When Benny returned to their base they all left together. Liam led them while hauling the new items that he had put together. He left some of the stuff untouched such as the canisters and let Benny and Henry haul them.

“We need to head over to the Photon Production facility again,” said Liam. “The keycards will get us past the joint area between it and the Magnetic Field farm. Once there if we can overload the magnetic systems and send the results through the flare gun we will have accomplished our goal.”

“What should we expect to stop us?” asked Hyrum.

“That is something I am not sure of. We can enter just fine but guards will be called if we are spotted inside. Benny has the rope if we need to tie up guards to get this finished.”

The four of them continued on the path to the Photon Production. They passed by the main entrance and took a side entrance instead. Liam found the door to be locked but he broke the lock with a hammer. The pieces fell to the ground in pieces. He opened the door quickly and checked inside. No one was in the immediate vicinity.

“Come in quickly.”

He entered and the others followed. There were two doors in the new area. One pointed to the regular entryways and the other led to the basements. Liam opened the basement stairwell door. This time he didn’t have to break it. They descended the stairwell. As they followed Liam he repeated the floor numbers to himself.

When they reached sub-basement 6 Liam opened up the door. He had to swipe both keycards on a keypad to get it to unlock. The rest followed behind him as they journeyed to the flare guns.

“How much longer is it going to be?” asked Hyrum.

They had traveled through a concrete tunnel for a few minutes and the scenery had not changed much since then.

“We are almost there. You just need to be patient.”

Liam and the other followed the tunnel until there was a break in it. To their left were a split in the tunnel and large metal doors at the end.

“If we were going to continue in that same direction we would have ended up at the Magnetic Field farms. I’m going to open the door with the keycards. As soon as we get in we need to start getting people away from the flare guns and controls and stop them from leaving. If they leave they will call for the guards. Benny I will have you holding the door. No one can leave if you stop them.”

“I will take care of it,” said Benny.

“Now Liam and Henry. I need you to take one of the canisters each and install them where they are supposed to go on the largest flare gun you can find. You will recognize it when you see it. While you are taking care of that I will be dealing with the people inside and rewiring the controls so we can launch this flare.”

“We got it. You can count on us,” said Henry.

Liam activated the door and they all rushed in. About 20 workers were milling about in the place. Flare guns lined the opposite wall and were pointed out of hatches towards the void. Liam immediately ran towards their right where stairs led up to the control platform.

“Listen up everyone. We are going to borrow these guns. If you try anything we will knock you out and tie you up,” said Liam. “Get against the wall.”

Hyrum and Henry pushed the people against the wall next to the exit. Benny pushed the initial group of people back when they tried to head through the exit. After another minute their captives got the message and got against the wall. Liam moved the people in the control room downstairs except for one person who knew the controls.

Liam began rewiring the controls. He started by opening up the sides of the controls and looking inside. As Liam worked Hyrum and Henry brought the canisters over to the flare guns. As Liam had described there was a slightly larger flare gun to one side. It stood twice as tall and looked like an extra-wide barreled turret gun.

Hyrum and Henry began looking over the gun.

“It is stuck,” said Hyrum. “We need to get this panel open to load the canisters.”

“Let me try.”

They had both set their canisters down. Henry tried grabbing the sides of the metal panel with his fingers and pulled. The sides creaked but it didn’t come loose. He tried once more but it didn’t work.

“I can’t get it open.”

Hyrum looked it over again and got close.

“It looks like it is sealed shut. Maybe Liam has a way to open it from the control room.”

“I’ll go grab him,” said Henry.

He left Hyrum’s side and hurried to the control room. In the control room, Liam was having the worker tell him about what wires were what. Diagnostic tools connected to the machines to confirm what he said was true.

“Liam we need your help. The place for the canisters won’t open. We hope it can be fixed on this side.”

“Give me a minute,” said Liam. He pulled his hands and head back from under the controls. “Which one opens the canister filler?”

The worker pointed to one of the smaller buttons on the side.

“Thank you.”

Henry went to push the button. Suddenly alarms started going off.

“Shit. It’s the alarms for the guards,” said Liam. He tackled the worker as quickly as he could and started tying him up. “Just start pressing buttons. We need to get it open. Maybe one of them will lock the doors.”

Henry ducked his head out of the control room. “Yell when we have hit the right button.”

He started pressing as many buttons as he could. He avoided the ones that were already labeled with unnecessary things but that didn’t slow too much time. A hissing sound came from outside the control room and Henry realized that the hatches to the void were closing. He hastily went back though and deactivated it.

Back at the gun Hyrum sat down and waited. He looked over the gun. He started topping the sides of the flare gun with his wrench, but it didn’t do anything. He was bored. He looked back at the side for the canisters, and it still wasn’t open.

“Watch out!” said Benny.

Hyrum turned to see her shouting, but the danger came from the other direction. A Helium worker tackled him to the ground. The wrench slid from his hands, and he tried to grab it, but he was punched in the face. He punched them back, but they brushed it off much easier than he was. Stretching his arm, he grabbed the wrench finally and hit the worker across the face. The pressure let up, but he couldn’t get out from under them.

In the control room, Henry was hurriedly pressing buttons. He heard the sound of hydraulics shift. He poked his head out and saw that the doors to the place were closing and locking.

“Benny! Help him. I should be done soon.”

“I’m on it.”

With the doors locked she had no reason to stay there. She glared at the workers against the wall and ran for Hyrum. Hyrum was swinging the wrench wildly when she got there. The worker had pinned both of his legs and an arm. She dove at the Helium worker and slammed him against the turret.

“Thank you.”

“Just get your part done. I’ve got this guy,” said Benny as she wrapped her hands over the worker in a headlock.

It didn’t take much longer for Henry to find the button. Hydraulics activated and the space for the canisters opened.

“You did it!” shouted Hyrum.

He started pulling the canisters over as Benny pulled the worker away. He checked the markers once and then twice before loading them in and closing the door.

“I’ve got them all ready,” he said as Henry arrived at the gun.

“Give me one more minute. I’ve got to align the gun towards the planet,” said Liam.

He started adjusting the controls and pressing buttons. The gun creaked as it started shifting in place and rotating. The gun inched slowly towards its intended position. As he worked a loud noise came from the door. Guards banged on the door and tried shouting through the door.

“The guards are here. What should we do?” asked Hyrum.

“I don’t know. Stop them,” said Liam. “Hyrum stay at the gun. I still need you there.”

The guards switched tactics once no one responded to the banging. The guards took out laser cutters. Henry could see the glow coming through the door and starting to burn the hinges. He ran to the door mentally preparing for them to arrive.

“It’s done,” shouted Liam.

The gun suddenly stopped moving.

“Hyrum go up to the from and get in the seat. Tell me the code.”

Hyrum moved closer to the gun and opened the cockpit. He slid inside and looked for the code. ‘50006B’,” he shouted at Liam.

Liam hurried on the controls and entered in the information. Hyrum heard a click as the cockpit closed around him. The seat shook slightly as a voice came over the speakers in the flare gun.

“Firing Sequence Activated. Please stay seated. Firing commencing in 10… 9…”

Hyrum hurriedly sat back put the seatbelt straps on and held on to the sides.

“5… 4… 3…”

The door to the gun range shook before it was thrown to the ground. Henry took a step back as over a dozen guards rushed him. He was tackled to the ground quickly before they spread out into the room.

“…1 Firing modified flare gun.”

The cockpit rumbled as the gun activated. The two canisters drained into the barrel, and he felt a tingling in his gut. Suddenly there was a flash of light and bright oranges and yellows flooded his vision.

The gun illuminated the void for only a few seconds as it rushed towards the planet. Hyrum didn’t initially see it in between the flash of other colors but it was there. A million miles away it was hit by the flare gun. Giant burn marks coated the planet for a moment as its atmosphere was vaporized. Hyrum couldn’t see much of the gas leaving the planet, but he could see its effects shortly after. All of the water on the planet destroyed itself without the atmosphere to help it. It was shortly after this that the effects of the flare hit the core of the planet. Chunks of the planet broke off and the core of the planet collapsed. As the pressure was relieved from the core it expanded where it could. More and more of the planets inside were exposed to the cold void as it fell apart and crumbled.

Hyrum didn’t get to see much more of the destruction of the planet as the cockpits hatch was suddenly thrown open and he was yanked out.

-----

2 months later….

“Hello, Mr. Hyrum. I am here as your Warden for SUN Maximum Security Penitentiary. You can call me Miss. Tina. Today I am going over your sentencing and confinement. You have missed the sentencing of the others so I would like you to know that you have almost the same time sentence as Mr. Liam. He beats you out just slightly because he orchestrated this and was the one to pull the trigger so to speak.

“I need you to sign these first papers. Here, here, and here. We already have all the information to convict you we just need this information for correctness and completions sake.”

“Am I ever going to get out of here?’ asked Hyrum. He sat in the uncomfortable chair in front of the warden. Chains went around his hands and legs.

“Not for at least a hundred thousand years. After that, we can reevaluate your parole. You know we haven’t had someone like you in quite a while. Let's see those charges. ‘Battery and Assault of a worker, trespassing, destruction of property, theft, and assisting in the destruction of a planet, and a few others.”

Hyrum chuckled.

“You find this funny.”

“A bit yes, but I am more reminiscing. I’m going to miss going around the restricted areas and I will miss the sight of the planet exploding. It was glorious and I wish I had captured its images,” he said. Hyrum passed the signed papers towards her.

“Well thank you for spending some of your time with me today. I will get these papers filled. You will be escorted back to your cell by the guards. Enjoy the rest of your day Hyrum.”

“You as well Miss. Tina.”

The Warden stood up from her chair. Guards came from behind Hyrum and hoisted him up form the chair and led him out of her office.