Chapter 99 - The Line in the Trench
The roar of the dying reactor shook the catwalk violently, threatening to throw us over the rail into the churning, boiling reservoir below. Blue arcs of lightning snapped between the junction conduits, leaving scorching black scars across the deck plates.
"The remote command is locking down the manual levers!" Miller roared over the deafening scream of escaping steam, swinging his fire axe with all his strength into the hydraulic locking arm of the primary breaker.
The axe blade bit deep into the steel with a spray of blinding yellow sparks, severing the auxiliary control lines. The Klaxon pitch changed instantly, shifting to an ear-splitting warble as the facility’s automated brain fought to retain control of the dying core.
"Again!" I ordered, bringing my own blade down across the master power cables running into the seismic launch sequence.
The heavy copper cables severed with a blinding blast of blue light that blew us both backward against the steel bulkhead. My uniform jacket charred from the heat, and my ears rang with a deafening, metallic hum, but on the terminal above the junction, the launch countdown froze at four minutes, twelve seconds.
"The launch is aborted!" Miller coughed, wiping soot from his eyes as he pulled himself up using the handrail. "The strike craft is dead in the cradle!"
Before we could catch our breath, Dawson’s panicked voice tore through our tactical radios.
"Captain! Commander! You need to get back to the airlock right now! The surface... the surface is a warzone!"
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"Report, Chief!" I demanded, helping Miller to his feet as we sprinted back toward the spiral staircase through the choking haze.
"The *Vanguard* is under fire! Those three unidentified surface ships opened up with railguns and anti-ship cruise missiles! Admiral Vance has ordered an immediate surface intervention, but Captain... the seabed around this facility is fracturing! The electromagnetic backfeed from those cables triggered a tectonic collapse in the trench wall! The whole shelf is falling in!"
