“It’s only about twenty rungs to the third floor now.” Kathryn announced, her left leg felt painful from the constant stresses and strains the descent placed on her newly operated on muscles and tendons.
Eventually the small group found the entrance to the third and final floor, the howling winds gave off a type of eerie groan to the place, and each footfall seemed to echo into the darkness beyond.
The pain was beginning to get too much to bear for Kathryn, “I have to rest a moment.”
“No problem, take all the time you need.” Michael smiled through the darkness at her.
Nikolai signalled to his commandoes to fan out, forming a half sphere of protection to those within, while the Russian himself took out a small plastic canteen of water, offered it to Kathryn, who gingerly took a few sips, then to the others, before guzzling some himself.
Logameier was perusing the control panels of the security station, as well as the hieroglyphs adorning the walls, “you know for three hundred year old technology, this is remarkably advanced.”
“That’s what Kalschacht and Gomez thought.” Kathryn replied between gasps of pain.
“I bet in their day, these guys where a real rival to the Solarians. No wonder their attempted coup scared the bejesus out of them, and they went on to chase them out of their territory.”
“What I don’t get is; if these Dracos were so powerful. Why didn’t they just create their own empire?” Nikolai asked.
“Because the Dracos were already severely weakened by their failed coup, and the Solarians chasing them through their territory made it worse, any empire the Dracos may have made wouldn’t have lasted long before the Solarians came calling again. So the Dracos used the only option they had left at the time; they went into hiding.”
“It sounds a little like a coward’s way out to me,” Nikolai replied as he shone his torch over the interior of the security booth.
“Not really, don’t forget their entire race was under the threat of extinction, by going into hiding, they ensured that they at least survived.”
“Perhaps; I’m glad I’m not a president, just a soldier, I have an enemy and I kill it, nice and simple.”
His reply raised a few smiles from the accompanying commandoes who were trained in exactly the same way.
“Okay, I think I’m ready to go on again now,” Kathryn said, “at least its level ground from here on in.”
The group continued on their long walk through the three kilometre long, third floor, passing the barren Dracos chief scientist’s office. The gentle tap of Kathryn’s walking stick echoed through the long deserted dark corridor.
They came to the science maintenance stores, where Rachthausen had cunningly rigged up that small laser welder. He was so proud of himself at the accomplishment; the thought gave Kathryn a warm smile. Although it felt kind of strange, almost as if the spirit of Rachthausen was still with her as she soldiered on, willing her to finish this, to put the nightmare to rest. She dismissed it as little more than wishful thinking.
They carried on until they came upon the next room, Kathryn immediately froze, terrified as she relived the horror that went on in there. It was the briefing room, blood spatter still coated the walls, and stained the floor from the now removed bodies of the dead scientists. The wall directly opposite to the doors was studded with dozens of tiny craters from pulse rifles and pistols used in the desperate last defence of the men and women inside.
It was almost as if she could hear their dying screams, the swish of a Dracos blade scything down another of her team, her friends. “Noooo!” She cried out, unable to cope with the flood of awful images this horrific place assaulted her mind with.
“It’s okay Kathryn, we’re here,” Michael said.
“No! It’s not okay Michael, this is where they died, you didn’t hear their screams, the screams of agony, and the Dracos enjoyed it. They fucking enjoyed it! Hacking my friends down like dogs!”
“I know, it must have been horrible.” Michael tried his best to comfort her, although he was growing more worried by the second.
“No you don’t know! You weren’t there! You weren’t there…you… bastard!” She sobbed uncontrollably as she thumped Michael weakly on the chest. Collapsing into him, as all the raw emotion came pouring out of her.
“I’m here now Kathryn, I’m here.” Michael replied as he consoled her.
The four Dracos warriors continued their silent creeping throughout the air circulation ducting of the Eisenhower, they spied a room that piqued their interest, and using the nearest vent, dropped down into it.
They quickly sealed the door shut from the inside, and consulted a computerised layout of the whole ship, they found they were located on deck twenty four of the thirty four deck cruiser.
“We need to retrieve our weapons,” one of the escapees said.
They consulted the deck plan further, “the weapons storage facility is on deck twenty one, three decks above us.”
“How will we get there?” A third Dracos asked.
“These ships have an elevator system that runs throughout the ship, we can ride it until we reach that deck, retrieve our weapons and then capture the bridge.”
“We’ll be seen as soon as we exit the elevator.”
“Calm yourself Taneth, we are Dracos, the undisputed masters of moving unseen remember. We can do this.”
“We all die if you fail Kallos, remember that.” Taneth retorted.
The four Kallan all climbed back into the ducting, quietly replacing the vent as they found it, they continued on their silent creeping towards the elevator stop. Checking to see the corridor below leading up to it was clear, one by one, they slowly dropped down into the corridor itself and sprinted into the elevator, lest anyone should see them.
The doors slowly closed around them, sealing them off from anyone who may chance upon them.
“Deck twenty one,” Kallos spoke into the elevator speaker.
“Destination confirmed,” came the reply from the elevators onboard speaker system, as it whisked them onto the next phase of their plan.
Once it arrived, the four Kallan warriors quickly exited and dove into a side room, it appeared to be some form of laundry area. There were strange uniforms and camouflaged clothing piled high on racks of shelves. An attendant whirled around quickly; startled, to face the four intruders. Before the woman even had time to react, two pulse rifle blasts tore a large bloodied hole straight through her chest and flung her into a row of shelving, before she collapsed, motionless.
“Go!” Taneth shouted, as they climbed up through the air circulation ducting again, and began to make their way across this new deck.
A klaxon began to wail loudly, easily audible through the thin aluminium ducting of the ventilation system. As they passed by another grille, they saw red flashing lights coat the rooms below in dark crimson, enemy soldiers and naval officers were running hither and thither. The four hidden Dracos all thought the same thing; they must have found the body of the guard.
They refrained from quickening their pace however, to the Dracos this was inconsequential, it would not affect their ability to hide, or creep around the ship.
“What the hell is going on! Who ordered a red alert?” Commander Fontain barked.
“The Dracos prisoners have escaped, there are reports that one guard is dead, two stab wounds to the chest. He has also been relieved of his weapons,” Maddox replied.
“Damn it! I want a full deck-by-deck search; find them, prepare to seal off the bridge.”
“Aye commander,” Maddox replied as he relayed Commander Fontain’s orders to the search teams fanning out through the other decks.
Despite the constant hurrying back and forth of the Eisenhower’s crew below, the Dracos continued on their inexorable, silent creep toward the weapons storage facility. Two guards were stationed at the door to the weapons room. Predictable, Kallos thought, these aliens whom he had come to learn were called the E.D. F from the deck plans he had studied, almost always prepared for a frontal assault.