And suddenly the connection was there. bnc was able to access the cleaning drones' sensor array.
On the first floor behind the locked lab doors about 15 people were bound with zip ties to various bits of furniture. The sensors of the small cleaning drone wasn't good enough to be sure, but bnc believed that Schmitt was one of the captives.
A single intruder stood guard over them, while his comrade rifled through equipment and generally photographed every bit of non-digital writing he could find. He seemed especially interested in a two meter tall armored exoskeleton.
On the second floor a quick sweep showed no activity. If someone was about there, he kept himself hidden.
On the third floor their path to the stairs was clear, but there was definitively someone at 323E and -1, the drone registered movement around the doors.
On the fourth floor a nasty battle raged between eight intruders and four guards.
Two of the guards had managed to don full riot gear and were defending from the level 5 landing with suppressing fire downwards to the fourth. The other two were pinned down at 423B. The intruders had seemingly switched ammunition as the two guards were bleeding from multiple wounds. Still they fought on - probably with the aid of a combat drug - while denying the intruder access to the rest of the floor. The rest of the guards lay on the floor. bnc couldn't say for sure if they were dead or unconscious.
Three of the intruders had clearly sustained some injuries as they were retreating down to level 3.
On the fifth floor the drone could identify a man sitting on a hardwired terminal in room 523E frantically hitting buttons while cursing loudly to himself. This was probably Tom Preston the Exec.
While watching the man, bnc almost missed the drama that unfolded: The two guards in riot armor were alternating between firing and reloading, keeping the pressure on. That way they missed when the elevator doors opened and two intruders appeared. They didn't sport the low caliber SMGs but instead were armed with suspicious looking rifles. Before bnc could ask herself what those were, her question was answered: Freaking laser guns.
She could see how the weapons cut through the heavy armor like a hot knife through butter. Steam shot from the cuts, indicating some real hellish temperatures. And just like that the fight was over.
The intruders ran into the room with the terminal and tore the man away from the keyboard.
Without the pressure from above, two intruders were able to move to a better position and threw grenades into the defending guards room.
Meanwhile the three injured intruders had found their unconscious colleagues on lvl. 3. One of them kept guard, while the other two began to treat each other with various slap patches and wound glue. bnc hadn't seen how they had opened the door she had locked, but guessed that they had used the mechanical override key.
Now it would be only a questions of seconds until those three got reinforced by some of their uninjured comrades from above.
