With specters alone, I was at twenty-nine now. If we counted all the dead ones, and the kills the rest of the team had gotten so far, we were over a hundred. And there’d been at least thirty gobbos. That brought us up to…

I stopped trying to work it out and sent the details to the RI, relieved as I did so that I could do this again.

Ten thousand minimum, split five ways, without including the split for the loot. Add in the goblins, and as there’d been at least thirty, at twenty credits each, we were at six hundred creds there…Two thousand, one hundred and twenty, plus any bonuses and the loot?

It was worth it.

“Okay, boss, we’ve got movement,” Reign said after a few seconds, before turning and staring up the tunnel in the other direction. “Yeah, both sides…pincer movement.”

“Hold your fire until you’re sure you’ll hit,” I said firmly to the team. “We take as many down at range as we can, then we switch to melee. If it starts going to shit? We back up through the door, fight in there.”

“Uh, why not fight in there anyway?” Hobbs asked. “I mean, we’d be able to slow them right down, catch them as they bunch up and…”

“And the team coming to seal the door wouldn’t be able to do it,” I said. “We stay out here, give them time to fix the door. Then, once they’ve fixed it, we retreat through it and seal it if they keep coming.”

“Sounds good,” Reign agreed. “Same as before. Luna and Gessh, ready to swap to melee?”

“Yeah, and we fight back-to-back. Any word on the team to fix that door?”

“Twenty minutes. Apparently there’s a shortcut and they were expecting the call to seal somewhere after the goblins were mentioned.”

“Joy,” I growled.

“I can see them,” Hobbs said.

I grunted. They were still out of range for the goggles, but Hobbs’s rifle sight was dialed in a little more than mine, evidently.

Ten seconds later, and boom, there they were for me as well.

“Rifles up!” I barked, staring to the right—Luna at my side, and Reign, Hobbs, and Gessh behind us.

“Firing!” Reign called, and the solid thump of her high-powered rifle rang out.

I sighted in as well. A face popped up in my sights; two mechanical lenses glowed dully, before vanishing as I sent a round to punch through his forehead.

The body collapsed backward, lifeless truly, and I twitched to the right. Another head was already there, a mouth filled with glowing teeth for some reason, making this one look almost comical. Then my shot took him on the bridge of the nose, sending him to the next life, by express delivery.

Beside me, Luna opened fire finally, triple shot; then switched to single, the crack-crack of her firing and cursing loud in my ear.

“Slow is smooth,” I told her. “Slow down. Smooth pulls…don’t stress.”

“They’re getting closer,” she growled, firing even faster.

“And you’re missing as many as you hit. Stop, zero in, one shot, one…” Before I could finish the old phrase, a new sound rang out, and the battle changed again.

The figure reaching for me ahead and to my right practically disintegrated, flesh sloughing off as Hobbs screamed behind me, falling to the ground.

“Grazer!” I shouted in warning, frantically switching to full auto and mowing down the group ahead of me. Bullets took them in the head and upper chest, blasting many from their feet, only to have them rise again slowly.

“Hunting!” Reign called out, her barrel appearing over my right shoulder, hesitating only a second before barking out a response to the enemy fire. “Kabutt, take my six!”

I cursed, ducking down and lowering my rifle to avoid sweeping either her or Luna, and turned, seeing how close the other side was now.

I opened fire, still on full auto, driving them back, then cursed and dropped the rifle when I ran out of ammo, the oncoming horde too fucking close to have time to reload.

I snatched out my handgun. Five shots, five targets down…

“Got him!” Reign called out, just as a second grazer blast tore through the specters to my left, dropping three more of their own side.

Gessh screamed in fury and dropped her rifle as it clicked empty. The blade whistled from its sheath on her back and lopped off a reaching arm, before coming back for the head.

“They’re still coming!” I shouted, sighting on the next in line and firing. The shotgun slug removed his head, as well as taking the figure behind down.

“Well, fuck!” Reign growled. The sound of her firing changed, as she lifted a submachine pistol and opened fire.

The blast that rang out lasted exactly two seconds; the banana magazine attached to it emptied in literally that little time, and yet…it punched a load back, giving Luna an opportunity to hit a few more, and get them some room.

“Luna!” Reign barked. “Get Hobbs inside!”

“Aye!” she responded, rifle dropping, sword whipping out and slicing a way through the bodies toward the door, grabbing him by the back of his armor.

That he was silent wasn’t a good sign.

“Motherfuckers!” Gessh screamed, chopping and hacking as I pumped the shotgun and chambered one of the unknown rounds.

A figure appeared far too close, rising up, one of those I’d knocked down and not killed. I twisted it around, smacking him in the face with the butt of the rifle, before twisting back around and aiming into the gap, hesitating for a second before grunting.

“Fuck it!” I snarled and pulled the trigger.

The entire tunnel was suddenly lit to daytime brightness, as a magnesium and fuck-alone-knows-what Devil’s Asshole shell was apparently one of the ones I’d gotten as a bonus.

The fire that ripped free of the barrel was hot enough to qualify as plasma, provided it also had the moniker “lost containment” added to it.

The blast was about two inches wide as it left the barrel, and was a good foot wide in a second, then meters wide.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

The nearest ten or so of the specters simply stopped giving a shit about anything. Heads detonated as they were superheated; clothing burst into flames, bodies were blasted apart, and fuck yeah, we got some room again.

“What in the name of the god of chrome’s shiny fucking left fucking testicle was that!?” Reign shouted in barely constrained panic, as I grinned uncontrollably.

“Devil’s Asshole!” I called back, pumping the shotgun again and firing a slug into the face of a new figure that pushed his way through the staggering, burning bodies.

“Warn a girl!” Reign shouted, clicking a fresh mag into her sub and firing again, emptying it.

“What?” I shouted back, drunk on the insane level of destruction I’d unleashed, and having a pretty damn good idea that the other one was going to be the same. “Should I have asked first?”

“At least buy me a fucking drink!” She half laughed, a manic edge to her voice. “Or some lube!”

“You’re all right—it was right in front of my face!” Gessh called out, only to let loose a giggle full of adrenaline as she went on. “I nearly went blind!”

“Should have closed your eyes!” Reign called back, before cursing. “Fuck’s sake! Tell me you’ve got more of those!”

“One, and it’s my last one in the shotgun.”

“Need it on this side!” she called after a second. “Switch!”

We both dipped our weapons, barrels aimed at the ground as we passed each other. She opened fire at almost the same time as I did, and bodies flew back as I pumped and fired, pumped and fired, blasting back the fuckers.

“Got you!” Reign shouted, snatching her rifle back up, dumping the sub, and firing almost all in the same motion.

All at once, the massed specters sagged. Whatever control the ghoul had been exerting cut away; the sudden loss of command reduced them to mindless for long seconds as their instincts revived.

I fired once more. A slug punched through a head; I flipped it and smacked a body from its feet, ramming the shotgun home into its back sheath rather than waste the last shot. I popped the empty mag free of the rifle, slammed a fresh one home—two more left, that was it—and I fired again.

Luna and Gessh were everywhere, seemingly all at once, again and again. Reign and I jerked our rifles up at the last second, barely avoiding the half-orc women as they hacked and spun, kicking and punching to keep the specters back. There were fewer and fewer gunshots ringing out from us and more swords, when the sudden flare of a welding arc lit the tunnel.

“Engineers are here!” Reign called out.

“Keep them covered!” I barked. “Keep the specters back!”

We retreated toward the door, forming a defensive arc before it. After a few seconds, Reign swept up Hobbs’s rifle, using it as she ran out of ammo and a last surge attempted to overrun us.

Two minutes later, and it was over. The last of the specters collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut as Luna stabbed it through the eye.

I hunched over, chest heaving, panting for breath, searching the darkness for any signs of enemy movement, only to nod as Reign spoke.

“The engineers say Hobbs is alive, but they used his medikit on him, and it’s not working.”

“Fuck, nanites don’t work for him?” I grunted, straightening up and looking around.

“Genetic differences. It’s something weird, I know. Who knows, maybe he’s an alien spy,” Reign joked tiredly. “Either way, they’re taking him to the upper floors for the medivac.”

“Medivac?” I asked, stunned. “Fuck, I like Vigilant Heart so much more—”

“Don’t get your hopes up!” She snorted. “It’s a personal insurance, kicked in as soon as he was seriously wounded. It was in the brief when he joined the team. I read it on the way over.”

“Shit, where the hell did you read that?” I asked.

“Ah, advantages of being an assessor and being in the guild officially. Once you’re approved, and a team lead, you’ll be given access to the records. Sorry.” She winced. “And I totally didn’t mean to let that slip.”

“Damn…” I groaned, straightening and reloading my guns. Reign was already finished doing hers, and Luna and Gessh were busy stabbing bodies, making damn sure of them.

“Okay, people, let’s secure the area,” I growled, dragging my vibro-blade free and starting by sawing its head off. Twenty minutes it took, for us to make sure of every single body; then we started looting.

“Any word on Hobbs?” I asked Reign after another half an hour.

She held up a hand flat, wiggling it from side to side, unsure.

“The nanites worked to repair some of the damage apparently, before breaking down. He’s got a chance, but it’s touch and go.”

“At least he’s got that.” Luna sighed. “I liked him.”

“Me too,” I admitted, before whistling as I pulled out a seemingly intact datadeck from a backpack on a body, looking it over and grunting as it failed to power up. “Anyone any good with these?”

“What model is it?” Reign stepped over.

“Zentrades, Xz45,” I read off the back. “It’s a Black Cyber Widow.”

“Damn.” Reign grunted. “They’re expensive. I mean, they’re not ‘we don’t need to work again’ expensive, but they’re not cheap. Should get a decent price for one of these.”

“If it works,” Gessh added.

“Yeah, minor point,” I agreed with a grunt. “Hey, what happened to the bag of loot?”

“Ah, fuck.” Luna groaned. “Hobbs had it.”

“No worries. Maybe it’s by the door.” Gessh clambered over a small pile of bodies, before heading back up the tunnel a little; we’d moved along it a little to get to the other gear. “I’ll check it out.”

“Thanks,” I called, before stepping up next to Reign and staring down at the body of one of the ghouls. “What a waste.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“I know someone who could have sold these mods,” I said softly, and she shook her head, commenting loudly.

“Well, that’s all kinds of wrong, but that’s neither here nor there. I guess with the last of the specters dead and the patrol complete, I can confirm you all as more or less competent.”

We could hear the smile in her voice as much as see it when I glanced at her, and she reached out to us all, requesting access to our recording for the job.

I approved; the RI accepted the request and sent it over, before confirming the recording was still running.

“The recording—” I started to say, and she cut me off.

“As per the contract, until we leave the client site, the recording is continuous, but the client only gets the highlight reel recorded from the bit they pay for. We’ve finished the patrol, so we’re off their clock now,” she said.

I grinned, popping my helmet off.

“So, you know someone who deals in specter mods?” she asked quietly.

“Yeah, but—”

“Uh, guys?” Gessh called, striding back toward us. “We’ve got a problem…”

“What’s that?” I turned back to her.

“Well, you know the door?”

“Yeah?”

“They welded it shut.”

“Well, fuck,” I growled. “That’s not happy making!”

“Two minutes. I’ll call them.” Reign sighed. “Fucking idiot engineers.” She cursed, moving to lean against one wall, clearly making a call.

“So…” Luna whispered, moving up to stand nearby. “Specter mods?”

“I did a deal with a gang boss. I owe him the loot from a few runs to pay it off.”

“So, what? You think you could dump some of this standard shit on him, and then sell him the good shit?” she asked carefully.

“Not sure.” I rubbed my chin as I thought. Gessh moved over to join us. “Honestly, I think he’s going to try to shaft me one way or another, but he’ll at least take my portion of anything we take him as a group off my debt. So if we can get Reign to go along with it…”

“You think he’ll pay us our share?” Luna asked, and I nodded.

“He’s smart. He knows he could try to claim all of this and pay nothing, but that would kick things off early, and he wants me to do a few jobs for him. He’s going to want them sorted before he stabs me in the back.”

“Okay, good news, bad news.” Reign ended her call and pushed off the wall. “Good news, Hobbs is alive.”

“That’s fucking great news,” I said, surprised.

“It is, and it isn’t. The grazer seriously fucked up his left side, and because he can’t use mods? He’s basically fucked as a merc now.”

“Shit.” I winced.

“Yeah, anyway, as I said, genetic differences. I wish I knew why, but it doesn’t work for him, and frankly I’m not that interested as why, right now, because the really shitty news is that the engineers finished their shift when they took him up to the ground floor.”

“What?” I asked coldly.

“They’ve gone home,” she confirmed. “I’ve called Julius, and he’s currently tearing the bosses of this place a new asshole—additional fees, danger bonuses, the works.”

“That’s great but how the fuck do we…” Luna groaned. “Oh, hell no!” She grunted, facepalming. “Seriously?”

“Yeah.” Reign nodded. “We need to find another way out. On the upside, Julius said that he’d look the other way if you didn’t hand everything over when we get back today. Sort of as an apology from him, and a welcome-on-board bonus.”

“Welcome?” Luna asked, before grinning. “We made it into the guild?”

“Oh yeah.” Reign laughed. “We’ve just taken down what was probably going to end up as a nest in a few days, easily two hundred specters and two ghouls. We’re good with you joining.”

“Well, that’s something.” I sighed. “So, we just need to—”

A distant scream rang out from somewhere deeper into the nest of forgotten tunnels, one filled with clear rage and a painful subsonic electrical screech, echoing toward us.

We looked at one another, eyes wide and seeing the same agreement in the entire group.

“We need to move,” Reign said quickly to me, and I nodded.

“Grab anything we’re taking,” I ordered the others. “We’ve got thirty seconds, then we run like rabbits.”

“Which way?” Luna asked.

“The fuck away from whatever made that scream,” I said flatly.