She guessed from its current state that the Crawler had to be an earlier model. At any moment she wondered if its giant mechanical legs would finally give out, seize up, and splutter to a halt, stranding them on the barren surface of Mars. Echo took to the machine like anyone who had a new toy to play with. Despite a bumpy ride at the start she handled the Crawler with ease and soon found her rhythm marching the spider mech across the barren surface. The inside barely fit them all in due to how bulky their suits were. They sat in a circle surrounded by dials and crawlspaces. She was crammed between Francis and Charles. The latter had explained that each one led to an external turret on the side of the Crawler that could be controlled at any given time. It was good for coverage he said.

“So you’ve faced something like this in the past,” said Melina.

“Yeah? Why do you care?” he asked.

Melina just shrugged. “It beats sitting in silence. We might as well kill some time until we get there.”

Charles straightened. “It was one of the first missions we did together, remember Francis? We had to secure some pass to get supplies to the frontline but they had a Crawler stationed to block anyone brave enough to try.”

“Oh yeah, I remember that. Whose Crawler was it again?”

“Might have been the Germans or Soviets. Or maybe it was a militia. The war’s gone on for so long everyone just kind of turned on each other.”

“That really narrows it down,” said Pyotr his head resting against the wall. Melina was sure he had dozed off a couple of times.

Francis rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t matter who they were, they had one mission and that was to protect the pass and stop supplies from reaching their enemy. They didn’t make it easy.”

“We tried taking shots at it, but you saw its legs from the outside they offer some sturdy protection and the side turrets cover most of the blind spots or vulnerabilities.”

“Sounds hopeless,” said Pyotr.

“It might as well have been,” said Charles. “Francis though knew what to do.”

“I got to hear this, how did you take it down?” asked Melina.

Francis leaned back and folded his arms. “Since there were only a couple of us we had to find a way to expose its joints. Charles risked his neck by drawing fire away from where we were holed up. He had help of course, and since the Crawler had to reposition itself while the top gun rotated, the armour around its legs moved to account for this becoming a little more exposed.”

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“It was real fortunate we kept the bazooka. It made short work of those connective joints and the Crawler became a sitting duck.”

“But the top gun would still be able to pick you off, right?” asked Pyotr.

“Not exactly, by taking its legs, it can’t shoot straight. It would be off balance and more likely to shoot upward,” said Melina.

“Yeah, we more or less closed in on its right side and picked off the stragglers that climbed out trying to meet us. Let me tell you don’t want to be in one of these things if it goes boom.”

The Crawler came to a sudden stop and Echoe poked her head into the seating area. “Time to get paid, we’re here.”

“Paid, does she know something we don’t?” asked Melina.

“I think she’s just excited,” said Francis.

Melina watched Francis take his sweet time opening the Crawler’s main hatch. He pulled it open and gestured for them to leave. She went first and was soon followed by the others with Francis dropping down last. He proceeded to lead them out from beneath it. The first thing her eyes came acorss was the small rudimentary outpost stationed next to the mine entrance. Someone else suited up emerged from the building and approached them.

“Ah, you must be the team sent to locate some missing miners.”

“Still no word then?” asked Francis.

“Their last contact was that they found something down below but that was hours ago. While these suits are airtight they do need replenshing. We don’t have many oxygen stations in the mine itself.”

“Right - so here’s how it’s going to go…”

She found herself tuning his voice out as something else caught her attention, a monstrous form of a Mortan. It raised its large blackened finger to indicate to her to not draw any attention. Wait that’s -

‘Back at base, that was you? I thought you died.’

‘Why did you latch onto me.’

‘That’s a bit fucking mysterious, even for you.’

“Melina! Melina! Mars to Melina. Are you okay? I’ve been trying to get a word out of you for the last five minutes.”

Melina blinked out of her stupor. “Sorry, new planet, not used to it yet.”

Francis just shook his head. “I’ll explain it to you one last time. We’re going to begin the descent and check level by level. If we need refills, there are stations along the route. Also no wandering off. No telling how many tunnels exist down there and the last thing I need is people getting lost. We find the miners and drag their sorry asses back to the surface. Do you understand?”

“Yes sir, sorry sir. Won’t happen again.”

“It better not,” he said. “We’re moving, don’t want to waste any more time.”

One by one they entered the gaping maw and right before she joined them she sensed Andrey’s presence behind her.

Some things were never meant to be found. As she joined the descent those words stuck with her even as the darkness finally took her into Mar’s sweet embrace.