Ruins of Greivstor

TWELVE - CHASM

The chamber was colder than it had been when he had come down through it. The ladder was now freezing and damp, and 6651 guessed that there had probably been some rain up top that had filtered down through the rock, but he didn't care. All he cared for was running.

He had heard what happened when Celestria mushroomed somewhere. A carefully controlled detonation, with the key word being 'carefully'. He had heard about the time they had mushroomed a planet off in Starburst. News reports had said that they turned a planet into asteroids. Nothing left of it, not even for scavengers or salvage pirates to go to town on. Nothing left except for bits of useless rock floating around in the nether. It had been 'humane', as far as the reports had said. Of course. What an Empire word to use.

6651 had no intention of ending up in such a situation. By all rights he wasn't even supposed to be climbing up from a mushroom. He was supposed to be dead or have flown back out of harm's way back to Celestria, to be on another mission, recuperating for another dogfight or retired with an injury. Call it mental stress, call it PTSD, whatever it took to take the cash and run.

He felt something hit the top of his helmet. He felt with his hands and found the manhole. Slowly but surely it began to budge, and he heard metal scraping. "11218, hold me while I shift it."

With himself held steady he pushed it open. A trickle of moonlight filtered in, then a full flood. He clambered up and hoisted himself out. Fresh air again. He pushed his arms through and helped 11218 up and, finally, Stellada.

"All the gods..." 11218 muttered. He was at the edge of the cliff, staring out over the city. 6651 and Stellada walked to the edge to stare over it with him.

Below them sprawled the ancient city, bathed in the light from the double moons, a haunting, spiritual glow. Down in the valley they heard the sound of fighting, of guns and mortar, the flashes of weapons, the purples and the blues. It was tragic, but somehow beautiful. The pilot found himself wondering if this had been how the Greivstorians had gone. Tooth and nail down to the last man, woman, child, and beast of burden. It was like looking back in time, back into the past.

And as they looked up they saw the beginnings of a new battle in the skies, another fight emblazoning itself under the constellations of a thousand galaxies. Machine and man against machine and man-machine, triggers fully pressed, the colours like blood. Shooting stars of a heathen afterlife.

"All that," 11218 said, gesturing to a swathe of city below him. "All of it, going to bubble away into nothingness."

"That's the Empire way. If it doesn't conform you burn it."

"Speaking of burning," the pilot said, "we need to move. Just over twenty minutes until we burn."

That second, a blast came from behind them. 11218 caught it in the back, a football-sized hole corroding into his torso. He toppled over the edge and a city gazed through him.

Stellada spun and shot, catching a biomech emerging from the manhole in the face. It screamed and collapsed into the tunnel. 6651 hoped it took a few of its friends down with it.

Stellada ran to the manhole and slammed it down as another blast hit the underside. She locked it shut. "It won't hold for long," she said, turning to run. 6651 ran after her.

They ran away from the city. They wouldn't be there when it all dissolved away. Not the pilot. He was going to survive, whatever it took.

His cracked visor sprang into life and his Halo-Chip sounded in harmony.

"Stop."

"We don't have..."

"Yes. Apparently, yes we do." He looked around him. He gestured over to a thicket of woodland. He ran towards it, following a new map on his visor.

"What are you doing?"

"We're where the other squad vanished off the grid. And there's some kind of underground chamber underneath us. Somewhere. About half a mile away. Haven't you got it on your visor?"

"We're about to die, we don't have time for this."

"But maybe that's where they are. And it seems deep enough underground to survive a mushroom."

"Survive a mushroom? That would have to be..."

"A mile thick, straight down. But it's there. Check for yourself." As they ran, Stellada pushed buttons on her visor, and eventually it got its useless act together and showed her what 6651 was seeing. He was right; they didn't have to run so far after all.

6651 stopped and looked around him. "Now where the..."

"There!" In a small outcrop a mighty gash had been ripped open, a black space inside appearing.

Boom.

The top of the outcrop was shot off. A massive chunk of rock dislodged and began to hurtle down towards them. They ran headlong for the crack in the earth. Another blast and more rock and scree began to slide down the mountainside. Before long the hole would be blocked.

Shots came from all around them, chunks of earth peppering their armour. The biomechs were getting closer to their mark with every shot fired. 6651 and Stellada neared the hole, Celestria blue armour smoking as biomech shot after biomech shot glanced off it and singed, a burning smell following behind.

6651 threw himself to the ground to avoid a blast coming overhead. Stellada ran past, narrowly escaping being hit in the crossfire. She reached the hole and threw out a hand to him. A blast at the top sent an almighty boulder the size of a house crashing towards them. It heralded its approach with a deep rumble of thunder.

6651 grasped the outstretched hand, and he was pulled inside as they flung themselves deep into the chasm.