Part 22
Chen's stealth field was completely depleted from hiding in the vertibird from before. The enclave soldiers of the entire military base had been put on alert. Heavy metal gates and doors shut tightly at every entrances and exits. Then metal plates beside the door lifted up, and enclave sentry bots came out and onto the floor. ""Alert! Non -combatants are advised to leave the area. Security sweep in progress. Security lockdown in effect. Lethal force may be used without warning" the sentry bots played their audio device repeatedly. Chen hid inside an empty guard bunker. Chen knew that it was only a matter of time before he get discovered by the robots sweeping the area.
Chen knew he couldn't fight the robots, or his location would be blown and guards could surround him. As that moment, a chilling wing blew towards Chen's neck, Chen looked up and saw an air duct system. Chen ran up against the wall and jumped. Grabbing hold of the walls of the air duct and lifted himself inside. A few moments later, a sentry bot came inside the room and paused as it looked around. Chen placed his hand on the handle of his sword, and was preparing to strike shall his cover be discovered…
The robot played its audio "Parameter: Clear, no sign of hostiles , continue area sweeping program." Chen put the sword back into the scabbard and began to plan his next move. Fortunately, the air duct system was big and spacious , it seemed to be connected all through the level, Chen thought, he might have a chance to escape as he crawled into the dark air duct tunnels. Then he saw in the gap of the air duct fan, that on the other side of the level, an Enclave soldier can be seen carrying a wounded enclave officer, right outside of the locked exit. "DAMN IT!" Parker smashed his fist to the metal door. "it won't open! We need the code!" Then the rolling noise of wheels came from the corridor, followed by footsteps. Nikita hissed "hurry…up" Parker then tried different combinations at random, hoping that the door would open. But the door remained closed no matter how many combinations Parker tried. Then an enclave sentry bot and 2 enclave soldiers appeared in the corridor, they saw Parker and Nikita then one of them asked "what are you doing over there? We are under locked down" Nikita reached down to Parker's belt and took out Parker's plasma rifle. Parker shook his head to Nikita and said to the enclave soldiers "Hurry! Get over here! Officer down! She needs immediate medical attention!" then the two enclave soldiers came closer to investigate the matter. Parker, struggling not to stutter and tried to remain calm even though his heart can be seen pounding through the armor. "The… the BOS captives had escaped and attacked her, she needs immediate medical attention NOW! Open the door!" the enclave soldier on the left hesitated and said "we are not authorized to open…" Parker shouted at the man "this is captain … Fisher! And she will die if we cannot get her to the medical room now! Or we will all be executed by this time tomorrow!" "but…" the enclave soldier hesitated. "NOW!" shouted Parker. Then the enclave soldier flinched and spoke to the radio "we have officer down at level one, requesting passage at gate B4, she needs immediate medical attention." Then with the sound of gears being unlocked, the heavy metal gate was lowered and the path was opened again. Then the Enclave soldier told Parker "bring her up there right now, we will continue our sweep here." Parker's heart was pounding extremely fast during the whole process and as the enclave soldiers continued their sweep, he exhaled deeply and breathes heavily out of relive.
"I never knew …you had guts" said Nikita. Parker lifted her up and carried her on his shoulder again and said "I never knew either." as they walked out of the level.