Third Watch [Esteem Crew]

[Admin Account]

Did you know that there were over 900 crew on this ship? Possibly even more!

Ursula was usually weary about including a ship's crew on her potential-client list, but she wondered what the harm could be if there were so many of them--hell, she'd be robbing herself if she refused them! There was a lot of money on this ship and Ursula wouldn't turn her back on it because she was stuck on the same ship with them--after all, there were over 900 of these guys. It wasn't such a small world here.

She had been "working" when the alarms went off, and the Alliance lieutenant in which she'd been working with had sprung up at once, Ursula not close behind him. "Stay here," he had instructed, squeezing her shoulder, as he fled the shuttle.

The "shuttle". Yeah, right. It was more like a small ship all in itself! Things certainly were better on the Alliance side of the fence, Ursula had to admit. She felt stupid to ever feel sentimental about leaving Atlas. What had that ship ever offered her? If it had offered anything at all, it had certainly been topped once she'd boarded Esteem.

"Attention all crew, General Quarters! Report to your stations. This is not a drill. Repeat: this is not a drill, we are under attack!"

Well, this certainly was something that Esteem had that Atlas did not.

Ursula knew that if things got too bad, she could flee via her shuttle, and probably have to take a boatload of crew with her--but she was really hoping it wouldn't come to that. And how was she supposed to stay in her shuttle when they were apparently under attack? She felt lost and she wanted to be informed. Curiosity got the best of the cat, and she abandoned the shuttle. If worst came to worst, it would still be here, prepped for takeoff.

She climbed some stairs, and then another flight of stairs, Officers scrambling around to get to where they needed to be. Ursula found the bridge and saw a few officers standing together in a group; she recognized their faces but she didn't know any of their names. There was a black man, an asian woman, and a white woman together. Someone called one of the women over and she hustled over to where they were sitting, and they showed her something that made her face go white. Ursula gulped.

She approached the remaining two, and secured her shawl around her otherwise scantily-clad form. It was obvious what her place on this ship was.

"WHAT'S--GOING--ON?" She mirrored the exact question Amara had asked over the blaring sirens. "WHO IS ATTACKING US?"

The ship swayed and swerved, and Ursula grasped the handrail nearby in order to keep her balance--if she didn't, she could possibly be flung over it and several feet down onto the next surface. She was not risking her life today!

And then a colossal BOOM rocked the ship even more violently, and it didn't take a genius to know what that represented. They had been hit! Ursula's heart absolutely pounded in her chest, and she looked once more to the two officers standing nearby.

[amara]

Amara grasped the handrail as Kylie's voice came over the loudspeaker, announcing their 'under siege' status. She turned to Thomas. They were more like field officers, this was definitely not their department. They didn't have a battlestation on this ship because they weren't one of the people in charge of maneuvering it. She felt useless in a situation like this; her body and her guns were weapons, but there was no way that they could be of any help right now. What was she supposed to do?

One of the resident Companions approached them, looking disheveled and afraid. She asked what was going on, just as Amara herself had, and who was attacking them. ' ! I don't even know the answers to that.' More feelings of uselessness.

"CAN'T SOMEONE TURN THESE SIRENS OFF!" She yelled at the ceiling, feeling frustrated that she couldn't concentrate. And then, as if someone had actually heard her, they did. The loudspeaker came on again. "Everyone to your stations or bunks; hold on to something. Stand by for further instructions."

Judging by the way people calmed down considerably once the pressure of blaring sirens went off, Amara assumed that the people in the control room were trying to keep the panic to a minimum--which meant that they should be panicking.

"I'll be right back," she told Tom without regard to the confused Companion's questions. Instead she told her, "You might want to go back to your shuttle and hang on."

She approached Kylie at a swift pace. "How bad is it?" She asked in regard to the hit the ship had definitely taken. "What's our status? Who's out there?"

[darkreaction3]

At Amara's admission, Tom felt reassured. She was very happy for him, he could tell, but there was a caviat. A bit of surprise tainted her features. It told him that she hadn't thought he would have the self-control. He grasped this bit of information, gleaned some pride from the knowledge, and let it go. She was not to be faulted for the thought; he himself had not been sure he could do it. The unspoken assurance that she was there for him if need be was in fact something Tom had already gathered. That was the reasoning behind telling her of his accomplishment. He'd known she was the only one who would understand, who would care.

As a man of action, Tom never really thought to the future. Therefore, although he was only cautiously optimistic about being sober, he was searching only for the clarity of the moment. He was not worried about falling into old habits. If it happened, it happened. Que sera, sera. A flaw in his design, maybe, but the man only worried about the present. He slightly bowed his head to Amara. "Thank you." He might have said more, started a new avenue in their conversation, but they were rudely interrupted by the ship shaking and the wail of a siren.

Amara and plenty of others covered their ears. Tom simply grimaced and then narrowed his eyes, as if angry at the sirens themselves. "I don't know, Ama," he responded to her inquiry, raising his voice to be heard over the siren.

"Multiple contacts, dead ahead ma'am!"

His brow furrowing, one eyebrow raised, Tom glanced back at Amara. "We're under attack?" The words sounded more than unlikely; the thought was absurd. No one would be crazy enough to attack an Alliance cruiser. Tom was glad Kylie was keeping her wits about her; the young girl was showing more grit than he'd given her credit for, which was a happy surprise.

She was hailed by a midshipman, and Tom turned back to Amara. Talking was really out of the question with the sirens wailing, and anything he could have said would have been rhetorical anyway. He simply awaited orders. Kylie had the watch; although he outranked her, she was in charge.

The orders weren't long in coming. Battle stations. Amara looked at Tom, clearly at a loss. She didn't have a battle station, as such. Tom was about to speak when a scantily-clad blonde approached them, demanding to know what was going on. The ship rocked under his feet, and Tom mirrored the two women in using the handrail to steady himself. Rather than answering the Companion, Amara screamed in futility at the sirens. Strangely enough, the noise stopped. His ears ringing in the sudden silence, Tom glanced at Ursula. "We're under attack, miss. You shouldn't be up here."

In response to Amara's statement, Tom nodded. "I'll wait for you." In truth, he wanted to know what the hell was going on. He turned to the Companion once more. "She's right, you know. If something goes wrong, at least you could leave the Esteem in your shuttle. You should go." He was trying to be patient and polite, even though his blood and adrenaline was up and even though the Companion should not have just barged into the bridge area to begin with.

_____________________

ooc: I thought about it, and I think maybe Tom should be an LC because I think he was higher in ranking than Kylie when he greeted her, but I didn't want him to be too high on the totem pole. Plus, he was a Major (because my stupid self didn't know what ranking systems the Alliance used) before he was a captain, so maybe they just demoted him to his former rank (major is equivalent to lt. commander). What's funny, though, is that I always thought of Amara as outranking Tom. thoughts?
Got a few huge questions. If the Esteem is a cruiser, it's more like a floating city than anything. We never really got to see any Alliance cruiser fights in Firefly, but I'd imagine that although the cruisers do have ship-to-ship weapons, they probably have some sort of small ships to do fighting, maybe like the ones we saw attacking Serenity Valley in the pilot episode. If so, and if you guys think it's a good idea for Tom to be an LC, he would be in charge of one of those, and his 'battle station' would be on that fighter going to attack the Reavers. I dunno.
Also, hate to be annoying with all these questions, but the Reavers didn't really seem the type to ever attack a ship with missiles. More of the sneak-in-the-ship-so-we-can-eat-them-alive type creatures. Maybe the missiles being fired at the bow are a distraction? Again, thoughts? =]

[kyliegrasan]

Not all missiles hit the Esteem due to Aaron's maneuvering, but most of them impacted with a devastating blow and more lights on the board went on. As soon as Kylie picked herself up, she was approached by Amara.

"How bad is it? What's our status? Who's out there?"

Kylie didn't know. It wasn't her job to monitor it after all. They had a petty officer doing the damage monitoring. But telling by the missile impacts, Kylie knew that it was bad.

"Damage report!" Kylie said to the petty officer in charge.

"Multiple hull breaches in Compartiments 2, 6, 7 and 11, and multiple bow missile tubes severely damaged ma'am!" The petty officer answered.

"Meaning we're as good as defenseless in the front." Kylie thought, after quickly assessing the situation.

"Lieutenant! The Reaver ships are still moving in, danger close!" A midshipman said.

Trying not to show her fear became more difficult by the second for Kylie. She never even dreamed being put in a situation like this. And what were Reavers doing attacking a big Alliance carrier like the Esteem? More important, what were Reavers doing in non-Reaver territory?

Kylie sighed deeply in and out a couple of times, subtally, so hardly anyone could see she needed to find her breath again. What the hell was keeping the captain?

"Midshipman, where in the 'Verse is the captain???" Kylie asked, wondering what was keeping the man.

"Captain's not in his quarters, ma'am!" The midshipman replied. "He's not answering his portable communicator either!"

The situation just got better and better for Kylie. And now the captain was missing as well. But the Esteem needed action now, Kylie realized that. She and Aaron were the ranking officers on duty aboard the bridge, but since he was busy trying to steer the ship, she knew it would all come down to her. She had to take charge, or the Esteem was lost.

Quickly, Kylie thought on what to do and tried to anticipate what captain Garrett would do, so that if he would show up on the bridge, there would be hardly any surprises.

"Scramble the fighters!" Kylie ordered. "All squadrons, they're to attack the Reaver ships on sight!"

A petty officer picked up the horn and announced Kylie's order.

"Launch all fighters! Repeat: launch all fighters!"

Kylie turned around to tell Aaron to move the Esteem to starboard, so they could start firing on the Reaver ships as well, but only then did she notice that one of the Companions had come to the bridge and her safety was to be guaranteed in the case of an emergency. She walked in the Companion's direction so she wouldn't have to yell out all across the bridge.

"Miss Garvel, you need to get out of here! We..."

But before Kylie could finish her sentence, a giant grappling hook tore its way through the thick glass that kept the Esteem crew from taking a space walk. Kylie stumbled against a console as she could feel some of the glass in her neck. The grappling hook found its way through the bridge, piercing one unlucky petty officer through the stomach, and got stuck on the wall next to where Aaron was standing.

It was a gruesome sight, but the bridge crew didn't have the time to look at it. The hole in the window caused the rest of the window to crackle, up to a point to where it was going to break. Kylie noticed this but before she could warn the rest of the crew to get out of there, the window broke and started to suck the air out of the bridge.

The petty officers and midshipmen who stood too close to the window were immediately sucked out into a certain death, others who saw the glass break were able to hang on to something.

Kylie started sliding on the floor, toward the hole, but then she grabbed on to the bottom of a console. The sharp edges of the console hurt her fingers, but Kylie knew that if she would let go she'd fall into a certain death.

What were actually just mere seconds seemed like an eternity, and normally the emergency shutters should've been brought down automatically by now, but they appeared to be malfunctioning. The only chance the bridge crew would have now was if someone would push the emergency shutter button, to activate them manually.

Kylie kept hanging on, her fingers badly aching, hoping it wouldn't take too long.

[OOC: So which one of you is going to save the day? lol And Christina, I think it would be best if Tom would be a Lieutenant-Commander. You could have him go out in a fighter, or you can have him taking charge after the emergency shutters go down. But I think it would be great if Amara, Ursula, Tom, Aaron and Kylie would stick together and fight off Reavers trying to get into the bridge or something. ]

[aaronpark]

CRAP! the Lieutenant thought when he noticed that the subtle fact that all the air and heat was being rapidly sucked out of the bridge. He couldn't maneuver while he was turning so he just set the ship so that the least populated/important sections were pointed toward the enemy.

He could feel the air get steadily colder and he knew what needed to be done if he didn't want to go against Reavers face to face. He ran over to the side and sat down on his so as to put more friction against the floor while still giving him more ability to maneuver. He almost got to the button when he realized his mistake. He now needed to stand and that would throw himself off balance. He backed up slightly, but he didn't have much time. Air was nonexistent this close to the empty space that truly ruled the verse and he was being pulled by the forces of nature.

He lifted one knee so that he was now kneeling. He then quickly pulled off his shoe. Just in case. He stood up quickly and immediately lost his balance. He fell forward toward the opening as he threw his shoe to the side of the button and the vacuum pulled it and hit. He slammed into the shutter as it closed. Avoiding death by an inch and a milisecond. he grabbed his shoe and walked back to his chair/

[kyliegrasan]

The sudden closing of the emergency shutters caused Kylie to bump her head fairly hard. They were saved, for now at least.
When she tried to get up, she remained seated on her knees for a short bit because she felt dizzy. It was then she also noticed that her forehead was wet, and when she felt it she noticed she was bleeding. She had a small gash on her forehead, and blood was coming out of it, pouring itself over her face and over her uniform.

Kylie took her handkerchief, which hadn't been used yet, and held it against the wound to try and stop the bleeding. She then got up and decided to check on the others.

Unfortunately, the first thing she noticed was the pierced petty officer's body who was hanging at the wall. Kylie immediately averted her look and pinched her eyes shut. The sight of it was just too horrible and it was nothing she had ever seen before. It was almost certain an image that would stay with her for the rest of her life, as a reminder on how horrible and inhumane Reavers really are.

When she finally had the courage to open her eyes again, she noticed Aaron sitting in the chair at the helm. He seemed a bit out of it as well, yet she noticed he also seemed relieved to be out of danger. Kylie was relieved to see that Aaron was okay.

However, when she turned around more death awaited for her to see. The body of Ursula Garvel lay in front of her now, yet it wasn't gruesome like the petty officer's body. The body had a certain sense of serenity around it, as if the companion knew how to remain elegant even after she had died.
Kylie got down to one knee and checked to see if Ursula still had a pulse. She didn't. By the look of it it seemed that she had broken her neck after she got apparently slammed into a controlpanel when the hull was breached.
As a last service to her, Kylie closed Ursula's eyes and put her hands on her chest, like the way she'd be put in a coffin. It was the least she could do for the deceased companion after she and the rest of the crew had failed to keep her safe.

Kylie then got up and started looking for more survivors. She couldn't see Tom or Shai anywhere.

"Tom! Shai! You guys, answer me!" Kylie said, hoping either one of them would respond.

[darkreaction3]

At Kylie's call to scramble the fighters, Tom exchanged a glance with Amara. That was his cue to leave. "Be careful," he said, and she gave him a look that clearly said I'm always careful. He began to take off, following orders, when a giant crash rocked the bridge. Swept off his feet, he crashed into the floor and slid into the railing. Bruised and battered, bleeding from a head injury, he still had the presence of mind to clutch the railing. Tom turned his head slowly, wincing at the pain, and watched the horror unfold. People were being sucked out into nothingness. The emergency shutters were not working, and he knew someone would have to hit the button. He began sliding carefully towards it, holding fast to the rail, but saw Aaron was closer and moving to do it himself. So, he simply clung to the railing and hoped Aaron could make it in time.

Wonder of wonders, he did. The shutters closed, Aaron seeming to be injured in the process, but not enough to waive him from his duties. Tom's esteem for the man went up slightly. Kylie was blocked from his view by the console, but he could just see the body of the Companion. As cold as it seemed, she was not his concern at the moment. He wanted to, needed to, find Amara. Standing shakily, he glanced around. She was nowhere to be seen. "A-Ama?" he called softly in an uncharacteristically shaky voice. Clearing his throat, he was about to call again in a louder tone when his voice caught. His mouth snapped shut and his throat clicked as he swallowed sharply. His friend's body was laying motionless beneath the shutters. She had probably struck them when they closed.

Moving towards her, his mind replayed what had just happened over and over again. He was already wondering what he could have done differently, how he could have saved her. Blaming himself. Kneeling beside her, he scooted a few inches forward on his knees. "Amara. Ama." He muttered her name a few times, as if hoping there was some chance she'd wake up, some chance she'd fix him with a sarcastic smirk and tell him to stop worrying about her. She didn't move. He gently slid his arms beneath her prone form and rolled her over, into his grasp, into his lap and his arms. Her once strong body was limp and seemed so small. He brushed her dark hair from her face. A thread of blood ran from her mouth down her pale chin. He wiped it away gently with the side of one hand and then just held her, his face blank, the look in his eyes just starting to register his bitter shock.

"Tom! Shai! You guys, answer me!"

The voice didn't register. He wouldn't answer, couldn't answer.
Amara would never answer anything ever again.
Kylie's call didn't matter. The Reavers attacking the ship didn't matter. His own injuries didn't matter. It didn't feel like anything would ever matter again. Tom was feeling a familiar numbness, but one not induced by drugs.

[aaronpark]

Aaron got the ship turned but there wasn't much he could do at this point. He looked araund and saw the carnage that had taken place. Lieutenant Grasan was back on her feet and giving orders, calling for Tom and Amara. He had never really gotten to know either of them too well. In fact, Kylie was the only one that had been courteous to him. He scanned the bridge when he saw Tom cradling Amara's limp body. Gorram it, I hate these reavers, he thought to himself with both anger and sadness. He had never much cared for Amara but he still hoped she pulled through. Tom seemed to be out of commission for the time being.

He turned to Kylie and saw that she was slightly wounded but appeared to be okay. "Lieutenant Grasan, there's isn't much I can do here. those blasts must have hurt our turning capability." Usually he would say this type of thing to get out of more work, but when Reavers were put in the picture, it was fight or flight and the Esteem didn't have fast enough engines for the latter choice. "If I may, I'd like to pilot one of the fighter craft."

What in the name of all that is right in the verse am I doing, he thought as the words came out of his mouth. He had just volunteered to put himself in even more danger and he could not figure out why. First he risked being pulled into nothingness when he could have just stayed at his terminal and now he was going to fight Reavers in an uneven (to their advantage fight. But he couldn't talk himself out of it. This wasn't Aaron Legran anymore, this was Lieutenant Legran, son of General Legran taking over. He wasn't sure how he felt about this or why it was happening, he just knew that it was happening and he really didn't mind that much.

[kyliegrasan]

Due to her aching wound on her head Kylie was still a bit out of it herself and needed a few seconds to get her thoughts back into the game. She frankly had no idea what there was to do next. She was the watch officer, but apparently someone had put her in charge of the survival of the ship now.

Aaron had asked her if he could leave his post to join the fight outside in a fighter, but then something else Aaron said hit her. The turning capability was lost, so that meant the Esteem was dead in the water which frightened her even more.

In the meantime, one of the petty officers took place at his post again and checked the status of the ship.

"Lieutenant! I'm getting reports of entries everywhere! We've been boarded!" He said with certain amount of fear in his voice.

It terrified Kylie as well. She knew that once Reavers got a hold of you, you'd better come up with a way to either kill them or kill yourself. The situation on the Esteem became more desperate by the minute.
Yet, as luck would have it, Kylie managed to bring up one last spark of courage, which allowed her to do her job once again.

"Dispatch marines immediately to the entry sites! Repel the boarders!" Kylie said. "Get a team of marines up here as well, and call for a medical urgence team, we need one ASAP!"

Kylie then turned back to Aaron, knowing she couldn't let him go anywhere alone at this moment. There was going to be a time to fight, now wasn't it yet.

"Sorry Aaron, but I can't let you go anywhere by yourself now." Kylie said. "Now help me check the wounded until the medical team arrives!"

That being said, Kylie turned away from Aaron to check on the wounded men and women on the bridge. As she helped one wounded petty officer sit up straight, she noticed Tom sitting near one of the emergency shutters in the front of the bridge, holding sergeant Shai.
Kylie walked over to Tom, and noticed the strain of blood coming from sergeant Shai's mouth, and the absence of breathing. She was killed as well. Kylie knew that sergeant Shai and Tom were friends, and he was obviously mourning for his friend, not paying attention to anything else that was going on, he was obviously out of it.
Kylie planned on telling Tom that he was the ranking officer now, and that he had to take command, yet she wasn't sure if he was able to fulfill his duty now.

She got down on one knee, next to Tom and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"She's gone, Tom." Kylie said. "I'm sorry."

For a moment there was a silence, with only the sound of the space battle going on outside. It ended abruptly when all of a sudden sparks came out of the emergency shutter. The Reavers were going to come in, and there was no stopping them.

Kylie shielded her face with one hand to make sure the hot sparks wouldn't hit it. She knew immediately what was going on. She panicked and jumped up thinking this was it for them. They were going to die on that bridge. Due to the shortage she hadn't been issued a service-pistol yet, and there was no other way of defending herself.

"Gorrammit! They're coming in!" Kylie yelled. "Get the wounded outta here! And where are those gorram marines???"

She noticed Tom hadn't budged yet, he was still holding Shai's lifeless body.

Kylie grabbed Tom's arm and started yanking on it, hoping that would get him out of it.

"Tom! We've got to go! Now!" Kylie yelled. "Come on! Don't do this to me!"

[darkreaction3]

Tom registered the hand on his shoulder, the soft voice of Kylie in his ear, but he said nothing. He studied Amara's face, the soft feel of her hair against his skin. She was too young, too talented to be taken in such a meaningless and horrible way. Without her, his rock, where would Tom end up? His shock was ebbing away slowly, being replaced by pulses of fury as steady as his heartbeat. The pulses steadied and he let the anger take hold, his muscles tightening, his jaw rigid. He would take down all of those Reavers, rip them limb from limb. Revenge was all that was on his mind now, but he still didn't look up. He didn't want to leave her just yet.

The sparks showering down around the three and Kylie's grabbing his arm finally caused him to tilt his head back and address the situation. Unfortunately, he addressed it the wrong way. His lips drew back from his teeth in a predatory sneer. "Let them come," he growled, drawing his weapon as he balanced Amara in one arm. A spark hit him in the arm, hissing as it burned him, and a couple more fizzled on Amara's clothes. The pain from the burn seemed to shock some sense into him. Reality began coming back to him, from the ache in his head to the dead body in his arms and the desperate Lieutenant yelling orders and trying to help shake him from his shock.

His face hardened into its usual impassive state and he stood, carefully hefting Amara's body into his arms. "I'm sorry, Kylie. I'm coming, but I'm not leaving her." He was not going to leave her body to be ravaged by the creatures that would soon board the Esteem, or to be sucked out into the Black when they breached the hull once more. However, once he got her body to the infirmary, he was boarding a fighter. He was going to kill some Reavers for this, and no one had better stand in his way. He glanced at Kylie. "You're hurt. You should go to the infirmary." His eyebrows knitted together in concern, then he looked at Aaron. "Legran, that was a good save," he said evenly to the Captain, as if he was not suffering an emotional breakdown and as if he were not carrying his best friend's body. The robot Tom was back. It was all he really knew how to do.

[kyliegrasan]

That was it. An order from a senior officer to get her cute behind out of there. That was all the old Kylie would need.

But not this Kylie, not the woman she had become over the past few months as an officer on the Esteem. She had learned now what it meant to be in charge of others, what it was like to have people depending on her, and what it was like to give orders that could mean life or death for a lot of people.

She wasn't going anywhere until she knew the bridge was secure once again. She knew that if they lost the bridge, they'd lose the ship and then all would be lost. There was no such thing as mercy when fighting Reavers, and Kylie had no intention of dying that day.

"No one is going to get left behind, Tom." Kylie answered her commander. "But if we lose the bridge, we lose the ship and I'm not leaving until everything is secure and everyone is safe up here."

A team of marines came in as Kylie stood up again. She walked over to the marine who stood nearest to her.

"Marine, give me your sidearm." Kylie ordered the young man.

The marine immediately complied, and handed his sidearm over to Kylie.

The commander of the marines ordered his team to take aim at the sparks, where the Reavers were cutting a whole in the emergency shutter. Kylie put the safety from her acquired handgun off and looked around at the rest.

She wasn't afraid anymore. Sure, her heart was beating but with every beat she became more motivated to survive. She knew the wounded people who were brought to the corridor were depending on her and the others to fend off the Reavers.

Kylie may not have been a supporter of the Alliance, but she'd be damned if she was going to let it kill her and those that she had befriended during her time on the Esteem.

She wasn't going to take a single step backwards. She was going to fight off the Reavers from the bridge, or die trying.

"That goes to all of you!" Kylie said to everyone on the bridge. "If you're not dead or dying, pick up a weapon and fight!"

Kylie took aim at the sparks as well now. One side of her face was bloody, and her uniform had been stained with her own blood as well. The mixture of the salt from her sweat with her open wound stinged like hell, but she didn't feel it anymore.

She waited for the first gorram Reaver to try and stick his ugly head out of that hole. One final thought went through her head before all hell would break loose.

"They'd better not have messed with my stuffed bunny!"

[darkreaction3]

Tom was not in the least bit surprised when Kylie refused to leave. The corners of his lips curled up in some semblance of a smile. "No, I didn't think you would." He called to the man who'd just surrendered his sidearm to Kylie. When he came over obediently, Tom gently deposited Amara into his arms. The man looked down at the body, then back at Tom in surprise. Tom grabbed the mans collar in one fist and brought his face close to his. Reading off his nametag, he addressed him. "Williams, I need you to take this woman to the infirmary right now. I better find her there without a scratch on her when I'm done here." He released poor Williams, who stumbled slightly in his haste to get off the bridge with his burden.

Tom shook himself as if to clear his head. His plans had changed. If Kylie and the others were to stay and fight, so would he. Pulling his weapon once more, he readied it and looked over at Kylie, letting her remain in command. In the back of his mind, he knew he was not fit at the moment to take over. His desire for revenge would endanger the whole crew, and that wasn't right. He'd only endanger himself. He watched her with something like admiration. She'd seemed a little green when she'd started, but now here she was with a bleeding head wound and a gun in her hand, shouting orders and remaining calm. He was impressed. Following her lead, Tom and the rest of their fighters took aim and waited, an anticipatory sneer stretching Wright's features.

ooc: woulda waited for aaron, but he's gonna be gone for a week or so he said. sorry it's sorta short.

[kyliegrasan]

Kylie could feel her heartbeat in her throat as she saw the sparks reach back to where they began. A square pattern emerged, a hole where the Reavers would be coming through. It was pretty much the only advantage Kylie and the others had. The Reavers would have to come through there, and they could only hope to keep them at bay before they entered the bridge.

She also knew that afterwards they had to prevent the Reaver ship from leaving. Because if it did it would create yet another breach, but then there would be no hope of sealing the breach, considering the hole itself was in the emergency shutter.

Then, a loud clang sound, followed by a moment of silence. Kylie looked at the hole through her pistol's visor, but she couldn't see anything else except smoke.

The entire crew was caught of guard when all of a sudden three arrows with a rope attached came through the hole, and teared through the bodies of three unlucky crewmembers. As they were yanked back to the hole, Kylie took cover in order not to end up as them.

"Duck!" Kylie yelled, hoping everyone else would comply.

They did. Officers, enlisted and marines alike took cover. Not for very long though. The commander of the marines took a quick look toward the hole, and set himself in a firing position.

"Return fire!" He yelled.

The marines complied, and they started to fire at the hole, toward the advancing Reavers who were trying to make a break for the bridge, and to try to get close to the Esteem's defenders so that they could club or stab them to death.

Kylie too came out of cover, and aimed her pistol at a nearby Reaver and started firing. She didn't hesitate for a second. After all, killing a Reaver was nothing like killing another fellow human being. Along with the help of a fellow marine and officer the Reaver went down.

Kylie aimed at who she could, shooting her pistol as she saw fit, but the Reavers kept on coming. As if it didn't matter to them that they were being fired upon.

When Kylie's pistol started clicking, she took cover knowing that it was empty. She looked around, searching for someone who could provide her with a clip, but everyone was preoccupied with fighting off the Reavers. Luckily for her, the machinegun of a nearby killed marine lay within range, so Kylie grabbed it and aimed once again at the Reavers. She pulled the trigger but the recoil of the weapon surprised her a bit. She clicked the weapon from fullauto into burst, and started shooting at the Reavers again.

Seconds soon turned into minutes, and Kylie and the others kept fighting, up until the moment where there were no Reavers to fight anymore. Seeing this, Kylie let herself slide into a sitting position with her back leaning against a console. She tried catching her breath while the marines made sure the Reaver ship was empty. Luckily it was. Apparently the Reavers' pilot had himself killed as well.

Kylie just stared ahead of her. In her head she was still trying to understand what happened in the last ten minutes. Her wound started to ache, but it would soon turn out that it would be the least of her worries before this night was over.

[aaronpark]

Legran didn't have his gun. He couldn't remember if he had brought it or if it had been sucked out of its holster by the vacuum of the void. He crouched down behind his console and started feeling a familiar panic come over him. Aaron grabbed the small pocket knife he had in his pocket and opened it. There was always the chance he could get one or two before he was tortured to death by the creatures that used to be human.

Suddenly the firing stopped after the continuous fire. He glanced over at the hole the Reaver had made. "We need to evacuate the bridge, RIGHT NOW!" the pilot yelled to everyone. This was a Reaver contingency plan. If the assault failed the ship would detach itself everyone would die. In about five seconds that hole is gonna reopen and we're it's going to be getting a lot colder in here." He didn't try to hide the panic in his voice. Even if they managed to get out in time, the Reavers had likely breached other areas of the ship. Legran silently prayed to whatever god would listen

[darkreaction3]

Tom growled in fury as three of their crew were speared through, but he complied to Kylie's command and rolled quickly behind cover. Both hands on his weapon, he swung only part of his body out from the cover, ready to fire. Unlike the marines, he would fire only when he saw the whites of his enemies' eyes, so to speak. He didn't have to wait long. The Reavers poured swiftly from the hole, and he began coldy and mechanically picking them off. Kylie left her cover, and he stood, still firing as he flanked her. He'd never been this close to Reavers, and the horror these former humans had inflicted upon themselves was clearly visible as he aimed at each tortured form. They kept coming, even after being shot, and as Kylie ducked to reload, Tom took up post nearby to cover her.

She came up with an even better weapon, and Tom's lips twisted into a smirk as he took the opportunity her bursting fire gave to reload his own weapon. It took him only seconds and a few practiced flicks of the wrist and he was ready to fight once more. However, there were no more targets. His stomach dropped with a sudden sense of foreboding. The adrenaline and the pain, both physical and emotional, had stopped him from seeing it before, but he could see it all too clearly now. If there was anyone lefft on the ship, the Reavers could easily break their seal from the Esteem, and the hole would be reopened. Death for all on the bridge. He just had to hope they were all dead. Retreat was not an option.

The marines boarded the ship, and part of Tom, the part that had broken at the sight of his dead friend, wanted to tear after them and to kill anyone left on the Reaver ship, but his weariness and pain took over. He slumped next to Kylie, shoulder to shoulder, solemn as he watched Aaron start to panic. "Legran," he said quietly. "Our men will make sure the ship is empty and that it remains attached." He didn't mention that the same thought had occurred to him; he had to trust their marines. Turning his head, he glanced at Kylie. "You alright, kid?" The term was clearly almost affectionate in nature, not at all meant to be condescending. "You did really well." He popped the safety on his weapon and slid it back into its holster. "The best thing to do would be to clear out the injured, then the dead. Don't let them panic like Legran" He was still speaking quietly, obviously still relinquishing the leadership position to her. His mind was not quite up to the task of ordering others around, and it wouldn't be fair of him to take over now, after the battle she had so successfully led, even if he was up to it.