Episode 72. Ride of the Valkyries

Currently sheltered in the Kremlin command room, we are putting together a plan to leave the Moscow bunker.

A few meters from us, the Tholians have already started pounding against one of the entrances.

To increase our chances of survival, we have made an alliance of convenience with the leader of a Russian terrorist militia.

He is supposed to help us reach Catherine II underground station, where an antique locomotive is waiting to take us to Putingrad.

As the Tholians flood into the Kremlin command center, the fifteen or so militiamen and our unit fall back through the opposite access point.

At a run, we enter a long corridor about five hundred meters in length.

At every intersection, more Tholians emerge, always more numerous.

While continuing to cover our rear with his heavy machine gun, Colonel Gomard tosses me his flamethrower.

I catch it in midair and begin the descent, step by step, forcing the attackers back.

The Tholians cannot withstand temperature variations, and I make them pay dearly for it.

Once I reach the bottom, I let out a cry of relief when I see our means of transport waiting for us at the platform.

While we improvise a barricade to contain the Tholian assaults, Eros and Tarsi rush toward the front of the convoy and climb into the locomotive.

Tarsi activates her phaser.

The energy beam strikes the coal, and the boiler temperature begins to rise brutally.

A few seconds later, a dull detonation shakes the locomotive, throwing them both backward into the fuel hold.

At the rear of the convoy, the situation is hardly more encouraging.

Robert, Lebeau, and I have taken position on the T-34, while the militiamen deploy across the platforms to contain the Tholians.

That is when Prigozhin moves away from the group.

As he walks, he pulls a magnetic tape from his pocket.

He disappears for a moment into a small booth, probably the old stationmaster's office.

When he comes back out, the station loudspeakers crackle.

Then music rises.

A Richard Wagner classic, heavy, solemn, overwhelming.

Richard Wagner - Ride of the Valkyries

He then rejoins his men.

His gaze is fixed, turned toward the darkness from which the Tholians are already emerging.

A heavy machine gun in one hand.

The sledgehammer in the other.

Then he charges.

The bullets cut down the first enemy lines.

Tholian crystals burst under the sledgehammer blows.

The station echoes with gunfire, impacts, screams.

But the wave is too dense.

In one final gesture, Prigozhin places himself in front of his men.

He takes the hits.

Again.

He lets out one last cry of defiance against the enemy.

Then vanishes in a blinding detonation when the crystalline fragmentation grenades explode against him.

The ground trembles.

The tunnel walls crack.

With a deafening rumble, the vault collapses.

The militia, the Tholians... everything is swallowed under a mass of rock and dust.

The passage is now blocked, giving us precious respite.