Nameless was in complete agreement, but it was quite apparent that Jezebel wasn’t up for spelunking.
“I’m fine! Let’s go find this lady and get out of this dumb desert.” She mumbled.
But Kala pressed her back down onto Martin’s cot.
“You nearly died out there, beloved Jezebel, no more adventures for you until you’ve regained your strength.”
Jez swallowed the lump in her throat.
“But I’ve come so far, I don’t want to be left behind, not when we’re so close.”
Her strange eyes welled with unshed tears, but Miranda shook her head.
“Baby, we almost lost you… just wait here, please?” Her voice faltered.
Nameless and the others stepped out, wanting to give the gruff Aegis operative some privacy with her girls. It was readily apparent that the exhausted Gripau wasn’t going to take ‘no’ for an answer, but fortunately Jan managed to calm her.
“Look Jez, I’m gunna stay as well. I don’t feel like going down some dusty hole, not when I could stay here and share this nice bed with you!”
Calling the narrow cot a ‘nice bed’ was generous to say the least, but it did the trick and soon the group, now lacking Jan and Jez, were being led down into the dig by an enthusiastic Martin and a small group of Trogs led by a reluctant Bask.
Chapter 18:
The Final Push
“This is where they first broke through, haven’t been in this section much since. See how smooth the walls and floors are?” Martin gestured with the crude torch in his hand; “Imagine if we could unlock such mysteries! Imagine being able to build like the ancients did!”
Nina flicked one smooth wall, a chip of stone breaking free from where her finger struck.
“I dunno, the ancients were a bunch of dick-bags.”
Again Martin was at a loss for words, the giant’s dismissive attitude towards his life’s work confounded him as they moved through the strange smooth-walled chambers.
“Er… anyways, up ahead is where the cave-in happened.”
They hardly needed him to tell them that. A few minutes later the narrow hallways suddenly ended in a pile of rubble, the jagged rocks completely blocking the way forwards.
“One of the men says he spotted a shaft leading down on the other side. I assumed it was simply the basement access.”
Milly scratched at her head.
“I don’t understand, you said you couldn’t find the structure but aren’t we in it?”
He was nodding before she finished speaking.
“Yes! But you see this place has been here for so long, the bedrock on which it was built has shifted, sand filling in the gaps, then hardening into stone as it was packed together by-”
While he rambled off an explanation to Milly, Miranda nudged Nameless.
“Well kid?”
He was smiling.
“This is the way, she is definitely through there.”
He was pointing at a downward angle towards the rubble.
Bask spoke up.
“We need to be careful, the diggers never made it far beyond this point. Point of fact, two of them never made it back.”
The way she said it made them think it bothered her not at all that two of her prisoners met their end beneath the pile of rubble before them. And while it was clear she didn’t like being down there with them, she was even more loathe to leave them unsupervised.
Nina, Milly and Kala began to pull at the rubble. They worked at the pile for the better part of an hour. Martin examining the walls and chatting their ears off the entire time, while the Troglodytes simply hung back and glared, uninterested in helping the strangers with their digging.
At length Nina shifted a boulder many times her size to one side and gave a triumphant smile.
She had exposed a narrow opening and the way forwards was clear, the light of the Trog’s torches illuminated the hallway on the other side of the rubble.
“This is as far as we go, if you want to die in another cave-in that is your business.”
Ophelia frowned at the terse Trog commander.
“What about the men who died here?”
Bask shrugged.
“That’s what prisoners are for. And don’t give me that look softskin, they were both rapists, their death was quicker than either deserved.”
Before they could get into yet another argument with the unfriendly Trog, Miranda smacked an orb from her bag against the wall and gave it a shake, the mixture within beginning to glow.
“Were going, I’ve come way too far not to solve this mystery.”
The others were in complete agreement and they worked their way through the tight opening, the Troglodytes and Martin remaining behind the rubble.
Barely forty feet through the opening and the hallway ended at a smooth pair of metal doors, which Nina and Milly quickly pulled apart.
Miranda’s light spilled into the opening, illuminating the remnants of a pulley system above them with strange ropes made of metal that descended down a shaft into darkness below.
The operative pointed at the mechanism.
“A levitator. There’s a whole bunch of these things that the machinists managed to get working back in Garland at the Bastion, though you won’t ever catch me riding any of the blasted things.”
“So how do we get down?” Erica asked as she peeked over the edge.
“Easy, you got rope right Blondie?”
Kala gave an indignant snort at Nina’s words even as she handed her a long coil of rope from her pack.
“I’ll lower you down one at a time, then tie this off and hop down after you.”
Nameless blinked.
“Hop down?”
Nina nodded.
“Yup. Though you aren’t going first, way too squishy.”
“I could fly down dearheart.”
But Nina shook her head at Ophelia’s offer.
“You’re just as squishy.”
She was already tying the rope around Kala’s waist while the Amazon held her arms to either side, puzzled at her intentions.
“Wait, what if it isn’t long en-”
Before the Amazon could finish her question Nina pushed her over the edge.
It was becoming very clear that she was as eager as Nameless to find Volka as the rope went taught and they heard Kala cursing from several feet below.
“You could have warned me!”
Nina began to lower her down.
“You’re a warrior aren’t you? Don’t be a wuss. Give nineteen frantic tugs and scream at the top of your lungs if it turns out I’m dunking you into lava or something.”
Miranda walked to the edge before Kala got too far down and cracked another glowing sphere to drop down to the Amazon.
“Careful love.” She called before turning to Nina with a stony glare; “The next time you drop one of my loves down a dark hole I’m going to kick you in the pussy.”
Nina shrugged as she continued to lower the blonde warrior.
“It’s your foot.”
Miranda grit her teeth at the brusque giant, and within a few minutes the rope went slack and Kala’s voice could be heard from far below.
Nina pulled the rope up, now free of the Amazon.
“Sounds like its safe, so who’s next?”
Shortly Nina had lowered them all down the shaft and they were waiting for her. The rope unable to hold the weight of her and her hammer, she simply hopped over the edge and landed spectacularly barely two seconds later, crushing the remains of the levitator car with her impact.
They were in a narrow passageway, though the ceiling of this one was reinforced with steel beams.
“This looks like some kind of bunker.” Miranda said to no one in particular.
“She’s this way.” Nameless was eager to continue onwards.
Volka was shining brighter than ever.
“Easy kid, let’s take a sec to get our bearings.”
Nameless paused and squirmed in pla
ce, anxious to continue on, his eyes locked on the only way forwards.
Miranda looked back up the shaft and gave the rope a couple of hearty tugs.
Nina stood beside her.
“Hundred foot climb, it’ll suck with my hammer but that’s a problem for later.”
Miranda nodded.
“Yeah, I can hear Martin up there actually, he’s excited about something.”
Kala snorted.
“At least someone is having fun.”
“If that jackass and his bitchy friends were more helpful they could at least pull us back up. Though he would need to take two seconds away from archaeologizing to do it.” Erica complained.
“Master? Where are you going?” Milly drew their attention to Nameless.
He had taken several steps into the darkness again.
“I can’t, Milly. She’s so close, it actually hurts. Like the sun is in my mind, I have to get to her.”
Miranda gave him a measured look.
“Alright, but everyone stay together.”
The group started down the narrow corridor. They didn’t get far before they found a strange pair of thick sliding steel doors. The doors were hanging at an odd angle and as a result there was a small gap near the bottom. Erica’s ears swiveling forwards before Nina wordlessly gestured for them to hold back for a moment, she dropped her hammer and slipped in through the narrow gap.
“Nina wait!” Erica called.
But no sooner did she call out then there was a flash of sickly green light and the hammerless Gigas was thrown back through the doors, her tiny body widening the gap as she flew down the hall towards the levitator shaft, Ophelia barely leaping to one side before the Gigas landed just passed her.
“Nina!” Nameless gasped.
But he didn’t take more than two steps towards her when they all heard the odd chittering sound that had given Erica pause from the room the Gigas had just involuntarily vacated.
“Oh fuck!” Miranda cursed; “Everyone back! Now!”
The fear in her voice was plain as she removed a pair of canisters from her belt and chucked them at the door.
Her throw was well timed. Her canisters struck the ground just as the most bizarre creature that any of them had ever seen emerged.
Astride Nina’s hammer, it looked like a giant metal spider; about the size of a small pony, the strange chittering that they had heard had come from its metallic feet striking the smooth stone of the floor. A sinister looking rod sat atop its back, the tip glowing cherry red and smoking faintly.
Miranda’s canisters burst, a sticky gel-like goo exploding outwards and enveloping the creature’s front legs as it fired another burst into one wall, the light was blinding but Kala did not pause in her leap forwards. She brought her spear down on its front with a resounding clatter.
The rod on its back swiveled to point at Miranda.
“Shit.” Her eyes widened.
Another flash of light, a grunt, and an aggressive low from Milly.
Erica had tackled Miranda just as the creature’s weapon unleashed another blast of deadly green energy at her, at the same time Milly charged and bodily slammed into the still-stuck creature.
The Minotaur leapt into the air and brought both hands down in a fearsome hammer strike, bending the lost-tech blaster with the first blow, and outright snapping it with the second.
The skittering creature’s main weapon was rendered harmless, but it was far from vanquished, there was an awful tearing as it worked several of its legs free and slammed Milly back into Kala, the pair hitting the ground hard.
Erica desperately snatched a canister from Miranda’s belt and chucked it at the spider-monster, but the inert canister merely bounced off the front of the metal monstrosity and drew the attention of the glowing red eyes on its front as it worked two more of its legs free.
“You knucklehead! You need to break the seal first! Move!”
Miranda all but tossed Erica off before she sat up and snatched another canister from her belt.
More goo exploded around the creature’s front, hampering its vision as well as ensnaring its legs once more. It looked like the creature would again make short work of the new obstruction but Milly was on her feet again and she was pissed.
She slammed into the metal beast, this time raining heavy blows on its back again and again bellowing all the while.
Its movements finally ground to a halt as sparks flew and the shrieking of protesting metal filled the corridor.
She would have left it at that but she didn’t know if Nina was alright, and so the angry Minotaur hit it many more times, reducing the ancient machinery to scrap.
She stood with one of the creatures legs in her hands; she had been using it as a club towards the end. There was a long silence broken only by her heavy panting.
“Fuck that hurt.” Nina complained from behind them.
“Nina-!”
“Lover-!”
“Dearheart-!”
Nina was already patting away the worried hands as she picked herself up off the floor.
“I’m fine, see?” She gestured at the nasty bruise on her side through her burnt clothing; “Just knocked the wind out of me. So stupid, trying to be sneaky, should have gone in hammer first.”
Miranda was nodding.
“Yeah we go in weapons drawn, because no fucking way is a Seeker guarding a hospital!”
Kala was nodding but with Milly’s help Nina had torn through the goo to recover her hammer and was shaking her head.
“No, I go in weapon first, you wait here. Once I know it’s clear I’ll come get you.”
More than one voice was raised in objection but Nina stomped one tiny foot, the impact causing the floor to crack and they all looked around, worried about another cave in.
“Without my hammer a few of those blasts would have killed me! Just one would’ve been enough to take any one of you apart. Yes even you Milly! So unless you are all suddenly as durable as me, I’m going in alone. Argue and I fold you into a pretzel and you still get left behind.”
With that she snatched the orb from Kala’s hand and stomped towards the door, this time she widened the opening with a single smack from her hammer and slipped inside.
Silence.
After the brief flurry of activity Nameless was trying to be patient. He could tell that if they were in the open, Volka would be within sight, maybe even within earshot, but the dangers of the subterranean vault made her seem further away than she was.
Erica nuzzled against his side, seeking the comfort of his touch, he could sense her nerves were taut as a bowstring and so he took a few moments to try to think soothing thoughts while he scratched her ears.
“What’s a Seeker?” Milly asked as she nudged at the creature’s remains with one hoof.
“A creature born of nightmare.” Kala whispered, her eyes haunted.
“A machine, not alive.” Miranda corrected; “The disposable flankers of the Divine Republic. They used them to track and kill monster girls that they couldn’t otherwise enslave.”
Nameless blinked.
“Like the Amazons…”
Kala shared a mournful look with him.
“After the cataclysm the warrior tribes spent many years and many lives wiping out the surviving swarms. They rarely hunted alone.”
“Kala, dearheart, I am so sorry.” Ophelia whispered, resting one hand on Kala’s shoulder comfortingly.
Miranda placed her hand on Kala’s other shoulder and gave her a quick squeeze.
“They were quick and could be quite stealthy above ground, and their main gun is no joke either. We were very lucky.” The operative finished quietly.
“But how could it possibly still be alive after all this time?” Nameless protested.
She shrugged.
“It wasn’t alive in the first place kid, and just look around you, the Empire built shit to last.”
They were all silent until Nina returned over a half hour later.
/> “No more spider-dicks. And you’re right: not a hospital.”
As they all ducked through the door, Miranda’s lights revealed row upon row of metal racks disappearing past the reach of the glowing orbs, each was covered in centuries of dust that had managed to get into the formerly sealed chamber from the desert above.
“What the hell…” Erica brushed away some of the dust to reveal familiar looking rods slung on each rack.
They were loaded with lost-tech blasters, just like the bandits in the woods had used.
Miranda whistled low.
“Well kids, this is not what we were expecting to find now is it?”
“Indeed. It is a good thing we made it in here before the prisoners did!” Kala remarked as she hefted one of the rods, a grim look on her face.
“There must be hundreds of them.” Ophelia said in a hushed voice, her wings fluttering in agitation; “Enough to fight a war!”
Nina absently gave her butt a reassuring squeeze through her tight pants.
“Thousands actually, enough to win a war. But don’t worry, we found it first.”
Erica shook her head.
“But I don’t understand, Martin said that the writings he’d deciphered all indicated that this was a hospital, right?”
Nameless stepped over to stand next to her; the Katje had backed away from the racks as if they were loaded with poisonous serpents.
It would be better if they were.
“Martin is a dipshit. This is an armoury. A bigger one than any I’ve ever heard of.”
Miranda took the blaster from Kala and examined it closely. Her brow was furrowed in concentration. After several seconds she put it back and turned to the group.
“Right, listen up. No one touches anything. Kala, secure the door. We cannot let anyone else in until we get an ordinance disposal team out here to sweep the place. Kid, is your girl in here?”
Nameless nodded, wide-eyed at Miranda’s serious demeanor as Kala took up position by the door.
“She’s there, I can feel her. She’s right there.”
With one hand he gestured into the darkness between the rows of deadly weapons, his other hand took hold of Milly’s as he felt her anxiety spike.
“I saw another door that way. Thicker.” Nina offered.
Legacy of the Valkyrie Page 26