Undying Mercenaries 2: Dust World (29 page)

“Sir, yes sir,” Harris said.

I noticed he didn’t sound happy with his instructions. He wasn’t a man who sought promotions. He didn’t want to distinguish himself. He wanted to live to see the sun in the morning—that’s it.

“We’ve learned a lot about this enemy,” Graves continued, gathering what was left of our unit around him. “We lost some good people, but they’ll be happy to know we won the day in the end. Now, we’re going to reorganize the six units we have here in these rocks. We’ll charge up our suits and be ready move out within an hour. With firing support from the three reserve units back at the ridge, the forward six will make that last short charge. We’ll assault the ship and take it.”

A groan went up. I couldn’t blame them. We were tired, half-down on power, and many of us were injured. Voices rose as everyone discussed this so called “plan”.

Graves threw his arms up. “Listen people! Listen…
SHUT UP!
”

We quieted. Complaints dropped down to the level of grumbling. I took a moment to look around. Kivi was still standing, but she looked away from me when I glanced at her. Natasha had been left back at the camp; we’d only taken combatants on the charge. But Carlos and about a third of the rest hadn’t made it this far. Most of the other units were in even worse shape. All in all, I’d have to say we were half-dead and really wanting a break. If we charged the ship now, I doubted we’d have three hundred effectives in all six units combined, and we still had no idea what was inside that ship to greet us.

“I know you want to hide in these rocks and give it a rest,” Graves said. “I understand that. But that’s not going to happen. Not this time. There were over a hundred of their troops in these rocks, and we took them out. That means we’ve probably destroyed their ground forces. Command thinks we have the enemy on their heels, and we’re not going to stop pushing until they break or we do. Just remember, they only have a limited number of squids and freaks in that ship. We can reproduce every one of you that falls. We’ll win through attrition, if nothing else.”

No one was happy with his speech, not any part of it. “Winning through attrition” meant we would get the joy of dying over and over again, hoping each time to take down one of the enemy. With luck, we’d break through and finish them. But that ship looked big and mean. There was no telling what they had in there to oppose us. We hadn’t even fought a single squid yet.

I raised my hand, waggling my fingers. That always seemed to work for Carlos.

Graves glanced at me, but waved my hand down.

“Save it, McGill. We’re going in.”

“Sir?” I asked. “I’m not going to argue about that.”

“What
are
you going to argue about?”

“Sir, I think I have a way of getting us aboard that ship—without everyone out here dying six times in the process, that is.”

Graves stared at me for a second, then he heaved a sigh. “I know I’m going to regret asking, but what the hell are you talking about, McGill?”

Everyone looked at me. I smiled slowly and began to explain.

-27-

I was sure there was a tunnel complex underneath our feet. I’d seen the locals come crawling out of here in half a dozen places. Since the area had been heavily shelled, the tunnels had to have been damaged, but I was equally sure some had survived.

“We need to get a few techs up here with equipment,” I said, “or at least some of those buzzers specially equipped with sonic sensors.”

Graves, Harris and Leeson were all listening to me. Harris rolled his eyes. Leeson looked pissed. Only Graves seemed to be taking me seriously.

“Let’s say we get into these tunnels of yours,” Graves said. “How the hell does that get us into the ship?”

I cleared my throat. “I’ve been down there in the tunnels, sir. They go everywhere. With a decent compass to follow, all we have to do is find an exit that’s close to the ship. We go into the tunnels, find exits close to the ship, and then we come out like a horde of gophers rushing the ramp.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me, right?” Leeson demanded. “You don’t have a map. You don’t have any idea where these tunnels go and where they don’t. You’re asking us to duck underground into some rabbit-warren full of booby-traps and hope we can find a way out?”

“Well, sir,” I said. “If you’d rather charge that force-shield, getting nailed by a cannon the size of a submarine at close range every step, I guess that’s up to you guys.”

Leeson’s face had turned from red to purple during my little speech. I knew I was mouthing off to an officer. He was only two steps ahead of me in rank, but he
was
my direct commander.

I opened my mouth again to apologize, but I never got the chance. Harris had seen his opportunity, and he’d jumped right in. He smashed me one on the head. A white light flashed, but I didn’t fall or pass out.

Legion Varus operated to some degree like the Roman Legions of ancient times. Back then, any officer could execute a soldier for disobeying or disserting. Punishment was often physical including flogging and the like. I knew and understood all that, but I felt like killing Harris, anyway.

Harris knew it, too, but he didn’t back down. He didn’t apologize. He stepped up and gave me that crazy stare of his.

“You settled down yet, kid? Because if you haven’t you can just try it. I can see it in your eyes. I can—”

“Harris,” Graves said. “Step back, gentlemen.”

I had respect for Graves. I had respect for Harris, too, even if he did piss me off at moments like this. Both of us sucked in a breath and took a step back from one another. I realized I’d been visualizing Harris’ next death at my own hands. That sort of thing wasn’t good for morale.

Graves looked from me to Harris and back again.

“You know,” he said. “You two have always been annoying to every officer I put in charge of you. Did you know that? They complain every time. Now I can see what they mean.”

Harris seemed surprised. “Just doing my job, Centurion.”

“Yeah, I know,” Grave said.

“Sir, can we just investigate the tunnels?” I asked. “We’re in a relatively safe position here. The boulders are stopping the enemy’s heavy gun. We have a little time.”

“But that can’t last,” Leeson said suddenly. I think he was worried that Graves might listen to me. “We’d just be giving them more time to set up their defenses.”

Graves was busy with his tapper while we argued for a minute or so. When he finally looked up, his face was unreadable.

“I just texted McGill’s idea to the Primus,” he said. “She told me I have half an hour to try it out. After that, the general attack begins.”

Leeson and Harris were stunned. I tried to look cool, but inside I felt triumphant—that was until I heard the rest of what Graves had to say.

“McGill, you’re going in. I can’t afford an officer, or too many troops for that matter. But I need someone senior to vouch for what you find. Harris will handle that. He’s in command. Take three regulars who can walk and head into the tunnels. Remember, you have thirty minutes—or at least you did three minutes ago. Hustle up, people!”

I think
Harris was in shock. His mouth hung open. He wanted to argue, but he’d just received a direct order, and he was too much of a soldier for that.

Graves had a hint of a smile on his face. “A little time together in a hole might do you two some good,” he said. “You might bond or something.”

Or something.
I was still thinking of murder—and I knew Harris was doing the same.

When Graves moved off to organize his remaining forces, Harris snarled at me and slammed his shoulder into mine as he passed by. Walking along the huddled lines, he tapped three regulars announcing they’d just volunteered. The last “volunteer” he selected was Kivi.

This pissed me off. I figured he’d tapped her just to irritate me. He had to know Kivi and I had an informal thing going on—everybody did. He figured that if he had to go underground with me, he would damn well bring along my girlfriend, too. Probably if Natasha and Carlos were here, they’d have been picked next.

We gathered up our kits and made our way uphill into the highest boulders up near the cliffs. I was in the lead, as I’d seen the colonists vanish into these rocks with my own eyes.

“It was up here when I first saw them do it,” I said, crouching and scanning the rocks.

Harris nosed up next to me. “Isn’t this where that hot little number shot you in the face?” he asked, as if eager to hear the story again.

I looked at him, and he grinned at me.

“It was a knife, but yeah, that’s about right. They came up out of slits in the rocks right along here. See those shadows under the boulders? They aren’t just shadows. They’re narrow tunnel entrances.”

Harris scoffed, eyeing them. “How the hell is a fully-kitted heavy trooper supposed to get into that weasel-hole?”

“Like this, vet,” I said, sliding toward it feet-first.

I almost got stuck, but I made it through. I had to shed my power-pack and drag it along with my weapon behind me, but I made it inside.

“Don’t go running off to make out with some tunnel-slut, you hear?” Harris shouted loudly.

Kivi was right there at his side, not looking at either of us.

Grumbling to myself, I flipped on my lights and had a look around. The tunnel was tight, and it rambled off in several directions. I investigated while the others came down after me one at a time.

My algorithm for searching the tunnel complex was simple enough. I took whatever route seemed to be going downhill, explored until I met a dead-end, then turned around and searched the next branch. When we spotted smaller side-passages, we sent in one of the others to scout.

In the first ten minutes, we had only one bad moment. A fresh-faced legionnaire named Perez found a booby-trap.

I’d been of the opinion that the traps were only in the rocks above, set to catch invaders before they entered the tunnel network—but I’d thought wrong. Perez was jabbed right in the butt with a black-tipped stick. The nano-metal was black and shaped like an arrow or maybe a small spear.

Heavy troopers have armor over their butts just like the rest of our bodies, but the same weakness existed there that existed at our shoulder joints. The tip penetrated the polymer joints at the hips and sank in just enough to graze her skin inside.

Hungry nanites flooded her bloodstream. Our suits have good medical systems and can even perform life-saving operations, such as amputations, if necessary, but Perez was struck too close to her vital organs. The nanites quickly coursed through her blood to her heart and consumed her.

Perez shivered and gagged. She said it was like having ants inside her guts—huge metal ones.

Harris did the honors, frowning. He put his sidearm up to the woman’s chin. Perez nodded. We couldn’t do anything else other than leave her. We didn’t have time to wait around until she hemorrhaged and died.

“I’ll see you next time, girl,” Harris said, almost gently. This kind of surprised me, as I’d generally thought of him as a heartless prick.

His beam glowed, and Perez relaxed, eyes glazing. The nanites were still busy in there, hollowing her out, but at least she didn’t have to feel it.

“Nasty people, these colonists of yours, McGill,” Harris growled at me.

“They aren’t
mine
, Vet,” I said. “And remember, they laid these traps for littermates and slavers. Not for us. We’re new in town.”

Harris waved for me to get moving. I went back to exploring the tunnels.

About seven minutes later, I was ready to give up. With less than ten minutes left, we had lost a good fighter, and we still hadn’t found anything.

Then I saw something new. Something I hadn’t expected, but I knew the second I saw it that I
should
have expected it.

I saw a pair of eyes down one long, dark tunnel. They stared back at me from the darkness.

“Vet, hold up,” I called over my shoulder.

“What have you got, McGill? Is a snake eating you for dinner now?”

“Just hold your position, please.”

Harris and the others grumbled, but they stopped moving and stared after me.

I waved at the eyes in the darkness. They blinked, but didn’t move. Taking a chance, I scooted closer—but not too fast.

The eyes vanished, retreated. I spotted them again a little farther away. I chewed my cheeks for a second, considering.

“Hey,” I said in a loud whisper. “I know you. Talk to me.”

The eyes appeared again. They were narrow and suspicious. “Why are you here?” demanded the owner.

“You’re Stott, aren’t you?” I asked.

“You don’t belong here. I should kill you—again.”

Hmm. My hand slipped to my sidearm. I knew we had a truce going with these people, but here was that same weaselly little bastard who had shot me in the back, bringing on the first death I’d experienced on Dust World. The temptation to return the favor was strong.

“We’re allies,” he said suddenly, as if following my train of thought. Maybe a lot of people dreamt of killing Stott. If they did, I couldn’t blame them for it.