The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Coming Up Empty

Naryan let her hand drop from her ear and looked at the dark door she and Recon Two were approaching. She hadn't been joking when she had asked if Lash was going to join them in the hopes that he would. The vampire was a one-male wrecking crew, able to clear a field of battle in mere moments. There was no doubt in her mind that success would've been immediate if he had entered the battle. And she definitely would've felt better with him there.

That being said, they still had a job to do. And she certainly didn't want to disappoint her old friend by not doing what he was relying on her to do.

A pause at the door to scan the darkness with motion detectors and thermal scans yielded Strike Two, which Fordricht had led inside a few minutes ahead of them. And a bunch of people that weren't.

"Keep it tight, Galloway," she said over her shoulder. "And watch your motion detectors. I'm seeing all sorts of stealth in front of us!"

"Copy that, boss," the master sergeant replied.

Slaving her motion sensor feed to her helmet's HUD with a key sequence on her forearm-mounted interface, Naryan then pulled out an IR utility light from a pouch. It got clipped into the built-in slot for such a thing on her Kali, turned on, and the Kali returned to her shoulder.

Now advancing into a stone-walled hallway, the IR light threw the space into full illumination, thanks to her enhanced vampire vision. And she felt her expression tightening when that space appeared to be filled with heat waves rising through, and distorting the air.

A quick glance at her HUD confirmed it: the space in front of them was riddled with stealth cloaked forms. 'Not for long!' she grimly thought, manually switching the Kali to rapid fire.

The first trigger squeeze pulled a full dozen vampires out of stealth, the hallway filling with their death screams as they dropped writhing to the ground. Then Naryan grunted with surprise as something struck her on the side of her tactical helmet. Twisting enough to put it in her peripheral, she felt a chill travel down her spine to see a glowing blade with runic symbols on it.

A car'deith.

"Rampart," she barked, taking a step back and managing to get her free arm up in time to block the follow up downward stab by the glowing stone dagger. Then the Kali was twisted to shoot across her body and the Hand agent fell back with a cry of pain.

Her attacker out of the way, Naryan continued backstepping until she was in the rampart formation with the rest of her squad. Just in time; as she dropped to a knee, the space above them was filled with faintly glowing specks. At the same time her HUD lit up with a radiological alarm.

"Sundogs!" she hissed. "Watch for armor impacts." Then her Kali was up and she was sending short bursts of white hot ceramic into the uneasy space in front of him.

"Strike One, Recon Two."

"Recon Two, Strike One. Go," Ballan said over the comms.

"We are taking fire. What's your status?"

"Advancing through the primary keep, heading towards the lower levels. Not currently under fire, but we've had three rather furious firefights up to this point. No casualties. Do you want us to double back and relieve you?"

"Negative, Strike One. Stay on target. We'll pull the Hand agents in the building to us and keep them off you," Naryan quickly sent as a glance at her HUD showed it clearing around them. She grunted as a sundog round hit her in the shoulder. Thankfully it didn't lodge in her kevlar vest and dropped instead to the ground where she could kick it away from her.

"Copy, Recon Two," Ballan replied. "Penetrating the staircase going down now! And hitting more resistance. Standby."

"Clear," Galloway announced as the last of the Hand agents rushing their dug in position gasped in shock as a ceramic round tore out his throat. Then he was dropping limply to a floor already covered with a couple of dozen of his comrades.