Half a minute later, all the security robots had been reduced to scrap, and the battle in the underground passage was completely over. The Burning Legion's fighters had won yet again without losing a single member.
This was their sixth victory since entering the underground beneath Jewel Coast. As before, the machine sentries patrolling the underground world of the Alliance capital had been wiped out before they could sound any alarm.
Of course, unlike before, this time they had taken down more than just robots. They had also eliminated a squad wearing tunnel-combat mechs: three humans, two Padosians, two Karda goblins, and one Vaingian—a truly diverse and politically correct group.
Taina Morne, dressed in a close-fitting powered suit, put away her lightsaber and pulled the Vaingian squad leader's personal terminal from his corpse. She connected it to several lively, snake-like cables that sprang automatically from her wristwatch.
Judging by how practiced she looked, she was nothing like a well-trained journalist. She was clearly a highly trained professional thug, and the kind with the intelligence, education, and technical skills to play the villain in a crime thriller.
...In fact, that was exactly the role she was playing now.
Data flickered across the screens of both terminals like a flood of scrolling text. At the same time, data flashed across Taina Morne's eyes.
The Burning Legion's fighters gazed at their second leader with admiration, as though they were looking at God.
A few seconds later, Taina Morne looked away and sighed. "Good. We have the password. Now we might be able to reach the signal control room on the lower level of the Capitol."
"Then we can control all external signals from the Capitol?" one of her subordinates asked.
"No. At most, we can make sure that the information we want to