Dinah kicked down the door and her Celestians rushed in, fanning out to either side. "Clear!" Dinah called out. Immediately the Seraphim came in the room and move up to the next portal. Eve booted the door open and her golden-armored squad cleared the next room.
Chamber by chamber, hall by corridor they had worked their way through the great manor of Senator Sextus Pompeii. Katherine led them through the dangerous operation room by room. They had lost one of the Dominions to a nest of Harpies in the great baths. Two more Acolytes had fallen to the vicious claws and teeth of a pack of Daemonettes in the kitchens. Nearly all of the sisters were injured in some fashion or another. The Canoness' glance fell on Acolyte Cornelia, her youthful and once pretty face marred by a horrific wound. Despite having half her cheek torn away, she had quickly wrapped the wound and insisted she fight on. Flavia had stepped up to take a leadership role among the Acolytes.
Katherine couldn't have been more proud.
They moved into another corridor, lined with fine, ostentatious tapestries and light fixtures of gold and rare crystal. Clearly the life of a Patrician and Senator was as far from the austere, Spartan conditions of the Adeptus Sororitas. As they moved quietly down the hall, the wall to their left exploded without warning, showering them with dust and debris. The Celestians immediately knelt on the tiles, leveling their bolt pistols at the huge hole in the wall that had appeared in the aftermath of the explosion. As the smoke and dust cleared, Sister Superior Dinah shouted "Hold your fire! Hold your fire!" Her keen eyes picked out the distinctive armor of the Adeptus Arbites on the other side.
Katherine poked her head around the corner of the hole, an eyebrow raised, "Fedarsi? You have something against doors?"
There was a pause as the interrogator, now coated in masonry dust, picked his way through the blasted remains of the wall. He glanced around at the sisters and nodded. "No sense in going around instead of through, I say," he chuckled. "We started punching through the walls after the first firepoint. After that, I just followed the screams until I reached you."
"I'm glad to see you're still alive," Katherine said, though neither her voice nor her eyes held any mirth. "What's left of your forces?"
"About twenty arbites all told. I had to bring the repressor crews with me to make up for losses, so don't be suprised if we have to walk out later." Delphias continued speaking as he took a few steps to the opposite wall and began to study it. "Have you enjoyed the same luck?"
The Canoness' face was blank, but her voice held a weariness that was unmistakable, "Then count yourself lucky. Coming through the main hall we faced a legion of Daemons. My Acolytes have earned their experience with a hard lesson."
Delphias nodded, his humor quite gone. "I had wondered at the lightness of our enemies. I should have realized that our fortune came at other's expense." For a long moment he was silent, considering. Again, he looked up. "Where are you heading now?"
"We've cleared the southern and western halls of the ground floor," Katherine considered. "There are still the upper stories to be checked...and the catacombs." She pondered for a moment, her thumb idly rubbing the pommel of her sword. "I think we'll take the catacombs. Our heavier armor will be more protective in the close confines than the carapace armor of your men."
"Something tells me armor isn't going to be much use here, whatever we find up there." Delphias rapped against a tile, listening to it's echo. "I suppose we will cleanse the upper floors then. Does this sound load-bearing?" he asked, indicating the wall.
She raised her eyes to the ceiling with an unsure look, "I hope not..."
Delphias turned, half distracted. "Only one way to find out, I think." He started working back through the cluster of heavily armored men and women, gesturing to an arbites hefting several heavy bundles. "I think there's a stair through the neighboring passageway. We will head onward from there. You'll stay in vox-contact?"
