Mission Orion: The Travel through Time

Chapter 67

"Shit! They're ready for us." Reneesh muttered to himself. "What did you expect?" I asked him. We can't make a move with them having all the weapons. We need to do something." Reneesh whispered to me. "What the hell do you want to do? We have one armoury and that is right behind them. Whatever few weapons we have are being used to defend the control and command. We just don't have the weapons except the ones we have right now." I replied. "What do we do now?" I asked the HPF soldier, who seemed to be taking the lead after Gale's death. "Let me think." He replied. There was absolute silence except for the occasional shuffling of boots. "I think I may have something which can work." He whispered to me after a while. "I'm all ears." I replied. "See those red marking on the ceiling?" He asked me. Reneesh and I look up and strain our eyes to catch a bit of red on the ceiling. "Yeah. What about it?" I asked him. "They're gas lines. Not the flammable type but it is something the reactors need for cooling down. The gas looks like fog. It is opaque. You blow that one up, gas fills these corridors and we can use it to our advantage." He replied. "You sure this won't mess up with the reactor?" I asked him. "We have alternative pipelines in case this one fails. It would not be a problem. The temperatures will drop rapidly though." He replied. "You think this will work?" I asked Reneesh. "It is better than sitting ducks here. This probably is the best shot we got." He replied. I motioned for all the soldiers to get ready. All the soldiers took their positions as quietly as they could. "Reneesh, do the honors." I said. 

As soon as the first two bullets from Reneesh's gun hit the pipelines, two things happened. Gas hissed out of the pipelines and boy, it was cold. And second, a volley of bullets from the Kenjah's men flew in our direction. Luckily, nobody was in their line of sight. Before the Kenjah's men could get around this new development, we shot two more shots into the darkness, hoping they would hit the pipelines. The temperatures dropped rapidly but the plan seems to be working. In no time, the whole area between the Kenjah's men and us was filled with the gas, which meant they could not see us and neither can we see them. We had to make our move immediately. I counted down from five on my fingers, and at the count of five, all of us ran through the gas, heading towards kenjah's men. 

The Kenjah's men could not spot us until it was too late. I shot one of their men with a gun and the rest of the soldiers started firing indiscriminately at us. I heard somebody cry out in pain but instead of looking back, I continued to fire at the men. Meanwhile, the HPF Soldiers around me pounced on whoever they could find and started bashing them with whatever they could find. A few of the soldiers managed to grab the guns from the Kenjah's men and fired into the crowd, aiming at the Kenjah's men. The Kenjah's men were too accustomed to their weapons and when it came to hand combat, they were no match for us. It was not soon before every one of Kenjah's men either lay on the ground seriously injured or were dead. Our men had suffered only minimal casualties and most of them made it through this. Sometime during the fight, the gas had stopped leaking probably after the system realised that the gas was leaking. We made our way to the armoury, leaving a few men with weapons guarding the injured soldiers from the Kenjah's army. Very soon, all of the soldiers were issued their standard issue and a group of an elite squad were handed over their special weapons. "I sent in a message to command updating them about the situation. They want us back in command." Reneesh said. "Let's go." I said. 

Pretty soon, I, along with the rest of the soldiers were in command, waiting for orders. As the command was not large enough to accommodate most of the soldiers, most of them had to make do outside command. Pretty soon, command had sent out a team to fix the power issue. Holder walked up to me and patted me on my back. "Well done, Rithvik." He said. "Thanks, Holder. Would not have been possible without the rest." I replied. "What have you been doing here at command?" I asked him. "Your people have zero experience in dealing with outside threats. They needed a lot of help." He replied. "Thanks to you for that." I said. "It was my duty." He replied. "We have to get back to Beta One now. Our work here is done." He replied. George and Aditya walked over to where we were standing. "Congratulations to you all." George said. "There still is a small group of Kenjah's men trying to make their way into the residential quarters. We have dispatched teams to neutralize the threats." Aditya said. "I agree with Holder. We need to get back to Beta One, into the warfield." I said. "What about the Hunter jets outside?" I asked him. "They have been taken care of." Holder replied. "Let's go then." I replied.