Torvald woke with a start. Today was the day and he was so excited, it was his first mission for Deep Rock Galactic mining company. He had been looking forward to this for his whole life and now his time had come. He would have the opportunity to forever be remembered as a hero of the mines on Hoxxes IV. Torald quickly threw off his covers and hopped out of bed. He picked up his underlining and FOX class scout armor and put them on. Then, he took out a ration pack from the cramped storage below his bed and laid out its contents on his stove.
“Probably herdbeast from Raxus minor.” He muttered, “same old, same old”.
After quickly devouring his breakfast, Torvald shouldered his Deepcore GK2 burst rifle and holstered his grappling gun and boomstick and opened his door. Torvald walked out of his door into the dormitory hallway. From there, he quickly walked to the area hub where he could already see two figures at the mission briefing hologram. Torvald’s boots made a loud clank on the hard steel floor as he approached the mission briefing table. His presence was quickly noted by the dwarves at his table and one stepped forward to greet him.
“So greenbeard, I presume that you are our scout for this mission?”.
This came from a hulking brute of a dwarf, kitted out in thick plate armour and a massive gun that Torvald recognized as a ‘Leadstorm” powered minigun, an incredibly powerful weapon that can lay waste to glyphids in seconds. The dwarf introduced himself as Hortharn Battlerest and he smoothly went on to introduce the other dwarf that was standing next to him as Vondren Fodeg. Vondren was the engineer for the mission and he was apparently an experienced fellow. He had participated in 57 mission deployments and had served admirably in the crisis with the rival mining companies. He shared that he and Hortharn had participated in many battles together and they were great friends. Hortharn explained that they would be taking on a very standard morkite mining mission.
“Should be easy,” he said, “but we will be in a zone that has a possibility for meteor strikes. You know the drill, we take cover, look for plaguecores and bust them. Then we come home and give them to R and D.”
“Sir, yes, sir,” was the quick and stiff response of Torvald. Hortharn laughed and said, “we ain't in the army son, no matter how much these guns make it look like it, “ he said, gesturing to his leadstorm, “you ain't gotta be so formal when I’m just showing you the ropes.”
Then he and Vondren turned around and walked over to the drop pod to get down to Hoxxes leaving Torvald to follow.
Shortly after they arrived on the drop pod, another dwarf joined them. He was a massive dwarf, bigger than even Hortharn. He was encased in MOLE armour and had those massive power drills on his hands. Torvald was instantly able to tell that he was their squad's miner. He introduced himself as Digurt Durthack. He was a simple soul, wholly devoted to his job but still kind enough to pay attention to the new operative. The mining crew obviously knew each other very well and they kept up a steady stream of conversation about their doings on the station since they had last seen each other as the drop pod rocketed toward the planet of Hoxxes IV. The sound of the engines was deafening as they descended and the moment they hit the surface, the massive drill at the front of the drop pod started chuning, sending even louder noises back to the miners. Then a big clunk and a following silence.
The drop pod had touched down. Everybody sat up and readied their weapons and then, with a loud clunk, the door opened and Hortharn walked out quickly belting out rounds from his gun at the Glyphids that had been drawn to the drop pod. Then, everybody ran out of the drop pod, their boots creating a metallic “tink” on the steel ramp, creating an echo through the chamber. Behind them, Molly trundled out, their MULE, a four legged robot that carries all of the ore mined by the dwarves. Molly was made of hard steel and state of the art pathfinding technology. Torvald raised his gun and looked around, eyes lingering on the glyphids that had been killed. He had never seen glyphids in person before, only in holographic mission briefings. In person, they were uglier than the stories said they were, 8 legs of thick flesh, taking real force to puncture with a pickaxe even with dwarf strength. The worst part about them though, was their mouths, massive gaping holes with sharp fangs that could tear through steel. Ugly beasts and certainly very dangerous. His thoughts were interrupted by Hortharn during the traditional pre-mission cheer.
“Rock and stone miners!” He shouted and the rest of the group enthusiastically responded, “rock and stone!”
And they were off, ready to collect their morkite.
Torvald’s gun rattled in his hands as he quickly fired 30 rounds of mass-reactive ammo into the mouth of a glyphid species dubbed praetorians because of their immense armour. The bullets tore through the praetorian, dropping it like a sack of stones. Torvald breathed heavily, this was his 10th kill on this mission already. His first had been while he was lighting up a small cavern with light from his flare gun and this one was while he was scouting a ledge for morkite. Unfortunately, there was no ore and Torvald used his grappling gun to pull himself back to his companions.
“Nice job, I saw those shots,” said Hortharn. “Yeah” said Vondren, agreeing with Hortharn, “you’ve got real talent greenbeard”
“Greenbeard? Really, I don't think he is not a rookie anymore,” said Hortharn. Shy with the praise, Torvald replied back, “Thanks”. About to say something more, Hortharn opened his mouth but was cut short as a loud announcement from Mission Control echoed through all of their headsets.
“Meteor inbound, eta 2 minutes, miners, turtle up and get ready. You might have some work to do after.”
Hortharn, quickly processing the information, said, “Vondren, you’re up!”
Vondren quickly gathered the dwarves around him and he used his concrete platform gun to create a dome of protective concrete around them to protect from collapsing cave roofs. All of the dwarves piled into the dome with Molly and just in time. The rock shuddered, nearly knocking the dwarves from their feet as 700 meters above them a massive comet hit the planet. Rock fell from the cave roof as the force of the comet sent cracks through the planet. The concrete dome shuddered but held firm and soon the shaking was over. Digurt used his drills to cut a hole in the wall of the dome and they all stepped out, scanning the area for glyphids as the noise must have drawn them near. The cold voice of mission control echoed through their headsets as it said, “Miners, lithophage plaugecore displaced. You're on the job. And also, swarm inbound.”
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The miners quickly scanned the area and Torvald shot up a flare to the ceiling to provide light. What they saw next was shocking. At least 100 glyphids were charging at them, a massive swarm including what looked like 5 praetorians. Their combined screeches tore at the miners ears and Hortharn shouted with great gusto,“Light’em up miners!”
The miners unleashed a hail of bullets at the glyphids. Flame launched in a cascading wave from Digurt’s CRSPR flamethrower, burning them, provoking loud screeches of pain from the inhuman monsters. Bullets from Hortharn’s and Torvald’s guns whistled through the air, their sound a loud thunder in the enclosed caves. Still, even though the glyhids faced such a powerful onslaught, the pretorians were still able to spit their deadly bile through the air. It traveled 30 feet quickly, looking like it was about to break the formation of miners, but then Hortharn dropped his PSG or portable shield generator. The turquoise colored energy shield flared into life around them and it deflected the bile, letting the miners continue the hail of bullets. The glyphids’ number dropped and dropped until there were a few left and they turned and ran; their tiny brains turning from fight to flight in an instant.
“Nice PSG drop,” said Vondren to Hortharn. The PSG is very important to fights as it gives relief from glyphids for a short 12 second window, enough time to deflect poisonous bile or stabilize a wounded miner. A good drop is essential as the squad only gets two and if you use it at the wrong time, you could lose a miner. Hortharn thanked him and said,“Well Vondren, you can trust me. You've got work to do though. Time to crack a plaugecore”.
The plaguecore was easy to find, it was a big rock, 30 ft in diameter with a massive crack in it, leaking a putrid greenish yellow gas. It was bad. Already, there were glyphids swarming the plaguecore, eating up the gas like it was shimmershine in a tavern of Rocces VII. Hortharn calmly said, “Let's clear them out and then we will crack the core.”
The miners entered the small cavern where the plaguecore was located and immediately eliminated the glyphids. Their screeches painfully sounded through the cavern and the connecting caves and it was only a matter of time before other glyphids arrived. Digurt quickly strode towards the core and started to dig. His massive fist mounted drills churning away, sending green rock fragments everywhere. The drilling however, would take a long time as the rock surrounding the plaguehearts was hard as it was warped by the corruption that the plaguehearts had spread. Following the protocol called for at this moment, all of the miners turned and faced outwards, protecting Digurt from any beasts that would come. Torvald expected a lot of bugs but the amount that came was astounding. They poured out of every possible entrance to the cavern. Their gnashing teeth and flying spittle filled the air as they launched themselves at the miners. Torvald felt his gun bark in his hands blowing holes into the horde of glyphids, sending green blood everywhere. With more of a precision weapon than the rest of the miners, Torvald targeted the praetorians in the crowd, his bullets forced to impact upon their mouths as their armour was too strong everywhere else. However many Glyphids were gunned down by Torvald and his compatriots, more always took their place. High explosive grenades were the only things that were keeping the enemy off of them. The grenades were a quick fix as the noise already attracted more gyphids to the dwarven miners. The glyphids got closer and closer until Torvald was forced to pull out his combat shotgun for close quarters combat. Then, “job done,” shouted Digurt. The Plaugecore had split in twain and inside were the plaguehearts. Ugly human heart shaped greenish yellow blobs, radiating vile, putrid gas, harmless to the dwarves who had a natural immunity to most illnesses but smelly all of the same. R and D were hungry for these. Creating god knows what in their labs. Digurt picked one up and said, “Vondren, Torvald, pick one up. We need to take all we can as we get out of here.”Torvald was confused and through the din of battle shouted, “how?” Then he paused, unloading a shot into a ravenous glyphid before saying, “will we get out of here.” There were glyphids covering every orifice of entry into the cavern and they kept coming.
Hortharn, however, drawing upon his great experience said, “I have experience of this situation, 2 years ago I was on a mission like one.” He paused and lobbed a grenade at an approaching praetorian, not waiting for it to explode before continuing. “I used a magnetic zipline to escape through a cave adjoining with the cavern.” He then pointed at a hole in the wall that had less glyphids than the rest and said, “and that one looks perfect.”
Torvald, was excited by this preposition but he was curious and was forced to voice his questions as more and more attacking glyphids appeared. “But how do we keep the glyphids away while we set up the zipline? It takes a good 10 seconds and without you to lay down fire, the glyphids will overrun us. Also, what will we do with Molly and our morkite?”
Hortharn said, “We can leave Molly, the plaguehearts are more important to DRG. I can also just use the PSG” and he promptly activated it and launched the zipline head at the cave least covered by glyphids. The head bit deep into the sandy colored rock and Hortharn urgently anchored the zipline. Then all of the dwarves grabbed onto the zipline with their hands and let the magnets pull them up the strong, steel weave cord. Then, with a small wave of goodbye to Molly, they exited the PSG’s shield which they had kept mostly clear of glyphids. The moment the dwarves exited the shield, they were met by glyphids jumping at them from the ground but they were quickly put down by targeted blasts from Hortharn’s gun. As they reached the cave, Hortharn, the only dwarf not carrying a plaugeheart, dropped two grenades into the tunnel. Two massive explosions cleared the tunnel from glyphids, the shockwaves shooting green blood and guts all over the miners. Then, with plaguehearts in hand, the dwarves ran off, their boots sending up puffs of dirt from the ground as they sprinted through the tunnel.
“Mission control, mission control, do you read me?” Said Hortharn frantically into his communicator. They are still running through the caves with glyphids chasing after the putrid scent of the plaguehearts. They had been running for five minutes now and Hortharn had frantically been trying to hail mission control. He had heard that the plaguehearts gave a lot of interference with communicator waves but not as much as he was experiencing now. Finally, after two more minutes of hailing, Mission Control finally responded with a, “We're hearing you loud and clear squad leader”.
“About damn time,” said Hortharn. “We got three plaguehearts with us but we lost our MULE, can we get a lift?”
“Sure thing,” was the response of Mission Control. “We got a drop pod inbound, it will land 50 meters ahead of you in the cavern coming up”.
In seconds, they reached the main cavern where they could hear a drop pod digging though the earth of Hoxxes IV to them. Then the glyphids charged through the cave they had come through. They were a terrifying sight and the dropship came just in time. With Hortharn covering their escape, they all ran up the metal ramp into the drop pod as the doors closed just in time. Glyphids threw themselves at the door but to no avail. Their screeches were loud but they were drowned out by the roaring of the drop pods as it flew out of the cave and towards the atmosphere of Hoxxes IV and Station 7.