VINDICATION

Chapter 23: Launch


Just after nightfall, garbed in full HAZMAT* uniforms (stolen from two of the crew’s members), Zim and Dib made their way into the silo.

Listening idly to the debriefing, they volunteered to take the lower levels. As they made their way down to the sublevels, they stepped over the dead bodies with disinterest and cold detachment.

When they reached the launch control room, they approached the console and pulled out their equipment. Zim flipped his mobile computer linkup open, hooking it up to the launch console’s motherboard. All of the computer systems were still operating, most of the staff having fled to die elsewhere. There were a few souls who had died while sending out distress signals, their heads resting on their desks as they sat, dead in their chairs, mouths hanging open, their headsets still on their heads and their bodies in varying states of decay.

Dib kicked one of the bodies aside, flipping back the protective metal flap covering one of the four LAUNCH APPROVAL buttons. Jamming a tiny cylinder into the keyhole, he pressed the button at the end, and the small Irken device melted until it was formed perfectly inside of the keyhole. He repeated this action with the other three keyholes, then looked over at Zim, who had overridden the complex passwords and had just finished programming in the latitudes and longitudes for several different major cities across the planet.

“Ready when you are.”

Zim stood, nodding at him. “The sequence goes from right to left. You start.”

Dib cranked the newly formed key in his right hand and hit the LAUNCH APPROVAL button above the keyhole, then did the same with his left hand. Zim followed in quick succession with his right hand, then his left as well, and the consoles began to light up with different locations, plotting out the angles of trajectory. There was a loud rumbling sound, and Dib looked over at Zim, grinning behind the gas mask.

“Time to go.”


*HAZMAT is short for Hazardous Materials. Basically HAZMAT is the cleanup crew that looks after chemical spills and other forms of contamination.


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WHOOOHOOO! 1000 hits! *feels special*

Thanks again to everyone who reviewed, and glad to see you guys that were away for a while.