Moore managed to drag himself back up into his chair and fumbled with the straps, though Curtis quickly abandoned his seat to help. He leaned over the younger man and put a hand on his shoulder, grabbing the straps and wrapping them around him. The shrill gasps out of Moore's mouth betrayed what was wrong, but Curtis had to be cruel to be kind, tightening the belts and buckling them together, pulling out any slack on the belts quickly, eliciting a new agonized cry from Moore's lips as flecks of metallic debris began to clink on the viewport, leaving short scratches before bouncing back off into space on a new trajectory. With the young man locked in, Curtis bolted back to his seat, pulling the straps over his shoulders. "Go!" he shouted to Andrijan.<br/><br/>Andrijan twisted the two control sticks on his seat, causing the ship to spiral on its axis, the entire solar system seeming to twirl around them through the screen. Two large pieces of debris, each larger than the hauler on its own, slammed together not far ahead of them, and the pilot pushed the sticks forward harshly. Small RCS modules, small mono-propellant thrusters located all over the ship exterior (meant more for small attitude adjustments and docking than maneuverability) fired frantically as the ship pitched forward.<br/><br/>The Asura was, at its core, a small tug vessel designed to haul cargo loads through space. The hauler module itself, where the cockpit could be found, was a simple craft that was primarily engine, though there was room for living quarters for four and a common room, as well as the spacious cockpit. It was aerodynamic enough on its own, and designed for re-entry, but the capability of the hauler was not Andrijan's concern right now. His teeth grit in anticipation because of their cargo.<br/><br/>From each of the quadrants of the hauler craft, an enormous cable extended out the rear, sixteen inches thick around, designed to provide some flexibility but mostly strength. The cables ran through the outer quadrants of large cargo containers, nearly 100 meters long by 20 meters wide and tall. The cables connected to each cargo container in a long line, threading through brackets at each of the corners on the containers and extending all the way back to the final container. Each container was independently secured on the cable, though the cables were capped at the rear in the event of mechanical failure.<br/><br/>As the hauler pitched forward, the great cables attached to the ship roared as they flexed, filling the cockpit with a loud bass groan, the directional change slowly working through the containers as they cruised forward. Andrijan jerked the sticks back again to narrowly avoid another large chunk of space station, a stray antenna from the debris scraping the underside of the ship and causing it to lurch slightly with as each new container came in contact with it, snapping the antenna off after a fourth jarring jerk. He turned the sticks to the right and the ship yawed to the starboard side, trying to avoid a massive shard of the starship plating, but the containers dragged the little hauler craft, broadsiding the massive debris with a loud metallic scrape and a massive jolt to the port side as they bashed through it.<br/><br/>The force re-orientation of the ship gave them increased visibility. The debris field was extremely thick, and shrapnel was everywhere, pinging off of every side of their ship constantly with little ticks and bangs. While some large chunks of the station remained in tact and floated around like large asteroids, the majority of it had been shredded by whatever had caused the catastrophic failure. The noise became overwhelming.<br/><br/>Andrijan cursed loudly, as the erratic movement of their cargo made it difficult to get the ship under control. "Moore, you get that afterburner patched up?"<br/><br/>"Yeah!" Moore called back, seeming to regret the action instantly as he began to cough violently.<br/><br/>A car-sized chunk of material bashed into the window, spider-webbing the existing crack out further, small new veins in the breakage spreading periodically as small bits of shrapnel pinged into it. "Oh shit!" Moore gasped as he watched the glass slowly losing integrity.<br/><br/>"Focus!" Andrijan called out. "Curtis, tell me there's a near-earth planet in this system!"<br/><br/>Curtis banged on his navigation console, bringing up a small map of the system. It showed six planets orbiting the binary star, the second planet highlighting in green. It's orbit was mostly stable, and the atmosphere seemed to contain all of the necessities for human respiration, without too many extras. "Calypso 2, second planet. It's close."<br/><br/>"We're gonna have to land, this shield won't hold." Andrijan twirled the sticks, orienting on a small planet and centering it in the creaking viewport. Only the dark side was initially visible, sunlight just cresting over its horizon like a half halo.<br/><br/>Curtis frowned. "It's a reserve planet -- life-bearing. Government's gonna be pissed if we land."<br/><br/>"Maybe a park ranger can arrest me," Andrijan retorted promptly. "I'm going to try and get us out of the debris field. Moore, get ready to activate that afterburner on my mark!"<br/><br/>Moore extended a hand, gripping his side tightly as he tried to extend beyond the limits of his straps, wincing each time a particularly loud 'bang' echoed off of the ship's hull. His finger tentatively touched a large switch with a red protector over it, which he flipped over in preparation. "Ready," he said weakly.<br/><br/>Large chunks of debris floated between them and the planet, crashing together and spinning erratically on unknown orbits. Andrijan's eyes were a blur as he seemed to take note of each one, waiting for a very specific moment to accelerate. Finally, all of the pieces aligned, and he was ready. "Mark!"<br/><br/>Moore reached forward and flipped the switch, the force of the sudden acceleration forcing all four passengers back into their seats. The youngest man cried out in pain savagely as his head was locked back against the headrest. Andrijan struggled to keep the ship's heading true, and the planet seemed to sway in front of them as if it were on a pendulum. The sudden acceleration had jerked the cargo containers into behaving, but they still kept bit of wiggle in their movement, occasionally taking strikes from large-ish objects in the black.<br/><br/>Andrijan's personal calculation had paid off, requiring him only to make small attitude adjustments instead of broad sudden shifts to avoid the larger debris. Smaller chunks still tagged the shield causing new cracks to form, eliciting hissing noises from both Andrijan and Curtis. As the last of the heavy objects began to fade, the crew relaxed slightly. "Everyone alright?" Curtis asked.<br/><br/>Moore seemed to be having trouble breathing, unable to respond to the question.