Rene pulled himself to his feet, the pain in his chest told him that armor or no armor he would have bruises tomorrow, but that was both cheap at the price and presumed he would still be alive tomorrow. The room they were in appeared to have been a conference room of some kind, though the blast that had shattered the window had also tossed the central table up against the wall. Stationary of various sorts smouldered amidst the wailing firearms and though it was unlikely the fires would spread the smell of burning carpeting itched at Rene’s sinuses. 

“Decimal, is there a path to the PEA that is clear of hostiles?” he asked, unslinging his weapon and checking to make sure it was in working order. The building shook with another massive blast as one of the APCs fired its plasma cannon. Ghostly ionic lightning clug to the wiring concealed beneath the plaster walls for a moment and then winked out as the aftershock dissipated. Rene had never been in a true battle before, and most of his fighting had been against poorly trained GIDs, he didn’t relish going up against the Dukes trained forces if it could possibly be avoided.

“There are no hostiles in the building,” the AI responded in its flat emotionless voice. Rene frowned for a moment and then remembered that to Decimal all of the combatants currently shooting each other to pieces had a perfect right to be here. Mia would not have made such a mistake but then the AI was probably more expensive than Decimal and certainly more sensitive to social currents.

“Consider everyone other than Solae and myself a hostile and answer the question,” he restated, moving to the door and inching it open. Beyond the door stretched a long corridor with red and grey carpeting in a standard Imperial pattern. Doorways stood every few meters, all closed as per the automated fire protocol to reduce airflow. Red light blinked intermittently above to provide emergency lighting. 

“There are no such pathways sir,” the AI responded unhelpfully. Rene ground his teeth, wishing they had the time and ability to upload Mia into the system.

“The way with fewest then,” he snapped.

“Ascending via stairway delta three will take you past five members of General Bhast’s security detail,” Decimal responded. Rene had never heard of a General Bhast but the Imperial Marines were deliberately kept segregated from the GIDs and sector defense forces, afterall they were supposed to exist to exercise the Empress’s will when local forces proved inadequate or disloyal. 

“That is the fewest?” Rene asked in puzzlement.

“They are in front of the door to the PEA control center,” Decimal expanded, “all routes that lead to the PEA pass through that access point.” That made sense to Rene, though it was a tribute to the discipline of these men that they hadn’t abandoned the post when the shooting started. 

“Ok,” Rene said gesturing Solae to follow him.

“Guide us and open all doors between here and there,” he instructed as they headed out into the corridor. Rene took the lead sweeping the barrel of his carbine left and right as they moved down the hallways. Decimal might not believe there were any enemies in their path, but it would have been foolish to take the AI at its word, particularly given it hadn’t recognised people shooting at each other  might be hostiles without Rene’s prompting. 

The AI guided their way by way of turning the red alarm lights blue and it only took a minute to reach the central stairwell. Rene opened the door and recoiled, slamming it shut, as a blast of blue fire leaped up the shaft as a plasma cannon strike shook the building. He heard the click-whir of an anti armor rocket deploying and then a secondary explosion as something was lit up by the breaching charge such weapons carried. Rene suspected one the APCs had been hit. That was good, as it meant that Bhast’s troops weren’t having it all their own way. Rene’s major concern had been that the professionals would mop up the mercenaries too fast to allow them entry, but it seemed Ralch’s men were giving a good accounting for themselves.

“All troops loyal to Superintendent Ralch, lay down your weapons and you will be spared,” an icy female voice boomed from the public address system built into the wall.

“Decimal disable access to all systems for anyone except Solae and myself,” Rene snapped, embarrassed not to have thought of it before. The PA system fell silent instantly as the speaker, General Bhast he presumed was cut off. Rene opened the door again, the stair shaft was smokey and reeked of the actinic discharge of a heavy bore plasma weapon.

“Ok we need to run,” he told Solae and then suited action to words by darting up the spiralling stair way, the muzzle of his weapon scanning the upper coils of the spiral for any enemies. If she had been trained, Solae would have covered the lower approaches, but the plasma blast had probably collapsed any possible access and there was no time to worry about it. They reached the top floor door indicated by Decimals blue dot and Rene pushed it open. Twenty yards down the hallway stood five men in grey battle armor hunkered down behind overturned tables and office machinery that had been toppled to provide improvised barricades.

“Friendlies hold your fire!” Rene shouted, pulling Solae out of the stairway before firing a long burst down into the shaft. The bullets smashed harmlessly into the walls, spraying the interior of the shaft with shattered plastocrete.

“Get ready they are coming!” he screamed and dashed towards the enemy, pulling Solae with him.

“Get down!” one of the soldiers yelled and Rene and Solae threw themselves onto the carpet, a mere handful of meters before the fireteam. A pair of grenades flew over their heads into the shaft and detonated with a hollow crump, the back blast coating them in shattered plaster. Hands seized the pair of them and dragged them over the makeshift barricade depositing them on their rumps within the enemy defensive perimeter. 

“How many…” a grizzled looking squad leader, began to ask before his eyes widened, taking in the minute differences between the erzatz armor Ten had provided and his own. He opened his mouth to scream a warning but Rene thrust the barrel of his carbine into the man's stomach and pulled the trigger. The carbine snapping discharge pitched the man over with a spray of ceramic shards as the armor gave way, blood gouted from his lips as he clutched at his chest for a moment before going limp. Rene jumped to his feet and put three rounds into the next closest soldier, catching him in the neck and head with a flash of red. A hatchet faced woman with a heavy automatic weapon swung her weapon to bear, but before she could manage it the sharp whap whap whap of Solae’s pistol made her stagger and fall in a puddle of spreading blood. Rene tried to get a shot off at the next closest opponent but they fellow dove at him driving him to the ground and smashing him back against one of the heavy tables with enough force to make him see stars. The man drove a vicious headbutt towards Rene’s face but the marine dropped his chin so the blow fell on the peak of his helmet rather than against his forehead. Something hot stung his right side but Rene had no time to worry about it. Dropping his carbine he pulled the cutting bar from his belt and thrust it up underneath the bottom flange of the mans ceramic breastplate. The bar whirred as Rene triggered it, alternating diamond cutting chains slicing deep into the mans intestines. Shrieking the soldier grabbed at his stomach, his breastplate preventing him from reaching the wound, not that it would have done him any good. The body shuddered as the final surviving soldier opened fire, shattered ceramic glanced off Rene’s armor along with a spray of blood and vicera but the body was enough of a shield to save his life. With strength borne of adrenaline he pitched the now limp corpse at the gunman and his smoking carbine. The man tried to dodge but the improvised barricades occluded his movements and he was forced to fend off the grizzly missile with his hand. The gesture gave Rene enough time to close the distance, catching him around the waist and driving him to the ground. White hot pain seared up Rene side but he ignored it, shoving the carbine skyward the panicking soldier fired a long burst into the ceiling raining plaster down in a shower that turned the muzzle blasts into bottle shaped domes of light about the barrel until the magazine clicked empty. Rene shoved the weapon aside and aimed a punch at his opponents neck, aiming to shatter the cartilage but the soldier got his arm up in time and deflected the strike while at the same time driving his fist into Rene side. The marine screamed in pain but kept his grip of his opponent his hand found the hilt of his knife and he drove it downward at the soldier beneath him. With speed borne of desperation the trooper caught his wrist and held the knife away from his throat, but even so the bloody diamond tipped blade slipped lower and closer to him with each passing second. There was a flat bang and the blade plunged home, burying itself to the hilt in the mass of veins and arteries just above the man's heart, the ceramic armor no match for the cutting bar, but the man was already dead, a neat hole punched in the side of his head. Solae stood uncertainly with her smoking pistol in her hand and Rene let out a sigh of relief that stabbed pain through his body.

“Rene?” Solae asked, concern in her eyes. He pulled himself to his feet, as best he could, blood soaked the front of his uniform, though the coating of plaster made it appear like he had been iced with sugar, gingerly he touched the lower right section of his breastplate and his hand came away wet with blood where one of the rounds had punched into his body. Now that the adrenaline of combat was passing it began to throb painfully, the armor had done its job, deflecting the shot out and away from his vitals but no armor a man could wear could stop a electro-motive weapon at close range. He could only hope it hadn’t hit anything vital.  

“I’m all right,” he told her, ignoring the pain and hoping that it was more or less true. He drew a spray canister from his webbing and popped the plastic seal then sprayed himself by depressing the release with his thumb. The foam felt prickly and cold as it coated the wound, stemming the bleeding and combining antiseptic with localized analgesic. It wouldn’t make the wound any better, but it contained a localized coagulant which would stem the bleeding.

The door behind the barricade was large and armored. It had been finished with an expensive looking wood veneer but the effect had been ruined by gunfire that left long crazed spiderwebs through the synthetic material. As if on cue the door slid open, mangled panels vanishing into the recesses in the wall. Beyond Rene could see the glow of holographic monitors and in the center of the room the crystalline form of the PEA itself. It seemed incredible that it was finally within reach.