Kael dropped the empty charge cell from his blaster and snapped in a fresh one without breaking momentum. Below him were the bodies of the enemy soldiers he had already slain.
Silence returned as steam hissed from ruptured piping and burned marks that scarred the walls. Derek and the tactician descended the steps slowly.
"You are impatient, sir" Derek spoke.
Kael glanced back.
"I am aware." He began. "The best way to grow stronger faster is put my life in danger. It was calculated, after all you are one of the best Troopers I know".
With a slight smile, he turned towards the door as the end of the stairs.
"Let's get going".
***
Going through the corridors, they finally reached a reinforced door which led to their destination. The tech specialist moved forward and kneeling at the access panel connecting her pad with the panel.
"It's encrypted. Might take a while" she reported.
"Get started we will hold the line".
As the specialist was busy hacking into the system, Kael and Derek were busy waiting for incoming enemies.
"Alert. Enemies have been alerted of intrusion" reported the surveillance team.
"Prepare for extraction"
"Yes sir"
The reinforced door's panel flickered as the tech specialist worked, finger moving rapidly across her pad. Lines of encrypted code streamed down her display, still she moved.
"They have multiple countermeasures" she murmured.
"Makes sense, they are protecting something valuable" noted Kael.
Then a deep metallic clang echoed through the corridor as then Derek and Kael stiffened. "That is not infantry".
The sound came again.
Kael tilted his head slightly as it came again. It was heavy, rhythmic and metallic then, the corridor lights shifted from white to red.
Emergency alarms began to pulse, the corridor dimming, blurring vision. At the far end of the corridor an armoured machine appeared. It was twice the size of a man.
An armoured combat frame, thick plating layered over hydraulics and a rotating cannon mounted over both shoulders. Targeting optics glowed a cold red. Behind it were armoured guards who moved into formation.
Kael exhaled slowly. "They've brought insurance".
The team were not at an advantageous position, if they fired even if Kael and Derek dodged, the specialist would not survive. Fortunately, it was not yet in position so Kael did what he could do. Buy time.
He lunged forward, head low, blaster in his right hand. To its sides were enemy guards all armoured and ready to shoot. Kael did not stop, he had a mission and he was not going to be stopped.
On reaching the first guard to appear, Kael responded with a spinning kick, driving his heel into the man's chest plate. The impact hurled him backwards into the machine's leg assembly. Before the others could react, Kael fired twice into the joint beneath the arm. The armour cracked and the guard collapsed screaming.
The third swung a shock baton. Kael caught the wrist, twisted sharply but misjudging the guard's weight, he could not fully prevent the baton. It slightly grazed his shoulder, sending a violent jolt through his armour.
For a split second, his muscle locked. The machine recalibrated as the cannons rotated directly pointed at Derek and the technician.
"Kael!" Derek shouted as he brought attention to Kael. Upon seeing this, through sheer force of will, Kael forced his body to move and grabbed the stunned guard and dragged him into the cannon's Fireline.
He remembered there was another cannon and pulled a grenade, shoving it inside just as the machine opened fire.
There was a loud explosion and Kael was sent flying across the corridor, slamming into the wall hard enough to cause a dent. His vision flickered, but he could tell one of the cannons was out of commission.
He forced himself up, while still staggering and opened fire at the machine and the guards behind it while he closed in. It was by chance when he noticed a baton again swing from behind it and ducked narrowly evading.
The second group that came from the other side of the machine flanked him, three in total with weapons pointed at him. He wanted to keep it that way, rather than them noticing Derek and the technician. With one hand pointing on the guards and the other free, he lunged back to choke hold the closest guard.
The guard was fast and swung back just for Kael to just miss him. However as if he anticipated that, he spun back to knock him with the heel of his blaster. The force was so great, the guard was forced to his knees.
Kael then proceeded to dodge down, narrowing four laser blasts flowing over head. He lunged forward and managed to chokehold the second guard and threw him over to the other guard and using that distraction he opened fire on both of them.
It was then he realised the machine had now a clear view of Derek and the girl and was just moments from opening fire.
"I'm in" the tech specialist shouted as the reinforced bolts retracted with a heavy thunk.
Kael did not waste time and bolted to the others, with the barrel of the machine pointed at his back. He dove straight through the entrance and ducked for cover.
Derek remained at the entrance while they observed the chamber behind the door. It was beyond massive with rows and rows of crates filled with weapons along with missile racks.
But the most important object they had come for was the massive data server in the centre of the room with wires connected to the walls.
The doors began to close just as the guards and the machine were approaching who were not eager to open fire for fear of damaging what was inside the room.
With the closure of the door, the chamber fell into silence besides the dulled sounds of fire outside. "Begin data retrieval" ordered Kael.
The tactician hurried to the server and began entering its system while Kael and Derek assessed the occupants of the chamber.
"This is enough ammunition to pose a danger for an entire company" noted Derek.
"Dwaro III is a moon, and the settlement is not that big to begin with but yeah this is too much for occupants of such a moon."
Derek opened some of the weapons crates and marvelled at the weapons insides.
"These are military grade" he commented.
"As expected," Kael replied. "Let's get things ready and move to the next objective".
Saying that Kael pulled out devices and began stacking them across the entire room, while the technician was busy hacking and downloading data on the server.
They placed them on every place in the room.
"I have got everything, we need" notified the technician.
"Use the ventilation duct, it will lead you out" came advice from the comms.
"Let's get going, we have at most five minutes".
They climbed into the narrow shaft just as the reinforced door was being pried open and the enemy entered.
***
They emerged from a side maintenance exit into the industrial district. Security vehicles were already converging towards the warehouse and armed personnel flooded the streets.
The trio removed their masks and blended into the group of fleeing workers, above them sirens wailed across the settlement.
Then there was an explosion that came, it began as a deep, contained thud and thanks to the ammunition stacked was fuelled into a chained reaction. A fireball erupted from the facility's roof, blasting debris into the artificial sky and shockwave were sent rippling through the district.
Windows shattered and near civilians were forced to their knees. Then like a chain reaction power conduits snapped, the entire settlement flickered and then dark. Neon lights died, transit lines shut down mid motion while emergency lights struggling to even activate.
The settlement faced a total blackout.