Ehvrin enters the shaft behind Esarvit and reaches into the hatch-release inside. He reverses the motion of handle, pulling down halfway, rotating the handle clockwise (from the bottom), and pulling it the rest of the way down, causing the hatch to slide shut. He descends the ladder quickly and nods to Ossanlin. <<We're good, sir.>>
Ossanlin nods in return and walks over to the doorway, glancing through the view-port down the mostly southeast-northwest tunnel to the first junction. It's empty as he'd predicted...this wasn't only the moon's umbral night, it was the actual night cycle. Most of the facility's individuals would be asleep in their cubes, save the night-security staff, the two engineers in the singularity chamber, a host-cell tech, two Yeerk-cell techs, and a four-person Operations team. Couple that with the fact that the maintenance tunnels were only ever occupied for actual maintenance, and they should have the entire level to themselves.
He pulls the door's release lever and it only hisses slightly before popping partway open. He pulls the door open far enough to pass through and steps out into the well-lit "tunnel," which actually consists of fully-formed halls...no bare rock despite being called a tunnel. He breathes deeply at the near-Homeworld-quality air, and motions his Warriors to follow. He jogs quickly to the first intersection and looks both ways before turning northeast along the main-facility border tunnel. Pipes and wires run through the walls, though their presence is mostly hidden by the smooth wall-panels, all made to be removed easily to allow for service. He rounds the bend and continues to jog straight east along the north border tunnel until he hits the second junction and turns south, his ASAR shouldered just in case. He reaches the curved wall of the main central lift. The lift itself has no access to the service level, but along the outside of the lift walls, another hatch not unlike the one the team passed through in the hangar is ensconced in the floor. One of the two auxiliary hatches into and out of the singularity chamber. He waits for his team to gather before reviewing the next phase of the mission.