Mack 'n' Me: The Wolves of Alpha 9

pain you get from being hit one too many times upside the head.
“Sorry.”
I got shakily to my feet, feeling the pull of dressings over where the trackers used to be. Varian held out his fist, fingers down, and I put out my hand for whatever it was he was offering.
“If it makes you feel any better, we got them.”
He dropped the crushed remains of the trackers into my outstretched palm, and I dropped them onto the floor and ground what was left into powder.
“Just as long as you got them all.”
“It’s not something we can afford to miss,” he said. “As it is, we’ve stayed too long already.”
As if his words were a signal, the others shifted, melting back into shadows, and taking side tunnels. Varian’s gaze flitted around the cavern, and mine followed it. I caught movement at the top edge of a corner his men had avoided, just as he turned and bolted.
“This way!”
I didn’t ask why. I just ran after him. The movement had looked bulky enough to be something man-shaped zip-lining down through a narrow crack in the cavern ceiling—and who knew that had been there? I guess the spiders had to have come from somewhere.
Varian ran back the way we’d come, and I ran after him, bitching at Tens and Case as I went.
“You didn’t think to warn a girl?”
“You’ve only just come back on-line. We were getting ready to pull you out. Now, move your ass!”
Well, someone had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed today!
“What’s a bed?”
Oh. Well. That explained it.
It didn’t take us long to realize we’d picked the wrong tunnel.
His lordship had been tracking me, which meant he’d known which trail we’d come in by, which meant that of course he had men hitting one of the junctions we’d passed and coming up along our back trail. I wondered briefly what that might mean for Judith and the hidden alcove, and hoped the rebels had had time to clear out. Right now, though, that wasn’t my concern.
I dove for the shelter of the wall, and hoped there was nothing nasty living behind the stalagmite I’d chosen. Varian had tried for the other side and vanished into the shadow cast by a convenient ripple. Ahead of us, the three men we’d caught up with had also taken cover, and Barangail’s guards advanced.
I checked the charge on my blaster and took a deep breath, wondering why Barangail’s men hadn’t opened fire. I closed my eyes, and took another breath, listening to the noise in the tunnel, and calming my mind. I ran through where I’d seen them last, and figured it wouldn’t take long for them to reach the front three rebels.
The sound of their footsteps reached me, as I focused, but they weren’t alone. I also heard the sound of movement behind us—and remembered the man-shaped forms dropping out of the ceiling in the cavern we’d just left. I only hoped Varian could hear it, too. Furtive movement sounded from the other wall, and I heard a muffled curse.
Yup. He remembered...or he’d caught the sound of combat boots pounding over stone, the same way I had. Suddenly, our cover didn’t mean shit. I flattened myself to the floor, hoping the shadows and the angle of the tunnel would be some protection, but it gave me an awkward angle for firing, and I came up onto a knee.
“Yours?” I asked as the first man came around the corner, and it was as if the word was a signal for all Hell to break loose.
I heard firing from behind me, and realized my cover served some purpose, after all, since it protected me from the squad advancing from the other direction. The shadows provided some protection, but the first few solids blew stone from the walls above my head. I fired back, not happy with the flare of blue that shimmered under the impact of my slugs. The energy bolts had the same effect.
Well, fuck. Barangail was cheating.
Across from me, Varian swore and then sent a short burst into the same target. The blue sparkled and flared, and Varian fired a single round more. This time, there was a ripple of faded blue, and the man stumbled back. Varian’s next shot exploded the guy’s head.
Four shots. Right.
I followed his example, pumping four quick shots into one of the guys coming down the opposite side of the tunnel. He dropped to his knees, and my fifth shot went clean over his head, blasting stone chips from out of the wall. He was rolling when I fired my sixth, and behind cover on the seventh.
“Motherfucking son-of-a-bitch!” but I wasn’t alone. On the other side of the corridor, Varian’s targets were doing the same. It reminded me they were combat veterans, and hadn’t survived this long without learning a few tricks. Well, it was time they stopped.
I picked the next guy along, fired five rapid shots, and saw him drop to the floor.
“Sonuvabitch!”
Well, that last shot clearly hadn’t killed him. I tried for a hit on his prone form, but one of his comrades had stepped over his body, and I hit a leg, instead. Opposite me, Varian was having the same problem—and Barangail’s men were advancing. We’d be in close quarters soon.
As I thought it, a large multi-legged shape dropped down from the ceiling to land in the middle of the guards. If it had been alone, it might have been in trouble, but the men who turned towards it couldn’t bring their blasters to bear before being hit by another form, and then a third, and the ants knew exactly what to go for first.
I watched as large mandibles closed over torsos and men, and foreclaws wrapped around weapons and tore them out the soldiers’ hands, and I was on my feet and backing up as Varian came clear of the shadows on the other side of the tunnel. Our sides touched, and he laid a hand over my arms, pushing them down.
“Don’t