The explosion was like a landslide. The krak grenade went of with little more than a snap and then there was a great whuffing sound which sucked all the air in the shaft down into it. Debris and dust ripped past us in a hurricane as we bolted up flights of stairs, tugging at our new found clothes. A moment later there was a colossal crack and then a boom so loud I felt it in my bones. For a moment all was confusion and chaos. Hadrian threw his arms around me as we were picked up by some momentous force and smashed into the ceiling. I had a moment to think how angry Selenica was going to be that a wounded Hadrian was taking this kind of punishment and then I was laying on the ground. Fire licked all around me and my ears rang like a gong. I could see Ortega, helmetless and bleeding from the nose shouting at me. I pulled myself clumsily to my feet and staggered towards him. Hadrian rose as abruptly as a carnival target beside me. Ortega grabbed him by the shoulders and shouted something that no one could hear. It was only then that I felt the floor shifting. My eyes widened and I ran, scrambling alongside Ortega and Hadrian. The whole turret was coming down, thousands of kilotons of steel and ferocrete. We reached what had once been an observation post in time to see the entire edifice slumping sideways.

"JUMP!" Ortega yelled, pointing to a gangway that was rapidly sliding away. I bolted for the edge and leaped, having just enough time to look down into the roiling pit of smoke below us, an unfathomable and unsurvivable depth, and then I was across, hitting the gangway and stumbling into the wall. Hadrian and Ortega followed a second later and we turned to watch the final destruction of what had once been a lance battery of a proud warship. It seemed to fall with slow majesty, crashing into the depths below like an avalanche of rust and debris.

"I guess that is a little more effective than flamers to cover things up," I said, my voice cracking due to the coating of dust from the air.

"Im afraid you will have to close your file on the Under Council Inquisitor," Ortega admitted. 

"Not quite," I said after a moment and then held out the two torn halves of the scroll they had been trying to compel me to read.