The crowds either didn't hear Velan's words, or, emotion having purged their hearts of obedience, didn't care. Velan, stomping his foot into the ground and dispatching textcomms to his still-loyal forces, watched as the previously uncommitted third of the chamber, two enforcers among them, drew their weapons and surged forward into the mobs, using their fists and the stocks of their guns to smash through and beat down those who had been their allies mere minutes ago. The sudden nature of the attack meant that both of the disorganized sides were quickly overwhelmed, for neither of them bore much ill-will towards those who now attacked them, and both sides were reluctant to shoot at fellow humans — or were too terrified to fire at enforcers. Many surrendered and capitulated the moment Velan's marines reached them, while those who didn't were ruthlessly knocked to the ground where they were then kicked, punched, and struck until they too conceded — or were simply too bloodied to struggle. Terxah, Ralthina, Iselviah, and Xandra, unwilling to fight fellow humans, surrendered instantly; Parivahn, who reacted to the violence with violence, was beaten into submission by other marines; Yelazar submitted after only a mild reprisal, and Illtera followed suit. Dentor, however, resisted fiercely, evading strikes and dealing them back with such unexpected prowess that he even managed to knock down three of Velan's marines until he finally capitulated after being struck by an enforcer — the blow was so powerful that it sent him flying into a wall a few meters away. Velan, stepping down from his table and walking towards the mass of injured or surrendering soldiers and sailors, addressed them all.
"Madness may have consumed the Cesspit, madness may consume the galaxy, madness may consume humanity itself, but madness shall never reign on my ship, or amongst my crew, as long as I live! As your commander, I am to be obeyed — if we are to kill one of our own crew members, we will do so when I order it, and not a moment before. Any who disagree, can voice their objections from the airlock."
Velan shot a glance towards both sides, neither of which had yet fully recovered, "Now, pick yourselves up, and apologize to your fellows who you were on the verge of murdering; you're supposed to be soldiers of the Empire, and yet all I saw back there was a gaggle of rabid fools. We face this alien threat with wisdom, strategy, and unity, or we might as well have died on the Cesspit along with everyone else who didn't make it — in fact, that might have been preferable, for at least they died with their dignity intact."
Velan's crew members slowly got to their feet, all of them doing what Velan had instructed them to do — even Iselviah, whom Velan had suspected would not welcome his coup with open arms, did so with surprisingly little resistance. Velan, pausing to allow his previous remarks to cement in the minds of those present, was then notified via textcomm of the next concerning event: one of the station's escape pods had been launched, within it being the one person notably absent from the entire mutinous event: Kalmah.
Whether boarding an escape pod and leaving the ship was an attempt at evading both the aliens and the humans aboard the station, or if it was an alien Kalmah trying to use an escape pod to somehow reach another, more easily-taken human ship, Velan could not know. What he did know, however, was that he needed to prevent her from doing it, if not because Kalmah was likely to die in the Remnant if she stayed there, because he didn't want to be caught empty-handed by the Wraith if he actually managed to survive the aliens and make it to Ihndrastar.
Turning to Terxah, Velan spoke, holstering his pistol and folding his armored hands behind his back.
"Terxah, you recently proved yourself adept at hand-to-hand combat, and it seems you now have a chance to redeem yourself in my eyes. The escape pod that just launched from our ship — I want you to bring it, and its occupant, back here. You already have a quantum communicator from when I sent you to retrieve the Kalithiharians — take it, and a squad of marines, with you. Make sure the marines have a communicator as well: after all, if you're alien and you try to flee after I set you on this assignment, I want to know that there's someone trustworthy nearby who can shoot you in the back."
Terxah nodded, and stated clearly, "Understood, sir."
Velan gestured for her to be on her way, and, without saying a word, Terxah snapped to attention in agreement and marched through the nearest pair of doors, a mixed squad of formerly Nemesis and Kalithiharian marines following behind her. Velan didn't blame Kalmah for wanting to escape the chaos that he presided over, but not only did he have to prevent future desertions, but there was a certain Wraith that he had to appease if he wanted to keep breathing — his choice to bring her back on board was, like all the other decisions he had made for the sake of his crew, driven by cold pragmatism.
***
Falmenec exhaled deeply, his mind awash with a mixture of scientific thoughts, inspiration, and the insidious pangs of fear that had so defined the past fifteen minutes. Around him was the bullet-riddled interior of one of the station's more-intact labs; to his right was an ever-stoic, yet increasingly impatient, Korthekar, and before him, suspended in a stabilizing fluid, a small lump of human-looking flesh seemed to gaze at him mockingly. Drumming his armored left hand's fingers on the smooth surface of the digital desk before him, Falmenec, cursing the elusive tissue sample, then reached across the desk with his right hand, which grasped the handle of his improved alien detector. Raising the scanner into the air and pointing it squarely at a lump of human-looking tissue, Falmenec, shuddering with anticipation, then clasped the trigger of his device with a vigor born of desperation. A moment later, the device began to whir and cackle with activity; another half-minute, and the device chimed.
"Specimen is human" the device read, its audible whirring quickly dying down. Falmenec, uttering another curse and slumping in his chair, began to wonder whether or not he would ever complete his task; a glance at the unmoving Korthekar, however, and Falmenec, realizing that the lives of everyone else on the station depended on him, wearily returned to work, intent on exploring the next mote of inspiration he had. After the most recent failure, he was less than hopeful, but he had to try nevertheless — if he had only fought when he had hope, he would have died long ago.
***
Terxah, eager to redeem herself, clear her name, and be close enough to the rest of the crew that she could intervene if things got out of hand, barrelled through the gore-covered interior of the space station, not even bothering to check the corners and hallways she passed for aliens, while her marine squad struggled to keep up. Her rapid advance was made towards the starboard escape pod bay, a room dedicated to the storage and control of the station's escape pods, for it was there that she would be able to deploy various countermeasures that could bring the wayward escape pod, and its essential occupant, back on board the beleaguered station — even if it did not want to return.
Rounding another, blood-stained corner, and leaping over a small pile of thoroughly-looted human corpses, Terxah, observing the escape-pod through the external cameras of the station, was surprised to see that it remained in proximity to the station itself, though this made sense: if the pod were to fly away from the station and suffer a malfunction, Kalmah would be marooned in the Remnant with no hope of rescue. By staying near the space station, Kalmah would be protected from the trigger-happy ones amongst Velan's force, while also remaining safeguarded from aliens. It was an ingenious plan, though it was amazingly selfish, and, sadly, it conflicted with Terxah's commands. Recalling that all Tekran ships were legally required to be able to summon launched escape pods back to the host ship in case of a misfire — so long as the escape pod had not manually disabled this feature — Terxah then interfaced with the station's systems and activated this return protocol. Observing the escape pod through a nearby telescopic camera, she watched as the engines on Kalmah's escape pod flickered to life.
Grinning, Terxah and her escort rounded another corner and was met with the gore-filled, hallway-like room she had been seeking; from here, they could retrieve their person of interest. Bullet holes lined the room's walls, immolated alien corpses lay strewn about, and the original metallic floor was invisible for the ocean of dried human blood that completely covered it, but despite all of this, as the chamber still possessed the means of launching and receiving escape pods, it would serve Terxah adequately.
Viewing Kalmah's escape pod again, Terxah became certain of her triumph as the escape pod began to draw nearer Velan's station; yet, as the escape pod's engines flickered and died a moment later, this anticipation died as well. When the pod's engines ignited an instant afterward to increase the distance between the pod and the station, Terxah, remaining calm and not so much as uttering a curse, sought other means of bringing the pod aboard, now that she knew the pod's occupant was capable of hacking machinery. Terxah then calculated that even if she could not bring the pod aboard the space station through normal means, she could still leverage emotion and threats to coerce her objective — people were variables difficult to account for, yet easily manipulated.
Accessing every single external weapon on the station within but a few seconds, Terxah then locked all of these onto the rogue pod; opening up communications to Kalmah — though this was a difficult act in the Remnant, it was more than possible at such short distances — Terxah dispatched an explanatory textcomm.
"You have fifteen seconds to dock with this station before I blast you into quarks and gluons," read Terxah's brief statement, which, if anything, got the message across. While Terxah waited for a reply from Kalmah, her quantum communicator — which was paired with a similar device owned by Velan — chimed; glancing at it, Terxah became privy to its message.
"Revision to my last order: If you're able to, have Kalmah's escape pod dock with the station but do not open it; things are getting worse here, and after her attempt at fleeing, she would likely be shot under suspicion of being alien," it read.
Terxah replied, stating that she understood and would comply; the station's circuitry informed her that Kalmah's pod was making its way towards her escape pod bay, and Terxah finally cracked a victorious grin. Once Kalmah's pod slid into one of the station's docking tubes a few seconds later, Terxah had the station's systems in that area shut down, trapping the pod, and with it, Kalmah, in the claustrophobic space — though, at the same time, both of these were incredibly safe. The muffled, sobbed words "Let me out!" could be heard, but Terxah, compelled by orders, ignored these pleas entirely. Shutting down escape pod systems station-wide after this, so that no one else could try to flee, Terxah, satisfied at having accomplished another task, began the minor trek back to Velan's makeshift bunker. Of course, were this bunker and the rest of the station to fall, Kalmah was trapped in a missile-sized escape pod that was itself trapped in a docking tube, and she would be utterly helpless; however, Terxah, who had no intention of allowing the station to fall to the aliens, gave no thought to this potentiality as she marched, assault rifle in hand. Currently, half the crew rightfully feared her, and they didn't even know what she was; if the aliens, despite knowing the truth, did not already share this fear, she would soon make them.