Chromium

Chapter 16.6

First draft

After escaping from the stasis room, Omen and Dia continued walking toward the hangar at a steady pace. Unfortunately, a few hallways later, they encountered a new problem.

"Droids." Dia cursed under her breath. 

From her vantage point she could see that several boxes, plasteel barrels, canisters, and other containers had been piled up to form some sort of barricade. An unknown number of droids were stationed there. With her trained eye, it wasn't hard to notice that they were guarding the area.

"How many are there, Mitchell?" Omen asked.

"I'm sorry, captain." The pilot answered in her usual monotone. "I don't have that information at my disposal."

"Is this the only way in?" Dia asked.

"No, it's not." Mitchell said. "If you make a detour..."

"...we have no time for that." Omen interjected, nipping the idea in the bud.

Dia was about to complain but then she glanced down at the datapad's chronometer and noticed, much to her dismay, that they had less than twelve minutes left. 

With a resigned sigh, Dia said. "Alright then. What do you suggest?"

"We draw them out." Omen answered, pulling out a grenade. "If that doesn't work, we storm in."

Dia raised a brow. "That's it?"

"We have no time to come up with an elaborate plan, corporal." Omen answered, his tone conveying his irritation.

Dia hesitated. "I know but...isn't it too risky? We don't know how many of them are holed up in there." 

Contrary to her expectations, Omen's reply was pretty mild. He just shrugged, acting as if it wasn't a big deal. "You're worrying too much. Those tin cans are no mechs. They are not capable of implementing elaborate tactics. It shouldn't be too hard to draw them out."

Dia wanted to object, tell him that his "plan" was reckless, but she refrained herself. Omen wasn't himself at the moment. There was no point in arguing with him.

...besides he may be right for all I know. Based on what we've seen so far, frontal assault seems to be their favorite tactic.

Swallowing her reluctance, Dia gave her assent, "Let's do it."

As soon as she said that, Omen pushed the button, arming the grenade, then threw it, right in the middle of the barricade. Dia took cover, but nothing could've prepared her for what happened next. The explosion was thunderous, sending shards of metal and globs of molten plastic flying at all angles, the shockwave emitted so powerful it almost knocked her down.  When it was finally over, Dia's ears were ringing, the smell of burnt plastic making her eyes water. Whatever explosive Omen had used, it was stronger than a regular grenade. Much stronger.

An absolute silence had descended upon the room after the blast, black smoke permeating the air. The droids, if there was still someone of them left, were silent. 

"What the hell was that?" Dia's voice sounded more than a bit hoarse.

"Given the size of the explosion," Mitchell said. "that wasn't standard issue. I'd say the hand grenade the captain used contained a fifth of a trillionth of a gram of antimatter."

"Way to technical, Mitchell." Dia half-growled. "Wait...did you say antimatter? 

"Correct, corporal. On that matter, I would like to make a complaint, captain." Mitchell's voice was a bit odd. It almost sounded like she was angry. "If this was a regular starship, an explosion of that magnitude would have likely opened a hole in the hull, killing you all."