He watched them move into positions, three had hurried out of the elevator room and around the corner, disappearing from site, the others had formed up in the room he would enter as soon as the elevator doors opened.
They were a little rough but he certainly didn't mind watching them move.
The doors opened, he checked the cartridge in his las pistol and stepped out. They moved up quickly. The distance they had to cover wasn't far.
The hard metal grating echoed their footsteps despite them moving as quietly as possible, but suddenly those echoes were drowned in the sounds of many booted feet, stepping heavily and quickly towards them.
"Somefink's commin," said a voice to his right. The Escher leader nodded down the dimly lit passageway.
"They're stompin' to confuse us," she said. The sound echoing down the metal corridors made it almost impossible to tell how many of them there were or which direction they were coming from.
Anyone got 'balls on them," she yelled, keeping in front of Tok Among.
"I sees one of . . ." a whizzing noise followed by an explosion cut off the sound.
She pulled Tok along. They moved down a corridor towards a door.
"They'll 'ave that watched," she said and Tok watched as one of the girls bashed a grate in.
"We're not going through there," he said in disgust, looking at the brown liquid that dripped from where the grate had been.
"We bloody well are," the Escher said.
Tok looked at the Escher down the corridor. The gangers were getting back up after the grenade had knocked them about. As he was pulled down the corridor towards the door, he saw two Goliaths come around the corner guns blazing.
He saw one of the girls duck through the duct work and a loud bang on the other side as she smashed through the grate opposite.
Two more of the girls moved into the duct and he followed them. He could see the light on the other side of the tunnel past the girls and moved as quickly as he could. He heard shooting both ahead and behind.
He looked behind him, past the last of the Escher following up. He saw more Escher had moved to the entrance to the duct and then heard them yelling. There was movement and then a body went slamming to the ground. Followed by another.
He looked ahead then and came out of the tunnel.
There were two Golaiths trading shots with the women around him.
It was a comfort to see that his side seemed to be winning.
Both Goliaths disappeared behind the cover they were in and he was pushed down the hall as his guard moved forward.
He heard a rattling in the duct they had just emerged from, it sounded as though something were being forced through it and tearing the structure apart as it went.
As they ran past the first area of cover the Goliath that was down there sprang up. The first three Escher pulled up short and shot, the Goliath was hit multiple times causing his shot to go wide, the short range fire fight continued right in front of Tok as the women pushed him past and kept the Goliath ganger pinned.
He was amazed at how much punishment the man could take but his thoughts of that were driven from his head as a screaming monstrosity emerged from the duct that he had been moving through mere moments ago.
One of the Escher fired a shot which stopped the screaming momentarily.
He reached the corner where corridor ended and they could see the docking bay for the grav-train.
He was just about to step out to make a run for it when a grenade exploded in his face, knocking him and the three Escher behind him to the ground.
The distraction allowed the Golith that they had pinned down to get a good shot in and the Escher leader was knocked from her feet by the stub cannon round.
And the monster at the end of the hall with the six-foot long ax was now running towards them.
Another grenade exploded nearby, peppering them all with shrapnel and the Escher saw themselves surrounded, and running out of options.
By his count Tok, if that Goliath had squeezed through the tunnel behind them then he had gone through the four gangers that had been behind them.
If that was the case then the four women he had around him, were the only protection he had left. He was aware of three Goliaths and there must be more.
The Escher leader had obviously done the same math, as she got to her feet, wheezing from the corridor, she hissed, "Run."
And the four women got to their feet and left him there.
Soon Tok found himself surrounded.
"Oi! Skrumps, we 'ave 'im."
The one called Skrumps came around the corner at a run and pointing a plasma pistol at the guilders head said "Ay up, we've someone that wants ta talk to you."