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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Domr707 on 2025-10-14 23:27:16+00:00.
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Klaxons screeched as Kon raced along the narrow walkway, the heavy emergency duffel bag bouncing off his back with each desperate stride. Rumbles shook the ship as the pulse cannons fired again and again. One part of his mind noticed that each salvo had slightly fewer shots fired than the last. He pushed the negative thoughts out of his mind as he continued to run through the access corridors to the escape shuttles.
“All hands, abandon ship. This is not a drill. All hands, abandon ship. This is not a drill.” The ship's automated voice rang out over and over as the Dragon’s Maw shuddered again. Kon couldn’t help but think of the repercussions of his new home being shot out from under him. It had only been four months since he arrived, not even enough time to join a cadre.
He made the final turn and slapped his hand against the sensor to open the hatch that led to the main thoroughfare where the escape shuttles were docked. Smoke billowed around him, causing him to cough instantly as the toxic smoke scoured his throat and lungs.
Kon hit the deck to get under the worst of the yellow smoke. Training had equipped him for what to do in these types of situations, but the reality of it happening here and now shocked him. Using his toes and fingers, he scuttled down the hall toward the bay, relying on memory more than his compromised sight.
Hshzroo, the sound of energy weapons firing came down the hall, followed shortly by pained screams. Decidedly non-human screams. Shouts in foreign languages assaulted his ears, and Kon cursed as he found the door panel that operated the hangar’s blast door. It opened without a sound, and Kon raced in, slapping a blind hand behind him to close the blast door.
Without the choking smoke, Kon was able to clear his watery eyes and lungs, gasping in clean air as he took in the hurried, but still organized, evacuation of the ship. Clerks, technicians, and sailors were rushing to the appropriate shuttle while a half-dozen squires shouted above the clamor as they directed traffic. They were all wearing light armor that covered their chests, heads, thighs, and shins. Dull gray armor that light didn’t reflect off of. Each held a standard energy weapon, the type that wouldn’t melt through or pierce bulkheads and expose the inhabitants to the void of space.
Eight tubular shuttles sat in a line along the edge of the kilometer-long bay, each before a tunnel that would shoot them from the protected depths of the ship and into space. At the end of the tunnels were both a sealed blast door and an atmospheric shield. They would be lowering the blast doors while the shield could keep the ship pressurized; it wouldn’t stop anything physical from flying down the tunnels and into the heart of the ship.
A single Knight watched them all. The ship was small enough that Kon knew every Knight on sight, but Knight Evelyn Bosch wasn’t the social type. She wore her full power armor, a seven-foot-tall juggernaut of steel who projected a quiet air of confidence. Her own weapons weren’t standard weak-powered energy weapons, but a pair of short swords on her hip and an energy projector mounted on a wrist. Her suit would have more deadly surprises on it, but that was all Kon could notice as he started to race toward the stairs that connected the catwalk to the bay.
Another rumble shook the ship, more violent than all the others and Kon cursed as the stairs disappeared from under his feet. He hit the deck hard and rolled to disperse the energy of the fall. For a moment he worried about having broken the shoulder he had landed on, but the pain faded away as he got to his feet. More smoke began to fill the hangar as the Dragon’s Maw shook violently.
A beam of yellow energy sizzled by his head and Kon leapt to the side. Muscle memory pushed through his confusion as he looked around. The primary doors leading into the hangar had been blasted inward and a stream of black armored figures raced inside, firing their weapons indiscriminately into the crowd of evacuating crewmembers.
Flesh blackened as the water evaporated from bodies in bursts of steam sending corpses to the ground. Squires fired back as they walked fearlessly against the horde of invaders. Knight Bosch leapt, clearing the twenty meters in the blink of an eye. She landed among the invaders in a flash of green energy as she moved so fast she left afterimages behind her.
For a moment, Kon thought it was over. The survivors raced into the shuttles as discipline collapsed, the line of shuttles filled. Ramps raised and locked, and the shuttles detached from their anchors with a whumph as pneumatic cannons propelled them out of their launch bays and into space.
The line of eight shuttles quickly whittled down to just two; both of them were the furthest away from where Kon had come down. He kept his head low as he ran toward the shuttles and felt his heart fall as the seventh shuttle departed before he crossed the halfway mark. Smoke had flooded into the bay, the steam and smoke from those who had been hit by the energy weapons added to the confusion all around the cavernous bay.
A hulking shadow came barreling through the smoke, slamming into Knight Bosch with a cataclysmic sound of tearing metal. Kon froze as Bosch flew through the air and bounced off the ground twice before sliding to a halt in a spray of sparks. The squad of squires fired at the figure, but it launched itself at them without slowing, blades of viridian energy emanating from long claws that jutted from iron gauntlets. Squires died in seconds as their bodies were ripped apart.
Then Bosch was back, her swords singing and clanging with chaotic clashes of energy. The two figures danced through the smoke in a blitz of speed and martial prowess. Bosch was a foot shorter than the black armored monster and only half as broad, but each of her blows staggered it and she pinned it into a corner with a beautiful flurry that ended with a head rolling free. It had ended nearly as fast as it had begun, the Knight’s speed and strength superior to her opponent’s cultivation. Bosch kicked the head, her eyes then snapped to look at the open doors as a group of cadets came rushing through, led by a squire.
Bosch waved her sword at the survivors, directing them toward the only shuttle left. Kon was halfway across the kilometer-long bay. With thick plumes of smoke and the flashing Klaxons, he could only see the shuttle in flashes as the vents struggled to cleanse the air.
“They can’t see me,” Kon thought miserably as a squad of familiar looking cadets came running through the door the invaders had and raced directly into the open door of the shuttle. Kon came to a stop in the middle of the corpse-strewn bay and thought furiously. There were two other bays, but the sounds of fighting echoed down the halls, and he doubted he’d be able to scrape by again without encountering more of the invaders.
“Nobody likes a whiner. Get to it, Kon,” he spoke to himself, his voice loud in the suddenly silent bay. Following his own words, he went over to a dead squire, a boy’s face he vaguely recognized as being a few years older than himself. The rifle in his arms was molten slag, but the kinetic weapon on his hip was still functional.
A full magazine of 10mm rounds was in the weapon, but Kon didn’t find any more of the magazines on the body. Sounds were coming closer to him and Kon didn’t have any time to scavenge the other dead bodies. Pistol clenched tightly, he raced through the blown open lower doors the invaders had breached.
The hallway was clear; a few dead squires and more black -armored invaders stretched out. Heavy armored footsteps came behind him and Kon was forced to run faster. There were personal escape pods he could reach, a last line of evacuation for anyone who had been left behind by the shuttle’s departure. Unlike the shuttle bays that were buried in the heart of the ship, these were along the outer edge, behind only a thin layer of armor that wouldn’t resist pulse cannon fire for long.
He picked up speed, coughing and choking with harsh smoke, the smell of violence invaded his mouth and lungs with every deep breath. Sweat welled down his hand and pooled around his grip on the pistol. Every time he pumped his arms, the heavy weapon threatened to go leaping from his grip.
The sharp and clear fluorescent lighting snapped away and dim red emergency lighting lit up a split second later. The yellow hazard lights continued to flash about the halls. The smoke, dim lighting, and flashing lights created a nightmare-like feel to an already terrible encounter.
“Keep running, prey! I enjoy the hunt!” a deep voice boomed out from somewhere behind him. It was more growl than enunciated words, and the howl of enjoyment that followed it confirmed that it wasn’t human. Behind Kon was nothing but smoke and gloom. Heart thumping powerfully in his chest, he started to run.
His coughing worsened, but he forced his legs to keep churning. The signs and neon paint showed through the smoke, he used them to navigate as fear tried to cloud his mind. Another howl echoed behind him as he bounced off of a bulkhead in his haste, bruising his shoulder, but he kept his legs pumping.
He wasn’t far now; the edge of the ship was close by, but the number of corpses was increasing. The attackers had entered close to here, and the security forces had engaged them and lost. Squires and mundane security bodies were mixe...
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