“Are you in verbal contact with the other team?”
“Yes and no. We can hear them shouting and yelling, but they aren't making any sense. They keep saying things like 'mansions', 'champagne', 'women', and 'yachts'.”
“Women?”
“Well, actually 'hookers', sir.”
“Anything else?”
“Yeah, the phrase 'rich, rich, rich' keeps coming up.”
There was a pause.
“Drainpipe Two, try to get their attention, but be careful. Doc White says they might be suffering hallucinations caused by claustrophobia or some contaminant in their suits' air supplies.”
“How did something get into both their suits?”
“We don't know, Drainpipe Two, but they might harm themselves or you if you get too close.”
“Roger that, Shuttle One. We will approach with caution.”
Platform Above The Gem Pit
“I'm telling you I have to take a dump!” There was desperation and a hint of panic in Gx!pk's voice. “When ya gotta go ya gotta go!” For the lava creatures that was literally true—once the process of eliminating bodily waste began it could not be denied.
“Well don't go in here,” Kq*zt said. “If you crap in the tunnel you will have to clean it out.”
“What would you suggest?” Gx!pk's body had begun rhythmic pulsations and he was bouncing from floor to ceiling.
“This is a latrine, isn't it? And the aliens seem overjoyed with its contents—why don't you give them some more poo to play with?”
“Arrgh!” came the inarticulate reply.
Gx!pk hung part of his not inconsiderable mass over the edge of the platform, angling toward the bottom of the shaft and let fly. A stream of red hot crystalline objects emerged from his distended body, showering down on the aliens below.
* * * * *
“
Bozhe moy
,
what was that!” shouted Bosco, pulling back from the ledge as a fiery barrage streaked past their position headed for the bottom of the vertical shaft.
“Incoming!” Kato yelled over the Marine's common frequency while raising his railgun.
“Can you see where it's coming from?”
“Yeah, there is another ledge like this one about ten meters farther up the shaft,” Kato replied. “Somebody is shooting at the Navy guys.”
Together, the two Marines did what Marines are taught to do when unknown hostiles shoot at your buddies—they fired several bursts of depleted uranium tracer rounds at the platform where the incoming fire originated.
* * * * *
Jacobs and Hitch were still engaged in flinging gemstones at each other and yelling back and forth when the fiery rain of additional stones arrived at the bottom of the shaft.
“We're rich! Richer than Croesus!” yelled Matt.
“Richer than TK Parker!” Stevie yelled back.
“Richer than the entire Council of billionaires!”
It took the impact of several, still glowing gemstones to penetrate their euphoria. A particularly sizable, red hot diamond bounced off Hitch's banded cuirass.
“What the hell was that?” he asked as more glowing gems rained down around the pair.
“It's raining hot rocks!” exclaimed Matt, looking up the shaft for the source of the incoming objects.
“Can you see where they're coming from, Bro?”
“Somewhere up the shaft... aw shit! That looked like tracer fire.”
Twenty meters above them several bursts of green fire flew upward in reply to the glowing rain of gemstones. Both men drew their railguns and moved back to stand against the metal walls. Euphoria over finding the treasure evaporated as they found themselves trapped at the bottom of the shaft with no cover.
* * * * *
“Oooow!” yelled Gx!pk, pulling back from the edge as several small objects sparked and ricocheted off the tunnel's ceiling. Kq*zt didn't notice the angry red pock marks that marred his friend's backside.
“What's wrong?” Kq*zt asked, leaning out from the ledge to look down the shaft. He jerked back as a burst of solid 15mm projectiles stitch a line of red splotches up his featureless black outer covering.
Shuttle One
The officers on both the Peggy Sue and the shuttle were distracted by activity in the large cavern, which seemed the more perilous situation.
“Peggy Sue, are you seeing this?” asked Bobby, watching the slow movement of the boulders toward the three Marines.
“Roger that, Shuttle One. Has Drainpipe Two made contact with the others?”
“Negative. Drainpipe Two has eyes on them but has not made physical contact with Drainpipe One yet.”
“Shuttle One, Drainpipe Two. We have hostile contact. Shots exchanged!”
“Drainpipe Two, say again your last.”
“I said we have engaged hostiles who fired on Drainpipe One. The hostiles didn't know we were here and just opened up on Hitch and Jacobs. I'm pretty sure we hit a couple of them.”
Fan-fucking-tastic,
Bobby cursed silently,
it's like a contest to see who can start a war first.
“Give me a sitrep, any casualties on our side?”
“Shuttle One, Drainpipe One. Stevie and me are OK. They shot red hot crystals at us but they bounced off our armor.”
“Good to finally hear from you, Drainpipe One. Why have you been off the comm net for so long?”
Pause.
“Er, we sort of made a discovery, Sir, and in the excitement we forgot to call in.”
“Your telemetry went dead as well.”
“We sent our mini-bots down the shaft and forgot to set relays when we started down the shaft too. Sorry, Sir. We didn't realize we were out of telemetry range.”
“Drainpipe One, you are to rendezvouses with Drainpipe Two at their current position and then proceed back the way you came. I want all four of you back on the surface ASAP. Do you read me?”
“Copy that, Shuttle One. We are on our way.”
“Bobby,” Mizuki said with urgency in her voice, “I think the Gunny is in trouble.”
On the middle monitor, the crowd of boulders surrounding Rosy and her Marines became very agitated. Radio frequency static became so intense the shuttle could not talk to Drainpipe Leader. Then that telemetry feed went dead.
“Shuttle One, Peggy Sue. Interrogative, WTFO?”
Chapter 15
CIC, Peggy Sue
All idle conversion ceased in the CIC. Those present had relaxed a bit when the Marines of Drainpipe Two reestablished contact with Drainpipe One. Drainpipe Leader was surrounded but not cutoff from retreating back the way they came. Then came word of an attack by parties unknown and an ensuing firefight; then another communication's failure. Now, Billy Ray and Beth were nervously scanning the darkened displays from Drainpipe Leader for any sign of what was happening to them.
“This keeps goin' from bad to worse,” Billy Ray muttered.
“I should say so,” replied Beth. “If nothing else, this shows that we don't have nearly enough Marines on board.”
“No argument there, next trip we're takin' at least a dozen. But that doesn't fix our current tactical muddle. There were more of those moving boulder things in that chamber than mites on a chicken's butt.”
“I've no point of comparison for that, Captain, but our people did seem rather outnumbered,” Beth said dryly. “Plus, as you said, the hostiles appeared to be rocks.”
“Telemetry readings indicate that the aliens are composed primarily of silicon, Commander,” The voice of the ship's computer confirmed Beth's assessment. “They have a well masked but significant internal heat signature. If the readings are accurate, I suspect they are molten inside.”
“Yer saying the natives are living blobs of lava?” Billy Ray asked the ship's not quite sentient computer.
“Since they seem to communicate using radio frequency EM radiation and act in cooperative ways, sentience of some form is indicated. This would require a more complex internal structure than just blobs of lava—but your overall description seems accurate enough, Captain.”
“How are the Marines supposed to fight mobile lava filled boulders?” Beth asked.
“I don't know, but we need to come up with something soon.” Billy Ray grimaced and keyed the comm link to the shuttle. “Shuttle One, Peggy Sue. You got a next course of action, pardner?”
* * * * *
Billy Ray's voice on the radio failed to snap Bobby out of the mental paralysis that gripped him. His mind raced with competing thoughts: W
hat can I do now? Should I pull out those that I can? The other Marines are almost two hours from relieving the Gunny if they head back to the surface now. Hell, we're an hour away if we head down the tunnel ourselves.
Mizuki's soft voice worked where the Captain's had failed.
“Bobby, did the Marines at the shaft say they shot the aliens that attacked them?”
“What? Uh, yeah. Kato said they hit at least one of the hostiles, why?”
“And did other rounds ricochet off the metal walls surrounding the attackers?”
“I would assume so, let's ask them.” Bobby didn't know where this was leading but he had learned to trust Mizuki when she started working a problem, particularly if it included physics. “Drainpipe Two, Shuttle One. Interrogative, were there ricocheted rounds in the vicinity of the hostiles?”
“Shuttle One, that's affirmative. We could see the sparks from here.”
Mizuki smiled. “I heard Rosey say that they were going to use depleted uranium rounds in their weapons for this mission. When using DU rounds, the uranium in them can vaporize if they strike an armored vehicle—or metal tunnel walls. This produces fine dusts of uranium and uranium compounds.”
“And?” Bobby asked.
“And so the aliens are now coated with radioactive dust.”
It took a couple of seconds for the implications of Mizuki's revelation to sink in but Bobby was starting to see the light.
“And?” he said again, this time with a smile on his face.
“The sensors in the Marines' suits and mini-bots should be able to track the aliens through the tunnels, following the radioactivity of the uranium.”
“Drainpipe One and Two are down almost as deep as the chamber Drainpipe Leader was located in. If the aliens were scouts, and other aliens are occupied surrounding the Gunny's squad, the scouts would want to get back to the main body to report their run-in at the shaft.”
Mizuki nodded encouragingly.
“So if One and Two follow the alien scouts they could lead them to the large chamber.”
“It is not a sure thing, but I think the probability is better than fifty-fifty.”
“Let's see if they can pick up a trail before we bounce this off the Captain.” Indecision swept away, Bobby sprung into action. “Drainpipe One and Two, Shuttle One. Listen closely...”
* * * * *
“You want to send Drainpipe One and Two in pursuit of Drainpipe Leader by having them follow the aliens they shot at?”
“Affirmative, Peggy Sue. We have verified that they can pick up the aliens' trail from the radiation caused by the DU rounds. If they can find the other Marines we can save several hours.”
“Roger, Shuttle One. And you think the chance the aliens will lead to the others is good?”
“Roger that, they are down about as deep as the big chamber already and within a kilometer or so of where we last had contact with Drainpipe Leader. We can use inertial tracking and spatial positioning to make sure they aren't going off on a wild goose chase. If it doesn't look like this will pan out we can have them come back to the surface as we originally planned.”
There was a pause as the Captain and First Officer conversed back on the ship.
“Shuttle One, we concur with your plan. Go ahead and have One and Two follow the aliens. But tell them they are to reverse course and come to the surface if they lose radio contact.”
“Roger, Peggy Sue. We will have them go chase the boulders.”
Large Chamber, Metal Moon
“What are they doing, Gunny?” asked a nervous Vinny DeSilva. Scores of boulders seemed to be jostling for position, attempting to edge closer to the three Marines.
“Don't know. But that one seems to be in charge. It's transmitting a whole bunch of RF gobbledygook.”
“Can't the Peggy Sue's computer make anything understandable out of it?” asked Umky. Like the other Marines, he was wondering how many rounds of 15mm DU it would take to kill a boulder.
“Something cut the telemetry to the surface again, so the computer can't help us and our suit translators ain't quite up to the job.”
Everyone, Earthling and lava creature alike, was startled when a recon drone popped out of the tunnel so recently exited by the Marines. It slowed to a hover and spun around, getting a full scan of the chamber.
“Hey, that's not clown bot two,” DeSilva exclaimed. “IFF says it's clown bot three.”
Rosey only glanced at the drone, keeping her eyes on the moving boulder creatures. “Looks like it managed to make it down here from the surface before the telemetry link got cut.”
“I wonder what chased the clown bot out of the tunnel?” DeSilva asked.
“Probably another one of these mobile boulders,” the Gunny replied. “Probably why we lost comm, too. Tell the clown bot to chill out and maintain station, DeSilva.”
“Aye, aye, Gunny.”
* * * * *
“Look! Another one of the little spherical aliens,” remarked Kq*zt, as he and Gx!pk entered the chamber from a side tunnel. Both were moving a bit tentatively, still smarting from the rounds taken from the Marines' return fire.
“Yeah, and more of the big, oddly shaped aliens like the ones that pelted us with food.”
“What? Who pelted you with what food?” asked Qz@px, his attention drawn away from the aliens by the boisterous arrival of the two scouts.
“We found a couple of big aliens, like those over there, at the latrine nearby. You won't believe what they were doing.”
“Gx!pk just couldn't help himself, he had to go so he sort of took a dump on the aliens.”
“That's because they were at the bottom of the privy playing with poo! I figured that if they liked it so much they wouldn't mind a bit of fresh.”