“We’ll follow on a count of three,” said Maxwell. “Three, two, one—”

  All four of them released the handles at the same time. Stupidly, everyone was too polite to trample their way into first place and a couple of seconds were wasted heading for the exit passage. Franklin was out first and then Grisham, Vaughan and Maxwell.

  As he exited the room, Grisham looked back. The handles were moving upwards. He dashed along the passage. Vaughan was right behind and he let the man through. Maxwell had stopped at the room’s entrance. He was arming grenades and throwing them into the room, one after the other. Before the first detonated, Maxwell was on his way.

  “Incoming!” he yelled.

  The flash of the first grenade highlighted Maxwell in silhouette and Grisham accelerated to keep ahead. He saw two soldiers a short distance away. Private Diaz was holding a grenade in one hand and had the end of Private Lowe’s launcher resting on her shoulder. Lowe himself was holding the other end.

  “Rocket out,” he said calmly as Grisham and Maxwell ran by.

  The missile raced along the passage and into the room. It detonated with a light that illuminated the passage all the way to the conveyor and the crack-rumble of the explosion reverberated off the walls.

  “Welcome to incineration,” said Lowe.

  Grisham turned mid-stride to see the outcome. The walls of the room back that way were burning hot and he could see pieces of the debris which had been piled in the room. Anything biological in that confined space would have been reduced to cinders and likewise for the corpses pushing through the doorway.

  The conveyor room was only thirty metres away and the other soldiers had positioned themselves around the entrance, taking care that their flashlights didn’t blind those coming their way. Private Vaughan would soon have his repeater deployed.

  Grisham sprinted into the room and turned west, so he wouldn’t foul anyone shooting into the passage. He stopped a few metres from the passage. Everyone was looking north, so he directed his beam west across the room. If every stashed corpse in the base was on its feet, they might come running around the conveyor anytime now.

  No. They aren’t that quick.

  Grisham swung his gaze back towards the north passage and the beam of his flashlight caught a low, hulking shape on top of the conveyor. The moment he saw the alien, he knew the mission personnel were in real trouble.

  TWENTY-ONE

  “South!” yelled Grisham. “On the conveyor!”

  He raised his gun, knowing it would be hardly more effective than firing a peashooter at an Eternus battleship. Even so, he pulled the trigger and scored a hit. The alien didn’t so much as flinch and it rose halfway from its crouch. Long arms gripped the edge of the conveyor and Grisham could see it was ready to spring into the midst of the soldiers.

  Too late, the others realised the danger. Lieutenant Adler and Commander Deneuve had been keeping out of the way and they were among the quickest to react. Shots from their rifles either missed or were ineffective.

  Then, Private Lowe came sprinting from the tunnel. Despite his injury, he wasn’t slow on his feet, and he spun the rocket launcher up onto his shoulder. Grisham could see the stiffness in the movement.

  “Have this, you asshole,” said Lowe.

  The missile crossed the intervening space in the blinking of an eye. Even so, the alien was fast and it recognized the danger. Rather than leaping forward, it changed direction and threw itself to one side. The rocket exploded on the edge of the conveyor, fifty metres from the tunnel entrance. Expanding plasma engulfed the alien, and, through the corner of his narrowed eyes, Grisham saw the creature vanish off the far side of the conveyor.

  By now, everyone was in the room and their attention was south.

  “Damnit, I missed!” said Lowe, sounding furious with himself.

  Under the circumstances, Grisham thought it was a good shot, but it wasn’t the time to start a discussion. The alien had survived the rocket blast, he was certain of it. Surely the creature was injured, but whether that would dissuade it from attacking again, Grisham wasn’t hopeful. Equally, he had no idea if it was alone.

  “I think I can see movement north,” said Private Vaughan. He fired his repeater in a two-second burst. “Definitely movement.”

  “We have to get away from here,” said Maxwell.

  “Where to, Sergeant?” said Barkley. “There might be a hundred thousand corpses heading our way.”

  “It’s not just the corpses I’m worried about,” said Grisham. “Once word reaches the crew on the Achirus, there’s a good chance they’ll set off their incendiaries.”

  “Not with their troops on the ground, sir,” said Corporal Fine.

  “No, but the Kijol are well organized,” said Grisham. He alternated his gaze between the top of the conveyor and the gap between the missile storage unit and the western wall. “It might not take them long to withdraw.”

  “We need a plan that’s better than run and hope,” said Maxwell.

  Grisham had a thought. “That opening in the wall over here,” he said. “It went somewhere.”

  “Like where?” asked Private Lyles.

  “That’s what I’m about to find out,” said Grisham.

  He sprinted across the floor, while Maxwell shouted at the soldiers of Squad A to assist. Vaughan fired his repeater again, for much longer this time.

  Grisham arrived at the opening in the wall. From here, he could see the half of the room into which the alien had escaped the rocket blast. Of the creature, there was no sign, but its absence wasn’t much reassurance.

  Dropping to all fours, Grisham shone his flashlight into the opening. About ten metres inside, the narrow way curved slightly north and the beam shone into a much larger space that it was unable to illuminate.

  “This is too tight for that alien to enter,” said Grisham. “I’m going inside for a look.”

  He crawled rapidly along. The sloping walls brushed his shoulders as he moved and the ground was uneven. After a few seconds, Grisham found himself on the edge of the open space he’d seen from the entrance. The floor sloped down and he could see the bottom a few metres lower.

  He shone his light around and it caught on distant walls. South, Grisham could see more of the alien architecture he’d flown over on the planet’s surface. Six pillars were visible at the extremes of the light, rising from the ground and then touching against the ceiling fifteen metres overhead. Between those pillars, the cavern wall had been carved flat and Grisham could make out dark doorways at floor level.

  “What’ve you found, sir?” asked Maxwell. He sounded understandably on edge.

  “It’s a natural cave, Sergeant,” said Grisham. “There’s another alien structure.”

  “Sir, we’re under pressure from the north,” said Maxwell. “Corporal Fine believes the bad alien is in the passage south. We can’t waste time.”

  Grisham shone his flashlight north-west and the light offered him the barest hint of something grey.

  “One moment,” he said. “I’ve spotted something.”

  He emerged fully from the fault in the rock and descended a few metres towards the cavern floor. He stared north-west again and spotted an opening in the wall. Through it, he could see alloy cladding.

  “Sergeant Maxwell!” Grisham said in growing excitement. “I think we can access the missile loading tunnel for the perimeter defences from here.”

  “Sir, we need certainty.” Maxwell cursed. “We may already be out of time.”

  Grisham headed across the cavern floor. The stone was rough, and he could see the marks of ancient cutting tools. Another slope led fifteen metres up to the opening he’d seen, and it was steep enough to present more of a challenge.

  “Sergeant Maxwell, bring everyone inside,” said Grisham, gambling on it being the right move. “At the very least, its defensible in here.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Maxwell.

  Grisham climbed. The rock face offered plenty of handholds, though slipping would likely result in serious injury if it happened near the top. From the comms, he knew the soldiers were on their way, and the ones left to guard the north passage had been ordered to retreat.

  “The alien is definitely south,” Corporal Fine confirmed. “And…shit. It’s heading this way.”

  “Move, Corporal!” Maxwell yelled.

  Grisham reached the top of the slope. A flat ledge at the top led to another crevice, this one much wider than the first. Peering into opening, he could see a passage about five metres away. He made his way carefully through and emerged into a tunnel. This tunnel had a three-point-five metre ceiling and it was about six metres wide.

  When he looked east, Grisham saw – at the extremes of the light – an alloy slab blocking the entrance. This, he realised was the opposite side of the door he’d noticed earlier in the missile loading area. West, the tunnel vanished into darkness.

  Along the closest side of the passage, the Kijol had installed a U-shaped gravity rail to carry the missiles from the loading mechanism in the conveyor room to their destination at the far end of this tunnel. On the opposite side of the tunnel, a four-metre-long flatbed cargo carrier sat on a single gravity rail. The carrier wasn’t hovering over the rail and that meant it was offline.

  Grisham paused for a moment, to listen to the squad comms. The last few soldiers were making their way into the cavern below. Corporal Fine was last through. She was cursing repeatedly and that meant she was alive.

  “Sergeant Maxwell, head straight up the slope,” said Grisham, returning to the first cavern, so that his light would make the way clear and maybe help the soldiers as they climbed.

  “The alien is at the entrance!” said Corporal Fine.

  From where he was standing, Grisham couldn’t see clearly, though he detected the fast movement of soldiers through the gloom.

  “It’s too big to fit through,” said Fine. “Now it’s gone.”

  Grisham felt enormous relief that he’d judged it right. The soldiers needed an escape from these remorseless opponents and it seemed like they’d found one.

  “Don’t stick around watching, Corporal,” said Maxwell. “Those corpses won’t have the same problem.”

  The mission personnel hurried across the cavern floor and their combined lights revealed more of the alien structure to the south. From this distance, the pillars appeared remarkably well-preserved, and Grisham longed to explore through those doorways to find out what lay beyond.

  Private Lyles was first to join him at the top and she found a position on the ledge where she could aim her rifle across the cavern. Her face was grim and the muscles in her jaw were tensed.

  Next up was Lieutenant Kinsey and then Commander Deneuve. While the climb wasn’t especially tough, there was only one easy route up and a queue formed at the bottom. Maxwell stood with the waiting group, his rifle aimed south-east.

  “They’re coming,” said Corporal Fine. She was last to join the group and she spun immediately so that she could fire at anything giving chase.

  “Private Vaughan, get your ass onto that ledge up there,” said Maxwell.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I don’t know if I can make it, Sergeant,” said Lowe.

  Grisham peered down the steep slope. The soldier was rotating his arm gingerly, to gauge if he could trust it in the climb.

  “You are going to make it, soldier,” Maxwell snarled. “Even if I have to carry you over my shoulder.” He reached out and took Lowe’s rocket launcher from him. “Now climb!”

  As though being carried was the greatest threat, Lowe got moving and followed Vaughan up the slope. Maxwell came after, with the shoulder launcher slung across his back. Every time Lowe slipped or struggled for grip, Maxwell found a way to free up a hand and push the soldier onwards.

  Vaughan clambered onto the ledge and began looking for a place to set up his repeater. It was cramped for space and Lyles moved aside. At the same time, Grisham moved to the top of the slope and watched Private Lowe struggle up the final couple of metres. When the soldier came within reach, Grisham offered his hand. Moments later, Lowe was on the ledge with the others.

  “Incoming,” said Corporal Fine.

  A shape emerged from the entrance tunnel and straightaway fell headfirst down the slope. Gauss shots thudded into the corpse and it didn’t get up. A second followed and Grisham was sure there would be hundreds more right behind.

  Luckily, the eastern opening was so narrow that the corpses couldn’t pour through, and they had to enter one by one. That made them easy kills for the soldiers and within a few seconds, the Kijol bodies were piling up near the fissure. Each fallen corpse made it tougher for the ones following and slowed their progress.

  Only a few of the mission personnel remained on the cavern floor and Grisham hurried into the missile transport tunnel. He climbed over the first gravity rail and ran to the cargo shuttle which was about twenty metres from the opening. The vehicle’s metre-wide guide rail cut through a slot in its underside and the design meant the load bed was chest high. As he’d noted earlier, the shuttle was offline.

  Grisham climbed up and located the control panel, which was mounted on a half-metre post positioned at the vehicle’s corner. He poked at the buttons and the cargo shuttle’s gravity drive came online. Commander Deneuve, who was heading over, gave a thumbs-up at the outcome.

  “We’ve got transport,” said Grisham on the comms. “There’s a cargo shuttle here which should take us all the way to one of the perimeter launchers. We should be safe there from the Kijol incendiaries.” As he was speaking, a sudden, wild idea came to him. “We know those launchers are still operational because they knocked the Marauder out of the sky. Maybe they’ll have a manual override.”

  “You think we might be able to take a shot at the Achirus?” said Deneuve, her eyes wide.

  “I don’t know, Commander,” said Grisham. “The Kijol security shutdown didn’t put the launchers into an offline state, so it’s likely they were never connected to the main control grid.”

  “It’s something to hope for,” said Deneuve.

  In truth, Grisham was glad enough to have found what appeared to be a comparatively safe route that would take the mission personnel beyond the range of the Kijol incendiaries – a route that the dark aliens couldn’t follow. Anything else would be a bonus.

  Grisham indicated that his warship crew and the few soldiers who’d entered the tunnel should climb onto the transport shuttle. Space would be tight, but there’d be room for everyone. Then, he returned to the ledge.

  Corporal Fine was the last to climb and she was halfway to the top. With most of the light sources now in the missile loading tunnel, the cavern floor was dark. Even so, shapes were visible, running from the south-east. Rifle fire took the corpses down long before they could become a threat and Vaughan didn’t have to fire his repeater at all.

  The moment Corporal Fine was on the ledge, Maxwell thumbed over his shoulder towards the opening. “Let’s get out of here. We should be able to outrun those corpses on the cargo shuttle. Maybe we’ll find a door we can lock at the end of the tunnel.”

  Grisham stood for a moment, his gaze lingering in the direction of the alien pillars. As Vaughan, Fine and Maxwell turned to go, their combined lights allowed him another glimpse of the doorways.

  “Ah shit,” he said.

  In each of two different openings, a dark alien stood framed. The creatures didn’t move, but Grisham could sense them watching. How they’d made it there, he didn’t know. Almost certainly, one of the other passages beneath the Ovintus facility gave access to the ancient structure.

  Maxwell saw them too. He opened his mouth, like he was about to call for Private Lowe. Instead, he urged everyone into the tunnel. The four of them dashed for the opening and the aliens were lost in the darkness.

  They’d give chase, Grisham knew. It was the reason they were here. The relentless pursuit made him suddenly furious, though anger wouldn’t make these opponents any easier to kill.

  Grisham snarled inwardly and ran for the cargo shuttle.

  TWENTY-TWO

  “We’ve got company,” said Maxwell on the squad comms, before delivering the rest of the bad news.

  Commander Deneuve was at the control panel and she didn’t wait for Maxwell to finish speaking before she set the vehicle into motion. The flatbed accelerated.

  “Is this as fast as it’ll go?” asked Grisham.

  “Yes, sir.”

  The shuttle’s maximum speed – at sixty kilometres per hour - was faster than any human could run, but the pursuers weren’t human. From the initial flight to the installation, Grisham remembered the perimeter defences were at varying distances from the landing field, but he had no way of knowing how far it was to this vehicle’s destination. If the surface-to-air battery at the end of this tunnel was fifty kilometres away, the journey would be a long one. Grisham pictured those two aliens hurtling along the passage towards the mission personnel, soaking gunfire but not slowing down.

  Maxwell was clearly aware of the danger and he gave orders for Private Vaughan to deploy his repeater so that it faced back along the tunnel. It was crowded enough that the soldier had to take care, but not so much that each little movement risked knocking somebody off the side. After some cursing, Vaughan got his weapon in place and lay prone behind it. Private Lowe had also moved towards the back and, with help from Corporal Barkley, kept his shoulder launcher aimed east.

  “I can’t see a damn thing beyond the range of our helmet lights,” said Vaughan sourly.

  The journey continued for ten minutes and the aliens didn’t appear. Grisham wasn’t fooled. While he hadn’t fought this new enemy on Xaros, he was rapidly learning that the creatures took pleasure in ratcheting the pressure by means that weren’t always directly hostile. For all Grisham knew, they could be following just beyond the light, and the very fact he was thinking this way told him that the enemy’s psychological tactics were effective. They’d sunk their talons deep.