The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Splashdown

Reaching the bottom of the staircase, Narcist paused, her eyes narrowed as she searched the heavy shadows in every direction. While vampires possessed superior night vision, they still needed at least a modicum of illumination to make that happen. While she didn't doubt this space had powerful lights and spotlighting for displays and such, somebody had gone through the trouble of turning them all off. Which meant there was an ambush out there, waiting for them to trigger it.

"My left fang for an IR flare!" she muttered as the rest of Viper Team gathered behind her, each of them staring off into the pitch darkness beyond the gloom at the foot of the stairs.

"C'mon," Naryan growled. She could feel the enemy measuring them from their hiding places in the dark.

All five twitched when there with a meaty thud from the darkness, fingers twitching on their triggers. Then their hearts began to race as it was followed by several more, mingled with sounds of pain, and the odd muted 'crack' of bone breaking. Then silence, aching with tension and thick with mystery.

Out of that silence a familiar figure strode, dropping what appeared to be a bloody sword as he did.

"Viper Team," Lash said with a measured look. "Are you waiting for something in particular?"

"Light damn you, Ingamon Lash!" Naryan sputtered as Truk laughed out loud, no longer surprised at how the big vampire managed to cheat death at every turn.

"The man knows how to make an entrance," Ballan said with a grin, sharing a fist bump with Truk and Absinthe.

Smiling, Narcist walked up to the big man and held out a fist, which Lash calmly bumped.

"Good to see you, boss," she said, naked relief in her voice.

"Good to see you, Narcist." Then he was grunting as Naryan threw her arms around him in a tight hug. A hug that Narcist quickly joined in on, followed by a still chuckling Truk, a smiling Ballan and a grinning Absinthe.

"See, Abs?" Narcist whispered. "Too damn cheerful!"

"Alright, team," Lash said, gently untangling himself from the group embrace. "We can do warm and fuzzy back on the Nighthawks. We still have a job to do!" Then he was turning to step back into the darkness.

"Stay close. I don't want you tripping over the bodies!"

Tanner and her team had most of the over two dozen liliths being held captive detached from their harnesses and lying on the floor by the time Lash led Viper Team back through the pitch black market interior to the storage room. As they moved into the air, Lash was sending them with tight knife hands to the clusters working on the liliths on the ground to close off the non-essential tubes and connect the spare air supplies to their airways.

"Strike One, Viper One. Sitrep," Lash said as he knelt beside one of the legionnaires and helped her secure an air supply to the side of the unmoving lilith's face mask.

"Viper One, Strike One. We have penetrated the enclave nearly five hundred meters and are currently clearing a nest of shifters in armor with heavy guns," Fordricht reported tersely. "We're seeing shoulder-mounted anti-personnel weapons being moved up the street but smart munitions are keeping them unable to dig in and deploy."

"Copy. I need you to hold them there for another ten minutes then start your withdrawal back to the stairs. Recon Two has the majority of the liliths secured. Those ten minutes will get them outside and in a Nighthawk."

"Copy ten mikes to exfil. Get the queens to safety, boss. We'll keep them occupied in the meantime!"

"Copy, Strike One. Good hunting." Then Lash was disconnecting to focus on prepping the remaining liliths to move.