Last Bastion, Kahje

Day 1, 1820

"Come on… stupid thing…"

Solara gave the office door a quick whack in frustration, prompting the rest of the squad's eyebrows to rise in unison.

"I thought they taught you how to hack doors?" Ekris murmured, thoughtfully.

"Not. Helping."

"Alright, what's up?" Sarah muttered, somewhat more constructively.

"Power's out to this section," Solara sighed. "I've got the access codes, but they're useless if the mechanism doesn't have the power to open."

"Then knock it down," Irving grunted.

"Sure, because security didn't think of that. This is the governor's office, it's not supposed to be easy to get into…"

"Did security think of biotics?" the marine ventured.

"Yes."

"Omni-gel," Sarah suggested. "Can you do anything with omni-gel?"

"I… maybe," the drell nodded. "Big guy, can you get that panel off?"

She gestured to the door console, and stepped back slightly, taking the cartridge of omni-gel that Sarah passed to her. Irving, meanwhile, stepped up and cracked his knuckles, before frowning, over his shoulder:

"You want the console intact?"

"Please."

The marine just nodded, shifted his rifle in his hands, and:

Clang. He brought the butt of the rifle down on the top of the panel, with the resounding noise of metal on metal. Clang, clang, clang… on the fourth blow, it shifted fully, sliding an inch or two down the wall and dangling free. Irving slung his rifle onto his back, crouched down, and slipped a hand under either side of the panel, carefully pulling it free. It was left dangling by a wire, and with a sarcastic flourish, he stepped away to let Solara work.

"My hero…" she murmured, sardonically. With the three commandoes watching on, she crouched down by the console once more, sliding one slender arm through the hole in the wall and working her omni-tool with the other.

"Question," Ekris grunted. "How exactly is omni-gel meant to put power into that thing?"

"It's not," Solara muttered, voice reverberating in the wall cavity. "But the building has an emergency generator, to make sure doors and security systems still function in the event of a city-wide blackout. I doubt it's been destroyed. More likely the safety systems kicked in when the lower levels flooded. With a bit of omni-gel and some creative use of software…"

"Geez, she sounds like Andersen," Irving whispered, causing Sarah to crack the slightest of grins.

"… we can override them, get the power flowing again. Like… so."

A deep rumble sounded out from somewhere in the depths of the building, and a vague, whirring hum filled the air. The door console, still dangling by a thread, lit up vividly, and Solara was able to extract her arm from the wall before swiping her credentials over the panel.

With a satisfactory hiss, the office came open.

"Okay," Ekris admitted. "That's impressive."

"Thank you."

"But you still can't shoot straight."

"Oh, piss off…"

Sarah decided against getting involved - with a cough, she just stepped between the two drell and entered the administrator's office, the others following in her wake after an awkward moment or two.

The office itself was barren, like the rest of the building. A steel desk, with all of its clutter scattered in an inch of floodwater. A couple of chairs, overturned on either side of it. A large window occupying the entirety of the far wall, which might have been beautiful before the vista outside was battered and turned to ruins. The wall on the left had cracked in two, just next to the filing cabinet - from within the wall, a burst water pipe was spraying out into the middle of the room, producing the water underfoot. As they opened the door, in fact, it had washed out into the corridor outside, carrying detritus from the desk with it.

"No body…" the lieutenant noted, ducking under the pipe spray and moving up towards the desk. "Your administrator's not here."

"That may be a good thing, in the circumstances…" Solara sighed. "Maybe he got out through the sub-level."

"So what now?" Irving grunted. "We done?"

"Almost… give me a minute with the administrator's computer, I'll see what I can recover."

The drell ducked around to the far side of the desk, and neither Sarah nor Irving saw any reason to complain. As she opened up the console and began to tap away, however, Ekris was staring at her. And then, quite suddenly, he was laughing.

"How did I not see that?" he muttered, grinning a little to himself.

"Not see what?" Solara murmured, absent-mindedly.

"This isn't a rescue op, it's data recovery! Grab the files, wipe the database…"

Sarah and Irving just looked at each other, eyes widening slightly, as Solara looked up from the computer to meet Ekris' gaze.

"And?" she shrugged.

"And, you sold them on that 'survivor' bullshit…" Ekris continued, folding his arms. He didn't look angry, more… wait, was he impressed?

"It's not entirely bullshit. The best way to locate survivors is through the maintenance systems - heat mapping, survivable areas, etcetera. And the only access to the maintenance systems is through the administrator's office, or through the terminals in the maintenance tunnels. Down there."

She pointed through the floor, presumably to the deeps beneath.

"Wait," Irving scowled. "Let me get this straight. She was bullshitting us? Made us think she was after one thing, when she was really after another?"

"Mhmm," Ekris nodded.

"You two are bloody perfect for each other…" the marine grumbled. "Now assuming none of this shit matters unless we get out of here, how long do you need?"

"Only a minute or so."

"I'll get on the radio," Sarah sighed. "Mac! Do you copy?"

"We copy," the drell's voice replied, slightly hazy through the static.

"Sitrep?"

"We've found a route to the roof, proceeding now."

"Any signs of life up there?"

"Oh yes. We can hear gunshots. Miss Arness appears to be fighting back."

"Good girl…" Irving grinned.

"Keep us informed," Sarah muttered, ignoring him. "We're almost done here."

"Understood."

The radio faded once more, and Sarah was back in the room. Ekris and Irving were still milling around, weapons in hand, as Solara tapped away at the administrator's console. She flicked through half a dozen different screens, pulled up a holographic display, slid her credentials across it, and cracked the slightest of grins as a ream of data rolled up onto the screen.

"Got it," she nodded. "Saving to my omni-tool, and-"

Thud. Sarah wheeled around, just in time to see the office door slam shut, a glowing red roundel appearing in the centre to seal it.

"The hell?" Sarah frowned, glancing back at the drell. "Did you do that?"

"Why would I do that?" Solara scowled.

"Power ran out?" Ekris ventured.

"No, the console's still working… oh."

"Oh?"

"Oh."

"Let me guess…" Irving rumbled, his features growing thunderous. "Security thought of that one too?"

With a loud whir, a circular hatch in the corner of the ceiling slid aside, allowing a dark metal shape to drop down, fold out, and spin around to aim their way…

"Err… yeah, they did."