Descent

The stairway down was dark, despite the presence of both lights on each floor and a flashlight strapped to the barrel of his weapon. Dustin was glad that the abbey had been designed to allow for simple passage between the levels - the stairs were wide, easily allowing both him and Yril’k to stand side by side as they descended. There had been a bit of an argument about that - she’d wanted to take the lead with one of her subordinates - but he’d pulled rank. The others in the squad were there to provide protection for Meli (not that she needed it by now with the hours she’d put in on training) and to allow them to sweep the floor without anyone needing to go alone or leaving gaps to allow something to get behind them.

As a result, he had insisted on taking point as they descended, alongside his chief of security. They’d been thorough - the top three floors had all been in constant use since before the monk had been attacked, but from floor four onward they’d fully swept room by room. Now, they had made it down to the seventh floor - the one on which the victim had been found. Based on the report from the person that had discovered his collapsed form, this wasn’t where the attack had happened but was pretty close. Dustin gripped the barrel of his gun a little tighter as he swept it over the area to the left of the stairwell. Yril’k checked the right; once they were both satisfied they gave the signal for the rest of the squad to proceed.

The spot where the monk had been found was quite obvious. Dried blood had pooled on the floor, and streaks leading in the direction of the next stairway down matched the story they had been told. Meli paused by the bloodstain, letting her weapon drop onto it’s sling so that she could use both hands to operate her scanner. Dustin dropped down next to her. “Anything?” he asked. The Velca shook her head. “Nothing yet. Trace particulate, but that could just be the dust from the deeper floors.” Standing, she slid the scanner back into it’s holder and took up her weapon again. “We go down?”

Dustin glanced over at Yril’k who gave a nod. Her team had been sweeping the floor while Meli had run her tests, and had all reported in by now. “Alright.” He said, standing back up as he did so. “Next floor down is the probable attack location. Eyes alive people, I don’t want anything sneaking up on us.” With that said, he resumed his position at the front of the team and peered down into darkness. “Shouldn’t there be lights down there?” he said, partially to himself. Yril’k made a clicking noise before she replied. “There should’k. All floors from here’k to the bottom have lights and stair’k lights.” There was a dull whine as she flipped her weapon’s safety to the off position. Without comment, Dustin did the same.

Taking it slowly to avoid any nasty surprises on the stairs, the party descended with their way lit only by the beams of torchlight coming from the barrels of their weapons. At the bottom, Dustin paused. “Bloodtrail goes left” he said, before sweeping his weapon around to shine a light in the opposite direction. “Main power for the floor should come down from the right. Lets see if we can figure out why there’s no light down here before we investigate further.” Yril’k nodded, before turning to the team. “You four’k, stay here and watch the entrance’k. The rest, with us’k.”

In the dark passageways, Dustin was happy to let Yril’k fully take point; there wasn’t quite enough room for them to comfortably move side by side, and she had the most natural armour out of all of them. The insect woman stalked forward, eyes always moving as they swept through a handful of rooms before coming to a T-junction. Here, she left three more of the squad to ensure no attackers could get between them and the stair; that left just two more of the nine man band she’d assembled to continue following the three officers through yet more hollow chambers before they reached their destination.

The power line hung from the ceiling like a snake, dropping down into a junction-box before continuing into the floor below. Even before Meli had run a scanner over it Dustin could see the issue; the line that had sliced through the box had also carved neatly into the stone behind it. Meli stepped back, and Yril’k extended one of her bladed arms to mimic the movement of whatever had cut through the power so neatly that the box hadn’t even shifted in it’s mountings. “It should still be sending power with a cut that clean.” Meli murmured, before holding the scanner up for him to look at it. “But the inside of the box is more messed up than the outside looks. It’s almost as if whatever did this expanded as it went through the power lines.”

Dustin winced. “Pretty sure this rules out animal attacks on the monk then. No animal I’ve ever heard of can expand part of it’s claws midway through slicing stuff - nor be immune to having mains electricity arcing through them either. Why didn’t it trip the fuses when it was cut? And how long ago was this done?” Meli glanced back at the scanner. “Judging by the damage to the rock and the age of a what little singeing there is inside the box, the cut was recent - probably after the monk was found. As to the fuses not tripping, the only explanation I could give would be if this was clean enough to avoid any kind of surge back up the line. That’d just blow the fuse for this floor rather than blowing the whole grid, so it’d not have been noticed unless someone was explicitly looking. Give me a moment.”

She pulled a tablet from her pocket and fired off a quick message. A moment later, she nodded. “Yea, Emely’s just checked and the fuses from this floor down have all been sprung. Nothing higher up, and I didn’t think to check before we came down here - sorry, husband.” Dustin grimaced, his face thrown into angular relief in the light of the torches. “Don’t worry about it, Meli. I didn’t think to check either. This isn’t a problem we can resolve easily is it?” She shook her head. “Not without Rye, and if you remember Bleu grabbed her after your briefing session earlier - something about wanting a second opinion on the patient’s wounds. This is an engineering job, not a science one, and in any case I don’t have the parts or tools for it on me.”

Yril’k clicked her mandibles irritably. “So no lighting any further’k then. Respectfully, captain, I suggest’k we maintain the secure stairwell and return’k with the chief engineer. Fighting in the darkness’k is…” Her voice trailed off, her eyes shifting in the direction of the door they had entered the room in. “Move, now’k.” The words came out clipped, the head of security already moving with her weapon slung low. Her squad acted instantly, their training kicking in before Dustin could process the warrior’s words. As he and Meli took up the rear of the group darting back the way they had come, he wondered what could have gotten his officer so agitated. A moment later, the sound of gunfire answered his question.