Chapter 65: The Venting Chamber

The blast door sealed behind them with a heavy, pneumatic thud, cutting off the deafening roar of the reactor's preliminary venting sequence.

Inside, the air was suffocatingly hot, smelling of scorched copper and ozone. Emergency strobes painted the damp walls in rhythmic pulses of blood-red, illuminating a cavernous circular chamber lined with massive pressure pipes and heavy industrial valves.

Elias lowered his tower shield slightly, his chest heaving under his heavy plate armor. "Thermal sensors are spiking. We're inside the primary exhaust bypass."

"Which means we're on a clock," Joshua said, stepping past him to scan the control console mounted beside the far exit. His eyes narrowed behind his visor as he tapped the cracked terminal display. "The automated override is fried. The door to the surface lift won't open until the manual pressure valves on the upper cat-track are released."

Shane walked to the center of the chamber, resting his warhammer against the grated floor as he looked up. High above, suspended in the haze of escaping steam, sat two massive iron wheels—one on the left cat-track, one on the right.

"Double valve setup," Shane said, his voice grave. "They have to be turned simultaneously, or the backpressure will rupture the lines and cook this entire room in seconds."

"I'll take the left," Elias offered, taking a step toward the gantry ladder.

"No," Joshua countered instantly, catching Elias by his shoulder harness. "You're too heavy in that rig, Elias. The upper cat-tracks are rusted through—they won't hold your armor. We need speed and light footing."

Shane turned to Mei. The red strobe light caught the sharp angle of her jaw and the dark lubricant still staining her dagger. "Mei. Joshua. Can you do it?"

In her second life, a setup like this would have been a trap—a designated sacrifice scenario where the assassin was left above to hold the valves while the rest of the squad made their escape through the lift. She remembered the cold, hollow realization of being locked behind a blast door as the thermal purge swept through.

She looked at Joshua. The Vice Captain wasn't looking at her as a distraction or a expendable asset. He was already checking his harness grips, adjusting his stance to match her pace.

"I've got the left cat-track," Mei said, her voice firm. "Joshua, take the right."

"On my mark," Joshua nodded, unholstering his grapple wire. "We hit the platform, turn on three, and drop straight to the lift deck."

"Elias, Shane—stand by the exit door," Mei added, crouching as she readied her jump. "The second those valves turn, the lift door will unlock. Don't wait for us to start running—get the hatch prepped."

"We don't leave anyone behind, Mei," Shane said softly, his hand clamping down on her shoulder with a brief, solid weight before he let go. "Get up there, clear the pressure, and get down. I'll be holding that lift door open myself."

A high-pitched siren suddenly squealed through the chamber, followed by a mechanical voice over the comms system: WARNING. THERMAL PURGE IN ONE MINUTE. ALL PERSONNEL EVACUATE.

"Go!" Joshua shouted.

He fired his grapple upward, the line zipping through the steam toward the right catwalk. Mei didn't need a line. She vaulted onto the nearest pressure pipe, using the slick metal conduit as a stepping stone before springing off the wall. Her boots hit the rusted upper cat-track with a light tap, balancing effortlessly on a narrow iron rail that groaned under the heat.

Across the vapor-filled gap, Joshua landed smoothly on the opposing platform, his hand already gripping the iron wheel of the right valve.

"In position!" Joshua called out over the hiss of escaping steam.

Mei grabbed the left valve. The iron was already burning hot through her reinforced gloves, but she dug her heels into the grating and locked her muscles.

"Three!" Joshua yelled over the mounting roar of the pipes. "Two! ONE!"

Together, they threw their weight into the iron wheels.

The rusted metal resisted for a agonizing second, screeching against years of corrosion, before finally yielding with a loud CLANG. Steam blasted out from the side bypass vents in twin white plumes, venting the lethal heat away from the floor below.

Down on the deck, the heavy blast door to the surface lift groaned and began to slide open, revealing the clear, cool air of the shaft beyond.

"Pressure released!" Joshua barked into his comms, releasing his valve and hooking his grapple for the descent. "Move, Captain!"

WARNING. SECONDARY EXHAUST ENGAGING.

A sudden explosion of pressurized gas blew out from a ruptured pipe right beside Mei's cat-track, shearing through the rusted support bolts of her platform. The iron floor beneath her boots gave way instantly, dropping out into the steaming void.

"MEI!" Shane's voice roared from below.