With some of the largest caves in Austria located in the region of Salzburg, the Ventru soldiers weren't surprised to pass the final threshold to find themselves looking at a vast natural cave nearly big enough to have its own weather, fed fresh air through vents and home to no less than five natural, glacier-fed springs, and one hot mineral spring.
The space was liberally lit by giant infrared lamps, looking like miniature red stars from where they stood nearly two hundred meters above the ground, set at regular intervals throughout the entire space. And by that light, they could see within that space clusters of buildings in several different architectural styles stretching across the centuries, perched on a series of broad open spaced markets selling everything from vehicles and weapons to human familiars and creche special emissaries offering intermediary services for breeders.
Here Lash's father had been allowed to enter, going to the market where the emissaries could be bargained with to obtain higher or lower classes of breeders according to the ultimate need. Those markets were collectively known as the Blood Exchange.
And this place, this wondrous hidden city in a giant underground cave, was the Night Market.
From the stories he had heard about the place from his father, the Night Market would've been teeming with activity day or night, the vampires safe here from any sort of radiation beyond what they brought in with them. So to find it almost completely empty was disturbing. Empty, except for sporadic weapons fire from buildings close to the Blood Exchange.
Lash held out a hand and, instinctively knowing what the big vampire needed, Fordricht put his night vision binoculars into it. Nodding in thanks, the Qos Viran veteran brought them to his eyes and made a quick scan along the cave's back wall.
There, almost exactly where he expected it: the entry to the passageway that ran under the mountains to NachtFeuer. His eyes narrowed. From here, it still looked like it hadn't been breached. Likely because the m'tada caught in the Market when the White Flames breached the puzzle door, were putting up enough of a resistance, the enhanced humans hadn't yet had the opportunity to focus their efforts on the entryway. Not that he blamed them; he'd rather purge the Market of enemies at his back before making a concerted push up the passageway so they weren't at his back, pinning him up against the ramparted legionnaires on the other end.
A scan across the buildings yielded several squads of White Flames moving building to building urban warfare style, working an obvious purge mission while sections of their force continued to pin down the m'tada troopers in the Blood Exchange. He swept the rest of the cave as best he could after that before letting the binoculars drop, his impromptu recon done.
"Looks like the majority of the White Flame force is going house to house to flush out any stragglers," he said, turning to address the rest of his company while handing the binoculars back to Fordricht. "A fragment is concentrating on the Blood Market where they likely have the surviving m'tada pinned down."
"Why are there m'tada in the Market, Wolf?" one of the nestari asked. "Aren't all the liliths up at the castle?"
"You would think," Lash said. "Any in the Market should've been pulled back by the legionnaires garrisoning the Market to make sure they were safe." Another dark thought occurred to him as a troubling reason m'tada were still in the Blood Exchange.
"Unless there were breeders left behind and the Blood Guard were ordered to hold back and give them protection!"
"Pere de la Nuit!" Ballan hissed tautly. "Why would the Legion leave breeders behind?"
"Probably because they're not as rare, or as important as liliths," another one of the nestari grimly said. Lash pointed at her and nodded in confirmation.
"That reason, precisely."
"But we're going to get them out anyway, aren't we," Truk said, the nestari around him murmuring the same question.
"On my honor as a blood descendant of the Ancient One, I vow we will," Lash fiercely replied, his fiery resolve crystalized by the realization that breeders were trapped by humans down in the city. Humans that had much to pay for with their sins against his people!
The fierceness alone sent another wave of agreeing nods and excited murmuring through the veteran soldiers.
"Ventru does not bargain away its future!"
"Let's go kill these genocidal maniacs!" Truk tautly directed.
With the entry into the Market a broad and deep staircase, Lash knew they had to transition it fast or risk being caught out in the open by units under cover of the buildings. So, after noting the position of the squads moving through the nearest cluster of buildings and within weapons range, he waited until they were firmly out of sight. Then they were charging as quickly as was safe down the staircase.
With a descent of almost one hundred and fifty meters at forty five degrees, it was a quick sprint to the floor, hands occasionally flailing or reaching out to grab a comrade to keep their balance. Then, after the breathless rush, they were down unseen.
Seeing a straight run to the Blood Exchange, Lash put his head down and ran with every ounce of his vampiric strength and speed. Several times faster than an Olympic level human sprinter, he literally flew over the tightly fitted cobblestones that made up the street's surface. And trained only as a Qos Viran special ops operator can be, he quickly put distance between him and the rest of the Ventru force, the nestari gamely attempting to keep up and failing.
With each corner and intersection marked with street signs in vampiric glyphs, there was no way Lash could lose his way in the relatively dense city. But with the straight shot taking him where he needed to go, there was no need to actually look up at those signs to keep his path true. Looking side to side, however, with each road crossed, that he did.
For good reason: as they passed through the heart of the Market, they began moving through the building clusters where he had spotted the White Flame purge patrols. With each road they crossed in the clusters, the probability of encountering some of the enhanced humans grew. Then he was catching sight of several black uniforms to his left.
Yanking free his sidearm and twisting just enough to aim across his body, he fired at legs and torsos, emptying his magazine in a hurry. And watched almost satisfied as half of the squad went down, clutching wounded legs. Then he skidded to a halt, holstering his sidearm as he did and pulling his assault rifle around to take a staggered firing position and empty his rifle's magazine.
Again aiming for the legs even as the White Flames began to return fire, he scythed the rest down with precision fire. As the last one dropped, twisting and crying out in pain, clutching at a blown-out knee, he ejected his magazine and hammered in a fresh one, cocking it and putting a round in the chamber. Then he was charging forward once more before the struggling nestari could catch up to him.
As he ran, he used his combat knife to dislodge the sundogs that made it to his armored vest. He had to be careful; the battle with the White Flames in the courtyard had robbed him of his neuron armor. So, while he still had his EM generator keeping him generally safe under the sun, he didn't have the extra protection the neuron armor would've afforded him. He needed to get the sundogs out of his gear or they would quickly bleed their radiation load through to begin contaminating his nervous system.
Then he was skidding to a halt at the corner of a building marked with fertility glyphs and symbology from their history, including several of La'Vesh, the ancient vampire goddess of fertility. There, after making sure his sightlines were clear of enemy soldiers, he slung his rifle and took a moment to put a fresh magazine into his sidearm, pulling the slide back to make sure he not only had a clear barrel, but a round in the chamber ready to fire. A blink later it was back in its holster and he had the rifle back to the ready.
Even as he had fished out that new magazine, Lash could hear more gunfire from inside the building. It must've had enough internal fortification that the m'tada that remained in the Market picked it to make their stand behind. Now, with his rifle ready, he needed the rest of his force to catch up with him so he could get inside and reinforce that fortified position.
Breathing heavily, Narcist was the first to reach him.
"Damn it, boss," she gasped, swinging around beside him so she could lean against the wall and try to catch her breath. "How does such a big man run so Day-damned fast?!"
"Positive attitude," he replied, earning himself a snort. Then the rest of the nestari were joining them in fits and starts.
As soon as the last one was in, he was moving. They couldn't afford to let everybody catch their wind. The breeders were likely under direct threat, their erstwhile guardians getting turned to dust all around them.
That was when it hit him: the reason the Market was virtually empty. With the White Flames using sundog munitions, any vampire not wearing sufficient armor to stop the rounds from touching them would've been turned to ash almost instantly. How many had perished here while the enhanced humans were taking control? A thousand? Two? Vampire citizens that had nothing to do with the conflict raging between the Hand and Clan Ventru, or between Ventru and the White Flames. They were just unlucky enough to be caught in the middle.
Reaching what appeared to be a side entrance in the interior, Lash paused and made a quick scan of their surroundings through his weapon's sights. Then he was waving Narcist forward.
"Check the lock for traps," he directed as she swung around him to look at the door, apparently locked with a simple number pad. Pulling her countermeasure kit from a utility pouch, she knelt in front of the lock, her face intent.
While she worked, Lash held up three fingers then directed a knife hand towards the next corner, sending a trio of nestari there to make sure they didn't get flanked from around the building. Another put a cluster against the building and just behind him, covering the path they took in, in case some of those he put on the ground managed to get their comrades immediately in pursuit.
Lash had little doubt the injured White Flames had already called it in so it was just a matter of time. It was what they did with that time that would be important.
Then a soft 'beep' from the door and Narcist stepped back. Sliding between her and the door, he took position at the spot it would open to as Truk reached out to take the handle. Then a quick nod to indicate he was ready, and Truk pulled the door open. Seeing nothing beyond, the space inside fitfully lit, Lash quickly advanced in, weapon ready to drop the first White Flame he came across.