Renegades (The Slingers Trilogy, Book 3)

Chapter 40

The explosions went off behind them, trapping the crew in darkness as the cave entrance collapsed. Andress cursed and raised her hands over her head. "What do those idiots think they're doing?!" She yelled, then the entire mineshaft was illuminated by a light, making everyone shield their eyes. They all heard the revving of hover pads, and saw two GDF armoured vehicles heading towards them. Nolun looked around them, and knew that they didn't have anywhere to run. Even if they tried to run down the length of the shaft, they wouldn't have enough room to try and find another path before the two cars ran them down. There was only one option. He pulled out his repeater, and aimed it at the incoming car. "Nolun! What are you doing?! We have to run!" He heard Andress yell behind him, before he cocked the hammer back. "Just run. I got this." Andress hesitated, then moved in front of him. "Then you're not gonna do it with that." She pulled out her rifle and stood in front of him, then breathed out slowly as she aimed at the soldier in the driver's seat. She pulled the trigger once, and landed a perfect shot, killing the driver instantly, and making the vehicle swerve to the right, almost immediately hitting the wall. The way had been blocked for the other car, meaning the other soldiers would have t continue on foot. As they began to run down the tunnel again, Nolun heard a familiar voice call out behind him. "Lovecraft!" He and Andress both whipped around and saw General Kovak and another Resistance soldier walk out of the crashed vehicle, both wearing GDF armour. "You don't know what you're doing! Give the Pieces back now!" He yelled after them. Andress and Nolun gave each other one look, then took off down the tunnel.

As they ran down, they suddenly came out of the mineshaft, and stopped when they almost hit the rest of the crew that was in front of them. "What's wrong? Why'd we stop-" Andress was asking everyone, but then she looked up and answered her own question. They were in a large cavern, that was the size of a small space carrier, and on the ceiling was something that everyone was staring at. It appeared to be a city, not a futuristic and advanced one like the GDF would live on, but one that was much older, like one that would have been common back on Earth before it was left to rot, and the entire thing seemed to be contructed out of the rock that was on the ceiling, reaching down like sophisticated stalactites. Large towering skyscrapers instead reached down to the floor than the sky, and the roads decorated the ceiling in a crisscrossing checkerboard of grey and black. But, the even more ominous and fascinating thing was, there was no one in the city. The entire place, which was almost as large as an entire spacecraft, was completely deserted. No people, no vehicles, nothing, except for some sort of bioluminescent glow that came from the windows, which reminded Andress of the moss she had seen back in the caves on Hyltia IV. "I've seen this before..." She heard Nolun whisper, and she looked over at him, then he pulled out the journal that he had gotten on Hyltia IV, in the cave with the skeleton of someone named Merrick Crossman. He flipped through a few pages, then his eyes lit up. "Yes! Here! Look!" He showed everyone the page he had found, and everyone was shocked to see what they were looking at. On the page, with text written under it that appeared to be in the language of the Markers, was a picture of the exact city they were looking at.

Before any of them could ask how or why Merrick would have this in his journal, they heard gunfire coming from the mineshaft, and figured that the GDF probably had managed to figure out Kovak's little disguise, and were most likely engaging in combat that they wouldn't want to be a part of. They ran down the small path that lead towards the city, as Nolun read from the journal, frowning as he tried to translate the Marker language. He was muttering to himself as they ran, then, as they made it to directly underneath the city, he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. "Diamond." He said out loud, and everyone looked at him. Dante stepped forwards hesitantly. "Are you saying...?" Nolun smiled and looked up. "The Diamond! One of the Dorado Pieces is in that city! I think Merrick was here before and made this journal as kind of a cheat sheet to everything that the Markers hid up here!" Trace looked excited. "So that means we have the advantage!" Elicia looked up at the city, and at the tallest building, it's spire reaching down to right next to them. "How exactly are we supposed to get it?" Nolun then opened the case, and took out the Cone. He quickly spun around the symbols, paying no attention to the gunfire that was getting closer and closer from the mineshaft. Finally, he solved it, and the beam of glowing light shot out from the golden shape, up into the middle of the city. "By doing some climbing." Nolun finally answered. "I'll take him." Elicia said, and looked at Dante. "I can do it." Dante nodded, and looked at everyone else. "We'll give you cover." Nolun looked over at Andress who stared at him worriedly. "Make it back, ok?" She said, and he smiled. "So, you do get worried about me." He winked, and then began to climb up on the spire with Elicia following behind him. As he entered the window on the top floor, he prepared himself for the long climb, but found himself rudely driven out of his thoughts by a sudden fall to the ground. He found that he was now on the floor of the room he had just entered, rather than the ceiling. Looking out the window, he saw that everything else was upside down, including Elicia, who was looking inside with a confused look on her face. Nolun shrugged. "At least we can take the stairs now."