Page 268 of Commander’s Mate
“Team One with me. Team Six maintains extraction. No one follows into the mine unless sealed armor.”
We reached the secondary descent shaft in ninety seconds.
The main lift controls were dead.
A maintenance cage remained connected to an independent mechanical rail.
Capacity twelve.
We loaded eight warriors and descended.
The mine swallowed light.
My helmet shifted automatically to enhanced vision. Rough stone walls raced past, reinforced at irregular intervals by metal arches blackened with dust. Pipes followed the shaft downward: air, coolant, water, power.
Two had stopped vibrating.
“Ventilation line dead,” Rehor said.
“Secondary?”
“Pressure dropping.”
Harper’s question from the briefing returned.
What happens to the people underground?
This.
This happened.
A clean military solution on a tactical display became children running out of air beneath kilometers of stone.
The cage slammed to a halt.
Not the bottom.
A red emergency bar locked across the rail.
“Manual brake,” Rehor said.
“Cut it.”
He opened the panel.
Pyrr scanned the passage beyond us.
“Movement.”
Three figures appeared.
Mine guards.
One fired.
The shot sparked off my shoulder plate.
Our return fire ended the argument.
