I fired auto canister, my E flashing and bucking. Another fireball blasted me off my feet. The answering tacstar almost deafened me.
"In here!" Scrapper crouched over a smoking crater in a field of burning earth. The tacstars had blown huge holes in the deck, revealing a hidden world below.
"Squad on Twelve!" Snow Leopard commanded. Dragon stood over the hole firing auto tacstar as we dove in. I had trouble moving my right leg. I got one last glimpse of the alien city, the tall column towers exploding outwards, the air filled with debris and flashing with tacstars.
Not important, are we? Maybe the O's will notice us now!
We scrambled away, suddenly in darkness. My darksight activated. We were under the O's city, running through cold wet cenite tunnels, bending over to avoid cables and pipes lining the roof. Another green flash burst behind us. Eight fired a tacstar in response and the blast almost deafened us all.
"Beta, One! Count!" We counted off, a rush of voices—we were all there, crouched in a confusing maze of pipes and walkways running through coiled cenite tunnels lined with ice.
"Move! Move!" We ran blindly away from the hole. A screeching blast of flame suddenly filled the tunnel, shooting past us, enveloping me in fiercely burning blue-hot gas.
"NOVA WARNING! Exterior temperature rising! Now exceeding acceptable tolerances!" I outran it, then turned to fire auto canister into the hell raging behind me. Tara and Gildron were beside me, also firing. My heart raced. There were more flashes back there. Someone screamed.
"Get out! Get out!"
"Run!"
"Heads down!"
"It's the O!" The firing was deafening. I continued, switching to auto xmax. Then I switched to flame, blasting it all, letting it all burn. I knew there were none of our people back there.
"Medic! Medic!" Someone called out. I looked around. Tara and Gildron and I were alone, a cenite ceiling close overhead, a cenite grate underfoot. We had somehow been separated from the others. The tacmap was useless. A deceptor burst. Another tacstar erupted somewhere behind us.
"Follow me!" I charged forward in a panic. An open hatch on the left—a black pit. I jumped in, feet first. I landed in water, knee-deep. Tara and Gildron hurtled in after me. It was a large water pipe, a sewer, full of dark sluggish liquid—filthy wet walls.
"One, Three, I'm…" I didn't get to finish.
"Beta, One! Split up and get that ship!" Deceptor static drowned him out, then he came back again. "…the upper levels! Get out of here, and get to…" Gildron snarled, looking around, his E up and ready to fire.
"Look out!" someone screamed.
"Oh my God! Help! Help!" Scrapper shrieked, the tacnet roaring with static.
"Run! I'm coming!" Priestess responded. Priestess!
"Priestess!" I shouted. "Priestess! Where are you?" Someone screaming, a terrified, primal scream. Priestess!
"I'm dying…" I could barely hear it—was it Priestess?
"I'm coming!" someone shouted. "Priestess, I'm coming!" Who was it?
"Come on, Tara!" I sloshed through the liquid, my heart pounding. Where was Priestess? What the hell was happening? Tara was right behind me.
"Black Jade, Blue Gold! Hang on! We're almost there!"
"Beta, One! Ignore all…" And then the deceptors overcome it all, a horrid screeching.
"Careful, Wester!" Our sewer roared, the water gathering strength. We slid down a slimy chute and found ourselves in another huge pipe, this time almost waist-deep in frothing oily liquid.
"Beta Four, Eight, Thirteen approaching!" Sweety suddenly announced. They were on us in fracs, splashing wildly, their armor burnt and smoking.
"Deadman! Thinker!"
"Who were the casualties?" I asked. "Where's Priestess? Answer me!"
"I don't know," Dragon replied, "but it was bad. Scrapper was gone—somebody screamed, and Priestess ran right into that last burst to help. Right into the flames! Deto! I couldn't do a thing!" Dragon sounded really shaken—I had never seen him so stunned.
"Where are they? Where are they?"
"I don't know!" Dragon insisted. "We were separated!"
"The tacmap is all chaff," Merlin said. "Where the hell do we go?" The tunnel was lined with gaping hatchways, all leading to unknown worlds.
"One said split up," Twister said. "Get to a higher level, and secure the ship." Her teeth were chattering.
"But we can't go up to the city again—the O's will cook us!"
"But Priestess…"
"Our psybloc is off the scale!" Tara warned us.
"Something's coming!"
Gildron roared suddenly. An explosion rocked the underground. I was stunned. What next, what next!
"We're through," somebody said. I didn't recognize the voice.
"I detect multiple Legion A-suits!" Sweety warned us. "Unknown unit, probably Blue Gold, repeat, unclear count, unknown Legion unit, as marked…" They had broken into our tunnel.
"Blackout," I commanded. "Deceptors! Let's get outta here!" I tossed a deceptor behind us and we sloshed through the water, Dragon leading with the Manlink. We were running from the Legion troopers—I didn't want to fight them. Our psybloc helmet units were still flashing so there was really no way we could hide, even on blackout.
"Wester! Wester!" Tara clawed at my armor wildly.
"Far enough! That's it—everybody stop!" Dragon turned and the Manlink was at his shoulder, aiming right at my chest. I sloshed to a stop, trying to comprehend it.
"He's the psychee!" Tara exclaimed. "It's Dragon!"
"That's right, troopers," Dragon said. "It's Dragon! Now don't move! Nobody move, or you all die! I'm on auto xmax." I could see right through Dragon's faceplate into his cold, dead eyes, and I could see only a fanatic determination. It was truly terrifying. I knew Dragon was the best trooper in Beta—not one of us could match him for sheer nerve, guts, skill, or raw bravery. The people who psyched him had chosen well.
"Drop the weapons—now!" The Manlink's laser sight flashed over my face. "Any resistance and you die—all of you!"
"Black Jade, Blue Gold! Warning, we've got at least one O in the underground complex!" The others dropped their E's into the water. I let the SG slide off my shoulder, but my E was secured to my chestplate by an autorecovery mechanism.
"Your left hand, Thinker," Dragon said. "Slowly. Hit the release. I warn you, your death will mean nothing to me."
We were all unarmed now except Dragon and I. Even Gildron, snarling and bristling, had followed Tara's lead and dropped his E into the water. I slowly reached down with my left hand to the release tab, located near the butt of the weapon. The flickering laser sight blinded me, filling my helmet. I knew death was very, very close and I was bathed in icy sweat but I knew I had to do something and it came to me in a flash. As my thumb touched the release tab I hooked one finger around the ring of a psybloc grenade. I had a pack of them strapped to my u-belt, ready for action, and they were just below water level. As my E slid into the water and I brought my left hand back up carefully, the ignition ring was around one finger and the grenade was live in the pack. I held my hand so Dragon could not see the ring.
"Blue Gold, this is Blue Jade," Dragon said. "I've got five Black Jades here, under control, as marked…"
"PSYBLOC GRENADE ACTIVATED!" Sweety urgently warned me, alerted by the hot grenade at my waist. The warning was simultaneous to everyone else—including Dragon. He had turned his weapon to cover Gildron once my E went down. Now it swung back to me, a slow motion horror arc and I threw myself at Eight in agonizing fractions of time, splashing frantically through the water, that damned right leg giving out again—no! I could see his mouth, firmly set, and his eyes, glittering cold death. Then the grenade went off right at my waist, a shattering white flash and bang.