The vast drainage pylon chamber was awash in the dull caustic glow of the slime guns as the projectiles streaked through the fetid air, some to strike flesh and armor while others splattered against walls and plating. The muzzle flares of the Reapers and cor-sec troopers added their sharp illumination to the tableau before him, and Samuel could not help but briefly be in awe of it. It reminded him of the Founding ceremony, when he first shipped out as a Reaper.
Typically Grotto culture was not one of mirth or celebration, though society did take a fierce, even if dour, pride in the launching of a new venture. The fireworks of his departure had looked much like this as they exploded over the smog-choked skyline of the city while his transport ship had risen into high orbit to rendezvous with the tug itself.
“Squad Ulanti sending! We need back up on Pylon 4!” screeched the static-filled voice of Boss Ulanti.
“Welding team took eighty percent casualties. Without another welder I need six minutes to get this beam cut. Get me welders or shooters ASAFP!”
Six minutes, thought Samuel to himself as he and the rest of the Grotto soldiers retreated to the next set of barricades, this fight was going to be over long before that if the stalkers continued to press them this hard. The slime guns were chewing through the portable flak boards at a rate of a plate for every two impacts, and after the hard march through downspire, Tango Platoon didn’t have very many left as it was.
Command kept reinforcing their company with fresh cor-sec recruits from the surface, each batch more ill-equipped and poorly trained than the one before it.
Virginia had begun to openly suspect that Grotto was intentionally hurling bodies into the downspire meat grinder as a way of avoiding the cost of caring for the tremendous refugee population. As for marine reinforcements, all of the two dozen Reaper platoons aboard the Baen 6 tug were deployed in quadrants all across downspire.
It was likely, thought Samuel, as he continued to fire, that each Reaper element was facing its own sort of bloody subterranean ordeal. These last months had been hard on everyone. However, as dangerous as the rest of the Reaper missions no doubt were, nothing was a harder target than the Basin. Naturally Tango Platoon was right in the thick of it.
Everyone knew that Pylon 4 was going to be the beast, as it was the primary support for the downspire quadrant above, which supported the massive Forge Prime complex upspire. Boss Ulanti had started the demolition prep with ten welders from the Reaper support crew, who worked the salvage operations with the actual soldiers once the combat danger was neutralized. None of the support crew had the kind of training the Reapers did, but they were numerous and a lot of hands could get a lot done, as Samuel had learned during the scrapping of the space hulk.
“Squad Marsters sending. Launching counter-assault on suspected point of entry for Stalker forces,” came the crisp no-nonsense voice of Boss Wynn Marsters, “Sek volunteered and is en route alone from Pylon 2, needs Squad Aiken shooters if available. No additional resources at this time.”
As the radio buzzed with chatter, Squad Aiken and the cor-sec troopers dug in behind the corroded remnants of their flak boards. Ben Takeda took point and opened up with his heavy machine gun while the rest took firing positions around the pylon, literally placing their bodies between the busy welding crew and the threatening darkness. Samuel knew it would buy them some time, and hopefully whatever that time was, would be enough for the welder crews to cut all four of the pylons. Once they were cut the sheer pressure of the tonnage being applied to them by the spire levels above would hold them in place, but they would be permanently severed.
After the cuts were complete the Reapers would affix several bombs, each contained in an armored case to prevent tampering from any possible enemies or curious scavengers. Once they were safely back in upspire the demolition crews would detonate and all of the levels would enter a controlled collapse as Forge Prime, now gutted of all valuables beyond mere scrap metal, plummeted into deepspire.
“Boss!” said Samuel as he crouched down next to Aiken as the squad leader re-loaded his combat rifle, “I’ll lead a few of the cor-sec troopers to Pylon 4 if you can spare us.”
“Hyst, I need everybody here if we’re going to hold the ground long enough to get the pylon cut and have enough bodies and bullets to push our way out of this chamber,” snapped Boss Aiken as he racked the slide on his rifle and pointed to his dwindling pouch of magazines.
“Boss, if we don’t get all the pylons cut then demolition won’t be able to get a clean blast, the collateral damage might end up squeezing the margins too hard,” observed Patrick as he fired the last round of his magazine and worked quickly to swap it out for one of his few remaining fresh ones, “Besides, we don’t have enough ammo to execute a proper retreat as it is.”
“I’m not accustomed to grunts giving bosses tactical advice,” growled Aiken as he returned to his position and fired several rounds at the enemy as if to emphasize his displeasure, “But your logic is sound. We’re down to twenty percent ammunition reserves from the look of everyone, and if we find that we’ve been followed and some enemy has set up a hard point back the way we came then we would have to launch an assault just to retreat.”
“Kade, get me three cor-sec troopers from the firing line, preferably ones who look like they won’t piss themselves when Prybar does something reckless and heroic,” ordered Boss Aiken as he looked at Samuel and gave him a begrudging nod of respect. “See that you don’t die needlessly, that’s bad for business.”
“Roger that, Boss,” Samuel replied as three cor-sec troopers mustered at the base of the pylon, each carrying well-used combat shotguns and a sling of shells over their shoulders that had far more empty slots than full ones.
“You three on me, we’re heading across the pits to bail out Pylon 4.”
Samuel and his makeshift squad turned and set off into the quarter-light. He had no clue how he was supposed to find Jada Sek in the middle of all this chaos, but he figured that as long as they kept heading for Pylon 4 they were bound to cross paths.
After a few minutes of leaping in and out of the sluice pits, Samuel could have sworn he heard the sounds of things splashing out there in the murky quarter-light that hadn’t been there moments before. His instincts screamed at him that this was a threat, and he turned to see that the cor-sec troopers clearly felt the same, as they all had their guns up and ears cocked. The sounds stopped and Samuel reluctantly signaled for them to move onwards, on the double.
When the makeshift squad seemed to be about halfway to the pylon, one of the sluice pits off to their right exploded with activity as something in the pit began thrashing and splashing. Another pit to the left erupted with similar disruption and from it emerged a long white creature that to Samuel’s mind looked to be the exact match for a Baen bone worm; only this one was nearly twelve feet in length.
The creature’s head tapered to an armored point with no less than three gaping mouths on the underside of the armored head. The three cor-sec troopers screamed and began unloading their shotguns at the creature, their steel shot ripping chucks out of the bone worm’s body and sending it writhing and wailing as it spurted blood and viscera in all directions.
Samuel looked away from the carnage only to see a second one slide out of the pit on the right and make a dive at one of the cor-sec troopers. The marine shouted a warning and raised his rifle just as the creatures pointed head slammed into the man’s back so hard that the armored point punched out of the other side of the trooper’s ribcage. The point, apparently its mouth, peeled back in barbed sections, which it used to haul the trooper’s body off the ground and drag it back to the waters of the pit.