"What about the other battalion mates they don't deserve to burn to death." Valpine said as she continued with straf stun blaster ready for other cadets. She then tried listening on her com. "have you tried your com on the other frequency to see whats going on?" She asked
"No I haven't tried my comms. And I'm not saying they deserve to burn, all I'm saying is they have drills for emergencies like this. Besides it seems like this was bound to happen before we got here." He continued down the hall keeping his eyes and ears open scanning the shadows.
Scorching waves of heat still emanated from the inferno rushing through the hallway outside, baking Strafs body slowly as the temperature slowly rose like that of a vast oven. Above him lie a tortured vent, its covering broken and warped from the extreme heat and still sizzling from the initial fire wave that had swept through. If it hadn't been fully sealed, fate would have had a different ending for him . . . one in which his remains would look a lot like an over-cooked Ewok. Around him, the supply closets shelves had been sent flying from their mounts, spilling their contents along the floor and revealing small cracks in the infrastructure but giving no hint as to what lay on the either side. Red-hot plasteel throbbed from the cement prisons due to the extreme heat giving a hint that breaking through the wall may not a wise decision unless there was no alternative. Due to the jumbled mess now surrounding Straf, he had time to take stock of what was available to him. Several containers of an unidentified cleaning solution with warning labels that said to keep at room temperature to prevent possible explosions . . . several cloth rags and a floor polishing machine, its power unit fractured and sparking from the violent impact . . . and a few empty steel tanks most likely used to store water or other coolant for the machine . . . not much by most standards but it would have to do for now. _____________________________________________________________ Outside the control room, the two were greeted with a scene of unorganized chaos. Academy guards and technicians were mixed with recruits as they helped the wounded out from the building even as others set up checkpoints to round up any stragglers or those who might be responsible. Ahead of them, one such checkpoint was set up and the troopers were armed to kill. Their leader, a young man wearing a front line combat hard-skin over his dress uniform must have been hastily summoned from the mess hall and when he spotted the two of them, he immediately waved for them to approach. Now that they had been spotted, there were but two options: attempt to escape and mask as just other recruits caught up in an act of sabotage or flee and arouse immediate suspicion that they were the saboteurs. Either way brought immense risk of being discovered but both had immediate advantages as the guards were unlikely to pursue very far into the building as the fires raged mostly unchecked but if they managed to get past them, they could most likely move more freely unless they ran into another checkpoint.
Straf shrugged. "Well at least I'm not locked in anymore." He then went over to the cloth rags and fashioned them to be a make shift mask, and checked the containers. He would dip the mask into the liquid if it was water, then tied it over his mouth to provide some breathing protection (If not then obviously not dip the mask in). Regardless of the content, he drenched himself as best he could with the rest of the liquid, then made his way to the vent. "Well, better that than to get hit with a backdrift of the flames." He then grabbed whatever he could use to insulate himself from the heat, climbed into the vent and worked his way to hopefully a cooler part of the interior bunker.
Andros approached the officer, seeing that it was a better option than being shot in the back. Besides chances were that they weren't the ones who caused all the damage. Besides maybe the officer would over look that they didn't belong. Giving a crisp salute as he approached, "Sir is there something that this recruit can assist you with?" He tried to play the fresh recruit card, hopefully the officer would buy it. "We can't find the rest of our squad Sir. We got lost and separated in the confusion."
Inside of the vent, conditions were somewhat worst as the acrid waves of burning debris and human flesh wafted towards him. Breathing became harder and harder as the temperature constantly changed from the differing drafts of air coming from all directions as the fires sucked the oxygen out from the vents, drawing in new drafts from untouched areas. Fortunately the ventilation system was still on emergency power and hadn't shut down yet but chances were even they would fail if the fires weren't put under control soon and Straf may very well suffocate to death before he could escape, again. His body sizzling as the liquid vapor of the chemicals slowly burned off, their alcohol rich contents providing a very thin layer of protection despite being flammable itself, Straf needed to hurry to the next available exit before his only barrier to the heat disintegrated in the palpable heat. In front of him lay several branching vents as he reached a primary intersection: to the left lay a warped conduit which emitted an equal mixture of moisture rich air even as flames belched between the cracks, in front of him lay glowing hot metal plating right before an open vent dropped out into the outside thunderstorm but the vent itself looked to be welded tight from the heat, to his right lay a twisting warren of other ventilation shafts which drafted stale air but no clear sign of any exit. _____________________________________________ Watching warily as the two approached, the man looked them up and down briefly. Noticing a few things automatically, his face twisted in confusion even as his mind tried to put together what he was seeing. Two "recruits" in damaged training armour still wet from the downpour outside and flaked in fresh, drying blood from where Andros had beaten the technician senseless. Realizing they were the saboteurs, the officer screamed a cry of alarm even as he trained his (definitely not a training blaster) pistol towards them which soon alerted the other soldiers next to him who turned and began to fire as well. There was scant cover between the two sides but the guards had the advantage of an intersection and reinforcements where as Andros and Valpine were being pinned down between the side support columns of the hallway with only a stairwell some ten meters behind them to retreat to. Bright crimson beams traced through the air towards them to impact with the sound of sizzling metal as they impacted along the hallway and columns. One beam sliced cleanly through the air next to Valpines face, the heat of the beam leaving a slight burn mark as it passed before impacting with a glowing crater at the corridors far end. Compared to the twos return fire which was meant to only taze a target wearing training armour, they were essentially just putting up an annoyance until the squad ahead could summon troopers in full combat plate to lead the charge in which the situation would be all over.
"Frak me! That didn't go at all as I hoped!" Looking around their only course of action was to run away and find another way around. They were gonna have a harder time getting out of here now that they had been seen. Heading away from the guards station in the intersection, "Come on Valpine!" As they headed away down the hallway he checked some of the rooms as they hurried away hoping to find a place to hide or even some fresh uniforms they could change into.
Straf, realizing that there wasn't enough room to turn his body feet first to kick the vent out from in front of him, turned left towards the warped vent. "Well, rolling the dice now." He moved up to the vent and began hitting it, hoping the flames and/or the heat had damaged the cover enough for him to knock the plate off into a hopefully cooler room.
Valpines helmet was blasted apart slightly as the helmet took the hit a side of her face now scarred as she was now in full backtrack mode mode with Andros. She moved down the hall and through one of her grenades behind her as she moved. "Down the hall need to find a way out likely a way through fire with building coming down." she said she kept her blaster ready now ready to blast anyone they came across that wasn't apart of her team or that was hostile.
Seeing the grenade bound towards them, the guards hunkered down even as the farther away ones continued to lay down suppressive fire. Yet unlike a real detonation, the expected backwash of fire and shrapnel didn't rain down upon them and they quickly rallied to advance. Even as Valpine and Andros retreated down the stairwell unto the level below which was partially on fire, they could hear the echoing shouts for reinforcement and the marshaling of orders. In front of the two of them, two troopers in fire-retardant ballistic weave armour were busy controlling a fire, completely oblivious to the firefight above them but they were not alone. Two medics and a guard saw the pair fleeing the following gunfire and moved to stop them. Being closer to them, a medic pulled out a snub-nosed Blaster-Pistol and fired off a warning shot which finally got the two other troopers attention. Motioning for his partner to aid the trio, one of the heavily armored soldiers turned around with his cryo-blaster cycling through another tank of liquid nitrogen. Unbeknownst to Valpine and Andros, the trooper was capable of freezing them where they stood and the guards knew it . . . all they needed to do was keep the pair pinned so reinforcements could capture them. _________________________________________ Pounding against the warped vent covering, it echoed painfully loud in the vents to the point it seemed the entire Academy would hear him. Banging again against the duct work, he was rewarded as part of the metal vent came free just enough for him to work an arm out. With a single limb capable of working the prison open even more, it was only a matter of time before he would be free (again).
