72 Escape (1/2)
As the celebrations went on in Camp Alpha way into the morning, back in the ship, several men met up in the Marine's armory. Seargent Raman watched the armory hatch's camera, making sure no one else is around before opening the hatch. He always used a backdoor hack to erase the video images and ID tags of the people entering and leaving the restricted area, to prevent Security from noticing anything wrong.
”All here?” Raman looked at the group inside the armory. Two crew ratings from Maintenance and Operations, two from Engineering, two mechanics from Auxillary and one more from Security. Ivan nodded, ”All that want to go are here.”
”Good,” Raman rubbed his sweaty palms together and said, ”The passcode for the arms lockers are here,” He passed out the data slates to crew with the Security uniform tabs. ”Grab all the ammo, and rifles and load up into the crates.”
”Ivan and your friend, you go start up the vehicles, we will meet you at the motor pool,” Raman instructed handing Ivan a set of black security armor and a Glock 88 attached to a leg holster. The armory didn't keep any spare Marine armor as those were all transported to Camp Alpha.
”The rest help transport the equipment we need over to the motor pool.” Raman continued, handing out sets of black turtle vest armor to his fellow conspirators. They loaded the PDWs and M7A1s with live ammunition and slung the weapons on their backs before placing the loaded crates onto hand loaders, pushing them out of the armory.
The dozens of weapons lockers were emptied out rapidly, dozens of PDWs and a few M7A1s that remained in the armory were stacked into foam crates, while cases of 5mm and 6.5mm were loaded into separated crates. The armory started to look empty as crates and crates of equipment were loaded out and pushed towards the motor pool at the Cargo Bay.
”Move those too, they are combat rations which I nicked from the Marine stores,” He pointed to several plastic boxes sitting at the side of the armory. They were soon loaded up along with the rest of the crates. Raman did a quick check around the armory, making sure everything is taken before he exited the armory and locked the hatch. He took out his tablet and hit a few keys in it, releasing a virus he wrote into the system.
Almost immediately, the armory lost all power and the lights went out inside. Even telltale red lights of the emptied electronically locked lockers disappeared. Raman grinned wickedly, well that will give us some time for them to open the lockers only to find them empty.
Too bad they didn't store all the weapons and ammunition in one place, if not I would have taken all, Raman rued, too much time is needed to raid the rest of the arms lockers in the various parts of the ships and no way to get to the city armory.
Raising his Glock 88, he aimed the muzzle of boxy shaped silencer attached to the pistol and squeezed several shots into the security pad of the armory door, destroying the lock sensors, causing a smell of burnt plastic in the hatchway.
Raman swung his backpack onto his back and walked away without looking back and put on a pair of shades while holstering his weapon.
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”Come on, Hio, use more strength!” Spaceman (Machinist) Ryan urged his partner as they gripped the handles of the monkey wrench, trying to loosen the devil cursed bolt from the transmission gear of the half-track they were maintaining. ”Ok, on three, one, two, THREE!” The two mechanics huffed and puffed as they exerted their strength against the bolt.
”Goddamn it, how did it get so fucked up with muck, that we can't unbolt it!” Spaceman Apprentice (Machinist) Hio, grumbled as he wriggled his sored fingers. ”Hey, that's Ivan and Tony?” Hio, saw the two entering the motor pool pushing some equipment with hand loaders.
”Petty Officer Ivan and Tony boy!” Ryan yelled from where he sat on the cold hard decks of the Cargo Bay. ”Need some help here!”
The two men walking towards the other side of the bay froze, turning their heads like robots staring at Ryan and Hio. ”What's wrong?”
”Huh? Oh, nothing, what are you guys doing here so late?” It was 0200am shipboard hours, Ivan asked as he walked over to the two Machinists. ”Shouldn't you guys be off duty?”
”Damn, I want to, but we got to fix this shit before we can get off,” Ryan grumbled, tapping the hull of the half-track with a spanner. ”Some help in unscrewing that bolt? We can't find the powered screwdriver, don't know which asshole used it and didn't put it back in its place!”
Hio stared at Ivan, looking at the armor and gear he was wearing, ”PO Ivan, did the sirens went off? Are we under attack?” He gestured with his head towards the armor Ivan was wearing.