There are times when even the most reasonable advice is doomed to fall to deaf ears, and seeing that Ruskel company light up our surroundings with flames and explosives, only to then bulldoze over it with excavators, I simply knew that any suggestions I could’ve raised for them to keep quiet would’ve been pointless.

The sheer thrill of destruction was too present in that tone-deaf, top-of-the-lungs singing. My only hope, as I backed away from those scorching flames, was that they had some way of containing the destruction.

I wasn’t sure how to break it to Mikayes if half of his claim burned down under my watch.

Fortunately, whether it was by luck or planning, the swaying grass around us didn’t seem too willing to catch on fire. Probably luck, going by the angered Ruskel screams as the crew was forced to put their flamethrowers directly to any patch of grass or trees they wanted to burn down.

One thing less to worry about, at least, I thought, shaking my head as I made my way up our surroundings only vantage point — a hill. At least it let me focus on my own task: figuring out how safe this place really was.

Migur-11 had only received some preliminary gradings thus far, partially based on the fact that there was a sentient species living on its surface. Beyond the occasional, upset wildlife, however, there shouldn’t be any great dangers.

Nothing me and Georgie wouldn’t be able to handle, at least, if the man had still been around. I still wasn’t sure what to make of the man’s sudden disappearance as I kept scanning our surroundings.

Cratered Plains: Extensive flatlands dotted with impact craters from ancient meteorite collisions. Some of these craters have formed interconnected cave systems beneath the surface, harboring unknown life forms.

Even if my UI was still working on a verdict of the grass and trees — were they missing from the System’s database? — I’d at least gotten a good grasp of the nearby topography.

It wasn’t hard to imagine where Georgie could’ve gone. Dozens of those craters surrounded us, and they reached down into unexplored depths. The question was just why. Why would the furred man have gone down there?

My trust in the Slobber Knuckles was at an all-time low.

𐫰 𐫰 𐫰

During the Ruskels’ initial clearing of our surroundings, all I could really do was check my equipment, keep scouting the perimeter, wait, and then repeat.

The only noteworthy things I’d discovered, besides Georgie’s continued absence, were:

1. Standing at the edge of one of those craters, I found that my UI’s initial assessment had been a bit modest. They were deep, and the tunnels were more than a few. It was like staring down into a beehive, or the inside of an anthill, with countless forking tunnels digging into the crater walls. They dug deep into the planet’s crust, far beyond where my eyes could see. Had Georgie really gone down there?

Subterranean Labyrinths: Extensive underground networks of caverns and tunnels, created by the planet's geological activity. These labyrinths are seemingly home to a variety of subterranean life forms, adapted to the darkness and extreme conditions.

2. The grass around me, at least that which had yet to be burnt down, was completely untouched. No animals had been grazing upon these plains in forever, which was strange indeed.

Botany 4 > 5

Crystalline Grass: Reaching an average height of 63 centimeters, this plant is seemingly native to Migur-Ne-11 and was discovered during the last Great Expansion (Still In Progress). Its unique structure gives it an almost gemstone like appearance, brought on by the abundance of Zytrium crystals it has absorbed through the ground. While this makes it near impossible for any lifeform without the correct digestive enzymes to break it down, it’s nutrient rich seeds would suggest that…

I’d seen stranger plants eaten to extinction, and unless this planet was completely void of herbivores, I was certain something would’ve evolved to eat these things. There was something more to these plains.

My eyes once more drifted towards those craters as I crushed the seed I’d been scanning between my fingers, turning it into a crumbly dust that smelled vaguely of lavender.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

A variety of subterranean life forms, was it? And now, what would be the odds some of those life forms live off hunting above ground…?

I’d barely finished the thought as the ground beneath me shook.

Turning around, it was only to see that the Ruskel company had given up on their flamethrowers and bombs for now, settled on drilling and digging into the ground instead to make room for their sonars.

By the time those went up, we’d know for certain what was down there. Unless whatever was down there came up first.

I could almost see those vibrations reproduce throughout the tunnels below as the Ruskels continued their defilement of the earth. Unless they caved in the hollow ground before then, it was from down there that any danger would come from.

While I trusted the Ruskels to manage the former – this was their expertise and livelihood, and I knew squat all about earth integrity – my task was protecting them from the latter.

Which was getting harder by the second.

The Ruskel company had just split up into three groups of four, each with a heavy drill of their own as they spread wide to place their sonars for triangulating any subterranean tunnels.

I could already see fresh flames spread out further down the hill, and then once more in a small grove of trees half a kilometer away. It’d be impossible for me alone to guard them all at once.

“Keep your men together,” I called out as I made my way down from my vantage point, walking over to where Arus was basking in the drill’s black fumes upon the smoldering grass. “Focus on setting up one sonar at a time. It’ll be impossible to keep you all safe like this.”

“Keep us safe from what, guard boy?” Arus yelled back, the rattling drill shaking the ground beneath us. He’d taken of his mask, and I could see his sooty smile as he turned my way. “The grass? It’s fine, we’ve already taken care of that.”

Cackling laughs rose from the Ruskels manning the drill. Two of them were loosely hanging on to the sides of the rumbling machine, whacking any screws or bolts that threatened to come loose. The third took care of the control panel, constantly smashing his fist into a red button that read FASTER!

“From whatever might be down in those tunnels,” I said, struggling to make myself heard over all the noise.

Arus looked me over through his goggles, and then he let out a cackling laugh of his own. “Whatever you can keep us safe from, guard boy, my men can handle on their own, and we’re planning to be done here before nightfall. Isn’t that right, boys?”

His last yell had been directed towards the Ruskels manning the drill, and as he pumped his fist into the air, the driver briefly shifted to smash his fist into another button instead.

The heavy music grew louder, drowning out any protests I could’ve raised.

“Let’s hope your weed-whackers are effective against whatever comes our way, then,” I muttered, pulling away from the thumping drill before my hearing could get any more damaged.

The advice-giving had gone exactly as I expected it to – no different from another dozen attempts I’d made at acquainting the Ruskels. Not that shitty situations was anything new to me.

My next command was directed towards my UI. “Scan the nearby craters for any potential exits. Places where the grass has been trampled, worn stones, or just bare patches of ground. Also analyze the angles of the crater walls. Anything that can be seen as an anomaly.”

It didn’t take me long to realize the daunting scope of my task.

With how the three Ruskel groups were spread out, at least a dozen different craters were too close for comfort, and each had no less than two potential exits.

“Here’s to hoping my paranoia is wasted.” I quietly sighed, staring down into one of those dark tunnels. With each rumbling crack of those drills, new rubble would shake loose down below, swiftly disappearing out of view to echoing snaps.

With every minute that passed, the sun gradually sinking over the horizon, my bad premonitions only grew.

𐫰 𐫰 𐫰

My senses were still on edge where I sat, cross legged and breathing deeply on the edge of the worst of the craters. It had at least four potential exits, and it was located dead center between the three churning drills. If things came up out of this one, things would turn bad real quick.

With evening having begun to set in, however, the only disturbances having been a malfunctioning drill, I’d almost started to think things would end peacefully on our end.

Just as that calm of my breathing exercises began to take over my mind, however, my interface flared up to a dozen fresh heat signals at once. My eyes snapped open.

If I hadn’t been listening for them, I’d never heard them over the clank and rumble of the drills – those first chittering trills that carried up from the tunnels below. Then I saw them, shifting within the shadows below as more heat signals lit up my interface: car-sized insects swarming out of those tunnels.

In an instant, I was back on my feet, pistol drawn and ready to cry out my warning as the first hulking shadow shot for one of those exits my UI had detected…and failed.

Before it could even reach halfway to the top, it was left sliding back down into the swarming mass below.

Where it’d been impossible to convince any of the Ruskel men to take even the bare minimum of safety precautions, having them lend me explosives was laughably easy.

As soon as they’d sensed there was more destruction on the horizon, they’d even helped me blow up any potential entrances or exits to the craters surrounding us — cackling like maniacs as several of the tunnels collapsed.

Now, as I saw that confused swarm of chittering shadows below, trapped inside the crater, I lit up another bomb and tossed it inside. I never even waited for the explosion before tossing a second and then third inside, and the heatwave washed over my neck as I rushed towards another danger-crater to make sure nothing was slipping through.

Praise where praise was due, the Ruskels were masters of destruction. Any exits my UI had detected were long since erased from existence, and now, cackling masters of flames and destruction joined my side, reveling in the fringe war-crimes taking place at the bottom of those craters.

It was a massacre, but just as I began to relax once more, rushing back to check on another of the craters, I stumbled on a sudden bump that’d shifted the ground under my feet.

A second later, a shrieking maw had shot out of the earth – a towering silhouette of jagged carapace and razor-sharp mandibles.

I’d barely snapped around towards the monstrous insect, silencing it with three rapid bullets to the head, as the chittering screams were answered across my surroundings.

A dozen more silhouettes had just burst out of the ground, and that was only to first of them. “May my luck forever rot in the Void,” I cursed as I fired off another swarm of bullets, already running towards the nearest Ruskel crew whose cackling laughs had swiftly turned into panicked screams.