It started quietly. Victor and Carl had relinked up with the main force and they started making their way deeper into the installation. Small groups of fighters were encountered, fighting to protect their leaders deeper down inside the mountain. So when a BlueSword merc went missing, no one immediately noticed. In the act of clearing a room, and Carl backscattering the room to make sure there were no surprises. IT was then, that the man vanished, no one heard the slide of steel hissing from a scabbard. No one saw the curved scimitar blade whipping out. The lash of the blade across the man's chest, the honed steel whispered through the mans vest and cut him open, just a few drops of blood landing on the floor. And somehow the petite woman carried the body out of sight.

It wasn't immediately apparent they had lost one, until they had lost about seven of the mercs. Carl turned to his little group of mercenary buddies who had attached themselves to him and was about to ask for a volunteer to take point on the next part when he quickly counted them. Narrowing his eyes. He asked quietly, "Where's Olez? And Navez?" he took a headcount. Then cued into his helmet mic so he's not speaking aloud and can only be heard by the group, "We may have a problem. We haven't lost anyone to a fire fight since the push into the fort. and I see four missing from my little squad here and I think we maybe another three down in the other squads. I think something's picking us off."

He looked ahead, as Victor, Natalie, Ross and Jenny turned around, and just behind them he saw a small shadow dart away. It was hard to see but it happened, he knew it did. He raised his LMG and was about to fire but Victor stepped in the way to see what he had saw. He swore softly, "It's quick that's for sure. If we kept moving past that point it would have jumped someone else." He turned his backscatter on really quickly to see if he could get an image of who ever just run off. But it was too little too late, "Fuck...okay if you have heat vision or something on your visors turn it on and scan every little nook and cranny we come across. Don't want to step on the officers toes, but we need to be watchful now." One of the mercs moved forward. And the only warning the juggernauts got was a tick and whirring sound before a near invisible set of wires hissed up, and bisected the merc into two pieces. Even Victor took a step back from that one.

Further into the mountain Zara growled, the Lieutenant had been observant. She hadn't set up anything big enough to hurt or kill one of the giants. She only had the time to string a pair of wires up before he had spotted the damage she had done. If he had been a little slower she might have been able to set something up to harm one of the giants. Put one of them out of commission perhaps. But it was not to be. At the moment she was putting together something that would seperate the heavily armored soldiers, the Juggernauts, from the lesser peons. She could deal with the lesser soldiers at her leisure once the heavy ones were done with. she looked at the passage into the room she's in. A wide and long room, barely lit. Perfect for her style of quick hit and run melee tactics. She tied off one last wire. Then disappeared into the shadows.

The Juggernauts lead the way. They were down deep now. likely in the very center of the mountain by now. It's Victor in the lead, shotgun loaded and facing forward. Followed close by Natalie just behind him with Ross, Carl and Jenny just a step behind them. Carl was facing behind them, as much watching the Mercs as he was watching their six. So he almost came face to face with the trap that is set for them. There's a click as someone in front of him trips something. And he jumps backwards, thumping against Ross, pushing him forward against Natalie's ass. And it's a damn good thing he did as the roof slab of the tunnel entrance into the large dark room swings down and a few tons of stone slam down behind it.

Victor turns, a light cannon on his helmet blazing into light, highlighting the collapse. Carl steadies himself, murmuring an apology to his commanding officer. Then turns his backscatter xray on. Getting a pulse quickly, "We just walked into a trap didn't we?" There's a burst of static when the ranking NCO in the mercs calls forward, "Path is blocked. We'll see if we can find a way around. Stay alive!" Carl scans about carefully. Reading the pulses from his backscatter, "I want to go on record that I don't like this." Exercising his right to gripe.

It's faint though but atleast Natalie and Jenny would be able to hear a faint hiss. It's not gas, or air. It's the hiss someone makes when they want to appear menacing. The voice that the person makes is strangely disembodied, "I have you now. I am Zara daughter of Zara. Your deaths are mine to give."

Victor nods, "Okay...this ought to be fun." He swings his light cannon around, that high power flashlight scanning the room, where it doesn't reach there are still deep pools of darkness. The pillars around the room also casting deep shadows and pools of darkness. Carl hrms, "Well...I don't want to sound like an utter nerd...but I think we stumbled into a boss fight somehow..." He makes a quick brass check to make sure he's loaded. And keeps his backscatter going as he scans the room, following the path of Victors high power flashlight.