TCR 53) Inside job.

Stepping into the hole I had torn in the wall of the base I found myself in a long curving corridor. The air had a chill to it and a sour smell.

I stood guard as the rest of the group began stripping off suits and pulling on their clothes, body armor, and weapons.

Everyone left their suits in the hallway, not quite trusting the tunnel we came in. Although if the seal on the door we brought with us failed, this whole corridor at least was going to be depressurized.

Shrike looked both ways down the corridor before turning to Falco, “What’s the next step genius? I don’t think we’re going to take anyone by surprise with this large of a group.”

Falso nodded. "But we do have to stay in a group for Buzz to keep us off the sensors. But what difference does it make if someone hears us coming? No one’s expecting trouble."

I had pretty much guessed that Falco would have no clue how the inside of the base was set up. Looking around I didn't see any helpful evacuation floor plans, but it wasn't like anyone could go outside if there was a fire.

There were arrows. Unlabeled red and blue arrows on the floors and at eye level on the walls.

I pointed them out, "I think the red arrows must lead to emergency shelters, and the blue one must lead somewhere more interesting than standing around waiting for someone to walk around the corner."

Shrike looked at the arrows, shrugged, and began following the blue ones. Everyone else followed along.

A few hundred feet along, we came to a set of heavy sealed doors on the inner wall. The door had Level Three, Hydroponics, painted on it.

And a card reader which Buzz passed his hand over, turning on a green light and causing the doors to open to a short corridor with another set of doors with thick fogged glass inserts in it.

Inside we finally saw someone we could get directions from, too many someones.

Shrike waved the rest of us back. “I can see three people just in the line of sight from the door. Who knows how many more are in there.”

Falco nodded and pulled out the fancy high tech gun from his belt, checking on some settings on it, "Buzz, make sure no signal goes out, the rest of you wait until I take a shot. One guy walking in first should keep them curious rather than panicking.”

With that, he opened the inner door and walked in. "Hi. This is hydroponics right.” then he pulled his tech gun from behind his leg and began firing a thin crackling beam of blue light that made a woman in blue scrubs and a dirty hoodie begin to shake in place.

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Shrike went in next followed by her larger brother who proceeded to brutally take down an older man and another woman between them. Slamming them against walls and to the ground, before the green feathered woman went running off after someone who had begun screaming for help.

She came back with blood on her hand, dragging a whimpering young chubby guy clutching his arm.

Teamster frowned at her and held his hands out as a big red bag with a first aid cross on it folded out of his storage. He didn’t say anything, just handed it to Polygraph who began slapping gauze pads on the guy's torn up arms.

Shrike sneered at both of them.

Faclo waited patiently while the lie detector kept the guy from bleeding out while the other captives exchanged looks before the older of the two women finally spoke up. “What do you want, and what do we have to do to not get killed?"

The so called mastermind grinned at her and waved a hand at Polygraph as she finished taping up the wounded guy. “Well as you can see, we, or at least most of us, don’t want to hurt anyone. We want the Booster. The Power Booster.”

The woman stared at him for a moment. "Well, I'm not going to pretend I don’t know what you’re talking about. There had been rumors. But anything like that is on level seven. Past an armed military check point on six, and there’s at least three floors of solid rock past it and level seven.”

Falco glanced at Polygraph, who gave him a faint nod. “Excellent. Now tell me more about this checkpoint.”

Marlene Hannover, who probably had more degrees than the entire lot of us, had never been down further than level four where the kitchens, gyms, and sick bay were located. Nor had the rest of her research team. So they weren't a lot of help.

As Falco began figuring this out, Teamster began producing rolls of duct tape and securing the four captives.

Buzz meanwhile had taken their tablets and was looking up information on the base. I took a look over his shoulder.

The base was laid out like a wagon wheel with all the access for pipes, electronics, stairs, elevators, and air circulation in the middle, and a corridor wrapped around the whole thing on the outer edge where we had come in.

Even getting access down to level six would involve walking right into the middle which was the most densely trafficked area of the floor.

Going by the schedule Buzz pulled up, we at least were on the third shift.

The four captives got stashed in a storage room, with the door frame bent to keep it shut, while Falco consulted the group. "So ideas anyone? Rush the security checkpoint?"

Phoenix spoke up from where he was looking at one of the tablets. “Is there any reason we can’t use that sound cannon to dig down several stories and just tear a new hole in level seven?”

Falco stared at him long enough for the big guy to sigh and tap himself on the chest. “Structural Engineer. It seemed obvious.”

The mastermind shook his head. “It’s smart, but it would take several hours to dig down that far through solid stone.”

I stomped my foot on the ground. “How much stone is there between each of the upper floors?”

The answer was about ten feet, or thirty seconds of firing the Destabilizer after tearing up the floor.

Of course, the "Sound Cannon" wasn't made to point down, but between me, Phoenix, and Shrike we were able to hold it in place pointed down. Digging out the rubble and dust from a hole was more of a pain than clearing the horizontal tunnel.

Fortunately, no one seemed to use the outer ring all that much, although I imagine that near the end of the third shift, we would have some early risers beginning to use it for jogging.

Getting down to the sixth floor is when the shit hits the fan.

They did patrols down here.

Our method of getting down was not quiet, and only me and the older two Talons had made it to the floor down below when the first four guards showed up and began shouting and pointing guns at the three of us standing in a cloud of dust and scattered rubble waiting for everyone else to climb down the ropes.

Of course, Teamster brought ropes. You're always going to need a rope.

But seriously. Have these guys never seen the news? The iconic feather heads make the Talons unmistakable. And they think threatening them with guns is going to work?

I shouted “Mine!” and rushed them.

Getting to them first is the only way I see them living through this.