Furnace (Hunter-Killer #1)

Chapter 17 - Labyrinth

Their initial incursion could only really be described as chaos. Colonel Aggathor and his squadron crashed on through the pulverised remains of the doorway and Ryke followed, emerging into a vast, low-ceilinged foyer of some kind, honeycombed with passages that led down deeper into the planet's crust.

Smoke and hot dust filled the room from where the doorway had blow inwards under the constant pounding of the Goliath cannons, but the Hunter-Killer sensors pierced the gloom with ease, revealing several milling forms of Scraegan defenders scrambling to stop the incursion. The glare of charging furnace cannons filled his vision as their enemies faced the new threat head on.

"Break and engage!" Ryke bellowed through his squad-wide band. On the HUD he saw the mechs of HK-Rupture splinter in all directions, giving the Scraegan gunners nothing but fast moving targets. They opened fire anyway, sending glaring balls of death ripping through the smog. A shot caught one of his people a glancing blow, spinning the mech and leaving licking flames on its armour.

"Gutz, report!" he snapped, squeezing off a spray of cannon fire as he strafed towards her.

Marylee's voice responded an instant later, sounding rather annoyed with herself. "Bastard clipped me – systems are good. Didn't breach the armour."

"Copy that. Haze, Klaxon, Deadbolt, kick left and cover those tunnels!" he snapped out the fresh callsigns as thought born to it. "Everybody else on me!"

The mechs piloted by Scantlin, Shayse and Preese dutifully swept to the left of the engagement. The rest followed him down the middle as Colonel Aggathor's unit went plunging to the right, cannons thundering as they slammed into the teeth of the Scraegan force.

Aggathor was a fearsome sight to behold, his battle-scarred mech wreaking havoc amongst the Scragens. A modified heavy scatter-gun had been fitted where most mechs bore their rotating cannons – essentially an oversized, four-barrelled shotgun with enough kick to flatten a decent-sized house. Each blast from the weapon echoed wrathfully in the confines of the hangar, blowing open Scraegan armour, sending bodies tumbling from its sheer stopping power. The shoulder shield doubled as a brute weapon, fitted with a series of non-regulation, wickedly curving barbs that turned the fat plate of armour into yet another weapon in the arsenal in the right hands.

With his elite squad around him, Aggathor bulldozed through the Scraegan resistance, twisting, pivoting, blasting and slashing, using every inch of the Hunter-Killer as a weapon. The other members of HK-Warlock gave him room to fight, keeping a loose semi-circle around their leader, protecting his flanks from any Scraegan attackers.

Behind them the other assault units piled through, adding their salvos of fire to the crush, spreading out and slowing their charge as they picked their way into the melee. On his HUD he saw the veritable swam of Hunter-Killer signatures fanning out to plug the gaps and mop up any Scraegan stragglers they'd left behind.

Knowing his back was covered, Ryke launched into the fray with a vengeance, flanked by Thaye and Norville as he pummelled the reeling Scraegan defenders with cannon shot. A searing fireball of blue burst towards him and he deftly sidestepped, the bolt casting an electric glare through the chamber. He was on the Scraegan before it could fire again, dipping low before surging up, ramming the top edge of his shield up beneath the brute's jaw. Something cracked and his foe tumbled backwards with an animal howl.

Shots from his companions strafed the beast until it lay in a bloodied panting heap. On his left, Thaye almost decapitated another with a twisting wrench of her warblade that she'd embedded in its neck. Her blood spattered mech loomed murderously in the half-light of the chamber. For now, however, her bloodlust would have to wait as Ryke saw several Scraegans retreating back into the warren of passages, driven off by the sheer ferocity of the Hunter-Killer assault.