“Open cells Epsilon, Digamma and Zeta,” Lt. Davis bellowed.
“Yes, sir!” one of the SAS boomed.
He hurried over to a central panel. He punched in several buttons and the energy bars faded away on three cells. Nevin looked back and saw the door behind us close. We all were escorted to separate cells. Then once we were all in, the bars materialized in front of us.
Lt. Davis turned and left with his soldiers. As he left, one of the SAS twirled around and assumed a guard-post position.
We waited for nearly two hours, with no sign of a way out. I began to think about my family. There was a fear that I wouldn’t see them again. I needed a way out. I had to survive.
I could hear Butler eating his granola bar in the cell beside me. That gave me an idea. I thought about it for a while then decided it likely would fail. I wished Philip were there to tell me its chances of success. The control panel was attached to its post by a 45-degree angle. Despite the fact that it seemed impossible, I pondered the idea for what had to be at least thirty minutes. In that time I came up with several alternatives, none of which seemed promising. Surprisingly, they hadn’t noticed my battle knife. That meant I had a granola bar, a knife, two boots, and my ID tags, which could be thrown with any effect.
That was when things began to fall together. I could clearly see the guard. If I could get his attention with my ID tags, perhaps he would come closer. Then, if he’s close enough I’ll stab him through the bars, if not, I can try nailing his head with a boot. However, my aim wasn’t the best, so I might miss. But I was willing to take the risk.
I unclasped my tags from around my neck and slid them through the energy bars.
“Huh…” the SAS said as he noticed movement.
He came closer. My heart rate soared. He reached down and swiped them up. He was just out of reach; I threw my boot with all my strength. It crashed into his stomach and he bent over. I readied my other boot and gave it a toss. Luckily he was just raising his head and it nailed him square in the nose. He fell back moaning, but he was SAS. So I didn’t think he was done. I carefully reached through the energy bars, knife in hand. Then, I plunged it through his boot and into his foot. He screamed in pain.
“Whappening?” I heard Nevin ask from his cell.
I pulled out my knife as the SAS tried to pull himself away with his arms. His assault rifle sat on the floor beside him I pulled in my arm and stuck my bootless foot through the glowing bars. If I were to get too close it would burn right through my leg. My leg was shaky but it came closer and closer. My toes could barely reach it. I lowered my toes and touched the back of the gun.
I carefully eased it closer, though it was a struggle. The SAS was still in pain, but it appeared that he was going to try and get the rifle as well. He began pulling himself back toward the rifle. I finally scooted close enough for my heel to slide the gun close. It was within reach now. I pulled my leg back and reached my hand out. I grabbed the gun’s handle and jerked it through the gap of the bars. I pulled it up to my shoulder and sprayed a burst of bullets into the SAS. He fell over silent. Somehow, killing him had been easier than the last man. Perhaps it was him being the second, or perhaps it was the real and direct threat he posed to my own life.
“He’s done!” I called out.
“Who?” Nevin questioned.
“The sentry!” I called back.
Butler was closer to the panel. He had a view of the direct side of the panel.
“Ben!” I yelled.
“What?” he asked.
“Throw your boots at the panel,” I answered.
“Why?”
“Maybe it will shut off at least one of our cells!”
“I’ll try…” he said. “But I don’t think it will work.”
I saw a boot fly out of the cell toward the panel. It hit. Nothing happened. Then, there was another, it too successfully hit the panel. The energy directly across from my cell flickered then faded.
“Aaah!” I screamed angrily.
“Now what?” Nevin asked.
“I don’t know...” I mumbled.
We waited around silently, my mind feeling beaten from the failure. But then a risky idea came to mind.
“Guys… I’m gonna shoot the control panel.”
“What!” Nevin said in an alarmed tone. “We could break it and these bars would be here forever!”
“Or… it could shut them all down,” I reasoned.
I took aim squeezed the trigger and a stream of bullets roared into the control panel. It began to emit sparks as the bullets ripped through its thin metal casing. Loud pops and crackles filled the air, along with the noise of the assault weapon.
Then, as a bullet hit something vital, flames spewed out of the bullet holes. I stopped my assault with six rounds left in the gun. I stared at the energy bars for what seemed like a minute, but I knew was much shorter. Then, they flickered and faded.
“Yes!” I exclaimed happily, “Oh, yes!”
“Freedom,” Nevin sighed.
We all hurried out of the cells into the main room. “We need to find the armory,” I ordered.
We ran towards the door and then noticed something... it was closed.
“Oh curses!” Nevin sighed loudly.
Once again, I found myself wishing Philip was nearby. Then, the door began to slide away and right in front of us were two SAS, with no weapons other than a pair of holstered pistols. They looked surprised to see us instead of their friend. I fired three shots into one of their stomachs turned up and put three more into the second one’s head. The assault weapon was empty. Nevin walked through the door while Benjamin and I recovered our belongings. Once we had our boots back on we rushed out the door. We stole the two pistols, and then proceeded down the hall.
“If we aren’t fast enough they may close the other door,” I announced.
We hurried to the intersection and looked left. The door was closed but there was still the other path that we hadn’t been down.
“Lets try this route,” I said.
So we took off down the alternate path. It was dark, with most of the lights flickering. When we made it to the end of the hall, we found that the door was open. We looked around. On the wall was an arrow that said, Armory. We went down the hall the arrow said and found a large opening, likely a blast door.
Through the opening was a large, open area that had a small side door. It was open and we could hear voices. We slowly approached the doorway. They sounded relaxed, likely unaware of our escape. I peeked my head around the corner. Three Vorgians sat around a table eating. They didn’t have any weapons on them, but the armory was full of them. Finding some wouldn’t be hard.
“Let’s act like one of them,” I whispered as I pulled my head back.
“OK”, Nevin said.
We walked in casually and headed toward a large divider that was packed with weapons on both sides.
“Hey there,” one of the Vorgians said in a friendly tone.
“Hi…” I said nervously.
We slipped behind the divider. They couldn’t see us, so we stopped and thought about our next move. There was a row of Vorgian assault rifles along the divider. On the wall there were rocket launchers and rockets as well as some shotguns. On the far wall, burst rifles were lined up neatly. I grabbed some additional rounds for my new assault rifle.
“Go grab some of those burst rifles,” I whispered.
Ben and Nevin rushed to the wall. They each scooped one up and ran back to my position. We all popped out from around the corner and opened fire. All three of the soldiers fell limply in their chairs.
“That went well…” I said.
“Agreed,” Nevin responded.
“Now… let’s find our stuff,” Ben suggested.
“Right, good plan,” I told him.
We scoured the armory for a couple of minutes, before Nevin said, “Found ’em!”
We rushed over to see two SR-4’s, one AR-27, two H-81 pistols, one H-44 pi
stol, and six grenades. They were carelessly lying in a pile as if the person who carried them had just dropped them. We all grabbed our weapons. Nevin and I hooked our SR-4s to our packs and put our side arms back in their holsters. We kept the automatic weapons in our arms. I took as much ammo as I could find, and stored it in my pack. There was a row of laser rifles stored along the right side of the divider. They were tempting but four weapons would be heavy.
Then, the alarm that had stopped shortly after our arrival in the prison cell, resumed once more.
“Oh frik!” Nevin blurted.
“Let’s guard that door, we can try to hold them off,” I said.
“How do you know they will come here?” Ben asked.
“That’s how!” I said pointing at a camera positioned in the top corner of the room.
It was right next to the door, with its view targeted right on the table adorned with the bodies of freshly killed guards.
Chapter 6
Tronadan
We had held off waves of Vorgian troops for nearly fifteen minutes by this point, though the flow continued. Ben had been shot in the arm and now rested in the corner underneath the shattered camera. I pulled back into the armory and reloaded. I only had twelve more rounds with me other than the forty-five in its clip. I soon emptied the clip and popped the remaining rounds in. Then, a grenade flew in the room with us. Nevin and I ran back behind the divider. Then we heard the explosion, fragmentation bouncing across the room.
“Aah...” we heard Ben Butler cry out.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
There was a five second pause.
“No…” Ben muttered.
“You’re alive!” Nevin said joyfully.
We ran back out from behind the divider. I fired the final rounds at an SAS and watched him fall. As I backpedaled I threw the assault weapon and hit an incoming Vorgian. I quickly pulled myself back behind the divider for cover. Nevin was fighting alone now, so I had to hurry. I was on the right side so I grabbed a laser rifle. The L-10’s battery was at one hundred percent charge. I ran back to the battle and fired beams of light into my foes. The rays of concentrated photons left large burns on them. The battery in the L-10 was old technology, leftover from the Vorgian Revolution. It had significantly less power than the modern L-101's in use by the Elonian Military. As a result, my stolen L-10 fell to forty-four percent battery power before long.
Then, three Vorgian SAS armed with L-10’s charged in the room. Nevin ducked and put his burst rifle in front of his face. A laser beam punched into the weapon, melting critical parts and leaving it useless. However, the beam did not penetrate the entire weapon. Nevin stood up, tried to shoot, and nothing happened. I managed to take out one of the SAS though another one took a shot at Ben, striking him in the hand.
I returned fire, hitting the SAS in the face. Nevin had managed to grab an assault rifle and push forward. Some of the Vorgians were retreating down the hall, though plenty more were coming. I grabbed onto one of the last surviving Vorgians in the room.
“What’s the code to this door?”
“I won’t tell you, ”he said.
“Oh yeah?” I questioned as I pointed my L-10 at his face.
“Fine… its 1-2-6-1…” he reluctantly said.
“Go!” I screamed as I let go of him.
He quickly went toward the oncoming Vorgians. I entered the code into the control panel for the blast door and it began to close. Several bullets flew by my head as it descended, until at last, the blast door sealed. Nevin let his arms rest, dropping them to his sides. I looked around, nervous of the possibility of more Vorgians. Nevin and I returned to the armory quickly.
“They’re are probably going to reopen the doors soon,” Nevin told me.
“I know.”
“Let’s get some launchers,” I suggested. “Grab some Sparkers.” I ordered, referring to the nickname given to the rockets.
Sparky Industries, a massive weapons industry based out of the Elonian planet of Elphera initially produced them, though their simple design soon became commonplace on both sides of the conflict.
We ran over to the rocket launchers and both grabbed one. Then we grabbed some rockets labeled with big white letters spelling ”Sparky Industries.” We quickly moved back to the transition room between the armory and the blast door. We each aimed the one-barreled rocket tubes toward the door.
The door began to slide open. Nevin and I unleashed the first volley of rockets through the opening. The waves of Vorgians flew backward as the impact of the two rockets erupted with explosive force. Inside the tube the second rockets slid into place. The second volley soared out of the tubes. Then, the Vorgians opened fire. Bullets pinged off the wall behind us as we reversed. I fired the last of three rockets at the Vorgian assault.
We pulled back into the armory and entered the code.
“1…2…6…1…” I murmured as I punched in the numbers.
The door closed and I began sliding three more Sparkers in the tube.
“Ben…it’s gonna be OK,” I told him.
“I doubt it. This mission has had more snags than just about any I’ve ever been on,” he groaned.
With our launchers pointed at the small doorway, Nevin and I decided to alternate fire. The door opened. I fired first. Shortly after Nevin fired. The close proximity of the explosions rocked the room. More Vorgians approached. I launched a second Sparker. The rocket soared for a little less than a second before colliding with a Vorgian soldier. The following fireball was enough to clear the doorway again.
Suddenly, the Vorgian assault ceased, many turning and retreating backward, as if something greater had caught their attention. Then, much to my surprise, Robert appeared in the doorway that the Vorgians had been pushing for.
“James, Nevin. Phew. I’ve distracted them, let’s get the heck out of here,” he said intensely.
“Um... OK…” I agreed. I grabbed a fully charged L-10 and made sure I had all of my weapons. I set down the heavy rocket launcher and looked at Robert.
“Ready,” I said.
“Me too!” Nevin cheered.
We burst out off the room. Nevin waved his new rifle around frantically. Then he brought it up to his face and peered through the scope. The hall was desolate now.
“I don’t see anything… We really are clear,” he said.
“I know,” Robert stated matter-of-factually. “As I said, I distracted them.”
“How?” I inquired.
“Not important. What matters is that we have a chance to get out of here in one piece,” he retorted. “I’ll explain later.”
We quickly ran through the tunnels. Robert seemed to know where he was going in the facility. He also knew the code that we had attained from the Vorgian.
“C’mon, keep moving. We won’t be clear for much longer,” Robert said, a hint of concern splashed over his face.
We listened and hurried down the hall. Up ahead I saw a blast door, like the one by the armory. Rob quickly entered the code. The blast door began to open. I saw what appeared to be the base’s hangar.
“Rob what are we doing?” I asked.
“Yeah…I’m not likin’ the looks of it,” Ben moaned.
“We’re done here Butler,” Robert said, swinging around and drawing his H-81.
Four consecutive bangs rang out as Rob shot Ben in the head. Ben fell backward onto the floor, blood splattered across the wall and doorway.
“Hey!” I called out as I pulled the L-10 to my shoulder. “Calm…down…” I continued carefully.
Rob turned his surprisingly steady hand toward my head.
“Did you really think that Jenkins was killed by the Vorgians? Did you think that I wanted to ‘get to know him?' Well, I didn’t. I shot him and told my friends back at the base that you were there. Friends I had served with for years, and known for even longer! You killed them… and now it’s my turn!” Robert bellowed angrily.
“Robert? What are you doing? We trusted yo
u! You are one of… You were one of us,” I told him.
“I was never one of you,” Robert announced. “From the moment that the original Rangers were killed on Konori I was ready! Korth appointed me as his infiltrator. My goal was to capture the A-Z Gun... and yes we already knew about your secret project. Right now it and Francis Gonyon are on their way to Tronadan, Robert explained fiercely.
“Are you serious?” Nevin questioned.
Robert turned the H-81 and pointed it at Nevin. I held my finger tight on the trigger of the L-10.
“Oh, and by the way, that malfunction of the original Ranger’s transport… the one that killed them all and laid the groundwork for the Senate’s pathetic shooting competition… That was no accident. We were responsible for that as well. Your people have underestimated us! It was all part of our plan… Now… its time for you to die!” Robert roared.
Then in one swift move I pointed the L-10 at his leg and pulled its trigger. It left a large scorch on his leg and completely burned away the green and black pant leg covering his knee. He crumpled over on to the floor and pulled the trigger of his H-81. The bullet flew by Nevin’s shoulder.
“Let’s get out of here!” I said.
“Shouldn’t we kill him?”
“I can’t…” I said solemnly, knowing that I should.
“You’re right…we’ve served with him for so long now it seems,” Nevin sighed. “But still…”
I pointed my gun back at him again. I paused, considering the consequences and benefits. I had killed people already that day. Soldiers. But I hadn’t killed someone I knew. Someone who despite his militant and unusual behaviors, I cared about as a friend. I couldn’t do it. I lowered the laser.
We turned and ran back down the hall as fast as we could. Within minutes we burst out of the front door. We could have crawled through the hole left by the A-Z gun, but decided to just open it. On the ground were several dead Vorgians.
The War Across the Stars Page 5