Surprisingly, no-one tried to stop them on there way to the 5th level. The retrieval of the commlink proved to be as easy as a walk in the park. Krestov and bnc also found first hand evidence that Preston was indeed dead: The troll counted twenty bullet holes in his back. Unfortunately those bullets hadn't quite stopped in his heart and lungs but traveled instead straight into the communication station. What once had been a sota comm array now wasn't much more than expensive scrap.
But at least the guards up here had a nice stash of weapons: Three Ares Alphas with smartlink, shockpad, sling, Gas Vent III and a foregrip. Sadly the foregrip replaced the integrated grenade launcher. These fine weapons were still in their cage behind a finger print lock. A fallen guard seemed to have died while he tried to retrieve these potent force multipliers. The broken screw driver and the scratched lock lent this interpretation some credibility.
bnc knew immediately what must have happened: When the Tartaros host went down, the locks could no longer be opened. While this wasn't a major problem with the normal doors and there override key, the weapons locker had become inaccessible. Now that the system worked, it was simple enough to open: With the dead man's thumb the locker door opened with out a hitch.
In a large ammo box Krestov found the fitting ammunition: 24 magazines with color coded ammunition: 6 standard, 6 gel, 6 flechette and - here Krestov had to look twice - seriously 6 mags with ex-explosive rounds.
---
Meanwhile, the two adepts and Schmitt had reached the ork's quarter and helped him to move the unconscious spider by the fastest way to the Jonas Pods. Schmitt was tense and clearly uncomfortable under the thick armor, but he had the good grace to keep quiet and let his men do their work.
The pod started the treatment even before the lid had closed: A dozen snake fingers enveloped the female dwarf and found their way into every orifice at once.
Schmitt pushed a few buttons and the team received a life status update from the metal coffin:
"Assessing injuries....
Processing...
Diagnosis:
Spinal hair fracture, broken femur with internal bleeding, cracked cranium with dangerously high brain pressure.
Engaging emergency protocols - initiating artificial coma..."
Schmitt hit a button and spoke sharply: "OVERRIDE. Alternative treatment to coma. Relieve brain pressure through skull puncture, revive patient within VR environment!"
"Warning, this is not the optimal treatment. Severe long term issues might occur through this course of action. Ethics modul prohibits alteration."
Schmitt cursed and hit some more buttons, than opened a small compartment within the Pod and forcibly removed a small optical circuit board.
The warning disappeared and the auto doc responded:
"Override accepted. Patient VR environment has been initiated."
Schmitt grimaced and whispered under his breath: "Gott vergieb mir..."
He donned his helmet and spoke again to the pod: "Establish AR connection to VR environment."
At once the face of Marcy the security spider appeared on the teams image links and DNIs.
"What happened, where am I?"
