Exigency: The Old Guard

Pudge's anger is not the anger that burns beyond all reason, but the anger that calmly saunters up to reason and explains how to get results. His attack is unsubtle but devastating, brute-forcing defensive protocols as if they're not even there.

The announcement system kicks in: "Critical error. Start-up procedure paused. Lockdown initiated."

A sudden spike of activity tells Pudge that Epril's hacker is frantically trying to limit the damage. Their setup is in the far north of the chamber: they must be working remotely.

With Reave's help Serana spots the sniper from before: a woman with an imposing multipurpose rail rifle. She's the sole sniper, but by her side an armoured scarab drone stands watch: a six-legged all-terrain companion designed to act as a spotter and CQC support.

Engines roaring, more drones move into position above the tram. This trio aren't the tiny little recon machines the team encountered earlier. They're metal teardrops the size of a person, equipped with large ion drives and even larger weapons batteries. Military-grade hunter-killers. Pudge can trace the signal back to a controller on the floor to the north-west, a woman who has mental implants of her own, no doubt to better orchestrate the assaults of her machines.

Epril mutters into her communicator: "Loren, if your drones kill my sister I'm going to make you eat them. Set those things to stun. And that goes double for you, Zil."

Then she turns to give Wilhelm and Lyra her full attention. The three of them are the only occupants of the central hub, discounting the hacker's buzzing and clicking bypass units plugged into the terminals. Epril silently reaches down and pulls out a simple grey box.

"You're both familiar with antimatter grenades, yes?" Epril raises the device. "If this goes off it'll start a chain reaction that will take out the whole base, and as I've just said I'd much prefer that didn't happen. I wouldn't come any closer."

The good news is that without Loren's link the HKs have poorer aim. The bad news is that without Loren's link they've no reason to use their less-lethal payloads. The drones sway for a moment, confused and bereft of guidance, then having apparently decided who is and isn't hostile they lock on to the tram and begin to pelt it with plasma bolts and micromissiles, blasting chunks out of its improvised armour. To her credit Loren immediately tries to seize back control but fails to overpower the virus on her first attempt.

The announcement system sounds again: "Firing sequence restarting." Epril's other tech expert must have been busy.

Serana barely makes the jump: she and Reave land heavily. The two women attack in unison, chipping away at the sniper's physical and mental defences. The scarab drone beeps irately and interposes itself between its master and the attackers, deploying a pair of sparking, crackling stun probes. Meanwhile the sniper has swapped her long rifle for a pair of pistols, taking photonic potshots at both Serana and Reave. The power setting is on minimum: she's obviously taken Epril's order-slash-threat about killing Serana to heart.

Wilhelm swings at Epril's hand... and misses: she's fast, pulling out of his reach. But he's faster, so he tries again, and again, and again, redoubled efforts that slice apart her prosthetic left arm. The grenade skitters across the floor.

Cursing, Epril reaches for her belt with her good hand and pulls out a phase sword. An impractically expensive vibroblade with a limited charge, it will nevertheless cleave through flesh and metal without distinction or effort. It can still be parried by other vibroblades, but armour offers no protection against it. This is demonstrated when Lyra darts in to attack, only for Epril to take a chunk out of the Arbiter's shoulder with a lazy riposte, sweeping away bone and plate. Lyra gasps and falls back.

Epril looks down at her bionic hand. She tries to flex it and one of the remaining fingers falls off. "Hmm. You want to know what's funny? That was just a concussion grenade. Well played."

Gunfire pours off the tram like rainfall as it speeds down the rails. The drones hold formation and pursue, their would-be commander growing more and more frustrated that she can't re-assume control.

Serana leaps to the fight with such unexpected speed and precision that the hacker can do absolutely nothing to stop her demolishing his remote-access deck. He sprawls backwards, scrabbling away as expensive chunks of circuitry fly everywhere.

Reave looks around, concerned. "I picked up seven minds when we first arrived," she broadcasts. "Three are still unaccounted for. Stay alert."

Epril is skilled. Had Wilhelm encountered her early in his career she might have been a problem. Might have.

Clasping her wound, Lyra takes a moment to catch her breath and looks on as sword meets scythe in a furious exchange of harmonic edges and keening motors.

Wilhelm ducks low, aiming for the Vigilante's knee, and Epril adeptly adjusts her stance to parry the swing. Unperturbed, Wilhelm spins back on the rebound, bringing the blade of his vibro-scythe down on to the edge of Epril's phase sword... hard. The two machines lock, power units noisily fighting each other in a slew of sparks.

At first it seems like Epril is about to disengage but with a supreme effort Wilhelm tears the scythe away, taking the phase sword with it. Epril's weapon flies off, cleaving through a railing on its way to the ground.

Epril watches it go. She shrugs. Then in one motion she pulls out another (much less impressive) sword and strikes with it, forcing Wilhelm to parry.