Mission to Polus

[Logan Shivers]

Logan Stood on the bridge of the Black Dragon. It had just come out of the shipyard with a brand new look. Fully restored, the battle scars of the past erased, and with a paintjob that would make it stand out in any fleet. The Faceless Hunter Alliance would not be one to hide away, this would be a strong, bold faction, and it would show it most in its flagships colours.

She was due a shakedown cruise, some war games in DS with other AMC ships and he was looking forward to it. After the months and months of virtual inactivity following the… erm…. “event” at Saarn, he needed to do something, he was getting itchy.

Having forces that were barely within your control fighting it out in your head was not good for your long term health, and Logan had been forced to take time to put those forces back under control. And not just barely under control, but strongly. It had taken time, effort and some blood on his behalf, but he was now back in equilibrium. Neither the dark, nor the light was ruling him and that was how it was best kept he had realised. Well, perhaps claiming to have realised it is a stretch. It had taken several Celestial Knights to pound it into his thick skull, but however it had got there, the message had finally stuck.

He had also woken up with a new look. The doctors had been tinkering again and replaced his damaged eyes with implants. Not full cybernetics but prosthetics. He had wondered about why the damn things glowed in different colours, but when he asked, the doctors were just as bemused. The implants should not glow in ANY colour, should not glow full stop.

He had declined further tinkering in his head, enough was enough. If he was going to have glowing eyes, they may as well be as divided as his soul. In fact, it was probably his damned soul showing itself in the damned stupid things.

He may not have been a lover of technology, but he had to admit these new additions had returned his sight to what it had been before the Carlac sun had tried its best to cook him. They even worked well in the dark, like his eyes used to. So although he would never admit it, Logan was one happy, if slightly metallic, reptilian.

Standing at his full height, with his spiked armour and all new f***ed up eyes look, he posed a terrifying visage. One that his men knew to treat with respect, with honour. But not because of his appearance, no, that would just make him shallow and pathetic. No, he commanded those feelings because of who he was, of what he had done, and for how he himself treated people.

Logans mind wondered as he stared out into the voids of space. The shipyard hub was far behind them now and it would not be long before they hit hyper, but for now, all that lay ahead of them was a vastness like no other, a deep black that had more depth in it than could be comprehended by a sentient brain, broken up only by the pinpricks of light that were distant stars. It was a sight that always helped him meditate. When he was on the “Asylum”, the Lictor Class that had been his home recently, he found that meditation always came to him much easier if he could stare out into deep space.

The bulk of a Hutt moved up behind him, breaking into his part meditation. He did not turn around, did not even change his stance. Hands still clasped behind his back he waited until the Hutt had stopped moving.

“Yes Sen?”

Sen Cavi, once the Negotiator of the Bone Collectors was now putting his talents to use as Logans attache. His somewhat questionable contacts in the galactic underworld provided him with a wealth of information about just about everything and anything illicit and the creature seemed to just have a knack for organising and liaising. If the AMC did not already have a talented High Ambassador, Logan would have pushed for Sen to be considered. Right now Sen was trying not to show how uncomfortable it made him when Logan could just sense that he was there… he had tried so damn hard to enter the bridge discreetly.

“A comm message has just come through requesting that we wait in this sector until a holo meeting is arranged between you and Proconsul Shri Bacca.”

“Shri? I cant imagine he would want to contact me personally about the refit AMC TECH have just done?”

“There was no hint of what the meeting would be about, only that it would commence in…. 29 minutes as of now.”
Logan grunted.

“At least I wont be in suspense for long. Set it up in the briefing room Sen, I will be there shortly.”

“Already done.”

Logan smiled to himself. His face did not lend itself to it on the outside, however the skeletal cover of his face mask was a permanent rictus he supposed.

“I should have known as much.”

28 minutes later Logan entered the briefing room and stood behind his chair at the head of the table. Sen was the only other in the room and he ensured that the door was locked just in time for the holoprojector to come to life. The tall figure of Shri flickered into being and smiled a toothy grin at Logan.

“Greetings General, hope you are well? Are you happy with your new flagship?”

Logan nodded his head in greeting.
“Proconsul. I am well thank you, and… yes, the Dragon is, as expected, a work of art. But… I cant imagine you have called to check on the work… especially not before the shakedown?”

“Astute as always General. I have a mission for you, but perhaps not the Black Dragon. Any ship needs a shakedown, so arrange to use an alternative, the Dragon should continue with the war games as planned. You however…. Heard of a planet called Polus?”

Logan shook his head negatively just as an image of what could only be described as a snow ball appeared on the holo. Well, a snow ball with stones stuck in it and some melted bits full of water… it looked horrible, cold.

“It is not too far from our areas of influence and an independent planet. A rather odd sentient being populates it and calls it home. And we have just struck up a contract with them to re-take a mine that appears to have been hijacked by bandits.”

“It looks cold, something better suited to a fur….”

“Wrap up warm General. Full mission details to follow, please make your way there as a matter of urgency. The mine is extremely lucrative and provides such a cache of gemstones that it drives almost the entire Polus economy. It needs to be put back in its owners hands, fast.”

The holo cut out and the comm unit on the large central table bleeped to alert them to a received text file. Shri had known Logan would protest over the mission, he was predictable in that way. He would not care if it was dangerous, boring, suicidal… but cold? He was guaranteed to complain and protest about that. And so Shri had intentionally kept things brief. He smiled to himself as he got up to leave the room.

The comm unit at his desk bleeped. He read the message. It was ot worth repeating, not to civilized sentients. His smile broadened.

[Logan Shivers]

Just over a day later and the YV-666 “The Exploited”, escorted by two Mantis gunships was making its way to Polus. Logan was in the small bridge of the YV, still in his spiked armour despite its drawbacks in a somewhat confined environment. Sen was reeling of checklists of equipment and vehicles they had onboard for the mission but Logan was only half listening. He knew Sen would have it sorted, it was just a formality to inform him really. His mind was preoccupied with trying to think of ways that he could pay Shri back without getting kicked out of the AMC. He was certain that sending him to this icy hell was a practical joke, even if the mission itself was real.

“What is our ETA?”
Sen halted partway through his report, used to Logans ways by now so not offended or surprised by the interruption.
“72 hours 13 minutes, then a further 3 hours 22 minutes to planet orbit.”

“Sen, do what you do. Alert me when we are in orbit unless anything unusual crops up.”
With that he left the bridge and stalked to his ready room. He removed his heavy armour and decided on some sleep.

As expected, the journey to Polus was uneventfull. Logan spent most of it in force meditation and it came as somewhat of a surprise when he got a message from Sen advising him that orbit would be reached in under an hour. He made his way to the bridge, this time in his robe and barefoot, which is the way he preferred totrain and meditate.

The view in front of him was just as he had expected. A ice chocked planet with patches of blue where some water had managed to somehow stay above freezing. This was mostly around the equator.

“Sir, we have been given the coordinates of the mine. It is about 40 k’s from the metropolis. The Polus Council reports that all contact has been lost and what security forces they have, are not able to get anywhere near the mine due to extremely heavy finre.”

“Sounds to me like they don’t have much in the way of combat capable personell. Arrange to take us down into the starport, I have no desire to have this brick shot out of the sky before we get to do anything. Prepare the Jailspeeders and the Eddicus. See if it is viable for the Mantis to fly escort to them. If the terrain does not make that viable, get the Blaze trooper armour ready to run escort”

Sen made himself busy and was replaced by Argon, the mountainous Gamorrean.

“Four squads ready boss, got droids ready too.”

“Tin cans? Those things will freeze solid down there.”

“No boss, not inside mine. Can use inside mine.”

Logan grunted his understanding.

“Get the jailspeeders warmed up Argon, we got about an hour to landing. Will meet you in the hangar.”

Stooping to exit, Argon made his way back down into the hangar where the dimensions of the room just suited him much better. This ship was too cramped up for his liking, he preferred the much larger Black Dragon, or even the roomy Corona’s of the fleet.

As the ship got closer Logan saw that this place was not just cold, but it was angry. White storms thundered across its surface and as the ship descended through them it shook and rattled like it was in the middle of a proton torpedo bombardment. Logan reminded himself to pay Shri a visit soon.

From out of the white haze a darker patch appeared. It grew and became more substantial until it revealed itself to be a huge metropolis. The thing sprawled out for mile upon mile, it was amazing that such a city could exist on such an inhospitable rock. It became obvious that dome shields covered its entirety and as soon as they went through it the ship stopped its shaking. An immediate calm took over. The pilot flew them slowly over the tall spires, domes and suspended gardens of the amazing place until the starport came into view. It was time to get himself moving, he wanted to be on the hangar deck when they landed.
And so it was, quarter of an hour later Logan was standing on the hangar deck watching the ramp lowering itself. The city may be shielded by the weather, but it was still frigid. He, along with all his troops who were aboard the transports, were wrapped up in heavy arctic weather gear. It made Logan look like a slightly smaller brother of the blaze trouper armour units that lined the walls, but it made Argon look like…. Well, like an iceberg.

The ramp clanked down and revealed two sentients. A tall one, also wrapped up in arctic gear, and a much smaller one, an odd looking creature that seemed quite comfortable in its own skin, feathers maybe. He had never seen a Pengauani before, but he guessed this must be one. Surely nothing else would be comfortable in this place without even a layer of something warm….

Logan approached the two figures and looked down at the diminutive figure.

“Senator Iblig?”

“Yes yes, Iblig, and you the Logan? The Shivering one? The one who is friend to Oquan? You good fighter, he said so, he said you clear mine, you get them good.”

The creature chittered at such speed that Logan had barely been able to catch what it was saying. But he heard the important bits clear enough.

“Yes, I am Logan. Did you say Oquan?”

The taller figure removed his headgear and smiled a broad, sharp toothed grin at Logan. Brown fur surrounded the cheerfull and very recogniseable face of Oquan,

“You certainly got the right name for this place General Shivers!! Made me think of you as soon as I found out about their little problem!!”

“IT WAS YOU?!”

“I was on leave, on a little R&R on this awesome rersort on the coast here and…”

“And you thought to bring me over to freeze with you? You may be covered in fur, but did you miss the bit about me being a reptilian?! Cold is not exactly my idea of nice.”

The Senators chittering interrupted what could have ended up being an argument. One amongst friends, but an argument none the less…

“He say you cold but we say not cold in mines, he say you grumpy but we say that ok if you get mine back, he say you like drink, we say we got lots, you see, not so bad, you be good yes?”

The Senator had hit upone the key word.

“Drinks?”
“Yes yes yes, drinks, lots, after job yes?”
“Seems like we have a job to do. And one additional soldier to do it with.”
“Oh no, I am on leave, I….”
“You, are being our tour guide on this little expedition of ours.”
Logan nodded to Argon who grabbed the Wookie by the arm and helped him along the way into one of the transports. Oquan would never have missed out on a good fight, he was only putting on a show of resistance. In fact, he would have been pissed if Logan had not took him along, and Logan had seriously considered that option…. But… well, then he would have a moody drinking partner after the job so….

“Senator, I wont keep you, with your permission, we will head out?”

“Yes yes yes, you go quick, mine south of city, quickest way out use main boulevard, City Guard know you here know you are going, know you come back, no trouble.”

Logan nodded and jumped aboard the Eddicus that was being used as the Command vehicle. Three Jailbreakers and flanked by two speeder tanks. Last, but not least, a Ketrifee Air Mover followed up as the med-evac vehicle if things went bad. Two more KAM’s could be called upon as well as four more speeder tanks, but they were currently in the YV just as a back up. After all, the vehicles just had to get them to the mines, once they were in, the more they had with them, the more they needed to guard.

The group kept a moderate speed whilst in the city, there was quite a number of other vehicles about as you would expect from a prosperous metropolis such as this. But even at their moderate pace, it did not take long to get to the southern city limits. What looked like a white wall loomed up ahead of them which Logan realised with a groan was a white out of a storm beating against the city shields. That would not make for a comfortable journey, but on the bright side, he supposed it was not likely that their approach to the mines would be noticed either. That sort of weather played havoc with all but the most advanced sensor suites, and his intel told him that what was on site at the mine was far from that. There HAD been a very powerful sensor suite installed, but when the bandits first attacked they utterly destroyed it. Something that in the long run would prove a huge disadvantage to them as what they were apparently using now was some pretty standard sensor arrays that would not penetrate more than a couple of dozen yards in that mess.

The Eddicus entered the storm and it was like the whole shuttle had been hit with a giants hammer. It almost threw the shuttle back into the shielded city before the pilot managed to compensate for the sudden change in windspeeds and get the thing moving forward. The power increased to maximum and they ploughed forward, rattling, shaking and at times almost rolling as they went. All were strapped into seats, there was just no way you could not be. Logan gritted his teeth and looked across at Oquan who cracked a smile at him.

“See? It is already lots of fun!”
“So is planting my foot up your backside, but I bet YOU would not enjoy that. Its all a matter of perspective.”

Everyone settled down for what would be a long, hard ride to the mines. In clear weather it would perhaps take a couple of hours, in this mess, probably double.

[Logan Shivers]

Logan checked the helmet to his four weather gear and once satisfied with the inspection he put it on, sealing it to the suit with a soft click and a hiss of air.

His comm unit came to life and he ran a further check.
“Oquan, Argon, Cora, you hearing me?”
A grunt confirmed Argon, a growl from Oquan, whilst Cora decided on

“I believe the proper term is “you read me” sir, not…”
“Lucky for me your so smart mistress Cora, glad you’re hearing me and I got you loud and clear too.”

Logan had a brief chat with the pilot and returned to the suits comm,

“5 minutes, Argon, Cora, run comms checks with your units, be ready to dance.”

The six vehicles made their approach to the pre-designated staging area, 500 metres away from the mine. In this foul weather the sensors at the facility would not penetrate further than 100 metres, and unless they had obtained some seriously high tech military grade sensors and managed to install them in the few days since they hijacked the place, no civilian array would penetrate further than 450 metres in a complete white out blizzard.

The pilot of the Eddicus signalled their arrival and settled the shuttle down into the snow. Even half sunk into the surface snow, the battering of the wind was still making the vehicle shake. With some effort the exit ramp forced its way open, compacting snow under it and causing the shuttle to tils slightly up on that side. The hydraulics could not keep that level of pressure up though and the ramp eventually settled at a three quarters open state.

The inside of the shuttle was immediately slammed with flying ice crystals and a freezing wind that howled inside the confined space. Logan led the white suited exodus and as soon as they were out the ramp slammed shut. Logan, Oquan, Cora and Argon began their slow march towards the mining facility. Their plan to get closes enough for a visual inspection. A guard of eight took up positions on their flanks, four on either side, allowing the four commanders to concentrate on their target and not worry about what may or may not creep up on their blind sides.

Progress was painfully slow, having to almost dig their way forward in the snow that was two metres high in places, never lower than one. Their trails vanished behind them within minutes and if they stopped for any period of time, snow drifted up against them and they became covered themselves. If the suits they were in failed, they would have perhaps a few minutes to either sort it out, or get hauled into a vehicle before freezing to death. The temperature was currently reading -48 degrees Celsius. Even their weapons had been wrapped in specially designed cases to keep them functional in such extreme conditions, courtesy of the Senator.

Almost an hour later they had made it close enough to study the facility with macros. A distance most of them would normally have been able to see without aid, required that enhancement now. Logan studied what he could see and compared it mentally to the map they had all been provided showing the layout of the facility. Although the mine was huge, stretching out for kilometres underground, the surface structure was not so large. A squat, rectangular building protruded from a rockface that seemed to stretch upwards indefinitely. No windows at all, one small side entrance and then a large, heavily armoured hangar door were the only ornamenttions on the otherwise drab building. A smaller construction could just about be seen slightly higher up on the rockface which they could identify as the main ventilation unit for the mine. Four other such units existed, each over a kilometre away to assist in this task, but importantly none of the ventilation systems contained any ducting or pipework big enough to allow access to anything but air. The builders had been very carefull with the security of this facility, considering the enormous value of its extractions.

Of course this meant that now that it had actually been hijacked… it would be that much harder to get it back from the hijackers. Oquan lowered his pair of macros and spoke to Logan and the two other commanders through the suit comms

“The Senator believes they have crammed two GR-75’s into that hangar. If they can stay holed up in there for long enough they could fill them and make a run for it. With storms like this a regular feature… it is quite possible they could make it, impossible to have ships hold station in the area and even if they did… it would be touch and go if the sentries would pick up the escaping ships in time to track them. This is better than your average dumbass pirate.”

“Yeah, so we got to crack that open and go in, sitting around not going to help nobody but them. Argon, Cora, go back until you cant see the place and meet up with your teams.”

Logan flicked his comms unit to open to all the FHA operatives.

“Heads up all. Move all vehicles forward 250 metres. We are going to go hit those hangar doors hard. I want heavy fire teams set up at the following coordinates….”

A few quick taps showed four locations for teams with rocket launchers to deploy, four more for teams with rotating cannons.

“Deploy and confirm when in place. Looks like they still don’t know we are here, try keep it that way till we go knocking.”

Logan and Oquan hunkered down in the snow, the eight soldiers escorting them closed in and formed a smaller perimeter. All they could do for now is watch and wait, the preparation for the attack had to be right, no point in rushing it and everything going to hell before they wanted it to.

When all units checked in as ready, Logan set the attack in motion. The two speeder tanks opened fire with their blasters and concussion grenade launchers, the Jailspeeders added their grenades to the assault. The missile crews launched and the rotating cannon units opened fire.

All ordnance was aimed at the shielded and heavily armoured hangar door. Logan could see the explosions and flashes of cannon fire hitting the shielding, he could not however hear them. It was quite disorientating and oddly mesmerising. After what seemed like hours, but was closer to ten minutes in real time, the shield visibly gave way to the bombardment and two missiles and five grenades hit the hangar door directly. It buckled and bent and a further barrage of fire from the tanks and rotating cannons tore holes large enough to get their vehicles through.

The Jailspeeders lurched forward and through the openings, firing a spread of grenades into the hangar ahead of them. The speeder tanks followed the same tactic and then moved ahead of the Jailspeeders and formed a barrier. The ramps of all three Jailspeeders dropped open and from the lead vehicle eight destroyer droids rolled out, closely followed by 12 Mark I Assault droids. They formed two spear heads and began pumping blaster fire into the cavernous hangar whilst advancing further in and locating hostile entities. The data from their sensors fed back directly to the commanders.

From the other two Jailspeeders Argon and Cora led their respective teams out and spread themselves across the width of the hangar bay in a tactical sweep to clear any hostiles the droids might have missed.

From outside the heavy weapons crews fought their way against the weather and into the somewhat sheltered hangar and set up positions flanking the FHA vehicles. Oquan and Logan were in the hangar straight after.

Spotting the two large GR-75’s, Oquan quickly realised that if they crippled the closest one, the second would be trapped and unable to get out, even if the hangar doors could open in the state they were in.

“Punch some holes in that thing!”

Logan saw his plan and nodded his agreement,

“Do as he said, cripple it.”

Five missiles streaked a short distance and slammed into the hull of the ship. It was powered down and had no shields, the hits, followed by blaster fire and second volley of missiles put enough holes in it to hinder it, but what actually took it out was a lucky shot that hit a fuel cell. The subsequent explosion pushed the FHA vehicles back about five metres, hurled the nearby soldiers back almost to the hangar door and deafened everyone in the hangar who was not protected by a foul weather suit or some sort of full head covering helmet. It killed several dozen crewmen on that ship and a score or more ran out with hands clasped over bleeding ears or assorted wounds.

Chaos broke out briefly but the FHA forces regained control of the situation, capturing the crew of the ship and securing the remainder of the hangar. Resistance had not been heavy, just a couple of defensive positions set up that got flattened by the destroyer droids and a scattering of other soldiers that had ran out of the hangar and into the mine complex itself.

Less than an hour after the assault had begun, the FHA had control of the hangar and one of the GR-75’s. The second ship was unable to move and preparations were being made for its boarding and neutralisation.

[Logan Shivers]

A temporary calm had taken over the hangar area. The shielding was back up and running, blocking the storm from howling around in the cavernous space, the prisoners from the first GR-75 were under guard in its mess hall and quite pacified. The four doorways that led further into the mines were all closed and under guard and the second GR-75 was locked p tight with, as far as they could tell, a small crew inside.

“Argon, what we up to?”

“Cora playing with lock to ship, Solan playing with boom bangs, me waiting to get into ship with others.”

Logan liked the short and concise nature of the Gamorrean. Like most of his race, his grasp of common was not fluent, but in fact much better than most of them. Many had made the mistake of assuming he had low intellect, by the time they realised their error it was more often than not too late.

Oquan tapped Logan on his shoulder,

“Err, should that fella over there be playing catch with those explosives?”

Logan looked over to see Solan actually playing with explosives… he had assumed Argon meant he was placing them to blow doors if Cora’s lockbreakers failed. Perhaps the poor common was a slight hinderance at times?!

“He can be a bit like that when he gets bored… uses the stuff so much I guess he just forgets to fear it.”

Solan was now juggling four explosives of one sort or another, Logan strode over and snatched a grenade from out of the loop, which put Solan off his rhythm and he dropped the lot. There was a brief but utter silence as everyone in the vicinity held their breath, broken by Solan moaning,

“Ah boss, what you do that for?! Was just killing time waiting for Cora to finish fiddling with that lock….”

“Killing time is one thing, killing us another. Told you before, play with the damn things in your own time and away from me. You got all the doored hooked up?”

“Yeah, got the detonators somewhere…….”

The Abyssinian searched around him for a moment before picking up one of the items he had been juggling and another couple from his belt. He looked at the one he had been juggling with and realisation dawned on him.

“oops, not a good idea boss, that one is for the door Cora is working on…”

Logan took the detonators from him and smacked him on the back of the head before walking back to Oquan.

“That one is certainly a character…”

“He gets distracted too easily, but you wont find anyone more capable with explosives easily. Struggle to find anyone more lyal either. He’s a good soldier, a better friend, but he does need sense knicked into him….”

Logans reply was interrupted by Cora on the suit comms.

“General, the lock is ours. I can open the ships main hangar bay door whenever you are ready.”

“Do they know you got control?”

“Not yet, shouldn’t anyway.”

Logan was getting seriously over heated in his arctic weather gear now that the storm was being kept outside. He figured that as with most mines, it would not be overly cold in there either. He made a decision, not wanting to risk his men not functioning at their best due to heat.

“All units, move from foul weather gear to armour. Ten minutes.”

It was a drill they would all be used to and the hangar burst into action, only half going to the vehicles at a time to get changed over, then swapping. Logan himself made his way to the Eddicus whilst already peeling off the heavy white suit. In a storage container his heavy armous sat ready to be fitted and he did so with speed and dexterity born of familiarity. The spiked suit was a favourite, it not only inspired fear in his enemy, but it was handy in a melee too! As he stepped back out, he spotted Argon chucking Oquan a powersuit. Logan realised that the Wookie would not have brought his full kit with him, not expecting to be getting into action whilst on downtime. It was just as well Oquan was a sturdy Wookie… having a powersuit thrown at you can be rather hard to handle – Argon tended to forget that not everyone was built like a mountain.

Ten minutes later and the entire FHA force was now in regular armour.

On either side of the ships hangar bay door now stood ten troops. Cora was at the control panel and Argon, Logan and Oquan stood behind one of the jailspeeders right in front of the doors. The vehicle would be used to move in as soon as the doors were opened and absorb any heavy weapons fire tht may be waiting for them. The signal was given, Cora over rode the final security command and cracked open the ships doors. The Jailspeeder moved forward, three figures running in right behind it, then a further twenty. A volley of three concussion grenades from the jailspeeder exploded into the far end of the hangar bay, adding to the bedlam of the sudden invasion.

There had been a small attempt at holding a resistance, but it was brushed aside without trouble by the experienced soldiers of the FHA. Logan and his two fellow commanders found themselves with little to do again as the ship was captured with a minimal level of force.

“Oquan, you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“No, I cant imagine what a lizard brain is thinking about, probably about finding some sun to bask in, but what I was thinking, is where the hell are nearly two thousand crew from these ships?”

“Seems your furball brain does work after all, that is a good and proper reptilian thought. Which means you might be also thinking that they are likely down the mines, where they can hole up and build really solid defences?”

“Funny, didn’t think lizards could operate in the cold, you are a remarkable specimen truly…”

Argon grumbled from deep in his throat, his version of a sort of cough, interrupting Oquan,

“Bah, don’t get upset big boy, you got a mountains worth of fat to insulate your reptile brain, Logan here is all scale and… well… bone!”

Having been part of this banter before, Argon knew it for what it was, but his spoken skills did not match up to those of either Oquan or Logan so he chose to make his feelings known with a jab in Oquans shoulder.

“Means we got some fighting to do in tunnels, lucky for us they only got one way in and one out… haven’t they?”

Logan was suddenly unsure, could a mining complex that spread down and out for many miles only have one entry point?

“Yes, the Senator said it is done that way for security, the ventilation systems are enhanced with recyclers from ships and the pumps that keep the water out are triple backed up and run one shaft each, despite being able to run all shafts on just one pump. They have massively over engineered in order to allow for that single entry point.”

“We turn pumps off boss?”

Logan smirked at Argons eager suggestion.

“That would be easy my friend, but the miners are civilians and still down there. We don’t go killing civvies. No good standing around here digesting it, lets get moving. CORA!! Where did that… Ah, there you are, secure this ship, lock the captives up with the others in the damaged Gallo and get organised for close quarters. Argon, set the tin cans guarding the hangar along with five men. Set the Goliaths to guard the entrances to the shafts once we are down and get four Destroyer droids ready at each of the two shafts to drop in and scout ahead when we are ready to move. Don’t rely on the shaft equipment to go down, we drop lines and repel down, clear one level at a time, the hard, long way of doing it. Argon, get the remaining troops organised, close quarters gear with some heavy support, I want two demolitions experts on each shaft.”

The maps they had been provided for the mining complex showed two vertical shafts as the entry points. Each shaft led to four levels of horizontal tunnels that stretched out in every direction and not always in a straight line, or in fact, level. They just followed the path of a seam of whatever was being excavated as it wound its way out from the vertical shaft. At their lowest point, the two shafts were almost a kilometre deep, a feat of engineering in itself. Down there, in the deepest part of the complex is where the most precious materials were being excavated, and so most likely where the heaviest resistance would be.

But before they could get there, the FHA was going to have to secure all levels above, to avoid being flanked. The fighting would be dangerous enough, in confined spaces with limited light, if any, they did not need the added complication of fighting on two fronts.
A distance of 600 metres separated the two shafts. There were several areas where the winding tunnels got much closer to each other than that, in fact on the third level a path from shaft A came within 40 metres of a tunnel from level two from shaft B. That particular nexus would have to remain guarded once they got to it, again, to avoid any clever tactician breaking through that last barrier in order to flank them.

Logan stood on the edge of shaft A, his feet poking over the edge and he looked down at the darkness that seemed to sink into oblivion. Above the shaft entrance a multitude of machinery seemed to occupy every available space. From the lift machinery, to water pumps, ventilation pumps, some sort of shield generator control panel – They had been led to believe this was something to do with helping to hold the integrity of the tunnels at the lowest levels, where simple shoreing up would not be sufficient. There were other panels, machines, conduits, none of which Logan cared about. They were not his concern, he had the technical people in his crew, they knew their jobs and would make sure whatever was important was noted and dealt with.

His job, was to make sure they hit the enemy hard. To this affect, he was poised to jump down the shaft on a barely visiblehigh tensile line. Oquan was next to him, thirty soldiers lined up behind them. Across on the other shaft, Argon and Cora headed up their own squads. Two Destroyer droids were clamped onto the sides of the tunnel like some form of demented arachnids and on Logans command, they scuttled down the shaft in silence, their visual feed connected right into Logan and Oquans helmet displays. The shaft appeared clear of obstacles and traps and as the exit to the first level began to be made out the droids slowed their progress. With more care they approached and when all appeared clear, exited onto the first level. A sweep of the immediate area showed a tunnel wide enough for perhaps three abreast running east to west.with other corridors branching out either side, one on the eastern side in view, two on the other. The immediate area appeared desserted. The lights off, the power supply from the surface having been the first thing that was cut off once the hangar area was secured.

Seeing enough room to land his team, Logan sent the next two Destroyers scurrying down to hold a guard position below the entrance to level one and he jumped down the shaft right behind them. He slid down the line until he was level with the entrance. It took little effort to swing himself onto the deck and he unstrapped a hooked pole from his leg, reaching out behind him to catch Oquans line and drag him in. The pair brought in the first two soldiers and then left them to help bring in the remaining force. The entire unit was working in darkness, not using suit lights that might give their position away like beacons. Built in night vision on their helmets was their only aid, well, apart from those reptilians amongst them who had the aid of secondary infrared spectrum vision and Logan, who had his new semi artificial eye implants to assist him.

Logan sent one Destroyer west, the other East. He followed the eastward one for a distance and when he felt as though he had left enough space for his soldiers to gather behind him he waited. His helmet display showed the split images relayed back from the two droids. Eerie darkness was about all he could see. Looked like the top level had been abandoned, but they could not risk assuming that, they had to clear the entire level.

Logan activated his comms to talk to his soldiers, keeping his voice low.

“You all have your sectors to search, follow the maps to your designated areas, clearing as you go. Keep comms open but silent, only report in with trouble. Go.”

Having the advantage of complete plans to the mines, they had pre-arranged who would search where and the advancing pattern they would use through the tunnels. This made for an efficient way of covering the vast area quickly and efficiently, not missing out any side tunnels, storage rooms etc. Logan and Oquan jogged on ahead, both stooped somewhat to avoid bouncing their helmets off the ceilings. Logan had taken an old helmet in place of his horned helmet, the foot long horns not being the most appropriate in such an environment. They passed several side tunnels, never stopping and allowing the soldiers behind them to clear them.

Finally reaching their own target area, the two slowed and took stock. The comms channels all showed green but silent, the feeds from the Destroyer droids still looked clear as they conducted their own searches. The feed from the other two on the shaft also looked clear, and a quick scroll through some of the droids left in the hangar showed all was well there too.
Ahead of them lay the final section of this tunnel complex. A long stretch of curving tunnel with two side tunnels and one small storage room at the end of the main tunnel. The side tunnels were only relatively short as they had been relatively new. Oquan hefted his pair of vibroblades, Logan his vibroaxes and the pair moved down to the intersection with the first tunnel. Logan remained in position while Oquan vanished down the side tunnel. A few minutes later he came back, nothing. They moved on to the second intersectinn, taking care as they advanced around the spiralling tunnel. The silent darkness was all encompassing, it felt like a tomb, with the walls pressing in all around them.
The second side tunnel came into view and this time Oquan remained in position and Logan made his way down the side tunnel. Withing a few metres he lost sight of the main tunnel as this side tunnel curved so sharply, but it was not long before he reached the end, once again with nothing to see. He returned and the two continued their silent passage to the end of the main tunnel. They found the storage room, searched it but found nothing other than provisions and some spare parts for machinery.

A mixture of relief and disappointment coursed through Logan as the two returned to the shaft entrance. The entire team had encountered nothing but shadows and silence.

Logan broke the silence to report in to Argon.

“Level one clear, no activity, moving to level 2, status?”
“Think same, oneteam to come back, no noise.”

Logan was satisfied all was good to go and they made their way to the next level down.

[Shri Bacca]

Ready for the next level, I am!

[Logan Shivers]

The second level proved to be no more challenging than the first, clearly abandoned with everything and everyone moved further down the mine. Argon and Cora had reported similar results and the FHA proceeded to the third level.

It was weird that on a planet that was all ice and frigid salt water that was barely above freezing itself, the mines now appeared to be warm. The tunnels on this level were barely wide enough for two to stand abreast, but thankfully still of a relatively descent height, only making Logan stoop a little. He dreaded to think what Argon must me doing to get himself through these tunnels… and if they got smaller yet as they got further down….

Just as Logans full compliment of troops arrived on the third level a series of deafening explosions shook the ground and rained loose stone down from above them. The noise seemed to go on forever and just as it was dying down, a superheated burst of air came up the twisting tunnels of the third level and blasted into them.

“REPORT!”

Logan and Oquan had been at the head of one coumn of soldiers, but there were another two co.umns and he had no idea if the blast had just come down his tunnel or from all. They had all been knocked to the ground but thankfully their armour had done its job and minimized any injuries to minor cuts and bruises. As Logan stodd back up, a layer of grit and soil dropped off him. It added to what appeared to be an underground dust storm. Visibility was down to almost zero, even with their enhanced suits doing their best to penetrate the gloom. Even with the wind blast gone, the air was just thick with dust.

“Sir, we got a full report in, no casualties, just cuts and scrapes. The destroyers have gone back to the shaft, the dust is likely to shortcircuit them otherwise. We are all ready to move on otherwise.”

“I want answers, we need to move ahead with more speed, that was either an ambush that went off sooner than it should have, or something is going down and we cant sit around to find out what, move ahead at double pace, but stay focused. We know we got trouble now, just got to find out what form it comes in.”

“Sir, one more thing, we lost contact with Argon and Cora and all of second group.”

Logan tried himself to get through and only got a static line in reply.

“We worry about that later, get onto your assigned tasks.”

Deeper and deeper they went into the third level, its narrow, twisting tunnels stretching out even further than the two above it, and much, much deeper. The air did not seem to want to clear and from time to time they came across areas that were almost sealed from rock fall. They still forced at least one soldier through to check out the other side, not willing to leave anything unsearched.

“I got it, got what they did.”

Logan looked at the comms channel on his visor display, that had been a message from a private channel from Solan. The Abyssin may have been quirky, but he did know his explosives…

“Solan, what you got?”

“They join tunnels, make big maze, lots of move around.”

A bleep announced the arrival of a holo image to his unit so he extended his arm so that the wrist mounted mini holo projector could show what Solan had sent.. A map of the lower levels of the mines flickered into view, one supplied by the Senator. At no less than 15 points Solan had marked red spheres, spheres that seemed to encompass sections of tunnels from different levels.

“All red places, tunnels close enough to blow up and make door to other tunnel. Big risk, whole tunnels maybe fall down, but if some work, we got enemy ahead and behind maybe, below and maybe above? Link into other shaft tunnels in four places too, black ones.”

Logan saw those too and his heart leaped. Now they had a fight on their hands. No more organised search and clear, this would be hunt or be hunted.

“Get a message up top, get all destroyer droids to the top of the shafts to bolster the Goliaths. Nothing comes back up those shafts if it is not us. Get the KAMS from the Exploited to come up and collect the captives, get rid of them back to the city, then all forces up top report in ready for duty. Get it done yesterday.”

Logan studied the map and tried to work out their best course of action from their current location. The narrowtunnels were somewhat in their favour as they most likely had the fewer numbers, but in such confined environment, that mattered less, much less, skill and tactics were more important. They had just been moved on, it was theirturn to return the favour.

Some further tweaking of plans was made, adjusting to blocked tunnels, new openings and the changed nature of the threat. Logan split the forces into four or six, depending on the tunnels they were taking on and he and Oquan headed off on their own, their mission to hit the nearest blast point and make their way through to the lower level and on to the other shaft through what had been designated nexus A – the most likely spot where a shaped charge could have blown through to the tunnels from the second shaft.. Having still had no contact with Argon, Cora or anyone on that side, it was imperative they find out what happened and plan from there.

As the two hunched figures made their way down the now rubble strewn tunnel, a muffled noise and flash of movement caught Logans attention. He whispered into his helmet comm, a sound that would not be heard outside of his suit, or Oquans earpiece.

“Hold. Got something ahead, keep an eye on our back, going on to see what we got ourselves.”

Drawing on the force, Logan moved ahead as stealthily as he was able to. The heav dust in the air helped him hugely as it had coated his armour to a matching colour and he looked more like a ghost moving through the confined area than anything else. He reached a waist high pile of ruble and crouched down behind it. He amplified the sound pickup from his suits “ears” and listened carefully. There was definitely noise coming from the other side of this pile of rubble, barely audible, but it was there. Rythmic in nature, slow, controlled. The sound of somebody breathing?

Keeping his movements very careful and deliberate he peered over the rubble mound, twin axes to hand and ready. At about the same time, a human who had been posted as a guard in this location decided to take a peek and see if he could actually see anything down the tunnel in this haze.

His expression went from one of nervous concentration to one of shock as he found himself staring into a ghostly battle helmet, but Logan would not have been able to appreciate the effect he had on the human. By far the quicker of the two, Logans axes came down hard on either side of the humans head, biting in at the joint between helmet and armour. The vibroaxes screeched a bit as they hit the armour, but went on to almost sever the head off. Knowing that the noise would no doubt alert anyone else in the vicinity to his presence, Logan went into action. Speed would now be his weapon, not stealth. A quick check to see if there had been other guards behind the rubble pile and Logan bounded over it, sprinting down the tunnel in a half crouch.

Oquan had not needed an invitation, he heard the commotion and as there was no sign at all of enemy behind them he rushed forward himself, screambled through the gap between rubble heap and ceiling and spotted the dead body, he continued on down the tunnel to where he could not only hear the noises of battle, but actually see some light.
What greeted him was a not so unusual scene when it came to Logan. It was one of the things Oquan liked about the reptilian, he just loved to get stuck in and fight! Logan had leapt in and took on odds of six against one without thought, relying on his skill and surprise to balance the odds. The area had clearly been the site of one of the many explosions, it was nearly three times as tall as the tunnels, and would have been much wider had it not been for the amount of rubble lying around in piles. The floor of the tunnel he and Logan had been travelling had been collapsed into a lower tunnel which ran almost at right angles to theirs, so the area was like an odd shaped crossroads. Logan had essentially leaped down into the lower tunnel to engage the enemy there. Taking stock of his surroundings in a matter of seconds, Oquan spotted several clearly petrified workers with slave collars on and an armoured sentient on Logans blind side taking aim with a blaster. He dropped one vibroblade and, not having time to draw his own blaster, picked up a fist sized rock and hurled it at the shooter. It struck him on the side of his helmet just as he took the shot, sending the blast astray and hitting one of his own instead. Knowing that rock would have done little in the way of damage to the shooter, Oquan snatched up his blade and charged. He got to the shooter just as he regained his composure and stabbed hard at the enemies gut with one blade, swinging the other in an arc that would end in the shooters neck. Or would have done had he not raised his arm in defense, which led to the blade almost but not quite severing it at the elbow. The first blade however had embedded itself with a screetch halfway to the hilt. Placing his booted foot against the enemy, Oquan kicked ut and pulled on both his blades, releasing them from their snagged impact points.

Logan had currently got one axe embedded in an enemies back and was using it to move them around like a puppet, absorbing blows like a semi living shield. His other axe was busy taking its own slices out of anything that came into Logans reach. Just as it found a target in a wrist joint of a badly fitting armour suit and severing the hand, Oquan joined him and cut through two other opponents as he made his way to stand at Logans back.

It took little time to finish off the remaining enemy and the two stood in a ready crouch, still back to back waiting for more enemy to materialise. After realising that there appeared to be nobody else in the immediate arera they relaxed a little, but kept their guard on high alert, taking note of every little sound that came their way.

The slaves, who as it turned out were some of the original miners were glad to be free. They appeared a hardy bunch and gladly took the weapons of the dead to defend themselves. They had wanted to go on a rampage and attack the enemy themselves, but as Logan quickly and VERY clearly pointed out, they would have no way of knowing who they were attacking and it could end up making things worse for the FHA if random groups of vigilantes were roaming around.

Having communicated the situation back to a nearby squad of six, they had split to send two of their number over and take charge of the miners. They refused to be hid away in a store room and wanted a bite of the action, wanted revenge for apparent atrocities committed by the enemy so Logan had agreed to let them join in, on the provision that they did it under orders and not as wild vigilantes.

Ten minutes later and with no hostile activity in the immediate vicinity, Oquan and Logan handed over the miners to the FHA men with instructions to hold the area secure. There was no doubt the enemy would want it back. Logan also planned to send any other miners they may come across back to this point to keep them all in one place if possible and out of his way.

Time to move on, down some deeper, and as it turned out, even narrower tunnels.

[Logan Shivers]

Logan and Oquan left the miners behind and made their way through narrow, dark and dust chocked tunnels that did not seem to hold a straight line for more than a few yards at a time. What they did have was an almost constant downwards angel, making the already oppressive feeling even more tangible. Unmeasurable tons of rock above them, and some lunatics were setting off explosives at will.

“Squads 4 and 6 coming under heavy fire, pinned down in sector 3 Delta.”

The voice that cut through on their comms was calm, professional but the strain could be heard in it. Both checked their maps and found the location and tracked it back to their own, finding that they could approach it from the lower tunnels, and so hopefully hit the enemy from behind. It did not require conversation, the two moved on towards their new destination.

“Organising back up, how many you up against?”
“Hard to say, but they got some damned heavy weaponry in place, making a run at them would be suicide. Seems an ambush point.”
“Hold your positions, no hero tactics. ETA 10 minutes.”

Oquans arm suddelny shot out in a warning to halt and Logan almost skidded to a stop. Crouching low to match Oquan he crept forward, the narrow confines of the tunnel barely allowing them to come side by side. Ahead of them appeared to be a pair of well armed soldiers slowly making their way towards them. The pair tracked backwards a little, and both understanding that swinging blades in such tight confines was not going to be easy, they switched to blasters. Logan went on one knee and brought his C-M Shotgun up. Behind and slightly to one side, using the curve in the wall as partial shielding Oquan stood with a pair of ELG’s pointing down towards toe oncoming enemy.

They came into view, the pair clearly not ready to meet enemy in this area and caught off guard. They raised their own blasters but it was too late. The Shotgun barked loudly, its muzzle flashing as it vomited out a spray of slugs into the confined space. The ELG blaster bolts hissed through the air lighting the area up briefly in an eerie green glow. Between the three weapons, the enemy was almost instantly incapacitated. Logan rushed past the falled two and with his shotgun at the ready ran a dozen or so yards further down the tunnel, checking to see if these two had support. Behind him a couple more flashes signalled Oquan finishing off the job.

Four more figures came into view and Logan emptied his shotgun at them, still in a headlong charge. The first went down from taking the majority of the slugs, the second stumbled as the last shot hit him on the shoulder and then collapsed as Logan’s shoulder slammed squarely into his chest. Using the shotgun as a hammer, Logan pounded at the fallen soldiers helmet until the faceplate cracked and a final blow finished the job.

The last two enemy soldiers, their attention fully on the crazed attacker did not notice Oquan until it was too late. Their weapons taking aim on Logan they were not able to swing them up in time for the spray of ELG bolts that rained in on them. Stumbling back, one of them managed to get a shot off at Logan, hitting him on his back but the heavy battle armour absorbed most of the blast, leaving Logan more angry than hurt. Oquan’s foot slapped down on his back as the Wooke used him as a launching pad to torpedo into the stumbling enemy soldiers, taking them both down to the ground with him.

Wasting no time, Logan got himself up and joined in, pulling out a knife to jab at the nearest foe whilst Oquan dropped his blasters and grabbed the other attackers head, snapping it sideways sharply. A loud crack sounded amongst the combatants as the body below him sagged in death. Oquan turned around to help Logan with the final kill but saw he had no need, it was clearly in hand.

The two moved on for another fifty metres or so, expecting yet more enemy but it would appear that was it, for now. They took a short breather, time enough to reload weapons and they were on their way again.

The tunnel forked and after checking their map they headed down the left fork, or up as it turned out as the angle of the tunnel soon changed to an upward spiral. Before long sounds of battle could be heard and confident that their approach would not he heard over the noise of the battle the two increased their pace, weapons ready.

“Be ready to move, back up arriving.”

No sooner had Logan hissed that command out and they were upon the enemy. There were a LOT of them. No rear guard, clearly overconfident in their safety, but it looked like at least 20 were entrenched in a wide junction of tunnels.

The shotgun barked four times before it ran out of ammo, Logan hurled it at a fifth enemy. He drew out his vibroaxes and shoulder charged the enemy with his heavily spiked armour. Oquan was not far behind, spraying the enemy with blaster fire before until the blasters power ran dry, he copied Logan by hurling his weapons at an enemy too, for distraction as much as anything else, drew his vibroblades and charged into the fray.

The unexpected attack from behind cost the enemy eight dead in the blink of several eyes. More importantly for the battle however, it caused chaos and panic, halting the barrage of heavy fire that had been pinning down the two squads of FHA operatives, who now came storming in, their own weapons firing to add to the carnage. Seven of the eight made it all the way to the melee and evened out the numbers somewhat. The ensuing battle was brief. The enemy almost regained their footing, but in the end could not overcome the initial shock of the surprise attack and despite their higher numbers, they all fell to the blades, fists, spikes and blasters of the FHA.

Once it was all over, Oquan and Logan slumped down with their backs against the wall, resting but keeping their eyes peeled for any incoming enemy.

“Report in, casualties?”
To Oquan, on a private channel he added,

“I’m getting too old for this shit, those buggers landed a few good hits and my bones are feeling it, must be slowing down.”
“HA! The lizard that beat down a sun moaning about a few scratches?”
Oquan took his helmet off and spat out a mouthful of blood before putting it straight back on again.

“but yeah, they hit hard my friend.”

They had lost one to the battle, a further three too injured to continue effectively. Logan gave them instructions to head back to the nexus where the miners were told the remaining four in good health to take extra weapons from the dead and continue on, looking out for miners to hopefully free and arm should they too wish to join in.

The two commanders were left sitting there for a while longer before Oquan stood up and extended his hand to Logan.

“come on oh ancient one, get those geriatric limbs moving, we got a job to do.”

[Logan Shivers]

They back tracked for a while, noting that the dust appeared to be settling a bit at long last, and made their way back to the target area, the nexus point that now potentially joined the two shafts tunnel systems together. If that was the case, they needed to know sooner than later.

Encountering very little resistance, they made good time, only having to deal with a couple of two man patrols which was done easily enough. But when they got close to the target area, it soon became apparent why there was very little traffic around the tunnels.

The enemy had been busy in this area and had created a veritable fortress. The tunnel they were in was only partially excavated, to widen it a bit and no doubt remove the valuable gemstones along the way, but up above the tunnel had an absent ceiling. Instead a fissure ran through the rock strata that went up as far as their eyes could see in the dark, suit enhanced vision and all.
Ahead of them the tunnel was blocked by what was most likely a rock fall, but had certainly been added to. Logan removed his gauntlets and boots and managed to get himself up into the natural fissure part of the cave with some help from Oquan. Using his sharp talons he carefully made his way forward and over the tunnel blockage.
Far below him he could see six soldiers guarding that position. Ahead, where the tunnel and fissure opened up to a cavern, close to a thousand sentients must have been congregated. Over half were guards, the rest wore slave collars so Logan assumed them to be miners. Two of the eight tunnels Logan could see from his vantage point appeared to be open and a continuous stream of escorted miners went back and forth, bringing back large amounts of what looked just like rock to Logan, and filling up a stack of carts stationed in the middle of the cavern. Over to the right hand side of the large cavern, which was lit up with portable lighting, Logan could see a huge pile of rubble that other slaves were busy moving to one side and appeared to be slowly revealing another cavern, but it was too dark for much to be made out inside.

“Oquan, I am going to hang around here keep an eye on things, see if I cant think up something. Mind heading back and grabbing me one of those miners to come help with identifying what I am seeing? Most of what I see is not on any map and I want to know what those rocks they are piling up in the ore carts are.”
“Sure, will get a couple of your lot to meet me halfway.”
“See if you cant find out what is going on with Argon and Cora, comms are disrupted to surface, we must e too far down.”
“Yeah, be good to know.. do what I can, hang tight”

Before he left, Oquan shoved Logans boots and gauntlets up on a rock ledge, out of direct sight, just in case any enemy patrols came by whilst he was gone. Logan did his best to wedge himself in place and remained still, watching the activity below him like a hunter studying its pray from above.

What felt like hours later, an age of watching slaves pile more and more rocks into carts, of soldiers mistreating them, of getting gradually angrier and angrier, Oquans voice crackled through his helmet comms.

“Hey lizard brains, still hanging around where I left you?”

“Yup”
“Well, Argon and Cora are still kicking around, the blasts brought down a large chunk of the tunnels they were in, lost ten in cave-ins. Say that everything below level four is completely blocked from their side, working their way back up and will head down to meet us once they get themselves sorted. Looks like we got the active area.”
“Huh… seems so, ten huh? Bad way to go.”
“Got one of the miners for you, been working this mine for two decades, reckons not much he don’t know about it.”
“Can he climb?”

A short silence followed, then Oquan replied,

“Like a spider apparently.”
“Tell him to get up here, slowly, silently. If he cant do it, to get back down. Not a word from him, he comes up, takes a good look and comes back to you. Withough a helmet his voice could be heard, even in a whisper.”

Not long after, a very capable looking human climbed up and wedged himself slightly higher than Logan and took a good look around. Logan thought he saw confusion on the mans face, but he struggled with the humanoid expressions, they could be so misleading. After a while he seemed to be satisfied with himself and climbed back down to Oquan.

“Ask him what they are loading into the carts.”
“Gemstone geodes, he said they looked big and high quality, worth forutnes.”
“Ask hm what is in that far cavern they are clearing a path to.”
“He believes that is the main operation area for level five of the other shaft, about one mile away from the shaft itself. But Logan… He is very insistent I tell you. Those two tunnels that the enslaved miners seem to be working, they are new tunnels, not part of the mine. He said it is impossible they have been excavated since the hostiles took control, so this could be an inside job, one that was being worked and they needed to extract the geodes so the cavalry came in so to speak.”

“Which means they got an exit plan. They must have known the owners would have brought in military support.”

“yeah… seems likely…”

“Oquan, sit with him and show him the map, with the locations we have confirmed explosions and openings of the mine network, see what he comes up with.”

Down in the tunnel, far enough away from the blocked sentry point, a conversation ensued between Oquan and the miner.

“Boss, you sure these maps are accurate? No mistakes?”
“The confirmed blast sites where tunnels are merged are marked, the yellow ones are suspected but not confirmed…”
“No boss, I means the layout? I seen maps of this mine all me life, seen it grow from one level down and from one shaft to two. That there tunnel, it shows too far west on your map.”

He dug out a datapad and showed Oquan what he meant. It was battered and barely working, but it showed the miners point. The tunnel in question was indeed displayed in a slightly different location.

“Seems you got a point, why does it matter?”
“Boss, that mine been blocked off to us for a year, got close to an underground river so company stopped digging in that direction. Last I heard, was using tunnel as storage and nothing more but not been down it myself since we stopped digging it. If it go that far west, it has gone right to the river.”

“Sooooo… why are we not flooded?”
“See it goes up just at the last part? Betcha they opened up a hole above the river, so long as it don’t get blocked at exit from mountains, water wont pour upwards. Think that point not more than 500 metres from sea.. reckon its pretty open there.”

“You mean we are not even below sea level?”
“nah boss, mine starts 1200 metres above sea level, we not dug down deep enough yet to hit water basin. That why it aint flooded when you guys cut the power to everything.”

Oquan thought this over for a bit and contacted Logan, telling him what the miner had found.

“And let me guess, that tunnel Is accessible from that cavern they are opening up a route to?”
“Seems so…”
“Oquan… need to get that intel up to the surface..”
“Ahead of you and running ancient one, will get them to send Argon and Cora’s teams to find the river exit.”
“Oquan, get comms relayes, get them to contact the ‘Exploited’ so it can head on down the coast to aid as well. I want to be able to communicate from here for now.”
“Got it”

His comm signal broke, leaving Logan in silence. Well, other than the racket being created by all the activity in the cavern below him.

[Logan Shivers]

Apologies, time is a little short recently, will update soon!

[Logan Shivers]

More than an hour passed before Logan heard the crackle of his comms coming back to life.

“You hearing me ancient one?”
“Loud and clear furball.”
“You got comms right up to the top now, relays are set up all along the secured tunnel network. Your troops have cleared all the tunnels this side of the operations area you are monitoring and are ready for further orders. What’s been going on over there?”
“They just started moving the ore out, look like either nothing more to bring up, or they got enough to satisfy their greed. They are heading towards that tunnel you mentioned so looks like the river exit is confirmed.”

A more gravely voice interjected.

“Can see boats in cave. Them ones that sink but still work what called?”
“Argon, good to hear your grunts again. Subs, they would be subs…. Damn.”
“Lots, we shoot them?”

Logan thought it over for a while, if they got into those subs, they would be able to get away, Logan simply did not have anything with them that could follow.
“Argon, Cora, as soon as the Exploited reaches you, hit them with everything you got. Set up heavy squads while you wait, but give me five minute warning before you go live.”
“OK”
“Oquan, get the boys and girls up and ready to move, soon as they move out of this cavern we clear the blockade quietly and follow.”

But as with any plan, what should have happened did not. The enemy was clever enough to leave a large force behind to defend the area, so if they wanted to follow the enemy from behind, they would have to fight their way through.

“Damn…. Oquan, find out how long it would take to get from here to the river in a hurry.”
“That miner fellow thinks you could run it in 15 minutes.”
“Ask him how fast he could run it if I was chasing him with a knife.”
Logan could hear the smile in the reply,
“He said same, you could not run fast enough to keep up with him.”
“Ok, tell him we will test that later. Organise some fireworks for me. We will need this pile of rubble underneath me cleared double quick when the time comes.”
“Funny, Solan has been chatting to one of the miners, they just came to me with a plan for shaped charges that would blow the lot into the cavern. Back blast for about ten metres, and you would have to get back down here too.”
“Organise it, the sentries are lazy, but tell them to do it quietly. Will let you know if they start getting interested.”

Less than half an hour later and Logans comms crackled to life again.

“Fireworks are in place, we are set to go, you joining us?”
“Argon, Cora, how long until the Exploited reaches you?”
“Bout five minutes.”
“Four minutes forty two seconds sir.”
“Hit them hard the minute they arrive. Oquan, I’m on my way, be ready to light them up soon as I am with you.”

Less careful about the noise he might make, Logan scrambled down and landed back in the tunnel. Oquan handed him his armoured boots and gauntlets and they ran around the corner of the tunnel. A chest pounding thump was felt more than heard, followed by hundreds of loud cracks and then a rumble of thunder.
“That’s our signal, fireworks have gone up!”
The FHA force ran through the tunnel and to the location of the barricade. To Logans utter amazement the tunnel was completely clear, perhaps slightly wider, and a cone shaped blast pattern showed how the huge pile of rocks and earth had been shot out of the tunnel mouth like shrapnel out of a shotgun and into the cavern. At least twenty bodies could be seen within the first few seconds of entering the large space, Logan suspected there were many more.
“Solan, that was damned good work.”
“YEAH!!!!! Miner stuff is goooood, wanna play more!”
The elation in the Abyssin’s deep voice was clear.
“Not right now friend, lets go hunting.”

The remaining enemy soldiers in the cavern were overcome very easily, too shocked to react to the new danger. No prisoners were taken and the FHA moved on at double time. The tunnels here seemed to be wider which made things easier for the fast moving force.
It was not long before they had caught up with the rear guard of the enemy and ploughed into them without hesitation or delay. They could just about get three abreast in these tunnels so Logan formed a spear head with Oquan and Solan at his flanks. They hurtled into the enemy, trampling several without paying them much attention. Their progress finally came to a halt from the sheer pressure of bodies against them and they began to stab and slash in the confined space. Behind them the FHA were laying into the trampled enemy soldiers. About fifty seconds of this bedlam and Logan ordered the FHA to drop back.
The enemy continued on as expected, they knew they had a way out ahead so the quicker they moved, the more likely to get out alive. But now they knen they had danger behind them and would be cautious.
The FHA deployed the only tactic they could, a spearhead of three men would slam into the enemy and fall back, then another, and another. The continual harrying of the rear guard was slow, hard work but with no way to flank them, or get ahead, it was their only option.

A sustained attack would not accomplish much more, just leave the lead three fighters prone to exhaustion whilst the others stood behind useless.
Four minutes of these attacks had proven effective, but the enemy was starting to organise.
“Change tact, firing squad, double rank drop and replace.”
Sliding their bladed weapons into sheaths, the soldiers brought out their Frag shotguns. Six ran ahead, as soon as the enemy was in sight, and preparing for a physical attack, the first rank of three knelt down, the second sighted their weapons standing up. Six blasts filled the tunnel with a deafening roar and the six hit the deck, lying prone. Six more literally ran over the prone soldiers and repeated the attack pattern.
This time the enemy dropped by the dozen, their inferior armour not holding up at all to the powerful shotguns. But it was not long before they adapted to the new tactics and formed firing ranks of their own in preparation. The FHA dropped back out of sight and followed for a while, not engaging.

“According to these maps, they should be hitting a larger cavern anytime now, 50 metres to the tunnel at opposite end.”
Logan nodded his thanks to Oquan who had been keeping track of the enemys location in the tunnel.

“That should do, SOLAN!! Your up.”

The one tactic they had not used was high explosives. In such a confined space as these tunnels it would decimate the enemy, but, it would also blast back so far that whoever launched the attack would get hit as well. It also carried the risk of the millions of tons of rock above them throwing up their objections and collapsing, another risk not worth taking in Logans eyes. But the more open area ahead, a natural cavern that the tunnel went through provided an opportunity. The blast would not be concentrated mostly in two directions, it could bloom and so took away the one risk of the attacker being hit. The second risk was mitigated for them, as if the cavern collapsed, it would not likely affect the tunnels itself. It may block their path, but that was a risk they could take.

Solan rushed past, his large frame almost knocking Logan flat against the wall. Two other grenadiers followed him and they all vanished into the darkness ahead.

“Everybody back and get down prone, visors off.”

Logan himself barely hit the ground in time. As he did, three figures came barrelling past and hurled themselves onto the floor in a space left open for them. Right behind them was, had anyone been looking, the blinding flash from a combination of multiple concussion grenades and three standard grenades. This was followed by the thunderous explosion, the blast shockwave followed by the heatwave and finally all of this was chased through by a cloud of dust and debris. A deeper, more barytone rumbling began but then stopped, and there was silence.

Re-engaging his visor Logan lifted his head and peered ahead. Vision was down to nothing, thick dust clung to the air like an inpenetrable veil. Already several inches of dust and soil and grit had covered the prone soldiers and as they got back to their feet it rained off them, adding to the thick veil. Had it not been for filters in their suits, it was doubtfull they would be able to breathe in this muck.

Logan ventured on ahead with caution, Oquan at his side. He felt more than saw that they had entered the cavern as the oppressive weight of the tunnels seemed to lift a little. Here rubble littered the ground, as did body parts, all covered by inches of settling crud and made fairly indistinguishable from one another. But to their surprise, the tunnel entrance at the other side still seemed to be accessible and so the FHA moved on. More bodies, fewer body parts, then even the trail of bodies stopped and only the muck in the air was left.

“What you think Oquan, we get a big chunk of them?”
“40 perhaps? Hard to say, don’t really have time to stop and count though”
“Put the fear of gods in them too I reckon.”
“Yeah, bet it shook them a bit.”

Still cautiously moving ahead, they finally noticed the silt settling and the air becoming clearer. Logan motioned to Oquan to stop and crouched down low.

“If their commander has any brains, he will be waiting in ambush for us somewhere close to here. Somewhere they can see us coming out of the veil and their scanners are clear of the interference, but ours are not.”
“Agreed, so right about here you mean.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking.”
“So we rush them?”
“Its about the only option… so they should be expecting it. No…… Get those maps of yours out. Where we at?”

Trying to see the screen on the datapad soon proved to be impossible, so they fed the image directly into their helmet displays. It became apparent that they had stopped just in time as less than 100 metres ahead lay the suspected entrance to the underground river. If that was the case, it was even more likely to be heavily guarded. Logan made a decision he knew he had little choice to make.

Withoug saying a word, Logan began to remove his heavy battle armour. Underneath he wore plain black trousers tucked into soft leather boots, a dark green vest and simple brown leather bracers on his forearms. From a pouch on his discarded heavy belt he removed a tightly packed bundle. It unfolded into a black cloak that had faded to grey in parts. Putting this on he then removed several knives from the belt and finally his beloved Ryyk blade. The knives got strapped onto various parts of his torso, the blade he carried in its sheath. He covered his head with the hood and motioned to Oquan to stay there. The look on his hooded face held no room for argument.

OQuan along with Solan had been trying to communicate with him but the moment he had removed his helmet, he had lost contact with their comms. He had intentionally ignored their gestures and at one point physically restrained Oquan from removing his own helmet in order to speak to Logan. Neither of them knew what he was doing, but both suspected.
Logan concentrated. He hated doing this. Since that last time on Saarn he had avoided using the force in any way, but… well, sometimes you just had to. Even without using the force, his stealth skills were formidable, but when you added those skills… well, at times he could stand almost directly in front of a person and not be seen. And so, he sunk deep into the force and made his way forward into the maw of the enemy.

[Logan Shivers]

It was not that he was invisible of course, nobody could actually become invisible, well, not that Logan knew of, it was that by a combination of stealthy movements, and manipulation of other sentients senses, he could avoid their notice, even if they looked directly at him at times, if the conditions were right. In the gloom of the mine, the conditions were perfect and he pressed on, past what appeared to be an ambush point and deeper into the tunnel, towards the sound of many, many people, and a sense of building fear.

The volume of noise increased, but its clarity was muffled by a thunderous roaring that he could now feel just as much as he could hear. The sound of the underground river? Surely it could not be so lively or the assumed escape plan of the enemy would be a non starter?

After the cluster of enemy soldiers at the ambush point, it had been curiously devoid of anyone, until Logan reached the site of a cave in. The roaring sound was almost painful to the ears and was clearly coming from a large hole in the side of the tunnel ahead. There, he could see a line of what he assumed were slaves, or at least enforced labour, slowly climbing through that gap one by one. To his horror he could also see what appeared to be younglings, barely old enough to have left their families surely. Either side of the hole in the tunnel wall stood a heavily armed guard, making sure the workers went in one at a time, each carrying their load of ore. The carts had been abandoned slightly further back where the rails ended.

The noise level here meant that there was no way anything that occurred back at the ambush point would be heard, so a plan sprung into Logans mind. He flitted back to the awaiting FHA forces and almost got cut down when he spoke, surprising all with his sudden appearance.
He slapped Solans helmet and motioned for him to take it off.
“Solan, quick, two small charges, something you can detonate from about 20 metres away keep it simple.”

Solan dug around in his oversized backpack and produced two square blocks of explosive about two and a half centimetres across. He pushed what looked like a pin in each and twisted, then handed them mto Logan, along with a small sphere with a push button on it.

“Place not throw, go away at least ten metres then press this for bang, both at same time?”

The last was pitched as a question to confirm he had setthem up correctly. By this time, Oquan had removed his helmet to allow hi to speak to Logan without the too loud voice amplification of the helmet.
“Whats the plan?”

“Less than 100 metres away is an ambush, about 30 clustered in two groups either side of the tunnel in a wider section, natural cavern but not large. Rest are way up in the end of the tunnel and too far to her anything, se we go in fast and try to destroy this ambush before they can get a message back. I will drop these two surprises right behind them and then an EMP grenade to destroy their electronics. Soon as you hear the explosions, come in all guns blazing, I will be way ahead out of reach. You ok with that?”

Oquan smiled,

“Sure, sounds like easy pickings.”

He blinked and realised Logan was no longer there! He dropped the helmet back onto his head and relayed the plan to the rest of the waiting troops.

They did not have to wait long, two sharp cracks were heard followed by a flicker of light through the silt. Oquans suit fizzed a bit, the grenade had also gone off, and even with the power dialled down, it had almost been potent enough to wipe his electrics out too… lucky escape there he thought as he charged ahead, Solan at his side and the rest in a tight pack behind.

The battle was brutal, but short. Those of the enemy that had not been killed by the two blasts had been injured or shocked into immobility for a few seconds. That was all the time Oquan and the elite FHA troops needed to move in and cut them down mercilessly.

That task accomplished, they moved on ahead, towards the noise that they too could now hear. Not knowing the layout ahead they did not progress as quickly as Logan had, but reached the site of the cave-in and spotted the hole in the tunnel wall. It was hard to miss, a dead enemy on either side and a deafening roar that seemed to be pouring out of it, causing most to dial their helmets volume right down.

Oquan signalled for the troops to take up positions and he went on ahead on his own, wishing Logan had put his armour bac on so they could communicate properly. He got right down on the ground before poking his head out to see into the hole in the wall.

The source of the noise was now apparent. A shimmering sheet of water hissed past the hole in a vertical torrent, thundering into a pool a few dozen metres below the hole. Out past that, the waters calmed and a wide and relatively gentle body of water emptied out into the sea in the distance. It was an amazing view, dark but illuminated enough by the sunlight making its way in from the mouth of the river.

It was however, spoilt by a scene of slaughter which turned even Oquans stomach. He was a veteran of many wars, but this was different. The workers they had previously seen pushing ore carts and labouring under the glare of the enemy soldiers lay dead, their bodies piled up four or five high in rows on the other side of the tunnel wall. Each one had a slice across their throat from ear to ear.

Oquan stood and walked through the hole in a slight daze. The slaughter was bad enough, but the fact they had been stacked up so gruesomely, clearly displaying the sliced throats and ensuring that as much blood had poured out as possible. They could have just thrown them into the river, this was intentional cruelty and vileness.

And then Oquan wondered where Logan was. And then Oquan spotted the flicker of heavy laser fire ahead, the sort that comes from heavy batteries on ships not hand held blasters. And then Oquan thought about Logan’s mental instability at times of intense anger, or stress….. And then Oquan started to run, hoping that he could get to his old friend in time, before he did anything he may later regret.

“Cora, Argon, Tersen, If you are in the river cavern be aware, Logan is likely to be VERY unstable, we may need to…. Erm, pacify him.”

Cora chimed in on his comms seconds later.

“You’re telling me… He is ahead of us, on the bank of the river where it forms sort of a natural loading area, he is letting loose with the bad stuff, we are not going anywhere near him at present, but got plenty of things to do, we caught a fleet of submersibles loading, they got their own escorts too so we have our hands full. Feel free to join in when you can, but err… perhaps YOU should take care, Logan is much closer to your side of the troubles.”

Oquan could now see what Cora was talking about. Just ahead the narrow, slippery path of slanting rock between the river and the cavern wall dipped as it followed a slight meander of the widening river and once he was able to see down into that dip, he spotted the dark shrouded figure of Logan, his Ryyk blade shimmering with crackling lightning as he released that dark force ability into the heart of the enemy. Judging by the screams he must have been unleashing torrents of other dark force powers as well, in a display that had once before stunned Oquan to the core, and almost killed him. Logan was occupied with cutting down the enemy right now, but what would happen once they ran out…. Or would he wipe himself out first? He seemed to think he was invincible when he was like this…

“OH crap”

Solan had appeared at his side and now the remaining FHA troops were piling up behind them.

“What we do? Let him wear out?”

Oquan took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh.

“No, we need to be near when he folds or he is dead. Lets go friend, and pray the Gods are with us.”

In a careful trot, they made their way to the scene of the battle and joined in around the edges, which proved easy enough as the shelf of rock was quite wide now. Logan was in the centre of a mass of enemy soldiers, dead, alive and otherwise, so the FHA closed ranks around the outside, making quick work of the first few who got caugh by surprise.

The battle did not last that long from that point and Oquan found himself breaking through the remnants of the enemy and coming face to face with the battered, bloody visage of Logan. His face was contorted in an ugly snarl, his eyes blazing with hatred. Oquan turned up the speaker on his helmet to its limit and screamed out

“LOGAN! LOGAN! ENOUGH…..”

There might have been the slight twinkling of recognition in his eyes, but then again maybe not. It was a moot point. OQuan had provided enough of a distraction for Solan to get in behind Logan and quite literally crack his skull open with the but of his shotgun, sending Logan into a deep, dreamless sleep.

“Oops, too hard?”

“Just hard enough Solan, that lizard has bone all the way that skull of his I swear, the medics will sort him out, but for now… you got some of those special restrainints?”

After the episode at Saarn, the senior members of the FHA and most notably Argon, who was Logans self appointed guard, carried restrains suitable for force users. They somehow cut the wearer off or at least limited their ability in some way… but whatever they did, they kept everyone around Logan safe once he was in them… they allowed his mind to calm, his soul to find its centre.

Looking up from the prone form of Logan, Solan and Oquan realised that the battle of the submersibles and escort fleet appeared to have come to an end too and one of the KAM’s had settled down near the mouth of the river. Two figures disembarked, the difference in their stature almost comical. One was easily recogniseable as Argon, the other they guessed was Cora. Both ran towards the scene of the battle but calmed once they realised all was calm. They arrived at a brisk pace still and studied the prone form of Logan, and the surrounding carnage.

“What set him off?! He been jacking up with stims again until his brain fried?”

Solan shook his head and gestured behind him,

“No Mistress Cora, he saw bad stuff up there, real bad stuff.”

Despite the fact they were no longer the feared Bone Collectors, Solan had for some reason never been able to stop calling Cora by her once official title. It just sounded right to him so he carried on using it… even if it did seem to make her twitch a bit. Or perhaps because it did?!

“Well, lets get him bundled up in that KAM, we are done here and the few subs that escaped will be hunted down by the locals, after all, the water is their turf so to speak. Lets get off this freezing rock and get him where he can be helped, again. Two more KAM’s are waiting to pick up the rest of you, fully equipped to sort out your cuts and bruises boys. Oquan… as our illustrious leader is rather busy sleeping, could I press upon you to assist me with the report we need to submit to the local authorities? Solan, can you see to the boys and girls and report in with casualties?”

Oquan and Solan nodded their consent and the surviving FHA troops organised their exit from the location. But a thought suddenly struck Oquan.

“Cora, can you patch me through to the Polus Senate? The bodies back there… they deserve a proper burial.”

There is already a clean up crew on the way, the local Government has taken control of the mine and will be conducting an investigation into the owners to see if they can find out how all this was allowed to happen. I will let them know about the unfortunate workers and their fate and I am sure they will get treated with dignity.”

Soon after, The Exploited, once again fully laden with vehicles and crew took off into the slightly calmer, but frigid skies of Polus, heading up to the stars and a sombre journey home.

All onboard once again found themselves consoling each other that at least they had removed yet another vile group of sentients from the galaxy, which balanced the loss of innocent life up a bit didn’t it?

A soldiers life is not an easy one to bear at times.