"What's that?" Coeur asked, trying to clean up the sudd en static between herself and Newton. "Newton, repeat your message, over."
Newton's second attempt at communication was even more garbled than the first, however, and Coeur was ultimately left with static on her end.
"Damn!" she said, shoving the communicator back In her pocket and slarting toward the G-carrier at a run—mist and darkness disregarded for the moment "Captain, wait!" Anthony yelled, shuffling along as best he could in his robes. "Remember the danger from nlghijacksl"
"Damn the nightjacks!" Coeur called back to him. "Comeont"
"I'm coming! t'm coming!"
Anthony's warning did stow Coeur down a bit less out of concern for her own safety than Anthony's- With gauss pistol drawn, Coeur slowed enough to escort Anthony, though both got back to the G-carrier within less than 10 minutes.
There they found every Marine except Fubar and Gremlin— namely, the sergeants Gaffer and Red Eye, the medic Widget, and Whiz Sang sons battle dress—arrayed in a light group around the aft hatch with tneir heaviest available weapons.
'Thank God," Whiz Bang said; "at least you're safe."
"Sure, we're safe," Coeursaid. "Now tell me what happened."
"We can't be certain" Red Eye said through his suit speakers, "but the bottom line Is that Fubar and Gremlin disappeared a few minutes ago while they were setting out the last two perimeter sensors."
"Ifs my fault sir," Caffer said. "I let them go out Individually in opposite directions instead of as a pair."
"Well, we can worry about whose fault It Is later," Coeursaid, hauling out her radio and finding the static diminished. The Marine troopers' channel remained silent.
"Damn," she swore, "Where were they, exactly?"
"At last report," Gaffer said, pointing with the barrel of his fusion rifle, "Fubar was over there, and..."
He turned to point in the other direction.
"...Cremlin was over there, both about 100 meters off."
"But" Coeursaid, "that's in plain sight of the G-carrier I Didn't the sensors spot anything?"
"No, sir," Whiz Bang said, "and Newton was manning them,"
"Fikkl" Coeur snapped. "Gaffer, did you look their last locations over?"
"A quick look, yes. We didn't see anything,"
"Well, look again. You and Whiz Bang, go after Fubar. Red Eye, you and Widget look for Cremlin."
"Yes, sir," the sergeants answered.
"All of you keep an eye on the carrier homing signal, though. If it fades, you come back here."
"Understood."
"Is there anything I can do?" Anthony asked.
"Yes. Get inside."
Anthony accepted the order without argument However, as the armored near door opened toadmlt him, and the Marines moved off, two other figures came out of the G
"Any word on the men?' Physic asked.
"Negative," Coeur answered, sweeping her PUIS binoculars around to cover each team alternately, then lowering them. "Really, I suppose all of us should get under cover, but with everyone under cover when Fubar and Gremlin disappeared, nobody saw what happened to them, Tell you what Tom, do you have your PR1S?"
"Right here," she said, patting her own parka's pocket.
"Good. Then tell you what—you keep an eye on Gaffer and Whiz Bang while I watch Red Eye and Widget. Physic, you watch all the other directions."
"Gotcha," Physic said, drawing her personal defense laser and popping a chemical cartridge Into Its magazine sloL
Some minutes later, Coeur called off the search when the team found not so much as footsteps leading away from Fubar and Gremlin's deactivated remote EMS sensors. They did, however, find disturbing evidence that something very violent had happened to both troopers, 'Take a look at this," Red Eye said, showing Coeur a weighty, curved siab of superdensemeial. "That's the shoulder guard from a suit of heavy battle dress, torn clean off at the welds."
"Gaial" Physic exclaimed.
"ltgetsworse,"Gaffersaid, returning with Whiz Bang from the other direction. "Have a look at this."
"Good lord," Coeur said, running her gloved left hand across a slckeningly familiar chunk of equipment in Gaffer's hands—the forearm and right hand from a suit o( heavy battle dress. Probably weighing over 20 kilograms by Itself, the armor didn't appear to contain a severed limb, though pieces of the elbow servo did hang by rings of twisted metal from its open end.
"This left a pretty deep furrow where It landed," Whiz Bang observed, "which means it might have been dropped from a great height."
"Which means," Gaffer said, "that whatever grabbed this trooper probably flew off with him before he ripped the arm off— a good reason we didn't hear anything,"
"justas a wild guess," Physic said, "that's not the kind of thing one trooper in battle dress could do to another trooper, Is It?"
"Not damn likely," Caffer said, snaking the forearm at Physic, "this Is heavy battle dress!"
"Take it easy, sergeant," Coeur ordered. "Sir."
"All right," Coeur went on, "it clearly Isn't sate out here. Everybody, get in the G-carrier double-quick."
It look Coeur just a few seconds of contempiation to realize what her next course must be, but It wasn't immediately well received by her mates.
"All right," Coeur announced, "here's the plan. Physic, Gaffer and tare going out to investigate. Red Eye, you'll keep everybody else here."
"Yes, sir," the gunnery sergeant said, saluting. "But how long will you want us to wait before we come after you?"
"You will not come after us," Coeur said, pulling a gauss rHle from the Corner's gun rack and beginning to toad HEAP grenades into its under-barrel launcher, "You will wall here for 12 hours. If you haven't heard from us by then, you will get the hell out of here and repon to Drop Kick,"
"Yes, sir,"
Tom, however, was not so accepting of the situation.
"Red, look, this Is crazyl If you go out there, you'll be killed."
"Maybe," Coeur said, "or maybe not. There's some kind of relic material up in that Gutter of Blood—Homer's scan tells us that much—and I can't let tear of these nightjacks keep us from Investigating it"
"But why? Why Is It so important?"
"Because It might be part of the depot, Vega, or contain a clue to its location. In case you've forgotten, the Royal Vengeance escaped this system, and Is probably on her way to Solee right now to pick up reinforcements. If those arrive, and the Solee get their hands on the depot instead of us, then the Coalition's screwed.
"And besides," Coeur went on, checking her rifle's magazine and then slinging the weapon over her shoulder, "we make a promise to all our people when they enlist—that they won't be left behind In the field. I don't Intend to break that promise to Gremlin and Fubar,"
"With respect, sir," Gaffer said, "I think Tom's right—at least to a degree, I think you're too important to risk In an operation like this, so why don't you let me just take Out a team of Marines Instead?"
Coeur shook her head. "Negative, sergeant I'm the only person here who knows the specs on Zero's black globe generator and can positively identify It And finding that generator will be good evidence that we've found the depot Itsetf."
"Yes, sir,"
"Besides, we've already lost two Marines in battle dress, SO I don't know bow much protection a large group of troopers would give us from the nightjacks. Better to take the minimum— myself, Pnysic to treat anycasualties, and one experienced soldier as an escort."
Caffer accepted the complement with a slight nod.
"Hmm," Physic said, "you put it that way, and I almost feel safe."
Coeur smiled, glancing at the friend she would soon be taking into mortal danger.
fi's funny, Coeur thought, I can still remember how excited the was when I offered her a chance to get old Aubaine on the Hornet; it's a fair bet she wasn't expecting this.
Yet Coeur had been an officer long enough not to second guessherself. it wasa
lways the hardest duty of any officer to order her friends into danger—but Coeur had chosen the minimum necessaryforce to accomplish her mission, and would do her best to see that all of her people returned sale and intact.
"Well, l guess that's it, then," Tom said a few minutes later, coming to sharp attention and delivering Coeur a crisp salute as her team assembled at the rear hatch. "Good luck, Captain."
"Thanks," Coeur said.
"Funny," Tom said, leaning in close to Coeur, "you notice how everybody's back here to watch you go except Newton?"
Coeur had indeed noticed, but didn't comment "Probably afraid you'd take him along," Tom offered, "if he didn't hide in the cockpit."
"I'd probably hide too if I were him. Take it easy, Tom,"
Brother Anthony interrupted Coeur, however, before she could open the hatch.
"Captain, would you wait a minute?"
"Now, Brother Anthony, aon't tell me you want to go."
"Er—no, I would like your permission in a slight indulgence, though. Would you lei me bless you before you go?"
Coeur exchanged shrugs with Physic. "Sure."
Quickly, then, Anthony removed his vial of holy water from his vestment—the same one he had used to bless Coeur and Tom before their first flight to meet the rebels—and doused Coeur and Physic with it Caffer raised a hand to decline the offer.
"It would just make me superstitious," he said. "I'd rather rely on my reflexes."
"If only that were enough against nightjacks," Anthony said.
"We'll be all right," Coeur said to Anthony, opening the rear hatch into The chill of the black night; "nowcome on, guys, we've got work to do."
Chapter 18
All hough the air at Pesta was relatively still that night, Coeur knew from Homers analysis of the area that she could not count on the same condition in the Cutter of Blood. Almost as If by design, the kilorneter-long gutter channeled air from the higher peaks through its lengthlike agiant wind lunnel, so any approach by a craft as light as a broomstick was ruled out from the start.
Fortunately, the wind was fairly light on the floor of the chasm—the area Coeur, Physic and Caller entered after passing through The side channel pointed out by Blanco, Further, wearing their wide-spectrum goggles, Coeur and Physic had little difficulty following Gaffer, so the party reached the gutter in only three hours—less than the lour Coeur expected.
"But there's nothing here, "Physic signed in Anslan, when at last they stepped into the high-walled stone channel, "lust rock."
"No, "Gaffer signed back, assisted by the magnifying power of his synthetic vision. "I see something at die end of the chasm, 600 meters ahead."
"All right," Coeur signed. "Let's move out." All too conscious of their luck so far—the party hadn't encountered so much as an insect In the rocks, let alone a nightjack— Coeur pressed on with the firm resolution of a woman with a higher purpose than the mere evasion of her own fear.
Though her prime purpose must be the pursuit of her tost men, that concemhetd only slightly more weight than the driving need to find the depot. Almost lost to the others as their original reason for coming here, it nevertheless remained foremost in the mind of the remnant Coeur—a woman who had seen at firsthand The horrific effects of the super-weapons the Last Imperium unleashed before its downfall.
There's just too much at stoke, Coeur thought. I must not be afraid. Do you hear me, nightjocks? I am not afraid 0! you/
Thai thought found expression In Coeur's mind through her recognition of the outside possibility that the nightjacks—whatever they were—might have psionic abilities. Some Droyne, she knew, had the ability to appear invisible as well as the ability to read minds, so why might such an ability not exist in wilo creatures as well.,.?
Little by little, then, the trio advanced on the curious sliver of infrared light Calfer had identified at the end of the chasm, where its floor suddenly sloped up sharply into the surrounding rock.
Oh my god, Coeur thought, there is something there....
That something was a rectangular patch of rock—strewn with pebbles like the rest of the floor, but slightly hotter in Infrared About as wide as the gutter at that point, perhaps SO meters, it was certainly nothing anybody with normal vision would ever notice.
"What is it?"Gaffer signed, when at last they stood atop the area.
" Unknown, "Coeurreplied. "Physic and! wilt look around. Cover us."
"Roger.~
"What are we looking for?" Physic whispered.
"Shh. Sign language,"
"What are we looking tor?"
"Unknown. Anything unusual."
"Roger."
Amazingly, something unusual wasn't long In coming. Shuffling through the pebbles. Physic tripped over what seemed to be along bar of metal. Bending down to pick it up, she found it was rooted firmly in the earth.
"What the hell?" Coeur muttered, coming over to help examine the bar.
"I thought you said to use sign language."
"The order's revoked. Look, I found a corner here... "
"Yeah," Physic said, kicking granular pebbles away from the other end of the bar with her boot, "here too. Do you suppose it could be some kind of hatch?"
"Oon't know. Keep brushing."
Two minutes later, the women cleared away enough pebbles to see that Physic was correct: The metal was the fluted edge of a door set right In the lloor of the gutter. Attempts to budge the door met only with back strain, however, and the pair went on to brush the earth back several meters In every direction, looking for some sort of control panel. Though fruitless, this eHort in turn led to another discovery.
"Wow," Physic said , "it's all metal."
"Yeah," Coeur answered, "this must be the area Snapper saw from orbit,"
"A lot of good that does us; there's no door handle."
"Well, we shouldn't leap to conclusions—It might not even be a door, But I'll get Caffer, anyway and see If he can make it budge."
True to his mission as their escort, Caffer had avoided paying too much attention to what the women were doing, so he was naturally amazed when he saw the seeming trap door set in the middle of the cieared-ofl anea.
"We could try to burn through," he suggested. "My fusion gunwillcut through 13 millimeters of bonded superdensealloy."
"That might not be such a good idea," Coeur said, "especially if it's booby trapped. I was thinking you might just try to pry it loose."
"All right"
Strangely enough, that simple expedient actually worked. After jamming his bayonet Into the seam at the edgeof the square and exerting the force of his suits strength enhancing servomotors, the door suddenly sunk and slid backward under the surrounding metal. Caught off guard, Gaffer almost fell into the blackspace he now knelt before, but caught his 500 kg mass and pushed himself back from the brink.
"Well, I guess that's It," he gasped. "IL's a door all right."
"Sure is," Coeur said, snining a flashlight down into the hole, "and with stairs, too."
"Ladies first?" Gaffer asked, getting back to his feeL
"I wouldn't think of it," Coeur said. "You first"
* m r The stairwell illuminated under Coeur's flashlight descended 10 meters to a landing, but beyond that ner party member should not see, so they began to descend the stairs to investigate first hand. Before going too far, though, they stopped to examine the door from the other side—deriving some comfort from a familiar electronic control pad.
But not too much comfort.
Set into what would be the roof of the underground facility, the device appeared to be a simple nine-digit keypad with a computer display, presently programmed toopen thedoor when sufficient force (approaching the several hundred kilograms per square centimeter supplied by Gaffer) was applied. Below this, however, was a symbol all-too familiar to the Imperial remnant Coeur the clrde-andcrosshairs symbol of the Solomani Confederation.
"The Solomani," Coeur whispered.
"isn't that who controlled
this depot we're looking for?"
Physic asked.
"Indeed," Coeur said. "Mexit was on the edge of their territory—their border with the Imperium."
To Physic and Gaffer, who were citizens of the New Era, and cared not a lick for the conflicts of the dead past, this was not nearly the loaded statement that it was for Coeur. In her youth, Coeur was taught to fear the Solomani ethos—the simple faith that Solomani humans were superior to ail other forms of life— and be ready to fight against it when it motivated the Confederation to war. Resisting Solomani Invasion, Indeed, was the mission of the Imperial fleet Coeurserved with when other circumstances detoured her from certain death In thecatadysm of the Collapse, and into a new life In the New Era.
Ironically, all the present Reformation Coafition existed within territory conquered by the Solomani before the Collapse, yet this grand conquest was less than meaningless to Its children. Physic and Gaffer. So immaterial was that distant past to their lives that they simply didn't think about it as a (act of any consequence at all.
"Do you suppose we should close the door?" Gaffer asked, holding his hand over the control panel.
"No," Coeur said, "I don't trust relic machinery. Just jam your bayonet into one of the door's guide rails to hold It open."
"Roger."
A moment later, the deed was done, though not without some echoing report as Gaffer hammered the bayonet tightly Into place with his clenched armor-clad fist. To Coeur this was acceptable, though, given her suspicion that anybody occupying this facility would already have been alerted to the door opening.
"Good enough," Coeur said quietly. "Now take the point again."
Soordered, Gaffer returned to the head of the party and began downward with only his low-light vision to guide the way. Similarly aided by their goggles, Coeur and Physic followed close behind, taking note of the pebbles crunching under Gaffer's heavy feet, evidence that someone had preceded them down the steps after the facility was hidden under the earth, but scarcely noticing the deep darkness all around them when they reached the landing.
"It turns and goes down, "Gafle/ signed.
"Roger," Coeur returned. "Canyon."
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