Alarms blared throughout the corridors as the Agent hustled toward the communication room she knew to be less occupied, and housed a terminal that would allow the urgent transmission to go out under a secured and encrypted signal that even the rebels best slicers couldn't track. But something went wrong. In fact this whole mission went sideways quicker than Brynn had expected.
The communications terminal rooms were all on lockdown, a safety precaution when the alarms sounded. Blast doors suddenly closed off not only her target room, but also both ends of the corridor. Ray shields engaged, as cameras that were mounted at each bulkhead picked up the girl's vector and causing the electrified shielding to close in on both ends, thereby potentially trapping her. Brynn knew how they worked, and there was always a loophole, which she'd spotted with a quick survey of the walls.
Perfect. Ventilation shafts near the ceiling.
With a running start several meters back, the Agent headed straight for the wall, and pushing off the small ledge that was about shoulder height, leapt up toward the metal grate, grabbing onto it with both hands for support. She kept one foot firmly against the nearby vertical support beam to keep steady while reaching down to grab a small powered ratchet, which she quickly used to remove the two bolts securing the top of the vent cover. Within a few moments, the grate swung down on the bottom hinges and Brynn climbed up into the shaft and disappeared into the cool shadows.
The Agent mentally reprimanded herself for being so short-sighted not to have predicted that the rebel base would most likely have had magnetic or electrical interference that would cause her personal communicator to be unresponsive. Never in the 3 years that she’s been with Imperial Intelligence had she ever made such a rookie mistake, and worse, she feared that she was already too late to transmit whatever information she’d had back to base. As the girl crawled her way through the ventilation shaft that seemed to go on forever, voices could be heard echoing through one of the grates, causing her to slow her pace as to not attract any more attention.
“Affirmative, the attack had already commenced.” She heard one of the voices. “Although there were a few casualties, I believe we’ve accomplished what was needed. The Empire won’t know what hit them until it’s too late.”
Brynn signed under her breath as she slid silently passed the vent grate and continued through the shaft, realizing that her concerns were indeed confirmed. She was too late to stop the attack on her base, and who knows how many lives it cost the Empire. Pushing the dreaded thoughts aside, however, she knew her next course of action was to get the hell out of the base as soon as possible.
