This section at the door was little more than a smoking crater, filled with even more blasted sections of crates, pockmarked smoldering walls, and what used to be an operative squad. There were also other bodies were wearing Shiver armor or Darknight Body suits, but it had helped them as much as it did the operatives in their body toilet paper. Everyone regardless of which side they were on had been royally pulped by heavy weapons fire. I guess that's the hazard of dealing with War World nutcases -they tend to think anything with a pulse is a subversive. I guess Bayer didn't tell his people about that potential problem.
K'rth held up a shattered black casing and I recognized it as the husk of a C-110 Boomer. Those are the WW big brothers to the knee poppers we had run into at the Glades and have the bite to do the same thing to most armor that the little ones to do to unarmored civies. I briefly wondered if one of the stiffs had blown himself and everyone else up try8ing to set it, but the deep bullet holes in everything told me it didn't really matter. The DN team had been shot from behind anyway, and dead's dead regardless of how it happens.
This area branched off into a wide sloping transport tube, almost like a motorized track for moving equipment and it showed burns and debris from fighting. The heavy metal conveyor was shutdown and I moved up the low incline towards the next section a bit before I crouched to listen. There were sharp gouges on the walls and the materials strewn around looked like a forklift had torn through here. Whoever was driving was pretty excited and had about as much experience behind its wheel as I did. As I stood up, I wondered if we were going to get charged for this damage too.
Nix bounded up to cover this route and nosed my arm. "Now they've stolen a forklift too?" she asked and I smiled.
"Yeah, they'll stop at nothing to undermine SLA Industries. Next week it'll probably be a garbage truck."
When I came back down the ramp, I saw that K'rth had decided to work on getting an alternate door open and Gael was waving for me. I felt a flutter of butterflies when I stopped to stand beside her to look at the insides of a busted up crate. Inside were empty boxes marked with military stencil, but what I saw killed the butterflies in a heartbeat. The entire interior surface of the crate was covered with a pattern made of scratch marks - the same type of characters I first saw at the convent, again at the Glades raid, and on some of the other crates. The difference is that this time they were all over the inside and on every surface. It would have taken days to do that and a cold chill ran up my legs, followed by a cold flash of vertigo. Walking as quickly as I could, I got to K'rth who had given up on getting the other doors open. The taste of bile and copper was in my mouth and I think I was shaking.
"This is about to get really bad," I said to K'rth after I pulled my mike free to give us a little privacy. My voice was unsteady and the expression on his face changed to something I hadn't seen before. "There are runes all over the INSIDE of these crates."
"Focus your mind," he said. "The runes are nothing to be concerned with."
"I-I think they are. These are on the INSIDE of the crates this time. There's something going on here that-"
"They are nothing to be concerned with!" he said with a voice that blistered into anger and got my attention. "You should only be concerned with what is before us rather than someone's twisted idea of the arcane. YOU ARE NO LONGER A CHILD!"
My mouth dropped and I took a step back, confused and intimidated. This was the first time he had ever snapped at me. I was stunned and could barely speak.
"Y-yeah, you're right," I mumbled and he slapped me on the shoulder as he went past.
He hadn't felt the weirdness that I had at the Glades when I had stared at those etchings, but then he had a lot more experience with weird happenings. My legs got shaky and I sat down next to a wall to try to clear my head. Obie came over to stand beside me and looked down, like his big old protective self.
"I'm ok," I said as I patted his arm. "I'll be ok."
"Betuhbe."
Gael took her try on the door security, but wasn't able to get access to open any alternate route, so K'rth led us along the same route as the DN group took. When I pulled my Blitzer, I knew I was still rattled because the weapon felt like it weighed a hundred pounds. The scolding had stung enough to help me center my self, and as I thought about it, the nausea began to fade. Maybe that was the purpose of him yelling? No, I think that I had genuinely disappointed him, probably for the first time. I wondered if I could recover his respect.
We quietly cleared the ramp and fanned out into another unremarkable warehouse when someone spotted us and opened fire. The concrete popped near my feet and I glanced upward as I went for cover. The shooter was above us, but before anyone could give a heads up, K'rth fired and the shooter ducked back. When the sniper leaned out again, Gael clipped him in the chest with a blast that tossed him off the beam he was hiding on. He sailed downward until his scream ended in a sick crunch near the far wall. I winced and moved in, but nothing else moved, screamed or shot at us.
Nix sprinted just inside the room and opened her climbing kit, sending the grapnel sailing upwards to lodge in a metal brace. With a pop and a whirl, she launched upward and positioned herself in the metal work at the roof. Her voice came across as she trotted through the framework and she sounded excited again.
"They're moving smaller armored containers and it looks like weapons into a vehicle of some sort. Wait a moment."
"Where?" K'rth asked, interrupting.
"About 40 meters or so to the Northwest. Hmm."
"What is it?" Gael asked.
"They're putting all their gear into a loader! I know what they're doing!" she screeched. When she gets excited or angry, she forgets to speak Killian and starts screeching and growling.
"Repeat that?" Gael asked again, pressing on her earpiece. "IN KILLIAN."
"They're smuggling stuff off-world!" she laughed.
"What?" I asked, almost to myself. Every op knows that Dark Night doesn't have foldships or any kind of navy, and the idea that they'd smuggle something through Mort customs before going somewhere else just didn't make sense. There had to be a hard target on Mort somewhere and I wondered if this "Mar"y person was the head of some department they wanted to hit. For the life of me, I couldn't remember the name of the any department, but I figured I'd start with an easy one. For the time being, I couldn't really manage much else.
"Obie, who's the head of Karma?" I asked into my mike. The big guy knows more about Karma and SLA than any tour guide anyway.
"Dok-tor Ernest Strand."
"Does he have a wife or daughter named Mary?"
"No."
"Oh well, it was worth a try," I said and waited.
"They're almost finished. You guys better hurry!" Nix cut in and I nodded.
"Pop anyone you see that tries to stop us," I answered back as we broke into a trot. I was focusing as best I could on what I had to do, but suddenly the vertigo came back. I choked down a wave of nausea, half stumbled as I ran. Obie gave me an odd look and paced me, but I waved him off and kept moving.
"Natch!" she purred happily and a moment later, I heard the muffled crack of her rifle. There were yells and commotion in the distance and we picked up the pace. The closer I got, the better I began to feel. Adrenaline is good for something.
Each time we were about to close with someone, Nix put a bullet through his or her skull and by the time we were even in sight of the loader, she had dropped at least seven DN. Angus cursed under his breath with each shot and by the third or fourth kill, he was so aggravated that he was kicking the bodies. It probably didn't help that she was counting the kills off as she went, but at least she left the score keeping to herself. I pulled a browbeater off one of the bodies and slung it, with the hope that I might save a little of my own ammo later on. The copper taste in my mouth had faded into chalk and I spat onto the floor. I hoped that was the last of it, but there was no telling.
The transport Nix had seen was mounted on a track like a tram and built about as solid as an APC. It began to rumble away down the tube as we came into sight and a couple guys in Shiver armor took cover to delay us, but Nix dropped them both before they even got set. As the train vanished into the darkness, lights came bobbing back from the train and we fanned out to wait for them.
"Where the hell are Casper and McNeil?" I asked to no one in particular and Obie, who was the closest, shrugged. The giant had stayed close and was huddled behind me both to look at the browbeater and get a better angle to charge. I cocked the rifle and aimed high to compensate for the range, but the tapping tusk on my shoulder kept throwing me off. I glared up at him and he got a sheepish look when he realized it.
"Sawry," he rumbled as he leaned back and stopped crowding me.
I looked at him for a moment, and then gave in and handed him what he wanted.
The browbeater looked as small as a toy in his huge hands, but at least it might keep him occupied and out of trouble. As I readied my Blitzer, I decided to press him for answers. After all, it was a lot better than worrying about the damn markings and I didn't have a target yet anyway."You going to tell me what's eating you yet?" I asked. When he didn't respond, I pulled on one of the tusks. "Huh?"
"Gonna tell ME whas rong?" he asked back.
"No," I answered, sure that either he wouldn't or couldn't understand. Sometimes I underestimate him just like a lot of other people.
"Den no, Too," he said back and turned to watch the approaching Interceptors.
"Aim for the lights," K'rth voice crackled over my mike. Since these guys were wearing Shiver helmets, an inch or two to the side of the lamp and about four inches down ought to do it. The range was too far for the lasersight, but I wouldn't need it because the big target on the sides of their heads made this easy enough. I braced and let out my breath, waiting for a signal.
"Now", came across the mikes and we opened fire. Three of the DN dropped right away, the lamps going out as the helmets and probably their heads left their shoulders. Only two of them made it to the edge of the tunnel, but they were dead as soon as they hit the light. After we reloaded, we followed the tram while avoiding the central rails.
Angus had calmed down as his drugs wore off and wasn't causing problems, so it surprised me when Gael grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. I didn't hear the start of the exchange, but the end of it sized it up pretty well.
"YES I'LL WATCH IT OKAY? LEGGO YOU CRAZY- MMMM!" he yelled and she let him go. "Jeez, Gael." he said as he fell in line like a whipped pup, holding up his hands probably so she wouldn't clobber him.
We started up what was about a twenty-meter hike in the dark without anyone shooting and Gael turned her back on the babysitting duty to check our position. Meanwhile, Obie stayed on my heels and I began to be afraid of what would happen if I stopped too quickly.
"We're coming into Dispersal Station 56. I don't have the SCL to find what they do here."
"Oh that's just fucking great! Don't have the -OW! Quit it!" Angus started, but someone behind me shut him up.
"Is it near the landing pads?" K'rth asked, unconcerned.
"Yes, right next to them."
"Then we are close."
As we came to the end of the pipe, I heard gunfire on the other side and K'rth picked up the pace. The light stung my eyes briefly, but I knew enough to get cover as soon as I was clear. The squad divided up behind crates, a crashed forklift, and some barrels and took in the scene.
My mike crackled and I strained to make it out. Damn, cut rate mikes.
"Where<crackle> the <shhhhhhttttttttt> you gu<sssshhhhhtkkkk>"
"Casper, that you?" Gael asked, apparently having the same reception problem that I did. Heavy gunfire cut the air and shook the floor.
"GAEL? GAEL!" a voice asked and I realized it was Casper. Her voice was tense but didn't have the edge to it I was used too. "WE'RE PINNED DOWN! WE'RE IN DISPERSAL AREA 65 - UH, 56! 56! GET OVER - SHIT-!"
"We are here and engaging the enemy," K'rth stated and began to work his way forward past discarded crates for a better position. Ahead of us, I saw a guy in Crackshot with a Warmonger chopping up the other end of the room, so I switched out my ammo for HESH and followed. Around the battlesuit's feet were a handful of Shivers and more men in blue coveralls, but the lot of them looked like they ready to bug out. They still had us outnumbered, but no one knew we were there, and I smiled because this was going to be a turkey shoot in our favor.
That was when the gunfire stopped and we completely lost the element of surprise.
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