Bayleee finally caught up to the group after dealing with the pressure valve. She glared at the commander as she did but regarded the viewer. Frowning at the ship, she shook her head, "Tech crew? No pilot? Have we anyone that can fly that whale? Easy path for peace with the techs. Also, should we aid in saving the girl, more reason to work together. How long a peace... can be decided later, yeah?"

She squints at the screen trying to find a path for them to sneak up on the security force. Something in her misliked them badly. Glancing at the stranded female, she felt some sympathy. Turning her attention to the security team again, she felt her instincts guiding her sight around the scene and assessing how best to attack. Getting those weapons would be nice as well.

Amin shook his head.  "Visi-jumper, stubble.  Tech-team.  I do not know more than that."

Amin moved across and down the hall one door.  He punched in a code and the door slid open, retracting into the wall smoothly and silently.  The room was dark.  Lights didn't kick on, even when Amin waved his hand over the door-sensor.

"Frak. Power's out." Amin said perfunctorily.  "It's going to limit what we have access to. The attack must have taken out one of the power relays." 

Amin went further into the darkness, then abruptly, a right beam of light illuminated the greys and blues of the small room.  A flashlight.

The room itself was perhaps only eight feet across and four or five feet deep.  Racks of PPRs (Particle-Projection Rifles) were lined up behind reinforced plasteel shielding.  Underneath the case was another series of racks with PPPs.  But the casing had been left open.   On the rack of twelve, half of them had been removed. (So, six PPPs remain).  There was a dark blackish smear of something along one side of the rack, and drips that pooled on the floor benath it.

Amin flashed the light around the room.   Most of the room had been ransacked.    There were some light armor pieces and some other support-tools that looked accessible.

OOC: While I've put the heavy-weapons off the table, I'm willing to discuss other special tactics weapons here... if you want to roll for it or spend a fate-point for it... Things like "flash-bang grenades" etc. are certainly doable. please discuss in the metagame thread if you wanna go there

"So, this is what I propose." Amin said as he pulled a pistol out of the rack.  He made a sour face and wiped the pistol against his leg, leaving a small muddy smear across his pants.  "I need to get into the control room.  One of you will need to come with me."

"Seriously?" the big black man said. "You just going to ignore everyone's talk?"

He nodded to Ling-Li. "Girl had a good point.  You want us to work with you, you got to work with us, too.  I..." he glanced over at Ling-Li.  "I think I can fly it."

Of course he can.  But he's only an Average(+1) Pilot.   Once Viper gets in the hot-seat, so much will come flooding back to her...

"We don't have time." Amin shot back, slapping the battery into the grip of the PPP.  "These are highly-trained marines.  Whatever they were doing, whatever they were after, it doesn't matter now. "

Others moved into the armory, some of the five-man-mob (5MM?) looked to arm-up too.

"pep" - seemed a reasonable short-name for a PPP.

Spohr cocked his head to one side, then his face relaxed as if he'd had a dawning realization.   He glanced at Sheng-Xin and back at Ling-Li, but kept his mouth shut.  Instead, he just nodded, mutely.

The older man intently regarded the scene before him, looking from one group to the other, and silently prayed for wisdom.

One heartbeat.  Two...

He watched one of the pulse rifles rise, as if in slow motion, and... then... dis... charge...

Three heartbeats...  Four...

Suddenly he felt dizzy, and saw a glimpse of everyone aboard the evacuation ship, with the military group standing around the rest of the evacuees, raising their pulse rifles to slay them, as if in slow motion, and... then... dis... charge...

Five heartbeats...  Six...

He felt dizzy again, and saw a glimpse of the evacuation ship ambushing another ship, assaulting the women, raising their pulse rifles to slay the men, as if in slow motion, and... then... dis... charge...

Seven heartbeats...  Eight...

And... he was back aboard the station.

He silently contemplated these impressions for another several heartbeats, inwardly certain of the necessity of leaving behind the military men.

Then he absently brushed his fingertip against his cheek, and looked uncomprehendingly at the teardrop glittering on his fingers...

Upon seeing the rack of weapons, Baylee visibly got excited and licked her lips. Without much fanfare, she muscled her way to it and grabbed a pep. She quickly slapped in a battery pack and sighed at the sound of the weapon charging. She grinned at Spohr, "Win-win? We might negotiate, true. But, I doubt they will want to. They perceive their situation as one of power and control. As you said, THEY are trained marines. THEY think they can win this fight. The only reason they have to capitulate... is what? Niceness? People aren't nice. They're petty" Baylee tapped her ow chest and paused for a moment, She then glared at Amin, "Vindictive." She strode back toward the cargo bay door, "Bigoted assholes." She looked to the strange crying man. "Maybe not all. Some are pussies. I'll go to the control room."

That said, Baylee moved toward that very door.

Viper entered the armory and sneaked her way through the people to a pep and battery. Do as if you know what you're doing, and they let you do it, she reflected.

She did not pay much attention to the argument; she knew she wanted to save the isolated tech girl. However, when she heard the big black man state he could fly, her competitive spirit kicked in, and she started to brag reflexively
"You think you can fly it?", she shouted over the discussion, her eyes still focused on the PPP checks.
"Lemmetellya - I know I can fly it, one hand tied to my back, just hold my beer!"

She only realized at the end of the sentence what she just uttered, wondered why it had came out of her mouth. Well. Maybe she would know. No time to ponder.

She went out of the armory, armed, then went straight to the glass in the center of the airlock, and stood on her tip-toe to see the floor on the Flight deck on the other side. Not much seemed to have changed. Stupid people would gun fight until the ship blows up in their face.

She glanced on her left, feeling exposed like a cow in a corridor, but then the shorter-than-herself determined-looking Ling-li would attract the Marines' attention - and shots.

Viper began to open the airlock door, but did not expose her to the shots from the tech facing it across the bay. She laid the pep on the floor and waved what she hoped would be interpreted as hand signs of friendship through the opening.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:35, Sun 11 Apr 2021.

For a moment, tyhe big black man glowered at Maissa.  But, then a he stopped, seemed to consider something, and all trace of tension just flowed off of him, like water sluicing off an oiled jacket.   "Then the goal's to get you to the bridge or pilot chair, or whatever the hell they've got on that thing."  He said .

"Okay. "Commander." he said.  "what does getting into the control room get us?"

"Someone's got to set the timer to open the deck's outer doors."  Amin said without emotion.  "We don't open the outer doors, nobody's leaving.  Not us, not them."

Since she was going to the control room, she pursed her lips and then looked to Amin, "You can't do that? The feckin use are you, anyway? Dren. I can operate a basic system if you tell me the commands. If not, I can roll dice/" Chuckling, Baylee headed for the control room once more.

The bald girl had sensed the airlock opening on her left and instinctively pointed her gun to the opening. She was probably puzzled by the hand-wave, but the ex-convicts weren't looking like Marines.

Viper showed her head and forced a smile. Her eyes were sparkling with excitement, though. Jumping and tumbling under fire? What's Life Without a Little Excitement! She stepped back to gain momentum... signaled to beck to start the covering fire... and ran!

Thanks to her training, stress, and despite her being freshly un-freezed, she avoided being shot (Athletics(+2/+1))

Then she thought to yell "Friend! don't shoot!"

Baylee, Rayfe & Amin, Unnamed-NPC

Commander Amin rolled his eyes.   "Of course I can do that." he sneered.  "But I can't do that without actually accessing the control console.  That ship doesn't have station transponder codes.   Seriously.  If you're not going to be useful, at least be quiet."

He glanced at the assembled mob.  "You and you."  he pointed to two in the mob--one of which was Rayfe, "grab a pep and come with us.  If there's anybody in the Control room, they might fire before asking questions.  But command-bars should stop them.  Once we're inside, we'll need to neutralize anybody who's in there.  If we can do it unseen, all the better.  If not..."  he shrugged.  "I suppose if we have their attention, then they'll have issues on three sides."

"The rest of you.  Either back up the others or stay out here where it's safe and don't--hey! Where are you--"  but Viper was already gone.

Amin muttered  "Ah Hesh.  She's going to get herself killed.  Unless we move, now!"

Amin led them back across the hall to the hatch to the control room.  He waved his wrist over a digital pad, but nothing happened.

He did it again.  Again, nothing happened.

Muttering, Amin pressed the screen and the digital pad lit up.  He drew a patterned sequence on the digital screen and the screen flickered red and blue, before going dark.  But the locks did disengage with an audible thunk.

Amin took a breath, held up three fingers, then two, then one... and he mashed his hand against the digital screen, which lit up blue.   And he pushed the door inward...
This message was last edited by the player at 02:36, Wed 14 Apr 2021.

Baylee, Rayfe & Amin, Unnamed-NPC

Amin peered around the corner and then grunted, a surprised sound.

The room itself was ten meters long and five wide, with console seating for six.  It had once been an orderly control-room, with subtle lighting and dark pale blue hues nd subdued recessed track-lighting.   But whatever had happened, the entire place was now a mess.   One of the three great reinforced windows had an enormous crack in it, and a hole the size of two fists put together, right in the middle, with black and brown melted slag all around it.


There was only one body in the Control room, and it was lying on the floor, a small pool of blood around it's head, neck and shoulders.  It was probably male, but most of it's head was missing, lost in the chunky mess of meat that surrounded it on the floor.   A giant smear of red and black painted the wall behind the body, suggesting that whatever had burnt through the window had also hit the on-duty control-room operator.

At the far end of the room the ceiling had collapsed.  Giant metal struts and live, glowing, optical conduits lay limp against the walls and consoles.

Side note: they're hardline data conduits, not electrical, so they're not carrying a charge

Aspects:
Corpse of a Serviceman, Otherwise Unoccupied Room, A Hole in the Glass, Flickering Lighting, The Marines Outside the Door... They Don't See Us Yet!
</Orange>

Baylee, Rayfe & Amin, Unnamed-NPC

"Kess Ommak" Amin swore.

"You. Karnell." Amin hit Rayfe in the shoulder.  "See if you can find a working console.  We need to access Hull-Door control and atmosphereics to vent before the hull door opens."

He glanced at Baylee and smirked.  "Otherwise, the ship gets blown out into space before we get on it.  Can you handle that, princess?"

--
Okay,  This is a straight Systems roll at +1.  Assume that Amin gives you his access codes.

• Success: you get in
• Tie: you get in, but are unable to access the system (more work needed)
• Failure: alarms go off, danger-clock incremented.

This message was last edited by the player at 06:26, Fri 16 Apr 2021.

Haruhana, Sheng-Xin, Viper Lincoln & one Unnamed-NPC


Spohr stepped out into the flight deck and immediately went into a tight crouch.  firing off three shots in short, steady sequence, as if he'd was well-practised at it.

Lincoln Spohr rolled 1 using 4 Fudge dice.  Shoot(+2) to create COVERING FIRE.  Not a high-difficulty action, so target:+0.  SUCCESS.
Covering Fire now introduced.


Viper dove into the room despite the incoming fire that kept the tech-girl pinned down behind the crates in the corner.   She dove between particle-projection blasts, like she was a gymnast, or as if she knew precisely where the shots were going to go.

Viper managed to skirt around the huge tools console at the side of the hatch, but the cramped space didn't offer much in the way of cover.   If the rest of the tech crew and Bek & Spohr didn't keep the marines in their corner, this was likely going to end real quickly and real badly.

The bald girl in the orange visi-jumpsuit turned the small pep on Viper, her eyes wide.   She had a mechanical device in her left ear and something obfuscating her left eye.

Up-close and personal, she offered "Friend! don't shoot!"

The girl took a momento get over her shock, but she lowered the pep and scrunched even further into the corner to try to make mroe room for Vuiper behind the tool-enclosure.

"You got a frekkin' death-wish?" the girl asked her voice high and shrill, but the look of relief was clearly evident in her expression.   "'Cause this place hasn't had it's quote filled yet..."

Another pep shot lances out at Viper...

Across the room, someone cried out, and the tech girl stiffened.  her eyes flickered beyond Viper to the opened on-ramp to the Orishi, where the other tech-crew were pinned down.

Viper,
Marine-2 shot 4dF(+0) + Shoot(+3) for Target:+3.
Please roll to defend.

CSX:
So, we've worked out the basics of the psychic scream... wanna give it a go?
Roll Empathy.  Pick either one marine (the injured marine is marine-3, the others are full health) or the zone...  it will be opposed by the Mob's average willpower (+2).

Other background stuff:

• Maissa Haukea rolled 4dF(+0) + Atheltics(+2) vs TN:1.
• Control(Marine-1) rolled -1 + Shoot(+2) vs Viper
• Control(Marine-2) rolled +0 + Shoot(+3) vs Viper
• Control(Marines) Shot(+3) Tech-Crew vs Defend(+1)
• --> SUCCESS Tech-Crew takes +2 stress
• Control(Tech-Crew) Shot(+2) Marines vs Defend(+2)
• --> TIED (New boost: Marines "Pinned" (goes away in one exchange)

This message was last edited by the player at 06:21, Wed 14 Apr 2021.

Karnell frowned at being thumped on the arm. He wasn't that keen on personal contact at the best of times, which this was most definitely not. So far he had been content to follow along quietly, assessing all the others, and keeping himself out of harms way. Nobody extended their lives by volunteering for dangerous work, after all. But this time, he could hardly avoid it.

He took up the gun, and checked it, competently. At least he looked like he knew how to fire it. Compared to some of the other convicts, he had a rather soft look to him. Not made of muscles, his hands free of the callouses of any kind of manual labour. Whatever he was being thrown into the slammer for, his life had not been one of considerable hardship.

Inside the control room, he took stock quickly. He dismissed some of the contents rather casually. The sight of the poor bastard who had no head did not especially bother him - or, at least, he did not display much emotion at the gruesome sight. He simply stepped over the body, and started examining the consoles.

As he worked, he spoke - his voice an educated, urbane sound, though it had something of a sardonic drawl to it. "I don't mean to tell you your job, young lady, but I'd say that hole was an excellent opportunity to shoot someone in the back. If I can get this thing working again, we won't have very long to get across that hangar, and anything you can do to reduce the waiting time... well, I would be very grateful. I've always believed in leaving a party before one out stays one's welcome... GOT you!"

What, precisely, had he got?

That was revealed a moment later when he bent down, and yanked open a panel beneath the console he was working on, and tripped a circuit breaker just on the inside. It was a bit fluttery - much like everything else needing power on the critically wounded station - but it juddered into life. His smile was rather vulpine, and his eyes bright. He flexed his hands, rather like claws, with a small crunch of knuckle joints, and got down to work. He was not entirely sure what he was doing when he stopped to think, but somehow, the information flowing across the small screen in front of him made sense, if he just worked on what felt like instinct. It took very little time for him to make sense of the system, and with the access codes, he had no issues bypassing the various security lockouts. He finished typing with a little flourish.

"I will need to pre-set the timer, so we have enough time to get onto the ship. How long would you like? Do you suppose we could ask the very angry people out there to politely put down their weapons, as they are awfully inconvenient? No? I didn't think so, either. I hope you have a decent plan then. That's not my department."

His mind, however, had other thoughts. Karnell. That's what he called me. It seems to fit. And if he knows my name, he knows a lot of other things, as well. Once we're on that ship, he won't be able to run away. Maybe then he can be persuaded to share what he knows...
This message was lightly edited by the player at 06:06, Wed 14 Apr 2021.

Maissa shrank and crouched like a cat behind the tool boxes to expose less surface of her small body to the incoming shots.

I guess I get to choose what I use to defend. Athletics seems irrelevant to me since she's not really moving or dodging fire; Viper defends with Stealth (or Shoot, both at +3)
Maissa Haukea rolled 0 Defend +3 -->TIE. Maissa is Pinned

The burst surprised her however, and she let out a shriek. The boxes shook under the impact, blowing up splinters. Under such violence and threat, Maissa closed her eyes, put her head in her hands and stuck to the cratered wall, panting.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:40, Wed 14 Apr 2021.

Baylee moved into the control room with a burst of speed only to rock forward and stare at the bloody mess. She felt a sharp, acidic pang of regret in the pit of her stomach. She was jealous of whomever had gotten to enact such violence. She clicked her tongue loudly and scanned the room slowly. She was just stepping toward the hole in the glass when Amin snarked his snarky comment. She froze in place and dug her nails into the palms of her hand. Her cheeks paled as she shook. Her gaze locked onto the hole and stared daggers through it.

She'd had the same though at Rayfe already, of course, but now pew-pewing pep blasts through the window wasn't very satisfying-sounding. She wanted to tear out hair by the roots, break bones, and knock teeth from a skull. Failing that, she wanted something hard and rollicking twixt her nethers.

Slowly, a sound like a kettle boiling escaped between her teeth even as a salvo of blasts sounded in the docking bay. She blinked and moved to the window to look through. The angles would have been easier if she could float in zero-g, but this would have to do. Situated right behind them and protected by the glass, she felt a big of glee surge through her frame as she contemplated their shocked faces in her imagination. Assessing the situation, she saw a couple laying down fire toward the barrel where the girl and, now, Viper were trying to hide. She aimed at one of them and fired.

Bai Ling-Li rolled 2 using 4 Fudge dice.  Shoot +3, Firing at "Marines" Backs.

Uh, seems like a hole got blasted through someone there... That's a total of 5 to hit a marine.

After the shot, Baylee happily called through the glass, "Like shooting fish in a barrel, boys!" She then moved aside from the hole to refuse even a moderate amount of return fire and looked at the other two, "Feck, this is just getting exciting!" A big stupid grin was on her face and her form shook. Wide eyes gauged her allies then looked to make sure those marines would not be busting in here easily any time soon.

Bek hadn't managed to get one of the guns when the commander had opened the armory; they'd caught up just as the group was finishing with it, and by the time they got there the last pistol was in the hands of a bulky woman with a ragged haircut and one eye. Not that Bek minded if other people wanted to do the dirty work, especially when it involved making a target of oneself. And Lady Lone-Eye was an excellent target.

What she was not, however, was an excellent shot. Or even a passable one, threatening nothing except the lights hanging from the ceiling. Wordlessly, Bek stepped up behind her and plucked the pistol from her hands, giving it a quick once-over before casually pointing it into the bay and pulling the trigger.

They focused on the ones Amin had identified as the marines, standing just to the side of the hatch with their back against the wall and gaze fixed through it, firing every time a head or hand appeared above the marines' own pile of crates. Bek only took one shot for every three or four that the big man did, but each one hit exactly where it was supposed to and kept the heavily-armed group down.

"You know they can see you there, Bruiser," Bek said, tone soft and conversational as they continued firing into the room. "At least find a crate of your own or something. Nice one, Orija!" they called out, upon spotting the tiny angry woman appear in the control room window and take out one of the marines. It wasn't that difficult, shooting people in the back like she'd done, but it was important to keep up morale.

11:17, Today: Bek Haruhana rolled 0 using 4 Fudge dice.  Shooting into docking bay. (Shoot +5). – 0
Not sure what the difficulty is at the moment; Bek's only trying to keep them down and not shooting, not actively kill anyone. (Though crippling is an option, if the marines don't get the message.)

As his companions prepared for action, the older man regarded the scene upon the flight deck, watching the military men.

The dizziness from his vision had faded, but the grief from the reality stabbed him even more sharply than the acquired affliction in his shoulder.

These men... had to die.  And he... had to help take their lives.

He took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for the upcoming engagement, even as his companions prepared themselves.

The others gathered physical weapons, while he... gathered something else.

He did not question how he was doing so, nor how he knew how to do so.  It was instinctive, as natural as breathing.

And so it was, that as his companions made their move... he made his.

His extraordinary senses reached toward the military men, seeking to cloud their minds, to dull their thinking... and to give his companions the edge they would need to survive...

Narrator:

CSX:
So, we've worked out the basics of the psychic scream... wanna give it a go?
Roll Empathy.  Pick either one marine (the injured marine is marine-3, the others are full health) or the zone...  it will be opposed by the Mob's average willpower (+2).

RPoL Dice Roller:

19:00, Today: Chang Sheng Xin rolled 0 using 4 Fudge dice.  Psi Cloud - Empathy(+5).

Control Room:
Baylee, Rayfe & Amin, Maxir

It took a moment or two to get the angle, but once set up Baylee was able to take a an amazing potshot at the Marines's unprotected back-side.

The particle-blast from the particle-projection pistol sounded way too loud in the comparatively small room, and it shattered the outer edges of the Big Damned Hole in the Glass, sending cracks all throughout the pane...

"Sweet Essa."  Maxir said, glancing over at Baylee.  "Remind me never to piss you off."

Since I'm using mob-mechanics, Baylee's Superb roll vs the marine-mob's Fair Defend leaves takes two of them out.
Baylee you get to define what "Taken Out" means... so, you tell us what happened to them!
Side note: The (4) marines are now aware of the group in the Control Room.

The marines started yelling, and changing up their positions, turning to face the Control Room.   A couple of them fired off shots at her, clearly visible through the glass.

Marine-Mob rolled 4dF(+1) + Shoot(+2) +2 Teamwork = Attack(+5)
Baylee: Please defend vs PEP Shoot Attack(+5)



At the same time, Karnell was working through the firewalls to get to the hull control.  He found it surprisingly easily, but found that he couldn't disengage all the safety protocols in place.   The subroutine for safety-checks was fairly easy to spoof, but it still had to be done.

Amin was removing a mechanism from the door to the flight deck proper.  Apparently whoever the headless serviceman was, he'd barred the doors from the inside.  There was formed steel and data conduit wrapped around the handle, and the electronic sensor pad had been ripped from it's housing.

Amin looked over at Karnell. "Venting takes about three minutes."  he said, turning back to the door and unwrapping the data-conduit with what seemed to be excessive care. "Give it a one minute lead-time.  Ah.  Got it!"

Amin held up a fist-full of data-conduit, threw it to the floor.  "You."  He laid a hand on Maxir's shoulder, the man's mouse-brown hair lit up garishly pink by some of the flickering lights.   "Can you convince them to stand down?"

Maxir went wide-eyed.  "Me?  Why me?"

"You're a politician." Amin said. "That's what you do.  You talk people into doing things they don't want to do.  Now's the time to prove you were worth saving."

Maxir swallowed hard and put his hand on the door handle...

--
I'm gonna say that Opening Hull Door has an automatic sequence that it needs to follow, that goes like this:

1. Audible Warning
   
2. Lockdown
   
3. Vent Atmosphere
   
4. Open Hull Doors

This message was last edited by the player at 21:19, Fri 16 Apr 2021.

Flight Deck
Bek, Sheng-Xin, Viper Lincoln & one allied Unnamed-NPC, Marines(6),
Tech-Crew(3) & Gilina

Spohr looked up at Bek with a lopsided grin.  "I'm too damned pretty to die, but if it makes you happy..."  and he moved--with a crouched low-profile lope--towards the stacked barrels on the side of the hangar.
He's not an idiot, so the barrels aren't fuel.  Let's say they're coolant...

Somewhere there was another pep-blast and suddenly, the marines were yelling.    They were turning toward the control room, where Baylee was clearly visible through the fractured glass.  But, in doing so, it wasn't lost on anyone that most of the marines had turned their backs in surprise.

How not very marine-like. so, maybe they aren't marines...
Marines get Between A Rock & a Hard Place
Viper loses Pinned Down
Tech-Crew loses Pinned Down


"Gilina!"  Someone yelled.  One of the tech-crew.  "Now!"

The stubble-headed tech-girl turned to Viper. "Tell me you were going to try to save me."  she said, and there was a glint in her eye.   Viper noticed then that there was blood all across her left hand.  A patch of mottled flesh torn from the back of her hand.  It looked like a third-degree burn and Viper could see tendons through the mess.  Then it occurred to her that the woman's neck and half of her face was a patchwork of little scars, patches of healed skin.  "'Cause if you wanna save me, you'll want to grab the medgel there, and follow me."

Gilina indicated a couple of cannisters of "SpraySkin" and Medgel inside the toolbox.  Apparently, Gilina, the Tech-Girl had been injured and had been caught at the first aid supplies when the marines entered the flight deck.


One of the marines lifted their pep and started firing randomly.  One of the blasts hit  the one-eyed woman Bek had taken the pistol from, and she went whirling to the ground...

Spohr fired off another shot, but the blast went wide, denting one of the barrels the marines were crouched behind.

"Campbel!" one of the marines shouted.

Karnell had got into his stride now. It was strange how it all seemed to come flooding back. He had no idea how he knew how to do what he was doing. He had no clue who any of these people were, where he came from, or indeed, where he was. But one thing he did know how to do was to look at computer files he was absolutely not supposed to be able to access.

So, with one casual flick of a hand, he set things up for the escape. "Three minutes it is. You had best hope we have three minutes. Actually, you'd best hope we have more. If that reactor core blows while we're too close to the station, the shockwave will tear the guts out of that bag of bolts we're going to entrust with our lives. But all I have to do is press this button, and the process starts. We'll have one minute from when I press it. If we're not in the hangar by then, the lockdown means we never will be."

But even as he spoke, his hands were flying. It was hard to follow what he was doing, the text on the screen shot past so swiftly. But it was simple enough to guess that, whatever it was, it had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with launching that ship. It looked far too complex a process for something that he had already stripped down to I just press this button.