Each step sent pain lancing through him. His leg was cut pretty bad, as were his hands. He was bleeding, nothing immediately life-threatening but his countdown to death was faster than before.
He's been walking for a minute or so, driven forward by the simple fact that this was his only hope for survival. The Intrepids still tore at the tunnel behind him. Seemed like they weren't giving up on him.
He kept Ters' finger light pointed forward. It was starting to dim, likely running out of power. If Grey didn't find the facility soon he'd be lost in the dark.
Luckily, something caught his eye. Part of the wall reflected the light. It clearly wasn't stone, but some sort of metal.
Grey was upon the wall in moments. It was definitely metal, but didn't give off the look of steel, or even plasteel. Shining the light down the length of the wall showed that it was nearly featureless. The tunnel ended not much further.
A dead end. Unless he could find a way in, but if the Intrepids didn't he doubted he would.
The insects themselves were still busy digging away, working to make the tunnel large enough for them to fit through and causing the ground to shake beneath his feet. Grey wouldn't have more than a few minutes before they broke through to him.
He passed the light over the metal again and caught what looked like letters. They didn't seem to be galactic common, but bore an odd resemblance.
Five letters in a column, with remnants of writing after each, though too faded to make out any shape. He reached out with his bloodied hand as he read the letters alpud
"S..E..R..R..A?"
As Grey inspected the metal wall before him a brilliant blue light lit up from its center.
Grey yelped and scrambled to the back wall as the light reached out and scanned him.
"P-pilot found." An indifferent, female voice stated. "Mission..defend.. convoy…journey.."
Journey? Pilot? The hell is going on here?
Before Grey could say a word the cavern trembled and the voice spoke once more.
"Mobility… Restricted. Teleportation… Unavailable. Rescue… No response. Searching for alternative methods of egress… Found. Subspace Compression. Warning: Subspace Compression will leave vessel's operating levels at minimum for an extended time. Is this method of egress acceptable to the pilot?"
A holographic panel appeared before Grey, prompting him in a language he couldn't possibly recognize.
It's asking me?
After several moments of stunned, scared shitless silence, Grey finally gathered himself enough to answer.
"Will this get me out of here?"
"Egress likelihood:
60% with significant injury.
32% failure to egress with death of pilot.
5% failure to egress with disabling of vessel.
3% unknown variability."
The ground shook once more, a sign of those things digging deeper.
"Egress likelihood: 58%.."
"Alright, alright! Do it, whatever it takes!"
"Affirmative. When subspace Compression ends, please retrieve the data core and proceed to safety."
"Wait, you want me to-"
"Subspace Compression Initializing."
The metal wall, the origin of the light and voice shone once, then began to shimmer and shrink back. Within mere moments the entire wall disappeared to reveal a vast, cragged space behind it. Large sections of the ceiling, not without support, collapsed.
Just feet from Grey was the last of the shimmering light, coalescing into a small, ruby-like sphere no bigger than an apple.
It flashed once with the same blue light as before,
"C-compression complete. Please retrieve the core."
Grey took an unsteady step forward and lifted the orb in one hand, it blinked weakly…
"M-mission.. Pilot found. Defend.. C-convoy.. Journey-y.."
…And then went out. Leaving Grey alone in the dark cave. With a horde of pissed off insects digging after him.
Doomed to die confused, alone, and forgotten.
The earth shook again, chunks of rock spewing at him from where the Intrepids tore out the walls.
Fuck THAT.
Grey bolted forward into the opening in front of him, going back was pointless and the…vessel gave him a 60%, well, 58% chance of getting out alive. Significantly hurt, but alive.
Better than his chances of living by staying there.
He scrambled over the broken terrain, trying not to but finding himself asking questions still.
The hell was that thing? How did it get here? Buried? Crashed? Can I trust it?
He knew that he didn't have much choice, he couldn't afford to not trust it.
After a few minutes of poorly improvised parkour he made it to the far edge of the newly exposed space, but found no obvious way to go at his level. The jagged wall did, however, seem to be scalable.
Grey reached a tentative hand out to the wall and began to climb. The sharp rock cut into his hands with little resistance, but he kept going, climbing until he reached a ledge.
He could hear the rumbling and crashing of stone below, followed by the skittering of countless chitinous legs. The rest of the colony must have returned.
Good, I thought I was getting light on motivation.
He climbed again as the insects filled the space below, squeezing through an opening large enough for him to get through. But if he fit, then one of them could too.
As soon as he cleared it several of the bugs lunged for him through the opening…and promptly stuck themselves in it, each fighting to get at Grey so violently that a single one couldn't get through.
A close call for Grey and another kick in the ass for him to keep moving. From this point on it was one direction and he could swear he smelled fresh air.
Pressing on with renewed vigor, Grey rushed blindly down the passage and into the open air.
Too open.
Grey found himself falling, having just thrust himself into the dark night, sliding, crashing, and smashing down the side of the mountain until finally coming to a hard rest against a tree and losing all awareness.
----
A man was yelling, explosions rocking the sky above him. Though he yelled with everything he had, Grey could only make out a scant few words.
"...pilot….defend….convoy…journey!"
As soon as he finished, Grey felt himself rise higher, until the man before him was dwarfed in comparison. His view shifted to buildings behind him, then to the horizon beyond.
"Searching for pilot." An oddly familiar voice. It felt as if it came from himself, but not. Before Grey could question further he was launched into the sky beyond and lost to the darkness again.