Operation Orion - Kevin Dockery [28]
Remembering the objective of their mission, Sanders broke radio silence just long enough to order his men to make a quick search, seeking the torpedo-shaped crate containing the shield driver that Consul Char-Kane had described. A few hasty minutes of scanning up and down the rows of shelves revealed nothing promising; by then the chatter in their ears indicated that Jackson’s squad was running into some resistance, so Sanders decided to postpone the search.
Their reconnaissance had revealed the presence of a large air lock on the far side of the circular chamber, and Sanders guessed with a high degree of confidence that this was the passage connecting the storage dome to the rest of the pirate installation. Baxter went to work on it with his battery-powered access computer and swiftly found the code that would open it.
“Seems to be vacuum on the other side, sir,” he reported, consulting one of his meters.
“Okay. See if you can pop it open,” the young officer ordered.
“Righto, sir.”
As Baxter went to work, Sanders picked up another transmission, a message from his commanding officer. “Sandy, we’re in a tight spot here. Any chance the cavalry is coming over the hill?” Jackson’s voice crackled with perfect timing.
“On our way, sir,” Sanders reported, signaling to Baxter that he should open the hatch. “Can you give me a sitrep?”
“We’re on the top floor of a large crater ringed with decks. Some hostiles are directly across from us; others are on the lower levels.”
Even as the LT was describing the situation, the electrician’s mate released the electronic lock—his computer had broken the code easily—and spun the wheel that would open the first hatch. It swung wide to reveal a small air lock, and when the hatch on the far side of that passage proved to be unsecured, Baxter went ahead and pushed that one open as well. Because both sides of the hatch were currently in a vacuum state, no depressurization occurred when the hatch was forced.
Following his electrician’s mate, Sanders immediately spotted a half dozen pirates. They were hunkered down behind a bank of computer equipment, and the SEALS of the second squad had surprised them by approaching from their left rear quarter. Sanders, Baxter, and Ruiz opened up with their G15s, the rocket rounds raking through the surprised—and doomed—hostiles. The sputtering bullets chewed through the pirates’ space suits, helmets, and life support modules, along with the equipment behind which they had sought shelter. In less than two seconds all six of them had been cut down.
Sanders and Schroeder charged through the air lock door, ducking to the right and looking for other targets. Baxter and Master Chief Ruiz came next, moving to the left, circling around the ring of deck that surrounded the crater. Moving against the compartment wall, the SEALS were still unable to see very far down into that depression, but they spotted their Teammates of the first squad on the other side of the ring-shaped deck and saw Jackson indicating the deck immediately underneath them, a clear statement that more of the bad guys were lurking down there. There were a couple of other SEALS over there with the LT, but he guessed that at least one whole fire team remained in the outer corridor, protecting the first squad against the attackers approaching from behind.
Sanders spotted the metal stairway spiraling down from this, the top level of the stacked rings, not far from Jackson’s position. The metal steps looked very unappealing as a route into the crater, at least if there were other hostiles below, as the officer suspected. He immediately began looking around for another path downward.
Meanwhile, his men were inspecting the bodies of the pirates