Raid

"Wakey, wakey pal. Don't want the supervisor to chew ya out again, do ya?"

Jax sat up in his bunk, just fast enough to bump his head on the ceiling, but slow enough to regret every second of tingling pain.

The young man waking him up stifled a small chuckle before walking to the door of the living quarter.

"Ya got 15 minutes to get cleaned up and down to the cargo bay for your shift. Better get to it if ya still want to get some grub in ya?"

Although he found the man's manner of speech annoying, Jax was always grateful that his coworker kindly woke him up before his work shift started.

Carefully sitting up, so as to not make the same mistake again, Jax precariously began climbing down from the top bunk where he slept. The room consisted of a small hallway around 20 feet long, with three layers of beds built into the walls on both sides. Ladders built into the wall allowed for access to the higher beds. Each bed had two drawers placed next to it for clothes and any authorized personal items. Sliding himself onto the ladder, Jax grabbed a simple tan jumpsuit with a black harness, capped at the shoulders, chest, and back with bright white reflective tape, the company's standard uniform.

Looking down the room, Jax saw that he was the only one left, with his other coworkers having already prepared for the day.

"Nothing unusual there" Jax thought, "Although I'll need to thank Alec for waking me before my shift again."

Glancing at a clock at the end of the room showed that it was 22:47 Interstellar Standard Time, meaning he only had around 13 minutes left to get ready.

Hastily walking to the changing room, Jax decided that today will have to be just a deodorant day and shower once his shift ends. The changing room was an adjacent room with lockers on one side and standalone showers across. Opening his locker, Jax applied a single line of deodorant under both arms, before suiting up, throwing on a pair of black work boots, and putting on a standard-issue white hardhat. He also made sure to put on a simple string necklace with a silver-colored coin on the end, a memento from his late parents.

Taking another look at the clock showed that he only had around 8 minutes left to make it in time for muster. Jax quickly opened the sliding hatch door which spilled into a large hallway, running in both directions. Signs indicated where utilities and locations were, but he had worked here long enough to know his way around.

Turning left in a sprint took Jax directly to a large cafeteria, in which he could only briefly grab a fruit similar to a banana, except for its orange color and sandpaper-like surface, before continuing on to his station.

Barely making it through another large door, this time an expansive cargo bay opened in front of Jax, as well as around fifty men and women lined up, dressed exactly the same as him. His coworkers were lined up in five rows, evenly spaced looking at a large man standing at the front.

The young man from earlier, Alec, was in the front row giving a comforting smile to Jax, knowing full well that the supervisor had it out for him.

"JAX! Good of you to join us today" the fat man at the front sneered "and with just a minute to spare before your shift."

A few workers quietly chuckled and glanced at Jax, but he paid them no mind. The fat man was his supervisor, so he also ignored the obvious sarcasm in the comment.

"Hello, Sir! Cargo Handler Jax reporting for the second shift" Jax stated.

"Get up here boy, I want to have a word with you about your behavior" the supervisor called out.

"So today is going to be one of THOSE days" Jax thought as he expected another day of reprimands and boredom.

Right as he began making the walk to the front of the group where the supervisor stood, an alarm began blaring inside the cargo bay. A mechanical female voice came over the intercom right then.

"ATTENTION ALL CREW! ATTENTION ALL CREW! RAID! RAID! RAID!"