DusktoDust_Final3 (38 page)

“
Coming in!
”
With a combat roll, Lieutenant Gnasher barreled into the control room. He immediately took up position behind one of the consoles, orienting himself on the doorway.
“
Status!
”

“
Nothing breathing out here, El-tee,
”
Avery said from his position at the door. The gunfire in the hallway had ceased.

From outside the doorway a far off voice called out.
“
Friendlies coming in!
”

“
Hold your fire!
”
Gnasher ordered.

A few seconds later Joseph Robinson sprinted into the room, flanked by his two personal Peacekeeper security guards. The man was out of breath and clearly out of his element.
“
How the hell are we going to get out of here?
”
the man demanded with terror in his voice.

Letsego ignored him. He made his way through the over crowded control room towards the door controls. After a survey of his options he found the door release lever. Seconds later the blinding brightness of the light side poured into the hangar bay.

Gnasher joined Letsego at the controls.
“
Pegasus, Pegasus. This is ICARUS-two. The front door is open. How copy?
”

It took a second for the response to come.
“
Solid copy, ICARUS. We
’
re inbound in three minutes. Is the landing zone hot?
”
With rays of sunshine streaming into the bay, Letsego couldn
’
t help but note the irony of the question.

“
Not at this time, Pegasus,
”
Gnasher answered.

“
Roger, try and keep it that way. Pegasus out.
”

Gnasher turned back to his men.
“
Anyone out there?
”

Avery shook his head.
“
Not a soul, sir.
”

“
Okay, stack up on the stairs. When we have visual ID on Pegasus we will descend and mount up. Easy day.
”
Gnasher turned to Letsego.
“
Carpenter better hurry up. We can
’
t wait for him.
”

“
Lieutenant, I
’
m in charge of this op. If I say we wait, we wait.
”
Despite their history, Letsego was not about to leave a man behind, especially Carpenter.

Before Gnasher could protest, the comm unit came to life.
“
Two-actual, this is two-two.
”

Gnasher keyed his mic.
“
You
’
re about to miss your ride, Carpenter. What
’
s your status?
”

Carpenter
’
s voice came through garbled.
“
Wash and I are wounded but we
’
re okay. We
’
re all that
’
s left, sir.
”

Gnasher
’
s face grew grim for a split second.
“
What about your objective?
”
he asked, getting back to business.

It sounded like the smuggler was in the middle of a cyclone.
“
We disconnected the Ferenic power source from the facility, but the Rockworm continues to grow.
”

Shit
. That had been their one hope of stopping it. Fear crept into Letsego
’
s mind. What if they couldn
’
t contain it? This couldn't be the end.

“
You need to get out of there, Carpenter,
”
Gnasher said.
“
There
’
s nothing you can do.
”

“
I think there is.
”

Letsego cut in.
“
What do you mean?
”

Carpenter
’
s voice could barely be heard.
“
The archeologist said that the Rockworm is like an animal. It just wants to be left alone. We thought freeing it from feeding power to the mining facility would do this. But the Ferenic can sense organic life. What if it wants us out? Maybe that
’
s why it killed the Cdat
’
h Vars. Their civilization was centered around the Ferenic. The civil war gave the Ferenic the power to exterminate them in order to remove the Cdat
’
h Vars from its domain. Now it wants us out.
”

“
You
’
re saying we need to vacate the facility? Everyone?
”

“
There
’
s over five hundred troopers in this place in addition to us,
”
Gnasher said.
“
What do you plan on doing, ask them to leave?
”

Carpenter hesitated before he answered.
“
I
’
ve found one of the Cdat
’
h Vars grenades down here. I have access to the facility ventilation system. All of the ducts are metal.
”

It took Letsego a second to understand what the man was proposing.
“
You
’
re suggesting that we pacify the facility?
”

“
Yes,
”
Carpenter responded flatly.

Gnasher and Letsego were silent. Neither wanted to admit that they had no better plan.

“
It
’
s the only way,
”
Carpenter said when he received no response.
“
If we don
’
t do something now this thing is going to go ballistic.
”

“
Stand by,
”
Letsego directed. He turned to Robinson and explained Carpenter
’
s plan.

“
It could work,
”
the archeologist confirmed.
“
It
’
s a sound theory.
”

But it’s a big step from theory to mass murder
, Letsego thought. He weighed the options. Like he had told Gnasher, he was in charge of this op. He had to make the call. As if forcing the decision, a Pegasus gunboat roared into the hangar bay. The Divers began to descend the control room staircase.

Letsego had no more time. He keyed the mic.
“
Carpenter, set the charge. Then get the hell out of there.
”
Gnasher was waving at him to move.
“
You
’
ve got ten minutes to get to the hangar bay.
”

“
Copy all, out.
”

David killed the link. He and Washington stood over Castle
’
s body. Above them the world was quickly slipping away into crimson chaos.

“
What
’
d they say?
”
Washington asked.
David gave him a grave look.
“
It
’
s a go. We need to hurry.
”
In his hand he hefted the alien device he had found in remnants of the Cdat
’
h Vars metropolis. It appeared similar to the device used in the Belt demonstration. He hoped it would do the trick.

The two of them stayed low, avoiding the angry Ferenic above them. They made a beeline for the closest ventilation duct on the cavern wall. The going was slow. David and Washington took turns falling to the ground as they progressed, their wounds slowly taking their toll on the exhausted men. They then exchanged turns picking each other up. All around them tentacles of crimson mist reached out through the pulsing hot air to posses the fragile life around it.

Letsego sprinted across the hangar bay tarmac, passing through the hasty perimeter established by the Peacekeeper soldiers that had arrived on the gunboat. The second craft had diverted to pick up Weilbacher and his team from the observation post. Ahead of Letsego, a hunched over Peacekeeper captain quickly descended the boarding ramp to meet him and Gnasher.

“
Is this everyone, Lieutenant?
”

Gnasher shook his head.
“
We
’
re still waiting on two, sir.
”

The captain wasn
’
t happy.
“
My mission is in and out. We don
’
t have time for stragglers. The fleet
’
s getting its ass kicked up there and we need to get back.
”

“
We
’
re waiting, sir.
”

The captain looked at Letsego as if he hadn
’
t even noticed the staff sergeant before.
“
Who the hell are you?
”

“
Peacekeeper Intelligence,
”
Letsego responded.
“
This is my op, sir. And we leave when I say we leave.
”

“
These are my birds. I
’
m not waiting in a hot LZ for a couple of spooks who got lost.
”

Letsego ignored that comment.
“
If you have a problem, sir, I suggest you call the commodore.
”

The senior officer
’
s face was on the verge of exploding. He stared Letsego down. The staff sergeant didn
’
t blink. After a tense moment, the captain turned away and began talking into his comm unit. Thirty seconds later, he turned back with an embarrassed look on his face.
“
Your boys have ten minutes. After that, I don
’
t care what the Commodore says. Pegasus is skids up.
”

Letsego nodded his approval.

Then the bullets started flying.

It took five minutes for the wounded duo to cross the fifty meters of cavern floor to the air duct. By then, every part of David
’
s body hurt. He was light headed from a loss of blood. It was all he could do to keep himself standing.

Bracing himself against the cavern wall David looked up. The vent cover was three meters up. On a normal day, it would have been easy for one of the operators to lift the other up to reach it. This was no normal day.
“
Shit.
”

Washington drew his pistol and unsteadily aimed in on the hinges of the vent. The first two shots went wide, his dying body unable to stabilize the weapon. David reached over to him. With the combined strength of their two bodies, they placed four shots into the two hinges and two hasps on the vent. It fell to the ground revealing the entrance to the metal labyrinth.

David picked up the Ferenic device. For the first time he actually took in the elegance of the craftsmanship. The ceramic case was perfectly fabricated. The size of a beer can, it was hard to believe the object could cause so much death.
Will cause
, David corrected as he focused on the task at hand.

“
Do you know how to use that?
”
Washington asked.

The smuggler rolled it over in his hands.
“
There has to be timer somewhere.
”
When Castle had used a similar device in the Belt he had been able to set a delay. Hopefully, this device could be programmed the same way.

David inspected every inch of the device. Besides a single trigger at the top of the cylinder there was nothing else. No markings, no control surfaces. And time continued to slip by as the cloud of hell billowed above them.

“
We need to move.
”
Washington urged.

David turned the device over once more in his hands and then stopped. He looked at the wounded Diver.
“
Wash, I
’
ve got some bad news.
”

Letsego slammed a fresh magazine into his weapon and continued firing. He only had two more left.

Windcorp was attacking in strength. The entire hangar bay was under siege by angry troopers. The Peacekeepers were holding their own, but slowly the casualties were mounting.

“
Get him on the bird!
”
Gnasher yelled above the gunfire. Avery half dragged half carried a wounded Peacekeeper soldier up the boarding ramp. Gnasher turned to Letsego.
“
We can
’
t take much more of this.
”

The captain stormed up and was more direct.
“
We
’
re leaving now!
”

Letsego protested.
“
Two minutes, sir. That
’
s all I ask.
”

Just then his comm unit came to life.
“
Two-actual, this is two-two.
”

Letsego keyed his mic before Gnasher could.
“
Give me some good news, Carpenter. Where are you?
”

“
We
’
re still in the power source room.
”

“
What!? How much longer do you need?
”

“
Get out of here, Letsego. We
’
re not going to make it.
”

“
Bullshit, Carpenter. Set that charge and get up here.
”
He wasn
’
t going to leave the smuggler to die in the subterranean hell.

“
Neither me nor Wash are in any state to move. It
’
ll take us at least an hour to get up there.
”

“
Then we
’
ll send someone down-
”

Carpenter cut him off.
“
There
’
s no timer on the charge. Someone is going to have to stay here to set it off.
”

The gravity of that revelation struck Letsego. He didn
’
t want to believe it.
“
There
’
s got to be another-
”