smiled, introducing them all. “Ollie, this is Jerome, another Victor, Second Lieutenant Haas, Warrant Zukic and this is our resident gun nut, Sergeant Holm.”
They smiled and nodded to the young man who looked a bit overwhelmed to be talking to higher ranks so casually.
“Good to meet you,” Ollie said, looking nervous.
Ollie looked past them, seeing people from his platoon waving to him.
“We’ll catch up later,” Mark said, tapping Ollie on the back.
“Yeah, we should catch up, heard that you boys have been through some shit,” Ollie said, pitching his voice low in commiseration.
“Yeah, it hasn’t been pretty,” Mark said feeling older.
Ollie nodded, the smiles from before dissolved into grim nods and looks. “See you guys, good to meet you all,” Ollie said, nervous he’d fuck up in some way and get reamed out.
“He’s so new he squeaks,” Tyler said as Ollie raced to catch up with his platoon.
“Yeah, that’ll change,” Mark said, remembering a lifetime ago when he’d talked to Ollie about the first time he’d killed and seen his friends die.
It didn’t feel like that life was real anymore.
Chapter 7
Mining City Twenty-One
Masoul Actual Masoul System
5/3266
Caroline heard the screams first, then the grinding noise of the Diggers. She had heard the older people refer to it as fingernails on a chalkboard; it sent razor blades down your spine.
The shift siren went off and didn’t stop. She could hear shooting, and it wasn’t just the loud cracks of the Chosen’s rifles, but heavier thuds that brought back images of the Chosen’s last end to a riot.
Green lines spat out from their muzzles, cutting through humans, leaving their remains unrecognizable.
Then she was up and running, and adrenaline made her alive.
People were running in every direction; most were headed towards the towers that made up Mining City Twenty-One.
She looked to the strip mines, where a Digger came up from under a truck. They looked like an octopus with a squid’s head. That head had teeth capable of eating through Osdal Actual’s metal crust.
Its head smashed through the bottom of the truck and vibrated, cutting the truck apart. The truck exploded, but the Digger was unaffected, protected by its metal scales.
The rounds fired by the heavy machine guns hit the scales, bouncing along the Digger’s body, and rounds that hit its head went careening off.
Ellie, one of the few people that Caroline had become friends with, pulled on her arm.
“Let’s go!” she urged, trying to get her to go in the direction of the city.
“If we get to the sonic pad we’ll be fine!” Caroline said, pointing to the cermite pad where most of the machines were charged and worked on. There were three large towers with what looked like a bell on them at each corner of the pad. It was only a few hundred meters away, instead of kilometers.
Caroline looked to Ellie as another Digger vibrated to the surface in the middle of the people fleeing, its teeth cutting anything it touched to shreds.
It let its head fall, crushing hundreds as its tentacles lashed out; this one was as large as an in-system freighter, each tentacle eight foot wide.
Other Diggers were rushing out of the ground.
“Trust me Ellie!” Caroline said.
“Alright, go!”
Caroline turned and ran for the maintenance pad.
They got there unscathed, but Diggers were bursting out of everywhere, the night sky filled with lines of tracers.
A digger convulsed, and its teeth stopping moving as it came crashing down like at tree in a storm.
Two others joined it, but there must have been twenty Diggers, ranging from as big as an air-car to mountainous ones, the size of inter-system freighters.
Caroline and Ellie huddled on top of a powered down truck, watching the horror as Diggers disappeared, only to reappear in front or among the running Earthers.
The Chosen scrambled into their air cars and flew for the city, and the heavy machine guns in the
They smiled and nodded to the young man who looked a bit overwhelmed to be talking to higher ranks so casually.
“Good to meet you,” Ollie said, looking nervous.
Ollie looked past them, seeing people from his platoon waving to him.
“We’ll catch up later,” Mark said, tapping Ollie on the back.
“Yeah, we should catch up, heard that you boys have been through some shit,” Ollie said, pitching his voice low in commiseration.
“Yeah, it hasn’t been pretty,” Mark said feeling older.
Ollie nodded, the smiles from before dissolved into grim nods and looks. “See you guys, good to meet you all,” Ollie said, nervous he’d fuck up in some way and get reamed out.
“He’s so new he squeaks,” Tyler said as Ollie raced to catch up with his platoon.
“Yeah, that’ll change,” Mark said, remembering a lifetime ago when he’d talked to Ollie about the first time he’d killed and seen his friends die.
It didn’t feel like that life was real anymore.
Chapter 7
Mining City Twenty-One
Masoul Actual Masoul System
5/3266
Caroline heard the screams first, then the grinding noise of the Diggers. She had heard the older people refer to it as fingernails on a chalkboard; it sent razor blades down your spine.
The shift siren went off and didn’t stop. She could hear shooting, and it wasn’t just the loud cracks of the Chosen’s rifles, but heavier thuds that brought back images of the Chosen’s last end to a riot.
Green lines spat out from their muzzles, cutting through humans, leaving their remains unrecognizable.
Then she was up and running, and adrenaline made her alive.
People were running in every direction; most were headed towards the towers that made up Mining City Twenty-One.
She looked to the strip mines, where a Digger came up from under a truck. They looked like an octopus with a squid’s head. That head had teeth capable of eating through Osdal Actual’s metal crust.
Its head smashed through the bottom of the truck and vibrated, cutting the truck apart. The truck exploded, but the Digger was unaffected, protected by its metal scales.
The rounds fired by the heavy machine guns hit the scales, bouncing along the Digger’s body, and rounds that hit its head went careening off.
Ellie, one of the few people that Caroline had become friends with, pulled on her arm.
“Let’s go!” she urged, trying to get her to go in the direction of the city.
“If we get to the sonic pad we’ll be fine!” Caroline said, pointing to the cermite pad where most of the machines were charged and worked on. There were three large towers with what looked like a bell on them at each corner of the pad. It was only a few hundred meters away, instead of kilometers.
Caroline looked to Ellie as another Digger vibrated to the surface in the middle of the people fleeing, its teeth cutting anything it touched to shreds.
It let its head fall, crushing hundreds as its tentacles lashed out; this one was as large as an in-system freighter, each tentacle eight foot wide.
Other Diggers were rushing out of the ground.
“Trust me Ellie!” Caroline said.
“Alright, go!”
Caroline turned and ran for the maintenance pad.
They got there unscathed, but Diggers were bursting out of everywhere, the night sky filled with lines of tracers.
A digger convulsed, and its teeth stopping moving as it came crashing down like at tree in a storm.
Two others joined it, but there must have been twenty Diggers, ranging from as big as an air-car to mountainous ones, the size of inter-system freighters.
Caroline and Ellie huddled on top of a powered down truck, watching the horror as Diggers disappeared, only to reappear in front or among the running Earthers.
The Chosen scrambled into their air cars and flew for the city, and the heavy machine guns in the
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