" What the hell? I didn't sign up for this," Daniel yelled, running towards the spaceship's command center.
The panic in his voice was quite palpable.
" How did this even happen?"
Warning alarms blared throughout the entirety of the spaceship.
" Sections A-32 and A-40 have been damaged beyond repair. Subsidiary power cores have shut down. Initiating emergency power supply activation." An automatic voice rang out.
The ship's crew dashed around the ship frantically trying to salvage the situation.
The entrance to the command center slid open, and then a young officer ran up to Daniel, his eyes wide with desperation.
He stopped to catch his breath, his chest heaving up and down.
" Doctor Daniel, have you seen the captain? There's a discrete matter that requires his immediate attention." He urgently asked.
Daniel pointed him in the direction of the ship's hull.
The captain, when Daniel had last seen him, had been leading a team of Prometheus robots in an attempt to seal a breach in the hull that had opened up when the ship collided with a massive asteroid.
" Warning, warning, central thrusters have lost power by ninety percent." The automated voice rang out again.
Just then, a massive explosion rocked the entire ship.
The shockwave from the blast ripped through the front section of the ship. The aftershocks threw almost everyone who had been standing to the ground.
Daniel's eyes dazedly swept across the deck.
A cold weight settled in his gut as he realized the blast had come from the direction of the hull.
He scrambled to his feet, gritting his teeth in pain. The shockwave had violently slammed him into the wall.
Luckily, his armor had protected him from serious injury.
" Bloody hell, how can this possibly get any worse?"
Intense blaster fire and screams erupted in the direction he was heading.
He skidded to a stop, just before rounding the corner, his eyes widening in fear.
" Shit, I probably just jinxed it."
His stomach growled irrationally, his heart thumping madly in his chest.
He slowly crept forward and peered around the bend.
The sight that awaited him confused and horrified him in equal proportion.
The Prometheus robots were pursuing the crew members who had gone to support the captain in sealing the breach.
" Shit, shit!"
The surviving crew members dashed around the bend, almost crashing into him.
One of the crew members roughly grabbed
" Damn it, doctor run! This whole mission can go to hell for all I care! Run for all you're worth."
Daniel pumped his legs frantically; adrenaline coursed through his body.
He jumped into the command center, sliding through the entrance just before the heavy automated door slid shut.
The crew members barricaded themselves in the command center.
The command center was filled with loud cries and groans.
The sickly sweet aroma of blood and charred flesh permeated the air.
" Doctor, over here, my brother needs help." A voice shouted.
" We're probably all going to die," Daniel thought grimly.
" If we stay put, this will be it."
Daniel awkwardly staggered, breaking through the haze of depressing thoughts in his mind with sheer grit.
The crew member who had called him was applying pressure to a wound on an injured man's abdomen.
Daniel squatted down and began to examine the injured man.
" Let me take a look at the wound."
The officer moaned weakly, blood bubbling out of his mouth in a small stream.
His chest was slowly heaving up and down.
Daniel's expression turned grimmer when he saw the wound.
"Shit!"
The man's innards were peeking out of his abdomen, blood slowly trickling out of the ruptured vessels.
The blaster round had cauterized the wound on its exit through his back.
He cast a furtive glance at the crew member's pleading eyes, then took a deep breath to steel his nerves before delivering the bad news.
" Honestly, without access to the ship's medical facilities, there's nothing much I can do for your brother. This man needs immediate surgery."
Getting to the surgery room would require getting through the hostile Prometheus robots.
As if that wasn't bad enough, the medical facilities were in section A-32, which had mysteriously malfunctioned.
A long sigh escaped the injured man's lips, then his chest stopped moving altogether. The man was dead.
The crew member's eyes widened in realization, then he let out an agonized scream.
" Don't get attached, Daniel, focus on survival."
He stood up with a sigh, then briskly moved to where the vice captain was standing.
"Sir, Vice Captain Aquila, with all due respect, what the hell is going on?"
The vice captain was an old man with grey accents mixed in his black hair.
He was still tall for his age, and his entire demeanour radiated a silent authority.
His arms were clasped behind his back.
He turned away from the surveillance screen in front of him and silently regarded Daniel, a hint of amusement flickering through his silvery grey eyes.
" I understand your agitation, dear doctor, but do try to keep calm.
He sighed, then turned back to the ship's controls.
" It appears that the technology that we've been transporting from Earth is attacking the ship."
Daniel's brows furrowed in confusion.
" You mean the Prometheus protocol is the one attacking the ship?" Aquila nodded grimly.
" That's right, Doctor. Prometheus activated on its own and began to hijack the ship. Our attempts to wrest control from it led to the ship's collision with the asteroid."
Aquila looked at Daniel in silence, waiting for him to process the information.
" What are the chances that we're making it out of this alive.
Aquila turned back. The screen displayed the intact sections of the ship.
" Honestly, our chances of weathering this storm are quite slim."
He smiled wearily.
Daniel realized that the stress of keeping calm in such a dire situation must have been taking a toll on the vice captain.
Just then, another explosion ripped through the ship and a heart-wrenching groan echoed throughout its interior.
" It appears the remainder of the hull has been destroyed, as well as part of the section with the escape pods."
Aquila took a small photo from his breast pocket.
Daniel stared at him in puzzlement.
"The hell?!" he thought
" My wife," he explained. " She died a few years back, but it seems the time has come to join her once again."
Aquila gently kissed the photo and carefully slipped it back into his pocket, then turned to Daniel.
" I'm sorry, doctor, it appears I can't guarantee your safety any more than I can guarantee mine."
Aquila broke into a smile, a determined light appearing in his eyes.
" On your feet, men. We Argonauts will not die shaking in our boots, like cowards. Everyone capable of fighting, grab a weapon."
Daniel frowned.
"Bloody hell, everything is going to shit."