Leaking

Sitting in a half-working ship watching myself bleed out onto the floor is not how I had planned this to go. Not at all. Even my best efforts failed to predict what was going to happen… dismally, as it turns out. One unplanned twist and it’s all busted.

In the end, tracking x0x0 on Whitefall turned out to be a lot easier than I thought: it was more like tracking Alliance activity. I knew approximately where she was by triangulating transmissions, and once I was close, it was pretty easy – just had to follow the sounds of gunfire and explosions. When I laid eyes upon the situation, it seemed pretty manageable to a loose cannon like me. They were pinned down, fighting it out with a bunch of green Alliance troopers who had obviously been told to get x0x0 alive at all costs. She’d taken a couple of bangs and scrapes but seemed to be none the worse for wear.

With large numbers and the upper hand the Alliance commander was getting lazy. He knew that there was no way x0 was getting off-world, and could just wait it out. No need to throw more lives at the problem. So, he’d sat back, and just was having his men fire off the occasional potshot. A couple of smoke bombs and some sleeping gas and voila… chaos. I ambled in, saw her ride had taken a round in the head, and picked her up, running through the smoke to safety.
I had already scouted my ride, a busted up ASREV in a junk yard. Just needed a new catalyzer, that I could acquire using my skills – that is, cold hard cash. It was on the way there with her thrown over my shoulder that things went wrong. x0x0 woke up, mumbled, pulled a large knife from her vest and stabbed me in the leg. Deeply.

Needless to say, I fell, from the shock and from her weight shifting unexpectedly on my shoulders. She went down pretty hard, banging her head real good, and she’s still out now. Aside from a nasty bump on the forehead she seems none the worse for wear. I dragged her into the ASREV and we broke atmo. That leaves me here. Gorram girl has hit an artery and I can’t control the bleeding so well. Feel faint, but I have to stay awake and try and get something on this to stop the bleeding.

The only sound here is the rumble of the engines and the drip, drip, drip of my life running out onto the floor. Thank goodness there’s some supplies on this ship. I found a few half nibbled protein bars in the console; I’ll eat as soon as I do what I really don’t want to: open up this wound and try and clip it.

Ugh.