"Do you ever wonder what's happening on the surface?" Gaspar asked, lounging on the piece of fallen debris that passed for a couch in their wrecked shopfront. There was some kind of mechanical fault in the sanitation plant that required attention from the engineers, so they had DG's equivalent of a rest day. The damage from the earthquake had mostly settled by now, but the most vital systems were difficult to shut down without killing everyone.

"No." Delphine said, not even looking at him.

"Really? Just no?"

"You were talking to yourself. Might as well be honest about it."

DH-3313 cackled. Gaspar raised an eyebrow. "May I narrate my thoughts, then?"

He couldn't see their faces through their helmets, but the three DGs that weren't on watch slumped backwards in what he was coming to interpret as 'whatever'.

DS-2419, the team sniper, quirked one corner of his mouth. "It's a rest day. Could use something to put me to sleep."

Gaspar had to smile. "Fair. Soliloquy it is."

He attempted to dramatically look aside, but realised that DG borns probably hadn't spent much time going to the theatre, although confusingly, he had found out that they knew some snippets of LOVELESS. So he just launched into it.

"Got talking to somebody, and he told me something. The reactor is still running. So the Planet wasn't destroyed. Which means if we can get out, there'll be something there to salvage maybe. Maybe even people alive."

DS-2419 pointedly yawned.

Since it was actually accomplishing something, Gaspar kept up the monologue for as long as possible, but making dramatic speeches was not his forte. Keeping track of time was not any easier these days, but he couldn't have been speaking longer than a few minutes.

DGs seldom removed their helmets, making it difficult to read their expressions. But Delphine appeared to be asleep. 2419 was not, but as a sniper, he was used to staying alert for long boring intervals, which was not a point in favour of Gaspar's rhetorical skill.

"So, were you listening at all?"

The sniper gave a one shoulder shrug. "Enough. The reactor running means the planet is alive. Doesn't mean that people are. And even if they are… so what? What difference does that make to us?"

"You would rather be-?"

There was a snap of gunfire from beyond their shopfront nest. Delphine snapped awake, and everyone reached for their guns.

By now, everyone had an assigned position when trouble beckoned. 2419 had a sniper's nest up top. Gaspar and DH-3313 were the team heavies, and covered the front and back entrances respectively, hiding behind the doorless frames to engage anyone that breached the entrances. DG-1714 and DG-1184 had positions at broken windows over each entrance covering as many angles of approach as possible.

Delphine stayed in the relatively secure main room of the shopfront, co-ordinating the defence and acting as emergency reserve if necessary.

Gaspar had been drilled on the procedures enough that he could play his part. By the time he'd taken his position, the gunfire had been followed by a Guard Hound's howl.

Gaspar relaxed marginally. Some of the most inhospitable areas of DG were surrendered to the Guard Hounds, and sometimes the population of those areas got big enough that the weakest hounds had to leave their territory looking for people to eat. Another area of DG was given over to the DGs that no longer had higher brain functions, and others were given over to giant beetles. Any of those areas that went hunting was something that could be defended against relatively easily. A Rossostorm was not.

Gunshots and screams continued to echo through the silence of Deepground, beyond line of sight, together with Guard Hound howls and shrieks. From his position, Gaspar could see only an empty street and desolate structures, some of which were occupied, but all were quiet.

Some kind of heavy gun turret opened up in the distance, then suddenly cut off accompanied by a long male death scream. That was interesting. A guard hound swarm would have difficulty taking on a heavy gun. Potentially there was more to this.

A muzzle flash flickered somewhere in the distance. There was no indication of what they were shooting at. Another. A third. Gaspar noted the position of the sniper nest in case it was useful later. He flicked a glance at DG-1714, lying motionless at her perch on the window ledge. She did not move, so he returned to his vigil.

The front entrance to their shopfront faced onto a fairly broad, exposed street. Any assault would be seen long before it could get close. But what many did not realise was that while Hounds were prone to charge, they also knew how to stalk.

A heavy armoured soldier suddenly staggered out of a side street in his view, a guard hound's jaws clenched tight on each arm. Gaspar jerked in shock –even with SOLDIER senses, he had had no idea any of them were there. A third Hound emerged from the alley, easily avoiding a strike from a heavy blade as she lunged forward and clamped her jaws on one of his legs, putting the Heavy Armoured soldier onto his back in a clatter of metal.

One of the hounds got too eager and went for the throat, and was met by a mailed fist that visibly caved in its shoulder. The hound retreated with a yowl, disappearing back into the alley. The other two ripped free a few chunks of flesh before retreating back into cover. There was no such thing as easy meat in Deepground, and even Guard Hounds knew not to linger in the open.

The heavy armoured soldier was wounded but alive. Faced with the choice of staying in an open street covered by snipers and the narrow side alleys inhabited by hounds, the armoured soldier eventually began to slowly crawl into the alley he had emerged from. A brave choice, given that the hounds might well be waiting for him, but options were limited.

. Watching the drama, Gaspar was caught by surprise when DG-1714 began shooting. He'd missed the bestial human crawling up the wall, but DG-1714 had not. It had been close to lunging for him, unseen.

She only fired one burst, eviscerating the monster, but that was enough for a sniper perched somewhere nearby to find her. The shot went through her shoulder, narrowly missing her head. There was a hiss of pain, but no scream.

It was quickly followed by a gunshot report in retaliation from DS-2419's sniper perch. A few more echoes of traded shots before silence ensued.

2419 had descended from his perch by the time Gaspar had carried 1714 into the main room.

"You get em?" Delphine asked, standing up to clear a space.

2419 shook himself. "Don't know. The nest is four buildings away in subsector 19, not sure if it's a permanent nest or opportunism."

Gaspar laid down 1714 in the indicated spot, and Delphine began removing 1714's armour. He looked around. "Why'd they take the shot?"

"Irrelevant," Delphine said, examining the wound. "I can stabilise her for now, but we'll need some better healing items to put her out of danger."

"We… don't have any?" Gaspar asked, squinting at her.

"You kept getting beaten up." She looked up. "There's a vending machine on warehouse 342's wall, but getting there right now will not be easy. There will still be hounds on the streets and everyone will be inclined to shoot strangers first."

2419 took a deep breath, the lower half of his face pale. "I'm sorry, Seventeen." He began to reach for his sidearm. Gaspar snapped up a hand.

"What are you doing, she just said she'll make it with the right gear!"

"If we can get it. Everyone will be there right now, there's no opening.."

Gaspar drew another breath. "I'll go. Got the best chance."

Silence. Then 1714 laughed, even through obvious pain. "Still… a fucking… bleeding heart."

"Guess so."

2419 squeezed his shoulder in thanks, then began climbing to return to his sniping perch. Gaspar looked at Delphine. "Boss?"

There was a long pause, before Del actually smiled. "Go. Don't fuck this up."

He waved in acknowledgement and moved towards the door.

000000

Gaspar had not wandered Deepground's streets alone since he had first arrived. That time, he'd known very little of the danger he was in. He was a cat, not a helpless mouse, true, but he was in the territory of dogs.

The warren of twisted alleyways was excellent for ambushes, but the lack of sniping alleys made up for it. The downside was that he was almost immediately hopelessly lost Signposts were another thing in short supply in Deepground.

The first ambush was almost a relief. At least it meant he was not wandering in circles. He had ducked through an empty doorway to circle around a collapsed wall when the Beast Soldier lunged from above. Its jaws sparked from his armour, and his fist to its gut made the thing crumple, moaning in pain. He moved on before it could recover, hoping that at least he would have a landmark now.

Ducking through the next empty doorframe, he jerked back just in time to avoid the heavy sword cleaving his head from his shoulders, striking sparks off the stone in his wake. Springing backwards, he moved back towards the other doorway.

The EM Barrier flared up in the entryway. Now there was an inconvenient development.

The heavy armoured soldier moved into the room, tucking the keycard into a pocket.

Gaspar flicked his eyes around, taking his bearings. This was a small stone room with barriers over each entry, with no room for dodging, putting him at a disadvantage against the heavier soldier. Talking time.

He cocked his head. "Do I know you?"

"No," Heavy Armoured Soldier said, readying himself. There would be one swing and then an opening. The trick would be not getting cut in half by the swing. "You kicked in my door and hurt my brother."

Gaspar flicked his eyes to the wounded monster. "Your brother?"

"Once upon a time. I keep him locked in so he doesn't run to join the pack."

Gaspar would have winced, but couldn't spare the attention. But here was an opening, thanks to the sheer fluke that he hadn't immediately killed the monster. "I'm on my way to get medical gear. I can drop some in on the way back."

"You expect me to believe you'll return?"

"It does seem unlikely," Gaspar admitted. "Your other option is to take your swing, and hope it kills me before I get inside your guard."

Long silence, but no immediate death. Then the Heavy Armoured Soldier moved to the EM Barrier and swiped his keycard, keeping his back to the wall. Gaspar backed out slowly, then left at a full sprint. He could have won, but he would have probably got hurt.

More distant gunfire gave him his bearings, and before too much longer he was crouched on the edge of a mostly collapsed rooftop, waiting for a chance to make a move.

The vending machine was across perhaps fifty yards of open ground, set against the side of a building, one of the few that appeared undamaged. This one was on the fringes of Azul's territory, right next to a Guard Hound nest. It would be exposed to Azul's snipers on approach.

There was no sign of Guard Hound swarms beyond a few corpses. Later he would learn that Shelke's border guards had deflected the bulk of the swarm into Rosso's territory with skilful use of chokepoints and EM barriers, and the hounds he'd seen previously were the lucky or skilled few to have slipped the net.

For now, he had more immediate problems. The vending machine sat there, shiny and stocked, waiting for him to move.

A Black Widow mech was patrolling in front of the vending machine, and while he hadn't seen much of them, he knew enough to be aware that he could not take it on alone. All across the rooftops, similar calculations were being made for other injured soldiers, waiting for someone else to put their head over the parapet.

Open ground meant snipers. There were enough possible nests that he'd never see the shot coming before it arrived. There would be other machines, but this was the one he knew the way to, and time was short.

Someone else's nerve broke first, and a rocket streaked out from a neighbouring building. It was well aimed, knocking the Widow backwards into the wall.

As it spun to rake the offending building, Gaspar was already running. He outpaced the snipers, hearing shots strike sparks from stone in his wake, but the Widow's attention wasn't so easily thrown off, and as it recovered it lined up a perfect shot with some kind of burny beamy thing.

Moving too fast to stop, he slid off his feet, and watched the ray thing flash past his nose, close enough that he could smell burning hair. As it moved forward to trample him, the front of its body gave a hard crack to his forehead, knocking him flat as it charged over him to face fire from the other surrounding buildings.

It was at approximately this point that Gaspar began thinking that perhaps this was a bad plan. Feeding coins into a vending machine, with a gun battle happening behind him was not the most comfortable place he'd ever been, but the Widow was preoccupied with the other gunfire it was taking while inadvertently shielding him from it, so somehow it worked, and he got the twelve doses of curatives that he had come here for.

Task done, he rammed his sword into the back of the Widows camera unit, It bounced without leaving a mark, and the machine swivelled to face him. He saw the burny beam thing line up for a shot, too close to contemplate dodging this time, and then suddenly freeze. There was another heartbeat of hesitation, and then the Widow scuttled away, exposing him to enemy fire and turning to face Azul's territory, laying down heavy fire on the snipers therein.

Gaspar wasted no time in his headlong sprint back into cover as gunfire echoed in his wake once more.

000000

"So, you're not dead," Delphine observed as he limped in the door and handed over ten doses of curatives.

"Not yet," Gaspar said, sitting down with his back to the nearest wall. " I know, I'm surprised too."

Already busy working on 1714, she didn't bother to respond.

Twenty minutes later, Delphine tapped on the wall to bring 2419 down from the sniper nest. 2419 descended at speed, then suddenly stopped short, as he went through the 'can I hug you without hurting you' calculation. 2419 evidently decided it was inadvisable, but 1714 called him a coward for hesitating, which fixed that.

He then carried her up to the sniper nest, squeezing Gaspar's shoulder on the way past. This was not one of wordless communications he was familiar with, so after they had gone Gaspar looked at Delphine.

"Do you know what that means?"

DG-1184, at his post near the door, giggled. "My guess would be: Shit, I have to listen to your whining now."

While the taste of victory was sweet, Gaspar decided he was currently too tired to exert his new whining privileges. But he would not forget either.