“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 responded, “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. He picked up speed. Beams of light up ahead. Green Team had reached their entry point. One soldier brandished his gun. Kline held up his hand.
“It’s me. We lost Blue Team. Tunnel collapse. I’m going solo.”
One of the soldiers climbed the rungs in the wall and reached up to open the hatch at the end of the tunnel. It swung open. Layers of gray dust dumped onto the floor. The soldier brushed off the hatch’s control panel. Pressed a button.
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 automated drills into the hatch system. The drills would cut through the remaining rock to the assembly center’s foundation.
The soldiers ducked for cover as the drill grated through layers of moon rock above them. Chunks of debris toppled into the corridor. Thirty seconds later the drill stopped.
The soldier used the new handholds and footholds the drill had cut 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. Climbed down.
…3. 2. 1.
sssssscccccckkkkkkkkhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Crack! Crack! Crack!
Precise lasers fired upward, chopping through the concrete. A thick cylinder of the foundation, sliced cleanly, 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 started to ascend.
Kline brought up the rear.
