The entire room goes crazy with data you can't read, and up on the screen, the furthest aft outline turns yellow. Out of the corner of your eye, you notice yellow light flickering from back down the hall, and turn to look through the door. The lights are near the aftmost shuttle door. You can feel things moving through your feet, and you hope that was the right thing to push, but you have a more pressing matter now.
In the flickering yellow light, you can see monsters moving in the computing section. There must be at least a dozen of them milling around, and it seems like their numbers grow by the moment, all appearing from the trashed, breached starboard side. They move as if the vacuum isn't even an inconvenience. You look down at Spitfire, her ammo counter reading '74', and gulp.
The deck shudders beneath your hooves, and the flashing lights go out, only for the next closest shuttle door to light up. A glance back to the display shows that one outline is gone, and the next has turned yellow.
When you turn back to the hall, it appears the noise and lights have drawn the monsters' attention, and they're moving to the door. Then they start banging on it, pushing buttons, trying to pry it open. You quickly look around the control room, then up, spotting the air vent. "Great…more ducts."
You wing out into the hall, and start firing. Aim is not a big issue, since they're wall-to-wall and there are even some on the ceiling. You're not sure how many you hit, or if you even disable any of them, but you sure got their attention.
As soon as they turn away from the shuttle door, you jump back into Control. Another shuttle launches as you look, and then you're flying up to the vent, yanking the cover off. You pause, though, making sure the first few into the room spot you. As they crouch to jump, you duck inside, sprinting down the vent.
You think of pausing in the junction, to make sure they're following, but then the vent covers to the aft hallway start to bow upwards, the critters pounding on them from below. When the first one gets its head up into the duct, you bolt towards the service duct to the next deck down.
It's a quick, headfirst scramble down a ladder to get to the Deck 5 junction. They're already climbing down after you, and you mash buttons until the pressure seal closes. Almost as soon as it does, you can hear pounding against it, and it starts to deform.
With a growl, you turn away and crash down through the vent into the starboard airlock chamber. You shield your face from the glowing plasma entering through the torn-open starboard airlock. Is that damage worse than it was before? There's another thump as a shuttle—the fourth? fifth?—launches, and you can actually see the ship deforming, the tear in its hull growing wider as the shuttle pushes itself away.
You glance up at the vent, then run forward into engineering storage, and close the pressure door. As the room repressurizes, you lean against the door and sigh. You focus on the countdown. '7.3 m'. A pressure door can hold those things back for that long, right? You gulp, and turn to head forward.
And it steps out around a pallet of metal parts. The first one. With the freaky spider still clinging to its back. It's only a couple of meters away, and you can hear it breathing heavily.
You shift slightly, trying to get a feel for where Spitfire is hanging, but you know you won't be able to get a shot off before it closes. Instead, you try to slowly tense your hind legs. It lazily opens its mouth, secondary jaw extending, then snapping shut firmly before withdrawing. You suppress a shudder.
Then, the spider pounces at you, flying off of its back with surprising speed, tail already swinging your way.
Of course, you're already a meter to the side, dancing around shipping containers and heavy machinery.
You duck randomly through the maze of supplies, hearing the monster close on your tail and a slithery skittering that seems to come from everywhere and nowhere. The ship shudders again, and you hear tearing noises and then a pop, and the pressure starts dropping. The whole ship is shaking constantly now. You hit a straightaway, and pass by a loose tie-down strap. You whack at the catch as you pass, spilling a pile of debris across your path.
As you flit down the straight path, fumbling at Spitfire, you wait to hear noise behind you. At the first clank, you turn, firing wildly. All you see is a shadow ducking around a corner. You back away, trying to angle yourself towards the forward pressure door and sending off an occasional burst of fire at flickering shadows.
Then Spidey jumps out from a pile of equipment, and all you can do is give it a good whack with Spitfire. Its tail tries to wrap around you, but you grab at it with your forehooves and spin, sending the little monster flying. You're still twirling when the big guy lunges at you from the shadows.
Your world narrows to a series of blocks and strikes. There's room here, enough for your wings to help you, and you manage to get a good series of punches and kicks in against the hissing horror. It brings its tail in after a moment, whipping and stabbing at you with a knife-like edge, leaving a few thin cuts along your suit. It never seems to slow or tire, never gets disoriented even by a whack to the head, and a tiny, terrified part of your brain is gibbering, reminding you that this thing probably hasn't eaten in decades and was just in pure vacuum and you can’t stop it.
You see an opening, and take it. Grabbing your pry bar, you lunge, and stab the pointed edge into its shoulder. It sure notices that, and it flails at you, but you push it far enough to snag the hoof-loop over an equipment hook. You flip over it, dodging the whipping tail and ending up on your back, on the rack of equipment above it. "You just hang out here for a bit, kay?"
Zipping away, you try to reorient yourself. The ship shudders again, probably the last shuttle launch, and you make a jumping takeoff towards what you think is the right direction.
And then the artificial gravity gives out, and you feel yourself pulled sideways.
It's not a long fall, but now pieces of equipment are raining 'down', as down becomes a direction defined by the planet you're falling towards. There's another shudder, and then the sound of the world ending. You're deep enough in the atmosphere now for it to carry the tearing, groaning, shrieking sound of structural metals being stressed far past their breaking point. You blink as the storage bay is bathed in a dim orange glow, while the entire aft half of the ship just...goes away.
Then you're dodging for your life, as tie-downs and rivets break and entire shelves come flying at you. You dodge a forklift and a pile of crumbling cables, but then something snags your suit and you're pulled down.
You smack into a solid surface, and your head hits the back of your helmet, sending you into darkness.