Taking the small packet of medi-gel as the man handed it to him, Aldridge cringed as he repositioned himself against the wall to get a better look at the wound before beginning to cut away some of the clothing surrounding it. It didn't look like it had been a direct hit, most likely what was left of the round or a piece of shrapnel after it had went through the computer or whatever Kria had managed to shoot had tore through him, but it had been going fast enough to leave him with a good gash in his side. Medi-gel wouldn't be enough to close the wound up, but with a bit of gauze and some bandages it should be a suitable for stemming the blood loss.

Ripping the medi-gel package open with his teeth as he struggled to fight the pain in response to using his core muscles, the ex-marine quickly applied the salve to his wound, the gel struggling to adhere due to the plasma that inundated the wound. He would definitely need to figure out someway to stop the bleeding that could atleast get him going again.

"I'm coming to you," Kria responded quickly. She wasn't going to wait around while her charge bled out.

Good job, Kria. You've probably killed the man you wanted to hunt down. This is what happens when you don't listen to your superiors. Though the words were her own, the voice echoing through her head sounded eeriely like her captain back at C-Sec. The turian wasn't all that close to Kria, or all that involved in her career, but he was the sort of law enforcer she wanted to be. Someone the public could look up to, not a farce on the six o'clock news feeds.

It didn't take Kria long to find the room where Alan and Jack had finally confronted each other. The blood stains had helped to guide her along when her memory of the frantic chase failed her. Yet as soon as Kria stepped into the room she wished she had stayed on the bridge.

"Goddess, I've killed him," she murmured to herself, casting a quick glance over Alan's wounds. There was blood everywhere; on his clothes, his hands, the floor, and already staining the bandages Jack was trying to wrap around him. Kria knelt beside her partner in crime and offered her assistance by way of holding the gauze in place while he bound it tightly.

"It's just a graze, I've had worse done to me. Don't worry." the wounded man making an attempt to downplay the injury as Jack helped patch him up.

He had of course received his fair share of wounds and abuse with the Alliance as well as in his time out in the Terminus, but it had surely been years since the last time someone had managed to land a shot on Aldridge; it was definitely something he hadn't missed. The only good thing however was that between the gauze and medi-gel it seemed that blood flow had pretty much stopped, saving him the displeasure of passing out for a few hours well his body struggled to recover. Cutting an additional bit of tape with the bloodied blade of the combat knife as he secured the bandage, his mind considered the possibility of attacking, a thought quickly dismissed as he realized the extent his injury had affected his strength.

"It's just a graze, I've had worse done to me. Don't worry."

Jack sighed in relief as Alan finished patching up the wound. The mood was still somewhat chaotic, but with all three of them settled the mood. He started digging for his holopad, but was disappointed to find it smashed in the jolt.

“I’m deaf in one ear, but I’ll live. Are you ok Kria?” questioned Jack. He may have been worried, being that this was his first time damaging a ship, but they would make it through somehow.

Jack quietly walked over to his pistol he lost in the jolt, and holstered it into his coat. He continued to think about their next move.

"We might have to make sure the ship is stable. I don't quite know what happened," Jack said puzzled.

"Navigation systems are out," Kria reported as she checked Alan's patch job on his wound. A lot of blood had escaped, but it didn't look like a bullet hole. Likely shrapnel from the system she'd hit. She really did need to learn to think first and act later. "I have no idea if we're near the Citadel or if we even hit the right system. It'll take some time to fix it up. We need to get Alan somewhere he can rest til then." Her eyes darted back to the wounded man. Injured or not, Alan was like to try another escape attempt. "Somewhere secure. Maybe the medbay. It's probably got something we can use to knock him out."

Just as Kria finished speaking, warning klaxons began to screech throughout the ship. The lights dimmed once more and the red flash of danger lit the hallways. Kria knew they were facing the wrong way for the relay to have pulled them in, so it must have been some other outside force nearing the ship's shields.

"What now?" the asari muttered, looking back at the hall as if the red-lit metal could give her an answer.

"Oh no, me, I'm good. Just chain me to a table or something I guess and I'll be fine." clenching his teeth as he delivered his bit of sarcasm.

He had definitely remembered why he had always been so cautious when it came to guns, you sure as hell didn't forget what a good injury felt like but you sure as could not think about it anymore. Attempting to sit up, he let out a grunt as the wound lit up with pain, the blood loss may have stopped but his nerve ending were still finding plenty to complain about as the tissue moved.

"Is there any morphine in that ki-" his voiced cut off as klaxons filled the air.

"It's a unauthorized entry alert, the jump must have shooken something loose somewhere the way you took that thing without anyone at the controls. You'll have to disable it from the cockpit." he told the Asari.

"It's a unauthorized entry alert, the jump must have shaken something loose somewhere the way you took that thing without anyone at the controls. You'll have to disable it from the cockpit."

Jack was a little worried about the alarm, but felt calmer at the response that Alan had. He felt foreign to ships, even with the experience in the military. But, he did enjoy the travel that came along with the paycheck.

“Kria, go ahead and shut it off. I’ll keep an eye on Alan,” Jack motioned to her. He keeled down to the floor and started to look through the first aid kit. It seemed to be a bit better than the one that you can buy at a bargain store, but he had seen better ones in the military.

“Let me see if I can find you some morphine,” Jack said with a smile. He continued to shuffle through the kit, but eventually pulled out a small syringe full of morphine.

“This should hold you over,” he said as he held it out to Alan.

"I would have been at the controls if you just behaved for once," Kria shot back. The expression on her face was a mixture between sour grapes and mild concern. She had nearly killed the man she was trying to bring in, but it was his fault to begin with.

“Kria, go ahead and shut it off. I’ll keep an eye on Alan.”

Jack's voice got the asari moving again. She detached herself from Alan's side and stood tall. The klaxons were still blaring throughout the ship, making it difficult to hear or say anything. She had to shout to be heard over the cacophony as she moved towards the door.

"Keep him here! And don't let him out of your sight! I'll be back as soon as I can!" It wasn't how she would have liked to leave them, but someone needed to figure out what was going on with the ship. It would also help to turn off the damn alarm. The sound was already starting to bore a hole through her thoughts.

Kria made her way back to the bridge as quickly as possible. She was starting to understand the layout of the ship better. It was of average size, but the halls were built to connect one sector to another with minimum fuss. Not at all like asari design, but humans weren't entirely inept at construction.

The cockpit was awash in red lights and flashing signals. There were warnings going off all over the ship, but the worst of the damage appeared to be in the cargo hold. A large, bright red sign greeted Kria the moment she dropped into the pilot's seat. "Warning! Hull Breach!" it screamed at her in bold letters. Kria quickly began to work on shutting off the alarms and working out the extent of the damage.

"Keep him here! And don't let him out of your sight! I'll be back as soon as I can!"

Jack sighed as she left for the cockpit. He only had a little bit of information on the case Kria was working on, but would probably have to be around to keep the two separated. Kria probably wouldn’t hurt him, but he didn’t want to witness a “biotic accident” for the rest of his trip.

His mindset was broken by a loud bang that pierced the corridors of the ship. It didn’t take Jack long to connect the dots from the hull breach that something was hitting the ship.

“Just hang here Alan…I don’t like the sound of that,” Jack said with fear. He quickly got up and left Alan’s side; toward the unknown corridors of the ship. A few more bangs pierced the air of the ship, as Jack slowly made his way down a corridor. He started to dig into his coat and pulled out a flashlight for the dimmed hallways. As he turned on the flashlight, the light pierced throughout the halls.

Jack froze as he heard footsteps around the corner. It only took a second to pull out his gun, but he grew in fear knowing that there was someone else on this ship. As his eyes peered around a corner, his jaw dropped at the sight of something that would only be in old movies. It appeared to have four legs and two tentacles. He couldn’t say what it was, but he could say that it looked like a giant space bug.

Jack froze again as one of them turned toward him and gave a slight hiss. He grew confused at the sight, but these things wouldn’t hesitate to eat him.
“Damn!” shouted Jack as he threw his flashlight at one of the creatures. It struck one of them on the head, but it seemed to only make it angry. It hissed some more before heading toward Jack. In a instant, Jack started sprinting back toward Alan. In good measure, Jack aimed the pistol down the hall and fired a few shots.

Jack entered the room that Alan was in and quickly started to think of this unknown enemy. With hesitation, Jack tipped over a nearby table and pushed it in front of the hall. He only grew in more confusion with the bugs closing in. He quickly rushed over to an intercom and tried to speak to Kria.

“Um…Kria finish up and get back down here. Some type of giant space bugs are on the ship,” stated Jack with confusion.

The sound of gunfire was unexpected at least, it had been years since he had been startled by it, but hearing it just down the corridor wasn't something that usually meant something good was happening. Repositioning himself more towards the door, Aldridge gripped the handle of the combat knife in his hand as he prepared for whatever his captor had attempted to shoot out in the hall. Breathing a sigh of relief as the former detective reappeared, he could pick up an obvious tone of uncertainty as he watched him immediately get to the intercom to speak to Kria.

"Space bugs?" the voice of the pirate mirroring the confusion of Jacks as he turned towards the door.

Pulling himself to his feet while making sure the patch on his side held with movement, Alan poked his head out of the door as he tried to figure out what was happening. At the end of the hall some sort of creature was slumped over, obviously taken down by a shot fired by the private investigator as it's bodily fluids dripped onto the metallic floor of his ship. Ducking back inside as a second creature appeared, he prepared himself to fight as the bug made its way down the passageway, looking over to Jack as he stood at the speaker.

"Toss me your sidearm, now." his voice hushed as he pushed himself against the edge of the doorway.

Up in the cockpit, Kria was hard at work calming the ship after it's unexpected jolt. A quick rerouting of power increased the shield strength and stopped the hull breach, but it would only hold for so long. And should anything else larger than a snowflake blast through that spot, it could do a great deal of damage to the ship's interior. She was just finishing an internal diagnostic when the comm system crackled to life once more.

“Um…Kria finish up and get back down here." Kria reached across the console to answer Jack. Her finger was poised over the button, but she never made her reply. Jack's next words froze her thoughts in place. "Some type of giant space bugs are on the ship.”

"Space bugs?" she muttered to herself. The asari could not imagine what sort of creature Jack must have encountered to make that exclamation. A moment later she shook her head and pressed the button.

"I'm almost done up here, Jack. I'll be down in a-" The walls behind her whispered with a faint scratching sound. While she could expect there'd be some structural problems from the impact, something about the noise made her skin crawl. "Wait," she instructed Jack, turning to look at the entrance to the cockpit.

A slender, green tendril topped with a fleshy spear snapped through the air. Kria's split second of warning gave her enough time to throw herself to the side, out of the way of the lunging arm. The array of orange screens behind her exploded in a shower of sparks and fresh alarms began to sound throughout the ship, but Kria's attention was focused on the three foot tall insect staring her down from the entranceway.

"Goddess," the asari muttered to herself, staring in wide eyed facination as the bug weaved from side to side, keening a high pitched call to its fellow insects. Jack hadn't been lying. Any other thoughts Kria might have on the discovery were quickly pushed aside as she scrambled to get out of the way of the next attack.

Every inch Kria gained was a hair's bredth away from being her last. The insect held its ground, but its long, deadly tendrils could reach the length of the room and easily navigate around the corner. The asari was quickly working herself into a corner, unable to do anything but scramble back from the relentless strikes. When the wall pressed firmly against her back, Kria had only a second to realize she was trapped before she felt searing pain explode up through her leg.

The asari screamed, the bug creeled in triumph, and a moment later crunched against the outside wall. Kria sat srunched up in the corner of the cockpit with one hand extended towards the doorway. The biotic attack had been instinctive and only at half strength, but for the moment she was safe. Her eyes dropped to the bloody, gaping wound on her leg. The bug had managed to miss all of her segemented armor and gone straight for the fleshy part of her calf. It was deep, but not life threatening. Not yet anyway.

"Get up, Kria," she heard herself insisting. Her muscles tensed, screaming protest at the continued activity when all she wanted to do was stay huddled in the corner. She needed to get to Jack and Alan. She needed to know they were safe.

"Toss me your sidearm, now."

Jack quickly tossed his sidearm to Alan, but was more concerned with the silence of the intercom. Facing an unknown enemy was scary enough, but not knowing if someone was hurt was more gut wrenching.

As soon as he tossed his firearm, two tendrils popped over the table and threatened to enter the room. Without a firearm, Jack quickly reached out and grabbed the tendrils before they lunged toward Alan. Upon grabbing them, the sharp ends slipped through his hand, leaving a sharp pain in his wake. The monster popped over the table, as Jack continued to wrestle with the tendrils.

“Alan! A little help?!” shouted Jack in fear, as he continued to push the monster back.

Extending his arm forward as the pistol arched through the air towards him, Alan's reaction upon catching the firearm was near instantaneous as he leveled the weapon with the creature now threatening to end the life of his captor. The former marine paused as he rested his finger on the firing mechanism of the sidearm, silently calculating the worth of the man in the moments before pulling the trigger. A slight de-elevation of his arm and he would be on his own again, at least if Kria had been taken out by one of these monstrosities.

The sound of gunfire silenced the screeching of the insect-like creature, it's mass going limp as a single round pass through its 'neck' courtesy of Alan, it's limbs dropping as it's spine was severed by the shot. Turning his body towards the door, his eyes searched the wall as he attempted to recall the layout of the ship, his thoughts attempting to find the location of the nearest weapons to fend off this threat.

"Jack, there is an armory on the floor above us, we need to move now." his voice raised to compensate for the inner ear trauma delivered by the weapon.

Alarms were blaring all across the ship, resonating through Kria's skull until she was convinced she'd never be rid of the wailing blast. Even the high pitched screeches of the bugs were little more than a mometary interruption in the endless wave of noise. The blast doors that slammed shut behind her as she made her way through the infested ship provided little relief.

Jack and Alan, she thought to herself. Though each step was agony and every corner was a potential trap, she forced herself to move forward for the sake of Jack and Alan. Jack more than Alan, for the human PI wouldn't even be in this position if it hadn't been for her meddling. Alan... Alan was just a symbol. The proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. He was the last criminal she'd let escape her grasp and she'd be damned before she let some stupid space bug take that vow away from her.

Another blast door slammed shut, completely cutting off access to the bridge. She could still hear the bugs on the other side scratching at the walls and screeching to one another. It would only be a matter of time before they sliced their ways through the wall, but the door would hold them for now. Long enough, she hoped, to make it to the engine room and regain control of the ship.

A gun shot echoed off the walls up ahead, barely more than a pop interrupting the steady flow of the sirens. Kria hastened her lurching pace, keeping one hand on the wall and the other tightly wound around her pistol just in case. It had to be them! She could only hope that the shot meant they were both still alive.

As the shot rang out, a splash of blood doused Jack, as the monster fell lifeless. His fear slightly departed, but this enemy sent shivers down his spine. He started to worry about their numbers, chances of escape….

"Jack, there is an armory on the floor above us, we need to move now."

“Your right…can you walk?” questioned Jack as he scoured the room for an alternative weapon. It wasn’t the smartest idea to give Alan a gun, but he would worry about that when the time comes. After a quick glance, he grabbed the broom in the corner of the room. It would keep the bugs at bay, as well as keep his tazer holstered for a non-compliant criminal.

After grabbing the broom, he quickly made his way to Alan to see if he needed help walking.

Grabbing a hold of the wall ahead of him, Alan's jaw tightened as the pain began to tear into his side, the synthetic painkiller doing little to suppress it at this point; the mercenary struggling to keep himself up yet shrugging off the offer of help from his temporary ally as he moved through the door. Whatever in the hell these things were they were fast, his eyes finding one moving around the corner down the hall before leveling the pistol with it and letting off a single shot. Taking a step forward, Aldridge could feel the drugs kicking in, a limp getting less noticeable with each step.

Moving through the interior of the ship with Jack in tow, the situation began to grow more desperate as the ammunition counter on the firearm began to near zero, the thermal clip beginning to reach its capacity as it absorbed the heat produced by each round being fired, not enough time passing for it too cool as they pushed forward. Alan took a moment to scan for hostiles as they reached one of the ladders connecting the floors of the vessel, the wounded man scaling the steep stairs before pushing himself against the closed bulkhead door of the small room above. Signaling to Jack to hold his position as he grabbed a hold of the lever locking the hatch as he pressed it forward.

"Kria." his voiced all but inaudible as his eyes met those of his now distressed captor, rachni closing in on her.

Had the situation been any less dire, the round he was about to fire would be finding a much different target as he raised the sidearm once again, squeezing the trigger of the pistol as he reacted to the threat; the single shot dropping the insect like creature.

[ Meh, horrible post. But whatever, just need something up. ]

Three things happened in quick succession. Too quick for Kria to register any of them before the events had already passed.

Someone called her name, so faint and distorted by the blaring of the alarms that she thought she'd imagined it. The asari looked up to see a dark shadow pressed against the wall ahead of her, a gun raised in her direction. Numbly she fumbled to bring her own weapon up, acting more on instinct than recognition of the threat. A sound like the screeching of torn metal cut through her thoughts. She turned, not fast enough to react, but just in time to see the bulk of a large, green body scuttling towards her. A gunshot blasted through the endless sound waves, cutting the rachni down mid-charge. As it lay at her feet, green blood seeping onto the smooth steel floor, Kria finally found the few seconds she needed to gather her thoughts.

The asari stood perfectly still for a while, braced against the wall with the pistol dangling from her fingertips. She stared at the corpse of the bug that had nearly been the end of her, then lifted bewildered eyes to the man that had saved her life.

It's not Jack, was the first thought that flitted through her scrambled thoughts. After that the pieces began to fall into place.

"Alan." The asari's greeting was short and curt. They didn't have time to discuss who should be protecting whom right then. She began to hobble towards him, her free hand braced against the wall to keep herself up right. "The cockpit is overrun. I had to lock down the halls just to make it here. If we want to get control of the ship back, we need to get to engineering. Where's Jack?"

Her response was to be expected of the situation, the voice of the asari displaying little concern for him but the cold and calculating mindset of an organism now facing its mortality; yet, to be fair if things had been any different he would have probably been met with a round to the torso upon opening the door. Taking his mind off the firearm in his hand as he allowed his arm to fall to his side, Alan now focused on keeping his body balanced as he was forced to compensate his injury before attempting to recall the layout of the vessel to formulate his next course of action.

"Jack, get up here, close the hatch behind you!" the mercenary's eyes remaining on the asari "There's an armory ahead of us, assault weapons and medkits. We're not going to get anywhere with half gone thermal clips."

If his memory was to be trusted, the midship weapons locker was just north of them, probably fifty feet down the hall and ten around the corner with plenty of rifles and ammunition to at least give them a fighting chance against these bugs; so far their numbers were light, but given his luck the rest of them would be onboard shortly. The term Rachni had already surfaced in his head, a word he could remember from a few extranet articles relating them to secret bioengineering programs or something but little information that would actually prove useful for determining capabilities or even if these first wave attackers represented their strongest.

"Jack, get up here, close the hatch behind you!"

He sighed in relief as he quickly climbed the ladder to the two above. Jack didn’t like the fact that he was protecting himself with a broom and that Alan had his gun, but it would have been better that way as long as Kria didn’t know about giving it to him.

"There's an armory ahead of us, assault weapons and medkits. We're not going to get anywhere with half gone thermal clips."
“I actually agree with you. I rather not use brooms and shoes if we don’t have to,” Jack said jokingly as he closed the hatch below him. He took a quick glance at his hand, but quickly ignored it once he got a look at Kria’s injury. It was a small wound, however it pierced between the armor and couldn’t tell if it went all the way through her leg.

“After you Alan,” Jack quickly said as he motioned them down the hallway. He had a feeling he had to play referee for awhile if they didn't shoot at each other first.

The moment Jack appeared with a broom in place of his usual gun, Kria realized what must have happened. The incredulous question was written across her blue face, but she refrained from commenting out loud. Whether they trusted Alan or not (which she absolutely did not), they needed him if any of them stood a chance of survival.

"After that we need to make a push to the engine room if we have any hope of-" A sudden blast rocked the ship, nearly throwing Kria off her feet. As it was, she stumbled and slammed into the wall, the pistol jamming painfully into the palm of her hand when she twisted the wrong way. A shudder rumbled through the hull like the echo of thunder, unsettling the ground beneath her feet. She could almost swear she felt lighter as the vibrations began to calm. "Dammit! What now?" the asari growled, more to herself than her companions.

The mercenary didn't even have time to react as deck beneath him was violently shot forward as an explosion ripped through the ship somewhere below, his feet thrown out from under him as he was sent tumbling to the ground due in part to his brilliant idea to try and balance on his own just before the vessel was shaken by the blast. Landing with a rather painful sounding thud as he struck the bulkhead, it was a small miracle that Alan wasn't knocked unconscious by the blow, his vision blurring as he fought to remain alert but not slipping away as his ears rung. It was a few moments before his higher thought processes would return, the voice of the asari coming through as he quickly brought his hand up to his head in an attempt to recover.

"I think the hydrogen fuel tanks just ruptured, there the only thing that could have caused something like that." his eyes closed as he spoke "If engineering is even still intact we're going to have all of a minute or two change course."

Jack’s body flew forward, as the explosion rocked the ship. With a slight thud, he landed on his arm and slid across the floor until he slowed to a stop. He slowly stood, making sure that the blast didn’t rock anything inside. He quickly looked at his sleeve to find a tear in his coat, along with a decent cut in his arm. A slow numbing pain emerged, as confusion between Alan, Kria, and Jack emerged.

"Dammit! What now?"

"I think the hydrogen fuel tanks just ruptured, there the only thing that could have caused something like that. If engineering is even still intact we're going to have all of a minute or two change course."

Jack froze at the thought. He wasn’t stationed on ships often. But, he knew losing the fuel tanks was enough reason to abandon ship. But, with only a minute and no knowledge of the outside, there was only one option…

“We better hurry then…” quickly said Jack, as he motioned Alan toward engineering.

"Is the armory on the way?" Kria called to Alan as she stumbled after Jack. The ship was shuddering irratically every few seconds and she could hear ominous groans from the hull all around them. She had served on ships before, even spent years of her life in space, but she could never shake the feeling of being trapped inside a metal deathbox in the middle of nowhere. That feeling was only reinforced by the knowledge that she was now in an exploding deathbox infested with strange aliens in a sector of the galaxy she had never seen before. Kria's only hope was to stay focused.

Engineering was the important destination. Without control of the ship, weapons wouldn't matter. They had already been cut off from the kitchen and mess hall. What food that might be found down in the engine room and cargo hold would be minimal, if it existed at all. Yet at the same time she knew that if the bugs had already reached Engineering, they wouldn't be able to take it back without weapons. If that was the case, they might not live long enough to make the attempt.

No. Stay focused, the asari told herself as she hobbled along. No one's going to die here. Not here. Not now. I'm better than that.

Jack continued to sprint down the corridor, toward the door to engineering. He feared the unknown when it came to ships. The fact that Alan mentioned them crashing wasn’t enough, but the fear that they might be losing oxygen as well. Even if they survived a crash, the cold vacuum of space would claim their lives.

“I’m not dying yet,” Jack said to himself.

Bursting through the door, Jack was relieved that engineering was intact. At least they had a chance to save the integrity of the ship. Quickly looking around the room, he spotted the main panel to engineering and raced over to glance over it. Suddenly, he froze looking at the readouts and dials to the screen…

“I….I can’t make out the controls. I haven’t worked engineering, let alone walked on a ship for a long time,” he worryingly said. He started to hope that at least Kria or Alan would know what to do.

"No time, we need to move.

Alan wasted little time scrambling to his feet, the man breaking into an almost full sprint as he raced to catch the other two. With now weapons, and no time to spare, their groups only defense was speed at this point; each of them literally just running past creature after creature hunting for them. He knew that if they were held up for any reason now, they wouldn't last long with a few squads of buggers now attempting to trail them; little more than a minute passing before Jack sent himself crashing through the bulkhead door sealing off their destination.

“I….I can’t make out the controls. I haven’t worked engineering, let alone walked on a ship for a long time,”

All of a second passed before Alan was behind the main terminal dominating the far wall of the compartment, his fingers flying across technical readouts and sensor displays fighting for attention on screen as he searched for system controls. Less than forty kilos of fuel were left across four reserves, hardly enough propellant for an extended thruster burn let alone rapid maneuvering; the still semi-functioning navigation computer painting his terminal with collision warnings as they headed straight for a planet now just minutes away. If he was going to get through this one, he needed to act quickly.

"Kria! Get on that terminal and seal tank four now! I need all the fuel I can get! Alan yelling to the asari as he debated the decision to attempt to maneuver or attempt to loose velocity and try to survive the crash.

"Right!" Kria shouted back, not wasting so much as a second on wondering why she was taking orders from Alan. In dire situations such as these, she was much better at following directions instead of giving them.

The asari slammed bodily into the secondary control panel when the ship gave another sickening lurch. She felt a sharp pain spread up from her ribcage, flaring with each rapid breath. Adrenaline and fear washed away the pain, as it had the steady throb that reminded her of the hole left in her leg. There would be time to think about pain later. If they survived.

Screens engulfed Kria's visual space. Left and right they walled her in, blaring alarms and flashing damage warnings too quickly for the naked eye to read. The all-consuming orange glow added a sickly tint to her tense features as she began sifting through the myraid alarms to find the flood gate controls.

"Got it!" she crowed, slamming her hand down on the illusionary image of a blinking orange button. The computer responded immediately with a display of thick, steel walls locking down on the fourth fuel tank. That would stem the fuel loss, but there was little she could do about getting back what was already gone. "Can you land this thing?! The ground's coming up pretty damn fast!"

There was nothing he could do. There was too much spacecraft and not enough fuel let alone time at this point. Even attempting to modify their course would result in little more than hitting at an angle at a speed guaranteed to liquefy the three of them and anything on board shortly before leaving a nice crater on the surface they might get named after them if anyone came across it. Activating the forward maneuvering thrusters in an effort to loose momentum, Aldridge eyes could only watch the screen as calculations blazed across it warning them of the impending collision.

"I... I can't do anything. We don't have enough damned fuel to do anything!" the normally composed mercenary's tone carrying a very noticeable twinge of panic.

Abandoning the control panel, Aldridge was quick to move across the compartment as the sounds of rachni clawing against the door filled the room. His hands almost shook as he began tearing through a tool kit stowed under a piece of machinery. Their chances of survival were slim to say the least, but standing here waiting to hit wasn't exactly helping it. Removing his belt as he retrieved a helium canister from the kit, Aldridge slouched against the wall as he began tying himself to a support beam running along the wall.

"Might want to make yourself comfortable." his tone almost returning to normal as he lifted the canister to his mouth.

Taking a deep breath, his vision began to fade to black as he breathed in and out in an attempt to relax his body before the impact.

"Might want to make yourself comfortable."
Jack froze as those chilling words ran over Alan’s tongue. He quickly ran over a few scenarios that the Alliance threw at him as an MP. However the ship was understaffed for the drills they preformed. There was only one option.

As quickly as possible, Jack looked for a stable pipe on the wall as he started to loosen his belt. Finding a strong pipe, he quickly tied the belt around the pipe and braced himself against the wall. Hopefully, since he was tied down and low to the ground, the impact may be less dramatic.

“I recommend the same,” Jack quietly said as he braced for the inevitable.

Kria looked frantically back at the two humans who shared the engine room with her. The alarms were blaring, the bugs were screeching, and their voices were barely more than a mangled gust of sound in her ringing ears, but she knew what they were doing. They were crouching down, clinging to poles and pipes and tying themselves down. They were giving up.

No. Nononono... the asari pleaded, though to whom she was pleading she didn't know. It could have been the Goddess, or it could have been whatever diety was listening at the time and might take pity on their situation. Her hands flew over the controls, desperate to find some way to keep them in the air a few minutes longer. Just enough to figure this out. She could figure it out. She wasn't ready to die yet!

The same message flashed back at her, taunting her. Fuel reserves depleted. Atmosphere breeched. Altitude dropping. Please abandon ship.

The please was the most aggrivating part. As if the added politeness would somehow make the bugs go away so that they could reach an escape pod.

Finally, Kria realized that there was no salvaging the crashing ship. The decision had taken less than a minute, but now she felt every second that slipped away as another missed opportunity in life. She had never risen in rank in C-Sec, or cleared her name, or even brought justice to the one criminal she had caught on her own. She had never made her father proud...

As the asari crouched beneath the screeching consoles and wrapped her arms firmly around one of its steel legs, she thought back on all that she had wanted to do with her life and what she had missed. Her eyes squeezed tightly shut against the impending doom, blocking out the little room that had become her coffin. And then, with the suddenness of striking lightning, she knew what she had to do.

At first the blue light hovering around the crouched asari looked like nothing more than a trick of the eye. It crackled and pulsed, barely visible out of the corner of the eye before it disappaited. A second later it appeared around her shoulders, or the nape of her neck, or her closed fists. Gradually the energy build up grew, sparking off her skin and clothes until each crack of released eletricity was audible as a sharp pop. Just as the computer warned that the ground was too close to the ship's exterior, a wave of azure light burst from the asari and encompassed the room.

It was a powerful technique. One Kria had only seen used by matrons and matriarchs that had spent countless centuries focusing their biotic potential. It should have been beyond her skill level, but she was desperate, and desperation was a wonderful drug.

The ship met the ground with the deafening scream of crunching metal and shattering earth. Kria's shield... held.

“Jack! If you move in, I will have you suspended! This is not your case!”
“Damn it! Someone is going to die if we don’t move in now!”

“Police!”
*gunshots*
“No….I’m too late….”

“Jack, I might have to take administrative action against this.”
“Don’t bother….I quit.”

************

Jack focused on the bright light that encompassed the three. He braced, as the crunching of the ship brought a crushing force on the shield. As soon as they stopped moving, he knew it was over. The field held over the crushing pressure and they survived. He braced for death, but by luck, they survived.

He unlaced his belt and quickly ran over to the asari. He knew it was her, Alan didn’t have any biotic skill. Kria saved them, but this mess was far from over. More questions flowed through the investigator’s head than answers. If the three sustained any injuries, where the hell were they, and if there was a way home. Jack was more concerned with question one.

“Kria! Are you alright?” he shouted as he maneuvered his way through stray rubble.

He wasn't supposed to be breathing right now. He wasn't supposed to be awake.

The light burned Alan's eyes as attempted to bring the compartment into focus, a combination of flames and what was left of the emergency chemical lighting casting an eerie red-orange glow over the interior. To say his body was aching would be an understatement as his mind started to reset, parts of his body lighting up with pain as nervous system started getting back online. However, given the fact he knocked himself out with a canister of helium thinking it would be his last action, it wasn't exactly the worst thing in the universe to be in one piece no matter how much it hurt right now.

"F-" his curse cut short as he clenched his jaw in pain.

He had forgotten he had tied himself down; the belt biting into his skin as his body pulled against the leather strap. Reaching for the buckle, the mercenary fumbled with the simple clasp for a moment as his eyes scanned the room in attempt to gleam any information about how he survived from his surroundings. Pulling the belt away from his arm, it took a few moments for Alan to hobble to his feet as he began searching for any way to escape; a very real possibility the entire ship could be ready to collapse or sitting in any number of highly-dangerous natural phenomena that could swallow a ship that just crashed into it.

“Kria! Are you alright?” Jacks voice coming from behind him as he attempted to tend to Kria.

For Alan however, concerning himself with the well-being of a woman trying to put him in a maximum security prison cell wasn't exactly on his top list of things to fret about right now. Catching himself as he nearly fell backwards, the man wasted little time in putting his foot forward as to test his his ability to walk; able to continue moving forward as he started to limp towards the door. Nearly collapsing as he reached for the wall to steady himself. Looking back to his fellow survivors, he turned his attention back towards the door as he pressed his fingers into a the small opening that had formed between the threshold and door; pushing the metal plate aside as he used what strength he could.

It didn't take as long as he figured it would to reach the room that had served as his quarters, the interior layout of before nonexistent; Alan forced to scramble through wreckage in order to navigate the sections that had survived intact. Scrambling over a piece of grating spanning a complete break in the ships hull, the glow of fire catching his eye as he neared the door of his destination.

"People are going to tell you that there are points in life where your only option is to give up."

The world had been reduced to the acrid scent of burning oil, a steady thrum like the wing beat of an insect that hovered just out of reach, and a dull, throbbing pain that engulfed every other hint of sensory input. The pain wasn't so bad, in truth. Its uniform spread throughout her body meant that she had no way to compare it to a lack of pain. The humming, that endless off-key buzzing, that was agony.

"Don't listen to them, Kria. They're all wrong."

The asari drew in a breath and felt all twelve of her ribs stab into her lungs on each side. She opened her mouth to voice her pain, but all that came out was a strangled whimper that sounded more like the plaintive cry of a dying animal.

"There is always a reason to fight. There is always a reason to get back up again. You have to keep fighting. No matter how bad it gets."

The humming sound was interrupted by a voice. She knew it was a voice by the tenor and jumbling of odd sounds. The words were distorted though, as if it had been recorded on an old static feed and dropped under an ocean. Kria opened her eyes to see who was speaking to her and instantly regretted it.

"So long as there is breath in your body, you keep fighting."

A shadow fell over her vision, but not before a spear of painful sunlight had stabbed her square between the eyes. Kria shut her eyes again and wondered when they had moved outside. She didn't recall moving. She didn't appreciate being moved from one uncomfortable floor to another either. The memories that would fill in the gaps were being stubbornly elusive too.

The asari waved off Jack's aid mutely. Even her throat felt as if it had been punctured a hundred times by a sturdy needle, rendering the effort of speaking far too strenuous. There wasn't an inch of her that was not in pain, and the simple gesture of lifting her hand and waving it briefly only reinforced that fact. She grunted and lay still again until the world had stopped spinning and her mind dragged itself from the dredges of unconsciousness.

There had been a crash. Somehow... she had survived. She had vague memories of a blue aura filling the room and then... and then nothing. How long had she been unconscious? Clearly a while if Jack was worried about her. Was that Jack standing over her, calling her name? Kria opened her eyes again, this time careful to keep her head turned so that the human's shadow prevented the worst of the light from reaching her eyes.

At first her eyes did not want to focus on the dark shadow looming over her head. She could see scraggly hair and rumpled clothes, but nothing distinctive. She had to focus, concentrate all her might on resolving his image and blocking out the shattered bits of her other senses that threatened to overwhelm her yet again. Finally... finally she could see his eyes, his mouth, his nose. It was indeed Jack, but in all that time that he had been calling her name, she had not seen any other movement. No hint of Alan.

"Where's Alan?" the asari murmured, barely able to form her lips around the simple words. She cringed after she had finished and put all her strength into pushing herself up to a sitting position. Her body screamed in protest, claws dragging at her spine as if the floor itself did not wish to relinquish its hold on her. Though she couldn't feel her hands beyond the pins and needles itching along her skin, she knew she had braced them against the floor to keep herself upright. The world was threatening to turn itself over again and she needed all the help she could get just to stay seated.

"Where is he?" she gasped a second time. More to drive her mind back to some semblance of focus than out of any desire for an answer. She knew that Alan was gone again. He always was. And like always, all she could think of was to give chase. She was as determined as a hound with a scent. Worse, if one asked her superiors.

Superiors that were, at that point in time, very far away. No doubt they would be furious when her suspension was up and she did not return. It would be better, she told herself when she brought Alan back to them. Then they would have no choice but to recognize that her dogged persistance did have benefits.

"I've got to... got to... find him," Kria muttered. She didn't know whether the words were for Jack's benefit or her own. Either way she was pushing herself to her feet, stumbling from one step to another as she made her way blindly to the gaping hole that had once been a wall. One hand closed firmly across her ribs, holding back the stabbing pain that drove her to her knees with each breath. The other steadied her steps, bracing against walls or fallen beams, dragging the single-minded asari forward one step at a time.

There was something telling him not to go forward, a thought in the back of Alan's mind that he hadn't really heard before. He wasn't sure if it was the smell of burning synthetics or the flicker casted out into the hall by the flames that told him what he was going to find wouldn't be what he wanted. Steading himself in the threshold of the door, it was difficult for Alan to step into the burning room, the man hesitating as he hobbled towards the items strewn through the room. Where each object had been carefully stowed away and carefully organized just a few hours before, what hadn't been pulverized in the crash by a few hundred pounds of furniture being thrown around was either sitting in a pool of water that had drained into the compartment or getting ready to burn as flames spread from the wall.

Fear. The word hit him as he nearly collapsed under his weight, reaching out to steady himself with his other hand as he realized what the feeling was. In spite of decades trying to lock down any hint of emotional reaction, he was genuinely scared of what he might find. His boot clunked against the metal as he stepped forward, a small splinter of wood cracking beneath he sole as he placed his weight on the foot. His eyes were quick to spot the remains of an eighteenth-violin spread across the room, the neck propped up in a corner where it had come to rest after most likely being crushed by the drawer it had been stored in. A quick glance at the dresser revealed just about half it smashed completely with what remained of it appearing to be some abstract painting thanks to its new shape.

Turning his head towards the floor away from the carnage, he knew that his gut was right. It was all gone. Just managing to avoid toppling over as he limped forward, an overwhelming feeling of defeat was the next thing that hit him as he now contemplated what was going to happen.

Walking towards the bed now resting at an angle on top of an overturned storage locker, Alan allowed his legs to give out from under him as he sat against the mattresses edge. He had few options at this point; to battered from the crash to get far on the surface of whatever the hell planet this was, let alone scavenge much from the crash to actually survive for more than an hour before passing out. Hanging his head, Alan reached out for a small scrap of paper as his eyes caught it's outline being slowly melted by a chunk of wood burning on the floor, pulling his legs towards his chest as he turned it over in his hand. He stared at the photograph as he recognized it instantly; the faces of a few young soldiers smiling at a camera on a backwater colony world in the terminus.

The ship was falling apart around her quite literally. As she stumbled down a rickety metal walkway, a dislodged light fixture sparked its last breath and came crashing down to the floor behind her. The walkway shuddered in response and for a moment she thought it might drop her to the pit of fiery hell that was the ship's innards far below. Nothing remained of the lower decks but a twisted mass of metal slowly being rendered into slag by an endless blaze. The heat of the fire baked her face despite being far above it. She knew it wouldn't be long before the entire ship went up in one final, glorious explosion.

The walkway ended abruptly, dumping Kria onto a slanted floor littered in the charred remains of dead bugs. She stumbled, lost her footing and slammed to all fours. The shock rattled up her legs and arms, momentarily turning the pins and needles into lances of pain that stole the breath from her lungs.

When the stars had cleared from her eyes, Kria pushed herself to her feet again. She was still alive, still breathing, and that meant she still had a job to do. Her hand settled on the tilted wall to help her balance on the uneven floor, the other wrapped firmly around her ribs once more. Step by step, Kria kept blindly moving forward.

The asari didn't know where she was going. The walkway had been the only viable path out of the engineering room, and so she had followed it, hoping Alan had followed it before her. Every open door she passed she looked through, hoping to see some sign of her quarry. Her hopes dwindled with every empty room. When at last she came to a doorway lit by a hellish orange glow, she had already prepared herself for the disappointing realization that Alan was gone. She looked anyway and felt the surprise hit her like a blow to the gut. There sat Alan, haloed by the flames that slowly devoured all that he had once held dear, with a photo clutched in his hands.

"Alan!" Kria called out, startling herself with her own voice. It sounded harsh and dry, as if she hadn't had a drink of water for days. "Alan, get out of there! It's not safe!"

"Alan!" the sound of the asari's voice breaking the relative silence of the room as she appeared in the doorway "Alan, get out of there! It's not safe!"

Alan's eyes remained fixated on the photo as the woman called out to him, hardly recognizing the words as his mind delayed processing them. It was probably true that he wasn't very safe, the crackling of embers intensifying around him and the heat being thrown off both confirming that point as he sat there; yet, there was no reason for him to move; no motivation for self-preservation. He was supposed to be dead, everything personal he owned was gone.

"It doesn't matter" he responded, the statement more forced than anything.

"Yes it does!" the asari snapped back. A sudden, strange welling of fury filled her chest and momentarily blocked out any memory of pain. How dare he throw away his life now! After she had risked everything to keep him alive! He would not escape her grasp now. Not through death or any other means.

Sheer determination drove Kria into the room despite the danger. A blackened husk that had once been a shelf crumpled into ash beside her. Sparks floated up through the air, then faded out one by one, yet the fire raged on. Very soon it would consume the entire room and anyone left in it.

Her feet slid on the uneven floor, dropping her to a half-crouch that left her gasping for air. The heat of the fire was baking what little air was left in the room, and she wasn't helping herself by wrenching her ribs left and right. Once she got out of this mess -with Alan alive and well- she would have to give herself a well deserved rest.

"Come on!" Kria snarled. Her free hand snapped out and wrapped firmly around the man's wrist. Now she would have nothing to steady herself with, but at least she had Alan. "You can't tell me you fought this hard to survive the crash just to die now. We're getting out of here."

"I've got to... got to... find him,"

Jack was amazed at the speed that Kria left, however they were all running on pure adrenaline and they had to get out. As quickly as she left, Jack took off after her, but with little success. The ship was already a maze to begin with, but the crash made it worse. Slowly weaving through the wreckage, Jack made his way to the closet side of the ship.

After a few rooms, Jack came upon the room Alan and he was held up in. It was barely recognizable now, but the used first aid kit was thrown across the room. As he picked up the first aid kit, he looked upon the body of one of the bugs. He couldn’t see very well earlier, but was shocked at what he was fighting. Without any further hesitation, and with a first aid kit in hand, he continued on toward the hull.

It wasn’t too much further until he reached the gaping hole with specks of sunlight breaking the glow of the warning lights in the ship. He was about out, but feared going outside due to the mystery of the planet. But, was this safer than the confines of a burning ship?

A large creak rang out as debris started falling on Jack. With a quick lunge, he jumped through and landed on moist dirt. He was relieved, but with another glance became terrified. His foot was caught in the debris by a pipe. Jack quickly panicked, as he forcefully pushed on the pipe that pinned his foot with little success. After hitting the pipe a few times, he gave up. He was stuck, but at least it didn't hurt.

Jack took the time and glanced around at his surroundings, but found it interesting. The air was breathable, but the dense foliage and the sounds of wildlife reminded him of a jungle. The giveaway was the vines, but trees shot up everywhere along with other life that chose to live in it.

“Alan! Kria!” Jack quickly shouted out as the wildlife responded with yelps and whistling. He was alone and stuck, he hoped that they were out of the ship. But feared the worst due to his situation. He didn’t care too much for Alan, apart from him causing this. But if Kria was lost….he would be here for awhile. Jack quietly sighed to himself.

“I have a feeling that this isn’t going to go well with the courts,” Jack ironically thought.

The sound of the asari's footsteps on the metallic floor were just loud enough to be heard over the ambient noise of a burning ship, Kria slipping as she made her way across the uneven surface as she tried to reach him. She still hadn't given up. Even after everything she was still trying to get to him. His eyes were locked on the woman as she fought for what little air was left as the fire threatened to burn it off and smoke filling the rest of it.

"Come on! You can't tell me you fought this hard to survive the crash just to die now. We're getting out of here." the voice loud as she shouted at him just foot or two away from where he sat.

Her hand wrapping around his wrist was enough to snap him out of his stupor as she tried to get him to keep going. Taking her lead, the man was quick to pull himself up with the officers help, balancing on his feet as the hull of the ship now shifted once again. His eyes signaled that he was ready to go as he slipped the charred photograph into his jacket's front pocket.

Kria felt relief flood through her agonized nerves as Alan dragged himself up from the crumbling remains of his room. A moment later she was overcome with fear once more as the entire ship shuddered and lurched under her feet. The asari fell to all fours, one hand still gripping Alan's wrist like a lifeline. The other slammed against the ground hard enough to send a jolt racing up her arm. She cried out in pain, hot air stealing away her voice until the sound was nothing more than a pitiful gasp. Stars burst before her eyes, blurring her vision and throwing her sense of balance to the wind. She knew the ground was beneath her, but it felt unstable, almost liquified with the way it twisted and turned. It was her head, she told herself. Just her jumbled thoughts making a mess of everything.

"Jack," she grunted as she struggled to get up again. The ground shuddered and Kria decided that crab walking her way back to the slanted opening was a better idea, no matter how undignified it looked. The longer they spent in Alan's room, the less chance they would have of ever getting out. "Jack... he's got to be close. Come on."

The hallway was cooler than the inferno of a former bedroom. Though the change in degrees was barely noticable, Kria felt as if she'd been doused in blessedly cold water. With a wall between herself and the ever expanding heat wave, she felt the fog begin to clear from her mind. Just enough for her to recall which path she'd taken to get to Alan's room. Going back to engineering was her first choice, but Jack hadn't joined them and she needed to make sure everyone got out alive. Her fingers flexed instinctively against Alan's wrist, assuring herself that he was still behind her.

Engineering was just as she had left it, minus a wall or two and lit with a new, hellish veneer as the fires of the ship's core extended fingers up the exposed grating. Jack was no where to be found.

"Jack!" Kria cried out, her voice dying off in a fit of coughing. She had inhaled too much smoke already. Her lungs ached and her throat was too dry to draw breath let alone shout. Alan, she suspected, wasn't in much better shape. She turned her head to look back at the human who trailed after her, unwilling to give up but unwilling to leave Jack to die either. She had dragged him into this mess after all.

A sound caught at the edges of her hearing, faint and garbled, but distinctly human. Kria's head snapped around, trying to pinpoint the sound before it disappeared. Hope kindled in her chest as she lurched across the slanted floor. It was Jack. It had to be Jack. They could all still make it out of this alive! With renewed vigor, the asari stumbled and crawled towards the nearest opening, dragging Alan along behind her.

Jack grumbled as he tried maneuvering his foot to a better position. If he couldn’t get out, the fires would certainly burn him up eventually. Or the local wildlife may snack on him if there is any. With all his might, he pulled up on the debris that caught his foot. Every fiber in his body pulled on the debris, but with his strength sapped from him, he fell to a lying position.

Jack laid there for what seemed like hours. He constantly though about the others getting out safely, but the situation felt grim. He hasn’t slept since getting off the shuttle in Illium, perhaps a day elapsed without sleep. But…it wouldn’t hurt to fall asleep right now….

He raised his head as a faint crying rang out. Jack turned his head toward the direction of the noise, hoping for some help.

“Jack!”

“Kria?! Alan?!” It was faint, but it was the cries for him. The ship wasn’t in good shape due to the fires, but there was a good chance they survived. Even though Alan started this, he just wanted the company of others with him. He needed the help.

“I’m outside! Get out of there!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. If it was them, they wouldn’t last long inside. He could only hope….