The Protogen Generation

LUCAS'S P.O.V.

Slowly, I woke up after being hit by my helmet.

My vision, still fuzzy, made it hard for me to see what I was doing.

“...how long was I out?” I asked, turning my head over to Avera.

“15 minutes” She responded “Are you alright?”

Finally coming to my senses, I realized I'm not alright. My hand, which took part of the impact, was probably broken. the side of my head took the rest of the impact. 

“I've got a real bad headache…” I said putting my good hand on my head.

“What about everyone else?” I asked quietly.

Avera looked down silently, “Scott,” she says, “he's dead.”

“Oh..” I said in a pained voice, “What's Michael's status?”

Avera looked back behind her, “He's unconscious.” She says, “Vita has him stabilized.”

“Fuck” I said under my breath.

Our flight engineer is dead, and my best friend is about to join him.

Looking out the cracked window ahead of me, I've noticed we've stopped spinning. Avera must have done that while I was out.

Garrett floated up to Avera and I’s seat. “We need to land, Michael won't survive much longer up here.” He said with a straightforward tone.

“We won't survive re entry.” Avera snapped back, almost angry.

Garrett protested, “Well at the rate we are losing coolant and Hydraulics, re entry won't even be possible.” He continued, “Right now we still have a chance, a chance to save Michael and ourselves.”

Then I noticed something on my flight display. We weren't in an orbit anymore. We were slowly falling to the planet. At the rate we were going, we would be hitting the atmosphere soon. I would use the thrusters to extend our orbit, but that would most likely just blow us up if they are damaged.

I turned to Avera, “We don't have a choice,” I told her, “our orbit is decaying, we were slowed down after we hit the debris.”

“How much time?” She says

Looking back at the monitor, we won't have long. “5 minutes, 7 at most.”

“Alright.” She said, keeping her composure.

“Garrett,” she called, “Get Lucas's hand bandaged. After that, prepare the cabin for re-entry.”

Garrett floated back up to my seat with some bandages. He began to dress up my hand, so that I'm less likely to mess it up any further.

His hands were a dark dark red, stained by blood. It contrasted greatly with his normally bright orange fur. I couldn't help but stare at it with concern.

“It's going to be okay,” he tried to say reassuringly.

“What's the use,” I told him, “We are all going to be dead within 30 minutes anyway.”

“Don't say that-” he stopped, “We will make it, we will for Scott's sake.”

Garrett finished up bandaging my hand and pulled himself away back towards the rear of the cockpit.

I begin to unbuckle my harness, “I need to go back and help,” I say.

Avera put her hand out and stopped me, “You don't want to see it back there. Just stay up here and focus on getting us on the ground, ‘kay?”