Shawn kept two fire darts mentally prepared at all times now. It was a hair-trigger instinct when he released the mental snap to channel the energy to his outstretched hand. The screaming, ravenous monsters surged forth, before he heaved two fire darts in rapid succession.

  The first dart hit its target in the chest, catching it on fire. The second one winged the other on its forward leg, stalling it out. A follow-up shot to the panicking creatures with his rifle put them out of commission before they could get close.

  Regia loosed a torrent of water that washed several backward. The follow-up shots from the rest, along with the rats skidding on the ice, were enough to keep them at bay. More of them surged past the broken gate. "I hate these things!" she fumed with a murderous glint in her eyes.

  Shawn loosed another fire bolt, missing as the creatures lunged forward. Shawn dropped his rifle as one made it past the line of fire, wounded, but leaped for his face.

  He felt that electric spark as he used his focused force barrier to make a simple shield shape, and bashed the creature in mid-air, where it met hard resistance and slid off. He swayed backward with the impact and grabbed his hammer without hesitation to smash it in the face with fervor, cracking it and breaking teeth. It still snarled and screeched, trying to ssh at him with its rat-like legs. A second smash against its head resulted in a disturbing crunch, and the creature colpsed.

  Two more surged over the corpses and the dying rats, and Shawn body-blocked one that lunged for Cire, currently reloading. She hopped back, flicking an alchemical grenade safety off. “Incendiary going out, cover!”

  Shawn smashed the rat with the hammer into its fnk with the pointy end, drawing blood and causing the creature to squeal. He shoved it aside and took cover behind the cart as Cire lobbed the smoldering explosive into the stream of incoming bodies, still sliding on the ice.

  The explosive wasn’t really a bst, so much as an intense wave of heat that lit the rats on fire–and much to Shawn’s detriment, may have singed a few feathers. The rats panicked and their formation broke up, scattering when the fmes eventually overcame them.

  Shawn let out a shaky breath as the horde of monsters ceased to emerge from their hiding spot. He gnced at his gathered team–everyone was intact and unharmed, except for one raking cw on Trask’s arm that he was spping a bandage wrap around. “Everyone good?” he asked.

  “Yeah, nothing like shaking up the day with a pack of scavengers,” Trask ughed, wincing as he tightened the binding. “Lucky for us, they burn quite nicely.”

  “Patrol the bodies, give them a finishing blow if they need it.” Garrett rose swiftly and put a bayonet on the end of his rifle, before stabbing one that was still feebly trying to rise to its legs. Shawn saw three of the rats had been peppered with the shredder rounds, and the damage was immense–chunks of flesh had been stripped off their bodies, and the rounds had gone through them. “Shawn, I’ll take a dozen of these new weapons.”

  “Just remember they’re less effective at range. Against a bigger foe or something with a heavy hide, it might be ineffective.” Shawn wasted no time to take his warhammer to smash down on a half-roasted rat, grimacing at that unsettling crack. “Well, that’s our warm-up, which means it can only be worse than that inside the mine.”

  “Maybe we killed them all?” Cire asked, her teeth set in an anxious smile.

  Shawn let out a ugh that was louder than he intended. “Has anything gone according to pn tely? Nah, it’s gonna be worse in there. I hope you brought an extra change of clothes.”

  “I hope this is worth it. It better be, to be dealing with trouble like that, right at the start.” Cire distributed the numerous glow sticks, and instructed everyone to give them a sharp rap, to break the gss vial on the inside that would activate the bright glow.

  “Birds don’t belong underground,” Regia sighed, and Varrick nodded alongside her, a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

  “You get used to it. Everyone take note of the air, if you’re short of breath or start feeling dizzy, it’s bad air, and you need to immediately retreat. Keep an eye on each other's backs. If this mine built with any competency, the main track will be a slow slope downward, with numerous tracks branching off from a single line. Might also find some supply caches in there, so, report what you find.”

  “Gas masks?” Shawn inquired. Varrick gave him a quizzical look. “Respirators. Something that can filter out fumes or provide an emergency oxygen supply.”

  “Hang on.” Regia browsed through a series of metal cases that seemed to be tightly sealed, then grabbed something from them. Small stones with a single rune on them that were colored green and yellow. “Emergency air bubbles. You crack the rune, it activates it. It's a one-time use, and there are plenty here. It will push any fumes around you outward and keep you in a breathable environment. There’s enough for two each.” she grabbed the small stones, and Shawn noted they felt like pumice. It felt brittle in his cws. “Stow them away, they break easy by design.”

  “Well, let’s get to it.” he reloaded his rifle and kept it at the ready while fingering the first glow stick. “Cire, any idea how long these st?”

  “Several hours. More than enough time.” She finished her reload and kept a dagger strapped to her armor vest. “Who’s taking point?”

  Shawn stepped forward. “I’ve got the barrier in a pinch. I should lead. Garrett, stay just behind me. Everyone else, keep close, watch the fnks, and keep your ammo close. If we run into any trouble, glowsticks out so we can see what we’re shooting at. Try to space your gestalts so we save ammo.”

  Five minutes ter, they were in a staggered formation with Regia at the rear, Shawn in the front, and the rest spread in a loose delta. They worked their way through the stone warrens of the mine. Small mousy creatures with too many legs and faceted eyes skittered into the dark, making eerie chattering noises. They seemed offended by the presence of the new arrivals but were unwilling to stick around. They were also harmless, though Cire had screamed when one skittered across her boot.

  That little goober had been punted into the dark with a vengeance. She recomposed herself and gred at Shawn, who let out a soft cawing ugh. “Listen bird brain, I hate vermin.”

  “You had a pet rat. That’s hypocritical.”

  “Yeah! A friendly rat that gave me cuddles and was smart as a whip! These things are just a nuisance that chew through the vilge food reserves,” she growled. “Not cool at all.”

  “If that spectacle at the front door wasn’t warning enough, don’t get close. They can bite through bone, and I worry even our armor,” Garrett reminded them. He was the closest they had to a monster expert. “I’ve done monster killing before, and I have particur ones I hate dealing with. I don't like it when it's close quarters and the sight lines are short."

  “They roast up good, though,” Trask chuckled, nudging Raine beside him. “Anything so far?”

  “Nada. This pce is a tomb,” Raine uttered, but his fur was on edge. “I also can’t seem to detect as far. Like in town it’s fine, out in the woods, it’s great. But when there are thick stone sbs, I can't sense out living things as far.”

  “We still have eyes and ears,” Garrett reminded him. “Smell anything?”

  “Ew. that acrid scent of a burnt rat? It’s still overwhelming,” Trask growled. “That’s not how you cook them, you gotta get the hair and skin off, first. Add some seasoning, and cut some off the fnk. Very juicy and tender."

  “I can’t believe you eat rat,” Regia commented quietly, peering down a corridor and throwing a glowstick into the depths. Nothing but small, blind insects scattered randomly in the gloom, and she lowered her rifle. “What does it taste like?”

  “Gamey. But, filling. Roast it the right way, I heard that they serve it to people paying big coins in the major cities,” Trask responded, sounding proud. "Who knew?"

  “I’ve hunted and stripped game before. But not rat.” Shawn threw another glowstick down a branching path, looking for anything that stood out as a threat. He saw nothing but the glitter of ore on the rough-hewn walls, scraped time and time again by powerful gestalts, and hand tools. A few darker marks suggested explosives might have also been used, in carefully controlled demolition–also based on the deep holes drilled in one wall, arranged in a roughly rectangur pattern. “Hey Garrett, keep an eye out for any storage areas. They were using bsting equipment, they drilled holes but never finished.”

  "Eh. odds are good they might have left something," Garrett concurred. Shawn continued to lead the way, mentally preparing to pop his force barrier into existence against any imminent danger–creatures, or environment. Garrett walked beside him, cw clicks echoing in the tunnel, and put out a hand to stop.

  “Garrett, what’s up?”

  “Got a feeling. Hang up a second.” He took the point and aimed the scattershot-adapted weapon to take the lead. The breeze from outside made a low whistling sound against the rocks and jagged surfaces of the mine. After a minute, he shrugged. “Thought I heard something, far off. I couldn’t tell what, though.

  “Well, on the bright side, no bodies,” Shawn pointed out before they continued their descent. This byrinth of tunnels had been hastily abandoned long ago, judging by the rest of the pickaxes, slowly wearing away to nothing but rusted remains. The humidity seemed quite high here, too. Shawn could pick that up with his cws, and his feathers puffed out against the increasing chill, as they ventured deeper down.

  “Brr. it’s freezing in here,” Cire shivered. "I suddenly feel like every summoned who came before us, won the universal bad luck lottery."

  “She’s told me in confidence that the st time before you two was thirty years ago. I believed her,” Regia answered.

  “Hey, you mentioned something earlier. Telga lost someone important to her, beyond the staff on the station.” Cire was in the middle of the formation, watching the corners warily. “So, who was it?”

  “Oh, I’m not opening this can of worms,” Regia replied.

  “Why?” Cire had a good point, Regia had mentioned Telga had been in mourning. As if this loss had been before current events. Maybe it was reted to her escape from the core world? “Telga is being pretty scarce with the details. Like if I didn’t know better, I’d say we were all being set up for a horrible fate.”

  “She cares about Vea’nt. It is why she chose this as her fallback refuge. It’s quiet, in the middle of nowhere, not an assuming threat,” Varrick reasoned, cutting off the discussion. "Pay attention to our surroundings. Barely enough room to swing a weapon." He moved at a hurried pace, and they followed along in tandem.

  “She’s a pain in the ass. I told her to set up shop in Valtiria Prime,” Garrett sniped. “We could have had Shawn and Cire set up with tools, resources–”

  “No. that city is a big risk, and Revarik is likely already sending out feelers and infiltrators to prepare for an invasion. Detourrai is taking a beating because supplies were sabotaged from behind,” Regia interjected. “We don’t agree on everything. But there is one pn we both agreed to as a failsafe. Somepce to build up forces in secret, away from prying eyes.”

  Shawn didn’t like the tension building in the group. It needed to be loosened. “Hey, while we've been chatting, I might have come up with the solution to the seasons. Inflows of air mass across the tectonic ptes–the ones closest enough where the atmosphere isn’t separated, can lead to simutions of seasonal changes. It’s kinda clockwork. Plus, I presume at one point, this orbitally locked bunch of rocks rotated on an axis retive to its orbital path.”

  “Yeah, that's a good assessment. The masses all share a rotational axis, though it’s not easily determined. Partially correct,” Regia commented. Everyone turned to look with interest. “What? I wasn’t always a security personnel before, I did science work at Belsin Academy!”

  “Wish you had told us that sooner," Shawn commented. He stepped cautiously over what looked like a gnawed-on bone. It wasn’t a human bone. It was thinner, lighter–like the bones in his body now. He sighed and pointed it out. “How old?”

  “These bones have no smell. They’ve been here a long time,” Garrett reyed after kneeling to take a look. “Trask, Raine?”

  “Very old, very dead birdy,” Raine jested. No one was ughing. “Strange that it’s the only one, here on the main track. Like it was dragged and dropped.”

  “The st time this pce was used was a few decades ago. Maybe longer? The vilge was established afterward,” their esteemed smith added. “There was an older settlement that was burned to the ground. Some kind of csh between some of the lesser Radiants, off to the east side of town. You can find a few ruins. Lot of it is getting grown over, now." He pointed to the gnaw marks. “Too big for the razor rats, Garrett. Something bigger went through here. Pantheras?”

  Garrett shook his head and smoothed his feather crest. “No. Not the right pce for them. They don’t hole up in caverns in most cases. I think this was something else. Maybe an ursina?”

  “A bear?” Cire echoed. He squinted but then nodded at the word. “We had these big, hairy beasts that no one wanted to mess with, back on Earth. As a rule of the universe? We should not mess with bears.”

  “Did they have razor tusks, spines that could be flung like harpoons, or a voracious appetite? Or a hide that could eat rifle rounds?” Garrett asked with a calm voice. Cire ughed nervously.

  “Shawn, it’s official. Everything in this world wants to kill us.”