Our platoon rushed to the reactor room as quickly as we could. The soldiers already engaged there gave out directions so they could get backup as quickly as possible. This also meant that the Haivu were scrambling to get there as well. All attempts at stealth were out of the window. If we managed to take this room, we could destroy the warship and gain an upper hand in the battle.
We ran into a couple Haivu groups trying to cut us off on the way there. The first group was trying to head to the reactor room themselves, and had accidentally run into us. The ensuing gunfight was a mess. We fought around one intersection in the hallway with limited cover and not a lot of space. My shotgun came in handy here, since I could simply shoot down the hallway and hit something. We managed to wipe out the small group of Haivu reinforcements, although we lost a couple of soldiers.
The second group we ran into set an ambush for us. They were probably informed by the previous group we encountered, so they laid in wait at a chokepoint. It was a disaster. A few soldiers at the front of the platoon, running ahead as scouts, were instantly disintegrated. But thanks to them, we managed to not get funneled into a death trap. We traded shots for a while until deciding it wasn’t worth the time and effort, and decided to take an alternate route to the reactor.
According to Sil, who remained in contact with the platoon attacking the reactor, they were currently managing to hold their own. Haivu reinforcements arrived, but GU reinforcements arrived soon after, locking them further in a stalemate. They were waiting for us to get there so they could mount an offensive push.
After a few more minutes of rushing through the hallways, we finally arrived at the hallway just outside the reactor room. It was a four way intersection, and one of the hallways led directly to the reactor room. There was only one way to get inside, and it was through a reinforced bunker door as wide as three Noahs standing shoulder to shoulder. It was an incredibly obvious chokepoint.
“Glad you made it, newbie platoon!” A soldier called out.
Sil walked over to him. He must’ve been the soldier that Sil had been communicating with.
“What’s the situation, Lieutenant?” She asked.
“We’re getting the door breacher set up!” The Lieutenant replied. “We were getting harassed by Haivu reinforcements, but there was a lull in their ferocity and intensity. There must be a platoon out there clearing them up. As soon as we breach the door, we’re going to try and clear out the Haivu hunkered down inside. Throwing grenades is risky, but we’ll take that risk if we can’t get them under control fast. While we’re breaching the door, we’re also going to have soldiers watching our backs. The worst thing that could happen right now is getting pincered. Sil, I want your soldiers helping out the breaching team. I’ll be right alongside you with my platoon. The other two platoons here are going to be support!”
Sil nodded, and turned around to face us.
“Did you hear that? We’re breaching the reactor room alongside another platoon. Get ready, reload all of your weapons, make sure all of your grenades are primed. This could turn the battle in our favor!”
I turned towards Noah.
“Are you doing alright?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m doing fine.” Noah said, quietly. “After this, we’re one step closer to winning this war.”
I slapped a hand down on his shoulder. “Yep. Win this war, and we can go back to hanging out with Yori. Let’s get it done.”
We both went silent. I was starting to get nervous, and I couldn’t talk anymore. The reactor room was the most dangerous part of any Haivu warship. They fought tooth and nail to protect it, of course. Along with their ferocity, it was easily the most well defended area in the warship, since it was the most important. This wouldn’t be easy.
“Hey, Needle!” Keshi called out to his friend. “I don’t want to see you around any grenades, alright?’
Needle laughed. “Don’t worry. Captain Ceel already gave me an earful after I did it in the second simulation. I can’t imagine the scolding I’d get if I did it here!”
The lieutenant from earlier raised his voice. “Alright, the breacher is ready! Let’s do this before any Haivu reinforcements show up! Get ready!”
I shifted into position, bending my knees slightly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Noah doing the same. The air was filled with tension.
The breacher did its job. The breacher was a very simple device. Its purpose was to breach doors and other surfaces, of course. It was one of the few things that could get through a reactor room door. It worked by cutting the door out of the wall with high intensity lasers, and then detonating a shaped charge. The door would be launched into the room that was being breached, and an opening for soldiers to charge through would be created.
The reinforced reactor room door blew off of its frame and flew into the room. I saw it take out a few Haivu that were late to get behind cover. The best thing about the breacher was that it was stealthy. The only thing that indicated that the breacher was being used was the giant piece of metal flying towards you at a lethal speed. Those bugs were immediately pasted.
The forefront of the breaching team managed to make it inside of the reactor room before the Haivu had time to react. They acted as the foot that propped open the door. The rest of us couldn’t make it in immediately, so the forefront would cause problems for the Haivu that would allow more of us to slip through the door.
As soon as the fifth GU soldier managed to charge into the reactor room, the gunfight started. The startled Haivu started shooting towards the soldiers that managed to slip through, first and foremost. This allowed even more GU soldiers to charge through the door. After a few seconds, the Haivu caught on, and redirected some of their fire towards the breached entrance. A few unlucky soldiers were caught by caustic pods and disappeared in a shower of acid.
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Right now, Keshi and Needle, along with around a dozen GU soldiers, were in the reactor room, finding cover and taking potshots. Noah, Sil, and I were waiting just outside the entrance, looking for an opportunity to slip in. My long ears caught Needle shouting something muffled by the gunfire, and heard a grenade explode soon after. Hopefully, that grenade was nowhere near him.
Thanks to that grenade, the hail of caustic pods lessened up slightly. Noah, Sil and I took our chance to get inside. Noah ran with his head tucked and torso as low to the ground as possible, and Sil followed his lead. I ran after them, lowering my tall profile by running on all six limbs. We found cover near where Keshi and Needle were posted up, behind some oversized coolant pipes and giant metal crates.
“Hey, welcome in!” Needle exclaimed. “You’re late!”
We ignored him. Keshi took a peek around the side of the pipe he was hiding behind, and withdrew his head quickly.
“It looks like Needle’s lucky throw took out a good portion of them. We managed to push them to the back half of the room, but there’s still a lot of them!” Keshi shouted.
“We just have to get more of our forces in here! Just keep fighting and create opportunities for others to get in!” Sil shouted back.
Noah nodded in agreement and immediately started popping off shots, taking out Haivu with precise hits. Needle brandished another grenade. Keshi and Sil covered each other with supporting fire. Keshi would fire shots, and withdraw. Sil would peek, and shoot at Haivu that peeked and tried to return fire to Keshi. Then, Sil would withdraw, and Keshi would repeat the process.
I had my own way of fighting. I unslung the shotgun from my back. My domain of expertise was close quarters combat. And I had to go get close to do it.
I raised a fist towards Noah, and he nodded and bumped it.
I scrambled around the metal crate I was hiding behind, and repositioned further down the room, taking cover behind some sort of console. Noah covered the lanes of fire I had to move through while exchanging cover. He shot at any Haivu that tried to take advantage of my brief vulnerability, and made sure that they couldn’t apply any pressure.
I still wasn’t far enough in to shoot any Haivu, though. I had to get deeper and infiltrate their lines.
I repeated the process of scurrying between cover while Noah struck down anyone who aimed at me. Noah’s aim truly was pinpoint. His reaction time was on par with his aim, and he killed Haivu that tried to shoot me, or forced them to withdraw.
Soon enough, I made it to my first victim. After getting shot in the head by Noah, this unfortunate Haivu hunkered down behind a crate to regenerate his shields. I vaulted over the crate and aimed my shotgun straight down. The intense lasers from my shotgun shot through the Haivu’s exoskeleton, killing him instantly. Chunks of his exoskeleton speared through his torso from above. I pumped my shotgun and kept moving. The Haivu didn’t know I was there yet. They couldn’t communicate with other bugs when they were killed instantly.
The next Haivu was behind a pipe, popping off shots at my fellow soldiers. They didn’t even know I was there. They received a shotgun to the head, from behind. The headless corpse flopped to the ground, staining the metal floor.
A caustic pod whizzed past my head. The other Haivu had finally caught on that I was there. I immediately crouched to lower my profile. I heard two more caustic pods fly where my head was a second ago. I charged the Haivu soldier, running on five limbs, toting the shotgun with one of my back arms. I popped off two shots in quick succession while scuttling towards the Haivu soldier. The first shot destroyed their shield. The second shot caved in their chest.
I soon fell into a trance, a rhythm. I pumped my shotgun, I fired a shot, I dodged caustic pods. I jumped out from behind cover, ambushed Haivu, and dropped bodies. Pump, fire. Pump, fire. I kicked a Haivu soldier that got too close to me in between shots, pumped my shotgun, and shot them when they landed on their ass. When the Haivu managed to group up to try to defend against my savage attacks, I slam fired my shotgun, overheating it for the cost of annihilating anything that was remotely in front of me.
I swapped to my handgun while I waited for my shotgun to cool back down. I stopped using aggressive attacks because the handgun simply didn’t have the amount of lethality that allowed me to quickly and violently end engagements. I stood with my back pressed to a coolant pipe as I waited for more Haivu.
My ambitious flank created huge opportunities for my fellow soldiers. The entire breaching team had made it into the reactor room, and the soldiers that were already inside managed to push up almost to where I was.
Noah’s beams laid out Haivu that had been approaching me on either side. Noah, Keshi, Sil, and Needle had managed to catch up to me.
“What’s the situation?” I shouted over.
“We’ve gained a lot of ground!” Sil replied. “We’ve taken the reactor, and someone’s setting up explosives on the reactor right now! Let’s start retreating!”
I nodded. “Alright, let’s go!”
Right when I shouted those words, an explosion ripped out through the entire room. I was flung to the ground, knocked off my feet by the force of the explosion. I stayed prone for a few seconds, trying to take in my situation.
I couldn’t hear anything because my ears were ringing. I raised my head. Dark gray smoke billowed throughout the room. Did the detonation go awry?
I felt someone grabbing one of my back arms. I swivel my head to look at them.
It was Noah. He stared at me with his dark tinted visor. Right. I couldn’t hear anything right now. He was probably trying to talk to me.
I gestured towards my ears, indicating that I couldn’t hear anything. He nodded, understanding quickly. Noah picked up my shotgun from the ground and handed it to me. Keshi, Sil, and Needle were nowhere in sight. I was closer to the explosion than them, so I assumed they were safe and already retreating.
The reactor hadn’t exploded yet because I wasn’t dead yet. However, the explosion from earlier may have caused the reactor to go supercritical. Noah kept pulling my arm towards the entrance of the reactor room. Noah probably realized the same thing, and was trying to get me out.
Noah and I ran towards the door. The only Haivu I saw were dead ones, killed by beams or charred by the explosion. Some were killed by flying debris. The smoke obscured the state of the reactor.
We stumbled out of the door, entering the hallway intersection. It was clear of smoke, since the ceiling in the reactor room was higher than the ceiling of the hallway. I felt like I was slowly regaining my hearing, but everything was still muffled.
Noah led the way. As we ran, I spotted dozens of corpses of GU and Haivu soldiers alike. The platoons that protected us from Haivu reinforcements must’ve put up a good fight.
We continued running down the hallways, making our way to the staircase that would lead us to our transport ship. The entire ship was painted in red lights, and I could hear the muffled blaring of a siren. The reactor was most definitely going supercritical. We had to get out of the Haivu warship as soon as possible.
A few minutes of running later, Noah navigated us up the stairs, onto the floor that we were originally on. Then, he continued up the stairs.
I grabbed Noah’s arm and pointed down the hallway, the one that led to the transport ship we arrived on. Noah shook his head rapidly, and pointed up the stairs. I reluctantly followed.
That wasn’t a good sign. Noah knew where our ship was, but he wasn’t heading there. That could mean a few things, and all of them were bad. I pushed those negative thoughts out of my head, and kept moving.
We scrambled up the stairs, making our way up one more level. We hadn’t been here before, but other platoons had. Bodies were sprawled across the ground. There were just as many GU bodies as Haivu. Noah didn’t even hesitate for a moment. He kept running, and I did all I could to stay behind him. My hearing improved to the point where I could hear the faint thumping of our boots on the ground.
Eventually, Noah stopped running. He started investigating an airlock in the wall of the hallway. I stopped next to him, gasping for air. Inhaling smoke and running for several minutes was probably not good for my lungs.
Noah slammed his hand on a panel next to the airlock, and the hatch slid open. He pushed me inside, and rushed in himself. Noah tinkered with the panel on the inside for a moment, and the hatch closed. The hissing of air indicated that it was sealed.
I turned to face the other end of the airlock. There were several Haivu sized seats with tight straps to secure bodies. The door at the other end of the airlock wasn’t a door, it was a window. This wasn’t an airlock at all.
It was an escape pod.