Hunter approached the second watertight door and then waved for Aswon to move up next to him. As he closed the distance, he could see that the door was open just a fraction – not enough to create a gap to see though, but enough to make it clear that it wasn't locked and had presumably been used recently. He edged sideways a little to make room for Aswon to listen as well. They stood motionless for about twenty seconds, but having heard nothing but the rushing of water and creaking of pipes, they prepared to enter the room. With a few hand gestures they worked out which sides they were moving to, and then Hunter gave a silent countdown.
As his last finger folded down, he pushed the door open and swiftly moved in and to the right, covering the shorter amount of space with his assault rifle, while Aswon moved in and turned left, using his longer barrelled rifle to cover the length of the chamber.
"Clear!"
"Also clear, at least on top." Aswon responded.
The team moved in, and they slowly and carefully worked down the room, checking around the support pillars and in the bottom of the concrete channel. As with the first room, they found the inspection hatch open and signs of recent water ingress, indicating that more enemies had probably used the hatch to gain access to the dam. At the final segment of the pipes they found another mass of water on the floor, discarded dry sacks, and two of the large anti-tank mines attached to the pipes, with timers running.
Aswon carefully worked his way down, examining the devices carefully and checking them out – they appeared to be identical to the four found in the first room, but these had been attached to the weld points on the massive pipes and they had both a mechanical and electronic timer counting down. The only good news was that they showed a time of just over a two hundred and ten minutes until detonation. He clambered his way back up onto the catwalk to talk with the team.
"Look, there's no way I want to mess around with those. We're talking a different scale to the explosive in the water plant, and I know my limitations. These are military units, and they look Russian in origin. The Russians should have explosives or demolitions experts who can handle these much better than I can. And if one of those goes off in this area…. "Aswon gestured around at the massive concrete tunnel they stood in "the blast wave will propagate back and forth, pulverising everything in here, including us, as well as destroying all the infrastructure. I think we find the people, deal with them and call in the troops."
"What do we do about this one then?" Hunter poked the rucksacks with his toe. "We can't move through the facility carrying a dead weight like this easily.
"I know. What's worse is that I think they're a full mage, just like Tads. I mean in power, not in approach or ideals." Aswon held up a hand to Tads as he qualified her statement, but she still looked too stunned to have taken much offence. "That means if they regain consciousness, they can just astrally project out of their body to go raise the alarm, or look at us from the astral plane. And unless we're actively watching them when they do it, we won't even be aware."
"We can't leave them behind then." Tads struggled to put her words together, concentrating on her pronunciation past the massive headache that pounded at the front of her skull. "Even having them alive is a risk". She looked manifestly unhappy at what she was saying.
"Can we cut out its eyes so it can't see?" Hunter asked.
"No – they'll regenerate pretty much instantly for one thing. And for the other – that's just torture. If they're our enemies we kill them, as quickly and cleanly as possible, but we're not torturing them. I won't be party to breaking the convention like that." There was a tone of finality in Aswon's voice, an indication that this was not a negotiable discussion point. Kai's mind flashed back to the look on his face when he'd been questioning the Mafia thugs up in the hills north of the ranch, and how unhappy he'd looked then. Clearly his opinions had solidified on the issue…
"Ok, we all know I'm not great in a fight. I'll drag them, Shimazu you follow. If you see any hint of astral activity – deal with them. We may have to deal with them anyway, but for now let's try to keep them alive and unconscious, ok? Those bombs are not set to go off until after midnight, so we've got some time."
"I can see where they climbed up onto the gantry, but the trail's cold by the time they reach the exit door." Aswon pointed at a few places where slime and moisture clung to the serrated metal grille that made up the catwalk. "So they clearly came in here, up onto the catwalk after setting the bombs, then headed out into the facility. But beyond that, I've got no idea."
"We definitely need some backup in here then, this place is too big for just us to clear. We need to get word back to Frunze. Does anyone have a signal?" Kai checked his own link again, and watched as everyone else shook their head. Even Marius couldn't punch a signal through the massive rebar concrete structure, to reach the drone hovering outside."
"I can go deliver a message. It might not be the clearest, but we know there's no wards on the hotel." Tads offered. "It won't take me a minute to get there and back, and I can let them know what's going on. But I just need someone to watch my body. Who knows what else is in here with us, and I don't want to have to fight for my body when I get back." She lapsed into silence, breathing heavily as she recovered from the effort of speaking.
"Why not head back to the tilt-wing," Shimazu countered. "Go speak to Vadim, and get him to relay the message, one soldier to another. It might freak them out less than having you appear in the middle of their operations room. And while you're explaining to Vadim, you're also in a safe area in the chopper, behind our wards." Tads went slightly wide-eyed as she looked at Shimazu, cursing herself for not thinking of that as a solution. It certainly made a lot more sense than appearing as a ghostly form in the middle of the division headquarters without warning.
She positioned herself on the floor carefully and projected, then flew up through the thick concrete ceiling and away, heading back to the tilt-wing to raise the alarm, her spirit in tow.
"While we're waiting for Tads to come back, I had a suggestion, Kai." The team leader nodded to Aswon to continue speaking, while he kept an astral watch over Tad's prone body, slumped against the cold wall of the tunnel. "I think we should raise an invoice to the Russians for the work we're doing. I know we got offered refuelling rights, and that's worth plenty to us. But we need to make it clear to them that we're professionals, doing this for the money. Not because we love Russia, or hate Yakut. It might not make much difference if we run into any Yakut forces, but you never know."
"Ok, I see what you mean. Try and make it clear we're not at war with Yakut, we're just doing a job. I'm not sure we should ever take a job with them against the Russians – I think that would be bad." Everyone nodded vigorously at that – it was unlikely the Russians would ever forgive them or not expect them to make use of information they had gained! "But yes, we'll speak to them and make it clear we're doing it for reward. We'll do the job as best we can, but it's just that – a job, not a cause."
"Good stuff. As you say Kai, it might not help much, but it's worth a shot. Now the other thing is – I wonder if we can work out where the other bombs are likely to be. I mean we saw the place from the outside, so we've got an overall idea of the general layout." He squatted down and dragged a finger through a puddle by the edge of the tunnel walls, and then used it to sketch a very crude map on the dirty floor. "River here, lake the other side. Big box for the dam. We came in here, and there's generators at each side. Those big pipes are the overflow pipes I think you said, Hunter?" He glanced up and waited for the ork to nod. "Ok, so they have planted two here. So I guess they were going to put two on the other side. That leaves at least four they were planning to put elsewhere. Hmm. I don't get why they were putting them on these pipes through, and not the ones going to the generators?"
Hunter stepped over and with his boot, scuffed the middle of Aswon's map, giving the tribesman a smirk as he did so. Before Aswon got a chance to object verbally though, he worked his boot back and forth a little.
"Because, we're in the middle of the dam here, while the generators are next to each shore. Here, where my foot mark is, is the highest area of pressure, furthest from the supporting forces of the dam banks. And by the looks of things, these pipes run straight through from the lake to the river, taking the water if you need to bypass the generators. So if you blow these, the water will want to follow this path, and not go via the generators at all – so even if you don't blow the dam, you cripple it for power generation, which is a worthwhile secondary goal anyway."
Aswon frowned as he looked down at his partially obliterated map. It seemed to make sense though…
"So, I think for the width of the dam, there's probably another pair of chambers like these ones, further up and towards the lake, on an incline. And if I was doing it, I'd put another pair of bombs there, offset by a few seconds from these." Aswon looked up at him in confusion.
"Why not at the same time – that way you're maximising the shock damage?"
"You're too used to blowing things up on the surface. Don't forget these pipes are full of water, not air. Air compresses – a lot. I mean, you saw that artillery strike and the blast wave – that's the shock front of air compressed as far as it will go, then having to be forced away from a point. But water's not like that. If those bombs in there go off, the blast wave will actually push or displace the water away from the blast, creating a void. It won't last long – but it will push a slug of water up and down the pipes, creating a massive over-pressure wave. If the second explosion goes off just as the water slug is coming back, you could triple the pressure increase or more as the water rushing back is accelerated by the second blast source. Maybe enough to overcome the design rating for things like these doors, or the tunnel itself."
"That's one option. The other one would be to find an area of the dam where there's a cross tunnel or brace, at a ninety degree angle to the first blast. Again, you'd offset them, so that the second blast goes off just after the first, and generates a massive shear force, hammering at the water slug you've created and driving it sideways. It's a way the water was never, ever, naturally going to flow, so the structure isn't designed to take that kind of pressure or force. Once you've made even a crack in a wall or tunnel, the massive pressure of the lake will turn the water into a jet, and it'll just cut like a torch through the material, blasting its way through the dam. Cut a hole in the middle, the jet will eat away at the edges, and then the whole thing will go."
Tads stirred next to them, painfully climbing to her feet, swaying slightly with the effort. Without realising it she stood in the middle of Aswon's drawing, her shuffling footsteps eradicating any remaining marks.
"Ok, I spoke to Vadim, told him 'bout the bombs, and to get the Colonel. He's on it." She flinched to the side as there was a flash of movement, a zapping noise and the faint whiff of burning flesh. Shimazu lowered the taser and checked the remaining charge, then bent to examine the freshly stunned mage.
"He was starting to wake up. it looked like. Back unconscious now. And he was burnt, but it's just faded away – so it's definitely still alive and regenerating."
"Ok, well the alarm is raised. Let's move out. Hunter, can you see if you can sniff out any whiff of the explosives they're carrying or the gear?" Hunter nodded to Kai, then started to scent the area, looking for some of the key markers found in the explosives they'd found earlier. He caught a faint whiff coming from the wider vehicle tunnel, and led the team down the arched passageway, once more heading to the second generator room. This tunnel was both wider and higher, but seemed to run a parallel course to the first tunnel they had used, depositing them about halfway along the wall. Hunter and Aswon ran on ahead, following the trail, while the rest of the team dragged their captive along behind them. As they emerged from the tunnel they were spotted again by one of the engineers who shouted at them and pointed to his own ear defenders.
"Aswon, can you do that aura checking thingy, I'll distract him. See if he's hiding anything?" Hunter waited for Aswon to nod, and then turned to face the approaching engineer, who slowed dramatically when Hunter smiled at him. Hunter cut an imposing figure, his orkish build and two metre height giving him a solidity that was quite intimidating on its own. The sight of the hi-tech assault rifle cradled in his arms certainly leant him a dangerous air – but it was the grin on his face that revealed the large tusks and twisted his visage dramatically that probably did it. Hunter knew he wasn't pretty – but he'd never really cared for what anyone else thought about him, and some edge of that leaked through in his stance. The engineer came to a halt, just inside what might be seen as conversational range, but he didn't challenge the strange armed man wearing combat armour and brandishing a gun that had appeared in his workplace.
"My friend here has a question for you. You'd better answer him quickly and honestly." Hunter didn't need to make any verbal threats – his stare and body language conveyed his thoughts more than clearly enough. The engineer swallowed obviously, and listened as Aswon asked him if he'd seen any strangers – other strangers – wandering around the dam, or any new staff.
"He's shit scared, but seems to be telling the truth. Do you want to round up the other two, and I'll check them over as well?" Aswon muttered to Hunter, who nodded and then set off to find the other two engineers they'd seen working this side of the dam.
"Why are you in here with guns?" the engineer asked.
"Military inspection. Don't worry, it's all cleared with the General and your boss. Mr Eckarts, I think his name was. Anyway, it's all fine." Kai called out, as he stepped out of the tunnel, taking over the conversation from Aswon. As the others looked around, Aswon told them about his assensing, and then pointed to the other two engineers that were being herded over by Hunter, clearly frightened. The team checked them over, and immediately got a bad vibe from the second engineer. His aura was spiking – not just with fear, but also with guilt, and he kept subconsciously looking at one of the doors in the east wall of the room.
"Hunter! That one!"
"HANDS UP NOW!" The assault rifle swung up to cover the guilty engineer, and Hunter closed rapidly, placing the barrel on the back of his neck, the cold metal pressing into the warm flesh just above the collar of his boiler suit.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, don't kill me, PLEASE DON'T KILL ME." Hunter saw the change in expression from the team, and a few smirks, then looked around for the source. It was only when his sensitive sense of smell picked up the strong waft of ammonia that he realised the engineer had lost control of his bladder…
It took a minute to interrogate the engineer and to find out what had happened, and to check out his story – but they confirmed that he was guilty because he'd been slacking off earlier in the shift and hadn't cleaned the filter for turbines one and two like he was supposed to, instead slacking off to go for a smoke break and browse some porn. They checked the equipment over with the other engineers, just to confirm that everything was as it should be, but found no other signs of missed maintenance and definitely nothing like sabotage. One of the engineers did find a schematic of the dam though, which he handed over to the team, giving them a better idea of the maze of tunnels, rooms, service ducts, crawl ways and access shafts that ran through the structure.
"Right, what I need you to do is put as many of your systems on automatic or safe as you can, and then evacuate the dam. We've found explosive devices in the spillways, and we've called in the demo experts and engineer regiment to deal with them. You need to get outside and wait for them, and then act as guides and help them make the place safe, understand?" Kai spoke to the trio of engineers, who nodded in agreement. "When they come, tell them the specialist team is in the dam, looking for the other saboteurs, and trying to deal with them. But they need to come in and defuse the live charges as soon as possible. Got it? Good. Oh, one last thing – stay in a three while you're waiting for help to come. If any one of you starts to act oddly, it's up to the other two of you to capture them. Some of the enemy can try to cloud your judgement and make you do odd things. On your way now."
Suitably terrified, the three engineers headed for the fire exit out of the generator room, leaving the team alone in the large noisy hall, surrounded by massive turbines and generators.
"Oh hey!" Hunter shouted out. The three engineers stopped and looked at him fearfully. "Who is Eckart's father?" He listened as one of the engineers shouted something back, only catching part of what he said – but it was enough to recognise the word 'politburo'. Oops. He shrugged, then waved for them to carry on towards the exit, and rejoined the group. "Yeah, might be time to leave after this job anyway…"
They studied the schematic given to them by the engineer and worked up a plan of action. Kai and Shimazu would drag the captured shapeshifter with them, and travel back down the vehicle tunnel to the first generator room, and check over the engineers there for any signs of traitors or saboteurs, dealing with them if they found them. Or rather Shimazu would deal with them, while Kai offered moral support… After that, assuming that nobody was found, they'd get the machinery there made safe and evacuate the engineers that side too, with the same instructions to find the MPs or engineers when they came, and lead them to the bomb site – that way no matter which bank of the river the reinforcements arrived on, there would be someone there to meet them.
Meanwhile, Hunter, Aswon, Marius and Tads would go through the third pedestrian tunnel, to the lakeward side of the dam that they hadn't been in yet. According to the schematic, it did lead to a small network of tunnels that ran the full length of the dam, and included two more access chambers for the spillways, which seemed a likely place for the second set of charges. As soon as Kai and Shimazu were done with their side of things, they would close in on the same position from the other side, coming at them in a pincer motion.
None of them were happy about splitting up – but there was too much ground to cover if they stayed in one group, and though the first set of bombs had hours to go, they didn't know what would happen if and when the enemy became aware of their presence.
Hunter and Aswon led the way down the small tunnel on foot, with Marius behind them, guiding Tads along with a hand on her shoulder, while Kai grabbed a strap on the rucksack and struggled to drag along the body, watched over by Shimazu.
The small tunnel looked identical to the first – making it impossible for anyone to see past Hunter as he padded along as quietly as possible. Aswon had to crouch to avoid scraping his head on the peak of the roof, having to adopt a weird crab-like scuttle as he edged along in Hunter's wake. As they progressed through the tunnel they found the layout differed slightly from their previous experience. While the downstream tunnel had one central access cross tunnel which branched off at a crossroads to the water pipes on either side, in this tunnel there were two separate cross tunnels, much longer than the first, and each gave access to only one spillway.
Fortunately the cross tunnels were larger and higher, and Aswon could move out to stand alongside Hunter and stand fully erect, easing the strain. No sooner had they moved into the cross tunnel though, did they spot a shape in the distance. About forty meters up the tunnel, a lone figure emerged from an access way and turned to face away from them, walking towards the end of the tunnel. Hunter raised his rifle to track the figure, but he didn't fire immediately – it could have been a legitimate worker after all. Instead he started to move slowly up the tunnel, placing his feet carefully and rolling each step from the edge of his foot to the flat, trying to move as quietly as possible. Aswon signalled Marius and Tads to hold, then followed along, his rifle held ready across his chest.
Aware that he wasn't as quiet as either of the lead pair, Marius stopped just inside the tunnel, carefully raising his sub-machine gun and checking there was a round ready to fire, then made sure Tads had stopped moving as well, watching as she leant against the wall and rested her forehead on the cool concrete as she tried to stay as quiet as possible.
The figure turned back suddenly, and retraced his steps, patting at his or her pockets as they did so, as if trying to find some misplaced tool or item of equipment. Just as they were about to turn back into the accessway they had first come from, they looked up and faced straight down the tunnel. Hunter froze, trying to remain absolutely motionless, aware that the eye was normally drawn to motion rather than shape, and hoping that in the dimly lit tunnel his camo gear would make him blend into the background.
"Military patrol!" the shout was loud, echoing up and down the tunnel, reaching them clearly and presumably whoever the figure was warning around the corner. Hunter cursed and pushed off the wall where he'd been trying to blend in, but it was Aswon who was quicker off the mark and snapped off a shot first. The rifle round boomed in the corridor, the sharp retort blasting off the tunnels in a deafening crescendo, and the round hit the target centre of mass, sending the figure twisting and sprawling to the ground. Somehow they managed to direct their fall though, and rolled around the corner of the tunnel and out of sight, back to the area they'd first come from. Behind him, Aswon heard Marius clattering forwards, his SMG raised ready to assist, leaving Tads propped up at the corner of the passageway.
As the last echoes of the gunshot started to fade away, they could make out a few sharp breaths being reflected and distorted by the acoustics of the tunnel, before it all went quiet again for a moment…
Unaware of the gunfight, Kai and Shimazu pushed on down the wider vehicle tunnel – struggling a little with their prisoner, but making better overall time thanks to the wider access way and feeling a lot more secure in where they were headed. As they emerged back into the first turbine hall, they were spotted by one of the engineers who looked at them with confusion. Kai waved for him to approach, and continued to drag over the body towards him, and shouted loudly at the other engineer who was working down the hallway, gesturing for him to approach also.
As the two engineers headed their way, both Kai and Shimazu examined them, looking at their auras carefully and watching for signs of alarm, deception or hostility. Kai let the strap slide on the bag, lowering the rucksack to the ground so he could stand unencumbered and talk with the engineers – and was unaware that as he did so, a hand flopped out of the space between the two bags, lying limply on the ground. The two engineers did spot it though, and their body language changed at once, and they radiated alarm and hostility. There was a gentle zing of steel slicing through the air, and Shimazu sprang forwards, sword raised towards them, ready to strike as he misread their concern over what they had seen as hostile action.
Kai was as surprised as the engineers were though, and stepped forwards to flank Shimazu, holding a hand up to try and stave off any hostile swordplay.
"Gentlemen. Hello there – I'm specialist Kai. We've got a problem in the dam, it appears that enemy forces have infiltrated and started to plant explosives. Don't worry, we're here to help, and the army has been notified and have bomb disposal engineers on the way. But for now, there's enemy agents in the dam, and we're going to have to ask you to leave for your own safety, until they get here."
"Why have you got a body in a bag?" the first engineer blurted out, pointing a finger at the rucksacks behind Kai and not realising how close he had come to having his hand severed from his arm. "How do we know we can trust you?"
"Well, we've got a body in the bag because the prisoner probably has vital intelligence about the upcoming attack, and how to disarm the massive anti-tank mines attached to strategic parts of your dam. You don't know you can trust me – not until the military get here and you find us ordering them about and trying to stop the whole place from being blown up. But the most important factor is one you haven't mentioned – and that's if you don't do as you're told, my friend here is likely to become upset, and as you may have noticed he's holding a very sharp sword…"
The engineers glanced over to Shimazu as Kai described him, and his dark eyes stared at them, unblinking, while the sword was held perfectly still in the air.
"So, I'd suggest that much like the engineers at the other end, you put the generators to automatic, set the systems to keep running and come with us outside, where you can listen in while I call the Colonel and get some troops moving." With that, he ushered the two engineers towards the exit, stopping only long enough for them to set the safety features on each generator as they passed. They seemed very unsure of the whole situation, but also had taken to heart the comments about swords, and weren't keen on finding out just how sharp it was.
Hunter pulled a flash-bang grenade from a pocket, twisted the top off and then threw the grenade down the tunnel. His throw was on target, and the grenade ricocheted off the wall and into the access way – only for it to bounce out a moment later as it struck some unseen obstacle. It skittered back into the main passage, striking the wall again before bouncing back in the right direction, most of the momentum now spent. He calmly hit the transmit button on his comms and called out a warning, then engaged the flare compensation filters on his cyber-eyes, waiting for the grenade to explode.
Back at the corner, Tads couldn't see what was going on, but she heard the warning shout. She took a moment to try and concentrate, pushing out her shielding and spell defences to protect her team from magical attack, and then faced away from the tunnel, putting her hands over her ears and opened her mouth, scrunching her eyes tightly closed. She wasn't sure how big the blast was going to be in the tunnel, but she knew she was having a hard time staying focussed, and if she passed out, she'd tie up another member of the team looking after her, which would be a very bad thing. Mentally she tried to count the seconds, bracing herself for the detonation.
Aswon had his rifle aimed down the tunnel, but moved as far as he could to the right, getting close to the tunnel wall. He had a fraction of a second to decide what to do, and tried to work out if it was better to look away now and risk someone peeking out at them and shooting, or to stay on cover and risk being blinded by the flash-bang. In the end, he stayed on the rifle, using the wall for as much cover as possible and took the risk on loosing vision for a few moments. Marius had an easier time of it – he used the bulk of Hunter's body as a shield, moving up to stand behind him and getting ready to move around as soon as the explosion took place.
Hunter scrabbled in a pocket and pulled out a second grenade, and twisted the top off this one too – but only moved the timer around a quarter of the way before launching it down the corridor. His throw was good again, and it landed near the first one, once more having struck something unseen around the corner and bouncing back and forth. In his head, he counted down, getting ready to open his mouth, close his eyes and weather the blast too.
3…
2..
1.
The flash bangs went off, the magnesium powder igniting and being rapidly oxidised by the layer of potassium perchlorate laced above and below it. The percussion charge detonated, and air was forced into the honeycomb lattice ringing the main charge, before the thin outer structure gave way, and a two hundred decibel thunderclap slammed into the walls. A visible shockwave exploded out of the side tunnel as the pressure wave vaporised the moisture on the walls and ceiling, sending a wave of mist roiling down the corridor, illuminated by the eight megacandala light pulse.
A split second later, the other end of the blast wave erupted through the open door into the chamber holding the spillway pipes, and blasted a rucksack through the air before it, where it slammed into the Type 91 Anti-tank mine with just enough force to trip the manual trigger. Five kilograms of Russian plastic explosive detonated, the shaped charge focussed on the top of the mine, turning the casing into a white hot metal spike that blasted outwards at over a thousand metres per second. Designed to defeat the armour of heavy ground vehicles, the plasma jet sliced through the pipes with ease, superheating the water behind and causing it to flash boil to steam, sending a shock wave rippling through the pipe back and forth.
A fraction of a second later, as the steam vented explosively from the pipe, tearing the hole burnt through it from the plasma blast wider, the water pressure rose tremendously as the blast wave contracted back inwards. Two opposing high pressure water fronts slammed into each other and finished the job, and with a screech of metal the pipes sheared through, venting tens of thousands of litres of cold water into the chamber. The blast from the mine reverberated through the structure, far deeper and louder than the flashbang, and giving it a low rumble that persisted for several seconds as the blast wave echoed back and forth up and down tunnels and in some cases completely around an area, until the blast wave could be heard coming from multiple directions.
Kai paused for a moment as he thought he felt something – but then dismissed it as just more machinery noises, or the clunking of the turbines, and continued to shepherd the engineers out. When they got near the entrance lobby, they two engineers spotted the shift manager laid out on the floor in the reception area, a dark bruise covering the side of his face.
"I guess we'd better get your boss out of here as well, hadn't we?" Kai frowned, already struggling with dragging along their captive. He didn't want Shimazu to take the body, as that would certainly make him less combat effective, and he didn't want the engineers to get any funny ideas. The problem resolved itself though when one of the engineers grabbed a foot and walked towards the entrance, dragging the chief engineer along behind him. The leg that wasn't held twisted and caught on the door threshold, but the engineer just pulled harder, twisting the leg up and behind the body, while the head scrapped and bounced along the floor. Clearly there was no love lost between them, and the other engineer made a point of not moving to help or support the head in any way. Kai shrugged – not his problem, and followed the engineers out into the cool evening air.
As soon as he was clear of the building, he reached inside his jacket and pulled out his phone, then hit the Colonel's number.
Back in the tunnel, the explosion died away and the team there knew something was wrong – they could hear the roar of water as it exploded from the rent in the pipe. The design of the dam worked through – as the wave of water slapped into the side of the chamber, the pressure wave hit the door and the heavy bulkhead swung shut with a resounding clang. The more water that lapped at the far side, the tighter the door was pressed into the frame, the thick rubber seals binding tighter and tighter together. For the moment, the door held fast, with nothing but a few litres making it through from the first wave.
A figure appeared around the end of the tunnel, leaning out from cover just far enough to expose their head and right arm, waving their carbine down towards the team. As soon as they appeared through, Hunter let rip with a tightly controlled burst from his assault rifle, sending the target reeling back towards the other wall and sending bullets spraying out in an arc as their aim was driven off target. Marius leant around the ork's bulk and fired a shorter burst at the now exposed figure, his rounds impacting in the chest and smashing through the armour plates the enemy wore.
A moment later another figure leant around the opposite corner, again just a head and a hand, but this time the hand was empty. It made a flicking motion and then clenched into a fist, punching forwards about one hundred millimetres and then stopping abruptly. Aswon caught sight of the wave of magical power as it flew down the room, carrying the force of the punch across the intervening distance and watched as Hunter staggered slightly as he took the impact of the punch on his chest. It didn't seem to affect him much though, and he put a second string of shots into the target that he'd just shot, trying to finish it off. He hit with all of his rounds, and the target slumped and slid down the wall into a heap, leaving a trail of blood down the wall behind him.
Marius though switched targets quickly, pumping a three round burst into the exposed arm of the second figure, hearing a scream of pain as the bullets impacted the arm and shattered bones.
Tads was still at the back, and very confused. The explosion didn't sound right for a flash bang, and the tunnel walls wobbled and swum in her vision. She wasn't quite sure what was going on, but she knew she had to keep her defences up to keep her team mates safe. She risked a glance around the corner to make sure they weren't being outflanked, and watched as the string of lights undulated up and down as the tunnel swayed in her vision. She clung to the edge of the tunnel and quietly threw up, clenching her eyes closed to try and cut down on the stimuli.
Outside, Kai hit the speaker button as the call connected.
"Colonel Frunze?"
"Yes, Kai. Your man Vadim has just finished briefing me. We have an engineer platoon on the way to you know in trucks, with some more being pulled from the regiment across the river. I've also sent over a regiment of MPs with orders to secure the site and take everyone into custody until they've been checked out and cleared by either you or one of our mages. Hold fast, we're coming."
"Excellent Colonel. Well, we've got one magical target in custody, not interrogated yet. Can we request some powerful sedatives or tranquilisers, and a couple of mage-hoods if you have any?"
"I'll get that organised now. Do you need anything else?"
"No sir, we're on top of things. Excuse me though, I need to go catch up with the rest of the team and make sure they're ok. We've got no comms out of the building due to the construction, and it's very broken if we're split up by any distance."
"Good luck, then. The MPs have your description, and will follow your lead. Frunze out." Kai flipped the commlink closed, and raised an eyebrow at the two engineers, one of which still held Eckarts foot in his hand. They smiled wanly and gave shallow nods to him, not prepared to argue with him now.
"When the MPs come, surrender to them at once. We're pretty happy you're not saboteurs, but they'll want to check you out anyway. But they will need help getting to the two bombs in the North West spillway, so be ready to help them, ok?" Two more uncertain nods were returned, but he didn't have time to do anything else, so he turned and headed back into the building, with Shimazu on his heels. He started to head straight down the passage way they'd first explored, and as he strode forward he called on the spirit Tads had assigned to him at dusk.
"Spirit, can you go into the room at the end of the passage, and through the door in the back corner, then down the stairs. Have a look at the bottom of the stairs, in the area down there, and if you find people moving around down there, come back and tell me?" The spirit zoomed on ahead of him, visible only in astral space as a roiling cloud and disappeared through the doorway. "Shimazu – I get the impression that we're probably not going to find too many more employees now, so chances are anyone we come across is a bad guy."
Shimazu responded by lengthening his stride, gently pushing past Kai to the take the lead position. He rammed the door open and strode quickly into the maintenance store, his eyes quickly glancing around the room, before he headed to the door in the back corner and checking the paint cans. They were all still in position – nobody had come through the door it seemed.
Back in the cross tunnel, there was another enormous clang as the second bulkhead door slammed shut at the other end of the pipe chamber as it rapidly filled with water, sending another painfully loud noise reverberating through the facility.
Aswon and Hunter both saw the target at the end of the corridor suddenly blink out of existence, and did a double take. Aswon quickly checked in astral space and caught the lingering remains of a spell in the area, and wondered if the figure had been an illusion all along – if so it was very convincing, and meant they were facing a mage of considerable power.
Marius had been keeping his weapon trained on the other side of the tunnel, watching in case the second figure appeared and tried to attack again. He was the first to see the wall of the tunnel ripple and start to distort, then slowly start to flow across the face of the tunnel. He cried out in alarm, and the others looked down to see the entire end of the tunnel start to liquefy and flow together. They charged down towards the dwindling space, but they were too far away – they were still a good five metres away by the time the end of the passage had been sealed entirely shut. That lent credence to the power of the mage – they'd listened to Tads carefully enough to understand that it needed a powerful spell to manipulate heavily processed materials like concrete and steel.
They glanced back as they heard a noise, but saw only Marius guiding a very shaky Tads up towards them, and they both moved to give her space to examine the freshly erected barrier. While she was checking out the spell, they glanced into the side tunnel and saw the body of the first man they'd seen. It looked like Aswon's shot had done more damage than at first sight, and for some reason it hadn't regenerated the damage. The flashbangs had probably stunned it, and it had been lying right in the path of the main blast from the anti-tank mine which appeared to be the cause of death.
"Looked like a stone-shaping spell, just like I use," Tads muttered as she staggered over to them. On seeing the figure on the floor, she stabbed down at it with her staff, wedging the tip deep into the flesh, and then she just rested her body weight on it, driving it further in. The creature gave no sign of movement as the magical tip slid into the flesh. "Yep, Thassa ded'un."
Hunter had pulled up the schematic, and zoomed in on the area they stood in, then gestured with his finger.
"Look if we go back down to the small passage, along, and take the next left, we get to the mirror image of this side, and get to the other spillway. We need to check that for bombs too. But more important, that's the second cross-tunnel, and that gets us to the other side of this barrier. But we gotta move fast or they'll block that one off too". A moment later, he and Aswon were sprinting back down the way the team had come, while Marius grabbed hold of Tads and dragged her along after him.
Back in the maintenance room, Kai gave a start as the spirit suddenly manifested in front of him.
"People downstairs, in rooms below. Several people." Kai paused for a moment, his thoughts racing and then turned to Shimazu.
"Kill the captive. We're going to have to go sort those people out, and we can't be dragging him along too." He watched dispassionately as Shimazu sliced through the bag straps and pulled it free then decapitated the mage, checking to be sure the creature actually died and didn't start to regenerate. Just as he was wiping the blade clean, all the lights in the room turned off in the same instant, plunging the room into blackness.
"Crap, they cut the power. Come on Shimazu, we need to get down there."
"Err Kai – I can't see. And we were in a rush. I think night vision goggles are back in the chopper."
"Oh."
Kai pulled out his commlink and pressed the button, and the backlight on the keys let him faintly make out the shape of Shimazu, standing frozen in place with sword held mid wipe. His elven vision was poor with this little light – but Shimazu with his merely human eyesight would be effectively blind.
"Crap. Ok, let me think."