and dying along the passage. Without pausing to treat those who fell, Keryn continued advancing toward the engine room. She knew that with the engines in the hands of the Terrans, she stood no chance of getting out of orbit. Quite the opposite, if the Terrans decided that the ship was lost, they could overload the fuel cells charging the massive engines and destroy the entire ship. Alcent would have the glory of taking the bridge and killing the Captain, but Keryn and Adam would do well with the knowledge that they saved everyone on board from certain death.
Their team approached the numerous criss-crossing hallways cautiously, always anticipating a Terran ambush. Because of her caution, the approach to the rear of the ship took far longer than she had anticipated. Eventually, her team came across wide stairs leading up to the decks containing crew living quarters and another set leading down, deeper into the bowels of the ship. Hallways fanned away from the stairs in a star pattern, the stairwell being a focal point for movement through the rear section of the ship. Glancing only quickly up the stairs, knowing that one of her teams should have already begun clearing that direction, Keryn led her team down the staircase. Their boots clicked loudly on the metal stairs as they walked five abreast toward the bottom level of the ship.
The layout of most star ships was deceptive to those who had not spent a lot of time aboard Cruisers and Destroyers. The rear section of the ship had multiple levels above the middle floor, often considered “ground zero”. However, in larger ships, a single floor dominated the space below ground zero. The massive engines that filled the rear of the vessels dominated the void between ground zero and lower floors.
As Keryn led the way down flight after flight of stairs, she knew they were quickly approaching the engine room as the sound turned from a hum to a rumble, one that could be felt through the vibrations running through all the walls. Before long, they would come across the first doorway as they moved toward the engine room. The first door, she knew, would lead to the catwalks above the enormous engines. Further down the stairs, a second, wider set of doors would grant access to the ground floor of the engine room. Unfortunately for her, Keryn’s twenty-man team would have to cover both entrances, which meant dividing her small force even smaller.
Ahead, the stairs intersected a landing, the far side of which held a single metal door and an activation panel. Even through the thick metal, she could feel the vibrations from the engines under her feet. Wordlessly, she split her force, directing Adam to lead the second force to the ground floor while her team entered onto the catwalks. It was a risky maneuver, leaving herself exposed on the grated and narrow walkways, but it was the only way to ensure no Terrans were able to gain a defensive position on her team as they cleared the room. As Keryn stepped toward the door, Adam placed a hand on her arm.
“Be careful in there,” he whispered, his caution unnecessary since his words were mostly drowned out by the rumbling engines. “I want you coming back to me when all this is over.”
Keryn smiled. She longed to kiss him for luck, but knew she needed to maintain the soldier persona and not let herself appear emotional in front of her troops. “I will. Kill Terrans dead, okay?”
“Will do,” he replied as he turned and led his men down the wide stairs. Turning back to her own troops, she moved to the door and paused. She wanted to give Adam a couple minutes to reach the bottom floor before she entered to ensure any Terrans inside would have two forces to engage instead of ganging up on hers alone. She knew the ship was running on a skeleton crew, proven time and again by the minimal resistance they encountered on the way here, but she didn’t want to become lackadaisical and cause her soldiers to be slaughtered.
After doing a mental count, Keryn activated the control panel beside the door and crouched defensively as the doors slid open. She was quickly overwhelmed as the rumbling engines transformed into a deafening roar as the doors opened. Though she had felt the vibrations through the metal doors, they had been holding back the tidal wave of noise emitted by the massive engines. And massive they were, Keryn realized as she moved cautiously through the doorway. Narrow metal catwalks extended like a spider’s web above the twin engines, both of which dominated the already enormous engine room. Standing nearly sixty feet in diameter each, both engines rested in cradles that allowed mechanics to work on all sides of the engine simultaneously, including underneath the gargantuan machines. Heat rolled from front vents on the engines and the entire room reeked of burning fuel. Normally, permanent crews used masks and carried hearing protection in order to survive extended periods of time inside the rooms. Keryn quickly understood why as she started feeling lightheaded as her the sight of the engines, the deafening sound, the stifling heat, and the pungent smell assaulted senses again. Glancing through the grated floor, vertigo threatened to overwhelm her. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see an Avalon watching her, concerned. Though she could see her unease reflected on his face, Keryn took strength from the sight of her troops standing supportively behind her. Sequestering her dizziness, she stood tall and stepped onto the closest catwalk.
Keryn glanced around the darkened room. Many of the lights seemed to be shut down, letting her know that someone within the room expected her team. She peered into the shadowy catwalks, searching for shooters amongst the juts and twists of the metal floors as the walkways bent around the curves of the large engines. Knowing someone was there made her cautious, but she was still unable to see anything threatening. Looking over the railing, she saw Adam’s team come through the lower doors, spreading out quickly across the open floor. On either side of the engines stood a pair of rear rail guns. Though a battery of plasma missile launchers protected the ship’s flank, the explosives couldn’t be stored in such a volatile room. Instead, the heavy, magnetized metal slugs were used to defend the engines from pursuing enemies. From her vantage point, no Terran soldiers guarded the engines, the weapon positions, or the heavy non-metallic alloy loaders that were used to carry the heavy slugs to the awaiting rails. The engine room looked deserted.
Giving directions to her team, they spread out along the catwalks, segregating her already small team into two man fire teams in order to blanket the entire upper walkways. Keryn’s fear remained. Even if a Terran fired at her team from within the room, the noisy engines would drown out the weapon’s report. Without hearing the shot, she had no way to know if other members of her team were in danger.
She and the Avalon moved slowly across the outer catwalk, scanning the dark nooks for movement or glints off metallic rifles. However, after covering nearly half the engine room, they still failed to encounter any resistance.
Knowing that enemies were inside the room did not prepare her when they chose to attack. As she and the Avalon approached the stairwell on the far side of the engine room, the Avalon staggered, his blood pouring from a gunshot wound in his chest. Stumbling backward, his legs struck the railing and he tumbled over. Lacking the strength to spread his wings to break his fall, he plummeted over sixty feet to the ground below. Dropping into a crouch, Keryn scanned the room and watched in horror as Terrans flooded out from their hidden alcoves all around the room. Even with the engines roaring, she could hear the sound of exchanging gunfire.
A Terran stepped onto the platform near the stairs that led down to the ground floor and opened fire on her position. Already crouched, Keryn sprung from the catwalk as a round grazed her shoulder, landing gracefully on top of the machinery nearby. The Terran paused, not eager to shoot at the massive engine, and Keryn used the opening to fire two shots into his chest, dropping him on the spot. Turning, she sprinted across the engine, weaving between its metallic outcroppings, and fired into the Terran forces spreading across the upper catwalks. Below, she could hear more gunfire and knew that Adam was similarly engaged. Using a metal box on top of the engine as a spring board, Keryn vaulted over a nearby railing, slamming the butt of her pistol into the face of a Terran sniper. She smiled maliciously as she felt the bones shatter under the strike. As the sniper dropped his rifle and lurched backward, horrified and clutching his face, Keryn chose not to waste a bullet and, instead, kicked the Terran squarely in the chest. The Terran tumbled over the railing and slammed into the curve of the second engine. Bouncing, the Terran went limp halfway through his fall as he struck a metal beam.
Perusing the catwalks, Keryn fired a few more shots into the gathering Terrans. Though the element of surprise had worked in their favor, she quickly realized there was only a small group of Terrans guarding the upper catwalks. Nearly half of her forces lay dead, but the other five had already regrouped and were in the process of killing the last of the snipers hiding throughout the walkways. Knowing that her remaining soldiers could handle the rest of the catwalks, Keryn ran to the stairs and bound, two at a time, toward the ground floor where Adam’s team was still engaged in heavy fighting.
The stairwell twisted its way through and over the massive machines, leaving her on the far side of the twin engines once she finally reached the room’s bottom level. Scanning her immediate area, she didn’t notice any Terrans. It wasn’t surprising to her, since she knew most would have left this side to engage Adam’s team near the
