The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Chapter 32: Slaver

She wasn't sure if it was deliberately done to keep them out of the line of fire. But Naryan could hear the sounds of the furious firefights fading as they followed Narcist's path across the upper floor. Which was fine by her. She'd rather not have to cut their way through Romanescu's forces to accomplish their real mission of finding any captive liliths alive in the bowels of this hellish place.

The path first put them into an emergency stairwell ascending from the depths. Carefully going downward two full levels, they stepped onto the third level, their drones silently moving forward to scout out the space.

Here the base's air recirculation and filtration were happening, the plant that powered the vital processes on a separate power feed than the lights. Thus it was still active, sending a rumble through the floor to tickle the bottom of their feet through the soles of their combat boots. Using the rumble to orient themselves along the path, Naryan led them past the power plant to another set of stairs in the center of the level.

Unlike the first stairwell, which was obviously an emergency exit with its metal frame braced against the walls of a square concrete shaft, these stairs were broad and part of the structure itself. A main conduit through the base, was Naryan's conclusion. Since the path on the map took them down it, she had First Squad ease forward, eyes sharp for traps and security alerts.

Pausing a handful of times as the entire structure rocked in response to powerful explosives going off on the levels above them, First Squad managed to finish their descent in less than five minutes. Then it was a rather labyrinthine course across the fourth level to another emergency exit stairwell.

Reaching the bottom, Naryan had the squad pause as she studied the map. According to the path Narcist had drawn, their objective was, like the circulation powerplant on the third level, in the middle of the level itself. Which, of course, gave plenty of space for Romanescu to hide defenders in rooms, around corners, and generally out of sight, waiting to ambush the first vampire stupid enough to come looking for whatever he had down here.

And yet, there was no other way to reach the center of the level without crossing that intervening space. Squaring her shoulders resolutely, she approached the door and opened it enough for her drone to slip through. Then she leaned back and looked at the interface's video display on her wrist.

As they had seen a number of times during their descent, this part of the complex seemed to be deserted, all the security forces present called to face the Valkyries and Kassidy's Silver Legion troops. After a quick scan of the space just on the other side revealed nothing, Naryan sent her drone ahead towards what appeared to be the corner of a wall, dividing the space into a left path and a right.

A quick decision then sent the drone to the left. With its IR lamp lighting the way, the drone went nearly twenty meters before it met another wall and a right hand turn. Which, as it came around the corner, found it facing a door. Manned by ten security soldiers.

Naryan grimaced as she pulled the drone back around the corner. Had the soldiers, geared in IR night vision goggles and holding IR glow rods, seen the small tactical drone? Dialing up the drone's audio feed, she carefully listened to see if the guards were rushing the corner. And nearly breathed a sigh of relief when the audio picked up mutters about being bored and how pointless their post was, instead of measured breathing and boot soles sliding cautiously across the tiled floor towards the corner.

"We've got ten guards in front of a door to our left," she turned to say in a whisper. "According to Lash's map, that door is on the corner of what he and Narcist think is the actual market where the slaves are displayed and sold. We are going to take a look."

"Copy that, boss," Galloway said, with the other members of the squad nodding or murmuring in agreement.

Counting silently down from five to zero to make sure everybody was ready to go, Naryan stood Kali up in front of the door while Galloway got ready to pull open the door. A tap on her shoulder then the door was pulled out of the way and she stepped through, looking for targets. Right behind her came two of her legionnaires, one on the left, the other on the right, weapons up and hands on her shoulder and pack respectively, to back her up in case they faced resistance on the other side.