The Marauder strike force had blown the generator. Breakpoint—the transforming robot automech with whom I was partnered—and I were stuck in one of the automech-sized service corridors, between Blast Door 3F and Blast Door 3G, which had automatically sealed when the power had failed. Without the generator power to open the doors, we were locked in.

Of course, Breakpoint was equipped with the maintenance tool pack, so given time we could probably cut our way out if we had to—through a wall, if not one of the blast doors. The problem was that we probably wouldn’t be given the time. There were smaller ventilation panels all through the corridor; the vent ducts were about human-sized. And the Marauders had plenty of human-sized nasties they could send in.

So, as the orange emergency lights kicked in, Breakpoint and I were backed against one of the blast doors. I had my plasma rifle out, and Breakpoint had his cannon primed.

We waited to see what would crawl out of the dark.