ZX81-esq-crashing

Who: Elwood and the skutter patrol
Where: the same corridor as last time
When: power-off time
-------------------------------
"Ooooh..."
A starbug fired at an enemy ship which exploded into several
different pieces, each one flaming a different colour.
"Aaahhh.."
A random spark of energy lanced out from a spider-craft and fizzled
into the hull-plating just above the window.
Things were just getting interesting and quite pretty outside when
the BD's power cut-out.
Instantly, all of the skutters' clawed heads drooped and folded down
to rest on their wheeled bases, reliant on the constant power feed
from energy junctions all over the mining ship as they were.
All shut-down... except for Elwood, who had the sense to recharge his
back-up battery the previous morning.
"Hello?"
His metallic voice echoed longingly down the corridor with no
response coming back.
"Holly?"
Still no reply returned to the skutter's microphones.
Nudging his way through the lifeless husks of his robotic family,
Elwood trundled down the middle of the walkway, flicking his puny
searchlight on. A feeble alarm wailed and a notice flashed in the
centre of his vision, reading "Warning, 1 hour of power left".
Aiming to get to the drive-room before he shut down himself, Elwood
passed several other 'dead' skutters, one or two crewmembers who had
taken the opportunity offered by the dark to engage in secretive
sticky jiggling, and a couple of mutated space-weevils who waved and
said hi...
<Tag anyone who sees the liiiiiight>