Chapter XV
I looked into the captain's ready room, and saw that there were no occupants; Maistroff apparently blew up his captured laptop, and the office was left in disarray. I strode out onto the bridge proper with my MOG raised and loaded for dispersal fire with some flechette shotgun rounds I'd scrounged from the armory.
"Everyone, freeze," I shouted. The three replacement bridge bunnies raised their arms and shrieked in horror as I aimed at them.
My ear buddy chirped. "Rick, the skies are clear and the city is free. All enemy forces are fleeing."
"Good, Miriya. Secure the perimeter, this isn't over yet."
"Copy, Skull Leader."
I tried scanning for the others, a few levels down, and all I got was six life forms and a report of weapons fire. I told one of my captives, "Unlock all interior doors and hatches. Let the others up here now!"
"Attempting manual override, Captain," the operations officer said.
"Good, hurry it up."
A few moments went by, and I kept the pistol trained on the officer's head. "They're open, and the others are on their way to the bridge."
"Good." I relaxed my stance somewhat and glanced at the monitor. They had entered the third shaft and started towards the bridge.
The relative ease of the mission started to worry me, and I asked, "How many people remain on this ship?"
"The three of us, the people heading here, and you," the ops officer, named Christine, said.
"Aw, shit!"
The woman at the far end of the bridge swore to herself, and I asked, "What's wrong?"
"The elevator is stuck; it can't reach the bridge."
I swore and decided to try to get it to work myself, when a klaxon went off.
"What's happening?"
"Someone hit the self destruct button, Captain Hunter," Christine said. "It's irreversible from here, and we can't evacuate New Macross fast enough."
"How long do we have?"
"Three hours. Then, the Line will look like a fireworks display next to our explosion…"
AN: I know, it's a short chapter, but I had too much to cram in and not a good way to do it, so I just shifted the action a little bit so I could get to the next phase. This concludes the second part of our trilogy. Please stay tuned for the next installment.