The War Across the Stars Read Free Page B

answered. 
    “Right,” Max said doubtfully. 
    “I guess it’s worth a try,” Ryan decided. 
    “Fine…” Max whined. 
    We redirected toward the Pombo Jungle, which was not too far off from the Aruvia, despite fairly sizable differences in weather.  The desert was hot and running only made it worse.  Jenkins, being a poorly trained pilot, quickly grew too tired to keep up.  In response, Phil actually ended up half-dragging the man along.              
    “This is nonsense!” Jenkins complained.  “We should stop and take a break.” 
    “No,” Phil replied.
    By the time we reached the perimeter of the Pombo Jungle we were exhausted.  Without warning Max collapsed. 
    “Max!” Nevin called. 
    “I'm okay,” Max moaned.  “Just a little tired.”
    “Um… O-kay,” Nevin told him.
                  “How much time do we have?” I asked. 
    “Looks like we have about forty-five minutes,” Ryan said.
    “Wow.  That was a long run,” Nevin pointed out.  “Rob, you better be right.” 
    “We should have done this sooner!” Jenkins advised. 
    We waited for about five minutes before we continued.  The jungle’s plants and trees cast shadows onto the ground.  They caused the jungle to appear dark and gloomy.
    “We’ve got to be close,” Ryan said as he pushed through some shrubbery.
                  Then, I heard gunfire.   We all dropped to the ground.  Phil pulled Jenkins down; otherwise he probably would have just stood there to die.  The shots were obviously from an automatic weapon. 
    “Keep low,” Ryan whispered. 
    “Understood,” Nevin said back.
                  We saw leaves getting shot off trees and dirt splashing up as gunshots hit.  We were looking around through our scopes for the gunman.  I heard one shot.  The machine gun stopped. 
    “Bull’s eye,” Ryan said quietly.  “Let’s go.”
                  We stood up and attached our SR-4’s to our packs and pulled out our handguns.  It would be close quarters combat once we were inside the complex.  We ran over to the structure, a dead body leaned over the sandbag machine gun nest on top of it.  Then, we were directly in front of an iron door with a code lock. 
    “Any ideas?” I asked. 
    “We have two grenades each and enough Eupholium to blow up the whole base,” Ryan said. 
    “Let’s save the Eupholium for the mission itself,” Nevin advised. 
    “I’ll try to hack into the system to open the door,” Philip said. 
    “Go for it,” Ryan approved. 
                  After about two minutes of waiting Philip finally found something. 
    “Guys, I didn’t open it yet, but I managed to pull up a map of all of the guards’ stations,” Phil told us. 
    “Phil, you’re a genius,” Max said in awe. 
    “W-w-w-why do we care where the guards are?” Jenkins wondered aloud. 
    “Dude… It’s obvious man,” Max said slowly.
                  “Max!  Is this some kind of joke to you?” Ryan questioned. 
    Max merely stared back at him silently.
    We finally looked at the map displayed on a small screen above the keypad. 
    “All right,” Ryan said.  “We go in and there is a split in two directions.  Then some guards along each symmetrical path,” Ryan observed. 
    “What’s symmetrical mean?” Max questioned.
                  “You serious?”
                  “Yeah, I am.”
    “It means the same on each side,” Ryan informed him, shaking his head in dismay.
    “Okay,” Max said.
                  “Anyway, let’s look here.  It keeps going on each side.  They each have a door that leads into a small hall and the command room, which has guards everywhere,” Ryan continued. 
    “But look,” I said.  The halls keep going past the side doors.  Each end has a power generator!” I realized. 
    “We should split into two groups and go down each hall,” Ryan