The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

A Final Defense

As expected, the massive space had been heavily fortified into a last stand setup with sandbagged hard points armed with mini guns surrounding a bunker built with portable ceramic barriers where the council table once sat. And the place was crawling with White Flames wearing the most advanced armor they possessed, their weapons no doubt loaded with sundog rounds and nothing but.

He could also make out a couple of councilors moving about in their expensive robes, their expressions uncertain as they kept looking at the doors in anticipation of the last assault. They he also anticipated: collaborators looking for protection from their master Demiskieros now that the traitor's scheming was collapsing their world around them.

What Lash didn't anticipate, however, was the cluster of kneeling female figures in skin tight isolation suits, like Romanescu's enslaved liliths had worn, their heads down and hands bound behind their backs. Standing over them were Hand agents with naked car'deith daggers in their gloved hands ready to strike.

Lash drew in a quick breath. They had to be liliths, in iso suits to prevent them using their pheromones. They were no doubt there as a final line of defense for Demiskieros to use to bargain his way out of his death sentence, the traitor knowing the Ventru high lord wouldn't risk the liliths' lives unnecessarily.

"Are those ... liliths in those suits?" a disbelieving Chescu breathed over the comms, the Nosferatu m'tada coming to the same conclusion as the grim Ventru giant.

"I've got clear LOS from our position on those Hand agents," Orimov hissed, his voice filled with barely concealed anger. "We can kill most of those honorless filth before ..."

"Hold your fire," Lash husked, eyes narrowed. "We're not seeing everything that there is to see!"

A quick switch to displacement and the big vampire felt a muscle in his jaw tighten as all the previously empty space was filled with Hand agents under cloak. But, before he could bring his observation to the attention of his comrades, there was a sudden commotion from the far end of the chamber. Then a familiar figure was stepping into view, advanced White Flame armor smoking from several direct hits by high velocity weapons fire. Behind him came several of the rogue human element themselves, two or three pairs carrying badly wounded comrades.

"Romanescu!" Lash couldn't help growling as the Nosferatu slaver threw back the visor on his helmet.

"You're late," a tall vampire at the far end of the chamber said without turning away from staring at the wall, hands clasped behind his back.

"You try cutting through VCG assassins then stumbling through absolute darkness for kilometers just to get here, and be on time," Romanescu spat in response as he pulled off his helmet and threw it to the side in anger.

"If we didn't use sundogs on them, they would've cut us to pieces." A muscle rippled with tension as the former Qos Viran looked over at the tall, lean vampire who had spoken to him.

"Are the assassins at the entrances to the secret passages the reason you're still here, Demaskieros?" He then looked at the makeshift fortifications and the kneeling liliths in containment suits with car'deith being held at their throats.

"Or has Lash backed you into a corner and you have nowhere else to go?"

Snorting derisively before the tall vampire could speak, Romanescu stepped to the liliths and squatted in front of one to look into her shielded face, his eyes measuring.

"Don't bother saying anything. I already know the answer."

"I expended considerable resources and made many promises to our new allies to ensure you reached the Nocturnum in time, Romanescu," Demaskieros finally replied. "You promised you could get us out of the castle, and the capital before Ventru attacked."