this door, he walked right into the darkness with his flashlight and saw that there were still some green lights shining out on some of the batteries on the right side of the room. The core of the engine room, which was the nuclear reactor, was also placed in the middle of the room, and taking an initial glance at it revealed there wasn't any substantial damage that he could immediately recognize.
All good signs for sure, walking up towards the extra batteries on the right, he took a look at the flashing panel, which typically gave readily accessible information on the status of the batteries.
"Hmm, access is still needed, code is... two-two-three-eight?" Scratching his head, Ridge spoke aloud and tried to remember the code that would give him access to the batteries. By a stroke of luck, the code was accepted. Nodding to himself, Ridge began typing in a directive towards the system to begin its siphoning of power.
Suddenly, the ship began shaking once again, which caused Ridge to look up and around in surprise. The low rumbling only seemed to last for a little bit, and after it ended, he tilted his head slightly left and let out a sigh.
"Hopefully nothing explodes."
Letting out a murmur, he then began re-focusing his attention on the panel. After a series of fiddling with the many differing menus that were filled with a bunch of words he didn't understand, Ridge finally managed to redirect the batteries. He then activated the emergency protocol, and soon enough, a powering-up sound emitted from the batteries, and the lights began to turn on within the engine room. His suit readings also began to register that there was a sustainable environment on the ship that was reliable, meaning it wasn't necessary to continue wearing the mask.
"This will have to do, for now; anything else involves more technical stuff."
Speaking to himself, Ridge left the room and began to backtrack until he was back to where he came from in the hallways, and from there continued exploring in areas that he hadn't managed to sweep through yet.
Occasionally, while walking and searching, the lights within the ship flickered or were completely busted, which prompted the use of Ridge's flashlight here and there. During his time looking around for other people, he also assessed any damage the ship seemed to have taken. For example, some of the torn metal didn't seem to appear due to any external damage, but rather it was self-inflicted. Perhaps this just wasnt the area that was hit with something, though, so Ridge only noted within his mind the areas heavily damaged.
Confused Ridge had wandered for what seemed like an hour, and finally, after being in this state of confusion for a while, he came across some sounds. Different ones from the typical creaks and falling of metal. It was the sound of fighting!
Hurrying his pace and picking up a piece of metal that would work as a weapon, he moved quickly and turned towards a hallway that seemed to lead right. What came into view was a makeshift wall made of the different debris from the ship, as well as furniture. Behind said junk were at least ten of his crew members fighting other crew members who didn't seem to be in their right minds. Judging by their erratic movements, not to mention that they seemed to be charging towards the ten behind the wall. With the noise he made while running, the attention of the survivors was quickly attracted to him, and a woman who sounded like one of his engineers quickly called out.
"Vice commander! You're still alive!"
Although he didn't know what was going on, he nodded and picked up his metal piece and began wacking at the infected crew members. Luckily, the fifteen or so crew members that were charging at the others seemed to also have some sort of fungus growing out of them, which helped to differentiate who was who when they got close in.
Noticing that Ridge didn't call back, the engineer also turned her attention to fighting these infected, and the others followed suit, focusing on surviving.
Thump after thump sounded out, and with heavy grunting as well as the shouts of the others, the scene was very chaotic to say the least. Ridge whacked as hard as he could to kill the infected. fortunately His efforts seemed to help alleviate some of the pressure from the other crew, but due to this, he had attracted the attention of the infected, with at least five seemingly turning around to fight him. Dodging a claw-like attack from the infected, he dashed to the right with his metal piece and quickly swung it to his left, directly wacking the face of the infected.
Before he could revel in his successful hit, another attack from some of the infected came about and nearly scratched him. Using the piece of metal he found as a shield, he grunted as the attack landed. Whatever it was that took control of them also enhanced their strength, clearly, Ridge thought to himself as he pushed the attacker away.
Taking some steps back, Ridge quickly ducked and weaved between some of the infected attackers and decided to join the others in their defense. It would be way easier that way. During his distraction, the others had also managed to take out at least another five of the infected with no casualties, which meant there were only ten left, five of which he had attracted.
Controlling his breathing, he rushed past a lot of the infected, and with a couple of swings to move some out of the way, he climbed atop the structure and, with the help of an outstretched hand from one of the crew members, he made it past the wall.
Giving a quick thanks, Ridge turned around quickly and began to hit back at the infected that closely followed behind him. The man who saved him also did the same; now wasn't the time to talk. While fighting, Ridge evaluated the situation and knew that they would be victorious with no losses. It wouldn't take long to finish the rest off. Soon enough, they would all have time to talk and discuss what happened here.