Chapter 47 - Breach at Ten Thousand Meters
Decompression sirens wailed through the cavernous corridors of *The Sovereign*. Thick emergency bulkheads slammed shut across the lower decks, sealing off the fiery crater where the drone had breached the hull.
Through the billows of cryogenic foam and billowing smoke, a pressurized survival pod detached from the drone's center chassis. The pneumatic seals hissed open, and Mateo and Lucía emerged onto the steel decking, wearing pressurized tactical rebreathers.
"Mateo! Stay close!" Lucía shouted over the roaring wind of high-altitude turbulence, racking the slide of an electromagnetic pulse rifle salvaged from the Apex armory.
"He's three levels up, in the core sanctum!" Mateo yelled back, checking his wrist-mounted diagnostic pad. "The ship's automated defense droids are deploying!"
Down the corridor, half a dozen bipedal combat chassis rounded the corner, their optical sensors glowing an ominous crimson as their pulse-cannons whirred to life.
"Target identified: Intruders," the lead droid synthesized.
Before the machines could fire, Mateo struck his terminal with a single command. "Marcos, kill the floor grid!"
Instantly, the magnetic floor plating beneath the droids reversed polarity. The three-hundred-pound combat units were violently flung upward into the reinforced ceiling, their hydraulic limbs crushing against the heavy superstructure before falling in a tangled heap of smoking metal and severed wires.
May you like
"Shortcut cleared," Mateo said calmly. "Let's move!"
They sprinted through the labyrinthine corridors of the Coalition's flagship, guided by the luminous gold indicators flashing in sequence along the ship's emergency lighting panels—Marcos’s digital breadcrumbs leading his family to the center of the web.
