| abstract
| - There was darkness, everlasting, bleak, serene, darkness, though there was something amiss, he could feel it, an echo through the void, a tremor coursing across his body. Seconds passed, and the rumble reverberated once again, stronger this time. He could hear the muffled sounds of men’s voices, and the continued rumbling, both growing louder and louder. “Taylor! Taylor! Taylor!” the voice was resonating and clear now, “Taylor wake up!” he yelled. His eyes fluttered, the darkness was breached by waves of blurry fluorescent light and vibrations. As he adjusted to brightness the blur began to fade and above him he was a dark haired, dark eyes, pale skinned human, Lance Shaw. “Get your ass up!” His shouting was urgent, panicked. Reality was setting in quickly as the room rocked violently to what sounded like explosions, knocking items from the shelves and containers. Taylor popped up, panting as he attempted to catch his breath, but another jolt forced him to stumble to his knees, and as he recovered he wiped the crust from his blue eyes and stressfully ran his hand through his dirty blonde undercut. “What the fuck is happening?!” he inquired, confused and distraught by the situation. Lance was rushing to equip his hardsuit, frantically scrambling his hands across the gear, “we’re under attack, Captain ordered everyone to the lifeboats” his normal cool demeanor was nowhere to be seen, a sight his friend wasn’t accustomed to. “You better get your gear on incase there’s any breaches in the ship.” Taylor scurried to his feet and to his locker as he began digging through the clothes within, he wasn’t sure what was going on, if this was a dream or not, but he was intent on surviving. “Forget the jacket man!” Lance ordered, only to be answered by a mulish stare and a figure wag from Taylor, who wasn’t about to leave a prized possession behind. Out from the locker he pulled a deep purple track jacket with black trim, and a golden crest centered on the chest. Throwing it on he began to equip his hardsuit as well. “Who the Hell is attacking us?” He asked, it was anyones guess as to who in the Outer Rim would attack a research vessel, mercenaries, pirates, worse. “Your guess is as good as mine man, but we need to move.” Lance approached the vessel’s intercommunication system, pounding it on and calling to the lifeboats. “This is security officer’s Shaw and McClellan, we are on route to the lifeboats.” “Move your asses Shaw” a voice answered back, strong and firm, it was the Captain, Kasper Martial, “the ship won’t last much longer.” “So what, these guys didn’t make any demands they just started firing?” Taylor questioned, still bewildered by the situation, the adrenaline had him just searching for some sort of answer. Shaw sealed his helmet shut and opened the rooms door and the two rushed into the corridor hoping to find any other crew members. “Pretty much, they’ve been peppering us with shots, I’m not complaining, but why they haven’t just blown our ship up already it beyond me. But this doesn’t make any sense as is.” Lance was just as distraught over the attack. The ship which Taylor had come to call a home for the past month had changed drastically, not a crew member was in sight, and the sounds of explosions and alarms replaced the sounds of laughter, music, and chatter. The two sprinted their way through the ship before reaching a sealed door, on the other side stood a Turian and a Krogan, Saelian Praxiun and Rhoen, two other members of Aetherius’s security detail. “Doors sealed” Lance said as he began fiddling with the security pad, “As if things aren’t bad enough. There’s a breach, we have to depressurize. Just one second.” He rushed, his nerves clearly getting the better of him as his fingers slipped across the buttons. Saelian and Rhoen looked up to notice the two. Taylor glanced out the portside view and across the empty space he could see the large vessel firing on them. Human in design but lacking any real symbols of a military or organization on it. As he looked back to Lance he caught a flash out of his peripheral, and his reactions kicked, as he dove forwards for Lance to try and get out of the way of what was coming. “Get down!” he screamed as a projectile slammed into the ship, the sounds of metal tearing and twisting resonated and almost in slow motion he could see the debris, glass, and metal ripping through the space in front of him as his body shifted towards the wall. Lance floated away from the security door, reaching out to grab onto something, and suddenly all the noise dissipated, just muffled silence as the vacuum grabbed onto them, Taylor could only hear the amplified sounds of his own panicked breath. That instant of time ended and what was slow became fast and horrific. As the vacuum of space opened, Taylor’s instincts kicked in, his body began to glow blue with dark energy he grasped the destroyed remnants of the corridor still attached to the Aetherius, his biotics clamping him down as felt his fingers pierce through the metal, grinding through as dragged through to a stop. He could see Lance flying towards him and reached out, but their fingertips just grazed, and Taylor could only look back in terror as Lance jettisoned past him. He felt a chill rise up his spine as he witnessed his friend spinning deeper into the void of space. He couldn’t think, he couldn’t react, he could barely comprehend the situation over the silence of space, the sound of his breath, and heart that felt as if it was going to rip out of his chest. He looked to the security door, still in one piece and with all of the his strength he began to climb towards it. His muscles were fatigued as the vacuum continued to pull on him but he pushed forward, straining his biotics and his endurance. Digging his fingers into the ship’s interior, until he reached the security panel. The code had been entered, all Lance needed to do was press enter, they were that close, they sorrowful realization was difficult. He pounded the button opening the door and heaved himself into the room, and sealed it shut. Collapsing to the ground in grief, “Damn it Lance!” he huffed and snorted, attempting to catch his breath and slammed his fist to the ground over and over, his biotic strength creating a dent in the metal. The piercing sound of the room depressurizing loomed. Saelian and Rhoen were gone, more than likely had fled when the projectile smashed into the ship, Taylor didn’t blame them. The stiffness of his body was intense, his legs felt like they were on ice skates, completely exhausted, his biotics had taken everything out of them, but he knew he couldn’t give up now. He hauled himself up and stumbled forward, the ship still shaking as it was peppered with shots, and he was forced to use anything to carry himself along the wall. Unabashed he staggered through the ship, not a soul in sight, he was convinced he was the last person left, and thought to himself “There better be a lifeboat left, I’m not dying out here, you gotta be a bitch to die in space.” Taylor’s inability to give up, even at this point, was all that kept him standing. Making his way into the lower decks he reached one of the lifeboat launching bays, and to comfort his trepidation, there sat one lifeboat left, as if it was fate. He climbed in, the fatigue was beyond strenuous now as he could fell into the central seat of the pod. With what energy he had left he slammed the lifepod protocol control and slumped back into his seat. The pod rocketed from the Aetherius, and Taylor began to fade out, he could feel the pod begin to shake violently and pick up speed, and he continued to slip deeper into unconsciousness, the only thing crossing his mind, is how he in the Hell he got here, and then it all faded into black.
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