Go Dark

The key turned smoothly in the lock and the well oiled hinges barely made a squeak. Tyrier slowly pushed the gate until it was large enough for a person's body to slip in. One by one, the soldiers of Claymore One entered the gate and stayed low and within the shadows.

From the intel given by the youngster, there should be a couple of guards by the tree. Making sure no one could see them, the soldiers hugged the shadows and slowly crawled forward, making sure to make as little noise as possible and keeping low to prevent from being spotted.

Two figures could be seen sitting behind the tree trunk where they each held a crossbow across their laps. Tyrier closed the gate as gently as possible and gestured with hand signals at the two guards.

Hitsu and Loke raised their silenced carbines and popped both men, dropping them with single shots to the head. As the guards died, Wolf and Tavel sprint across the grounds and grabbed the two bodies before they hit the floor.

They rearranged the bodies back to their sitting position and waved for the rest to approach. "Overwatch to Claymore One. Hold your position. I see two heat signatures approaching from the right side of the building, it looks like roving guards!"

Drake laid opposite the building on the roof of another structure. He and Kont and used ropes and climbed up as quietly as possible to the roof without alerting the occupants inside. Now laying on their cloaks and overwatching the compound with his sniper scope, they spotted two moving white spots under infra getting closer to their people.

"One, Three. Take them out quietly," Tyrier ordered.

Altied and Young were the closest to the approaching guards. They laid flat on the ground, keeping their camoed faces away from the approaching guards. As the two guards passed by them, they both slowly climbed to their feet and rushed the guards, stabbing their sword bayonets into the unprotected armpits of the surprised guards before Hitsu and Loke ran forward to help carry the bodies and hide them.

A quick search on the guards found a bunch of keys, which Tyrier handed over to Wolf. "Secure the perimeter!" Tyrier whispered and the men spread out and covered the entire courtyard.

After making sure there were no more patrols and hidden guards in the compound grounds, Tyrier checked his tracker and nodded towards the building and his men formed up next to the door. Young took out a device that looked like a large twentieth century mobile handset with two stubby 'V' shape antennas poking out.

He swept the device all over the door, eyeing the display on it. After making sure there was no disturbance on the green line on the display, he nodded to the rest and stepped back. Wolf came up and tested the bunch of keys till the right one unlocked the door and he slowly and carefully opened it.

"One to all," Tyrier whispered into the squad channel. "Go dark!"

The Claymore One soldiers slipped on their assault helmets and snapped their night vision goggles to the attachment slot on the front of the helmet and one by one they stepped into the building.

The entryway led into a central passage where there was a flight of stairs leading to the second floor and two doors on each side of the passage with another double door at the end.

Under the influence of the night vision, thin beams of light could be seen as the spec ops soldiers swept their laser sights left and right, covering each sector. "One to Two, clear the left side. We will take the right. Three hold here and cover the stairs."

"Roger."

"Got it."

The teams split up as they checked each room on the first level while Team Three remained at the central passageway, their weapons aimed at the stairwell.

Tyrier's team each took a door and entered at the same time, their weapons sweeping for threats. The first door on the right led to a parlor of sorts with another double door while the second door led to a music room where several musical instruments were stored and a door at the end.

They push through the doors and found themselves in a large high ceiling receiving room for guests with large windows all three sides of the wall.

Hitsu and Loke on the left side found a small study and the dining room. The shelves covering the study were bare of books and even the work table seemed abandon as there was no intel of interest after Hitsu checked the drawers.

The door in the dining room led to the kitchens and the servants' bedchambers which had two skinny women sleeping on tiny cots. Hitsu and Loke quickly jabbed both of them with a tranq shot, knocking both servants out.

"Two to all. Two maids in the kitchen, both knocked out with drugs," Hitsu reported. "Left side all cleared."

"One, roger. Right side is cleared too. No bodies." Tyrier replied. "Link up back at the stairs."

Once everyone was back, they checked the double door at the end and found it led to the back courtyard. Retreating back, they climbed up the stairs and continued their sweep. Same as before they split up and checked each door and room, making sure to tranquilize and tied up any sleeping occupants from in the bedchambers.

Young suddenly halt before a door and raised a fist as he ran the device in his over the door frames. The display on his device was showing a bouncing wavelength which meant that there were some traces of magic residue. This jury rigged device was made by Dr. Sharon to find 'Mu' particles, which in other words, was made to detect magic.

She practically forced Claymore One to 'borrow' it to do field tests and review it for her. Luckily it turned out to work quite well as a non magical way to detect magic. "Three, One. I got a magic reaction here." Young reported.

"One, roger. Clear the rest of the place first. Leave it for now," Tyrier ordered.

Another three more males and one female were tranquilized and secured before the whole level two was cleared and the entire team stacked up to the last door with traces of magic. Tavel kneeled before the door as he carefully observed the door and found the entire door frame to be carved with a spell formation.

"Not good," Tavel whispered. "This seemed like a Level 7 spell that without a proper 'key', will trigger a Flame Burst that will torch the whole corridor..."

"No way to disarm it?" Tyrier asked. "How about the keys from the guards? Or anyone found anything from the people sleeping?"

"Hmm, we can blow the frame up," Tavel replied. "Or try to interrupt the magic circuits on the carvings..."

"Can we check what's behind the door without triggering the spell or alerting anyone?" Tyrier asked again.

"We can," Tavel replied. "The spell will only trigger if we play with the lock or forcefully open the door."

"Deploy the eye cam," Tyrier turned to Hitsu who dug into his bag of holding and pulled out a device with wires and cables.

Hitsu took up a position next to the door and choose a cable that was thin enough to slip under the door crack. He inserted the cable into the controller and turned the spy cam on. The small screen flickered as images were relayed from the pinhole camera at the end of the cable to his screen.

He tilted the spycam left and right, making sure to observe the entire room and found other than a few chairs and table in the room, there was a large sized bed in the middle where someone appeared to be laying on it.

"Looks like a bedchamber," Hitsu said. "One body."

"Breach it?" Tavel asked.

"We still haven't found the way underground..." Tyrier frowned. "Can you disable the spell quietly?"

"I can try, but no guarantees," Tavel replied and he took out his tools. "Better take cover, if shit happens..."

"Just focus on your task," Tyrier cut his words off and gestured for everyone to back off.

Tavel's finger traced the carvings of runes along the frame and frowned, trying to find the weakness link in the magic formation. Finally after half an hour when everyone was starting to feel tense, he grinned and gave a thumbs up before he returned to his work.

He used a small glass dropper and sucked in a few drops of silvery liquid that was made with some arcane components and carefully dripped the liquid onto a particular rune. The rune appeared to glow slightly as the silvery drops hardened and erased the rune away from the door frame with tendrils of smoke.

Tavel took out a set of lockpicks and worked on the door lock, successfully jimmied the lock and he took a deep breath as he turned the door opened carefully. One second, two seconds, three second. Tavel counted mentally as he waited for any signs of the spell triggering and turning him into ashes.

Finally, after ten seconds had passed, nothing happened and he let out the breath he held. He turned and nodded, keeping his tools and stepping back as the rest stacked up and entered the room.

On the bed, a large size male was sleeping when the soldiers entered, but to their surprise, the man suddenly woke up and leaped up from the bed, drawing a sword from somewhere.

"Take him alive!" Tyrier hissed after the shock of the man's reaction passed.

Hitsu and Wolf who were in front of the rest inside the room dropped their carbines and drew out their tasers and fired, aiming at the center of mass. The man expertly parried the taser barbs away which further surprised everyone as they were in a dark room and that person could still wield his sword this well!

Hitsu and Wolf stepped in more to allow the rest to enter, and everyone fired their tasers. The man finally under the heavy onslaught of taser barbs from all directions soon convulsed around wildly as thousands of volts of electricity were dumped into his body.

"Bag him!" Tyrier hissed and the rest quickly disarmed the person and cable tied his thumbs and feet together before dumping him on the bed and lighting the glow lamp in the room. "Check the room."

They found some documents and what appeared to be account books but the words were illegible. Tyrier frowned as he skimped through the scrolls and books, "Looks like some kind of code."

"One to Raider and Origin," Tyrier stepped out of the room and gave his report. "Top side and grounds of building secure, we have one HVT under taser. No signs of any way to enter the underground area."

"Origin, roger. Is it clear to enter?"

"One. Affirmative." Tyrier replied.

"Origin, coming in. Raider to take over the premises."

"Raider, roger that. Marines moving in now."

Tyrier turned to Wolf and said, "Go down to the first floor and escort the Lieutenant up."

Wolf nodded and he went downstairs while the rest started dragging the tranqasilied people into one room. Tyrier sighed and returned into the room. "Found anything else?"

"Found the 'key' to the spell," Tavel said and held up a necklace with a shriveled finger handing on it. He hooked the necklace onto the door frame and said. "This will prevent the spell from triggering, in case my disarming skills... is bad..."

Trism walked in with Wolf behind him and he smiled while rubbing his hands together. "Good work, all of you!"

He picked up the scrolls and books and flipped through them, "Code?"

Tyrier nodded and gestured to the gagged male on the bed. "We need to know where is the entrance to the underground place where they took you to."

Trism's smiled widened and he rubbed his hands again. "Not a problem! I get him to sing!"

"Sing for me, my little bird!"