No Turning Back

Chapter Twenty-One: Action Stations!

Takeo lifted his right arm and quickly swiped away the tears which had fallen. Though, simply trying to remove the evidence in one quick wipe had proved much too untenable. The cool wind that breathed throughout the facility was quick to graze past - kissing his wet cheek. It was not until a few minutes had passed before the residual tears finally, and slowly, began to evaporate.

However, before Takeo could return to his meditation, there was a loud rumble in the distance. The Japanese warrior immediately rose to his feet with his famas machine gun in hand as he hurriedly made his way towards the direction of the noise. Takeo opened the metal fence gate in the power switch and launch pad room without hesitation.

As he did so, he could hear the familiar sound which accompanied the spending of points. But now, this usual sound felt eerie and discomforting as he thought about his whole universe being just a game. It could no longer be conveniently dismissed as unexplained paranormal phenomenon.

Takeo then promptly descended the stairs which lead to the mule-kick vending machine. At the bottom, there was a large hole in the wall which lead outside to a sheer drop. As Takeo's face set in a look of fierce determination; he sped down the steps before launching out into the air. His mind was in deep concentration as he readied himself and began to execute the elegant manoeuvre.

And with the artful grace of a gymnast, or more appropriately that of a shinobi, he landed safely on the ground. As his feet made contact with the gravel, Takeo immediately bent his knees to soften the impact and leant forward to roll over his right shoulder. His landing, however, had kicked up clouds of dust which swirled around in the air taking their time to settle.

Takeo then stood tall and dusted himself off. As he brushed off his dusty shoulder, he stopped to look at Kiana and Primis who were now wide eyed and sitting up in shock of what they had just seen. It brought a smile to Takeo's face but he chose to quickly hide it from them.

As the rumbling continued, all three then looked in the direction of the centrifuge room. Primis hastily jumped to his feet before turning around and reaching out a hand to Kiana. As she extended her hand towards his; Kiana was then instantly on her feet. Primis then nodded to Takeo as they all began to run towards the commotion.

Once they made their way past the turret gun; everyone then took a sharp left to make their way down the stairs into the centrifuge room. With step they descended, their view of the room became less and less obscured. Then, a rather perplexed Dempsey was suddenly revealed to them.

He stood, mouth agape like a deer in headlights, on the catwalk by the musical teddy bear anxiously staring down below. As they hurriedly approached, everyone tried to preemptively decode Dempsey's expression - as part of the catwalk obscured what Dempsey was looking at below.

Takeo was the first to run ahead and make his way by Dempsey's side. Kiana and Primis eventually followed behind as everyone's hearts sunk in anticipation. They all stood together, quietly watching from their vantage point, before Kiana frowned as they looked at the rumbling lunar lander.

"What on earth is it doing?" She enquired aloud.

"It- it's just been refuelling. I ran over when I heard the first rumble", Dempsey replied in bewilderment.

"The lander is preparing for flight", Takeo said - as if deducing what was going on from Dempsey's testimony.

"Ja, it must be going somewhere--", Primis whispered as he kept his eyes on the lander. Everyone then collectively realised exactly what that meant.

"Richtofen!" Everyone exclaimed aloud at the realisation.

"Oh great, and I was enjoyin' the peace and quiet!" Dempsey remarked sarcastically as he rolled his eyes.