Task Force Mars - Kevin Dockery [108]
Ruiz’s shots from enfilade swept the platform on the far side of the corridor, dropping several guards and sending the rest into full-fledged flight. Apparently, they gave no thought to sheltering in the control booth, having observed the lethal effects of G-Man’s first shot across the way. With his rocket launcher slung over his back, Rodale emerged from the gory booth and added assault rifle support to Ruiz and Teal, ensuring that only a couple of the Eluoi soldiers made it to the next supporting position, a half-walled cubicle a hundred meters down the fourth-story catwalk.
The master chief stepped into the booth, ignoring the gory mess on the floor as he tried to make sense of the ruined control panel. Dials and gauges had been wrecked by the spatter of molten copper. Sparks flashed, and the smell of ozone was heavy in the air.
He stuck his head out the door and shouted to the pair of SEALS on the opposite catwalk. “This one’s useless. See if you can work any of the controls over there.” He turned to Rodale. “Let’s keep the pressure on.”
The people in the cages were dirty and emaciated, a mixture of males and females with the fair complexion and long yellow hair of Olin Parvik. They were climbing to their feet as the SEALS charged past, shouting derisively at the retreating Eluoi. Ruiz saw one of the guards turn and spray a cage with his machine pistol, cutting down the defenseless prisoners, until a couple of rounds from the master chief’s gun blasted the top of his head off.
Rodale, meanwhile, advanced at a crouch, still using his rifle, the rocket launcher being almost useless inside a building. Ruiz followed, squeezing off shots at the Eluoi on the far side of the wide corridor as Rocky suppressed any return fire from ahead of them. Sanchez kept even with his Teammates on the catwalks, advancing along the floor of the wide corridor, leaving his partner to keep an eye on the outside of the pyramid.
And then, just like that, the cage doors began to pop open. Stunned Assarn prisoners looked out as the two SEALS ran past, then emerged to scramble along the catwalks, sliding down the metal ladders, fleeing toward the still-open doors at the loading dock.
“I got it, Chief!” Teal crowed, operating the latches from the control booth.
“Keep it up!” Ruiz shouted. He raised his rifle, ready to squeeze off another burst, but now escaping prisoners were spilling out of cages on the far side of the passageway. He held his fire to avoid hitting the Assarn, then watched in grim satisfaction as the guards on the fourth catwalk were picked up by escaping prisoners and summarily pitched down to the hard floor below.
More escapees swarmed down there, and the guards were literally torn to pieces by the vengeful Assarn. The floor between the two banks of cells rapidly filled with fleeing prisoners, a throng quickly expanding from hundreds to thousands as cell doors continued to snap open farther and farther into the deep passageway. Ruiz found himself bumped and jostled by the people spilling out of the cages, though they made no attempt to interfere with him. He saw another group of Eluoi guards, surrounded by the mob, go down shooting and gave a silent prayer of thanks that he and his men had not tried to charge in there disguised in those distinctive white uniforms.
“Chief, there’s Dr. Sulati! And the ensign!” Rodale shouted, pointing toward a cell on the ground floor on the opposite side of the corridor.
The two humans were peering cautiously through the open door of a cell but, unlike the Assarn, had not joined the stampede for freedom. Director Parker and Dobson appeared behind them, and Ruiz allowed