'What happened here?' Striden asks, looking at all the corpses.
'Dead when we arrived/ answers Lorii with a shrug. 'I guess our invisible helper from the gatehouse is still watching over us/
'Have you been deliberately trying to get caught, Kage?' demands Schaeffer, closing the doors behind us. He gestures towards Gudmanz, who is sitting at the largest terminal, plugged in again. 'We have access to the whole security network from here and have been monitoring die comm-channels. We have been tracking reports of your whereabouts for the past four hours. Luckily for you, Gudmanz managed to conjure up some false reports and a fake fire emergency to lead them off the trail/
'So how do we get past the next gate?' asks Striden. They'll be extra cautious now/
Everyone's attention is drawn to Gudmanz when he gives a gasp, and as I look at him the neural plug whips back into his head and he slumps further into the chair.
'What is it?' asks the Colonel, going over to lean on the back of the chair and stare at the half dozen screens on the terminal face.
'I cannot use the terminal network any more/ he tells us slowly, recovering from some kind of shock. They realised what I was doing and other tech-priests started scanning die network for me. I manage to eject just before they found me, but only because I have had more practice at this type of tiling over the past two days. They will find me straight away if I go in again/
'What was the last thing you found out?' asks Schaeffer, turning his head from the screens to look at the tech-priest.
There has been nothing to suggest that they know we are heading for the plasma reactors/ he reassures us. They suspect we might be trying to get to one of the turret clusters in the central keep. They have no idea that we are here for something far more unpleasant than disabling a few cannons/
'Good, dien we will press on/ the Colonel says, standing up and passing an eye over the dead security men in the room. We should be able to get to the last access tunnel before night, the third ring is not very big at all/
'And dien what?' Loron asks, crouching down to strip the coveralls from a likely sized guard.
We finish our mission/ the Colonel replies grimly.
'I've been thinking about our mysterious guardian/ says Lorii as we walk down a flight of steps that take us away from the main corridor in the third circle. 'Why didn't they blow up the reactors?'
'It is a very complex process, to curse a containment field of the type we are talking about/ explains Gudmanz as he hobbles down the rockcrete steps in front of us. The bulk of a plasma reactor is dedicated to creating wards and heligrams to make sure the Machine God's blessing remains. Many fail-safes will stop you, you cannot just touch a rune and say a few canticles to turn them off. It takes one of my order to do it/
'And I can see why you couldn't be sent in alone/ adds Loron from above, referring to the tech-priest's increasing frailty. It's as if he's ageing a year every hour, he's slowed down that much since we met him three days ago. He said he would last a mondi, but looking at his current condition, I can't imagine him seeing the end of die day after next. The Colonel's gone tight-lipped on us again, obviously tensing up the closer we get to our goal. He was almost human for a while, but has reverted to man-machine mode now.
The third ring is similar to the second, terraces of factories interspersed with mazes of hab-pens. There's the strange mix of metal panelling, brickwork and tiling that can be found in the outer rings. Trying to imagine the pattern of different styles in my head, witii what little I know of Coritanorum's layout, it
seems to me that originally this area was in fact several different citadels, which over time have slowly been joined together, with the central access tunnels constructed to link them all together at some later point.
As nightfall approaches outside, things start to get a lot quieter. We see fewer people, many of them security guards who we swap salutes with before hurrying on. As we approach the final accessway, the sprawling rooms become more military looking, with lots of terminal chambers, and what appear to be barracks. I can feel everyone getting more nervous as we march along the twisting corridors, and I try to distract the other Last Chancers to stop them getting too jumpy.
'I wonder how Linskrug is doing?' I ask in general.
'Glad he isn't here, I bet/ Lorii ventures, casting an edgy glance down a side tunnel.
'He's dead/ the Colonel informs us quietly from where he's walking ahead of us.
'How can you possibly know that?' asks Loron.
'Because the penal legion he was sent to was the one ordered to make the diversionary attack when we came in through the sally port/ he explains, not looking at us.
'And turning from the flames Saint Baxter leapt from the cliffs/ says Kronin, half to himself.
'He might still have survived/ Loron says, grasping at a shred of hope for our departed comrade.
'No/ the Colonel tells us. 'I personally gave Commissar Handel strict instructions that they were to fight to the last man. He will have carried out his orders to the letter.'
We walk on in silence for another couple of minutes, pondering this turn of events.
'What would you have done if we all refused this mission?' asks Loron as the Colonel takes us down a left turn, leading us across a gantry that passes over what looks to be a metalworks, the furnaces dead at the moment. 'You'd be fragged if at least half of us had turned you down/
'I admit that I did not expect Linskrug to refuse/ says the Colonel, still facing forward. 'I thought that none of you would turn down the opportunity I presented you with. Linskrug had less character than I credited him with/
'Why so certain that we'd come along?' Loron persists, hurrying forward to fall into step beside Schaeffer.
