Shad POV

We raced through the shifting ice corridors. Sometimes the walls were rocky and narrow. Sometimes the ice crevasse opened up over our head hundreds of feet. Our footing was good. Most of the time, we could go three across, which just meant there'd be more room for squabbles once we encountered enemies.

"Their forces are arriving," Veda said in our ears. "They're deploying hundreds of hunter-killer squads. Remember, they're going to be trying to capture your keys. They can't permanently put you out of the game. I'm arranging that any team whose key is lost will be put on hunter duty themselves and cause trouble, but your focus needs to be on getting to the center of this maze."

I was pretty sure that Gambler and Colin hadn't told anyone else the real objective here, to keep eyes focused on us while they took down the Dominators. That was fine with me. I'd be playing this straight anyway.

I checked my team and selected Annie. "You're gonna carry the key first," I told her. The rest of us, I arrayed with myself at the front, Mongoose at the back. If Veda did a good job routing us, we were more likely to take an attack from the rear, and Team Mongoose were my best at throwing up a defense. "The first squad that comes at us, you drop a machine gun nest and take them out as hard and fast as you can," I instructed Tall Smith. "The rest of us will keep running, and you catch up. If you're killed, listen to Veda. She'll guide you back."

We came up on a vast, yawning cavern. The floor beneath our feet was stone, but the high walls and distant ceiling glowed dim blue. Across the middle of the cavern was a chasm with a single icy bridge spanning it.

Veda's voice spoke sharply in my ear. "You've got incoming, Shad. Two squads of six. Pincher movement. They will reach the bridge across the crevasse before you do."

I shouted a warning to our team. "Hold up!" We stopped in the entryway. I motioned Mongoose forward. "Jones, fire up your camouflage skill. I want the five of you at the bridge. Set up a machine gun nest choke point. Anyone but us comes at you, you hose them down. You've still got that enhancement that prevents friendly fire, right?" They nodded. "Good, then we don't have to worry about you shooting through the bad guys toward us."

I tossed out a few more orders as Mongoose stealthed forward. Me, I had a plan in mind. As soon as the first of the enemy squads appeared, I went into action. They were halfway to the bridge as I emerged from our tunnel entrance, obviously with the same intention turning the bridge into a choke point. I engaged Fastest Gun in the West and raced forward into the midst of them, throwing a Call 'em Out as I got in range. The rest of my team scrambled after me.

The enemy were a Talonian squad with their scales reflecting the odd blue light of the cavern, armed with laser rifles and face shields like welding helmets. They pointed their guns at me, and that's when Frank triggered Emergency Responder.

We swapped places. The enemy squad's guns all came around to follow me. I was back in the safety of the tunnel, out of their line of sight, and my team fell on them like ravening wolves. I raced back out, grinning as I watched us work. It was like a well-oiled machine, even though none of us had ever worked together as a whole before, and it had been years since I'd fought beside many of them.

The second squad of enemies was coming out of the tunnel to our left now. They were space elves wearing the logo of a mercenary company I didn’t recognize. They started for us, and Mongoose broke cover, opening fire, laying down a blast of bullets that cut through them like a scythe through barley. Seconds later, the last of the corpses vanished.

I did a quick check. We were all still alive. My team was laughing and high-fiving each other. The Mongeese looked professional as they stowed their weapons and recalled the sandbags that made up the machine gun nest.

"Keep moving," I told the team. "There'll be more after us soon."

Veda's voice sounded in my ear. "Now that a couple of them have a bead on you, I'm seeing several squads divert from their previous targets and head your way. Three of our decoy teams have been caught so far, and it seems like the other side knows that a lot of our keys are fake. I suspect they're going to zero in on you."

"That's just what we wanted," I told her, grinning.

I was having a blast. For hours, we raced through that icy hell, along narrow bridges spanning kilometer-deep caverns filled with strange sparkling lights along their edges, through rocky crevices lit by fungi on the walls, or through carved crypts with ever-burning candles and sealed coffins no more than a yard in length, covered with various ornate designs and gems encrusted everywhere.

Veda occasionally sent us a warning, but once we stumbled through a doorway and found ourselves with a dozen polearms leveled at us. We might've had a bad moment then, but for Frank's quick thinking. He activated his Posse ability and summoned in a whole line of riot squad cops with blast shields and helmets to push their way through the enemy, allowing us to pick them off as the formation was disturbed.

"You've upgraded," I commented. Last time I'd seen him, he'd only been able to summon two allies with that ability.

"I think we all have," he grunted.

Frank had changed since I'd last seen him. He'd lost some weight and looked to me like he had twice as much hair as before, and his perpetually worried look had faded.

"What have you been up to?" I asked as we went.

"Contracting."

"I gathered that since you're here."

"My wife took one of those galactic contracts they were offering around back on Earth. She wanted to come out and find me, wasn't willing to wait until I could pull some strings and arrange it. You know what those contracts were like."

I did. They were never to the benefit of the Earthling who signed them.

"Well, when I heard about it, I went and negotiated us something better. I've been in charge of a five-man squad ever since. My wife is running the back office end of things, keeping our paperwork and making sure everybody plays together nicely, but truth be told, I get a kick out of it. Now that she's along for the ride, I am starting to see what you and your sister saw in it. Oh, sorry," he said. "Shouldn't have brought her up. You know, I'm all torn up about that."

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"It's all right," I interrupted him as we rounded a curve in the tunnel and found ourselves at the head of a set of stone steps leading downward. "She's here, actually. She wasn't killed after all. She and Colin are behind this whole mess."

Frank's eyes widened. "No kidding. Well, I'll be damned."

I sent Mitch ahead for this one, since he had a good trap detection skill and I was worried something lay ahead. Sure enough, he stopped two steps from the bottom and cast an ability revealing a giant red rectangle three feet by two feet at the foot of the stairs, filling the hallway. At the same time, he sent me a message. Invisible enemies, right behind us!

Good thinking. I sent the team a quick message.

"Don't step on that,” Mitch said grimly, before bending to disarm it.

As he leaned over the trap, the enemy leapt out of their concealment. They were waiting both above and behind us, but I'd already warned everyone in chat to be ready.

I took the first of them through the forehead with a Trick Shot, knocking the space elf back and into the trap which Mitch hadn't disabled at all. It went up in a cloud of flame and smoke that stung my eyes. Coughing, I retreated back up the stairs a bit to help with the enemies behind us. They had laser rifles and were shooting into the thick of things. I heard Annie scream. I dove for her as she fell to the ground and grabbed the key as she dropped it. She vanished as she hit the floor.

A couple more scattered shots and it was over. I stood up, brushing off my pants, the key back under my left arm.

"Sitrep."

"Got all of them, but Black's down," Tall Smith reported calmly. We'd lost Annie too. I checked. They had both respawned a little ways behind us. Veda reported no signs of any enemies between us and them. I hesitated.

"Catch us up as fast as you can," I said reluctantly. "We're going to press ahead." Going back would have made it more of a sure thing that we reached them, but I didn't want us to retrace our steps. "Veda, any idea where we are?"

"I'm building up a pretty good image of the first two floors of this labyrinth," she said crisply. "You've penetrated deeper than any of our other teams."

"How's it going so far?" I asked her.

"One of the key teams carrying a waker key has been eliminated. The key has fallen back into the hands of the Galactics. They can't do much with it. It's only programmed to wake the sleepers, not get past levels. But now they know for certain that we really do intend to carry out our threat."

I was moving us forward again along the hall. It opened into a room with eight different corridors radiating off it like wheel spokes.

"Which way?" I asked Veda.

"Third from the left," she replied promptly. "And there's a three-man Grignarian kill squad just up ahead."

"Grignarian?" I was surprised. I hadn't even been aware they were along on this exploit, let alone that they'd be helping the Galactics.

"They're mercenaries," Veda explained.

"Right." I drew my gun, wincing at the thought of getting hit by one of the Grignarian weapons. Their goo guns were among the nastiest in the galaxy, spitting a sort of gelled acid that stripped flesh from bone. It was not my favorite way to die. Not even in the top 10.

Maybe it was a bad sign that I had a list of best ways to die.

We kept going forward. I shot a message to the headquarters team. "Grandpa, how's it going?"

"You keep your focus on your task. Let us work on ours," he replied back.

That wasn't an answer. "So, badly, then?"

"We’re making progress.”

“According to Veda, we've lost a good third of our runners. How long do you think it'll be until they zero in on me and my team?"

"You better make it long enough," Grandpa said. "Get out there and keep running."

I shut up, not because I had nothing to say, but because we'd come to somewhere that set off all my alarms. It was a cavern filled with icy spires, stalactites, and stalagmites sticking up everywhere, blocking our lines of sight. In the center of the cavern, something gave off a deep green glow.

"What's this place?" I asked Veda.

"No idea."

“That isn't very helpful.”

"Take it slow. I'm reading multiple entryways all leading into here. I think it's an entrance to the next level down. You'll need to take it if that's the case. We need to get deeper."

I turned to Jones. "Time to send up the bird."

He grinned. "Thought you'd never ask," and pulled out his drone, sending it forward into the cavern. "Putting it in heat-seeking mode," he reported. "Even the Talonians will stand out against all this ice. Yep, getting a good picture here. 15, 18, 27." He clapped a hand to his head and stumbled backward. "Ah, sorry, drone's been destroyed. There's close to 30 bad guys out there, hiding behind different stalactites."

"Think we should sneak through?" Tall Smith asked.

"I couldn't get a good look at the center glow," Jones said. “No idea what to expect.”

I made my decision. "Then let's bring them here. Mongoose, set up the nest. Mitch, prepare a few explosives. Frank, you be ready to back me up."

He groaned. "Not another Emergency Responder. We do that again, I'm sure to get plugged this time."

"No, no," I assured him. "Just be ready with the firepower."

I had Annie and Mitch fire off some rockets that exploded in the air with bright showers of sparks. They also had the benefit of removing camouflage from anyone within 20 meters, which should be most of them. From the outraged shouts and the running feet, I knew we had their attention.

"Everyone be ready," I said, as the first of the aliens rounded a stalagmite into our field of view. The Mongeese opened up with their machine gun and handheld weapons. Lara lobbed orange grenades while I loaded a couple of smoke rounds into my pistol, then used a Trick Shot to target an enemy three stalagmites away. I fired; my round zipped past the spires of ice and rock to hit the lurking orc and then explode, causing more confusion and concealment.

They came at us shouting, firing laser rifles, employing their own abilities to block our fire and get in past our defenses. Three orcs swarmed the machine gun nest, stabbing poor Jones to death before turning on the Smiths. A pair of space elves leapt into our midst, landing in graceful crouches, coming up blades whirling. They took out Mitch and Annie before Frank and I got them down.

We took out the foe and another wave was on us. They were determined to get through our lines. That gave us an advantage. They weren't coordinating at all, and our nearest respawn point was only a few hundred yards behind us. By the time we had half the enemy down, Mongoose squad was back up to full strength and Mitch had gotten back into the fight as well.

At last, the cavern grew silent. I wasn't certain that they were all gone. There could be some hiding and waiting to ambush us, but I also didn't want us to wait any longer.

"Let's move," I told my team. We rushed out through the field of stone toward the great green glow in the center. I saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of my eye and turned; there were half a dozen shapes slipping past us. We didn't try to engage and they were farther ahead. I saw them plunge into the green.

"Be careful," I told my team. "I think they're setting up an ambush.”

Veda's voice came through our comms again. "You need to go down a level. That's the entrance. The sleepers are waiting below."

My heart hammered in my chest. "Where is, well, you know." I couldn't ask Veda that question. She was not in on the real secret. Instead, I sent a message to Grandpa. "How's it going there? I think we've about to reach the sleeper's chamber."

"It's going well," he said.

Gambler broke in. "Captain Williams, I understand your hesitation. We are still fighting against the last holdouts on the Dominators. They know what we're doing and have us locked out, but we're crushing through their defenses. I need you to go in there with that bomb. I swear to you, I will not allow it to go off unless there's no other choice."

I took a deep breath. This wasn't my own life I was playing with here. This was possibly the fate of the entire galaxy. All stuck on the word of a fragment of a reality engine I barely knew. I wasn't even sure I'd do this if Kronos asked. Gambler hadn't struck me as a particularly reliable sort, but he'd kept Sage and Colin and Rok'gar alive all this time. And I couldn't help agreeing with him. The current system had to go.

"Roger," I told Grandpa, "and we'll do it, but you better get those Dominators down." I led my team forward.