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Kaelen Di Korbel opened her eyes, the pain was intense but she was breathing.
Captain? Are you Alright? Allana hovered nearby just out of view.
"What was that?" Kaelen grunted. She touched her forehead and her hand came away wet.
Allana's voice echoed in her mind, a soft but steady presence in the chaos. The AI orb floated into view, perfectly unharmed amidst the wreckage. Kaelen couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy. The last thing she remembered was the ship veering wildly, a series of explosions, then... this.
Kaelen grunted, her fingers pressing against her forehead. Blood smeared her hand, but she didn't have time to check the wound. The crash was bad, but not fatal. Not yet.
"I'm functional," Allana replied, her voice calm. "We've sustained significant damage, but the core systems are intact. The ship is still mostly operational."
Kaelen blinked, confused. Mostly operational? She tried to move but found herself wincing from pain in her side. Her body armor had done its job, but it felt like she'd hit by a freight train.
"You are mostly functional as well," Allana hovered. "I took the liberty of running diagnostics. Your organics are working - you will incur bruises but that shouldn't impede overall functi--"
"Got it," Kaelen snapped.
The AI used to Kaelen's brashness went silent.
"Status?"
"Weapons offline."
Great, there would be no return fire. She stood, momentarily dizzied. Her amor was assessing the damage, already she felt the cooling sensation as the nanites in her system went to work.
"Location?"
"Hyphernia Southern Locus, near the equator - Federation logs indicate the area is known as Cherica, the seat of the High Counsel. Oh.... Oh no..."
"Oh no?"
Kaelen swung her head around to look at the floating AI bot. Allana hovered, her silence uncharacteristic.
"What have we done, Captain?"
Kaelen through a hand in the air in frustration. "You tell me?"
"We... we've crashed into the Counselor's meeting room... it seems..." Allana continued scanning. "We've effectively killed their government body."
"What?" Kaelen immediately went into defensive mode. The ship wherever it had landed was already in hostile territory. But apparently the middle of their government. Just great.
"Not like I asked to be shot down," she muttered. "Hostiles?"
