Commander Val

[hidude398]

Chapter Thirteen: Last Stand / The Phoenix

Jeb looked out the window of the top floor of the VAB. He felt a deep pang of sadness as he saw the white flag of surrender raised over the compound. All around him were tell-tale signs of destruction. The astronaut center was rubble now, alongside the SPH, all three radar dishes, and the main building of the R&D center, which had been destroyed in the preemptive strike. The Crater bay guards walked behind him and escorted him down a floor, where they had converted some of the rooms into the cells by spacing them out with panels. They threw Jeb into one of these cells and slid the door shut. Jeb heard a *BZZT* as the door locked. The two guards turned around and walked outside to take their posts guarding the doors.

* * *

The fighting had mostly died inside the HNSC, and the Crater Bay leadership were feeling especially happy with a successful campaign with so few losses. The ballistic shield technique had worked perfectly. However, there was one thing bothering the Commandant. The strange man with a stranger pencil mustache was nowhere to be seen, as was the man who was almost always wearing a white vest. Although he didn't think that he could be a threat, he ordered his men out to search for them anyways. "One can never be too careful," he thought, "who knows what those two are up to, whoever they are." Despite his concerns, he was still overjoyed with the ease at which the HNSC had fallen. Of course, it wouldn't always be like this, but as long as it was most of the time, he didn't really care.

* * *

Gene was putting the final touches on the rover. The interns had put a NERVA inside the quarantine chamber, and were busy unloading the radioactive plutonium and placing it inside a small aluminum sphere. Once they had packed the sphere, they sealed it and placed it inside a hemisphere of explosives. Another hemisphere was placed on top, and the entire assembly was lowered into the front of a lead container. Already inside the container was a large tube, seated in the middle, filled with deuterium. Lastly, the interns robotically sealed the lead casing and placed it into a Tsar Bob-a casing. The casing was lowered into Gene's large rover, and Gene crawled into the cab. Gene armed the weapon behind him, and drove out of the garage. He made a right, and drove past the destroyed research building. He drove right up to the main personnel entrance to the VAB, and put the rover in park. He pulled out a megaphone from the cab, and stepped out. He was shaking all over with fright, but he pressed forward. He aimed the Megaphone at no particular floor, and mustered as much power as he could in his chest.

"HEY! IF YOU'RE INSIDE THE VAB, YOU BETTER LISTEN UP, YOU KERMUNIST SCUM."

Gene waited a moment. He heard the compound's speaker system (or what was left of it) spring to life.

"Why should I listen to you, Comrade? I have your friends' lives in my hands. What could you possibly do that would make me want to NOT kill you now?"

"I FIGURED YOU'D SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT. YOU'RE GOING TO LET EVERYONE GO, PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPONS, AND SURRENDER NOW!"

"Hmmph. Guards, go kill him now. I'm getting tired of this."

"THAT MIGHT BE A BAD IDEA. TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT'S INSIDE MY TRUCK."

Gene flicked a switch on the side of the rover, and a panel swung open, revealing the menacing looking nuclear bomb inside.

"I HOPE YOU SEE THIS, BECAUSE IF YOU REFUSE TO HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH ME, THIS BOMB DETONATES."

"Okay comrade, I'm listening. Let's be civil about this. I'm coming downstairs now. Let's talk."

"Good. That sounds better."

Gene was still shaking as he heard the doors to the outside of the VAB building open. In just a few moments, he was face to face with the rather grim looking Kermunist Commandant.

* * *

The Infiltrators maneuvered the small assault craft towards the larger invasion boat. About three clicks out, the ship radio sprang to life.

"This is the Red Dawn to Bolshevik Four. Why are you returning off schedule?"

"We've encountered some engine problems, and we need a more skilled engineer to fix them. We can't go very fast anymore."

"Understood, but regs require that we give you a challenge code. A spectre is haunting Kerbin--the spectre of communism."

"Roger that. All the powers of old Kerbin have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre."

"Challenge code accepted. You have permission to proceed. Maneuver to the back, we'll lower the ramp and send over an engineer."

The Infiltrators stood on the deck of the craft, wearing Kermunist uniforms with the Kermunist Naval insignia on the side. "We only have one shot at this," Phantom began speaking, "so let's do it right! For Hexis!" The crew echoed back his sentiments, and they lowered the rear scramble net. The large invasion ship lowered its rear ramp, and a striking Lieutenant-Commander climbed into a small raft and powered his way over to the assault craft. He climbed the scramble net and walked up to Valentina.

"Commandant. I assume you have an lieutenant at the Conn?"

"Yes, Major. I assume you would like to go to the engine room immediately?"

"It would be my pleasure, Commandant."

Valentina led the Major down the stairs and into the engine room. Once he was inside, she sealed the room and locked it behind him. The poor engineer took about a minute to realize he had been fooled, but by then, the Infiltrators were swimming from their "disabled" ship to the Red Dawn. Once aboard, they knocked out six unwitting maintenance crew with Phantom's dart gun and changed into their uniforms. They stuffed the maintenance crew into a raft, and pushed them out towards the Bolshevik Four. The gang concealed their weapons and gear inside navy blue duffel bags, and walked up towards the pump room. Once inside, Broadhead took a glance at the charts on the wall. He went down the list until he found the one he was looking for.

"Turn off pipe #25, and reverse the rotor inside pipe #47"

"What's that do?"

"It's the bridge sewage lines. By shutting off pipe #25, there's no backflow prevention, and by reversing the rotor on #47 for, say, I don't know, fifteen seconds, you'll back up the bridge toilets."

"Absolutely disgusting. Why would we ever have reason to do this?"

"We're dressed as maintenance men. What's the easiest way to get maintenance called on site? Raise a stink."

"Fair enough. Pipe 25 disabled, pipe 47 reversed."

"Okay. And.... shutdown 47."

"Done."

Suddenly, the pump room intercom jumped to life. "MAINTENANCE! GET YOUR dumbS TO THE BRIDGE RIGHT THE [REDACTED] NOW, YOU [REDACTED] [REDACTED [REDACTED]. WHAT THE [REDACTED] DID YOU DO?" Phantom was quick to answer. "We're reading a failure in the sewage pump system. We'll get to work on it, but I'm sending up a six-man cleaning team to the bridge." The intercom was silent for a moment, then a feminine voice spoke up. "I'm sorry for my comrade's words, comrades, but the bridge is starting to stink. Your assistance is greatly appreciated, I'm sure you weren't to blame." The crew laughed at the poor commandant's lack of knowledge, then began walking upstairs to the main deck. They only made it as far as the main deck when an angry-looking Lieutenant Commander stopped them.

"Just where do you think you're going on the main deck when we're underway during an operation? I believe that Order 126.4c states that NO OFFICERS ARE ALLOWED ON DECK UNLESS THEIR DUTIES REQUIRE IT!"

"Well, I'm not sure about you, but I'd absolutely HATE to be the person to tell the Commandant, or even worse, the Commander under her, that the bridge toilets CANNOT be fixed or cleaned out. We're destined for a world of [REDACTED] either way, but we'd much rather have the literal [REDACTED] over having to face the [REDACTED] that we'll get from the senior officers when someone tells them that the bridge is going to smell like bottled Jool for the next three weeks."

Throughout Val's speech, she watched the LtC's face change from a look of anger to a look of fear. He looked around, then spoke up again.

"Well, I guess you need to be on deck to conduct your duties. Do give the Commandant my best wishes."

The infiltrators continued to the bridge. Once there, they were ushered inside by two Ensigns on deck. The walked back to the toilet, and opened the door.

"Hmm. Looks like we'll be here a while. I think it's best if you allow all non-essential personnel to leave the bridge, Commandant. We're gonna be using some pretty nasty cleaning agents."

"Of course, comrade." The commandant picked up the intercom and dialed for the bridge. "All personnel not at the helm are relieved until this mess is cleaned. I have the Conn, and Helmsman, you can feel free to grab a gas mask."

Phantom waited until the bridge was clear until speaking. "Ok, Commandant. I only need you to sign this here."

When the Commandant reached out to grab Phantom's pen and sign for the cleanup, Phantom slid a needle out the end and jabbed it into the side of the commandant's neck, placing his free hand over her mouth. He quietly lowered her to the floor. The helmsman turned around to ask a question, but was cut off mid-sentence by what he saw. Val quickly pulled a pistol from her belt and darted him. He collapsed, and the infiltrators then flexicuffed him and the Commandant to some metal chairs at the back of the bridge. Val walked over to the Chief Engineering station, and flipped open a cover.

"Broadhead, I want you to rig phase Charlie, understood?"

"Clear."

The crew watched as Broadhead left. He walked downstairs unchallenged with his navy blue duffle. He opened the duffel once he was below decks and removed ten flash grenades. He tucked them into a piece of webbing, and wired up the fuses so they were all controlled by a single remote detonator. Then, he walked down to the armory and placed one of Phantom's gas canisters into the A/C, as per the plan. He then zipped his duffel and walked back to the bridge. Once back inside, the six infiltrators unzipped their duffels and put on all their gear. Val walked back over to the open cover on the Chief Engineering station. 

"Phase Charlie is a go, I repeat phase Charlie is a go."

With that, Broadhead pressed a button on the remote detonator, and everything went to [REDACTED]. First, the radio buzzed to life on the bridge.

"THIS IS ENGINE ROOM. WHAT THE [REDACTED] WAS THAT?"

"THIS IS FIRE CONTROL! WHAT'S GOING ON?"

"THIS IS MAIN DECK! WE HEARD AN EXPLOSION, WHAT HAPPENED!?"

"THIS IS THE BOAT HANGAR! WE SAW A FLASH OF LIGHT NEAR THE WATERLINE!"

Val pressed the red button that was inside the cover, and the General Alarm began to sound. Phantom picked up the intercom, but waited a moment. The radio buzzed again.

"THIS IS FIRE CONTROL! WE ARE AT BATTLE STATIONS! I REPEAT WE ARE AT BATTLE STATIONS!"

"THIS IS ENGINE ROOM, BATTLE STATIONS READY!"

"MAIN DECK READY!"

"HANGAR READY FOR DEPLOYMENT!"

"THIS IS FIRE CONTROL. WHERE THE [REDACTED] IS ARMORY? WE DON'T HAVE ANY ORDINANCE IN THE LIFT!"

Phantom smirked, picturing the Armory workers passed out inside the magazine control room, oblivious to the storm above them. Then, he smirked even harder and dialed the entire ship on the intercom.

"MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE. ENGINEERING REPORTS THAT A TORPEDO CARRYING CHEMICAL WEAPONS HAS STRUCK BELOW THE WATERLINE. WE ARE TAKING ON WATER, AND THE ARMORY GAS SENSORS HAVE DETECTED A FATAL AMOUNT OF MUSTARD GAS. THE COMMANDANT IS DOWN, AND THE REMAINING LIEUTENANT COMMANDANT HAS ISSUED AN ABANDON SHIP ORDER. I REPEAT, ABANDON SHIP! ABANDON SHIP! ABANDON SHIP!"

Phantom put the intercom microphone down, and laughed his guts out as he saw the deck crew donning gas masks and lifejackets before vaulting over the railing into the tropic seas below. Many swam for the small assault craft behind the ship, while others swam for the lowering life rafts. Valentina watched with satisfaction as the last of the crew jumped overboard.

Valentina shut off the General alarm and raised the ramp at the back of the hull. Motorhead restarted the engines and the six of them steamed towards the waiting Kermunist fleet. Butterfly walked down to Fire Control, while Broadhead opened up the armory and dragged the five armory crew out and stuffed them inside a crew cabin. Val and Phantom discussed their strategy for taking out the fleet with only one boat.

"We only have one boat and one shot. We can't waste it, Val."

"I know, Phantom. But how do we take down an entire fleet of three missile ships, three invasion craft, and four aircraft carriers?"

"We can ignore the carriers. There isn't much that air support can do at this point, seeing as how most of the HNSC is destroyed."

"What about the missile ships? Would they nuke HNSC out of spite?"

"No, they're VERY reluctant to enter a nuclear exchange. Any nukes that get set off would likely be from our side to seal the SPH hangars permanently."

"Fair enough. So focus on the remaining three invasion ships?"

"Yes. I say we aim for their bridge so they don't know what hit them. If we get between two, we can bombard one ship on each side with those dual-mounted artillery rockets, and take the third with the cannon on the bow."

"We're not going to walk away from this one, are we?"

"We can try, but I have a feeling that we won't, no."

The crew sailed on in silence, and steeled themselves for what they were about to do.

* * *

Gene and the Commandant were sitting outside the VAB. Gene had just laid out his plan for the Commandant's retreat, and the Commandant was trying to talk Gene down.

"So what you're saying, White-Vest-Man, is that if we don't retreat, you'll blow us all to [REDACTED], so we have no choice, correct?"

"Correct."

"Then what keeps me from carpet-bombing this place as soon as I leave?"

"The fact that you will stay here until your fleet has completely withdrawn before I deactivate the bomb and give you and your men safe passage from Hexis."

"All things considered, that's a pretty good deal. Why not take my men and me prisoner?"

"Because I'm trying to get your country out of mine, not give them cause to come further in."

"Okay. So I have another question."

"Yes?"

"What is stopping me from retreating to the island and blowing you up from there?"

"I have a question to counter your question."

"Okay, what is it?"

"Why are you stalling a deranged man with a big nuke?"

"The same reason you are sitting here holding me and my men hostage. We're both grabbing for time we don't have."

* * *

Motorhead slowed the ship when he saw the flotilla. The radio buzzed again, repeating the same old challenge code. They answered and began their final maneuvers. Before they went any further, however, Valentina cracked open the commandant's hidden bottle of hydrazine.

"Kerbs and Kerbelles, it has been an honor. No matter how this turns out, we know one thing is clear. We have fought and fought well for family, friends, love, freedom, liberty, truth, honesty, and justice. We have fought for Hexis."

"FOR HEXIS!"

"We may encounter victory. We may encounter loss. We may encounter great joys, or we may encounter great sorrows. But one thing is true. We do it for Hexis."

"FOR HEXIS!"

"Now, let's go make 'em pay for what they did."

"HUZZAH!"

With that, the crew made a toast, and slowed the ship as it was 500m from the sterns of the other two invasion ships. The missile cruisers had made a triangle in the very front, with the four carriers at the very outsides of the flotilla in a diamond formation. The Red Dawn maneuvered in between the other two Invasion ships in the center, and trained her gun straight forward, at the superstructure on the forward Invasion ship. The commandant spoke up behind Val.

"Can I have a swallow of that bottle?"

"Sure. It's yours, anyways."

Motorhead matched speed with the other two ships and left the Helm. The infiltrators lined up, ready to evacuate the helm. There were a multitude of life rafts in the boat hangar, optimistically ready to be inflated. Phantom walked to the intercom, and dialed Fire Control to issue that final order, and walk within two steps of Oblivion.

"Butterfly, do what you do best."

"Roger that."

The two artillery launchers rose up and rotated back and to the sides to face the superstructures of the ships flanking the Red Dawn. They ignored the radio as it buzzed to life.

"Red Dawn, come in. What's going on?"

...

"RED DAWN, COME IN, STATUS REPORT!"

...

"RED DAWN IF YOU DO NOT REPLY, WE WILL OPEN FIRE!"

With that, Phantom picked up the mic. "This is for the boys and girls at the HNSC, you kermunist son of a [REDACTED]."

With that, the Red Dawn opened fire on all three boats at once. Val and Phantom watched with satisfaction as the superstructures went down. Fires erupted on the decks, and Broadhead aimed lower. Explosions rocked the hulls, and the forward ship began to take on water. Butterfly grabbed Slicer by the hand, and the two looked rushed to the window. They looked on as they saw the large aircraft carriers scrambling jets with anti-ship rockets. The deck guns turned to face the Red Dawn, and the missile cruisers turned to face them. Motorhead pushed the throttle to the max, but it was to no avail. The other ships simply sped up as well. The radio crackled to life.

"Red Dawn, you just made a big mistake!"

The CIWS system on the deck began to pick targets. It shot down eleven planes as they launched before it was hit with a shell from the carrier's deck guns. The infiltrators ran belowdecks, freeing their prisoners as they went. They met Butterfly at Fire Control before running down to the armory to pull Broadhead out. They went to the back of the ship and began inflating a life raft. They worked hurriedly as explosions rocked the ship. When the raft was inflated, Phantom threw a ship to lower the rear ramp. Nothing happened. He tried again. Still nothing. Broadhead looked around and saw that the locking mechanism had fused from the heat of one of the shells from the deck guns of the carriers.

"This is it, huh, Phantom?"

"Yeah. I guess so. Let's go back to the top deck and watch the other invasion boats sink. I only wish we could've destroyed ALL the boats."

"Me too."

Suddenly, the pinging sound of bullets bouncing off the hull ceased, and the sound of explosions became quiet, no longer focused on the Red Dawn. The crew was at first shocked, then joyous, then finally confused. The infiltrators and their prisoners made their way back to the main deck, desperate to find answers, and found the greatest (or most horrible, depending on your perspective) sight that they'd ever seen. Val looked up, and saw fifteen planes flying in formation. Her eyes lit up until a sonic boom knocked the breath out of her. When she had her breath back, she simply whispered. "It's Naval Aviation squads one through three. Help has arrived!" The planes broke the V formation and strafed the decks of the carrier, attacking the catapults and the lifts. Once they were guaranteed that there would be no aerial resistance, they shifted focus to the CIWS guns. Without planes in the air, the Red Navy stood no chance of winning. Four attack planes went into a steep dive, dropping bombs on the decks of the missile cruisers, while others still aimed torpedoes for the screws at the back of the carriers and the invasion craft. The crew watched as the mighty aircraft carriers buckled and slid to a stop. The radar on the Red Dawn began to sound an alert as the HSS ELITE began to show over the Horizon. A large aircraft flew overhead. Val watched as the ramp rolled down and a red package fell out the back. A parachute opened, and the package drifted to the deck. Valentina opened it to find a working Hexis encoded radio. She powered it on, and dialed the emergency frequency. She found herself doing that way too much these days.

"This is Commander Valentina Kerman. Please come in."

...

"Please acknowledge."

...

"[REDACTED]"

Valentina re-tuned the radio to the air-to-air coordination channel.

"This is Commander Valentina Kerman. Please acknowledge."

"Commander! The Cavalry has arrived!"

"Who is this?"

"I'm Lieutenant James! Nice to meet you! The Elite will be sending you a blimp soon, so just hold tight, okay?"

"Understood. Thanks for the save, we thought we were done for."

"Well, someone's gotta save the heroes every once in a while."

* * * 

At the HNSC, the Commandant in front of Gene got a phone call to his Satphone. "What? The [REDACTED]? Are you serious? How? How the [REDACTED] does this happen? You've got to be [REDACTED] kidding me. What can you do to help me out of here? What do you mean, NOTHING? NOTHING! I'M TRAPPED IN THE SAME PLACE I DESTROYED WITH A BUILDING FULL OF HEXIS NATIONALS WHO DON'T HOLD ME IN VERY HIGH REGARD, STUCK IN FRONT OF A DERANGED GENERAL WITH AN ARMED NUKE! YES, I SAID ARMED NUKE! HOW DOES AN INVASION LIKE THIS FAIL! HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN! HOW! HOW! HOOOOWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!"

Gene spoke up. "If you're quite done, here are my terms of surrender. You take your men, and you group them up in the VAB. You take all your weapons, shields, and armor, and pile it up in those containers over in that pile of rocket piles. You then march right into the hands of the army waiting out in the plains to the west of here, and become prisoners of war until this is all over. That's awful generous. A lot more generous than your men would be if our roles were reversed. Do we have a deal?"

The commandant looked down at his hand, then pulled a pen out of his pocket. "Deal," he said. "You have a deal."

* * *

The Elite steamed into the formation. Once all the planes had landed, they launched a BL1 from the foredeck of the carrier. It drifted lazily over, landing on the helicopter pad in the center of the ship. As the ship settled, Valentina walked to the door and unfolded the steps. An admiral stepped out.

"Miss Valentina?"

"Yes sir?"

"I'm Admiral Kentworth. Our next stop is the HNSC. MILCOM has given orders for you to come with us. We need all the help we can get with this one."

"Yes sir. Who will take command of this ship?"

"I'll leave it in the capable hands of your infiltration crew to bring it back to port to be scrapped for our war effort. I believe that you have done us all a great service today, all of you."

"Thank you sir. I'm ready to go now."

"Okay."

With that, the two climbed into the BL1. As they lifted off into the sky, Val saw Phantom looking up and waving. Then, the pilot turned, and he disappeared behind her. They floated back to the Elite, and Val could clearly see kerbs lining up on the decks of the four aircraft carriers. What was left of the Coast Guard seemed to be arriving to deal with the surrender. The BL1 landed, and crew rushed to secure it to the deck. The Elite turned away from the scene and steamed back for the HNSC. When they arrived fifteen minutes later, Val saw the rampant destruction caused by the Crater Bay soldiers.

"Oh my god. What happened?"

"The preemptive strike took that Research Building, while the Astronaut Center was brought down by the invaders."

"What about Jeb? Is he... Is he alive?"

"I'm not sure who is and isn't. You'll need to go ashore to find out, the comms in this sector are out."

"Okay. Get me ashore as soon as possible."

Val found herself aboard another BL1. The trip was short, and she landed on the VAB helipad. Gene was waiting. Val stepped out of the BL1, expecting the worst, but was overjoyed at what she heard.

"He's downstairs. He's a little traumatized after the events at the Astronaut Center, but he'll live. I think you should go talk to him."

"Thanks. Anything I should know?"

"Yeah. Agalotte hid inside the R&D Wind Tunnel, so she's fine, but your Flight Engineer..."

"What about Moina?" Valentina snapped.

"We don't know what happened to her. She's not among the dead, and she didn't crawl out of a building when the fighting stopped."

"What happened?"

"I think she was taken by one of the commandants."

"Where?"

"I don't know, but if I had to guess, she'd be in the Crater by now, seeing as how I think I saw her being loaded into a supersonic jet."

"Thanks, Gene. I'll take Jeb off your hands if you don't mind."

"Sure thing. He'd love to go with you on the Elite, I'm sure.

"Good luck with the cleanup effort."

"I'm gonna need it. Now go stick it to the Crater for me."

Valentina walked downstairs to find Jeb. He was asleep on a cot set up inside the VAB, which had been turned into a temporary shelter. She walked over and sat down in another cot next to him. She poked him in the side.

"Hey, Hey, HEY!"

"Jeb, it's me."

"Huhwaahhh? Oh, hey there, Val!"

"Rough day?"

"Only as bad as yours."

"Admiral Kentworth wants me to offer you a commission with the Navy. You've landed on an aircraft carrier before, right?"

"First time for everything. Tell him I'll take him up on his offer."

"We leave port tomorrow. We're striking back at the Crater."

"Count me in. After what they did here... never mind."

"Jeb,  what did you see?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay. I'm going to go talk to Agalotte now."

"Love you, Val. Stay safe."

"Me too, Jeb. Keep the tower buzzing to a minimum."

Val walked over to Agalotte's bunk. She sat down across from her, and Agalotte revealed two cups of coffee, one for her, and one for Val. Val spoke up.

"So, what're you going to do now? They're evacuating civilians from here in case there's a retribution."

"Well, Kent's going to meet me at some port. Something about being shuttled around."

"How much do you know about him?"

"Most of his work's classified, but I like him. Who knows where he was today."

Val smiled knowingly. "Probably closer than you think."

"Oh, no way. You met him today, didn't you?"

"Maybe, maybe not. If I told you, I'd have to kill you."

"Oh, ha ha. Gene owes me a favor for the space incident, I'll ask him."

"Fine. I met him today. Before you ask, no, I'm not telling you his codename."

"Whatever. So where are you going, now that the HNSC really isn't much of a "Space Center" anymore?"

"MILCOM has reassigned me to the Elite. We're going to go end this war once and for all, and then we'll see."

"Good luck, Val. You're the best pilot I know, but you're gonna need it."

"Thanks. I'll see you around, Agalotte."

"You too, Val."

Val finished her coffee and stood up. She had one more item on her itinerary before she left for the Crater Bay. She walked out of the VAB and down the road towards the destroyed SPH. She walked under a fallen support beam to the back, and moved a piece of sheet metal aside. Under it was a manhole cover. Val grabbed a piece of bent rebar, and used it to move the manhole cover aside. She turned on her suit lights, and descended the ladder inside to the bottom. She walked down the maintenance tunnel until she arrived at a metal door cut into the end of the long concrete tube she was in. She pulled a multitool out of her pocket, and removed the lock pick set hidden inside the handle. In about five minutes or so, she was through the door and inside a large underground cavern, wide enough to fit a lift the size of the SPH floor, and tall enough to fit any plane that would fit inside the SPH. Val walked down the tunnel until the luminescent paint on the walls told her she was in Sector Delta. She found a large blast door marked "Hangar Thirty Seven." She walked to the door next to it, and entered the Hangar. Inside sat a small, long forgotten business jet. She opened the door to the fuselage and lowered the steps. Once aboard, she walked back to Row 4, and removed the seat cushion from Seat B. Underneath it was a black waterproof package. She replaced the seat cushion and walked back the way she came.

 

Edited January 16, 2017 by hidude398

[hidude398]

Happy MLK day. Hope you all enjoy this chapter. I normally would keep to schedule, but I figured you all needed some conclusion to the "Fall of the HNSC" mini-arc and I was feeling generous!

[hidude398]

Please forgive me, , I didn't have time to write a chapter this week. I'll have two transmissions on Tuesday and Thursday, and a chapter on Saturday to make up for it. Thanks.

 

(I've also been working on my python skills. So there's that, too. So many things to do, so little time!)

Edited January 21, 2017 by hidude398