The tunnel ended at a rock ledge which continued around the wall of a deep, oval cavern, with only a wooden barrier to prevent them from falling. Water tapped as it dripped from the roof, onto the rock floor at least twenty metres below. Lights glowed on stands arranged around the floor near the the cavern walls, raised high and pointing inwards. They illuminated three rows of dark, humanoid shapes in the centre of the cavern.
Combat suits were lined up on the rocky floor down there. A couple of dozen, maybe more. A mob of men swarmed around them, checking the suits, and preparing them for use. One of the suits on the far side of the cavern was already moving, and men were climbing into others on that side.
And those weren’t Legion suits. They were heavy infantry, not the Legionnaires’ scout suits. And Bairamov and Desoto’s suits weren’t among them.
Logan recognized the ornate spikes on the helmets, and the eagle logo on the chest of the suits. He’d seen them in training, both in the vids the instructors showed them, and the early weeks of combat training in VR, before they were let loose in real combat suits.
Those were Panzergrenadiers.
“Merde,” Bairamov said.
CHAPTER 27
Scar-Face stood beside the suits on the far side of the cavern, and barked rapid orders in a language Logan didn’t recognize. Prussian, presumably? He’d heard a few words of the language from Heinrichs, and it sounded familiar.
“Anyone understand Prussian?” Logan whispered.
“A little,” Bairamov said. “Sounds like he wants them to hurry up and move out of here.”
“Why would Panzergrenadiers be on New Strasbourg? And why would they be with the Montagnards?”
“I don’t know. But I figure we’ve found out who’s been shipping weapons to the insurgents. They must be planning something, and we can be sure it won’t be anything we’ll like.”
“Maybe they’re preparing to invade,” Desoto said. “Getting their guys in before the main force arrives, and destabilizing the local government to make the invasion easier.”
“Then they’d have been stupid to have caused enough trouble to bring the Legion in. The Compagnie would stand little chance against Panzergrenadiers. But the Legion has kicked their ass before.”
“So they must want us here for some reason,” Logan said.
“Yeah, and that’s the scary part.”
“The ones we met in the tunnels don’t seem that tough,” Desoto said.
“These guys are just the Montagnards, is my guess. The Panzergrenadiers wouldn’t want to waste suit-trained men hunting us runaways in a tunnel. They’re much too valuable to lose doing something they aren’t needed for. They’re probably here to advise and support, not to get killed.”
Rifles fired behind them.
The shots went wide in the dark tunnel, but Logan’s helmet jerked as a ricochet from the wall bounced off it.
“Move,” Bairamov said.
Desoto crouched, and ran along the ledge.
The gunfire intensified for a second as he was silhouetted in the tunnel mouth, then the ledge curved round enough that the men in the tunnel could no longer see him. Logan grabbed the girl’s hand, and pulled. She squealed and struggled, until he pulled harder. As she began to move, Logan pushed her ahead of him.
Bairamov fired wild into the dark tunnel as Logan followed Desoto, pushing the girl in front of him. He tried to ignore the clatter of rock shards and thumps of ricochets hitting his helmet and armour as rifle rounds slammed into the cave wall and roof.
The men in the cavern below them yelled. Then more rounds began to impact the walls, fired from the cavern.
Desoto was almost at the far end of the ledge. Logan pushed the girl toward him.
“Go,” he said. The girl ran on.
Logan raised his rifle above the top of the wooden barrier. The sights weren’t compatible with his helmet, so he could only hold it there and fire a few bursts down into the cavern to try to keep their heads down.
He moved a metre along the ledge before he fired again. Then heard footsteps as Bairamov raced toward him.
“For fuck’s sake, move,” Bairamov said.
The wooden barrier exploded behind Bairamov as a burst of heavy rifle fire from one of the suits hammered into it, and shredded the barrier into a spray of wooden splinters. Logan turned and ran, with Bairamov close behind, as the suit’s fire tore up the wooden barrier all around the cavern.
Then they were back in the relative safety of a tunnel at the far end of the ledge. The gunfire continued, but the men in the cavern couldn’t fire into the tunnel to hit them. Logan gasped for breath, and his head began to pound from lack of oxygen as he pushed his body as hard as he could.
The girl slowed in front of him, but he grabbed her waist and pushed her on. “Keep moving.”
Desoto led the way. The tunnel reached a crossroads, and he turned right. They followed it, Desoto leading, Logan helping the girl, and Bairamov bringing up the rear.
“Now many do you think there are?”
“Maybe a platoon? That’s few enough to sneak down here on a shuttle without being spotted, but enough to make life hell for anyone they might meet. And they’ve already caused enough trouble to split up 1st Company across the department, and taken some of us out of action.”
“Then what’s 3rd Platoon going to do against a platoon of Panzergrenadiers supporting insurgents, sir?” Desoto said. “We’re already down on numbers.”
“Maybe Poulin can lecture them to death. But they’re sitting ducks for a surprise attack, unless we can warn them.” Bairamov turned to the girl. “Do you have any way to communicate with people outside the mine?”
She shook her head.
“What about your horse?” Logan said. “How long would it take to reach the nearest village that can send a warning?”
“A couple of hours.”
“I don’t know how to ride a horse,” Bairamov said.
“I didn’t mean you,” Logan said.
“You can’t be suggesting..?”
“We’ve got to do something here to stop them. And she’ll be safer out of here.”
“I am not trusting an insurgent to bring help.”
“Got a better plan?”
“Desoto could go.”
“Desoto, can you ride a horse?”
Desoto shook his head.
“And do you know where the next village is?” Logan said.
“No idea.”
“Fine,” Bairamov said. “You can both go.”
“Two people on the horse will slow us down,” the girl said. “Besides, he has a broken arm. How would he hold on?”
Bairamov shook his head, and pushed them onward along the tunnel. “McCoy, if you really are working with this girl, Volkov won’t have to kill you, because I will.”
The tunnel forked. Desoto turned to the right, and they hurried along it. Logan listened for boots behind them, but they would be impossible to hear over the noise they were making themselves. Echoes of their footsteps seemed to come from all directions, as the noise bounced around the rock walls of the maze of tunnels and returned to their ears.
Hopefully the Montagnards would find it just as confusing.
Desoto stopped, and the girl squealed as she slammed into his side. Logan grabbed her shoulder as she stumbled, and pulled her back to her feet.
“Ladder, sir,” Desoto said.
“Then get up it.”
Desoto clambered up the ladder. Logan helped the girl find the rungs, and she began to climb. He followed. They passed one level, then another. Then his head rose above the floor of the next.
A green symbol flashed on Logan’s helmet display as he climbed, and his head reached the middle of the tunnel. He stopped.
“Sir...” he began.
“Just keep moving,” Bairamov said, his voice muffled as he spoke from the shaft below Logan’s feet.
“Sir, I’ve got a signal from your suits.”
The girl had stopped a couple of rung
s above him. Desoto clung to the ladder above her, and peered down.
“Where?" Bairamov said.
“They must be somewhere close. The signal wouldn’t pass through this rock.”
“Find them.”
CHAPTER 28
Logan watched the signal level meter as he led the way along the tunnels. The signal was higher than when he climbed off the ladder, but it had been higher before as he tried to follow it, then faded out again. Wherever the Panzergrenadiers had put the suits, they surely couldn’t be far from the central shaft. They wouldn’t want to drag them down these tunnels if they could just take them down the ramp, away from the entrance. If he was right, the group was still heading the correct way.
Metal clanked and thumped on rock up ahead. Faintly at first, but it grew louder as they approached the main shaft, and the echoes made it seem louder still.
“Sounds like they’re on the move, heading up that ramp,” Bairamov said, “Once they’re out in the open in their suits, they’re not likely to care much about us.”
“You wish, sir,” Desoto said.
“This place only matters so long as they can hide in it. If we get back to the Legion, we’ll return to wipe it out. If they want to openly take on the Legion, hiding here won’t do them much good. Whatever their plan is, they’re going active now, maybe because we forced them into it. McCoy, we need our suits fast.”
“This is crazy,” Desoto said. “Surely they’d have just dumped the suits down in the water. What reason would they have to keep them?”
“Lot of useful intel in a suit, if they can manage to break into the AI. I sure hope they failed.”
“But what use do they have for them now they’re leaving?”
Logan slowed. There were muffled voices up ahead, barely audible over the noise of the marching suits on the ramp. The girl bumped against his back, and the others slowed behind her.
He stopped at the crossroads ahead, and looked around the corner. A light glowed a few metres down the tunnel to the left. The shadowy figures of two men moved in the light. Logan motioned to Bairamov, who moved up beside him, and studied the men.
A guttural shout came from the far end of the tunnel, and the two men glanced toward it. Bairamov motioned toward Logan. He released the girl’s hand, then crept along the tunnel toward the men as fast as he could without making enough noise for them to hear over the sound of the suits climbing the ramp. Bairamov followed, with his rifle ready at his hip.
Logan could see the two Legion suits now, standing in an alcove in the wall, facing away from the men. Some rectangular electronic boxes sat on the floor of the tunnel beside them, the glow of their lights faintly illuminating the darkness.
The furthest man pulled a grenade from his belt, and pulled the pin. He pulled his arm back to toss it into the suit. Logan broke into a sprint, and grabbed the man’s arm as he began to swing it.
Just a little too late.
The grenade fell from the man’s hand, and clattered to the floor. It rolled across the tunnel, and clunked against the rock of the far wall.
Bairamov struggled with the other man. He grabbed the man’s chin and pulled it back, preventing him from yelling. The man struggled as Bairamov pulled a knife from his belt, and slammed it into the man’s side.
Logan’s man opened his mouth to yell. Logan punched him in the face, then grabbed him as he spun around. Logan pressed his knee against the man’s back and pushed him down onto the tunnel floor. The man began to scream.
Then the grenade exploded beneath his chest. His body jerked, and blood oozed from his back where shrapnel had punched right through the body armour at point-blank range.
Logan wiped blood away from a gouge on his arm where a chunk of spent shrapnel had dug into it. Then he pulled the twisted metal fragment free, and tossed it aside.
He crouched and swung his rifle toward the far end of the tunnel. But the metal feet were still clunking up the central shaft, and no footsteps were heading their way. With that much noise in the mine, they probably hadn’t even noticed the sounds of the fight.
Bairamov studied the suits, then waved to Desoto to join them. Wads of dozens of coloured cables ran from the interior of the suit to the electronic boxes on the floor.
“How long will that take to fix?” Logan said.
Bairamov leaned in, and pulled one of the cables free. “Give me a few minutes.”
The girl leaned against the wall, trying not to look down at either of the dead men in the faint light around the suits. Logan smiled at her as Bairamov and Desoto worked on the suits, but it did little to change the wide eyes and tight lips of terror on her face.
The noise of the marching suits rose to a peak, then began to fade away. The Panzergrenadiers would be out of the mines pretty soon. And Bairamov and Desoto were still working on their suits.
“Anything I can help with?” Logan said.
Bairamov pushed his head deep into the suit as he pulled the last of the external cables free, then began to attach some of the internal cables that dangled inside it. “The bastards did a good number on the AI. We may have to go without it. Desoto, how you doing?”
“Not very easy with one hand, sir.”
Logan stepped back to Desoto’s suit, and pulled some of the cables free. But the two of them working together wasn’t much faster than one. Particularly with Logan looking for anyone who might be approaching along the tunnel.
“What’s going to happen to me?” the girl said.
Bairamov pulled another cable from inside the suit’s leg, and slid it into a socket near the waist. “I wouldn’t worry about that. Not unless you survive.”
Logan pulled the last of the external cables from Desoto’s suit, and tossed them aside as Desoto began reconnecting the cables inside it, groaning and wincing as he stretched into the suit and twisted his wounded arm. The suit hummed and buzzed as it began to come back to life.
“Can you operate this with one hand?” Logan said.
“Easier than I can climb a ladder. And I’ve done that many times today.”
“That’ll do,” Bairamov said, then clambered into his suit. He adjusted the straps that held him into the frame, and pulled them tight around his body. The HUD glowed as he grabbed his helmet from the holder and lowered it onto his head.
“Let’s move, Desoto,” he said. Then the back of the suit whirred as it began to slide closed. Logan ducked out of the way, and helped Desoto climb into his own suit.
Bairamov’s suit took a step back as Logan pulled Desoto’s straps tight, then placed the helmet on his head. He tapped the helmet. “Bonne chance.”
“We’re sure gonna need it. Sophia, seal up.”
The back of Desoto’s suit whirred as it closed. Bairamov’s suit crouched low, so the head wouldn’t hit the roof as he moved. He grabbed the gaussrifle that leaned against the wall beside it, and crept along the tunnel.
Desoto’s suit back closed, severing a cable Logan had missed, and Desoto grabbed his gaussrifle and followed. The noise of the suits’ movement was loud enough in the tunnel that Logan didn’t even have to show the girl where to go to follow them. She could easily hear where the suits were going.
When she moved too far ahead, he grabbed her hand and pulled her back. Who knows what would be waiting when Bairamov stepped out of the tunnel. They didn’t want to be within a few metres of an RPG explosion in a rocky tunnel if someone was waiting out there for them to emerge.
But no explosion came as Bairamov stopped at the end of the tunnel and leaned out to look up the central shaft. A few seconds later, he stepped out, and was finally able to raise his head to his full height.
Desoto followed as Bairamov stomped a few metres up the shaft. Logan stopped at the end of the tunnel and looked around the corner. Desoto’s IR illuminators lit up much of the shaft, as he looked toward the entrance.
“Desoto,” Bairamov said on the team net, “on me. McCoy, warn the Legion, then you can introduce your girlfriend to made
moiselle Poulin. Maybe she’ll be happier to talk after this. We’ll try to take the heat off you.”
“Do you really think you can beat them, sir?” Logan said.
“Do you believe in miracles, McCoy? If you do, try sending one our way. Now, you’ve got your orders. Follow them.”
Bairamov strode up the ramp. Desoto followed a few metres behind. Logan led the girl around the wide spiral, but there was no way they could keep up with the suits, even for the three loops of the spiral that stood between them and the entrance.
He looked up the shaft as they climbed the ramp. The ropes still dangled in the centre of the shaft, torn at the ends where the earlier firefight had ripped them apart.
The cables on the roof of the shaft were still there. But what were they for, anyway?
Bairamov was almost at the top of the ramp. Desoto just a few metres behind him, rounding the final turn on the spiral before the entrance. His suit’s IR illuminators shone brightly on the ceiling, revealing more detail through Logan’s goggles.
The cables ran across the roof to eight or ten shoebox-sized boxes around the circumference, and perhaps a dozen more in the centre. The other ends of the cables were tied together, and hung down the walls for a metre or so, before they disappeared out into the entrance tunnel.
Logan’s heart jumped as he realized what they were.
“Sir...” he began.
Bairamov was just about to duck into the entrance tunnel when the ceiling exploded.
CHAPTER 29
The roof of the mineshaft erupted into a mass of tumbling, shattered rock that fell in what seemed like slow motion. Chunks slammed into the legs of Bairamov’s suit’s and the shoulders of Desoto’s with the thuds and crunches of mangled metal, before Logan came to his senses and looked away.
He grabbed the girl by the waist and pushed her into the tunnel entrance just ahead of them, then followed her himself, diving down beside her just as a chunk of rock the size of his chest slammed down onto the ramp where he’d been standing.
The ground shook beneath them as more rocks tumbled down the shaft. Logan covered the girl’s body with his as the rocks continued to fall in a cacophony of thumps and crashes, followed by splashes from the chunks that tumbled all the way to the bottom of the shaft and landed in the water. He waited a moment longer, until the last echoes of the explosion had faded away. Then stood and helped the girl up.
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