<strong>The last moments of Admiral Raglan Lordson ?</strong><br/><br/>Admiral Raglan waited for the report on the Neutronic Bursters. He'd heard some other crewmen were using the slang ‘cushion’ terminology. Raglan was a talented engineer and liked the official terminology to be used, especially in a time of crisis though he understood it made others feel more at ease.<br/><br/>As he was waiting for the poor engineer who had been volunteered to fix the problem, he saw another nearby crewman turn white. “Sir… there, there’s a cascade failure in the Neutronic Burst regulator centre.”<br/><br/>That was bad. Cascade failure was one of the worst things that could happen. Without bursters the ship would not be able to land. Raglan was happy to send some fool outside to his death over one burster, if all of them were playing up that was something he needed to attend to himself.<br/><br/>“I’ll handle this.” he told the crew. “Wait for further instructions until after I’ve analysed the extent of the damage…”  Raglan headed for the main Burster control centre, it was a fair distance away and there was no way to get there any faster than the travelators, cylindrical lifts that ran the length and breadth of the ship. He found one that would put him a short run from the control centre, for security reasons no travelator stopped on top of it. He left the tube ran the rest of the way fast, real fast, any crew who noticed him running wondered why the Admiral was racing through the corridors so quickly. Some just assumed he was heading to a woman’s quarters and ignored it.<br/><br/>***<br/><br/>Raglan arrived at the Burster control centre. A brief survey of the area told him everything he needed to know. Three security personnel outside were dead, along with seven crew. The scene within the chamber was another matter however.<br/><br/>He inspected the primary coils, they were smashed beyond any hope of repair. Worse one of teh anti  matter power coils was missing! Without them there was no way for the ship to land, that was a fact now. That meant that the ship would crash as soon as it got close to 'New Venturi', there was nothing to prevent it. It was as inevitable as the Venturian suns rising and setting each morning.<br/><br/>Still the ship could be evacuated, in the escape pods and by making many, many trips in his personal shuttle. While the loss of the ship would be inconvenient, the colony would survive.<br/><br/>“Hello Fixedling!” a voice rang out. It had a strange whispering quality to it. Like a half heard comment distorted by the wind.<br/><br/>Raglan turned. There were four creatures slowly stepping from the shadows. He had his explanation of what had happened here. The creatures were human shaped but hairless thin grey humanoids with bald slightly oversized heads and large black doe eyes. They were naked except for a large silver belt from which hung various objects, and a silver skullcap attached to their scalps by flimsy looking wires. Some had huge penises dangling down from their bodies wich they made no attempt to conceal, some had slots in their groins. Behind them he could see several crew who had been stripped naked and bound with silver cables, they were gathered together in a 'pile' on the floor. It was clear that some of them had been penetrated by the silver probes decorating the aliens belts.<br/><br/>Anoter crewman was with the greys, as Raglan looked at him he shhited his form, morphing into a grey.<br/><br/>Shapeshifters!<br/><br/>There were none aboard that he knew off. That meant the ship had been compromised, that was certain now.<br/><br/><em>'Sabotage!' </em>was Raglans first thought. It would have been<em> 'Aliens!'</em>But considering the crew and passenger list...<br/><br/>"Take these fixedling whores to the city, we will bind them and then bend them to our will, they will provide us with much... Ah... Admiral, I am glad that you could join us. I hoped it would be you that came to investigate the problem."  the grey turned to address Raglan.<br/><br/>"Of all those aboard your psionic abilities have intrigued us the most, those and the abilities of the woman who speaks with animals and the weather witch. We intend to kidnap them... along with whoever else can aid us in our explorations of the Fixedlings forms."<br/><br/><em>Fixedlings? They meant non shapechangers... us...</em>thought Raglan.<br/><br/>Raglan stood speechless for once.<br/><br/>"You don't have to die with the rest Admiral. We kow the darkness of your mind, even though we cannot read your thoughts. We have seen your fixedling records and absorbed the knowledge within. Your type of 'Unsavory' character could help us greatly. Your mental powers rival and exceed perhaps our own... Join us and you can have your pick of the females aboard, you can help us break and explore as many as you wish. You will live with us in our city on the planet below. The planet that you have dared to visit and claim as your own. Do not think of trying to stop us Admiral, there are five of us to your one."   it tapped it's head. "These protect us from your telepathy, you have no chance of resisting us and why would you want to. Untold pleasures await you"   the grey waited.<br/><br/>"What do you say Admiral?"<br/><br/>"First I would like to thank you for telling me about the caps..." said Raglan, he reached out with his telekinetic powers and tore the skullcaps from their heads, they screamed in shock and surprise... "Now kill yourselves."  he ordered.<br/><br/>Two aliens pulled out silver probes and drove them through their own skulls, falling dead to the deck. Raglan couldn't control more than two of these strange creatures at a time.<br/><br/>The others pulled what must have been probe lasers and fired, his pyrokinetic shield blunted the energy from one and absorbed the heat entirley from the other. He overheated one of the weapons and it blew up in the shifter greys hands.<br/><br/>Two left, one was shredded by a telekinetic push, its limb scattered in all directions...<br/><br/>The last grabbed at the human female captives and was gone before Raglan could do anything... Had any of the  women captured been ones that he had encountered before at the briefing? He couldn't tell... only they would know.<br/><br/>He stood there taking in what had happened. Shapeshifters from some city had come to steal their women and sabotage the ship in order to keep the planet theirs. But how many of them were there? Was this 'city' full of shapeshifters? Or were these five the only survivors of some ancient alien culture? Would there be more on the planets surface or would these be the only ones they ever encountered. That's when he noticed what else had been behind the greys.<br/><br/>Behind them was the bomb... he looked at it, recognizing it as a Vortex bomb. If that detonated it would destroy half the ship instantly. He looked at the counter glowing in red on its side... it was very convenient of them to have placed it there. Raglan made a mental note that if he ever built a bomb he would disable the clock display on it.<br/><br/>It read<strong>00:07</strong><br/>They had merely been delaying him, delaying him while the bomb ticked down.<br/><br/><strong>00:06</strong><br/><br/>They had ripped out the guts of the Bursters and coils to create a spacial Vortex bomb.<br/><br/><strong>00:05</strong><br/><br/>Raglan snapped his eyes shut and concentrated, he had one chance to escape, just one!<br/><br/><strong>00:04</strong><br/><br/>He tried to tap into a power that he had never used before, at the same time he sent mental commands to the bridge crew and his Officers, the Captain, the LT. "Intruders, Sabotage, Abandon Ship." having recieved commands this way before they would respond according to their training. He area bursted another command to any civilians who might pick it up within range, for an unexplained reason he wasted perhaps a second more than he should have specifically sending one to the New Liason officer with the body that was both stunning to look at and comfortable to lay with... what was her name again? And also to 'Legs' and the cute girl that reminded him of an old friend called Shane who had once been an actor on some TV show, she or he had been so hot!<br/><br/><strong>00:02</strong><br/><br/>Raglan closed his eyes and crossed his arms. He thought of his personal shuttle... of being within it, seated at the controls...<br/><br/><strong>00:01</strong><br/><br/>He reached out with his powers, tapping into a suite of abilities, some of which he had mastered, some of which only functioned under extreme stress once in a blue moon.<br/><br/>Tele-pathy, Tele-Kinesis, Tele-p...<br/><br/><strong>00:00</strong><br/><br/><strong>The Bomb exploded...</strong><br/><br/>***<br/><br/>The explosion was felt all the way through the ship as the rear half of 'the Traveller' vaporized, tearing the hard tritanium shell of the colony vessel apart like tissue paper.<br/><br/>The Traveller careened wildly its dead hull now spinning and tumbling towards the planet.<br/><br/>The bridge crew sent their final message blaring from the speakers.<br/><br/>"Intruders have sabotaged the ship. Total engine failure."  this was due to the rear half of the ship being gone... "Proceed in an orderly fashion to..."<br/><br/>He was shoved aside by another crewman. "Fuck that!"  He screamed into the mike.<br/><br/><strong>"ABANDON SHIP, ALL HANDS ABANDON SHIP YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES BEFORE WE GO CRITICAL, GET OUT GET OUT NOW! DON'T STOP FOR NO ONE OR NO SHIT! GET TO THE NEAREST ESCAPE POD AND GET THE FUCK OFF THE SHIP!!Now put this on a fucking loop, I'm outta here!"</strong><br/><br/>The ship comm system crackled again...<br/><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 1.35em;"><strong>"ABANDON SHIP, ALL HANDS ABANDON SHIP YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES BEFORE WE GO CRITICAL, GET OUT GET OUT NOW! DON'T STOP FOR NO ONE OR NO SHIT! GET TO THE NEAREST ESCAPE POD AND GET THE FUCK OFF THE SHIP!!Now put this on a fucking loop, I'm outta here!" </strong> </span>it continued to repeat itself.<br/><br/>To any aboard there was no doubt the crewman was correct, nobody could have failed to notice the explosion, failed to feel the shift in gravity and pressure.<br/><br/>Many were fated to die simply because they were too far from an escape pod.<br/><br/>There would be no lottery to see who deserved to live and escape, no debate over the right mix to put in the escape pods. It was simply a matter of luck, ruthlessness and speed.<br/><br/>Spend too much time grabbing possessions and you die.<br/><br/>Go back for a loved one?<br/><br/>You die.<br/><br/>Help an injured crewmember?<br/><br/>You die.<br/><br/>Let someone else take your seat in an escape pod?<br/><br/>You die.<br/><br/>Now it was survival of the fittest, the luckiest and the most ruthless.<br/><br/>Who would escape the shattered remains in time to power away from the totally unstoppable and impending explosion that would vaporize what was left of the Traveller?<br/><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 1.45em;"><strong>"ABANDON SHIP, ALL HANDS ABANDON SHIP YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES BEFORE WE GO CRITICAL, GET OUT GET OUT NOW! DON'T STOP FOR NO ONE OR NO SHIT! GET TO THE NEAREST ESCAPE POD AND GET THE FUCK OFF THE SHIP!!Now put this on a fucking loop, I'm outta here!"</strong></span>