Ellie waited for the piles of trash around her to stop shaking ominously before she slowly slide of the carts roof and lowered herself to the ground. Looking around, she spied the piece of debris she had noticed while exploring the blocked exited, cracked grave plate.
Picking it up she used her suits power to rip the machines cover off to get to the internal wiring. Grave plates had superconducting wires coiled around a specially formed alloy inside each unit that allowed the formation of gravity waves to be generated when power was ran through it.
Uncoiling the wire form the broken unit gave Ellie over fourteen feet of usable, very thin, wire. Ellie went to the driver’s side hatch and opened it. Leaning in she wrapped one end of the wire around the support bar of the cart, then slowing uncoiled the wire as she went back to the hull of the ship.
Jumping up, Ellie again slowly climbed up the side of the ship trailing the superconducting wire behind her. Reaching the open panel she inserted the end of the wire into the power port. Not wanting to experience another uncontrolled flight and embarrassing landing again, Ellie slowly made her way back down the hull, careful to not dislodge the wire.
At the end of the hull she lowed herself as far as she could, then lightly dropped the rest of the way. Making her way to the grav cart she got in, she tried to close the hatch as much as she could without interfering with the stretched wire.
Before going any farther Ellie grabbed her commpad and stuck it into her armored thigh pocket for safety. Taking a deep breath, Ellie started to unravel the wire form the support bar, Ellie then inserted the bare metal thread into the power port on the instrument panel.
Ellie took a second to look at her companion. The A10 was sitting in the exact same spot, still holding her bag. Laughing softly she turned and took a few more calming breaths.
“Please don't blow up. Please don't blow up.” She chanted before hitting the power activation button and immediately closing her eyes tightly shut.
A loud electrical hum filled the grav cart that was soon drowned out by the heavy screech of metal grinding on metal. Ellie's eyes flew open and she grinned as she saw the massive cargo bay doors slowly wench open.
They jerked and shuddered, battling the weight of trash piled up against the ship. The bay doors slowly parted down the middle. The noise of hundreds of sharp metal bits dragging across the metal doors created a horrendous din.
A loud electrical bang filled the compartment and then the instrument penal exploded sending sharp bits of metal, plastic, flames, and electricity shooting into Ellie and the A10 bot. Ellie's armored suit and the A10's heavy casing handled the shrapnel, but she was still thrown back into her seat.
Her head slammed back hard enough that even with the helmets protection pain shot through her and Ellie's sight dimmed. Fighting the effects, she saw thick bellowing smoke pour into the compartment form the burning panel.
If she wasn't fully suited the smoke would have choked her and seared her lungs. Activating her outside speaker she yelled to the A10 to evacuate. She was diving out of the grav cart as she yelled this but she still managed to registers in the chaos the bots calm.
“This unit understands. Exiting the vehicle.”
If Ellie wasn't in pain, trying to stay conscious, she would have laughed. The cargo bay doors had stopped opening, leaving an eight foot wide opening. As Ellie landed her weight and momentum shifted the trash just enough for first small piece of debris to slid into the opening, then another, until Ellie found herself in a landslide.
Ellie gathered all her remaining strength and took the most powerful leap the suit could manage. Ellie flew twenty feet into the cargo bay flipping end over end in a gymnastic feat only made possible by the power armor. She completed ten revolutions before her feet slammed into the deck.
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What the Nova? Was Ellie's last confused thought as she collapsed and darkness took her.
Ellie woke up in the A10's arms. Confused she asked. “What happened?”
“This unit projected the probability of injury staying were you fell was statically high and moved you.”
Ellie blinked and looked around. Her helmet’s inbuilt sensors automatically adjusting for the complete lack of light in the cavernous cargo bay and displayed a gray, washed out, landscape onto her armored visor.
There were also power level readings, stored oxygen level readings, the suits integrity reading, down to 73%, and current estimated location of Ellie, displayed on the left side of her heads up display.
Her blue eyes widened as she saw the mountain of trash that had spilled into the bay and found the grav cart upside down.
“How in the nova?”
She had the bot set her down, and as her feet touched the deck a wave of dizziness and pain hit her. Ellie grab the bots arm to steady her and tried not to faint again. Feeling a small pinch on her left wrist she looked down at her armor covered forearm as she felt the dizziness and pain recede.
Ellie grinned in relief. “Forgot the auto injectors. Glade they still work.”
Military suits had a built in medical unit that dispensed pain blocking medication to soldiers automatically when sensors detected any distress or injures. It kept the soldiers fighting longer without soldiers having to stop and manually inject themselves, soldiers that died still fighting. For Ellie it helped clear her mind to the problem at hand.
Walking over to the grave cart she inspected the damage. The grav cart's cargo hatch was crumpled against the ships inner bulkhead, the cargo bay doors fifty feet away. Form the large scraps on the cart and the scraps on the deck Ellie figured the grav cart had side sideways in the avalanche, then flipped over and over, hitting the deck, then sliding and spinning, until the back of the grave cart slammed into the wall directly opposite the cargo bay doors.
Upside down and facing the mountain of debris.
“Will look on the bright side Ellie, at least it's not buried under a ton of rubble.” Ellie tried to cheer herself up.
Going to the cart passenger hatch she duck down and look at the damaged interior. The compartment was a complete wreck, the instrument panel a melted ruin, electrical scarring, and the burnt out interior told the tale.
Ellie reached up and unlocked the compartment under the passenger seat, Ellie was pleased to see the tank of helium fuel was still intact. Turning towards the A10 she jumped in fright at seeing it looming behind her.
“Don't scare me like that!” She swatted the bots metal arm, the sound of metal on metal ringing in the large bay.
“This unit doesn't understand the command.”
Laughing Ellie realized the bot still carried her bag! A little worse for wear, but still, intact. Taking it she instructed the bot to slide the grav cart forward so she could access the cargo bed. As the bot lumber over to the grave cart she inspected the bag. Burn patches and scorch marks could be seen on the outside of the bag but since the bag was made from the same resistant material as ship suits it didn't harm the contents of the bag.
Looking inside the bag, she was interrupted by a loud screech of protesting metal. Turning towards the noise she saw the bot had grabbed the crumbled side of the grav cart and had jerked it forward. The A10 only moved the cart forward a few inches but another load screech of metal the grav cart move anther few inches.
Ellie instructed her suit to turn off the outside sound and watched in blessed silence as the bot slowing pulled the grav cart away from the ships bulkhead. It was a testament to how sturdy the bulk cargo ship was built that the grav cart hadn't punched through the inner bulkhead and damaged the interior.
Finally there was enough space for Ellie to access the back hatch and she halted the bot. Setting her bag down, near the bulkhead, Ellie walked over to grave cart. With just enough space to slide in she saw the cargo bay hatch was completely deformed.
“The hard way it is then.” Ellie said to herself. She braced against the bulkhead, lifted her right foot up, and powered a kick to the hatch.
A loud boom sounded and with a shriek the metal door caved in. Crawling inside she saw everything was a completely jumbled together, the instameals flung all over the grav cart's cargo bay, suit parts, electrical parts, and military equipment scattered everywhere. The military hardware and sensor bots undamaged form their rough treatment.
“They were designed to survive worse than this.” Ellie muttered as she tried to gather the scattered parts into a semblance of order.
She started handing the A10 parts to set outside the wrecked grav cart.
“Need to come up with a name for that bot.” Ellie muttered to herself absorbed in the task of emptying out the grav carts cargo.
In a short time the grav carts bay was completely empty and allowed Ellie to check on the carts fusion reactor.