Edmund finished the last of the overrides quickly, trying his best to ignore the fight between the drones going on behind him. As the second drone had its legs crippled and it lurched to the floor the airlock slid open and Edmund motioned for the squad to get in the small airlock chamber beyond it, "<span style="color: red">Get in the airlock, double time! Move it!</span>" He yelled out in his commanding tone, punctuating the order with four three-round bursts into the main body of the crippled drone that caused it to go completely still. The one remaining rookie was quick to get in the airlock, his legs visibly shaking and his head darting around as though he was afraid that a beam might slice through the wall and kill him at any moment. It was a valid concern, to tell the truth, but not one really worth worrying about. If it happened it wasn't as though there was much you could do about it.<br/><br/>Edmund placed his metallic hand on the frightened soldier's shoulder as the airlock shut once everyone was in, and spoke in a stern but calming tone, "<span style="color: red">Pull it together soldier, things will be much easier once we make it to the generator room.</span>" The faceless rookie nodded, his nervous gulp obvious over comms.<i><span style="color: red">Too scared to talk, not much of a surprise. Hope he can still keep fighting.</span></i>He released the soldier's shoulder and turned to face the airlock opening after a quick air exchange. The hallways ahead of them were now empty, giving a ghost town quality to the ship. Two bisected corpses lay in the middle of the hallway, the entire floor from wall to wall covered in blood beneath them, a support drone crumpled against a wall and motionless a short ways down the hall. The rookie gagged audibly at the sight and gripped his stomach as he resisted the urge to vomit. Edmund simply frowned behind his visor, the emotion hidden from his team. This was by no means his first experience fighting the drones, but it never really got easy to deal with the brutal deaths they caused.<br/><br/>Edmund immediately started moving toward the generator room once again, going at a quick pace, "<span style="color: red">Keep up, we can't waste any time!</span>" He called to his squad as he switched on comms to broadcast to the squad members that had gotten separated from them when the airlocks slammed shut, "<span style="color: red">Anyone out there that got separated, rendezvous with us in the main access hallway at Junction I. We are going to make a push for the generator room from there. If you encounter too much resistance try taking the side hallways, hail us when within range. I'll set up a nav point on my location.</span>" Edmund ended the message and immediately set up a nav point on his location. Any soldiers that had their HUD activated in their helmet would get a small blip in his direction with a distance counter in meters. It moved fluidly with him as he continued running toward the main hallway, hoping that it wasn't overrun yet.<br/><br/>----------------<br/><br/>The main access hallway was crawling with drone activity, a trio of support drones marched down its length mercilessly slicing apart any living thing that entered within its line of sight, the support drones encircled by six drone grunts. The hallway was littered with dismembered corpses and the floor was slick with blood. A handful of quadruped scout drones climbed the walls and ceilings like spiders, the small drones only standing about half the height of a man but their laser weapons were still more than deadly enough to take down an unprepared marine. One marine cowered behind a box as one of the scout drones climbed over it, seeking out the heat signal that the marine was giving off. The marine gave a scream as the drone came over the crate but it was quickly cut off by a loud sickeningly wet crack as one of the drone's razor sharp limbs stabbed into the marine's skull and then withdrew, leaving a clean circular wound as the marine fell dead to the floor. It was obvious they were losing this ship quite badly, between being undermanned as well as having so many rookies the drones were marching in almost completely unopposed.<br/><br/>((To clarify, Edmund wasn't in the main access hallway yet, simply gave a description for others that may want to get there before the main squad does or if someone wants to work the arrival into their next post for Edmund to respond to.))<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>