Thall watched with intense tension as Cairn changed position; the people in Namkain block had figured out his position and had started to pour fire into the alcove. A few bullets scraped off his armour but nothing much. Cairn dived into a roll as the ground around him sparked. He ended his roll next Thall, into the firing line of Feynman block but out of the line of attack for Namkain block.
Thall tapped his armour vox. "Farrell, you still alive?" He waited a moment before the reply came back. "Yea" the arbitrator groaned, "I'm holding my guts in but I'll live".
Thall grinned as he heard the slight humour in his voice. "Hold on there, Medical teams are on their way." Thall assured him. Cairn looked over the hood of the ground-car, luckily their attention span lasted as long as their ammo clip the way they were fighting.
The growl of a combat bike entered the two's ears.
"Thank Him above, reinforcements" Cairn grinned. He rose slightly to catch a sight of the newcomers. He was swiftly pulled back down by Thall.
Thall looked slightly apprehensive as he listened to the sound "Only one engine." He looked to Cairn "Unless it's an Astartes I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you, but keep praying."
"But any back-up is good back-up, right?" Cairn protested for a moment before he caught sight of said reinforcement "Oh frak." He sighed a moment latter. Thall stuck his head over the parapet for a moment to see who had just pulled up, for a split second he actually hoped it was an Astartes.
A figure clad in thick black plates of armaplas and ceremite swung his leg off the saddle of the bike. The Imperial Eagle was displayed prominently on his left shoulder. His face was locked permanently in a scowl. He looked around at the two blocks with contempt before he stepped forward, advancing on the two Arbitrators.
"It would be Bale" Cairn groaned. Sergeant Bale was considered the most fearsome Arbite in the Hive Lucius precinct. A former Combat Team leader until he was promoted out to Sergeant. Noted for his taciturn, hardline and stoic personality.
Bale stood over the two with a disappointed look, but then again, his face never seemed to change. He stood with his fists on his hips just like Thall's impression. He was completely unfazed by the hectic gunfire or the slight pitter-patter of rounds landing around him.
"They are using autoguns firing twenty millimetre case less rounds with a listed lethal range of two hundred metres." Bale took another cursory glance upwards. "The majority of gunners are at three hundred metres" he looked back to the two "And the lower gunners are too busy shooting each other to care about you" He leaned forward "So why are you hiding Arbitrators?"
Thall stood "Waiting for back-up" he said determinedly. Bale locked him with a soul-testing glare "It's here" He growled before turning and moved back to his bike.
Cairn followed at his shoulder "They are also using lasguns as well sir." Bale turned and rapped his knuckle on Cairn's Carapace armour. "Your armour is can withstand more than a simple las-bolt, and they don't strike me as Imperial Guard marksmen, do they to you?" He retorted simply as he reached Davies and Farrell.
Bale stood over the wounded Arbitrator. Thall could see the wound that afflicted him. It seemed as if a stubber round had managed unluckily to penetrate the armour and embed itself into the soft belly of the Arbite. Farrell still had a smile on his face as his other hand clutched a laspistol. "Morning Sarge" he strained. Bale looked him over, "Medical teams are en route, remain stationary." Bale turned to the Cadet who, while wounded, remained mobile. Davies only had a bloody crease across his left arm. Cadets were issued flak armour similar to the local PDF. "Arbitrator Farrell, I will be borrowing your Cadet" He said quite plainly. Farrell spluttered out a laugh, "Of course sergeant, take him all you want".
Bale activated his armour's vox with a deft gesture. Thall could hear the vox-caster on the bike cough a burst of static. Bale turned his head back up to the warring blocks.
Bale bellowed "I am the law!" He took a moment to look at each block in turn. "Drop your weapons!" he ordered and to his credit, some of the perpetrators did indeed cease firing, whether due to Bale or to reload was unknown. "These blocks, are under arrest!" Bale shouted to finish off.
Sergeant Bale waved the three mobile Arbites to follow him towards Namkain block. Thall and Cairn exchanged a worried glance, three Arbites and a Cadet storming a building. Not exactly text book.
"Cadet Davies" Bale said "How would you enter this building?" Bale pointed towards a set of heavy doors that acted as the entrance to Namkain ground floor. Davies sharply responded "A form of directional explosive, a breaching charge or even a grenade wedge under the handles sir"
Bale reached to his holster and unbuttoned it before yanking free his sidearm. Bale turned and looked to Davies, showing him his bolt pistol, Davies nodded eagerly "That would work sir. That would definitely work". Bale turned the weapon on the door. A short sharp bang followed swiftly. The doors burst open in a scream of tortured metal.
Bale entered through the wrecked entrance. "Sweep and clear, rendezvous on the fortieth floor" he ordered harshly.
Thall and Cairn stood on either side of a rusted metal doorway. The sound on auto-fire boomed from within. Davies was stood a few metres back behind Cairn and Sergeant Bale was no longer with them. He had been last seen taking the stairs three at a time and kicking in a door shouting "He who is without sin on his knees!" and then repeated bolt pistol shots. The two Arbitrators let him do as he wanted.
Thall checked his laspistol for what felt like the ninth time since they entered the building; the first few floors offered relatively little resistance. Only a few stragglers and wounded as the rest all went higher in search of more targets. From floor twenty onwards however, things got hairy.
Thall signed to Cairn; 'on three' he mimed. Those three seconds passed slowly as the two prepared, Davies was tasked with watching the corridor.
"Three!" Thall called as his boot collided with the metal. It yielded easily and was almost torn from its hinges. "Adeptus Arbites! Drop your weapons!" He shouted as he entered with his pistol raised, he already knew their response.
As one ten pairs of eyes turned along with their weapons, ranging from small automatic stub guns to a lasgun. Cairn shot first, the crimson beam passing unperturbed through the lasgun wielding thug's cranium. Thall followed it with a second, with the biggest threat out of the way. They started to pacify the others. The Arbites usually tried for wound-shots, to disable their opponents to facilitate interrogation. But these thugs just didn't stop as the openly bleeding wound on Thall's abdomen reminded him.
The Laspistols slew the second and third gunners just as quickly but the others by then had time to regain their wits. A stocky yet clearly weathered man brought his simple stubber to bear on Thall. Thall could see the cold hatred in his eyes as the weapon barked. The Carapace armour saved him as the simple bullets danced across its surface but Thall felt the wind driven from him because of the kinetic power the bullets imparted. He fell backwards as another burst of proper autogun fire attacked into his flank. As he fell Thall instinctively drew his vambraces in front of his exposed mouth and eyes, the simple visor didn't stop bullets as easily as sun glare. Cairn dived out of the way, firing as he did.
Thall landed with a thud, the armour thankfully absorbing the impact. He fired blindly towards where he thought the shots were coming from. A resulting cry of anguish proved him right.
For Cairn it was a shooting gallery, all their makeshift cover and barricades had been facing the opposing block, so now they were scattering and shouting looking for a relief from the accurate Arbites fire. Cairn gave them relief, perhaps not the kind they were looking for.
"Room pacified" Cairn said after putting the last perpetrator down with a clean shot through the chest. Her finger tightened around the trigger as she died causing the magazine to empty into a nearby wall.
Thall dragged himself to his feet; Cairn was already checking the downed suspects. Outside the window the cacophony of the Arbite Rhino Armoured Transports became apparent. The combat teams had arrived. Thall moved to the window and cast his gaze downwards. He would have been galled years ago by their methods but as of the throbbing pain in his lower body, frak 'em he thought.
"Next time we shoot them from the doorway" Thall moaned as he checked his laspistol.
Thall watched as several Arbite squads piled out into the street armed with Arbite shotguns and other assorted weapons. From where Thall was stood of the thirtieth floor, he could make out a few bolters along with lasguns for the Cadets who arrived a moment later in their Chimera APCs.
Several Arbites stood across the street and rose what looked to be grenade launchers. They unleashed hell. They poured photon-flash and take-down grenades into the lower windows with reckless abandon. The Rhino gunners raked the front of Feynman block with mass-reactive shells. The turret mounted multi-lasers of the Chimera watched the street for any stragglers.
Thall allowed himself a slight sigh as he saw the medical team pull Farrell away on a stretcher into the specifically marked 'Doc-Wagon' or a Rhino with assorted life-saving equipment.
He started to watch the assault but he was called away by a sudden shout from Davies. The two Arbitrators turned as one and started to move towards the errant sound of gunfire.
Thall and Cairn exited into the hall to see Davies stumble backwards with a pained howl. Thall looked down the corridor to see a bulky heavy set man stood tall, in his grip was a raggedy looking shotgun. The man was nigh-on frothing at the mouth and his eyes full of rage.
The man pumped the shotgun and growled as he targeted the two arbites. Cairn pushed Thall back into the room as he threw himself to the ground.
This resulted in a semi-roar from the clearly drugged man. Cairn crouched and barrelled into the simple door on the opposite side of the hall way. A second shot skimmed the sole of Cairn's boot as he rolled out of harm's way.
Thall leaned out of the relative safety of the room to take aim. Two crimson bolts flickered into the offender. He bore them with a feral grin. Thall was stood in shock for a moment. That moment almost cost him his life. A split second longer and he would probably be down a head. Thall retreated back inside as another hail of shards whipped past.
Cairn mirrored Thall's previous attack and fire two shots into the hulking meaty chest of the thug, the two arbitrators shared a glance as again the beast spat a curse but was still standing.
"What's this guy on?" Cairn yelled across to his partner. Thall shrugged before popping out for another attempt at killing this thing.
Cairn tried at the same time, only to see the hulking warrior make a bee-line across to Thall, who was completely taken unawares by the attack. The mass of the impact was negated by the Carapace armour but Thall was still thrown backwards with a definite thump.
Davies, who up to this point had been dazed by the close range shotgun blast, rolled onto his stomach and started to unleash repeated las-bolts into the beast-man. The man just growled and howled as Cairn joined it.
Thall was almost crushed by the mass of muscle that rammed into him, it didn't help that he was still effectively underneath the man as he started to wail on him with repeated blows from the meaty fists; it seemed the shotgun the thing had been holding had either run out of ammo or had jammed.
Thall started desperately blocking the attack with a lone vambrace while still struggling to bring his own las-pistol to bear on his attacker.
Thall could hear the crack of his fellow's laspistols as they let loose on the back of the thug. Thall could feel the blows become weaker and weaker; it seemed the superman had his limits. The enraged howls soon became exhausted rasps and eventually silence. The rage Thall had seen was still very much alive in his eyes but clearly the body could not keep up with the mind in terms of energy.
Thall jammed his laspistol under the chin on the still attacking muscle man. Who while weak wasn't dead yet. "Attacking an Arbite with lethal intent" Thall growled through gritted teeth "Sentence. Death" He judged with the resounding crack of his pistol. The single beam passed cleanly through the bone and flesh, leaving the head more of less intact as the magenta beam passed through the cranium.
The body dropped down easily at Thall's feet. He sighed heavily as he stepped over the corpse. "Why is it always me that falls over?" He mock-whined while pulling Davies to his feet and inspecting where the Cadet had been hit, "Seems the armour took the brunt of it" Cairn patted Davies on the back "You'll be fine". Cairn cast a view to the corpse of their giant attacker.
"Thall" He said in a sad tone and flicked his hand towards what he wanted his partner to see. The purple arm band the thug wore. Thall swore silently. Cairn took a cursory look back into the cleared room. He shook his head. They all wore purple or blue rags.
Davies looked quickly between the two with a confused look. Thall turned to the Cadet and waved away any confusion "I'll explain back at the precinct" the Cadet nodded obediently and followed the lead of Thall as he led them to the stair way. They had just finished clearing this floor, up to the fortieth.
The three Arbites pounded up the stairs taking them two or three at a time. Cairn was on point with his eyes darting around looking for targets but more likely downs perps'. Bale had gone up ahead of the others to speed up the clearing process and therefore had been a little higher than the others. For about seven floors all they found was clips, casings and corpses and a luminous green mark of the wall which was Arbite for 'Area pacified on sweep' and it meant that the Sergeant had passed through the area.
Cairn crashed through a door at the top of the stairs with a shoulder barge. Thall was through a second later. Davies followed a little more conservatively due to fact he was reminded that he didn't have as thick armour as the others.
Cairn stopped mid charge by a red light that blinded him through his visor. He tried to swat at it as if it were a fly-bug. The growl afterwards informed him that the light was a laser-sight. Cairn flicked his head out of the light to see that he was staring down the barrel of a bolt pistol.
"Cairn" Bale growled as he disengaged his aim. "There is only one room on this floor." Bale indicated the door with a nod. "Penthouse suite" Davies remarked smartly to only receive a sharp glance from the grizzled sergeant. "Good observation Cadet" Bale complimented "But such observations are unnecessary in this situation." Davies nodded obediently as if taking a lesson from schola tutor.
The entrance to the penthouse was a large pair of double doors. Penthouse may have been a misnomer as it really wasn't high-class but it referred to the highest and largest room in the block.
Thall and Cairn moved to each side of the doors and started to test the handles. Cairn gave the sergeant the thumbs up followed by Thall. The doors were unlocked. Bale nodded as he checked his bolt pistol. Davies stood behind Thall with his weapon ready.
Bale stood perhaps in the stupidest position, directly in the middle of the doorway. Cairn rolled his eyes behind his visor but kept his comments to himself, Bale was playing up the 'invincible Arbite image'. He glanced to Thall with a nod. They raised their laspistols ready for the inevitable order.
"Arbites" Bale started "On my order" The tension rose as the sound of gunfire on the other side of the door. "Bring order and justice" he growled and it was done.
The two doors burst open and the Arbites entered, Bale bellowed out as he entered his usual line "He who is without sin on his knees!"
Thall was taken aback for a nanosecond as he checked out his new battle area. The windows were massive panoramic plane glass windows, most of which were shot out by the twenty or so gangers that were stood up against the windows behind knocked over coffee tables, couches along with other pieces of furniture from the surprisingly-well furnished penthouse. This time however there was more cover then the previous room they had previously busted in to. Thall immediately dived behind a unmoved furred couch. He rolled to his knees and immediately popped up laying the laspistol across the soft top. He tapped off a set of shots into the turning mob of civil-rebels.
A cloaked woman rolled next to what seemed like luxurious bed for a mid-level accommodation. She popped up over the top of it and sprayed towards Thall, the autogun rounds punched through the soft fabric but luckily the shots skipped off Thall's shoulder armour but the others went wide.
Another woman in a simple administratum drone-robe turned towards the group with a lasgun in her grip. She fired the weapon in a wide arc of crimson light before ducking behind a toppled table. The shots danced in between the majority of the Arbites. A small clump of shots dispersed on the black plates of the sergeant who returned the favour. The wooden table turned into the splinters and the woman was thrown to the ground, she grunted before the second bolt punched into her back in a display of gore.
Davies kneeled next to Thall as another brace of stubgun rounds flew over their heads. Thall popped up and fired at the autogun wielding woman. A magenta beam speared across the flesh of her cheek, wounding but not killing the victim. She cried out and was sent to the floor clutching the wound. The sudden enfilade fire from a stubber forced Thall further down. Bale brought the ever-deadly bolt pistol around and trained it on the gunner, but a sudden barrage forced him back.
Bale rolled backwards behind a fallen wardrobe. The small calibre rounds embedded themselves into the expensive wood. Bale grunted as a few shot plinked off his helmet. The bolt pistol returned the favour. It punched cleanly through the simple headboard the gunner was taking cover behind.
"Why don't they give us those" Cairn moaned under his breath as Bale picked off the gunners with ease. The grim efficiently of the veteran Arbite contrasted with the obvious inexperience of the young Davies, who fired repeatedly at a single opponent whereas Bale took single shots.
Cairn was easily the most accurate of the arbites; he trained his shots and followed a single target at once unlike his partner who had the unfortunate habit to attempting to juggle multiple targets, which to his credit he had almost refined to an art form.
"Good to see your marksmen skills haven't diminished to much" The voice of Bale growled behind him. Cairn ignored him as he fired a brace into a lasgunner who spent too long in the open.
Thall fell backwards as a autogun round struck him in the side of the head. He dropped and landed with a thud, all sound and feeling retreated from Thall for a moment. All senses failed him for a moment until slowly the feelings returned and his sense of balance stabilised. A cautionary hand moved to the side of his head. He could feel where the bullet hit; he could feel the dent but no penetration. He released a relived sigh, the armour had saved him. He shook away the remaining shock and rose up and fired repeatedly. The once luxurious penthouse was reduced to a mess. The las bolts that flickered between the two groups as well as the various projectiles and the obscene damage the bolt pistol inflicted. The once pristine white walls were repainted crimson by the gunfire.
Despite the hit Thall took the Arbites were definitely coming out on top. The superior training and armour put them ahead of the gunners by far. The gunners however had a definite upper hand in the sheer amount of firepower they could pump out. The autoguns and stubber fired with reckless abandon and complete disregard for any sort of aiming. Another administratum drone with a large autogun blared away on full auto towards Cairn and Bale. His starch white skin shone through the deep red robe of his order. Thall showed him the error of his ways with a single las bolt to the chin.
Thall rolled from cover as what was left of the couch evaporated under the withering fire.
He landed next to the massive bed. Thall threw himself on his stomach and low and behold, he could see the feet of some of the pseudo-gangers. With expert accuracy he placed a single les bolt in about three of them before the tell tale sound told him that one of the said gun wielding crazies was rounding the headboard, or the remains of it, to kill him. Thall whipped his pistol up as he gazed down the barrel of an autogun. Thall unconsciously swallowed, he pulled the trigger as fast as he could only to receive a cough and a splutter from the pistol. Empty.
The crazy dropped suddenly as three las bolts punched into his chest. Thall blinked, he hadn't fired. He whipped his around to see Davies stood tall in the middle of the firestorm with a smoking gun in his grip. Thall chuckled as he pulled himself to his feet, the weight of the armour hindering him only slightly.
"Thank you" Thall mouthed to the Cadet who nodded like he always did. Thall reached down, grabbing the autogun from the dead gunner. The weight was definitely different form the simple distinctive weight of the laspistol. He gripped the handle solidly and pulled it to shoulder. Thall had a sudden feeling of nostalgia. He breathed deep before whipping up over the quilted parapet and training the rifle on the nearest gunner. A millisecond later the head of the ganger was devastated by a short, sharp burst of fire. The kick of the rifle was rebuffed comfortably by Thall. He swung the rifle across the enemy gun line. The weapon barked again and shredded a simple man in simple worker's overall holding a micro-stubber. The autogun felt familiar in the hands of Thall. He breathed in short, sharp breaths, mirroring the weapon he held.
Another prolonged burst into another lasgun wielding thug and the weapon ran dry. Thall threw it forward and it bounced on the mattress. Thall crouched as he retrieved his laspistol and ripped the empty cartridge from the well and slapped home another, his last.
The bolt pistol barked harshly as it started to pick off the remaining ganger. Sergeant Bale was unharmed throughout the fire fight save the few rounds that had dispersed or bounced off the armour. He growled as he put a bolt through a stubber and into the man firing it. The crack of Cairn's laspistol declared the finale to the short, one-sided battle as it sent a rather big man sprawling out of the broken windows with a shot to the chest.
"Good shooting. But I've seen better from you Arbitrator Cairn" Bale grunted as he reloaded. In the end he had expended twelve bolts.
Davies started breathing heavily, in the midst of the battle all sense of self-preservation had vanished from him and he had stood unafraid in the face of enemy fire. He almost puked when the sudden realisation that had been seconds from an idiotic death hit him but a stern hard clap on the shoulder stopped him mid-heave.
"Good work Cadet" Thall breathed as he passed him. "You did well today"
"It's a shame I can't say the same for the rest of you" came a voice from the doors, almost as one the Arbites span with their weapons levelled.
"My my, is that how you greet a superior officer?" A black-cloaked woman half-mocked.
"Detective Calamar" Bale growled as she entered after they lowered their weapons. "Good afternoon Bale" she responded as she glided in, the cloak sticking to her figure like fine mist. "Blood bath as usual eh?" She asked pointedly.
"They resisted arrest" Bale responded in an official tone. "They always resist arrest don't they" she said with an annoyed look and a raised eyebrow towards the grizzled sergeant who just stared back. "Once, Bale, just once could you leave me someone alive enough to interrogate."
Felicia Calamar was one of Lucius Precinct's top investigators. She was like most Detectives in the Adeptus Arbites, a psyker, a low level one but a psyker nonetheless. Her fine cloak hid her pale skin and blue eyes. Thall could see wisps of blonde hair appear form under the hood as she cast her glance around and he attempted to control his thoughts. She smiled slyly as she looked at him, he had failed. They didn't call her the Lucius Angel just because of her insights and investigative skills.
Sergeant Bale turned away from the Detective to look at Arbitrator Cairn. "Your marksmen skills are slacking, you should practice more" He said in his usual grunt. "Oh let the boy go" Felicia sighed "He escaped you, leave it be" Bale threw her an annoyed glare but she just smiled as if immune to Bale's fearsome reputation. She was above his rank but even the Provost knew of Bale and his methods and respected them accordingly.
The Detective reached forward and flipped a toppled but intact chair over and slumped down into it with one leg crossed over the other, displayed her black, slim grox-hide boots that connected to the rest of the body-glove she wore instead of the normal carapace armour she was issued. The brown grox-hide holsters for her bolt pistols were clearly visible as she sat. She rested her elbows on the armrests and meshed her black gloved fingers after flicking the hood off her head, releasing the golden tidal wave of shoulder length hair. She cast a sideways glance at the bed and shook her head "What a waste", a comment that sent a visible reaction throughout Cairn, Thall and Davies. Bale however remained unchanged, if anything his scowl grew deeper. "Useful for interrogation purposes" she finished which made all the men more uncomfortable, except for Bale of course.
Thall moved away from the two powerhouses of authority and moved to Cairn who was stood over a dead gunner. Thall picked up the gunmetal lasgun and checked it over. He was looking for the stock-seal used to mark the weapon. "PDFA5" he whispered under his breath. "What?" Felicia asked quite sharply to Thall who immediately spooked that the Detective heard him but he continued.
"This weapon came from the fifth planetary defence force armoury Detective." Thall responded in a straight tone. He also noted the purple headbands and other assorted colours on all the combatants but decided to say nothing at that point.
"That's the current PDF staging post outside the hive proper" Davies put forward without thinking, he slapped his hand to his mouth. The Detective was here to deduce things, not him.
"Correct Cadet Davies" Felicia smiled kindly to the teenager-in-uniform. He blushed; this prompted another raised eyebrow and a slightly amused chuckle from the Detective. "For bonus points, can you guess how the weapon got into the hands of a civilian rabble?" she questioned.
Davies looked stunned for a second before saying in a unsure tone. "The sudden influx of troops means higher influx of supplies, in turn the higher chance of theft or..." he stammered before falling silent.
"...or some of the PDF troopers are selling their weapons and replacing them by taking them from the convoys from the Manufactoriam or Departmento Munitorum stockpiles." The Detective finished the Cadet's unfinished hypothesis. "You have a good head on you Cadet" she complemented.
"That's a massive breach of security" Bale half-bellowed "Military equipment falling into the hands of underhivers or other villainous scum."
"But that makes no sense" Thall said as he continued to check the bodies, sure enough almost all the weapons, save the stubbers had come from the PDF armouries. Cairn was using the Illuminator to check each person, so far they were mostly clean, blue and white collar workers with one case of minor sexual harassment between the lot of them, and of course the new assault charge they had all incurred.
Felicia and Bale both turned to Thall who continued "Why sell weapons to the people you may have to fight in a few days?"
"Exactly" Felicia responded with all the previous warmth gone from her voice. "Exactly indeed"