Chapter 12

"Fuck," Amy said.

"Later?" I said trying to lighten the mood.

"Typical man. Always thinking with your smaller head," she said.

I activated my ultraviolet lamp as were we in total darkness. Lizards could sense infrared but were blind like us to ultraviolet. Our battle comps took care of the rest.

"We're too deep unless Fleet sends down scanners," I said.

"I know," Amy said. I could hear the fear creeping into her voice.

"I think I like the idea of knocking you up. I think you'd look even sexier pregnant," I said knowing that would distract her.

"Really?" she said surprised.

"Yeah. I won't escape the Corps but it's nice knowing that I could have kids and live on through them," I said.

"I haven't given up on you yet," she said still determined to see me free one day.

"Good. Let's get moving. I'm not inclined to wait for rescue when the odds of that happening aren't good."

"Thad. My dad is General Swanson," she said.

"I know."

"You do? Santiago told you?"

"Yeah. He wanted me to keep an eye on you during your first drops. I would have kept an eye on you anyway, but he didn't need to know that. I knew I was in trouble when I saw you sitting at that desk outside his door," I told her.

"I don't know if I should be mad or flattered," she said.

"Don't get mad at me. I'm just a Private with no say in the matter."

"Just a Private my ass. Is that why I got..." she said.

I interrupted her though, heading that off.

"No. You are in Whisky and a platoon leader because you earned it. The old man gave you the shot early because of his history with your dad but you earned it and kept it."

"Thanks," she said.

"I just don't see a rescue coming any time soon. We're pretty deep and it's chaotic up there at best. Lots of wounded and people needing radiation treatment fast."

"No. You're right. It won't happen. Not for just two of us. No matter what happens though I want you to know I love you."

"I love you too. I'll take point."

"Let's just hope that we don't find the tunnel collapsed ahead."

"If so we are getting naked and fucking to death," I said.

"Oooh. That sounds like fun. Well except for the death part," she said teasing me back but finished with, "I've got a B4," in a quiet voice.

I didn't respond. I knew what she meant. Starving to death would not be a pleasant way to go.

She fired off a bumblebee to get an idea of what was ahead. The tunnel was not collapsed, at least not anywhere we could see from the bumblebee. There were no Lizards though and no obvious way up.

We moved carefully and quietly. I had been on many tunnel crawls, but never before like this. An assault with a platoon behind you is far different than an escape of two.

They were always started with a limited objective and never lasted long. I had a feeling this was not going to be the case.

Twice we had to back track due to a tunnel collapse. When we moved out of the hastily built tunnels that were most likely a response to our invasion, we got nervous.

Gone were the rough winding and uneven passages coated with the resin. We found ourselves in level passageways of smooth walls and ceilings with flat floors. The walls were a muted brown in color with the floor a shade or two darker. The resin was still on the walls but it was smooth. In the ceilings was some kind of biological light source. It was a line of glowing material that was flat. It was not perfectly straight and made me think it was made by some bio-tech the lizards used. The light was mostly white with a bit of a bluish tinge.

I stopped at every intersection and used my sneak to look around the corner. It was a small two millimeter thin fully flexible scope. It extended to three meters and was for this exact purpose.

The finished but deserted corridors were quite eerie. For over two hours we had been wandering and had not seen a single Lizard. Granted we were moving slow and carefully, but we had covered a decent amount of ground. At each intersection we turned and tried it. Neither of us thought it was a good idea to move further in where the main passage was leading us. Each time we had to back track. They were dead ends and we headed down deeper in the rabbit hole.

We found either collapsed tunnels or rooms that we did not search. Our goal was getting up and out not exploring the mysteries of Lizard life.

"Why the fuck haven't we found any Lizards or a way up?" Amy asked.

"No idea. But nobody's ever been down in a Lizard colony like this before as far as I know. I'm seriously thinking we need to turn the fuck around and try another way."

"No. We can't. This might be important. Besides we have tried already. Everything is blocked."

"I'm sure it is important. I'm just not sure it's more important than us," I said.

"We've been lucky so far. Keep going. You have good instincts Thad."

Some instincts I thought. My instinct was telling me to get the fuck out of here and waste the fucking planet from orbit. I kept my mouth shut though and moved on. The battle comps placed us at two hundred and twenty meters depth by their inertial reckoning. The further we went the deeper it got. We had been down many ramps taking us down a half level or so at a time.

All along the corridor we were walking down were barracks. There were rooms with beds we thought. Their beds were more nest like and on the floor. They had heads that were mostly just holes in the ground. There were lockers to store personal stuff in and the other trappings to make life a little more livable. It was all somewhat familiar.

We knew for certain we were in a military section and had been ever since we came down. We guessed that was both good and bad. The fighting Lizards should all be up getting killed by us so it was empty. If we were discovered though it would be by the warrior class and we would have a real fight on our hands. One I was not sure we could win.

The first door which was not immediately obvious was in front of us. There was no handle nor did it open automatically as we approached. Being worried about alerting somebody to our presence we were overly careful. We managed to figure out how to open it eventually. It may have been locked but there was no way to tell. There was an identical panel on the door's other side as well. I thought it probably wasn't locked after all. Just closed and we didn't know how to open it.

The other side was a short hall the ended in a door that looked like it might be a elevator of some sort. The two rooms off of this were some kind of substation. It looked like some kind of command center. There were terminals that reminded me of old style terminals from movies. But there was a difference. These had an element of the biotech we had seen throughout. The screens almost looked wet and they were rounded.

The other room had sleeping quarters for a few Lizards. These were more spacious so were most likely for officer types.

"I've not seen any type of camera or surveillance yet. Have you?" I asked Amy.

"No," she said looking at the door with me.

"Of course we have no idea what a Lizard camera looks like. They could be watching us and laughing as we head towards a trap."

"Oh shut up. Men," she said clearly annoyed at my comment.

"It looks like an elevator doesn't it?" I said looking at the only other option.

"Yeah. I'm not sure we should push that button though," she said.

"Not unless we set a B4 here to welcome it and we were no place nearby. Let's force it and see if we can climb up."

"A man that doesn't think with his small head. I'm impressed," she said.

"That's just because I can't see you," I said as I pried the doors open.

It was an elevator shaft. The car was nowhere in sight. Cables were suspended from the top of the shaft several meters up.

"Just down," I said.

"Shit," she breathed quietly.

I turned to her. We didn't have a choice. When I reached up to remove my helmet Amy did the same. She leaned in towards me and we kissed.

"I love you," I told her looking into her eyes.

"I love you too. I'm glad it was you," she said softly.

"So am I," I said meaning it. If she was stuck down here I wanted to be with her.

After another kiss we put our helmets back on.

I leaned in and grabbed a cable and started to lower myself down. No climbing. We just relaxed our grip and let the cable slip through our hands at the rate we wanted to descend.

Three hundred eighty meters later we got to a door. The shaft kept on going with no end in sight but the battle comp told us the car was another hundred meters down. The shaft could go further. We did not want to go down to where the car was. The idea was escape not assault.

Slipping my sneak under the door I looked around. There was not much to see. Another corridor like the one above was all I could see. We waited wanting to make sure there were no Lizards or at least get an idea of how many. After ten minutes we had not seen any Lizards so decided to risk it.

First we went down to the next level which was ten meters down and peeked in with a sneak. I wanted to know what some options were if we ran into serious trouble. It was another corridor like the others. Waiting showed no signs of activity. So back up we went.

The doors were easily forced open. We let them close behind us. Instead of checking every option we paused at each opening to see if it was clear but moved on quickly. We guessed that any other access to the surface would not be near the access down and into what had to be the heart of the colony, or at least this section.

This level was not barracks. It appeared to be some sort of repair facility. The only reason we could guess that is we saw parts of the dart throwers and plasma weapons. The rest of the parts were a fucking mystery. There were vats of foul looking goop along with sticky large things that appeared to grow components to their fighting gear. It all looked like it was abandoned hastily. Things were just lying around or scattered.

There was no other lift or way up or down we could find. We back tracked and went down. We passed the next one and moved further towards the car that was still in place. There was not another opening though. I was able to get my sneak down next to the car and the doors were open. Within a few minutes we saw a gator walk out and down the corridor away from the elevator. He was not snailed up or armed except for a large knife, but he was wearing what most gators wore into battle when unsailed. It was basic body armor and harness for weapons.

The sneak was long enough to verify that the elevator car was not at the bottom and the shaft continued. There was no way past it while wearing armor.

Back at the opening above the car we took another look with the sneak before opening the doors. Inside we quickly moved. This level proved to be similar to the one above. Instead of weapons though it appeared to be vats for growing or storing snails. There also was no way up or down except for the way we came. I was paying special attention to any security devices and neither Amy or I could find anything that we thought might be one. Of course we might not recognize a Lizard one and were seeing them all over unaware of what they were. Since we had not ran into any welcoming party I was hopeful they didn't bother with them in what was so far a secure area until Amy and I came along.

So far we had not spotted any other way to move between levels. I guess Lizards were not worried about elevator failures, at least in the section we were in. We opened up the top access and with a quick look went into the proverbial lion's den.

It was sort of anti climatic. No squad of dragons popped out to attack. I just moved over and out of the lift to make room for Amy who landed quietly, or as quietly as a little over six hundred kilos of armor and gear can be.

The million credit question was, do we run for the far end, do we go slow and cautious hopefully killing any Lizards quietly and quickly, or do we try something in between.