[H1]Serin & Clara[/H1]

Was that a dog barking at her? Clara vaguely remembered the family dog, Titan, dying in his sleep a while ago, so it couldn’t be him. The yapping growl sounded angry and stressed. She tried to open her eyes but found it an impossible effort. Her mouth tasted of metal and her tongue hurt. She smelled smoke and something else; a chemical from her science class days?

As recent memories of before the crash started to reemerge, Clara’s heart jumped into her mouth. She wasn’t back at home on the farm. She was on Outremer. Giving it everything she had, Clara groggily opened her eyes. Colourful shapes danced and blurred together; she blinked a few times to focus them.

Eventually she made out the cargo bay of the drop ship she’d left the Galahad’s Glare in. Smoke filled the open space, swirling around the mount created for the asset. Flames licked through the crumpled door into the cockpit and from service panels in the floor.

The dog started yapping again to her right, closer this time. Clara tried to turn her head toward the cargo bay doors, but couldn’t move at all.

“Impact lock is activated. Do you want to disable?”

“Y--y-yes.” Clara managed to stutter.

She immediately slumped forward against her seatbelt and her arms shot in front of her face. She realised the ship was on it’s side, with her and Serin now sat facing the ground.

Serin!

Clara awkwardly tilted her head to see if she was okay. Serin’s arms and legs were hung in front of her as well, and blood dripped from her lips.
“Serin!” Clara choked. She saw the ONI agent’s fingers twitch inside her suit.

Behind Serin, light spilled in from the cargo bay opening. A shape Clara’s mind thought was a big shard of metal let out a piercing shriek and rushed forward.

Through the smoke she made out a short, stocky creature with beady eyes, encased in an unwieldy exo suit. It looked up at her as she hung in the air, then let off several energy bursts from a device it held.

Clara screamed as the burst splashed against her overshield, vibrating her whole body and setting shrill alarms ringing in her ears.

“Shield depleting. Please find cover.” Her suit announced levelly.

“Someone help!” Clara shouted on an open channel, frantically kicking her legs and struggling with her harness.

The thing below her let out what might have been a laugh, and carried on firing.

It let off three more shots before a much louder report sounded outside the crashed ship. The alien crumpled over sideways, it’s weapon now firing on repeat into the cockpit door.

Clara looked up from the clasp of her harness and saw another shape in the cargo doorway.

“Anyone alive in there?” A voice shouted.

“Yes, please help us!” Clara called.

The shape slowly came towards her through the smoke. It was a man wearing a bullet proof vest over a black business suit. He had his hand over his mouth to protect from the smoke but Clara could see a shock of blond hair. He briefly surveyed the damage around him before seeing her on the ceiling.

“Hold on, i’ll get you down.”

“Get her first, she’s unconscious and needs to get out of this smoke.” Clara commanded, pointing to Serin’s limp form.

“Yes ma’am.” The man replied sheepishly, obviously grinning beneath his hand.