The Grey Chronicles Part Two: Under Siege.

Chapter 22: Fwoosh.

Anarchist landing site, surface of Stonehaara One, August of 8096 AL.    

"We need to find the crack in the reactor core and seal it before we can restart the engines," Salem said, speaking for the first time since leaving the bridge.

"Sounds simple enough," Korana commented.

"It isn't," Salem replied plainly. "There are three fusion reactors, one of them has a cracked outer core, we need to examine each of the cores and find the crack. Each of the cores is about half of a kilometer in circumference, we have half an hour. Once we find the crack I'll need a plate of lead/tungsten alloy and a SMAW."

"SMAW?" Korana followed him into the engine room, "What in the world is that?"

"Shielded metal arc welder," Salem answered, "We've got half a dozen of them around here. It'll take me about ten minutes to weld the plate onto the crack. I'll find a welder and plate, you check the reactors for cracks."

"Will do, what do they look like?"

"They're the giant round things," Salem almost chuckled, pointing to the massive curved wall beside them. "They're in line with the keel of the ship, the nearest is about ten feet to your left."

"Ah," Korana smiled behind her mask, "I'll call for you when I find it."

"Hurry, we have about ten minutes before I need to start welding."

Korana nodded and ran towards the core, jogging around the circular wall, her eyes scanning the entire surface for faults as she passed. The wall was thirty feet of titanium plating with a layer of lead inside. The chamber itself was filled with water, both to work as a coolant and to lessen the radiation should a leak occur. Korana jogged all the way around the first reactor and found nothing. A search of the second showed the same; no sign of a leak, except for a stream of water dripping from the second story catwalk above her head. She looked up, following the stream to a broken pipe. The pipe ran along the catwalk towards the third reactor.

She knelt, then jumped straight upwards, grabbing onto the edge of the catwalk. Korana reached up and took hold of the railing, pulling herself up onto it. She looked up at the pipe, then followed it towards the reactor.

"I think I've found it," Korana said over comms as she rounded the corner. Almost level with the catwalk was a large crack in the metal plating; a piece of piping had punched through the radiation shielding, smaller cracks spider-webbed outwards from the pipe. Water poured from the end of the pipe, and vapor billowed to the ceiling from the same opening.

"Good, I've got the plating, link your helmet camera to mine so I can see the crack."

Korana pressed a button on the side of her helmet, a small green dot flashed in the corner of her HUD. She heard static on the other end of the comms channel.

"Shit," Salem muttered. "That pipe that burst carried coolant to the reactor core. The coolant has congealed inside the pipe, the helium isn't liquid anymore."

"Alright, how do we fix it?"

"We don't, we have to find another way." Salem sighed heavily, "I'll need to torch the Nephilim, it will take too long to fix the crack in the reactor and refill the core with fresh coolant."

"But you can't use your powers when you're in your armor!" Korana turned and walked back down the catwalk towards where she'd last seen her husband. "The radiation will kill you!"

"No, not if we vent the air from the engine room into the thrusters." Salem looked up at her, "You can funnel some juice into the life support system and push all of this irradiated air out into the thruster tubes, I'll open the maintenance hatch and roast them. All of that oxygen rushing into a confined space will make the place an oven."

"Alright, how do I do that?"

"Find the life support console, it'll be about thirty yard further down the catwalk. Big touch screen, place your hand on the side of the console and you should be able to juice it up. The password is 'at' symbol, five, five, holez with a z."

"..Really?" Korana laughed as she jogged to the console. The computer was built into the wall, but jutted outward several feet. "I married a centennial."

"Hey, that makes you a pedophile," Salem chuckled and sprinted towards the aft end of the ship. "Don't admit to that kind of thing. Pervert."

"Whatever, just do your job." Korana stopped beside the console and set her hand againt the side. The screen lit up, showing a login screen. She entered the code, "assholez," and the computer booted up. The system control panel showed on-screen, she tapped the ventilation switch and scrolled the list of controls until she found one that seemed right; "vent local oxygen via thruster tubes."

"Alright, are you ready?" Salem yelled from the rear hatch. "I'm opening the hatch now, vent as soon as I say so."

"On your go," Korana said, her finger hovering over the button.

Salem typed a code into the keypad beside the maintenance hatch and watched the door start to slide open. He stepped back and opened his armor with a hiss, stepping out of it and towards the hatch. The radiation washed over him in waves, he began to feel nauseous and woozy. His head spun, his vision blurred slightly, and he heard the Geiger counter in his armor whirring like a car alarm. "Okay, now," he shouted as the hatch slid open.

"Done!"

The door opened fully, revealing several hundred Nephilim huddled around the door. Two were working on the door controls, wires and tools fell from their hands as they looked up. Surprise crossed their faces, Salem leaned against the door frame and held out his hand, his fingertips glowing orange at the end of his shaky arm.

"Hello, Charlie. It's a little hot out, isn't it?" Salem chuckled, his mouth fixed into a cheeky grin, the air vents activated with the sound of a jet engine and air blasted the group. They all staggered backwards, and Salem snapped his fingers, a maniacal glee painted across his face as a single spark flew from the end of his finger and into the pressurized oxygen blasting from the vents.

In but a moment the cold thruster tube turned into a blast furnace; the richly oxygenated air ignited, converting the immense wind into a hurricane-force flamethrower. Salem averted his eyes; the heat didn't bother him, it was actually quite pleasant. The sudden flash of orange and yellow light, however, nearly blinded him. He had some trouble breathing for a moment as all of the air was sucked out of the engine room, but as the blaze died down cool air flowed in from the hatch. Salem smiled at the blackened metal tube, then grinned at the charcoal heaped in the bottom of it. A thin trail of black dust led to the end of the sixty-meter tube, growing wider farther from the hatch. With a chuckle, Salem muttered "crispy critter" to himself before collapsing in the doorway.