“Blue Team is down! Repeat, Blue Team is down!”
Kline’s flashlight bounced off the walls chaotically as he sprinted back toward the fork.
Command’s response came through Kline’s tactical suit, “Hold for further–”
“Kline!” Bashui’s voice interrupted. “Can you still get to the power core?”
“Yes. I’m rerouting to Green Team’s entry point.”
“Do whatever you can to secure the ship’s power core.”
“Understood.”
Kline turned the corner into the Green Team’s passage and picked up speed. Beams of light flashed up ahead. Green Team had reached their entry point. One soldier spotted Kline and brandished his gun. Kline held up his hands.
“We lost Blue Team. Tunnel collapse.”
The tunnel ended abruptly, then continued vertically for a dozen feet. A set of steel rungs served as a ladder that led to a hatch. One of the Green Team’s soldiers climbed the rungs in the wall and reached up to open the it. The hatch swung down. Layers of gray dust dumped onto the floor. The soldier brushed off the hatch’s control panel and entered a code. Gears ground together.
Eleven feet of rock was packed between the assembly center’s concrete foundation and the tunnel’s ceiling. XLS engineers had built an automated drilling system into each hatch. The drills were constructed so that they would cut through the remaining rock to the assembly center’s foundation. The soldiers ducked for cover as the drill grated through the layers of moon rock. Chunks of debris toppled into the corridor. Thirty seconds later the drill stopped. A soldier used the new handholds and footholds the drill had sliced into the rock wall to access the concrete foundation. She signaled to her companion, who gave her a case of explosives. She pressed them into the concrete, set the timer, and then climbed down.
…3. 2. 1.
sssssscccccckkkkkkkkhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Crack! Crack! Crack! Precise lasers fired upward, chopping through the concrete. A thick cylinder of the foundation, carved clean through, fell into the tunnel. Light from the production facility streamed down.
“We’re through! Let’s go!”
Three grenades arched up through the newly cut hole. Grappling hooks were fired next. The grapples embedded themselves in the ceiling of the room above them. Green Team began their ascent into the Exodus Project’s assembly center. Kline brought up the rear.
