<div class="floatleft">(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c7/0b/40/c70b40fa22c31104fc1dd073630d1a4c.jpg)</div>"Peretti," Karn barked to her teammate, her shotgun muzzle-down by her right leg. "If any of them try to rush the buggies, shoot them." The lilt of Jo'burg still shaded her speech, making her sound somewhat amused. She wasn't, nor was she angry, or...anything recognizable as an emotion, really. The affect, or lack of it, had made people assume she was a synth at times; she and a few other people knew she was something far worse: a human who really didn't care if any other particular human lived or died, so long as the job got done. Her job, right now, was to keep as many of the colonists alive as possible through this shitshow, and she wasn't going to let a couple of panicmongers fuck that up.<br/><br/>"Try for their legs, but if you have to, shoot to kill." That calmed the small knot of mostly techs right down. They'd come rumbling up, a small, leaderless riot, insisting on being given access to one of the swamp crawlers. Armed with wrenches, hammers, and a few knives, they could have made good on it if they'd caught one of Karn's people by themselves. Just their bad luck the Security Chief had been doing  a walkdown on the vehicle bay. Whatever else they thought they knew about her, they knew she meant it.<br/><br/>Dressler didn't blame them for trying, though she wasn't sympathetic. Even as they played their little dominance game, the platform shuddered and a deep orgasmic groan came from somewhere down below. The station was fucked, the mission was fucked, basically all of them were fucked. The worst fucking of all was that even if they used all the buggies and the couple of submersibles they could still get to, they couldn't get more than thirty or so of the crew off. What<em>verdammt</em>Earthside<em>poepol</em>had decided to build a floating research and 'forming base without any real boats to hand?<br/><br/>"We're stable for a good long while yet, citizens," she drawled. "And the Marine rescue group is inbound. Now's not the time to turn into a mob,<em>Ja?</em>"<em>Clack clack</em>went the barrel of the shotgun against her boot, where she tapped it for emphasis. "Go back to Commons and wait. Like the civilized people you are.  You'll not steal anyone else's life for your own."  Unspoken was the the question of how, exactly, they'd decide who got out if the rescue attempt went sideways.  That wasn't her problem. Yet.<br/><br/>Finally, still glowering and muttering, they dispersed, and Karn let out a breath.  "Stay put," she ordered Perelli. "I need to talk to Garner, find out when we're getting off this leaky tin can."<br/><br/>"What if they come back?," the officer asked, sweat beading his face. Karn just looked at him.<br/><br/>"What do<em>you </em>think?," she snapped at last, and strode off for Operations.