The status quo between us and the Imperium troops lasted for quite some time.
"If they can keep us pinned down here, we've already lost the fight." Mei said.
"Ha! Not so soon!" I said, firing a few bullets towards the general direction of the enemy. None of them hit anything, but I had managed to push the troops back behind their cover.
"I am sure they have reinforcements coming this way." Mei whispered. "Time to really defect maybe?"
"No." I whispered back. "We can't change sides unless the victor is clear. There is no going back from that decision."
Order and Imperium troops exchanged a few shots while we were talking.
"We need to quickly get out of here." I said. "Cover me!"
"Yes, sir!" troops of the Order said all at once. I ran to the hallway intersection just ahead of me and got a better position. Our soldiers were providing cover fire to keep Imperium troops at bay, but even if I wasn't protected, the Imperium troops wouldn't shoot me anyway - their orders were to capture me alive. They would recognize me and Mei by our distinct uniforms, given by The Council.
"Mei!" I shouted. She got out of her cover and managed to come to my side.
"That was scary." she said. "I'm more scared of friendly fire here. None of these guys know how to shoot."
Just at that moment, I made eye contact with an Imperium marine by accident. He was pointing his laser gun towards me. Mei, as soon as she noticed this, raised her weapon as a reflex to protect me. I stopped her, pushing her weapon down.
The Imperium soldier had recognized us. I winked at him before turning to the Order's soldiers.
"Come on, push forward!"
Although hesitantly, soldiers of the Order left their position and moved forward to overwhelm Imperium marines. This extremely direct attack quickly turned into a bloodbath for both sides. In the chaos, I took Mei and went past Imperium forces. We ran in random directions until we were far enough from the war zone.
"This looks like a Russian ship." I said. "If I'm right, the bridge is not where we want to go. Let's try getting to the main engineering."
"How do you know?" Mei asked. "There are no Alliance or Russian markings, and it's all written in Latin letters."
"I've been aboard a Russian vessel before." I said. "The internal design is the same. It is just that I don't see cyrillic everywhere. Imperium must have erased the signs."
"I see." Mei said. "Okay, so why don't we go to the bridge?"
"Too little automation." I said. "I bet this ship requires a lot of people to run. Bridge would be more crowded than we would like. We need to get their attention somehow."
"Do you know where main engineering is?" Mei asked.
"I would guess... somewhere in the middle of the ship? Actually I have little idea."
"Let's search then." Mei said. "Together."
"There they are!"
Before we could even begin our search, we were found by Imperium marines. The only thing we could do was drop our weapons and raise our hands.
Before we did that, however, the lights went out. It was pitch black for a moment. I quickly grabbed Mei by her arm and we ran away before the Imperium troops could even turn on their flashlights.
"What is going on?" Mei whispered.
"Either our troops shot something important, or the Imperium is trying to stop us from advancing."
"We should just continue then." Mei said.
"How? I don't see anything."
"Hmm..." she paused. "Good point. I can't see anything either, and we can't turn on our lights, or we will be found."
"Good idea!" I said.
"What?"
"We can use the Imperium troops' flashlights. Next time we encounter, we can silently follow them through corridors, but staying far behind."
"Too risky." said Mei.
"Would you rather sit and wait here?" I asked.
"Maybe."
Just then, we saw the lights.
"They are coming this way." I said. "Hurry!"
Navigating by hand, we ran into a nearby hallway to hide. Two Imperium troops walked by, but did not turn this way.
"Come on."
Mei followed me as I followed the troops. We followed the lights for a while without being noticed.
"There." Mei said. "That door reads engineering."
"Where?"
"There, you idiot!" she pointed towards a door ahead. I had no time to warn her to be silent.
"Stop right there!"
The troops had noticed us and turned around. I immediately pulled my gun out and shot one of them in the head, instantly killing him. I quickly aimed at the other one and pulled the trigger again, but all I got was the 'click of doom'. I was out of bullets. I knew that as soon as he pulled the trigger, I was dead; and I knew he would pull the trigger no matter who I was... At the end, I had tried to kill him. It wasn't the most convincing way to defect for sure.
I closed my eyes in terror, waiting for the laser to burn through my skin and flesh.
I quickly opened them back again, however, on hearing the noises of a struggle. Mei had attacked the second soldier with her fists, pinning him down to the metal floor. I quickly grabbed the dead soldier's laser weapon and killed the other one, who was trying to fight Mei.
Mei then got up, trying to clean up the blood on her hands and uniform.
"You owe me one." she said. "Now, let's get to main engineering deck before someone who heard the gunshots comes to investigate."
"Wait, we have to hide the bodies." I said. "If the Imperium forces notice that we killed their soldiers, it will give away that our real intention is not to defect."
"Good thinking." she said. We took the laser guns with flashlights and dragged the bodies into the main engineering deck. Just after we closed the deck's main door, we were startled by a voice just behind us.
"How may I be of service, guys?"
When I turned around, I saw that it was an unarmed engineer working there. Then, the next second, I didn't see him.
Mei had fired her weapon.
"Mei!"
"What?" she said dismissively. "It's his fault to be here at the wrong moment."