Chapter 8 - The Battle for the Mill
The steel bay doors of the warehouse exploded inward with a deafening boom, a shower of sparks and metal fragments raining down onto the concrete floor. Flashbang grenades detonated in rapid succession, filling the air with blinding white light and a concussive roar.
Through the smoke, Pendelton’s mercenaries moved forward in a tight, professional wedge formation, their weapons raised.
"Fire!" Marcus barked.
We opened fire from behind a barricade of old industrial textile looms. The heavy roar of my shotgun mixed with the rapid chatter of Marcus’s rifle, the muzzle flashes illuminating the dark warehouse in violent, stuttering bursts. Two of the lead mercenaries dropped to the floor, their body armor shredded by the close-range fire.
"Flank them left!" a voice shouted from the smoke.
Bullets chewed through the wooden looms around us, sending splinters flying into my face. I ducked down, reloading my shotgun with practiced, mechanical movements.
"Four minutes left, Aaron!" Tessa’s voice echoed through my earpiece, her fingers flying across the keyboard in the back room. "The upload is at forty percent!"
The mercenaries began to press their advantage, utilizing heavy ballistic shields to advance down the central aisle. Marcus dropped to one knee, a dark stain of blood spreading across his shoulder as a bullet grazed his arm.
"I'm running low on magazines!" Marcus shouted over the din of gunfire. "Aaron, they’re pushing the secondary corridor! They’re bypassing us to get to the server room!"
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I stood up, ignoring the bullets whizzing past my ears, and threw a heavy canister of industrial solvent into the path of the advancing team. With a single, precise shot from my shotgun, the canister exploded into a wall of roaring flame, completely cutting off their primary advance and forcing them back into the courtyard.
"Six minutes!" Tessa gasped into the radio. "Eighty percent! Aaron... Pendelton is here. He’s inside the building."
