The drop pod shuddered as the titanium-tipped carbide auger carved its way through the depths of Hoxxes IV. Its occupants sat in their seats, watching the various layers of the hazardous planet pass before their eyes. A glance to the side revealed the number on the depth display steadily growing larger.
-700m
-800m
-900m
-969m
The drop pod shuddered to a halt, hydraulic dampers cushioning the impact of the multi-ton vehicle and preventing the occupants from becoming a red paste. HR had a field day explaining that particular incident for the twelfth time. Kevin in Engineering had also been promptly fired while they resolved the little issue of beer being used as hydraulic fluid.
Beer was good for a lot of things. It was arguably more important than water. However, it was not a great alternative to high temperature-resistant hydraulic fluid. Beer tended to ignite under the high pressure of a drop pod impacting the planet and subsequently allowed all the force to be transferred to the occupants.
Not good for squishy living things. Molly would be fine though!
It had been a solid idea initially, they had to give Kevin props for that.
The titanium mesh doors before the four clunked and shuddered, heavy industrial bolts shifting. The doors opened with a hiss, allowing the four occupants access to the interior of the planet. Four sets of boots stomped their way from their seats and toward the open area of the cave.
Well, not before every dwarf slapped the hanging fuzzy dice on the way out of the pod. For good luck! Definitely not from some sort of habitual joy of seeing the things swinging around.
"Oi! Outta the way, Slowpoke!" Scout shouted. He shoved passed Gunner and caused the heavyset dwarf to stumble his way down the ramp.
"Ey, watch it ya fecker!" Came the reply.
The Engineer gave a soft chuckle and padded his way down the ramp of the drop pod, shouldering his smart rifle. As for the Driller…
He took two steps down the ramp, immediately lost his balance, and careened to the side, plummeting straight down to the cave floor. His shield broke on impact, but the dwarf was more than okay. The drunkard was currently laughing his ass off, having enjoyed the shortcut a little too much.
"Alright, listen up, Team," Mission Control spoke. "Scanners have been picking up some unusual Glyphid activity. Your task is to go to the nest, take out the Dreadnaught cocoons, and investigate the cause of the odd movement. Every nest within three klicks has been emptied and gathered here, so expect heavy resistance. Try to come back with all your limbs intact—Management is not happy about the forty-two leg replacements in the last three months. Good luck, miners!"
"Wha- 'ang on, did 'e say 'free?" Gunner asked.
"Nnno, 'e din' ya daf' idjit," Driller slurred out. The inebriated dwarf attempted to get to his feet, only to fall forward onto his face. Laughter from the likely brain-damaged dwarf rang out. "E'… E' says 'free, noh' 'free. Y' lot nee' ta qui' drinkin' 'n tha job!"
…
"The hell did he say?" Engineer asked.
"Got no feckin' clue," Gunner replied. "Ey, Zippy, loight please!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm workin' on it!" Scout shouted from somewhere in the darkness. "Flare out!"
A brilliant flash of light burst from the darkness and shot across the cavern. It careened up toward the roof, and stuck there, illuminating the entire area in a wash of white light. All four dwarves were stunned-well, three of them, the fourth was still drooling face-down on the ground.
"Hey, you did pick Crystalline Caverns, right? You didn't fat-finger the controls like the last four times?" Engineer asked.
"It said Crys'al Cavern when ah 'it the damn fing!" Gunner protested.
The cause of their confusion was the frankly startling amount of greenery within the cavern. Bright pink vines snaked across the walls and into the rock; odd-looking trees grew from what looked like nothing at all, just sprouting out of the crystals lining the cavern; bright red, yellow, and blue flowers speckled the grass below their feet.
Crystalline Caverns wasn't supposed to have anything like this in it. Nothing of the sort—this was new. New wasn't good in their line of work. New meant Management took interest and suddenly they couldn't sneak beer in their spare magazines and would have to take things seriously.
Then again, Mission Control could have royally fucked up their drop location, or some sensors could have been calibrated poorly. Hell, maybe some drunken dwarf snuck in after them all, changed the mission location, and then enjoyed the confusion while face-down in the grass.
"Oi, yer scanners are all screwy!" Scout shouted. The nimble, flighty little shit was sitting atop a moss-covered crystal near the roof of the cavern. "Recalibrate yer shite ya numby!"
"One moment, Team. I'm going to request percussive maintenance on the equipment. In the meantime, continue with your mission," Mission Control spoke. "Shouldn't be more than a few minutes, as long as Maintenance doesn't fall into the equipment like last time."
"Typical DRG. Whatever, let's get goin', we still have a job to do." Engineer checked his scanner, and then started his jog through the cavern.
"Oi, c'mon ya drunkard, on yer feet or ah'll leave yeh for bug food." Gunner grabbed Driller by the back of his suit and yanked the drunk to his feet. A firm push sent the dwarf staggering forward, step after step, somehow remaining on his feet as he wobbled his way forward.
For about six steps. Five more than Gunner thought he would get, to be honest.
"Alrigh', up we go," Gunner huffed. He grabbed Driller by the back of his suit again and walked him forward. The duo moved forward after Engineer, with Driller being held like some sort of giggling and burping meat-shield.
Engineer, Gunner, and Driller (assisted by Gunner) made their way across the cavern, stopping occasionally to point their scanners at various flora that was growing throughout the cavern. This was nothing like the flowers and plants that were native to Hoxxes IV—they didn't even try to stab, bite, or explode! Truly some odd and likely dangerous specimens to lure them in before activating some acid trap, or piling onto the dwarves and consuming them.
That theory was also out when Driller wriggled his way out of Gunner's grip and flopped face-first into the brilliantly coloured flowers. Well, he wasn't dead, so it seemed like the evil plant theory was out entirely.
"I've got good news, and bad news, team," Mission Control finally spoke. "The good news: the scanners are properly calibrated, and no amount of percussive maintenance changed the results! Bad news: you're still in Crystalline Caverns, and we have no idea what's going on down there. Management has given approval for five free resupplies if you need them. Carry on with your mission, and try not to bring back any new diseases with you."
"I'm telling ya, the feckers up there have gotta be smashed ta' think this'sn't the Biozone or somethin'," Scout called out. The flighty fecker's grappling hook impacted the wall beside the trio.
Gunner stepped to the side, while Scout sailed in, crowing in excitement as he sailed through the air. Engineer was too busy looking over the plant growths on a crystal to notice the incoming form careening toward him.
SMACK!
A litany of curses, shouting, and several direct insults about one another's mothers echoed around the cavern. The forms of Engineer and Scout bounced and rolled across the grassy floor, bounced off a crystal low to the ground, and disappeared behind a rock.
The shouting and hollering came to a stop rather fast. Gunner quirked an eyebrow, and grabbed at the rather floppy form of Driller, hoisting him up once more. The machine-gun-toting dwarf glanced at the rock and started wandering toward it.
"Ey, ya doin' alrigh'?" Gunner called out.
"Nnnoooh, 'm drinky an I can' ffffffble me legsh," Driller slurred out. "Do ah sssssteel hav'n legsh?"
"Ya still have yer legs ya idjit. Ah'm carryin' yer drunk arse." Gunner hefted Driller a little higher onto his shoulder. "Oi, you lot alrigh'?"
"Shhhh't!" "Shut up!" "You shut up ya dumb-ow!" "Quiet, you'll kill us all!"
Frantic and furious whispering rolled out from behind the rock. Gunner wandered his way over and peered around the rock. He was expecting many things. A Glyphid Praetorian for one. Maybe they had stumbled upon the cocoon and were immediately beside it. Maybe another corporation had their robots hiding just around the corner.
He had not been expecting a sheer drop straight down into another massive open cavern. Engineer and Scout were both lying on one of those platforms that Engineer was able to put down, lying flat on the yellow surface. The two were looking straight up, eyes wide, making various hand gestures and motions to keep silent toward Gunner.
A glance to the side revealed why.
Glyphids. Not the normal ten or twenty that would be in a swarm. Not even the challenging hoard of fifty that would try to shred everything that even looked mildly edible.
There had to be hundreds. Maybe more. The cocoons the team had been assigned to find were down there too. The good news is that they were already destroyed. The bad news was that they were broken open from the inside. Whatever was in the eggs had already hatched.
The gathered Glyphids stood relatively still, despite being all crammed together into one large cavern. Some were hanging out on the walls, others clinging to the bottom of crystals. Grass and greenery lined the cave, and an odd glow from somewhere out of sight lit up the entire area.
They were going to need some bigger guns and more backup. A lot more backup. Maybe they could call in those supply drops right on top of the swarm and see how many they could take out before funnelling them all into the main chamber.
Whatever it was they were going to do would require a lot of planning, effort, coordination, and above all, stealth to ensure that-
"Ah'll keel em' all fer yeh, doooonnn' even worry." Driller decided to make their plan of action for them. Apparently, at that one moment, he was aware enough to reach around and grab a satchel charge, before whipping it around Gunner and down into the hole.
And onto the small platform the other two dwarves were sheltered on.
Driller's aim was poor on a normal day, so this drunken accuracy was unsurprising. Still, Engineer and Scout both began to panic and do their best to move away from the block of explosives sitting on their tiny platform. The silent screams and flailing from the duo below were cause for alarm, especially when Scout kicked at the satchel charge, and sent it skidding toward the edge of the platform.
"Hehehe, 'ts time ta go boo- ah'noh mah buh'n!" Driller's momentary success was halted by his drunken grip on the detonator failing. The little device bounced off the ground at Gunner's feet and tumbled end-end over-end toward the hole in the ground.
It plummeted over the edge and toppled downward. Engineer tried to reach for it, swiping at it over the edge in an attempt to grab it. His panicked swipe only served to hurl the small device across the cavern, sending it straight into the hoard of giant insects.
All three of them—Driller was still flailing over Gunner's shoulder—watched in horror as the detonator bounced across the carapaces of the Glyphids. It hit one, two, three, four of them, bouncing off of their backs or off their heads, before it finally came to a halt.
Right at the feet of a Praetorian. The massive insect wheeled itself around, heavy footsteps causing the smaller insects around it to back away lest they get crushed. It looked down at the offending object at its feet, and then up toward the ceiling.
Glyphids were not known for their amazing eyesight so there would be no way it would know to-
It stepped on the detonator and crushed it.
"Well, that's not good," Engineer spoke.
All four of them—Driller had managed to wriggle out of Gunner's arms and crawl his way toward the edge—flicked their gaze to the satchel charge that sat on the platform, almost in the middle of them all.
Nothing.
They looked back toward the hoard of insects that-
Beep! Beep!
"Shit!"
The satchel charge destroyed the platform under Scout and Engineer, and the ground beneath Gunner and Driller. All four of them plummeted downward, flailing, spinning, cursing, and in the case of Driller, throwing up a frankly absurd amount of alcohol.
In the brief duration of their fall, they managed to catch various glimpses of the source of light inside the cavern. Unfortunately, puzzling out the source of light became second priority to landing without splattering across the ground.
Engineer whipped his platform gun around in an attempt to give them all at least some form of protection, and give them a softer landing than the grass-covered stone. He aimed the device at the floor and-
Was caught off-guard by a vine hurtling out of the wall toward him at mach-holy-shit. The green vine coiled around him firmly and had him in its clutches. His downward momentum was slowed, and he struggled in its grip. He'd much rather end up splattered across the ground than become plant food. If he survived this, he was going to swear off vegetables for the rest of his life—not that he ate them anyway.
Three similar vines shot from the walls or floor and wrapped around the dwarves, gradually slowing their movement. Panicked shouts and fears of becoming a handsome dwarf-pancake quickly turned into frantic struggling as the damn vegetables held them tight.
Meanwhile, Driller was laughing his ass off, caught upside down in the vine by his leg. He swung to and fro without a care in the world, dangling in the air above a hoard of violent insects.
The vines began lowering them to the ground, straight toward the hoard of insects that were now staring at them. Every single one in the cavern was fixated on the four of them, eyeless gaze locked on to the four intruders.
"Well, shite. If this's it lads, ah wanna say 'ts been fun," Gunner spoke.
"Speak for yerself, you're all a bunch of arseholes!" Scout protested. His flailing and kicking grew more violent.
"We've had a good run. Let's fight like hell, one last time," Engineer said.
"Weeeeeeee!" Driller cried out, still swinging by his leg in the plant's grip.
The hoard of Glyphids backed away from the four, clearing a space on the grass. The numerous insects stood there, twitching, split jaws gnashing and clenching. They were still held tight in the vines, and no amount of thrashing, kicking, biting, or drooling caused them to slacken.
A deep, chittering roar of the Praetorian sounded out, and the hoards of insects shifted out of the way, making room for the large insect to stop its way forward. The four panicked, and started thrashing harder—Driller just threw up again.
Another, louder roar sounded out. The large form of the Praetorian stepped to the side, displaying the larger form behind it.
A Glyphid Oppressor. The damn thing was even tougher and more vicious. It stomped its way forward, the impacts of its steps causing the ground to vibrate. It didn't get too far before a pair of chittering roars and growls sounded out. The Oppressor very quickly stepped to the side, nearly trampling on the smaller ones around its feet.
"Oh, shite…" Gunner breathed.
"Ah! No, feckin lemme outta here! I'll keel all ya bastards!" Scout thrashed harder, red in the face from straining.
Dreadnaught Twins. Two massive beasts that were difficult to manage on a good day. Damn things could dig fast, attack faster, and hit like an orbital supply pod. The two titans of insects prowled forward, their natural glow refracting off the exposed crystals in the room, casting the nearby area in an ominous orange.
The ground shook with every step from the pair. Glyphids backed away to make room for their approach, acting more and more like a set of coordinated soldiers for the pair. The Twins came upon the clearing, and instead of lunging toward the helpless dwarves, they split apart and moved to the side.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
The cavern walls shook, and dust rained down from the ceiling. Large crystals cracked up the entire lengths with each thundering impact.
"Awh, come on, this is getting ridiculous. Get on with it!" Engineer exclaimed.
His bravado very quickly faded when the source came into view. It emerged from the inky blackness of the back of the cave, towering above everything around it. The spires of chitin on its back scraped the ceiling and shattered whole crystals that would have taken twenty dwarves to move. Its jaws would be able to snatch up a drop pod and crush it.
"Oh, tha's jus' noh fair," Gunner grumbled.
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The single largest Dreadnaught any of them had seen lumbered forward. It loomed closer and managed to interrupt the source of light with its mass. Darkness fell upon the four, and every step forced the Glyphids around it to scatter out of the way.
It opened its great jaws, the yawning chasm before the four set to claim another team of victims. They had all given up, accepting defeat and looking at the creature head-on. If they were going to die, then they'd be doing it with bravery, honour, and—
"Ruff!"
And with a dog?
The light source illuminating most of the cavern seemed to move. It shifted and leaped from one of the highest points in the cavern, the crystal having been refracting the light previously. The white form plummeted downward, faster and faster, before landing right on the head of the massive Dreadnaught.
The creature that emitted the light stood squarely on top of the gigantic Glyphid, sitting upon the behemoth like it was nothing more than a hat. This gave the Dreadnaught an appearance similar to that of an angler fish, which seemed to terrify Scout further.
The ball of light leaped from the head of the Dreadnaught, and fell to the ground, landing on the grass-covered ground with sure footing. All four dwarves had to squint at the approaching thing as it fearlessly walked before the hoards of insects.
It came closer…
And closer…
It came to a stop right before them all. The four were unable to see the thing through the light it was emitting, but it radiated a warmth that felt like sunlight, something none of them had felt in a while.
"Ack! Eeeey, 'urn tha' down… yer, yer loigh's ssssoooo noisyyy," Driller slurred out. He raised a hand and tried to block his face from the intense light radiating outward.
Surprisingly, it worked! The light began to fade, though the feeling of warmth didn't. The blinding radiation dimmed further and further, allowing the cave to return to comfortable levels of light.
All four dwarves stood in a mix of terrified, confused, and mildly upset that they weren't getting drunk.
"Awuff," the dog spoke.
"Did that dog just talk?" Engineer asked.
"Yesh, shhhe says 'ello'." Driller smiled. He wriggled in the vine's grip and reached toward the canine. "Ey, ey, poochy pupper! Can ye sssay 'Roggs an' Shtone'?"
"Arf awoof?" The dog tilted her head and perked an ear.
"Yesh! Ya 'erd 'er lads! Rog' an' Shtone!" Driller cried, punching the dirt when attempting to punch the air.
"…feck it. For Rock and Stone!" Scout shouted.
"Yeah! Fer Rock and Stone!" Gunner added.
"Rock and Stone!" Engineer exclaimed.
~{O}~{O}~{O}~
Amaterasu honestly wasn't quite sure how she ended up down here. One minute she was cruising along through the multi-verse, stamping out a demon invasion of an alternate earth alongside a rather violent individual in green—he had a bad habit of ripping and tearing them apart with his bare hands. The next moment she found herself deep underground on an entirely new planet.
She blamed the Spicy Blue Cube for this one.
Granted, it was difficult to tell that she had initially jumped dimensions. Going from one rocky hellscape to the next didn't really leave much in the way of landmarks or sights to tell where one was.
Then again, the fact that this planet didn't spin tipped Ammy off that something was amiss. The other big thing was the different sun above the planet. No, Amaterasu hadn't exactly seen the sun yet, as she was working her way to the surface from the molten depths of the planet, but she knew. Blue suns just weren't the same. They were all bluey and felt funny—a little too cancer-inducing in the sunbeam department.
So, upon finding herself on a new planet, she did what she usually did. Harass the locals!
Oh, they were an interesting bunch—a little bitey if you said the wrong thing about their mothers, but overall, a decent set of folk. They were rather kind in their efforts to escort her upward to their matriarch. At least the queen of this general area of the planet. There was a lot of planet to cover, after all.
But with nothing more than some gentle and soothing applications of her Celestial Brush, and some tales of her adventures, Amaterasu had secured herself a trip to the surface of the planet. Sure, she could have just dug and sliced through the stone, or even used her brush techniques to summon bombs, but…
That would take ages, and she honestly just wanted a nap.
That was how Ammy managed to hitch a ride on the absolute monolith of a Glyphid and sleep while everyone ascended. Occasionally she'd crack open an eye and speak with the Queen about several things, like how stone spaceships flew, or what fighting techniques would best beat down a furious green rage monster.
Oh, and the Queen loved it. She hadn't been this excited to go on an adventure in years. Even so, she was still old, and it showed, having to take breaks every so often. But still, it didn't take too long at all to make progress toward the surface of the planet. These locals were just built for digging through rock and stone, and she was almost jealous.
Then she asked about pancakes, and their confusion had caused all jealousy to fade. She'd take not being able to swim through rock in exchange for being able to eat pancakes.
They'd been nearing the upper leg of their journey when the group had come to a stop to take a break. The Queen had curled up in the back of a cavern, while the entourage that they managed to pick up along the way pooled into the cavern and just… watched. They waited, or shifted around, or chittered and clacked their jaws.
The Twins were a rowdy bunch, however! Ammy had fun tossing them around and playing 'kick the boulder' with the rather chaotic duo. They'd been taking a break when those dwarves quite literally fell into the situation.
A few swipes of her brush and the plant life that tended to grow around her managed to catch all four of them. Another set of people saved, these more vocal and chattier than the Glyphids that she had spent the last three days with.
Though, how things progressed this far was entirely beyond her.
"For Karl!" Engineer shouted.
"Fer Karl!" Gunner cried.
The duo thundered toward one another, holding chunks of crystal as spears. Their mounts raced toward the middle of the cavern, powerful limbs shattering the ground beneath them. The Twins cried out a furious roar and pounded the ground faster.
Faster being a relative term. They were rather slow, all things considered. Amaterasu would be able to outpace all of them in her sleep, especially now that she had her full capabilities back.
But they were having fun, and honestly, so was she. The Queen also seemed to be enjoying herself, considering her quiet chittering laugh while she watched from the back of the cavern.
The Twins finally made contact in a thunderous collision of chitin and muscle, the cavern shaking from the force of impact. The plan the dwarves had to knock one another off their mounts with the crystals fell short. That was due to the fact both were hurled off their mounts, sailed across the room, and landed on a pile of dirt that the Glyphids had dug up to act as a sort of arena barrier.
Engineer and Gunner laughed as they rolled down the dirt and to the grassy floor below, coming to a halt at the feet of the hoard of Glyphids. Without fear, they stood up and charged right back up the hill, attempting their game for the seventh time.
"For Karl!"
"Fer Karl!"
…Eighth time.
Amaterasu glanced to her left, her eyes lingering on the form of the large green-butt bug. Then, she moved lower, looking at Driller, who was holding one of his flamethrower's canisters in his hand.
"Oh, righ' srry poochy, didja wanna sip?" Driller asked. He reached out and wobbled in place, holding the fuel canister in his hand.
Ammy leaned in and took a sniff. It was alcohol. She gave Driller a look and huffed under her breath. Still, it was a free drink, she might as well while everyone was enjoying themselves. She took the large red canister between her jaws and pushed herself up to all fours. Then, she tilted her head back and allowed the booze to start flowing.
"Awh hell yeah! Get it, Ammy!" Scout cried out from his position atop one of the larger insects. "Chug, chug, chug, chug!"
"Yeahaha geddit! Ye've go' this," Driller slurred.
She did her best, after all, a goddess like herself can't be sloppy when showing off in front of new friends. So, she emptied the entire canister in a single, long pull, taking down all that dwarven beer without hesitation.
When the canister was finally empty, she crushed it in her jaws and spat it out onto the ground. Amaterasu turned toward Driller and gave him a big doggy grin, complete with her tongue flopping to the side. Then she turned her attention to Scout and reared back on her hind paws. She dipped her head in a bow, and waved to him.
"Yeah, girl! Rock and Stone to the bone!" Scout cheered.
Amaterasu's round of applause was short-lived, as the Twins crashed together once again, sending Engineer and Gunner hurtling across the room. Their trajectory was different this time around, and the duo landed with a heavy crash right into a pile of Glyphids. The massive insects chittered in protest or skittered away from the two dwarves, who went from tumbling through the hoards of bugs to flailing at one another in an extremely drunken fashion, complete with beard pulling, name-calling, and mother insulting.
"Management is going to have all our asses for this," Mission Control sighed. Ammy could hear him through the communicators all the dwarves had. "Look, team, they don't need to know about almost all of you using spare ammunition containers as flasks. That's absolutely acceptable in this kind of work. But for god's sake bring back at least something shiny."
Shiny? Oh, she could do shiny alright! There were plenty of shiny things around here. There was the obvious stuff, like gold. There was also… uh… Some red spikey stuff. Oh, and some blue spikey stuff! And… there were some interesting sorts of gems and rocks in the walls too!
In fact, Ammy thought she could see one now. Little pebbles of gold stuck out of the ground like a sore thumb, giving away the position of a buried mineral. Amaterasu made her way across the cavern, parting the sea of Glyphids without having to even speak a word.
Ammy's cross-cavern journey was accented with outraged cries for her to "bring the sun back!" She merely increased the light output from her body, her natural form shining bright in the pitch black.
"Thank you, Ammy!"
"Thank ya, Ammers!"
"Than's poochy pup!"
"Yer stealing my job, Ammy!"
That last one was lighthearted. All of them were some form of drunk at the moment, each having snuck a drink within their extra ammo magazines or tanks. In true dwarf fashion, they were never truly without some form of liquor on them, though they had insisted to Amaterasu that it was only a stereotype and a complete coincidence they had brought it on this particular mission.
She didn't believe them but was enjoying herself too much to comment.
Amaterasu weaved her way through the hoards of insects and came to a halt at a particular path of grass with some gold rocks poking out around the plant life. They wanted something shiny? Well then, she would deliver.
Ammy began digging, her paws and claws sinking into the solid stone beneath like one would sand. She moved solid chunks of stone and flung them behind herself, burying herself deeper and deeper into the rock.
She dug deeper still. And deeper.
"Oi, Ammy, ya good?" Scout asked.
As the one with the most mobility and rather impatient nature, he fired his grappling hook and soared toward the spot in the ground she had started digging. He stepped closer to the hole and peered in. It was just poor timing on his part is all. No way he could have seen it coming.
A growl and grunt of effort sounded out, and something shot out of the hole. Scout, leaning over the hole, didn't have time to back away, and caught a chunk of solid gold to the chest. The slab of metal was half the size of him, and the impact sent the dwarf and the mineral end over end. Scout landed on his back, gold landing atop him and driving the breath from his lungs.
"Arf!" Ammy barked and poked her head out of the hole. She clambered out with a grumble, her paws just a tad more uncoordinated than she'd like. Seemed like the beer was kicking in.
Scout lay there, holding the chunk of gold in his hands against his chest, groaning in pain. He glanced down at the glimmering material and closed his eyes. One deep breath later, and his eyes snapped open again, looking at the solid gold in his hands.
"Hey! Hey lads!" Scout let out an excited laugh. "We're rich! Lookit wha' Ammy found!"
"Wer rish?" Driller slurred, clamouring to his feet.
"Whassat?" Gunner asked, picking himself out of the hoard of man-eating bugs. "Whatcha got there?"
"Well, would you look at that?" Engineer grinned and jogged his way over.
"'ts gold! We're rich!" Scout exclaimed. He got to his feet and held the chunk of gold high.
Amaterasu padded closer; a tad wobbly on her paws. The room walls spun and twisted, and the floor beneath her paws seemed to be made of water, sloshing and shifting all over.
"Hehe! We're rich!" One of them shouted.
"We're rich!" Another cried.
"We're rich!" "W'err rich!" "We're rish!" "We're rich!" "We're rich!" "Oi, Molly, ged o'er 'ere, we're rish!" "We're rich!"
"Oh, for heaven's sake, not again," Mission Control sighed through the communicators. "Every time. Every single time." There was a pause and a hum. "Hey, Amaterasu, was it? Do you want to help these drunk idiots out? They're going to be doing this for hours, and they need to be back on a drop pod in three hours. I've already given up trying to understand the Glyphid situation. Or even who or what you are. Just… Bring 'em back home?"
A task helping people? Well, why didn't he say so in the first place? Ammy was great at helping people, they even said so. Well, maybe? That "thank you" was usually tucked between "Ah! There's a wolf in my cabbage!" or "Why is there a dog in my bird bath?" from completely unrelated people.
Ammy shook herself off, flinging rock and stone from her fur, and set her sight on the four dwarves who were… performing some odd ritual around the gold. She wasn't going to ask. Instead, she took a step forward, and-
Careened to the left, the ground beneath her feet spinning and wobbling and twisting. Ammy stumbled and staggered, attempting to stay upright under the rather strong effects of dwarf beer. In her attempts to not fall, she wobbled her way toward an edge that led to a ten-meter drop. Her paws tangled, and she rolled across the ground, flailing as the slope grew steeper.
Ammy was pitched off the cliff with a startled "wurf!", sending the white canine into the hoard of Glyphids below. She landed upon what the dwarves had called an Oppressor and draped herself across its various chitin spires and spiked, nestling into a comfy spot.
She asked it to carry her to the Queen, to which it happily obliged, stepping over the other human-sized bugs as it moved. Before long, Ammy found herself in front of the Queen again. She rolled over and sprawled out atop the massive bug, trying to keep the world from spinning too much.
"Awurf," Ammy commented.
A floor-rattling rumble escaped the Queen.
"Boof," Ammy replied.
A loud chittering sound was the response.
"Woof!" Ammy barked,
The Queen shifted in her seated position and tapped the ground with a foreclaw. A relatively quiet screech rattled out of the Queen's jaws, to visible effect on the surrounding Glyphids.
The four dwarves screamed in drunken terror as the hoard of Glyphids all reacted and moved as one, surging forth in a wave toward the four. Flailing and scrambling and clutching onto the gold for dear life, the dwarves were buried under a sea of insects.
Then, the Glyphids began to bury themselves into the rock, digging tunnels into the world around them and spreading outward. The world around them shook and shuddered as the mass of tons of insects buried themselves into the surroundings.
All four dwarves were left with an iron grip on the chunk of gold, pale-faced, and completely unscathed by the wave of nightmares that washed over them.
~{O}~{O}~{O}~
The results of the mass excavation were rather astonishing. A towering pile of minerals, gemstones, crystals, and other valuable items loomed overhead, glimmering in the light that radiated from Amaterasu.
The dwarves had been speechless, and their immediate reaction had been to dive face-first into the pile. Unfortunately for them, solid chunks of metal are not very yielding and they ended up bashing their faces into the minerals with varying cries of pain.
The drunken Driller tried to dive in again, believing the first time to be a fluke.
He ended up having a power nap after hitting his head, sprawled out on the pile of riches.
Currently, Engineer was busy shoving what seemed like an impossible amount of rocks into the affectionately named Molly. The mobile storage container was currently settled down beside the pile of shiny rocks that were many times its size.
How the heck did it all fit in there? There had to be some kind of weird dimensional bending technology that would allow Molly to handle a load that large.
While Engineer was busy, and Driller was napping, the other two were busy with their competition of sorts.
"This is Steeve." Scout pat a standard Glyphid on the head.
"This's Steevie," Gunner replied. He planted a hand on the Praetorian's head and scratched it under the chin.
"This is Steevo," Scout huffed. He turned around, grabbed one of the Twins by the mandibles and hugged its head. The pleased sound the giant insect made was rather surprising.
"Well, now yer jus' cheatin'." Gunner crossed his arms and clambered his way onto Steevie. Without a word, the duo left Scout to the affections of a rather massive insect.
"Amaterasu, I don't think I quite understand what the hell is happening. You said these minerals are an exchange for… what exactly?" Mission Control asked through the communicator Ammy had stolen from Driller.
"Awurf," Ammy replied.
"Neutrality? That's… is that possible? I'm willing to fight Management to get it to work, but still. So, what, they don't attack first, and we don't attack first?"
"Boof."
"I… yeah, okay. Yes. We can make this work. Even if it's only this one little section, that's a hell of a lot better than what was going on before." Mission control paused for a moment. "We'll end all extermination missions to Glyphids for the moment, but if any attacks happen to us, they're back on."
Amaterasu wasn't exactly sure how she ended up brokering a peace agreement between an interstellar space mining operation, and a species of insects that could destroy anything said mining company sent, but… Hey, everyone agreed that it was for the best. The Queen wouldn't have her children killed, and the company wouldn't lose employees to angry bugs.
The Glyphids didn't need the minerals. The miners didn't need to kill the bugs. A win for both sides, even with the communication barrier in place.
"Oh, they're almost out of time, just so you're aware. If you could, would you escort their collective drunk asses to the drop pod? The station will be out of range soon, and I'd rather not have Management tearing into me about another lost team. Especially not with the size of this haul."
Amaterasu barked in agreement and stumbled to all four paws. She shook herself out, dusting the grass and dirt from her fur, and dislodged the thirty Glyphid hatchlings that nestled into her fur. Apparently even insects like soft fluffy beds to sleep on.
Now sober and completely functional again, Amaterasu began her task of rounding up the dwarves. She wandered over toward Gunner and leaped up onto the back of his mount. She gave a little wuff of greeting and gestured with her head that they needed to go.
"Noh, ah don' wanna," Gunner huffed. "Steevie can't come wif me."
Amaterasu narrowed her eyes. They were going to be leaving, or else they'd be stuck here for another week. They definitely didn't have the food or resources to last that long.
"Woof."
"Noh! Ye can't make me."
…
Amaterasu leaned in and clamped down on Gunner's armour. A sharp tug and a twist of her head sent Gunner flying through the air, landing in a sprawl beside the dozing Driller.
Engineer chuckled and shook his head, loading up the last of the remaining minerals into Molly. The poor minecart with legs looked to be shaking under the weight of everything it was carrying. Ammy swore she could hear it screaming in agony. But machines didn't tend to scream unless they were sentient. But who would make a sentient minecart, that would be silly. That'd be like Making gun turrets sentient, or motionless boxes able to feel emotion.
Totally pointless, and probably wouldn't ever happen.
Scout was a tad harder to catch. The Twins decided to play a game of Keep Away with Scout from Ammy. Whenever she would approach, they'd both dive into the dirt and emerge on opposite ends of the room. They seemed to be enjoying themselves from the chittering laughter. The Queen was no help at all, encouraging them to play and have fun.
Amaterasu didn't exactly have time to waste at this particular moment. She flexed her natural gifts on reality, and the world came to a standstill. Ammy effortlessly weaved her way through the hoards of Glyphids and clambered her way onto the frozen Twin. Her jaws clamped around the armored wrist of Scout and she began dragging him away.
She did try to avoid bouncing his head off of rocks and other objects, but occasionally the drunk dwarf just happened to swing too far to the left or right and end up with a face full of Glyphid thorax. No, definitely not intentional for trying to play keep away.
The tight grip on the world relaxed, and everything resumed. The Twins dipped down into the ground again, only to re-emerge Scout-less. Panic ensued, and the duo began burrowing through the ground to find their little dwarf companion.
The Queen similarly seemed shocked for a moment, feeling the effects of the world around her stopping and starting all over again. The sudden blur of white tipped her off that something about that wolf was not quite right.
Still, everyone was in a group together now. That means they could go home, and they'd be safe and sound aboard their space station.
"No."
"Ah don' wanna go."
"Ish 'oo mush ffffun, ah wanna shtay…"
"Feck off, lemme play more!"
…
The dwarves' protest and refusal to move didn't last long. With a few strokes of her Celestial Brush, vines erupted from the ground and bound the dwarves up in a big bundle of whining, complaining, and burping mass. They didn't struggle so much as they did pout, but they made their position on the decision very clear.
Amaterasu didn't listen to any complaints though. She grabbed one of the vines between her teeth and began dragging the dwarves. She walked slowly to avoid bashing the dwarves against solid stone and turning them into concussed and drunk messes. The five of them left the cavern, followed by an entourage of insects. Hundreds of Glyphids followed them through the cave system and to the location of the drop pod.
Upon reaching the transport vehicle, the Twins burst from the ground. The duo sat on either side of the path to the drop pod, and raised a leg into the air, waving at the dwarves. In their drunken state, two of them began crying while they waved back to the bugs.
Amaterasu padded her way up the ramp, still dragging the dwarves. With them bound and left tied up, she rolled the bundle of grumpy, distraught miners into the middle of the drop pod.
"Great work, Amaterasu. We appreciate your efforts. If Deep Rock Galactic ever encounters you on Hoxxes IV again, we will be sure to treat you as a friend and offer you a share of the spoils," Mission Control spoke from the drop pod speakers.
Ammy perked up. Treat!? Where? She wanted the food! Her tail was a blur and she whipped her head around, looking for the treat in question.
"Ah, my apologies, poor choice of words."
Amaterasu was crushed. The short whine and the drooping tail caused Mission Control to cough and clear his throat uncomfortably into the microphone. All four dwarves looked at Ammy and began muttering to themselves. One of the four mentioned something about sending a supply pod full of beer for her, which Mission Control very firmly put a stop to.
He did agree that maybe they should send some food, however.
Ammy padded her way back out of the pod and sat down at the foot of the ramp. She watched the metal slab lift and slide back toward the pod, while the metal doors began to close.
"Nooooo, Ammmmyyyyy!"
"Ah'll never ferge' ye, Ammy!"
"Thanks for the help, Amaterasu!"
"Oi, come and visit us sometime!"
"Team, I have to remind you that creatures from planet side are not allowed on the ship. The last time that happened, Management discovered thirteen new diseases. One of them was only contagious through, erm, close physical contact. We don't need a repeat of that." Mission Control's logic was infallible.
Ammy barked in farewell and raised a paw to wave at the four. Then something caught her attention.
A Glyphid hatchling was sitting near the doors of the drop pod. She barked for it to get down, which alerted the Twins to it. Their concerned cries only encouraged the little shit, who chittered in return and skittered its way into the drop pod seconds before the doors slammed closed.
The pod began rising, a torrent of heat and light erupting from the bottom. Amaterasu barked at the Twins and panicked Glyphids to stay put.
Ammy bounded forward and leaped. With her paws outstretched, she dug her claws into the metal siding of the drop pod. She wriggled and pulled herself higher, and sank her teeth into a chunk of metal that was sticking out of the vehicle. It probably wasn't that important.
Amaterasu clamped onto the drop pod as it rose faster and faster, hanging on tight as the layers of the planet fell away. Before she knew it, they were above the surface of the planet, and rising faster.
Amaterasu huffed. It looked like Management would be dealing with a newcomer on the station after all.