Flavia crept through the rough-hewn passage with Eve's plasma pistol held in her left hand…the flesh and blood hand. Briefly she thought of the blonde Seraphim and the sacrifice she had made for all of them, and the lump in her throat seemed almost unbearable. She pushed the thoughts from her mind and concentrated on the task at hand. She paused at the corner and leaned against the wall as Malachi approached with the satchel of maps. He unfolded one and they both studied it for a moment. The ancient maps took a certain amount of interpretation to apply to the twisting pathways of the catacombs. She took the map from his hands and turned it ninety degrees, "Wait…see here. We should be just fifty meters from the main water channel runoff for the streets…"
The Crusader took the map back and held it up, cocking his head to the side, "Are you sure…I…wait, no, I see it. I think you're right. Fifty meters and below us. We should see how the Inquisitor and Canoness wish to proceed."
Opening her mouth to speak to Katherine, Flavia halted. Katherine was crouched on the balls of her feet, her head in her hands. The young Sororitas could see the Canoness was close to her breaking point. Of the surviving Sisters from the Thunderfall operation, there were only Katherine, Harodiah, and Bethany still alive. The Inquisitor was nearby, cloak clutched around her, face haunted. After her brutal violation at the hand of the archfiend Gaius, she seemed no more prepared to be weighing options and giving out commands than Mother Superior Katherine. Steeling her will, Flavia turned back to Malachi and walked past him, "I'll take responsibility, we press on."
Malachi watched her curiously, "Making command decisions now, Lay-sister?"
"Yes…you coming?" She motioned with her golden cybernetic arm, the holy artifact known as the Manus Victoriae.
The Crusader sighed as he packed away the map and shrugged the stormbolter from his shoulder, Now I'm following a sixteen year old nun…
The main street drainage passage was a cylindrical tunnel some six meters in diameter, with a walkway along one side a meter and a half wide. The tunnels were mostly dark, with the only illumination coming from ceiling-mounted lamps at intersections…and some of those had burned out and not been replaced. Flavia led the procession with Malachi directly behind her. Behind them was the gaggle of non-combat Ecclesiastic personnel rescued from the slaughter at the Cathedral…Monks, Hospitallers, and Sisters Dialogus with Cardinal Paesentius…who seemed the only Ecclesiastic authority in the city now. A handful of lay-sisters trailed behind to ensure they weren't set upon from behind. Katherine and Inquisitor Godschilde were surrounded by the few Seraphim and Celestians who had survived the battle.
They had encountered only a few hostiles in the tunnels…a small group of cultists who provided little problem, and some giant lizard swimming through the murky water they had managed to frighten off with a few bolter rounds. Flavia knew of no indigenous lizards of such size on Byzantium and pondered where such a beast might have come from…
After an hour of tracking their way through the passageways, she wearily pressed on through the dim light of the tunnel. Ahead she could see a brightly lit tunnel intersecting the main passage, and hope blossomed in her breast that they may have found the end of their trek. She motioned the others to wait while she advanced cautiously to the corner. She poked her head around to see a large feeder channel leading to a circular cistern chamber. There was a grate of thick, tempered steel bars blocking the passage with a gate affixed in it. Three sentry guns were sitting on a concrete island in the center of the cistern, their turrets swiftly swiveling toward her and the corridor echoed with the sound of heavy bolter fire.
She ducked back just as the concrete wall where her head had been exploded in razor sharp shards. "Hold your fire! Hold your fire in the Emperor's name!"
