[h3]Mark A. Lopez[/h3]
[hr]
Mark kept at the consoles, toggling power levels and rerouting as the ship shuddered faintly from the impact out in space. The reactor spike from Lockman's shot had kicked a transient across the bus; a handful of sensors hiccupped and vomited noise before settling. 

"Crazy fucks..." He swore under his breath and kept moving.

“All right, cutting extra coolant and air to the boarding tunnel and cargo corridor now,” he said into the open channel, “Should keep people from fainting and slow the spread of heat. Lights are down to emergency in nonessential decks.”

He pulled up the drone feeds. About a dozen of them were live and obedient, cameras spitting grainy video as they crawled forwards out the cargo bay and the boarding sides. The bots were not impressive, tracked and short stubbed, no more than 4 feet with scuffed paint and patched plating with the ship's designations and marked as "Exploration Rover," but their flares and powered claws were ready.

“Vitiafa, Ren, listen up,” Mark spoke over comms, “I’m assigning a handful of rovers to the boarding tunnel and some more to cargo. They’re configured for flares and claw routines but that should keep some bugs distracted if worse comes. I can manually pilot one at a time into a hot spot, but I need eyes and calls from the ground. Tell me when you spot bugs or someone falling in the lane. Call the drone number and target quadrant. I’ll take the rest.”

A warning chirped on the console as a sensor line spat static, then recovered.

“Transient spike from the det. Some local feeds just melted for a second. If I lose a camera, bark at me and I’ll switch control. I’m running systems and drones at the same time, so hit me fast.”

He grabbed manual control for drone alpha and eased it toward the cargo lip. The little unit wheeled, camera zooming in on a cluster of civilians being shepherded toward the ramp. One of the dock workers was bracing a stamped metal barricade, Ren’s loader clanking in the background.

“Cargo bay, I see your lane. Drone alpha on visual. Moving to hover near the left ramp to push back anyone trying to climb the barricade,” he said, fingers nudging the joystick. The rover's claw extended and gave a demonstrative shove at a loose crate, sending it a harmless meter and clearing a narrow path.