The white beam of superhot plasma hit them quicker than it takes one to blink. Nike, Inyanga and Ayla watched them both get hit and fly into the building opposite them. The dust from the crash flooded the floor and choked them. As they struggled to breathe, the ground below them began to sink erratically. Each jaggered movement brought about more falling steel and concrete from above. The shuttle began to sink more as the floor began to sink and the building began to fall.
Inyanga tried and failed several times to ignite the engines. Each "failed ignition" message on his dashboard made his breathing a bit more heavier, the sweating a tad more profuse. Nike backed into the shuttle and tried to shut the door, but debris lodged it ajar. He went straight to the cock to tell him of the situation.
"Why aren't we flying?" he shouted
"Dust in her engine intake. Get the door shut."
Nike looked back and saw Ayla clearing the dust from the door system.
"Let me see if I can fix that" Nike, with the metal scrap in his hand, went out onto the unstable floor and to one of the engines at the edge of the shuttle. He could see a concrete slab clocking the intake and began to pull at it with all his might until a small gap began between it and the slab was visible.
"The other one!" Nike ran forward to the front where the other engine had small rocks blocking it's intake. With the metal scrap Nike began picking away at the rocks. A few metres away from him the ground began to collapse as more debris slid over the edge.
"I got the door." Ayla screamed.
"Good. Nike?"
"I'm working on it." As he slaved away frantically at the engine. Just as he cleared the last of it away the familiar blue light greeted him. Inyanga knocked on the windscreen and gave a thumbs up. Nike took a step back to avoid the flames just as a steel bar crashed through the ceiling and the floor behind him, narrowly missing him by inches. The ground below him gave way as he fell through the floor. Ayla screamed whilst Inyanga frantically swung the rear end of the shuttle to where they last saw Nike.
Ayla stood by the door and peered over the edge looking for Nike as they approached. His bloodied hand shot up and grabbed the ledge. Ayla quickly got on her knees and reached out to him. Nike's other hand grabbed the ledge, and he pulled his head up enough to see Ayla. With the last strength he had he grabbed her hand just as the floor completely collapsed underneath him the shuttle slowly hovered to the right, opposite to the falling direction of the building. Nike hung on as he watched everything crumble around him. He climbed on board and Ayla shut the door behind him. She collapsed and lay on the floor with Nike, and they just took deep breaths. Moments later they both started to laugh but that temporary joy was shattered by Inyanga.
"An, do you copy?"
Nothing but static. He radioed her again, but he got no answer. He hovered around the crashed building but saw nothing but dust. He moved to the adjacent building where Mwene crashed into and did not notice any signs of life. Ayla walked to the cock pit and sat in the passenger seat. She looked down to grab a seat belt and noticed Inyanga's blood on the floor. His legs were absolutely drenched in red.
"Are you oka...…."
"Hang on. I see somethin'. Patience scanned the area. "Inyanga focused on the dusty monitor in front of him
"Structural integrity compromised. Building collapse imminent. By my calculations if they survived the blast, they should be on the 55th floor. Only noticing movements of rubble." Patience noted.
"Can't the rubble movements be caused by someone digging their way through it? "Asked Ayla.
"Insufficient data. More analysis required but it is a logical hypothesis"
Ayla looked out of the dusty window but focused back on Inyanga's legs. The light from the blackhole accretion disk revealed just how bad the damage was. His legs looked like it had been eaten by a million small bullets. Inyanga had tightened the belt halfway around his thighs to limit the bleeding, but Ayla feared the worst. He noticed her eyes of concern and simply smiled at her.
"Tis nothing but a flesh wound"
"Looks more than that."
"Right now, two of me best friends are probably dead. Me legs are the least of my worries now innit?" The look of desperation on his face was enough for Ayla to know that right now wasn't the time to be selfish. She looked away; loss etched itself across her face. He noticed.
"But I do appreciate the concern." Ayla smiled a bit in return.
Nike walked to the front with two bottles of water and handed it to them. They both downed them as if they had been stranded in a desert. Inyanga then proceeded to hover around the leaning building to the other side where it seemed relatively untouched by the mayhem on the other side.
"Movement detected." Patience reported and Nike pointed out some shadow. Inyanga, not seeing anything, switched the monitors to infrared and swore loudly before sharply diving the shuttle. A pillar as long as the shuttle whizzed past them quicker than a heartbeat barely clipping the edge of one of the engines. Inyanga aimed the cannons, but error messages popped up on his monitors and alarms rang throughout the shuttle.
"Cannon 1: Malfunctioning. Cannon 2: Overheated. Cool down in two minutes."
Inyanga looked out of his windscreen, and he saw it. It stood by the ledge. It's arms and legs were engulfed in white flames but it's body was purple and black. The cannon had hurt it. Inyanga realised he could beat it. The mad being was nothing more than flesh and blood. Static began to fill the shuttle. It scraped and dragged across the eardrums of everyone in it until they heard it.
"Your spilt blood is nothing more than the will of God. Nothing less, nothing more."