A simple job

Chapter 3

The trio did their best to slink their way unnoticed through the ruins, but that was rather hard to do with the terrible racket that came from Jahnarton with every step he made. Still, it took a lot longer for the Zaalites to notice and start shooting at them than any of them expected. When they were finally spotted by one of the snipers inside the tower, they were still too far away to see any of the guards themselves, but the guards made their knowledge of the trio's position known by firing a bullet that struck Urak right in the head.

Instead of his head doing its best impression of a watermelon being smashed open, the bullet merely bounced away harmlessly. Sum was understandably baffled by this for a moment, even briefly considering if he just witnessed a miracle from God himself, but he quickly concluded that Urak must've been wearing some old Murkian armor underneath his robes and face wrappings. Sum felt a pang of jealousy towards the order member. Sum used to have his own set of Murkian armor, (given to him by Jahnarton for his work on that awful Ohtah job) but he lost it a few years ago in a drunken bet.

Sum wished he had won that bet as he dived for cover while the other two began to rush ahead. They were both well armored so they were mostly safe from whatever the cultists could shoot at them. He trailed slowly behind them, taking cover every opportunity he could. By the time he was close enough to see the entrance to the tower, they had already butchered all but two of the outer guards. Sum managed to put a round in one of their heads, (mostly to justify being paid when everything was said and done) right before Jahnarton ripped the other one in half. Jahnarton then flung both halves of the body into a second-story window that someone was shooting out of. Once the body crashed through the window the gunfire ceased and Sum heard someone start swearing up a storm. They all took this opportunity to run as quickly as they could to the entrance. Jahnarton was the closest so he was the first one in, Sum was the second since Urak's armor and assault cannon slowed him down significantly.

The front door led them into a long hallway that winded and twisted in on itself in the traditional Murkian fashion. Every surface was covered in mirrors. Jahnarton's bright glowing eyes reflected off the mirrors, lighting up the entire hallway. A good portion of the mirrors were cracked and broken, exposing the concrete wall behind them.

"What is this?" Urak asked as he slowly lowered his cannon.

"It's a travesty," Jahnarton replied before pointing at a crudely drawn image of a snake eating its own tail; a common Zaalite symbol. "Why did these savages have to ruin such a perfectly good mirror? Now I can't see my reflection in it." Said mirror was cracked, rendering his reflection impossible to see even if the image wasn't there.

Urak was stunned into silence by what Jahnarton was concerned by, but Sum was used enough to the Princeling to not be surprised by this. "There's plenty of other mirrors for you to look at yourself in," Sum said placatingly.

"But I wanted to look at this one," Jahnarton stomped down on the ground as he said this, causing the mirror underneath his feet to shatter. Jahnarton didn't notice or care about the shattered mirror underneath him. This conversation was, (thankfully) cut short by the sound of people running above them. Without saying another word the three of them began to run down the hallway.

The hallway had countless branching pathways that led to God knows where. Sum made sure to slow down whenever they came near one of these hallways and to peek down them in case anyone was hiding in one. He didn't find anyone, but he did find a few that almost instantly led to dead ends, and he found one that led straight to a giant hole in the ground. He wasn't sure if the giant hole was meant to be there or not, such things were hard to be sure about when it came to Murkain and Navdite architecture.

Along the way Urak remembered to tell Morah over the radio that they managed to get inside the tower, so he did exactly that. She radioed back and told them to keep going and that she'd catch up with them.