Chapter Six

"How's the shoulder missy?"
Collin perked up as she saw Hamaf and his men returning from their exploration.
"Forgive me for not saluting sir, it's still a bit stiff."
"At ease Sergent, anything interesting happen?"
"Word from the surface a few minutes ago, those reinforcements finally arrived. You won't believe what they sent."
"Do I want to?"
"Imperial Guards. They're sending a team down now, as well as several companies. And I hadn't even mentioned the casualty."
Hamaf stared off into the darkness. He didn't look forward to meeting that poor lad's mother. It had been years since the Army had lost a soldier to anything but training accidents. To be the officer obligated to report the first actual casualty in the last decade was one of the worst things imaginable.
Not for him, if he lived he'd be receiving commendations for finding a way in. But he could only imagine what his wife would feel if it had been him who'd died.

"Clean things up so we can get them all in. Jor, take a team out to the third beacon, the one in that large open room with all the tables. Secure it and await further orders. Collin, contact them and tell them to bring a generator or something down so we can get some decent light. The rest of you, I want the halls as debris free as possible."
"Collin was it? Don't worry about the light. Leave that to me."
Hamaf turned around just as a bright light filled the room. He blinked rapidly in an attempt to shake off the resulting and as his vision returned he saw the perpetrator.
Armored from head to toe, the flattened kraj of his breastplate shining in the residual glow of his magic, an Imperial Guard stood in their midst. His staff was tall, and its red hue matched the stains on Collin's right pauldron.

His reaction was quick, a straightened hand to his brow. It wasn't wise to be disrespectful towards the emperor's elite. And it would have be no wiser had it been merely an ordinary, if such a thing could even be said, magic user.
"Captain Hamaf, what is the status of you operation?"
"Sir, we have made good headway into the ship. It's in bad shape but passable."
"Ship?"
"This thing sir, we thought about it and the men and I decided that it is a very, very large ship."
One eager soldier quietly muttered that he still thought it was more of a fortress, but the warrior-magi seemed not to notice.

He looked around the room, everyone had dropped what they were doing to salute the guardsman, save Collin who was trying to remain as respectful as she could without causing further damage to her shoulder. But the guard noticed the unsaluting figure and rounded on her quickly.
"What happened to your shoulder?"
"Well sir, we encountered..certain..difficulties."
"And you're missing a soldier. Thirty men came down and ten of them are just up the hall, why are there only nineteen of you?"
"A pipe blew out sir, he was killed by.."
"No need Sergent, it wouldn't take a mage like him to see through that story." Hamaf stepped between the two. The guardsman stepped back, clearly uncomfortable in the confined spaces of the ship.
"Fact of the matter is that this ship has occupants, and they're dangerous. They're hurt, and they're frail, but their technology is clearly superior. One of them was crippled by fallen debris and still managed to kill one of my troopers and wound Collin here before Jor, my other Sergent, and I managed to eliminate him."
"Good thing we've brought more than technology then. Your honesty is appreciated captain, the Emperor will hear of your strong character." He raised his head slightly, linked metal rings covered his neck preventing even an underhanded blow from finding him unprotected. He seemed to be conversing with some distant figure, likely by means of magic.
"Is there a large room we can use?"
"Yes, Jor and his men are clearing one just a little further into the ship."
"Good, it would appear that this operation has been taken over by a higher authority. He is on His way."