Free Dead Worlds (Necrospace Book 2) by Sean-Michael Argo Page B

all of the levels would enter a controlled collapse as Forge Prime, now gutted of all valuables beyond mere scrap metal, plummeted into deepspire.
    “Boss!” said Samuel as he crouched down next to Aiken as the squad leader re-loaded his combat rifle, “I’ll lead a few of the cor-sec troopers to Pylon 4 if you can spare us.”
    “Hyst, I need everybody here if we’re going to hold the ground long enough to get the pylon cut and have enough bodies and bullets to push our way out of this chamber,” snapped Boss Aiken as he racked the slide on his rifle and pointed to his dwindling pouch of magazines.
    “Boss, if we don’t get all the pylons cut then demolition won’t be able to get a clean blast, the collateral damage might end up squeezing the margins too hard,” observed Patrick as he fired the last round of his magazine and worked quickly to swap it out for one of his few remaining fresh ones, “Besides, we don’t have enough ammo to execute a proper retreat as it is.”
    “I’m not accustomed to grunts giving bosses tactical advice,” growled Aiken as he returned to his position and fired several rounds at the enemy as if to emphasize his displeasure, “But your logic is sound. We’re down to twenty percent ammunition reserves from the look of everyone, and if we find that we’ve been followed and some enemy has set up a hard point back the way we came then we would have to launch an assault just to retreat.”
    “Kade, get me three cor-sec troopers from the firing line, preferably ones who look like they won’t piss themselves when Prybar does something reckless and heroic,” ordered Boss Aiken as he looked at Samuel and gave him a begrudging nod of respect. “See that you don’t die needlessly, that’s bad for business.”
    “Roger that, Boss,” Samuel replied as three cor-sec troopers mustered at the base of the pylon, each carrying well-used combat shotguns and a sling of shells over their shoulders that had far more empty slots than full ones.
    “You three on me, we’re heading across the pits to bail out Pylon 4.”
    Samuel and his makeshift squad turned and set off into the quarter-light. He had no clue how he was supposed to find Jada Sek in the middle of all this chaos, but he figured that as long as they kept heading for Pylon 4 they were bound to cross paths.
    After a few minutes of leaping in and out of the sluice pits, Samuel could have sworn he heard the sounds of things splashing out there in the murky quarter-light that hadn’t been there moments before. His instincts screamed at him that this was a threat, and he turned to see that the cor-sec troopers clearly felt the same, as they all had their guns up and ears cocked. The sounds stopped and Samuel reluctantly signaled for them to move onwards, on the double.
    When the makeshift squad seemed to be about halfway to the pylon,  one of the sluice pits off to their right exploded with activity as something in the pit began thrashing and splashing. Another pit to the left erupted with similar disruption and from it emerged a long white creature that to Samuel’s mind looked to be the exact match for a Baen bone worm; only this one was nearly twelve feet in length.
    The creature’s head tapered to an armored point with no less than three gaping mouths on the underside of the armored head. The three cor-sec troopers screamed and began unloading their shotguns at the creature, their steel shot ripping chucks out of the bone worm’s body and sending it writhing and wailing as it spurted blood and viscera in all directions.
    Samuel looked away from the carnage only to see a second one slide out of the pit on the right and make a dive at one of the cor-sec troopers. The marine shouted a warning and raised his rifle just as the creatures pointed head slammed into the man’s back so hard that the armored point punched out of the other side of the trooper’s ribcage. The point, apparently its mouth, peeled back in barbed sections,