The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

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Naryan and Galloway had just reached the staircase when, moving in a smooth, tactical formation, Tanner's Second Squad slid through the blown out doors and into the shadows inside T3. And as they did, several of First Squad's sensor alerts chirped quietly. Including Naryan's.

A look down at the interface she had strapped to her off wrist, Naryan could feel her expression tighten to see both active and passive scanner sweeps had somehow been activated inside the building by the arrival of Second Squad.

"Security sweeps just went active," she grimly announced over comms. "Everybody into the staircase now! Before they pick us up!"

Moving quickly, all twenty four Force Recon legionnaires fit themselves into the relatively narrow staircase. Holding up at the top of the staircase, Naryan watched as several visible sweeps of red light rolled through T3's interior. Then, from a hidden door, a squad of armored individuals appeared equipped with heavy assault weapons.

Naryan's eyes narrowed as they moved carefully into the space, ignored by the sweeps of light that rolled over them multiple times without stopping. If she didn't know better, she'd swear they were Silver Legion, wearing the same kind of day-proof armor the Legion did when they had to deploy during daylight hours. And they moved with the same kind of tactical care well-trained troops like the Qos Viran, and House Lash's Dragon's Own used.

Which made sense; if this slaver outfit was run by former Qos Viran, it was only logical those same renegades would pass on their training to their underlings to make them as effective as possible. She could only hope they didn't fight as fiercely as Lash did. That man was a one-vampire wrecking crew. They wouldn't make it past the front door!

Turning back to the rest of her team, she quickly used hand signals to direct Fireteam Three to send a drone and another IR flare through the hologram. A thumbs up confirmed the receipt of the command then the drone, a hand-sized tactical device with whisper-quiet fans keeping it aloft, was activated and tossed through the shielded hole. An IR flare quickly followed it.

The legionnaire that had deployed the drone from her pack, then swiped her wrist interface to bring up the image being broadcast by the drone's onboard camera. A few seconds then she was looking back up at Naryan to signal the all clear.

Two tight knife hands then pushed the platoon into the hole double time. Necessary: the security squad that was making its sweep of T3's exterior was almost right on top of them.

Then Galloway disappeared, leaving only Naryan in the stairwell. With a final positional check on the approaching security team, she moved as quickly and quietly as she could down the stairs. And, without hesitation, through the shielded hole.

And immediately found herself standing on a large landing, the staircase expanding out to become a true entrance. She glanced back and watched an IR beam pierce the center of the hole through the rubble pile.

Seeing that, Naryan immediately waved her platoon down the broad stairs leading away from the landing. Just in time: with a low hum, another drone dropped through the hole, this one a bit more angular than the one they had used. But, sporting a camera on top of its carapace, it was serving the same purpose: to quickly look beyond the hole to see if anybody was standing on the landing.

Now hidden, for the moment, around the corner, Naryan looked at her chrono. The rest of their force was now only five minutes out, and they were no closer to securing the main entrance for them. Grimacing, she looked down the stairwell, which descended into the darkness. Then she used a hand signal to direct the drone operator to extend the drone downward, using aerosol in an attempt to illuminate hidden IR lasers set to trip if an unauthorized access broke the beam.