章 6: Brute Force Resistance
I made my way to the hangar, and entered a small stabilisation chamber. The stabilisation chamber was a special room used for a soft transition between the decks and the hangar.
The decks of the Lodos were designed in a cylindrical shape, and this cylinder of adjacent decks rotated around a common center axis, inside the armor plating and the outermost hull section. Making use of the coriolis effect, the rotation of the decks simulated a relatively comfortable gravitational acceleration of 0.78 G at the bridge level. The gravity at the outermost decks could reach 1.02 G whereas the innermost sections could go as low as 0.35 G. But, since the hangar did not rotate, the stabilisation chambers were required for personnel and cargo transfer between the decks and the hangar.
When I got inside the hangar, I used the wall-mounted iron bars to make my way towards the shuttlecraft in the microgravity environment.
Lodos carried 7 shuttlecraft in total; 2 search-and-rescue and 5 general purpose shuttles. Those shuttles were unarmed, but the general purpose shuttles could be configured to satisfy a variety of special requirements; like electronic warfare, early warning sensor posts, small dropships or even as VIP transports.
Sergeant Lucas and his team was already boarding a shuttlecraft when I arrived. The pilot was about to start up the shuttle's systems. I got inside the shuttle and the hatches were closed. The hangar personnel left the area in a hurry. The air inside the hangar bay was sucked back into Lodos' life support reserves. After that, the ship's hangar bay door slowly slided open as the shuttlecraft was detached from the hangar. We slowly got out of the hangar bay and started moving towards the Phobos asteroid base.
"Where should we enter the base, Sergeant?" I asked. "Do you see any preferable location?"
"No, sir; their airlocks are stowed away and locked." he said.
"The bulk door is closed as well..." I said. "Seems like we will have to make a way inside."
"We can blow up the airlock shieldings." Sergeant suggested.
"No, too risky." I said. "People might be waiting inside... We may have to drill our way in."
"That would take too much time and effort." Sergeant argued.
"Maybe we could convince them to open the doors." one of the marines suggested.
"I wish we could..." I replied.
"Where should I approach, commander?" the shuttle pilot asked.
"Hold here." I said. We were just a few hundred meters away from the surface of Phobos. Just then, Tachibana contacted me.
"Is there a problem, Lieutenant Commander?" he asked.
"No, sir; we were just trying to find a suitable entry point." I said.
"Lieutenant Karl says that there is a storage just under the surface, next to the bulk door. You could use that as an entry point." he said.
"That would be suitable." I said.
"We will share the data with the shuttlecraft." he said. The shuttle received the data transmission in a short time.
"To the designated landing point." I ordered the pilot. We approached Phobos and landed. Since Phobos had very little gravity, the shuttle attached itself to the surface with tiny penetrators under it's landing gear.
"Time to go." I said. Everyone put on their space suits and the shuttle's hatch was opened. We were no on Phobos' surface.
"Drill it." I said. A group of three marines got some heavy equipment from the shuttle and placed them on the surface.
"Even though this part is thin, it will still take some time." Sergeant said. "Maybe we can stay inside the shuttle."
"There is no need." I said. "We can wait."
I looked up and saw Lodos, gloriously occupying the view above us. It wasn't looking as old from the outside as it did from the inside. Sergeant noticed me watching the warship in the distance.
"Wonderful piece of technology, isn't it?" he said.
"What a wonderful garbage." I said. "I wish it was as threatening as it seemed."
"A ship's strenght is not only dependant on it's technology or raw power, a good crew can change a lot of things." Sergeant said.
"I don't disagree, but still..." I kept talking. "It feels like the ship is holding our crew members' true skills back."
"I don't think I can say anything about that." Sergeant said.
After a while, the marines reported that they have managed to open a passage into the asteroid base's storage.
"Here we go." I said.
"Let the marines enter first." Sergeant said. "It can be dangerous."
"With respect, this is a civilian station. It would be better if people saw someone with authority." I said. I entered the station with the sergeant on my right and a marine on my left. Two of the marines stayed with the shuttle and the rest of the team followed us in. We opened the doors in an attempt to make our way to the station administration.
While we were walking down a corridor, we encountered a group of people. The base commander and some MIM members were walking with a few security officers on their sides.
"Halt!" I commanded the group. The group stopped walking, but the base commander approached me.
"This is outrageous! Damaging the property of your own people on purpose... This nation will not forgive you for your actions, admiral!" he was angry.
"Lieutenant commander, sir." I corrected him. "You are under arrest, and the court requires your return to Mars surface as soon as possible. It will be easier for everyone if you just cooperate with us."
"I can't believe this nonsense." he said. "Tell your superiors, if they wish to get me, they will have to throw the whole Navy at us!" He hastily got behind his security officers, but as soon as the marines raised their weapons, the base security stepped aside. The commander gave them a horrible look as the marines caught him by his arms.
"Now, if you want an easier way of transportation, allow our shuttle to dock with the base." I said.
Suddenly, one of the nearby doors opened and a crowd appeared. A crowd of news reporters from numerous agencies...
"And I thought this was going to be the last of our problems." I murmured.
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