The gallery smelled like black powder layered over something older and worse, the stink had thickened into something almost solid, a biological rot trapped in stone.
The six creatures from the first contact still lay where they had fallen and reinforcements had come through the shaft and stepped around them without comment. Now the corpses sat in the middle of an otherwise organized defense, obstacles nobody had time to move.
Cete stood near the shaft entrance, directing men as fast as they emerged.
"Second squad, north spur. Third squad, hold position and rotate forward when I call."
He wasted no words explaining their tasks. He did not need to. The soldiers moving through the five-foot entry in single file heard his tone and understood the expectation immediately, to move first without question.
Both spur entrances had blocking formations established now.
