Though it had not been officially disseminated information, most of the bosses knew that the majority of the convicts were still alive, at least according to their monitors. The general Reaper grunts had not been officially informed, to avoid a panic. Samuel wasn’t keen to hide information from his people, but he did as he was ordered.
“Tango Bravo, snipers are seeing massive architectural shift from our vantage point mid-structure, confirm,” growled Boss Harker over the com-bead.
“Architectural shift?” asked Patrick, slinging his flamer. At a nod from Samuel, he and Bianca and hoisted themselves up using the footholds cut into the stone just beneath one of the gun mounts, “Is that even a phrase?”
“Scope it and you tell us, marine,” said Boss Marsters as he inclined his head towards Jada, “Sek get me eyes on the opposite side.”
Once perched atop the gun emplacement, Patrick turned back to accept Samuel’s hand-held viewfinder. The marine set the device against his helmet’s visor and began scanning the city. He toggled through several viewing modes until he was able to find a setting that pierced through at least some portion of the gloom. He was visibly shaken by what he saw.
“Um, Boss, you’re gonna need to see this for yourself,” muttered Patrick as he looked back at Samuel and handed the viewfinder to Bianca for a second opinion, “This is tough to describe.”
Samuel ascended the wall and squeezed into the tight space of the gun emplacement. The space seemed to be meant for one weapon and one operator, but the three marines huddled together as best they could so that Samuel could get a clear view of the city below. The marine looked through his viewfinder and gasped. It was difficult to make out completely in the fog, but it appeared as if the buildings were rearranging themselves.
Immediately, Samuel recalled the tracks he’d seen set into the streets and along the sides of the buildings, and as he watched the structures grind their way slowly into new formations he could not help but marvel at the ingenuity of it all. He had seen a great many technological wonders in his time, from the gargantuan industrial complexes of Grotto Corporation to the chaotic leviathan that was the space hulk, but this- this elegant re-shaping of the city’s layout- was both a wonder and terror to behold. A wonder of architecture, engineering, and physics, but a terror as the buildings shifted, blocking off all of the streets and creating a solid circular wall around the entire city.
Reports of the architectural shift were buzzing through the com-beads as platoon after platoon sounded off. Command ordered the Reaper force to converge on the ziggurat as a primary objective, then hold position as the tech and intelligence staff continued to monitor changes within the city.
As more and more marines arrived they began creating hasty fighting positions with their flak boards and taking up position using the building’s natural defenses. Everyone was on edge, and with good reason. This force was comprised entirely of veterans from the Reaper Corps, and all of them had seen their share of strange things. They knew from experience that on hostile salvage missions even the buildings themselves were active participants in the battle space, and the environment had to be respected as an unpredictable hostile. On most missions, though, the threat was usually some manner of secondary explosion, toxic breach, or structural collapse, never before had the environment been so calculated in its reaction to their presence.
Grips tightened on weapons and fingers hovered over triggers as the marines waited for a fight they knew had to be coming. The three marines re-joined the squads and pressed onwards, none of them wanting to keep looking at the logic defying movements of the already disturbing buildings.
As the two squads neared the apex of the pyramid Samuel’s com-bead began to pulse with an emergency signal. Boss Marsters looked back at Samuel and the two men locked eyes for a moment before Wynn held his hand up in a clenched fist. His gesture halted the marine’s advance. He opened his hand wide to splay his fingers out and the assembled marines fanned out to pull security. They were on the second terrace from the top, without much trench to cover, so the eight marines were able to get three hundred and sixty degree coverage despite their small numbers. Samuel stood next to Boss Marsters as they switched over to the command channel.
“Reaper Ground Force Reaper Actual, massive energy surges inside the ziggurat, the signatures indicate sizeable machine components inside the structure itself,” came the monotone voice of the Reaper command dispatcher, “Penetrate, neutralize, and secure. Over.”
“Boss Ulanti, ascend now and meet us at the top, we’re going in,” said Boss Marsters as he checked the fire toggle on his rifle and switched it to three round burst, “Advance to the apex of the structure and sweep in behind us. Bravo Platoon is pulling security. Reaper Actual, Squad Marsters and Squad Hyst entering hostile structure time now.”
“Roger Tango Leader,” answered the crisp voice on the other end of the line.
“Reapers on me,” Marsters ordered as he continued downwards, flipping on both his body lights and gun lights to illuminate the darkness below.
The marines filed one by one through the opening in the top of the ziggurat, Samuel descending just after Bianca Kade. The marine moved her gun light back and forth with trained precision, taking care to illuminate the blind corners of the staircase as it emptied into a large empty chamber. They had been sleeping together since before the conflict on Tetra Prime. Both had thought themselves simply soldiers who needed each other briefly in a few moments of weakness and battle fatigue. However, she and Samuel had re-kindled their former entanglement in these last weeks on Vorhold, both telling themselves after the horrors of downspire they needed the simple comforts of human intimacy.
Neither claimed to want a relationship, both had spouses back on Baen 6, though it was becoming clear that something more had grown between them. Samuel knew that it would affect his judgment in battle, possibly hers as well, even though Jada and George had seemed to make it work for several years, neither of them were additionally distracted by the guilt of betrayal.
Here he was, on some distant world fighting to get his family away from the grinding society of Grotto, all the while soiling the very vows that bound him to his wife.
He loved Sura, deeply, and yet as he entered the chamber alongside Bianca he knew that if it came to it he would die to keep her alive, and not just because they were military comrades.
He and Bianca had stood together against the guns of Helion and the claws of downspire, seen friends die, there was a bond in that he couldn’t share with Sura. No matter how much he loved her or how much she struggled to understand, there would always be that dark place in him, and only a fellow marine could burn away the shadows of it. Bianca had been the one to articulate that particular disconnect between herself and her husband. She had only married in the last few years, after Tetra Prime, but already she saw that being a marine was tearing unavoidable holes in her relationship.
He mused that it would be easier just to die down here, and leave Sura to find a new life with a better husband, one more worthy of her trust. He knew that was the coward’s path, he had come too far to just lie down and die, regardless how much of a mess he’d made of his marriage and his own heart.