“What?” I asked, blinking.

  “I mean… I know how these automaton brains tend to think. Once they’ve learned a given target is hostile it’s been classified for good. Not shooting at them might not convince them of anything from this point forward.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Harris said, lifting his arms and pointing a bouncing finger at Gary. He looked at me. “This hog might have a point, Centurion. That is how machines think. We actually opened fire on those bugs. They’ve definitely classified us as hostile. It might not matter what we do when we reach the LZ.”

  I took a second to consider the point. I had to admit, Gary might be right. But then, if that was true, the mission was tits-up in the first place. We might as well fly home immediately.

  I didn’t want to take that step. I wanted to take the risk. I wanted to give this longshot a chance.

  Accordingly, I grinned at them. Then I slapped my knee hard and laughed. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard all damned day. Weren’t you guys there at the briefing in Winslade’s bunker—oh yeah, that’s right, you weren’t there. Now let me tell you how this whole thing is going to go down. We’re going to jump off that ramp and down into that gully. If we have any luck at all, there will be no drones, no nothing. We’ll find whatever tunnel they used to get out of the dome and follow it back into the Mogwa city.”

  This was too much for Harris. He appeared to be having some kind of conniption.

  “What is it, Adjunct?”

  “Sir, we have no idea if such a tunnel even exists or not.”

  “Not so. It must exist. Those robots must have come from somewhere.”

  Harris crossed his arms and looked glum.

  A tone sounded then, and yellow warning lights lit up all over the hold. We, the human cargo the skimmer was carrying, were being warned the flight was coming to an end. At the exact same instant, the aircraft tilted and slanted down toward the ground. Its jets were screaming a new tune, and we all reached out a hand to grab hold of any strap we could.

  “All right, that’s our cue!” I roared at them. “I want everyone and every pack of gear off this bird thirty seconds after we touch down.”

  The ship landed less than a minute later. The rear ramp dropped, and we hustled out into the open.

  “Go-go-go!” every officer and noncom shouted together.

  The troops obeyed, scrambling for the ramp.

  Outside, the air was filled with smoke and soot. We walked over burnt bodies and broken machines. The gully was full of death and destruction.

  “Let’s go!” I shouted, leading the way.

  My men trudged for the gully, and the skimmer vaulted into the air behind us a moment later. The pilot wasn’t taking any chances.

  “Come on,” Harris shouted. “Search this dung pit. Let’s find the centurion’s magic tunnel.”

  I glanced at him, as his words didn’t seem overly respectful. He didn’t meet my eye.

  Troops spread out and poked around. We looked high and low. We rolled over every dead, stiff corpse and shoved broken robots away from humps in the ground.

  We found nothing. After about twenty minutes, grumbling could be heard—more than normal, that is.

  “Centurion,” Gary said, coming close and almost whispering. “I don’t think there’s anything down here.”

  “Where is it then, Adjunct Dahmen?” I asked. “Where did those robots come from?”

  He pointed at the glassy dome, which stood no more than a hundred meters off. “From inside there, sir.”

  “Obviously. But how did the robots get through that barrier and out into our territory?”

  Gary frowned, giving the question a serious thought. “Maybe they didn’t use a tunnel. Maybe the dome can be crossed by these robots. Maybe they have a field, or a friend-or-foe code, or something.”

  I grabbed onto his helmet and pulled him close. “Are you telling me there’s no way for us to get inside?”

  “I don’t know—but I don’t see any tunnels, sir.”

  I let go of him, and he staggered back. I tried to think it through. Every sign had indicated that Manfred had been ambushed. If not from within this gully, then the source of the enemy intrusion had to be close.

  “Widen the search. Let’s go topside. We’re going to locate and examine every nook and cranny we can.”

  The troops groaned.

  “Sir,” Harris said, “the sun is going down. If we hustle, starting right now, we might be able to reach Winslade and rejoin his forces before they withdraw. We’d keep the cohort together, sir.”

  He was in earnest, and he had a good point. There was no need to get stubborn and keep looking for something that wasn’t possible to find.

  The trouble was, I’m a very stubborn man. Just ask any girl I ever took on a date. I don’t give up easily on anything.

  “No. Get your men up topside and search the area.”

  Grumbling, Harris did so. He led a squad of heavies up into the open and swept the area. I looked at Gary, who was pretty much scratching his ass in the gully with a few specialists. “Adjunct Dahmen! Up and at ‘em. Find the entrance to the Mogwa City, and I’ll drink a case of beer with you when we get home.”

  Gary gave me a worried but determined smile. He joined the search party. I soon sent everyone looking. It was getting dark, and no one was reporting good news. We had buzzers out, soldiers marching in a pattern—the works.

  Then Kivi shouted for my attention. I thumped to her side, and she lifted her tapper. She had a buzzer feed coming live from about half a kilometer out.

  “They’re coming, Centurion. A whole column of robots. Twenty at least.”

  I eyed the formation. The machines walked steadily over the broken landscape. They were marching directly toward us.

  “Kivi, forget following them. Send that drone to their origin point. Where are they coming from?”

  She expertly controlled the flying machine. It swooped and wobbled. Suddenly, we saw an opening in the stones. It was a doorway in the ground, with a lurid red light glimmering out of it.

  “Troops!” I shouted. “Everyone move north on the double! Run for your lives!”

  That order was instantly obeyed. Troops that didn’t listen to their officers in Legion Varus were killed over and over until they started listening.

  A minute or so later, we were all struggling over rocks and torn up buildings. We raced about a half a kilometer away from the gully and the dome.

  I called a halt to our wild retreat and ordered my men to gather and regroup. Harris caught up to me then, trudging in my wake. His sides were heaving, and his eyes were shining.

  “What did you see, sir? Are they coming to kill us? Are we pulling back to Winslade’s position, or are we fighting them right here?”

  I shook my head. “Neither. We’re circling around. Kivi pinpointed where they’ve been coming from. While they sniff around in that gully, looking for us, we’ll circle and find their secret tunnel entrance.”

  He looked aghast, but I pretended not to notice. I clapped a heavy gauntlet on his armored shoulder.

  “Don’t worry, Adjunct. We’re going to complete our mission today, come hell or high water.”

  Harris was far from reassured, but he followed me anyway. He knew there wasn’t any other choice.

  It took nearly a half hour to reach the point where Kivi’s buzzers had spotted the drone tanks exiting the ground. Even then, the entrance wasn’t easy to find. It ended up looking a lot like a large sewer grate.

  “That’s got to be it,” I said, pointing. “Heavies, open it up with your powered exoskeletons. Lights, dive right in.”

  No one was happy, but they did as I ordered. Gary lingered at my elbow. “You sure this is a good idea, McGill?” he asked me. “If there’s anything dangerous in there, that squad of light troopers is going to get eaten up.”

  I looked at him, and my expression brightened. I jabbed him with a hard finger. “Good idea, Adjunct. Those men need leadership, and they need someone in tough, light gear leading the way, too. Get in that sewer pipe—at the front of the line.”

  Gary looked stunned. He stammered for a second, but then Harris prodded him from behind. “Are you refusing a direct order from your superior officer, Adjunct Dahmen?”

  “No… no, sir. I’m going in.”

  Bravely, Gary clamped down his faceplate and was the first to jump into the culvert when we had it open. He had to bend over, being a tall guy, but that didn’t stop him. Following him like a mother duck, a squad of lights went in too, disappearing one at a time.

  A few minutes later, they were all gone. Harris and I watched and listened, frowning. I had Kivi send in a few buzzers to watch over them. The buzzers got to Gary just in time to witness an amusing scene.

  Something had clamped onto old Gary...something in the dark water at his feet… something he couldn’t see.

  He set up an awful hollering. “I’m caught! I’m trapped!”

  “Cut your foot off,” Harris suggested over the tactical radio. “It’s the only way!”

  He put his hand over his mouth, stifling his belly laugh. I slapped him. “You know he can’t cut his foot off in that suit.”

  “He can try!”

  Shaking my head, I had Kivi circle the buzzer around him. “I see what’s wrong. You’ve got your fool foot twisted into a grate—another grate, under the water.”

  Calming down, Gary twisted and tugged. At last, he freed himself. It had been a false alarm.

  The group continued on, deeper and deeper into the pipes. They widened out to about two meters in diameter, enough for the troops to stand and walk freely.

  “Harris, you’re going next,” I said, turning to the heavy platoon.

  “What? Are you kidding me? Let’s at least wait until something eats that moron.”

  I shook my head. “We don’t have that kind of time. For all we know the drones are coming this way right now. We’ve encountered no resistance, so we’re all going in.”

  Grumbling about getting permed and crazy rednecks, Harris led his team into the pipes. I took the specialists in last. They weren’t much happier than Harris had been.

  Soon, we were all underground and walking into the unknown. I’d been in this situation before, and it was never pleasant. Harris was right. This was an easy way to get yourself permed. Sewers tended to be lined with metal and earth. They blocked signals easily, and if things went badly, the unlucky victim of circumstance could experience an unconfirmed death—the worst kind.

  But I didn’t care about any of that. We were either going to find our way into that dome, or we were going to die trying.

  It was the Legion Varus way.

  -30-

  Eventually, we reached another barrier of an unexpected sort. It wasn’t a wall of glassy force. It wasn’t a sealed metal door, either. Instead, it was a torrent of water.

  It gushed down into our faces, blasting like a fire hose. The flow was accelerated by a tilt in the land.

  “We can’t get past this,” Harris declared. “No frigging way.”

  “Kivi, send a buzzer up there—how far does this pipe go?”

  She did as I asked, and we found it was a fairly short distance. “It looks like it’s less than twenty meters, with a ten percent grade. That’s not much, but when you’re slogging in water, it’s enough to knock anyone off their feet.”

  “Hmm…” I said, thinking it over. “We need someone to get up there to the top and toss down a line. We can pull ourselves up if we can get it attached firmly enough.”

  I looked around at my thin roster of troops. I thought about Gary—but I passed on the idea. Sure, he had lightweight armor, and he was a fit enough man, but he was too green. He’d end up falling and breaking his neck or something.

  Next, I considered Harris. He was already scowling at me in glances. He must have suspected my scrutiny.

  But again, I passed on the idea. I only had three officers, and Gary didn’t really count. Flicking through my tapper of names again, I stopped among the specialists.

  “Cooper?” I said aloud. “Cooper, are you with us? How come I haven’t seen my best ghost all damned day?”

  Cooper answered, and he was surprisingly close. “A ghost that’s easily spotted is a dead ghost, sir.”

  His words were sullen and resigned. I smiled.

  “Good enough. It’s time for you to earn your pay.”

  “Sir, I’m not strong enough to do twenty meters uphill in the face of a thousand liters of water pressure. Maybe if you sent up some beefcake, like Sargon over there—”

  “Hey!” Sargon objected. “That’s not cool.”

  I shook my head. “Nope. It’s going to be you, but you’re not going to slog uphill into the blasting water, you’re going to climb over it. See those handholds on the roof of the tunnel?”

  “Those notches?”

  “Yep. Take a line and get hopping, froggy.”

  Cooper did as I commanded, but he didn’t seem happy about it. One mistake, one slip-up, and he’d come tumbling down that chute. He’d probably break his neck too—but I didn’t care. He hadn’t done a damned thing to help my unit so far on City World.

  He passed us up and kept going. He took his stealth suit off, but I didn’t object. A man who was asked to kill himself could do it in his own way, in his own time. That was a legion axiom.

  Dragging a thin line behind him, he struggled to hang over the torrent of water. I could imagine his painful, hand-over-hand effort. He had some gear to help—his hands being equipped with climbing pads and the like. But it wasn’t much.

  Now and then, he slipped a little. I saw a foot dip down into the white gushing flow twice. Each time, everyone watching the stream from Kivi’s buzzers gasped and showed their teeth—but he didn’t fall in.

  “See that?” I said. “He’s skinny, he’s sneaky, and he’s annoying, but he’s a Varus man.”

  “He’s a perv, too,” Kivi added. “I suspect he hangs around the showers for hours. Have you ever seen him show up late for breakfast, all prune-skinned with a big smile?”

  “Uh… can’t say that I have. But look at that! He’s almost there!”

  Cooper grunted and struggled that last few meters. He was getting tired.

  “I found something,” he said, with puffing breath. “A metal loop, or something. I’m attaching the line to it.”

  He hooked the line we gave him onto the loop and tugged. It held.

  “What now, sir?” he asked.

  “Test it with all your weight.”

  He leaned out and yanked hard—too hard, as it turned out.

  The loop was a pull that lowered a heavy metal grate. Cooper was caught under that, and he was pinned.

  “Shit!” I said. “Let’s go get him.”

  Sargon surged forward. He was a good man in a tough spot. He naturally wanted to rescue his comrades. It was an enviable trait, a rarity in our outfit.

  Clanking upward, he used the exoskeletal strength to take steady steps. With the line to pull on, he was able to use his arms as well as his legs to keep his balance. The water rushed over him in a blasting spray, but he made steady progress.

  At last, he reached the grate and threw it upward. A moment later, Cooper’s lifeless body came sliding down to the rest of us. He was as dead as yesterday.

  “Record it,” I told Carlos, who was our only bio. “The rest of you, get up that chute. Heavies first. Sargon will help pull you up.”

  Sargon set himself and worked his powerful arms. His suit whined and strained. One at a time, we were all dragged up to the top. We took about a minute to rest—then we pressed onward.

  “What’s the frigging hurry now?” Harris demanded. “We’re all going to end up like Cooper if we aren’t careful.”

  “Those drones might be coming back at any minute. They’re a patrol, and they’ve got to return to base at some point. Say… I’ve got an idea. What do you think about staying here and playing rearguard? You can get all the rest you want that way.”

  “I’m not feeling tired anymore.”

  “Good to hear. Let’s move out!”

  We continued, but soon the pipes forked—that wasn’t good.

  “Scout each way,” I ordered Kivi.

  She didn’t answer right away. She was looking at her tapper and checking her instruments. Techs had a pack with a much more powerful computer and other gear.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked her.

  “I left a buzzer behind us, to watch our rear… but it’s gone dead. I think they’re coming back, McGill.”

  She looked at me with big eyes. I stared back for a second or two, thinking hard. I turned in each direction, peering into the hanging darkness.

  “I think this way is going upwards a bit… look at the water flow. We’re going that way—on the double.”

  The troops complained, but they picked up their feet. We jogged down the pipes until we reached a circle of light in the ceiling. “Lights, climb up there and open that exit. Move!”

  While the lights grunted and sweated above, I thought I could hear the whining of servos and the scraping of metal claws on metal pipes behind us.

  Soon, the sounds became distinctive. There could be no mistake. The drones were coming after us.

  Goaded into hurrying, we soon had the grate open. We climbed out of the pipes and stood in an open field.

  Looking all around us, we gaped and stared. It was morning now, and the light had us blinking and squinting.

  “It’s beautiful,” Kivi said. “What is this place?”

  “Some kind of farmer’s field, I think,” Carlos said, coming near. “These plants aren’t terrestrial, but they’re clearly a cultivated crop.”

  Plants reached up to our hips. They had thick stalks, a lot of triangular leaves, and a purple flower at the top. Spines protruded from each bloom. Insects buzzed around these flowers—big ones.

  In the distance, the city stood tall in the morning sun. The monstrous buildings cast long shadows that seemed to reach all the way to the horizon.

  “McGill,” Kivi told me, “those drones are still coming.”