Right, here we go. These next couple will probably be shorter, as I no longer need to describe what separate groups of characters are doing.

In Space, There is Only Death
A Sci-Fi Epic, Part 12
Starring Rabbit, Reinholdt, and DeeRee
Spoiler
Show
The massive alien slammed into the airlock doors with a crash, and reached through the narrowing gap between them with one of its scythe claws. The heavy doors ground down, severing the limb. Its screeches of rage and pain echoed through the airlock, thinning as the atmosphere began to hiss out.

It slammed into them again, and the three people aboard the shuttle watched with horror as the doors started to deform. They bent further with each successive impact.

Depressurizing is going to take too long. Here. DeeRee dropped into the co-pilot's seat beside Rabbit and started tapping away at the keypad. Screens in front of her lit up as she worked, her fingers flying over the keys.

What are you doing?

Venting the atmosphere on this deck. Outer doors won't open till there's no air in here. But pumping it out will take at least another minute. A minute we don't have.

The gap between the doors in front of them was visible now, and the thing had plunged its remaining arms through the divide and was slowly tearing them further apart.

I suggest you hold onto something. Alarms sounded as the deck's atmosphere vented into space, the shuttle rocking on the tracks as air whirled around it. Then the outer doors started opening.

The alien wrenched the metal of the inner doors apart as far as it could, then backed up. It took a running start and slammed against them, forcing them the rest of the way open. Rabbit slammed the ignition, and the shuttle tore out of the airlock, shuddering as it scraped against the top and bottom of a gap just wide enough to admit it.

The little craft boosted further out into space, leaving the Mason's Blade behind. What now? They don't put FTL drives on these things.

There's a ship nearby. It radioed earlier. I think it said it was a half hour out. That was ten minutes ago. DeeRee leaned over, pointed out a switch. Flip that one.

Rabbit did so, then pulled the shuttle into a dive that knocked Reinholdt off his feet, narrowly missing an asteroid. Rein? Sit down.

The catman took a seat, and DeeRee grabbed her set of controls. Between the two of them, her and Rabbit were capable of dodging the larger asteroids. There was nothing they could do about the little ones, though. Something overhead threw out a shower of sparks, and both women ducked reflexively.

What hit us? Rein glanced around the tiny cockpit, looking worried. Isn't this thing supposed to withstand stuff?

It is. But I probably took out a lot of the hull plating when we left the airlock.

What? Oh no. Frak, that's bad... DeeRee checked a screen, then looked over her shoulder at the miner, as Rabbit dodged around an asteroid big enough to crush the small craft. Rein, is it? Find us some spacesuits and oxygen tanks. We're losing atmosphere.

Reinholdt nodded and stood, holding onto part of the wall for support as he made his way to the crew quarters. He checked each of the row of lockers along the wall. Grabbing three suits, he started back towards the cockpit. Something slammed into the shuttle from behind, knocking him to the ground. What the hell was that?

Not an asteroid. Rabbit spun the controls and the shuttle rotated, momentum carrying it in its original direction. It passed out of the edge of the asteroid field, giving them all a clear view of what had hit them.

It was a chunk of hull plating.

The Mason's Blade, clearly visible now, was in bad shape. Two halves of the hull drifted slowly further apart, debris from the explosion spreading outwards and past them. Secondary explosions blossomed as more asteroids tore into it. One big one smashed into the side, and the front half of the ship vanished in a ball of fire.

DeeRee stood up and left the cockpit, grabbing a suit from Rein as she passed him. She went into one of the small side compartments and shut the door, a tear rolling down one cheek as she did so. Suddenly exhausted, the daughter of a dead captain on a dead ship slumped to the deck and leaned against a wall.

Goodbye, Dad.