Objective:
2
Allies:
Genesis Draykin
|
Eyrin'va |
Astrid Hex
The corridor narrowed into a more defensible pattern, but even here Linegrave noticed the sloppy workmanship. This had been constructed crudely, quickly, a fortification rising up to establish status rather than anything else. In a way it was a palace that just mimicked the basic functionalities of a military base.
Ahead a junction came up.
The first true response arrived: a squad of six in mismatched armor, scrambling to form a line. They had no order, no discipline. They shouted to one another, stumbling over orders, while raising their blasters. It was distasteful. The fact that their spies and infiltrators had clearly wrecked their infrastructure was no excuse to the severe woman.
Linegrave extended her hand and they never got the chance to pull their triggers.
Their weapons were torn from their hands first, wrenched with such force the metal screamed. One rifle backfired mid-yank, cooking off a charge into the man's leg. Then their bodies lifted flailing like caught prey.
She clenched her fist slowly, deliberately.
The air around them compressed, pressure mounting with a deep, sickening groan. Joints dislocated. Bones cracked. One man shrieked as his helmet caved inward, crunching his face beneath it. Another's chest burst open as his armor folded against his ribs.
Then, she slammed them all down in unison. The floor shook. Blood and ruin scattered across the durasteel.
None stood again.
"
Keep moving." she said evenly.
Her boots struck the floor without hurry. There was power in stillness and control. It was a lesson she had taught many a Aegis soul that had potential in leadership. If you hurried, you put yourself out of balance. If there was one thing that mattered in combat... it was retaining your balance. When she moved again, her gait was smooth, unbroken. The slaughter had taken less than five seconds.
Right flank is secure. Astrid Hex is moving through tertiary hallways. Eyrin'va has cleared the east. Draykin is disabling power infrastructure from the rear.
Linegrave's head tilted lightly in acknowledgement and kept pressing forward.
The Cipherum stepped around the wreckage without comment. Behind them, probe drones recorded in silence. A sealed blast door came up in front of them. It was heavily reinforced and locked from within. Linegrave studied it for half a second, then raised both hands. Her fingers spread wide. This would make a lot of noise, giving Hex, Eyrin'ya and Draykin the chance to do even more damage as all attention was drawn to her.
The seams of the door groaned, metal whined in protest. Then the entire slab buckled inward with a deafening scream, folding like a tin sheet under crushing weight. The entire slab crumpled inward and launched across the room. It crushed a technician against the far wall. Crushing him instantly. She stepped through the twisted threshold.
Inside was a command post. There were two officers, and one more technician remaining. They had just watched a friend die against what was supposed to protect them. And still, they tried to resist. One man lunged for the emergency comm. But Linegrave lifted her hand and twisted in the air.
The comm tore loose from its housing and his hand tore with it. A jagged wet separation. His howl of pain echoed off the walls. For some reason they didn't catch the hint yet. Another reached for a sidearm instead, to try and .... do something, she assumed. Linegrave couldn't start to guess why these cretins didn't just fall down and submit already.
She raised her left arm and dragged him sideways through the air, spine-first into the command pillar. He bounced once, but her annoyance got the best of her. She slammed him down like a hammerstrike. A crunch that broke his body in half internally. It was messy, her old trainers would have winced, but it felt good.
The remaining technician cowered as Linegrave loomed large over him.
"
Tell me where he is." she said softly, voice even and cold. "
Or I start pulling pieces off until someone else speaks in your place."
His lip trembled, he looked like a rat, caught in a trap and frozen by indecision.
Clearly the rat needed to be snapped out of his stupor. She reached out with the Force and let it tighten around his knee joint. Not breaking. Just compressing. Enough to feel like it might give with the next breath.
The rat had the nerve to squeal before it quickly uttered. "
Sublevel six, biometric locks, code 3-Rho-7-Krek. Please."
Linegrave immediately dropped him. "
Did you get that, Hex, Eyrin'va, Draykin? Go now, that's an order."
Let them race for the kill. The competition would be good for the young blood. She would not run. She would arrive exactly when she meant to.
