“It’ll only be some light guard work,” they’d said. “All you have to do is keep watch of some potential wildlife,” they’d said. “Georgie will be doing most of the heavy work,” they’d said.

They’d been fucking wrong, and Mikayes would pay for that. In credits. Lots of them. Later.

“Get to the excavator!” I yelled, struggling to be heard over that nearest Ruskel group’s screams. There were the chittering cries of an insectile swarm as well, along with roaring flames that once more lit up our surroundings.

Two of the Ruskels had hastily run for their flamethrowers, recklessly igniting the evening even as the scorching heat seemed to do nothing against the chitin clad monsters.

The massive creatures just skittered straight through the smoke and flames, snapping after the disorganized survey crew. All that the chaotic spouts of fire served to achieve was leave me half blinded, and I could feel my skin prickle and hair singe as I was forced to slide underneath a violent tongue of flames that suddenly turned my way, washing over one of the insect’s hard carapace.

Momentum, combined with a streak of oil that’d never been ignited, carried me further than I’d expected. I slid straight between the screaming insect’s kicking legs, leaving its weaker underbelly to suddenly stretch out over me.

Never wasting a second, I sent two bullets up into its body, and I’d only just rolled out of the way as it came crashing to the ground, leaving the earth to tremble.

Another one down, out of at least thirty more…

My UI was rapidly assessing the situation as I slid to my feet, rushing over to that same Ruskel who seemed intent on burning down the world.

I had to kick him just to catch his attention over his own guttural screams and the roaring flames spreading out before him. “Get to the excavator!” I yelled, tugging him along even as he kept the trigger of his flamethrower at full throttle. The heat was ever present. “Hurry!”

Even if the armored excavator would not keep them safe, it would keep them safer. It would make things easier for me.

A loud cry to my side caused me to snap around.

A few dozen meters away, another Ruskel had just been grabbed between a pair of vice-like mandibles, and even if the sharp appendages couldn’t pierce the miner’s armor, the trashing Ruskel — screaming and kicking — was still being rapidly pulled towards one of those craters.

I’d only just pushed the flame-throwing maniac forward with another sharp “Hurry!” as I set off running.

Those first bullets I fired, leaving my pistol to click from an empty magazine, only bounced off its hard carapace. I’d expected as much, but aiming for its vulnerable face was impossible with the screaming Ruskel still grasped in its mandibles.

Trying to slide between its skittering legs to reach its underbelly also seemed painfully optimistic. It was one thing if chance wanted to tempt fate, but I wasn’t dumb enough to try.

Instead, in the same motion I returned the gun to its holster, I pulled out my knife. A second later, I’d bolted over to dig it deep into the final joint where the insect’s hind leg connected with its body.

With a violent twist and pull, the entire appendage came loose to a spray of slimy liquid. That was a weak-spot, alright.

My interface was constantly feeding me fresh data, and as the shrieking insect snapped around towards me — leaving a disoriented Ruskel to helplessly tumble through the grass — my knife was already pulled back and ready.

I dodged under those scissoring mandibles and impaled its head from below. As I yanked the blade loose, its face was split in half, leaving more of that smiley blood to wash over me.

Warning, Group 3 is being overrun.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

I didn’t even bother checking on the Ruskel that lay there moaning in the grass before I set off again. He was alive, if a bit tumbled, and he’d be safer there either way.

Those insects were congregating around the rumbling drills, slamming into them with heavy bodies or slashing away with claws and mandibles.

The machines weren’t my worry, however. I was there to protect the workers, and so, even as that second group of Ruskels seemed torn between running away or defending their precious equipment, I just pulled out one of the last explosives I carried, ignited it, and tossed it straight at the densest mass at the foot of that rumbling machine.

The shockwave nearly knocked me off my feet, leaving gore and chitin to rain down over me. That much went according to plan, what followed didn’t.

An ominous screeching, grounding noise had just cut through the evening, leaving several blinking warning lights to spring to life upon the drill I’d just bombed. Rather than yell or curse at me, however, any nearby Ruskels still on their feet set off screaming towards the excavator on their own.

They ran as if their lives depended on it, and before I could even blink, I realized why. A second, even larger explosion tore through the evening as the drill imploded. This one sent me flying.

I only barely caught my landing thanks to Aerial Movement, but my ears were ringing, and my vision turned blurry beneath a slight concussion as a trickle of blood ran down my forehead.

What the fuck do they make those drills out of?

As I staggered to my feet, my interface had turned into a blinking mess. Still, I didn’t need its input to set off towards the last group of Ruskels as I slid a fresh magazine into my gun.

I wasn’t sure if it was my damaged hearing, or if I’d actually put a dent in their numbers, but those chittering cries sounded far more scattered by the time I fell into a sprint, my balance having only just caught up with me.

With the first drill I’d evacuated having wound down without anyone steering it, and the second one having just been turned into smoldering rubble, the only noise left to be heard came from Arus’ group, fighting off the insectile monstrosities at the last rumbling drill.

The company leader had managed to rally his group into a screaming formation of blasting flamethrowers, and he himself kept furiously whacking anything that got too close with a two-foot spanner.

It was a losing battle, but even as they’d been pushed up to the edge of one of those craters, they refused to abandon that last drill. There were endless screams and curses, but heavy bodies and mandibles kept crashing into the churning machinery no matter what they did.

They were too close for me to settle it with another explosive, and so, I let my blurry interface guide my aim.

Another dozen bullets did little to still the swarm of carapace clad bodies, however. There were too many of them. It seemed every insect was congregating on that last rumbling drill, and my bullets were a finite resource.

Worst of all, Arus and his men were showing no signs of getting away from there.

“Run!” I yelled over my own gunfire and chittering cries, but the ginger company leader had already charged forward with his spanner once more, slamming it back and forth between two armored thoraxes.

He must’ve gotten the wrong signals as I downed that first handful of monstrosities with my gun. This wasn’t a fight we were winning.

Two of the flamethrowers had just sputtered out their last life behind him, leaving their wielders to swiftly abandon him to run for cover. The last one, although with a still working weapon, followed shortly behind them.

They weren’t soldiers, yet Arus never noticed how his screaming comrades had just left him behind as a needlessly good hit with his spanner finally caught one of the insects’ attention.

Even as the shrieking monstrosity turned around towards him, however, maw wide open, the ginger Ruskel didn’t even budge as he slammed his spanner straight into its face with a heartfelt curse.

The creature didn’t even budge as its mandibles slammed shut around Arus’ armored chest, thrashing him around until he lost grip of his spanner. His flailing fists didn’t have the reach to connect with the insect’s face, even as he kept furiously throwing punches.

Worse still, that shriek had seemingly alerted the rest of the insects as well, and a few of them began scattering away from the drill, looking for whatever had hurt one of theirs. A few, now setting after the fleeing Ruskels.

Cursing, I never hesitated as I raised my gun towards that groaning and screeching drill, homing in on an area that my flickering interface had already highlighted in a deep red.

A single squeeze of the trigger, and there were no warning lights this time. The explosion was imminent, and the shockwave devastating.

Those nearest dozen insects were vaporized from existence, I was sent helplessly flying through the air, and an armored Arus was left rolling like a bowling ball straight for that crater’s edge.

I was sprinting even before my feet had touched the ground.

My concussion was more than ‘slight’ now, my vision was clouded by a stream of blood gushing down my face, and my interface kept glitching with a dozen different images at once.

Even so, I never hesitated before sliding those last few meters after Arus over that edge, barely grabbing hold of the Ruskel leader’s collar in time to keep us both from falling.

It was reckless, but I’d sworn to never let anyone die on my watch ever again.

Now, as my arms snapped to their limit, struggling to keep hold the dense Ruskel man up as my grip around the crater’s edge weakened, I felt like that’d been a stupid promise. Twice so as I glanced up ­in that last evening glow to see a furred silhouette rise above me.

Yellow, emotionless eyes met my own, and an instant later, my grip of the ledge was no more.