Chapter 10:
A few moments earlier:
Urdea had a cord tied off around the large pipe and was in the process of lowering himself into the room below using the cord threaded through a climber's figure 8 descender clipped to the enviro-suit's internal harness system. His foot was engaged in an ascender device that would allow him, with the moon's light gravity, to easily climb out if he found that the chamber was very deep, filled with metrons of fluid, or if it contained some caustic substance that might damage his suit. He saw that the walls were covered with some type of sludge-like substance, but they appeared to be fairly dry, except in the area where the pipes from above dropped fluid into the vessel.
As he neared the dark surface of the fluid, he looked through the hole in the wall into the other chamber and confirmed that the ripples were still present on the surface, as if being disturbed by something beyond. Taking a rod he'd found in the room above, he carefully probed into the liquid, finding that it was actually muck. The rod went in about a half of a metron before he encountered what felt like the bottom. That was the first bit of good news. Pulling the rod back up, he looked at it carefully, hoping against hope that it wouldn't be reacting with the fluids; his suit was designed to resist short term exposure to many caustic substances, but it couldn't withstand extended contact and be expected to survive.
Seeing the rod pass the second test, though knowing that it might just not be affected by the liquid substance, he muttered to himself, "Well, here goes!" as he lowered himself once again, keeping one foot in the climbing loop just above the surface of the water. The other foot descended into the fluid and he breathed a short sigh of relief a moment later when it settled onto a solid bottom. He pulled his foot back out, and looked at the suit, and then breathed a much bigger sigh of relief when he saw that his suit hadn't melted, burned, or otherwise disintegrated. Stepping back in once more and then stepping out of the climbing loop, he ran it back up a bit in case he needed it later. Feeding out the cord as needed, he turned around and confirmed that he was in some type of tank vault. "Keep holding them off, guys. I'll be back with you in a moment."
Doing some more probing and finding the floor of the tank solid and seemingly level, he moved toward to the large hole in the far wall. Further up the side of that wall, he saw four vertical pipes, all about 15 centimetrons or so in diameter, pointing downward, ending about a metron above the bottom of the tank, and extending up about a metron or so before hitting a tee with a pipe through the endwall. The top of the vertical pipe appeared capped just above the tee, as if it was an access point.
As he neared the hole in the wall and despite taking care, Urdea lost his footing on the slippery bottom, and fell sprawling into the muck. He threw his hands out, trying to keep from impacting his helmet on anything that might cause it damage. Still, it descended into the muck and he felt overwhelmed and fearful as the lights on his suit went out and darkness overtook him.
He fought the urge to struggle to right himself since he knew that he'd probably just slip and fall again, and possibly cause more damage to his suit or helmet. Instead, he made sure he had his arms and legs carefully placed before rising from the nasty soup, as if he was some type of alien swamp monster, with the sludge draining away and the light returning, at least somewhat. "This is going to be a real mess to clean up," he thought, deliberately avoiding the obvious "if" clause at the end of his observation, while wiping the foul liquid from his faceplate and the lights on his suit and helmet.
On finally reaching the hole, he peered into the smaller chamber beyond. The walls were essentially the same as in the first tank, though the coating was much lighter, but dry none-the-less. Then, training his lights in that direction, he saw what he was seeking.
On the far wall, just above the surface of the fluid, was a circular hole about 2/3rds of a metron in diameter. The ripples on the surface were spreading out from that point. Stepping through the hole blasted through the inner wall and being careful not to fall in the rubble, he moved to the circular hole, probing carefully as he went, not wanting to slip again, knowing that he couldn't afford the time. Peering intently into the hole and then glancing at his chrono, he said, "Guys, we may have something here. What's your status up there?"
'***
Pulling back into cover after firing a blast up the ramp, Phideas replied, "Urdea, we still can't get through to anyone on Command channel. We've taken one out Cylon, but we think he was replaced by one of his tinhead brothers, so we still have at least two or three of them shooting at us in turns. Also, not sure if they caused it, but we had a real drop in air pressure a few moments ago, though it seems to have stabilized now. That's not the bad news, though. Remember the gifts we left them upstairs? Well, they found one of them and have slid it down the ramp! It's just far enough away that we can't reach it to deactivate it without one of us getting our head blown off, but close enough that when it goes boom, we may all be going bye-bye, too." Phideas seemed short of breath as he bobbed out to take another shot and then back in again.
"Okay, Phideas, we have less than 90 microns before those explosives go off. You stay there and guard the door for now, keeping them off of us. Trent, Hamm—make a beeline toward the left room in the back. Trent, you get into the room and I'll tell you all what to do in a moment. Hamm, get several of those empty cages flipped on their sides, lined up top and bottom toward the entry door, set up as a barricade off to the right. Then set up covering the main door with that 3.5. As soon as you're there…."
'***
With 35 microns on his chrono timer, Urdea said, "Hamm, here goes, get ready to lay covering fire. Phideas, just as we discussed. Ready, go! Hamm, cover him!" Phideas fired off two more shots out that main door, threw a couple of hand mines with a short timer setting up the ramp and another with a longer setting just outside the door, then he sprinted for the room on the left while Hamm fired off a few rounds through the door. When Phideas reached the left door, he pulled the lever to open it, then turned and fired off a few rounds toward the main entry door across the room, while Hamm ran through the door with him.
Phideas was breathing hard as he said, "Urdea, done! We're in and the door just closed itself. I don't see any Cylons coming in yet."
"Nope, and they probably won't try it assuming they saw the timer. They figure they'll let it take us out. Seventeen microns. Now, in the corner, slip through the hatch and just drop straight down."
"UUMMPH!" sounded Phideas a moment later as he landed with a huge splash in the muck, being kept from falling only by Urdea's guiding hands as he landed. Urdea said, "Go, Phideas, go!" as he directed him toward the hole. Urdea grabbed Hamm to steady him as he dropped next, barely keeping him upright as one of Hamm's feet slipped sideways. "Holy Lords of Kobol! What is this stuff?" cried Hamm, on steadying himself and seeing the surface of the fluid.
"Don't even ask," replied Urdea, as he was pushing him toward the hole in the wall. "Eight microns. Get through this, Hamm, go!"
Phideas was already struggling to get through the hole, falling sideways as he did. He felt a pair of hands pulling him over and down, immediately behind the wall through which he had just come. Glancing back in to the bright light, he saw what he thought was Urdea bodily shoving Hamm through the opening and then diving through the hole himself just as they felt the structure begin vibrating as if experiencing a seismic quake!
'***
On the landing pad:
The first vibration hit followed by another, followed by the first shockwave blowing out from the corridor a moment later, immediately followed by the first large gout of flame rushing outward and the first sounds of the explosion. The vibrations continued basically nonstop after that for several more microns as additional apparently primary and very powerful secondary explosions occurred within the depths of the building built into the side of the mountain. When it finally seemed to be over, the Colonials rose from their sheltered positions, with weapons trained on the corridor location, which was entirely obscured by the smoke and a few flickering flames that survived in the very low oxygen environment. A few minor secondary explosions continued sounding deep within the building as Lieutenant Demeter ordered Squad 3 forward to investigate the destruction.
The troops cautiously entered the swirling smoke, disappearing from view in a micron or two. It didn't take long, however, before the first report emerged, "Lieutenant, the explosives did too good a job and the corridor has collapsed, including part of the mountain rock above. There's no way we'll get into that without heavy mining equipment and possibly cycles of effort."
As the smoke cleared, Lieutenants Demeter and Xercleon both moved forward to take a look for themselves, and they both agreed with the earlier assessment. Demeter asked on the Command channel, "Has anyone been able to establish contact with either Urdea or Phideas since this channel came back online?" There was silence, and both men looked at each other shaking their heads. Xercleon spoke first, "If by some miracle they were able to survive the explosions, we'll never be able to get to them in time..."
Demeter paused for a moment then finally nodded dejectedly, "Xerc, you're right. They're gone." Looking out the opening in the exterior wall of the outer building, which still stood, he said, "Okay, everyone, we did everything humanly possible, but there's no way our guys could have survived those blasts and the collapse. With Raiders in the area and no telling what else, we don't have time to try to dig them out, even if we had the equipment, before the Cylons could be back with reinforcements. Therefore, let's mount up quickly and head home."
'***