The anti air defenses around the palace have all been disabled by the imperial guard in preparation for the assault on the palace, which allows us to land right in front of it.
The entrance to the palace is right in front of our landing site. A gargantuan gate made out of marbled ferrocrete greets us. The colossal gold plated gates have been blasted open, allowing waves upon waves of conscripts to surge into the palace.
The conscripts part ways on our approach, allowing us to go into the palace unhindered. The flooring has become unrecognizable due to the fighting, the stale blood of defender and attacker alike has stained it beyond recognition.
The foyer of the palace is just as gargantuan as the rest of it, the ceiling is over forty stories tall, candelabra the size of buildings are more akin to christmas lights, littered haphazardly all over. Some of them have fallen down, splattering steel and wax all over when doing so.
The captain of our household guard clears his throat, before loudly shouting. "You are now under the jurisdiction of house Hircus of the navis nobiliate!"
That makes the conscripts near us pause, the captain, Rauth, continues shouting orders. "Form firing lines and begin slowly advancing! Anything that is not part of official imperial forces is to be eliminated!"
The conscripts immediately follow their new orders, clumsily lining up and forming firing lines. There are only so many places that a path to the vault could be hidden in, so we will just beeline directly for each of them one after another. The first stop is the governor's office, located at the top of the palace.
We don't encounter any resistance at first, the deserted hallways having been long since cleared. Once we reach the second floor we begin to encounter light resistance, the occasional rebel skulking about. Massed las fire turns them into ash almost instantly. Our current destination is a stairway on the third floor leading directly to the governor's palace.
The first and second floors are nearly empty. However rebels become more and more common as we near the stairs to the third floor. On the last quarter of the journey we begin to encounter organized resistance, groups of rebels stationed and prepared to thwart off invaders.
There is no cover to protect the conscripts at this point, so all shots from the rebels either heavily injure or kill. We have enough concentrated firepower to literally turn both the rebels and the cover they are hiding behind into dust. Progress is much slower now that the rebels are actively resisting our advancement.
There is a way to go through the rebels much faster. "Dol, can I stand on your shoulders for a bit? I am going to clear the path ahead, make sure to close your eyes."
Dol gives me a pointed nod and kneels down. "Stand on my hands, I will keep you raised."
I give her a nod and do just that. She raises me, allowing me to see over the wall of conscripts. Activating the refractor shield before uncovering my third eye kills almost all of the rebels, only leaving a few stragglers alive to are quickly shot.
Our progress is much faster now, with Dol holding me up and allowing me to clear the enemies ahead. We quickly reach the stairs to the third floor in this manner, with me killing everyone ahead of us via impromptu navigator eye.
The rebels have constructed a makeshift barricade/fortress using broken candelabra pieces. A shot from my las pistol at maximum power clears an entrance, allowing the conscripts to surge inside and use their superior numbers to clear the makeshift fort. Reinforcements begin to come from the floors above, complicating manners somewhat.
The combination of massed las fire and my third eye however is enough to keep them at bay. The rebels stop sending scores of their men to die once they realise that there's something here making them drop dead.
We're now at a bit of an impasse. Going up the stairs would lead to anything going there receiving massed gunfire, sending the conscripts to die there instead would solve that problem. The problem with that plan is that the conscripts refuse to go to their almost certain deaths.
"We refuse t-" A bolter round silences the man, removing his head, the head of the conscript behind him and the head of another conscript before the explosive charge in the bolter round detonates, heavily wounding two conscripts with the resulting shrapnel. Rauth points at the stairway. "If you follow orders you have a chance at survival, if you don't then you will all die. Make your choice."
The conscripts hesitate, the head of the household guard shoots again, killing four conscripts. "Choose now."
The conscripts make their choice. They point their guns at us. Joline uncovering her third eye makes all of them drop dead. Dol kneels down next to one of the bodies. "Unexpected, but not unprecedented."
I sigh. "I'm surprised that they didn't do this sooner, it's not like we had babied them."
Joline shrugs. "This is probably why the guard recruits the top performers in the PDF, anything else and they would constantly mutiny."
Dol takes a long bar of steel from the ground and ties the body she is kneeling next to to the bar. "The lasguns the conscripts have been issued hold more value than the conscripts themselves, in hindsight their mutiny should have been expected."
I stare at the tied up corpse, it reminds me of a popsicle. "What are you planning to do with that?"
Dol throws a small piece of steel and the corpsicle into the air. The rebels above us shower the corpse in lasfire, the thing does not even manage to reach its apex before being vaporized. The piece of steel is left untouched. "Their reaction time is 0.3543 seconds. I will throw a corpse and a flash grenade. We can rush them while they are incapacitated. Is this plan agreeable?"
Joline nods. "That sounds pretty good, you should probably throw some grenades at them after the flashbang too."
I look at the lasguns, an idea coming to my mind. "Why don't we overcharge these power packs and hurl them at them instead of using grenades?"
Dol picks up a power pack. "I approve of this amendment."
Joline shrugs. "Preserving munitions isn't that bad of an idea. Let's go for it."
It doesn't take long for Dol to teach our household guard how to overcharge the power packs more efficiently, allowing us to begin our attack. Dol throws a corpse and a flash grenade into the air, the corpse gets vaporized and the grenade explodes, hopefully blinding our opponents.
Each of us throws two overloaded power packs into the floor above us before ascending the stairs, revealing a massive amount of rebels screaming in pain while holding their eyes. Uncovering my third eye kills the few of them that didn't get blinded. The incapacitated rebels are instead turned into swiss cheese via bolter rounds.
By the time that the shooting ends a literal river of blood is flowing down the stairs. Joline turns towards Dol. "Can you make power packs explode like the flash grenades? We don't have enough grenades to clear every corner like this."
Dol takes a power pack, tinkers with it for a bit before giving Joline a nod. "It is possible, the blinding effect will not be as strong however, as a significant portion of the energy will still be released thermically instead."
I shrug. "We can just throw more of them, we practically have an unlimited supply of powerpa-."
I am interrupted by a craftworld eldar turning the corner and freezing in place directly in front of us. The household guard immediately aim their bolters at them. Joline whistles. "And what business does one of your kind have in this here imperial palace? Did you get lost on your way to the toilet?"
The eldar, seeing that they were not immediately shot to death, raises their hands in surrender. That either means that they're alone and out of options or that they're waiting for their buddies to bail them out, you can never tell for sure with these guys.
The eldar is armored head to toe, so we can't tell exactly what's going on in their mind. They begin talking. "Monkeigh, either provide me with aid or face certain doom!"
I blink, before signaling for the household guard to hold fire for now. Joline points her las pistol at the eldar. "I'll kill you, shove your spirit stone up your ass and then blow it along with your body to smithereens. What are you doing here?"
Silence reigns for a bit after Joline's threat. The eldar keeps their hands raised. "I got lost."
I blink. "Elaborate."
The eldar tries to take a step back, a warning shot from Joline makes them stop. "I was searching for a relic of my people, I got lost while looking for it."
Joline begins howling with laughter. I hear Dol's voice over our vox channel. "Do not kill them, we have a unique opportunity to capture Eldar xenotech."
Since Dol used the vox channel that her, Joline and I are on, Joline also hears this. She points her las pistol back at the eldar. "Strip."
"W-what?"
Joline sets her pistol at max power. "You heard me, strip your armor and lay down your weapons. You try anything funny and your spirit stone gets crushed."
The eldar begins to strip off their armor, starting with the helmet, revealing that they are a she. Soon enough we are staring at her unarmored, wearing only her undergarments. Next to her is her armor, sword and some kind of pistol.
Joline shakes her head. "Undies too, I don't trust you not to have hidden anything there."
The eldar's eyes widen. "This is an insu-" A warning shot that evaporates the dead bodies behind her makes her change her mind. Her underwear joins the pile of clothes. Joline turns to the household guard. "Take the xeno to the ship and restrain it, store her armor somewhere secure, one of those places where things don't go in or out."
Four of the guard go to the eldar and proceed to escort her downstairs. Dol nods, before thanking us over the com channel. "Thank you, I will not forget this."
I shrug. "Let's just continue, there might be some spicy loot in that vault now that we know the eldar are involved, hopefully it's nothing too hot to handle."
Dol and Joline nod in response. We continue advancing. We throw ten flashbang modified power packs at each corner, making sure that if there is an enemy waiting for us, they're blind. Interestingly enough this floor is emptier compared to the third floor, the rebels are probably holed up in the third floor.
We encounter a squad of eldar after the sixth corner, bolter fire turns them into minced meat, but not before they land a killing shot on two of the household guard. I click my tongue. "Flashbangs don't do anything against them other than giving them advance warning of our attack."
Dol nods. "I will recalibrate the powerpacks for kinetic energy, encasing them in steel will provide shrapnel."
Joline picks up an aeldari chainsword. "That's a good idea, go for it."
We swap to using makeshift shrapnel grenades instead of flashbangs, which proves itself to be somewhat more effective. The next eldar squad that we happen upon is heavily wounded by the grenades, allowing us to dispatch them easily.
After that squad we encounter no other resistance on the way to the governor's office. Entering the office reveals more eldar, this time its a wounded drukhari in a broken armor. The eldar takes one look at us before raising their hands. "I surrender!"
If there is one thing that scares the ever living shit out of eldar it's dying for realsies, because what awaits them is an eternity of torture. Joline points her las pistol at the drukhari. "Strip."
This one is a girl once again.
Once they are in their underwear Joline orders them again. "Underwear too smartass."
The drukhari grumbles and follows her order. Her underwear lands on the floor with a metallic thud. Joline narrows her eyes. "That was a grenade wasn't it?"
The drukhari rolls her eyes. "No, it was armor plating."
Joline turns to the household guard. "Take her and her gear to the ship, leave the underwear here."
After five of the guards leave with the drukhari we begin searching the office. Her presence was a good sign that there's something interesting to be found here. The office is just as absurd as the rest of the palace, cyclopean candelabra litter the ceiling and the office is the size of a mansion. One wall is covered up to the ceiling by bookshelves and the floor is made out of solid gold.
Joline kicks the office table, sending it crashing into a wall. Her reaction to my incredulous look is to go. "What? I doubt some property damage is going to ruin whatever secret entrance there is."
Dol begins tapping her knuckles on the walls. "The walls are made of ferrocrete, a plasma torch will be sufficient. We only require the location of the secret door."
A glint of silver catches my attention from a corner of the room. When I reach it I instantly recognize the governor's seal. It's a piece of steel used to sign official documents, as far as the imperium is concerned whoever holds this is the governor. I lea- "Karuss, you're gonna want to see this."
I turn to Joline. She is reading a red journal. "Just come and read it,"
I leave the seal there for the time being, it's not going anywhere. Joline hands me the journal and I read the opened pages. I read the haphazardly written scribbles on said pages.
50000000000000000 bodies for the imperial guard.
10000000 artillery shells.
250000000 grenades.
The shells and grenades are not an issue, the manpower is.
Our current population does not allow for us to gather the required amount, even under the most strict breeding program it would be impossible to reach such a number.
This has to be a clerical error, hopefully the administratum can rectify it.
The procedure to correct the tithe will take a hundred years, the arbites are coming to collect in twenty.
I hand the journal back to Joline. That imperial seal can remain here for the time being, I doubt anyone aware of the situation is going to want it. "Leave the governor's seal here, let the tithe be someone else's problem."
Joline nods. "I wonder ho-""This section of the wall is hollow."
Joline and I turn towards Dol. She simply kneels down and begins cutting a hole into the wall with a plasma torch mechadendrite. Once she's done a short hallway leading to an elevator is revealed. Joline leans on my shoulder. "See? Told you it wasn't going to ruin anything."
Dol looks at the elevator. "This elevator is mechanical, the chances of it being trapped are almost null."
I turn to Rauth. "Keep this area secured. We will bring the goods with us. If we can't carry all of it we'll send the elevator with them. If that happens then just unload it and then wait for us to come up."
The elevator is pretty small, barely able to fit four persons inside. The lever that sits in its middle does not help. Joline pulls me and Dol to it. "Let's just go, if there was anything dangerous it would have been revealed by the scrying ritual."
We cram into the elevator before Joline pulls the lever inside of it. The elevator begins to slowly descend. I sigh. "How far below is the vault?"
Dol's response is immediate. "10213 meters underneath the governor's office."
I nod. "And how fast are we descending?"
Joline realises our conundrum. "Half a meter per second."
This elevator is going to take five and a half hours to descend. Dol realises our conundrum. "I will attempt to speed the descent, but speeding it excessively may lead to a crash."
—
In the end we reach the bottom in three hours. Large metal doors block the path forward. Dol gives us some good news. "I can cut through it with my plasma torch, I only require ten minutes to do so."
Joline and I patiently wait for Dol to cut open an entryway into the vault. Once it's opened we are greeted by our treasure.
Drukhari and Aeldari paraphernalia are littered across the room, weapons of various forms line the walls, suits of armor sit and collect dust. I blink at the centerpiece of the collection, a man sized box filled with small crystal stones. I blink. "That's a box with spirit stones. That's why eldar are all over the palace."
Joline picks one of the stones and uncovers her third eye. "Some of them are empty, some of them are full. Whoever was collecting most likely didn't know how to tell the difference."
Dol leans on my shoulder. "We are taking everything, correct?"
I nod. "Yeah, all of this is highly valuable. We don't really know what most of the paraphernalia is for, but we got two prisoners who can help us with that."
It takes two trips for the elevator to carry everything. Whilst the elevator was slowly going up and down Joline and I went to sleep, Dol stayed up to guard us.
—
I grunt as the elevator finally reaches the office. I look at the pile of Eldar stuff. Ideally I would like to move them without the eldar's knowledge, that would save us from having them come after us later. I turn to Rauth. "How goes the situation, has the palace been secured?"
He nods. "The imperial guard has secured floors one to six, there is heavy fighting on floor seven."
Joline sighs in relief. "That's good, the first thing that I want to do is take off this suit and take a bath, not fight more knife-ears."