Steel World (19 page)

“Negative, Veteran!” barked Graves.

“Sir?”

“You heard me. You,
personally
, are going to sound the alarm. I doubt these recruits even know how to operate the disks well enough to travel up the shafts again. Get moving.”

I thought I heard Harris mutter something unpleasant, but I could have been mistaken. He turned and ran double-time for the shafts.

Carlos tried to help me up, and Graves grabbed my other arm and hauled with him. I was placed on my feet, where I swayed slightly. I could stand, but walking wasn’t in the cards, not yet. Just standing was painful.

Then the chattering of gunfire came from down the tunnel. We all turned and lifted our rifles.

It was Harris. He was running back toward us, howling. Behind him thundered a jugger. The thing was racing down the tunnels after him, slapping its fat tail against the walls. Chunks of grit and shale showered the floor with every sweeping step it took.

-13-

Harris was aiming his gun behind him and firing blindly as he ran. Orange sparks splattered the walls. I saw that most of his rounds were missing, but a few caused red spots to sprout up on the charging jugger’s chest. Rather than stopping the monster, these injuries only served to piss it off. It ran faster, gaining on Harris.

“Ready your weapons, but hold your fire,” Centurion Graves ordered calmly.

We spread out and leveled our rifles. Harris was in the way, or we would have fired. I thought about doing it anyway, but Centurion Graves had given the order to hold, so I held.

It was a close thing, but Harris didn’t make it. The jugger caught up with him and snatched off his right arm, the one with the rifle in it. Along with the weapon, he lost most of his shoulder and the side of his face. 

It was the strangest thing I’d ever seen. One minute, Harris was running for all he was worth, and the next a big portion of his upper body was—just gone. The jugger paused in its charge to toss back the morsel and gulp it down.

What remained of Harris took one more weird half-step then flopped down into the blood-soaked grit.

I fired. All of us did. We didn’t wait for Graves to give the order. He was firing too, so I was sure he didn’t mind.

We tore the monster apart. It took about ten seconds to bring it down. After about ten more seconds of thrashing, it finally lay still.

Graves walked forward and picked up Harris’ weapon. “Grab his ammo. Split the load. He’ll need it when he’s back in action.”

So calm, so nonchalant! How many deaths had this man witnessed firsthand? I couldn’t even guess. He’d sounded more concerned about my injuries than he did Harris’ death.

“I made a mistake,” he said. “I didn’t realize we were being stalked. Recruit, check out that lump in the tunnel down there.”

He pointed, and I realized he was pointing at Natasha, not me. That made sense, as I was injured.

It took Natasha by surprise. She was standing next to me, and she looked shocked. I don’t think she’d ever been sent out to scout alone before.

“What lump, sir?” she asked.

Graves gestured impatiently. “Whatever McGill saw the saurian messing with. It’s down that tunnel. Recon and report.”

Natasha was breathing hard. She had a wild look in her eye. She stared at Harris’ mangled body. I could tell she didn’t want to go down any of these tunnels for any reason.

Graves understood the situation instantly. He walked up to Natasha and smoothly placed his rifle under the woman’s chin.

I had to admit, upon seeing that, I was unnerved. I instinctively took a firmer grip on my weapon. I felt a protective surge.

“The penalty for directly disobeying orders is perma-death,” Graves told her. “But I’m a lenient man. If you like, I’ll put you out right here, right now. You can revive later and apologize.”

“That won’t be necessary, Centurion!” Natasha said. She turned and trotted down the tunnel into the dark. I watched her go, not knowing what to think.

I eyed Graves sidelong. The look on his face reminded me of the first time I’d met him aboard the transport that carried me up to
Corvus
. He’d been in the emergency compartment dispassionately watching us all suffocate. That same steely-eyed gaze was on his face now. He really didn’t care if Natasha lived or died.

As if he was aware of my scrutiny, Graves turned to look at me.

“You don’t approve, Recruit?”

“I didn’t say anything, sir.”

“No, you didn’t. Keep it that way. You’re here to learn, and you’ve already learned a lot. Never forget what the tribune told you, McGill: Legion Varus is playing for keeps on this planet. If you don’t like it, you can get out in five more years.”

Natasha reached the lump in the tunnel and examined it for about three seconds with her suit light. Then she raced back toward us as if her butt was on fire. I didn’t blame her. Every shadow looked dangerous to us now.

“It’s another saurian, sir,” she reported. “It appears to be a miner, and it looks as if it’s half-eaten.”

Graves nodded. “Dinos aren’t averse to cannibalism,” he said, as if he was describing some kind of strength. “There does appear to be a rebellion among the miners here, but it’s much bigger than a few unpaid juggers. The enemy includes both large and small lizards, and one example of something else, if McGill is to be believed. Puzzling.”

He gave me a cold glance. I got the feeling he didn’t entirely believe my account of the alien I’d met in the forest.

I shrugged. I didn’t care what he believed, because I’d seen it with my own eyes.
Hell, I’d shot it to death.

Graves turned and signaled two fresh recruits to take point. I was relieved. Natasha came to my side and helped me walk.

We proceeded as a tight group back up the tunnel.

There were no more mishaps until we reached the shafts themselves. I stared in disbelief when we got there. The shafts were full of rubble.

“Looks like a cave-in,” Graves said.

He didn’t even sound upset. The rest of us were horrified.

“How are we going to get out, sir?” Carlos asked.

Graves gave him a wintry smile. “We could just shoot ourselves. We’d be revived in a day or two based on our last backups whenever they figure it out. You wouldn’t remember much, but maybe that’s a good thing, eh?”

Everyone looked at him in wide-eyed horror, unsure if his suggestion that we commit mass suicide was meant in earnest. Then he laughed.

“Can’t take a joke?” he asked. “Recruits never can. I would never order that—not now, anyway. We’ve got a mission to perform. These lizards aren’t going to win so easily.”

We weren’t quite sure how we should feel. By staying alive, we were stuck down here. I could hardly walk, Harris was dead, and we had no idea how many more lizards were stalking us right now.

“What could have filled the shaft, sir?” I asked.

Graves shrugged. “A lizard, probably. Maybe one with another plasma grenade. They’re pretty quiet when they go off. We might have missed the noise and the burst of light. We were far away and distracted. The more interesting question is
why
they blocked the shaft.”

I thought about it. “To keep us from warning the others, sir?” I suggested.

He looked at me and pointed a finger at my chest.

“I agree, McGill. Your file said you were a college dropout, but I’m beginning to think there were extenuating circumstances.”

I stiffened. I had no idea he’d been nosing in my files. “My mother lost her job, and I lost my funding.”

Graves nodded. “That fits. Well, we’ve met up with three lizards down here including the dead one, and there are bound to be more. Back to our original duty, team. Except this time, we aren’t going to recon these tunnels. The mission has changed. We’re going into search-and-destroy mode from here on out.”

We proceeded to carefully search the tunnels for the better part of an hour before we made any fresh contacts. I began to realize just how big this mine was. This planet was riddled with mines like this one, and the mineral deposits were amazing.

There were clusters of garnets, diamonds, rubies and hard metals everywhere. We called Cancri-9 “Steel World”, but it was much more than that. It was a treasure house of rare elements. The basic components of steel were more common than granite on Earth, but there were plenty of other valuable minerals as well.

The difference between this place and Earth was the core mix of elements. This world had a lot more iron and less silicon. In practice, that meant it was more metal than it was dirt and rock. Instead of veins of ore embedded in stone, there were veins of stone embedded in walls of pure metal.

Just about when we were all starting to think we’d met up with every saurian
that was in this place, big or small—they jumped us.

They’d chosen their ground carefully. We came to an intersection that led in five directions—north, east, west, up and down. None of these tunnels had a long run before they twisted or turned. Centurion Graves called a halt as we entered from the eastern tunnel.

“I don’t like it. They could be anywhere. We’ll all take the tunnel downward together. That tunnel looks freshly drilled.”

There were indeed shavings of steel littering the floor of the place, and the tunnel that led downward had sharp, flanged edges. I stared at these as we passed them.

“Centurion?” I asked.

“What is it, McGill?”

“I think someone just drilled this tunnel up from below. I don’t see the boring machine, but it must be around somewhere.”

“Let’s keep moving. We don’t have time to sightsee or indulge our engineering curiosity.”

“But sir?” I called, running my gloved fingers over the blade-like edges of the tunnel mouth.

He turned back in irritation. “What?”

“This tunnel that comes up and joins the primary run—look at the drill marks. They must have drilled
from
that tunnel
into
this one.”

He stared at me for a second, then Carlos came near and ran his fingers over the walls.

“He’s right,” he said. “They drilled from the outside inward.”

Centurion Graves got it then. He examined the walls with squinting eyes. “I think you’re right, Recruit. Very observant. The striations are curved in the opposite direction. This tunnel is probably the route the enemy used to enter the complex. They bored their way in right here…”

We heard footsteps and rasping sounds. Everyone unslung their weapons and aimed them in every direction. It wasn’t immediately obvious from which way the threat was coming, but one thing was for sure: they were coming. I wasn’t sure if they’d finally grown tired of waiting for us to choose a path, or if they’d just all reached their set positions. But, I was sure it was a planned ambush because they came at us from five different directions at once.

It was chaos from the beginning. Ten of us could not possibly cover all five avenues of attack evenly. Centurion Graves roared for us to move forward, into the low tunnel. We did so, and found ourselves in a gloomy hole which was crudely cut and had no lighting installed.

I was more convinced than ever that this was the way the enemy had entered the complex. Everywhere else in the mine there were lights installed and often rails in the floor which served for powered carts to carry minerals to the surface. This tunnel had none of those amenities. It looked like an animal’s burrow—but one made of dull gray metals.

By pulling us deeper into the low tunnel, Graves made sure there were only two directions we had to aim our guns. I had to admit, as the saurians began their attack, I was glad Graves was in charge. He never panicked or froze up. He smoothly ordered us to respond to the situation and made the right move the first time.

“Front rank get low,” he ordered, “I want two men on their bellies in front, two men firing over their heads, and the rest of you in the center. Wait until they break either line to commit yourselves.”

There were only nine of us, and the tunnel was only about three meters wide. I found myself on my belly facing back the way we’d come. The saurians rushed us, and we were immediately surprised by what they had: snap-rifles.

Fortunately, they weren’t very good with them. It was immediately obvious they barely knew how to use their weapons. They sprayed ahead, sweeping the tunnel with clattering rounds.

We gritted our teeth and returned fire. Our aim was dramatically better, and the first line of saurians went down in a thrashing heap. Fresh troops bounded right over them, snatched up the dropped guns and kept coming.

“They’re using our own weapons on us!” shouted Carlos beside me over the din of fire. Inside the tight confines of the metallic tunnel walls, the noise rebounded painfully from every direction.

I saw that he was right. The snap-rifles weren’t just any weapons, they were our weapons. They even had the Legion Varus
wolf’s head stamped on the side.

I realized they must have taken them from other light troops. How long had this fight been going on? We certainly weren’t their first victims—but were we the last survivors in this mine?