Those who walk the unseen path will be your eyes and ears. It is they who decide victory before the first shot is fired.
Pathfinder teams were spread across multiple points on the ship's third level. It did the cadre no good to have them moving through the main corridors, so they had broken down into pairs and slipped into maintenance shafts, ventilation ducts, and other seldom-used passages. Their primary task was to find ways around obstacles and mark those obstacles for the strike teams advancing below—but they had a third purpose as well. If they encountered ammunition stores, fuel lines, or other delicate systems, they were to seize the opportunity to strike, continuing the slow crippling of the infested ship.
The two Pathfinders crawled through their assigned air duct. Without their stealth field generators, neither was certain how they would have slipped past some of the patrol points undetected. The defensive layout of the ship was strange. The only explanation either of them could settle on was that the defenders were relying on old and forgotten passages—yet even that didn't fully explain it. Some wide, easily defensible corridors were abandoned entirely, while narrow dead-end corners were manned and armed to excess, despite being easily overwhelmed.
It felt less like poor planning and more like something guiding them forward.
They dropped from the duct into a dark, seemingly forgotten hall.
Gue'la ships always amazed her. Tau vessels were built only as large as they needed to be—spartan in accommodation and ruthless in efficiency. The Gue'la, however, built their ships oversized for purpose, almost as if each were meant to be admired as much as used. This passage looked long abandoned, so much so that she wondered if it had been traversed in this century at all. Other Pathfinder teams had reported entire compartments sealed off completely, accessible only through vents or maintenance shafts.
Yet despite the abandonment, everything still bore that same sense of form over function. The bulkheads were decorated—ornate, heavy with symbolism. Grim symbolism. Skulls and death-motifs adorned every surface not claimed by machinery. She didn't like it, but she could respect the craftsmanship. The metallic colors and monumental statues reminded her faintly of Tau art—renderings of ancient warriors frozen in acts of eternal vigilance.
The lead Pathfinder updated their findings into the virtual map. They were approaching what she believed would be the gun decks, which occupied a significant portion of the ship's internal volume. There would be no room to maneuver as on an open field—but there would be fewer places to hide than in the winding corridors behind them.
So, they wouldn't hide.
Once all teams reached the staging line—the final major bulkhead before the gun decks—they would surge forward in a hybrid doctrine: part close-order assault, part open-field engagement. Strike teams would establish firing lines. Breachers would drive forward to close the distance. Pathfinders would work the flanks, hitting from unexpected angles, while the battlesuits attempted to leap behind enemy lines.
She checked the tactical overlay. Strike teams were advancing toward their staging points, cutting through hundreds of crews as they went. Reports indicated that they had yet to encounter professional ship soldiers—only armed crew, slaughtered almost as soon as contact was made. Several Pathfinder pairs were delayed, striking generators and other essential machinery. Those teams already rejoining the main advance had begun ambushing hardened points along the line, sowing chaos ahead of the assault.
The pair exchanged a glance and moved down the newly discovered passage, scanning constantly and feeding updates into the wider tactical picture.
Neither could shake the feeling that the cadre was walking into a trap.
There was nothing in the data to support that fear. No anomalous troop movements. No fortified choke points. No sudden counterattacks. Perhaps it was simply nerves. Training warned constantly against being lulled by early success. Victory could be intoxicating.
Regardless, if there was something to be discovered, the Pathfinders would find it.
And if it needed to be destroyed, they were more than capable of doing so.