In the pipe,
After a while, Cain completely lost contact with the surface. Amberly hadn't specified if her communications were still functional, but even if the signal was present, getting reinforcements was impossible.
Cain ignored the claustrophobia caused by being trapped in the pipe, trying to concentrate on the task at hand. Just as his attention wavered for a moment, Treibek suddenly stopped in front of him.
"What is it?" Cain asked, knowing she wouldn't stop without reason.
Treibek said, "I think I heard something."
Cain tilted his head, listening carefully, but heard nothing except their own footsteps and breathing. Although the squad moved stealthily, these Soldiers had been fighting Xenos in similar environments six months prior and would never be careless.
But the hard surfaces of the pipe amplified all sounds, creating overlapping echoes. Paradoxically, the more cautiously they moved, the louder their own sounds seemed, making it harder to discern other movements. So, Cain ordered them to stop and held his breath, waiting for the echoes to dissipate.
After a moment, Treibek whispered, "Listen... did you hear that?"
Cain heard it: the sharp crack of a Laser Gun, and a similar but deeper sound, familiar yet slightly unsettling. Cain guessed it was due to the echoes, but they would soon understand the true reason.
Cain confirmed in a low voice: "Gunshots, about 500 meters away."
Cain admired his excellent sense of direction even in this pipe, quickly pinpointing the source of the gunshots, which happened to be in the direction Amberly wished to go.
Treibek looked somewhat confused: "Are you sure, sir?"
"Absolutely! A Political Commissar is never wrong, Soldier!"
Cain replied, only then realizing he was the only one in the team who felt at ease in these pipes. Of course, Valhalla's cave cities, while similar, were also different.
Those were cold, wide, and bright rock caves that gave the locals a strange sense of belonging, whereas here, the environment was more enclosed and oppressive.
However, no matter how much Cain wanted to avoid it, he had no reasonable excuse to turn back, so he continued forward. Five minutes later, Kaelp raised a hand to signal a halt.
"What is it?" Cain asked.
"Bodies, lots of bodies," Kaelp whispered in reply. Although a slight exaggeration, after they entered a wider space within the passage, there were indeed six bodies scattered on the ground.
They had now arrived at a junction of pipes, which seemed to be a crossing point where other passages converged, with entrances everywhere.
Apparently, this place had been used as a storage area; broken storage crates were scattered around, and all stored items were gone. Broken lights seemed to confirm that someone had been active here.
Cain shone his flashlight on the nearest body, a solidly built man in work clothes, his chest almost blown open.
Cain asked, "A terrible way to die."
Her gaze briefly wandered in thought, and Cain noted with satisfaction that the squad members moved professionally, automatically spreading out to maintain vigilance without specific orders.
He refocused his attention on Amberly, expecting her to reveal more details.
"Any thoughts?"
She hesitated for a moment, then replied, "I'm not entirely sure..."
Hollanby interrupted their conversation, pointing to a body and saying, "Sir, Inquisitor, I guess you might want to see this."
Cain and Amberly walked over. Hollanby pointed to the body of a young woman with a shaved head and a braid, her abdomen clearly cut open by some kind of melee weapon.
Although Cain had seen many similar deaths, the wounds left by this weapon were unfamiliar to him. There were various ways to use a bladed weapon, but usually there was some continuity within the same culture; this was unusual.
Cain observed the marks on the body and analyzed, "How did the others die? These wounds don't look like they were caused by a Laser Gun, or even a hellgun."
"Plasma weapon?" Yugen guessed, his tone clearly hesitant. Plasma weapons were usually cumbersome and unreliable, with long intervals between shots.
"There's... something else here."
Hollanby drew their attention to the woman's body. Cain initially thought Hollanby's face looked off until he noticed a large chunk of flesh missing from the body's face, which appeared to have been torn off by teeth.
Since his last encounter with Xenos, he had never seen such bizarre wounds. Though his calm mind vaguely realized these wounds were different from Xenos attacks, caused by something he had never seen before.
"Whoever did this must have had a grudge against these pieces of flesh."
Amberly pointed her flashlight at a bloody piece of flesh a few yards from the body... Hollanby's face grew even paler, clearly suppressing his discomfort.
"Movement!" Sorel suddenly shouted from the passage entrance.
"Are you sure?" Amberly rechecked her sensor, but the screen was still blank. "No human life signs."
"What about non-human?" Cain asked. Amberly shrugged.
"It's only calibrated for... That's a Kroot!"
"Cease fire! Do not shoot!"
She shouted again, her voice amplified by some sound-enhancing device in her robe, but this time, to Cain's surprise, the language she spoke was Tau.
Clearly, Cain wasn't the only one surprised, as the firing immediately stopped on the other side... After a tense moment, the other party replied in the same language, and then she gestured to me. "Stay where you are."
Amberly walked forward, standing in the largest clear space in the center of the room, and turned on her flashlight. Cain immediately stepped forward to shield Amberly, a move that made Amberly raise an eyebrow in surprise.
Cain felt Amberly was walking into a death trap; if the aliens wanted to play dirty, her actions were tantamount to holding up a large sign that read, "Hit me, I'm here!"
Even if the flashes of gunfire had made her vaguely visible before, now she was a sitting duck.
Cain secretly admired her courage, reminding himself again that this young and charismatic woman was actually an Inquisitor of the Imperium, possessing resources beyond imagination.
"Movement," Sorel whispered. Thanks to his sniper training, he had been keeping a close eye on their movements since he first saw them, and the cease-fire order had little effect on him.
The crosshairs of his sniper scope were firmly locked on where the enemy would peek out.
Cain squinted, trying to see into the darkness, but the floating smoke stung his eyes and crept into his chest, and indistinct shadows gradually became visible.
First to appear were the Tau, their unique uniforms, hard-shell armor in black and grey camouflage blending with the surrounding shadows, making them ghost-like in this dusty labyrinth.
Behind the Tau followed three Kroot, three faces Cain didn't particularly want to look at. As they entered the room, one of them sniffed the air, turned its head towards Cain's direction, and to his unease, that Kroot walked directly towards him.
"That's not right! Didn't the Tau evacuate already? Why are they still here? Are they trapped here by the Gretchin?"
Meanwhile, Amberly continued to communicate with the Tau in a strange language, and a Soldier stepped out, standing in front of six team members.
Although Cain didn't understand their language, after hearing it for a while, he detected signs that the conversation wasn't going smoothly.
"Inquisitor, is there a problem?" Cain tentatively asked, trying to appear calm, even as the Kroot approached step by step.
"They barely trust us, I suppose," Amberly replied curtly, then continued her negotiations with the Tau.
Cain insisted, "Is there anything I can do to help?"
His gaze involuntarily fell on the approaching Kroot, noticing the blood-stained warblade attached to its long rifle. The image of the disemboweled woman suddenly flashed in his mind, sending a shiver down Cain's spine.
"They don't understand Gothic," Amberly said sternly, her words implying, "Shut up and let me handle this," with an unmistakable tone.
"Then how do they interrogate prisoners?" Velarde muttered, then let out an enlightened "Oh," realizing that if you just stab the opponent a few times, they'll naturally confess everything!
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