"I don't like this!" Kait was yelling. The lights of their armour illuminated her face enough that he could see her mouth form the words, but there was so much noise he couldn't hear her.
The drilling of the Grindlift as it plummeted through the sand and stone and dirt was probably the loudest thing he would ever endure. Even that failing mining elevator down into the Swarm nest hadn't been this loud.
The rattling of the machine had him vibrating inside his armour and he could feel his skin rub and chafe through the constant shaking. His hands seemed to have gone numb long ago from the strain of holding on to the harness, and there was the hot burn of overworked muscles radiating up his arms.
He'd been holding Kait's hand for the first few seconds of their thunderous decent, then they'd both let go at the same moment to clutch at their own harnesses and hold on for their lives.
JD could feel the Grindlift pod drill its way through the earth at an impressive speed, and there were brief moments of terrifying weightlessness as they crashed through into open air before slamming and drilling through rock again. During those fleeting half-seconds the noise inside the pod dropped enough that he could hear the sharp panicked breaths of Kait and himself and then the deafening drilling would take over again. In the faintest regions of his terrified mind he realized they must have been breaking and falling through some of the shallower tunnels left by the Locust, then burrowing deeper.
At some point he'd clenched his eyes shut, not that it made any difference. Even with his eyes open there wasn't much to see, but at least with them slammed shut he wasn't focused on trying to find and focus on some invisible horizon to steady himself with.
Another moment of gut-wrenching freefall pushed him upwards in his harness and he heard the drill whine with uninhibited speed, and then there was bone-jarring crash and his knees buckled as his full weight and momentum hammered downwards, straining the straps.
It took far too long for JD realize that they weren't tunnelling anymore, and his ears rang shrilly as the Grindlift engine began winding down. It was at that moment he heard his voice yelling through his grinding teeth. He cut the sound off with a hoarse cough and felt his throat ache.
With effort he forced his face to relax and his eyes opened enough to squint in the darkness of the pod. Their armour was still illuminating the space, and JD could see that Kait was no better off than he was after their horrifying ride. Kait's eyes were screwed shut and she was panting and quaking in her harness, and JD swore he could hear the faintest sound of a whimper on the ends of each breath.
"Is…is that it?" JD asked with a weak voice after several seconds had ticked by. He tried to loosen his hands and found his muscles cramped tight, and it took real focus and effort to straighten his fingers and let go of the harness. The stitching and weave of the strap fabric were imprinted clearly on his palms, his knuckles still white from the strain. He shook his hands a few times to help ease the burning pain in his tendons.
His radio buzzed and there was a cough in his ear, then his father's voice. "James? You two alright?" Marcus sounded a little shaken, but significantly steadier than JD did.
JD swallowed and took a breath to calm himself, then to Kait he said, "You good?"
Kait still seemed to be struggling to find her voice, but managed to give a trembling OK sign with her hand.
It took a few trembling seconds for his fingers to find his ear piece, then he managed a weak "Y-yeah." Then after swallowing JD pressed his ear piece again. "Yeah, we're in one piece."
He almost reached up and pulled on the door release, then his sense kicked in and he unbuckled his harness instead. JD pulled his rifle from the weapon's rack and awkwardly tried to shift to face the door in the tiny space, inadvertently pinning Kait back against the wall. She didn't complain though, and moved herself to be as far out of the way as possible.
With his rifle held ready, JD yanked the release and aimed into the darkness as the door whisked aside. The world beyond was an inky black that absorbed any light their armour cast into it. There were a few silent seconds as JD moved his rifle back and forth, his ears straining to hear anything. His ears were ring incessantly, like a hundred shrill bugs sitting and singing on his shoulders. When no threat appeared, he stepped out of the pod.
"Clear." He hissed back to Kait, who undid her harness and lifted her rifle from the rack.
His eyes adjusted to the darkness and he scanned around, immediately looking for an escape route like he had been trained. If they got ambushed down here, they needed to know where the exits were. Not that escape was a hugely viable option when they'd just drilled what felt like a hundred kilometres down into Sera's crust.
They'd landed inside a tunnel, perhaps five metres in diameter. It curved downwards and away about fifty metres ahead. JD had never been in a Locust tunnel before, but he'd seen plenty of pictures and videos of them during his days at the academy. They all looked the same, so far as he could tell: rough hewn walls, worn floors from the marching of thousands of grubs, cracks and indentations where Corpsers had impaled their big legs to move up and down. This tunnel looked a little smoother perhaps, but definitely looked like a Locust tunnel.
The air was warm and humid, and smelled of wet soil and metallic rot. It wasn't an unexpected smell considering where they were, and despite the dank conditions he found the scent to be rather pleasant. It brought back memories of digging in the garden with his mother, planting flowers and shrubs and potatoes. JD took a deep breath and turned back to the pods.
Ten metres away Marcus stood outside his own pod and JD could hear a hushed torrent of curses coming from Fahz as he stepped out. Dave zipped out of the pod a moment later, looking no worse for wear.
"I am never, fucking ever, doing that again!" Fahz stammered out, stumbling with unsteady legs as he tried to walk in their direction.
"Woah." Kait said as she stepped up beside JD, and JD followed her gaze upwards.
He'd been so focused on an escape route and thinking back on old memories that he had failed to notice the growing light in the cavern. In several areas the surfaces of the tunnel were shimmering and glowing, casting a soft blue light that was bright enough to see by. It was like an abnormally bright starry night, and it appeared to run throughout the cave.
As he moved closer to the wall, JD noticed that the glow was being emitted by clusters of small spotted growths that clung to the damp rock. It reminded him a little of the green fuzzy moss that covered the damp sides of the trees back home.
Kait reached out and poked one of the glowing clumps with her rifle muzzle and JD watched as the the blue material caved piteously under the slight amount of pressure.
Marcus appeared along side and tore a small piece of the organism off the wall and examined it. It kept glowing even as it crumpled in his gloved fingers, and he let it fall to the ground.
"Fungus." He grunted. "Bioluminescent."
"You think it's dangerous?" JD asked after a moment, eyeing the illuminated ceiling overhead. "Spores or something?"
They'd packed air filtration masks in the storage compartments of their pods, but they'd already been breathing the air for a couple minutes. JD kicked himself for not thinking of the hazard before exiting the Grindlift pod.
Dave beeped above them and extended a manipulator to prod a section of fungus. There was a moment of whirring from the bot, then a joyful beep.
Fahz joined them, still looking shaken after their descent, and held up his forearm for the others to see. He had Dave's control screen strapped to his arm.
"Little man says it's all good. No toxins or venom or any of that."
"What's it say about air quality?" Kait asked, clearly on the same thought path as JD.
Fahz looked down at the illuminated panel and tapped at it with a finger. Then he extended his arm for them to see again and shrugged.
"Looks okay to me."
JD leaned in and read the readouts. "Carbon dioxide's a little higher than normal, but good oxygen levels. Some dust, bit of mould, but nothing dangerous. Yeah, I think we're good." Then as an extra thought he looked up at the bot. "Thanks Dave."
"You ever see anything like this before, Marcus?" Kait turned to the old Gear. Marcus gazed around the tunnel and shook his head.
"No." He murmured, looking around their surroundings. "This is new."
"Well as much as I'd like to hang around and take samples and ooh and aah over the pretty rocks, can we please get this whole thing over with?" Fahz asked, staring up at the stone overhead with clear apprehension.
"Right," JD said as he walked back to the pod, giving the other man a knock with his shoulder as he moved passed him. "Forgot about Fahz's little fear of enclosed spaces."
"It's not little, and it's not the enclosed space I'm worried about. It's the few thousand tons of rock crushing the life from our teensy bodies." Fahz pressed his thumb and forefinger together like he was suddenly and violently squishing a small bug.
They unloaded their gear from the pods and strapped the kit bags to their backs. It was a lot of equipment, but they had to be ready for a variety of situations and there were no airdrops for extra supplies or support. If they didn't have all the necessary tools to navigate it was likely they'd be forced to return to Baird empty handed.
JD shot Fahz a look and jerked his chin at Dave's control panel on his arm. The map glowed beneath the blue fungal light and he could see how the tunnels spread out to create a complex web.
Fahz tapped the screen and the map zoomed out to show their destination flashing in red, with their current location in green. A plotted route was illuminated in blue and JD frowned at the way it zigzagged its way through the myriad of passages, avoiding dead ends and cave-ins.
"That's gonna be a long hike." He said quietly. "Alright Dave, you lead the way."
Dave gave a confirming beep and set off at a comfortable walking pace. The bot shone his light about to help them with their footing, but the luminescent fungus on the walls was often bright enough they could see without the added light.
The initial section of the tunnel—the part they had landed in—was fairly smooth and easy to traverse. As they moved on, the passage narrowed and branched. Dave didn't pause and floated off to the left.
JD thought the desolated city above had been quiet but he had no idea just how noisy it was compared to the stillness beneath. There were so many sounds you could ignore, like the breeze or rustling grass or scurrying rats. In the darkness of the tunnel, there was absolutely nothing making noise.
The sound of their boots hitting the loose stone sent echoes rattling down the passageway. JD swore he could hear his father's slow steady breaths from ten metres away and every crinkle and flex of Kait's clothing. Even Dave's near-silent thrumming sounded like a thundering Raven's engine.
They walked on for a long time without speaking much, following Dave as he led them through junctions and forks in the tunnel network.
As they crossed a large tunnel—some sort of main underground highway—Marcus paused and looked at the dirt. He reached to his belt and withdrew a flashlight and clicked it on, pointing it at the ground.
"What is it?" JD asked.
"Footprints." Marcus said after a moment, casting the beam around his boots, then down the tunnel. Frowning, JD walked over to see for himself.
Sure enough, there were faded footprints leading up the incline of the tunnel. Marcus moved the beam and JD spotted a second and third set. Then a fourth and fifth.
It took him a moment to step back and get a proper look, and once he had JD felt hard dread settle in the pit of his stomach.
There were hundreds of prints. An army's worth.
"That's…not good." JD uttered.
"That's a lot of Swarm." Fahz added, sounding equally as disturbed.
Kait had her own flashlight in her hand and dropped to one knee. She ran her fingers over the dirt and traced the outline of the footprint.
"I don't think these were Swarm." She said a few seconds later. "Look at this, the print's all wrong." Kait ran her fingers over the outer edge of the footprint. "It's too big, too broad. Swarm drone prints are narrower along the heel, and they leave more distinct talon marks." She tapped one end of the footprint. "And there're too many toes."
JD had gone hunting with Kait in the woods surrounding her Outsider village, and while he had never seen her do much tracking, she had amazing survival skills. To him the footprint didn't look like much other than a potato-shaped imprint in the dirt, but he knew better than to doubt Kait's abilities.
"When did you have the chance to study Swarm footprints?" JD asked, squatting down beside her.
"Oh about three minutes after they attacked Fort Umson." Kait said casually. "I can also tell the different between mouse and shrew tracks, not to mention turkey and pheasant tracks."
"You'll have to teach me sometime." He said absently, still focusing on the sheer number of footprints laid out before them. "If they're not Swarm, then what are they?"
"Locust." Marcus said slowly. He was still staring down at the ground with his flashlight. "They're Locust footprints."
"You're telling me there're Locust down here?" Fahz's voice took on an angry, incredulous lilt.
"I wouldn't worry too much," Kait brushed her hand over another footprint, clearing away loose sand and dirt. "These prints are ancient."
"You're sure?" It was a knee-jerk question, out of his mouth before JD had even registered the thought. JD knew Kait wouldn't put forward an assessment like that without full confidence in its certainty. He leaned closer and his shoulder plates knocked against hers as he stared down at the spotlight from her flashlight.
Kait rapped her knuckles on the ground. "It was muddy when they went walking through here, but it dried out a long time ago. This is basically concrete now."
To demonstrate her point, Kait drew her combat knife and attempted to chisel the edge of the footprint. There was a sharp metallic tink tink as the knife failed to chip away the dirt.
JD touched a footprint with the fingertips of his newly healed hand and felt how hard and unyielding the soil was. He wanted to try scratching at it with his thumbnail to affirm its hardness, but he remembered belatedly that his fingernails hadn't fully regrown yet. JD adjusted his weight and reached down with his left, uninjured hand and raked his fingers over the ground. It was like touching a piece of sandstone, solid and rough.
Kait stood and shone her light around, scanning the footprints carefully. She walked across the tunnel and back again, scrutinizing every line and imprint on the ground.
With a click, she extinguished her flashlight and gave a sure nod. "Nothing's recent. The Locust were here, but I bet it was back before the end of the war." Then she craned her head back and looked up at the glowing fungus over head. "We're probably the first living things down here in over twenty-five years."
"And you're sure about that?" Fahz asked warily.
"If I'm wrong and we run into a Locust army down here, then I promise you can lord it over me for the rest of my life."
Fahz snorted. "If we run into a Locust army, the lording will only last about ten seconds because then we'll all be dead."
"Then I won't have to suffer your gloating for long." Kait shot Fahz a dry, flat smile before walking in Dave's direction.