[indent][indent]“Looks like it,” Koyla answered Sully as he knelt down and stripped the corpse of its omni-tool and tossed it his way. “tell us if you find anything interesting.”

[sub][h3]40:00[/h3][/sub]

[i]I would kill for some tunnel schematics right now.[/i]

The ticking timer in the corner of his HUD reminding Koyla how much limited time that they actually had. If he had more credits to spare he might of been able to acquire the plans from some information broker. In his current financial status such ideas had to be chalked up to well-intended pipe dreams. It seemed no matter where he turned that his financial burdened seem to impose itself upon him. The only thing that kept him going forward was the small reassurance that things would be easier once they finished the job. 

It was the credits in the first place that pushed him towards Sarsi in particular. Any sane individual with even an ounce of combat experience could of told him that sending an untrained crew against a Matriarch that could probably snap all of their necks blindfolded wasn’t the best of ideas. On top of that there was no way that they could level the playing field as they were  forced to storm her castle. Going into a fight against an enemy that had the experience and the combat advantage wasn’t something that was exactly a recipe for success. It reminded Koyla of a time they were chasing after a particular group of slavers in the Verge. The slavers themselves didn’t put too much of a fight, but they lost three of their squads just trying to fight through the traps that the bastards had set up.

All Koyla could do was assure himself that this time it was going to be different. It was a Catch-22, he could back down and lose it all or risk it all. And the thing was at the end of the day Koyla wasn’t much of the type to lay down without a fight. They had to do this because it was the only way. He was an animal with his back cornered against the wall and sometimes that desperation, just maybe lets you do something miraculous. 

Slowly the team began to advance through the tunnels ahead of them. As Sully worked on cracking the maintenance worker’s Omni-tool, they worked their way deeper into the sewage system through sheer intuition and guess-work. The entire system looked identica from one tunnel to the next. Huge cylindrical tubes made up of a gray colored composite concrete, a series of pipes and tubing ran on the ceiling and a single channel of thick slurry like waste drifting through them along their fateful journey to the drains built into the cliff face. While the waste stream probably wasn’t toxic each member of the team made the self-conscious decision to do their best to avoid stepping directly into the slurry 

It was probably for the best, as the rebreather built into Kolya’s helmet was able to filter out the toxins in the air it unfortunately wasn’t able to deal with the smell and it was unpleasant to say the least. Koyla could detect faint hints of sulphur in his nostrils reminding him of his days back at BAaT when some idiot decided to hide eggs from the canteen in the ship’s ventilation system as a prank. Vyrnnus made them clean the latrines for a month.

Thinking of his BAaT days reminded Koyla of two of his new companions Jace and Bel. He knew the both of them at least in passing, it was kind of hard not to considering the cramped quarters and small class sizes. The marine wondered what the odds were of three BAaT kids ending back up together like this. The cynic in him figured that it was quite likely, all BAaT was good for was preparing you for jobs like mercenary or military work. And once the program fell out from underneath them they really didn’t have any other options. And they were the lucky ones who didn’t end up mentally damaged, maimed, crippled or dead in the process It wasn’t like the Alliance was about to provide them with useful ways on how to reintegrate themselves back into regular society. It wasn’t like Koyla didn’t appreciate everything he gained from his service, but the unanswered things that happened at Jump Zero stilled tasted more rotten than the waste water drifting down the tunnel. 


[sub][h3]36:29[/h3][/sub]

As they pushed deeper into the tunnels they began to see more signs of life, particularly along the walls in the form of scribbled graffiti. Most of the messages was in the form of documentation performed by the maintenance crew, sequences of numbers as they recorded measurements from the pipes above or other small notes.One diagram that caught Koyla’s eye sketching out in detail the operating mechanism of one of the above pipes next to it was a simple message written in big bold letters: [b]YOU TURN THE DAMN THING CLOCKWISE TO LOCK IT, THE NEXT PERSON THAT CAUSE ANOTHER LEAK BECAUSE THEY TURN IT COUNTER-CLOCKWISE I SWEAR BY THE SPIRITS...[/b]

Some of the others remained more humorous or personal. The maintenance crews having used the message as some from of hobbled-together messaging system with their colleagues. As entire small dialogues were etched into the stone work. In one corner in particular Koyla saw a long list of chess moves following one after another until in the end a single MATE was scribbled at the bottom and circled. Next to it a new game seemed to be halfway through. 

The messages made Koyla think of the Corpse. He wondered if any of the messages belonged to the unlucky sod, if his chess game would never end up being finished. Koyla tried to make a habit of thinking about casualties on missions, but he couldn’t help. Getting shot in the head and having your body shrivel up from the head in a tunnel full of crap wasn’t necessarily the worst way to go but it certainly wasn’t something that he could recommend to anyone. Not to mention the more selfish thoughts of what the corpse might be a  harbinger for in terms of problems for the mission at hand. And with just his luck, Koyla would get his answer earlier than he anticipated.

[sub][h3]32:51[/h3][/sub]

As they approached left-leaning bend in the tunnel, the static glow of a series of bright lights shined from around the corner. Feeling his stomach churn, Koyla quickly brought up his omni-tool and began to type. Not wanting to risk potentially giving away their position with his voice, he typed up a quick series of commands that would quickly flash across the crew’s visors. They came across as a few simple lines of orange text that read.

[right][sub][b][color=orange]]//- SLOW
//- RADIO SILENCE[/color][/b][/sub][/right]

As the group’s movement pulled back to a crawl, Koyla used the opportunity to navigate his way back to the front of the group. Taking a deep breath he slowly pulled himself forward inching along the tunnel wall as he slowly pulled his head just enough around the corner so that he could peer down the next hallway. Almost immediately Koyla was suddenly blinded by the floodlights that shined in his face. He pulled away blinking waiting as the visor on his helmet automatically began to react to the light being cast, as the faux-glass began to tint itself.

As his vision cleared, Koyla found himself looking down at a large circular intersection where several tunnels seemed to converge with one another. Large floodlights erected on stands stood near the entrance to teach tunnel projecting down them. Surrounding these floodlights were several stack crates of supplies currently being looked after by a dozen or so heavily armed soldiers decked out head to toe in Jormungand heavy hazard gear. Two sentinels leaned against crates near the center of the circle, sentry turrets already deployed. A pair closer to the tunnel that Koyla and the rest were coming up from could be overheard talking to one another. 

“Why the fuck do we have to wear this cumbersome shit?” Asked a gruff voice 

“Because otherwise you would fry from the heat within an hour idiot,” A more high pitch voice responded “and then you wouldn't exactly be doing your job of watching these tunnels would you.”

“I get that, but why do we have to be the ones on tunnel duty?” 

“Because we need to block all of the targets potential escape routes, she doesn’t get out of here alive boss’ orders.” 

“Hmph” The gruff voice snorted “Y’know, if I ever piss her off just do me a favor and shoot me.” 

Koyla felt his heart  get caught in his throat as he saw the color of their gear. It was different from the standard kit, but the black and yellow color scheme and the E emblazoned sun still perfectly announced to the world who they were - Eclipse.

[i]Shit[/i]

The only coherent thoughts going through Koyla’s head were profantines as he pulled his head back. If the Eclipse were assaulting the compound that could only mean one thing: that they were also there for Sarsi. An already difficult mission was steadily getting more and more impossible by the second. Now they didn’t just have to deal with the Matriarch they had to compete for her with one of the most well-known and well equipped merc groups in the Terminus. Koyla tried to think optimistically about the situation thinking about how they could leverage the chaos for their own benefit. It didn’t matter what little benefit they might of gained would be diminished by the same negatives that the situation provided.

The sane part of him wanted to cut their losses and book it and at this point he might of just done that. The problem was that wasn’t an option anymore. They were too far into the tunnels at this point, there heat sinks would fail long before they got back to the Achilles. The only way that didn’t end with them getting killed was pushing forward through the Eclipse, it was to continue the mission. Part of him felt bad for dragging a bunch of unsuspecting souls into what was quickly amounting to a sucide mission, but they knew the risk when they signed up, you didn’t become a mercenary if you were looking for a high life expancity. 

He furiously began to type into his omni-tool sending a message to his squadmates.

[right][sub][b][color=orange]//- ECLIPSE AHEAD
//- 12 TOTAL. TWO SENTINELS WITH SENTRY TURRETS = HIGHEST PRIORITY  
//- NO TIME TO RETREAT. HAVE TO FIGHT
//- MOVE IN ON MY SIGNAL  
[/color][/b][/sub][/right]

[sub][h3]29:59[/h3][/sub]


And slowly Koyla drew his Kessler and peered back around the corner. His eyes focused in on the pipes running above the pair that were still standing by the tunnel entrance. His mind latched on to one of the pipe’s release levers remembering the diagram he had seen sketched in the hallway earlier. He took a deep breath and extended his free hand forward and as he did a pulsating field of blue-energy surrounded him as the Element Zero in his body began to react. Across the tunnel pulled by a distortion of gravity, the lever swung counter-clockwise letting a column of noxious gas into the air. 

“Huh?” said high-pitched voice in surprise.

Before they could react further Koyla let out a single shot of his Kessler not directed at them but toward the stream of gas as Koyla hedged his bets based on the sulphurous smell earlier. And as the round came into contact with the gas, the two mercs screams were swallowed as the noxious gas ignited into a fireball, the sound of the explosion echoing like thunder down the hall. The rest of the Eclipse troops began to yell and pull out their weapons, the Sentry turrets now trained down the tunnel began opening fire at Koyla.

Even as they did Koyla was switching out his Kessler for his Storm and charging forward letting his shields take the brunt of the impact. He took two more steps yelling as he did before he vanished in a burst of biotic energy as he charged forward into the Eclipse soldiers. He didn’t want to risk having their position pinned down, the Eclipse most certainly were packing more heat than them and could certainly fend off any pushes. There only chance was pushing the surprise they gained from the explosion and just hoping that slight nudge was enough to knock them off balance. Koyla with his Vanguard skill set was perfectly adapted for such situations, a fact attested to by most of his career with the Alliance having been spent storming heavily guarded positions. He could make it in and could only hope that the rest of his crew was following through with the push. 

[i]Otherwise... we are all going to die in these blasted tunnels.[/i][/indent][/indent]