Chapter 18 - The Enemy of My Enemy

Ryke couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.

At first it just looked like a shapeless mass of smashed rock and earth, rising like some kind of primeval golem behind Qadira's Hunter-Killer. Then a forest of limbs exploded to the left and right of the central mass, sloughing off the shell of muddy refuse to reveal the creature in its entirety.

Much larger than a Hunter-Killer, the central disc of the thing's body must've been six meters across, slightly ovoid in its shape, but made irregular by lumpy plates of bony armour. Immense, multi-segmented limbs splurged from the flanks of the body, and something that looked like a tail thrashed viciously somewhere in the debris behind it.

The head that jutted from the front of the carapace had a roughly triangular shape, sloping down in the shape of an upturned shovel and ending in a gaping double jaw. It didn't seem to have any eyes, but evidently didn't need them. A forest of teeth clashed angrily, viscous liquid spraying in all directions as it reared up.

His eyes opened wide when he saw the underside of the monster. A secondary maw that must have been more than a meter wide gaped open, almost a perfect, fleshy circle infested with concentric rings of massive teeth. Teeth that looked an awful lot like what they'd pulled out of the Scraegan body not so long ago.

There was no time to think about the implications, however, as it hurled itself forward, straight at Qadira.

The woman showed the lightning reflexes that made her a Hunter-Killer, and they saved her life. She twisted sharply to the side before the rocks and rubble had even settled, turning her mech in the nick of time so that the huge, spherical maw smashed down against the metal of her shoulder shield instead of the vital systems in the Hunter-Killer's back.

The weight of the thing still crushed her to the ground. A scream tore over the comm and Ryke heard the screech of rending metal. The shield would only protect her for a matter of moments. He raced forward, shunting every dumbstruck question to the back of his mind. His cannon snarled, spitting shots at the thing's body, but to his shock the armour-piercing rounds barely dented the thick plates of toughened bone.

That didn't stop him, though. Shards of torn metal whipped from Qadira's mech as the monster bore down, that strange, spherical arrangement of teeth rotating to rip through the plating of her shield. They only had seconds.

Ryke abandoned his cannon, instead launching himself forward, ducking beneath a snap of the monster's head and surging upright again to wedge his mech underneath it. Legs flailed and bashed at the rear armour of his mech, and amber stress warnings blared through his pilot station as he tried to lever the creature up and off of his comrade. His eyes widened in amazement when he saw the numbers the Hunter-Killer's systems were blurting out.

The thing weighed almost forty tons.

A close range blast from Brigg's shoulder cannon was enough to put a dent in the outer carapace, but still the monster tried to bear down on Qadira, its limbs lashing out at the other Hunter-Killers as they tried to approach. A savage whip of its colossal tail smashed into Ricardo's Raptor mech, and the impact hurled the rookie Hunter-Killer backwards with a crash of buckling metal. More amber warning belched across his HUD but Ryke couldn't worry about that now.

"Get under it!" he bellowed. "Avalanche, Mallet, get in here and lift this son of a bitch!"

The two Goliaths thundered forward at his words. Brigg took a crushing blow on his shield from one of the flailing legs but managed to jam his powerful machine into position under its right flank. On the opposite side, Brody took a different approach, ducking down beneath a swinging leg until he was almost on one knee. Then he burst upwards and rammed his unsheathed warblade hard into one of the limb sockets.

A hellish screeching blasted through Ryke's audio filters as the blade bit deep, and a thick, greyish liquid splurged from the wound Brody had made to anchor himself in place.

"PUSH!" Ryke roared. Together the three Hunter-Killers heaved, their reactors boiling and servos screaming with the strain, but inch by inch they were able to lever the creature up. The circular mouth underneath undulated in a way that made Ryke want to vomit, so he looked away trying to focus on simply lifting.

Once they'd managed to heave the thing up a couple of meters, Kim raced over in the other Raptor mech, diving in alongside him to grab the sparking, mangled structure of Qadira's Hunter-Killer. Metal scraped on stone as she dragged their stricken comrade free.

"You're clear!" she yelled, just as the pressure warnings on Ryke's HUD flickered to red. "Get back!"

"Break off," he barked to the Goliaths, giving one last hard push to shove himself clear. He nearly fell over as he went clattering backwards, but just managed to keep his feet. Brody ripped free and rolled the hulk of his mech out of the reach of stamping legs; Brigg let off a parting shot from point blank range as he stepped clear, sending the colossal arthropod recoiling backwards with a hiss of rage.

"Send this bastard to the River," Ryke spat over the comm, revulsion crawling on every inch of his skin as he took aim. Cannons whirled to life in a rough arc as the Hunter-Killers opened fire.

Armour piercing shots cascaded in from all directions, pounding the monster's armoured hide from what ought to have been lethal range. Most of the mechs were within twenty meters – at that kind of distance the cannon shells would penetrate both the armour and thick hide of a Scraegan warrior.

But whatever they had found in this place, it was made of tougher stuff than even a Scraegan. Chunks of bony plating chipped off and sprayed across the cavern floor, and spatters of grey blood flew from superficial wounds, but it didn't stop the thing from charging, its cluster of legs propelling it forward at a frightening speed.

"RYKE!"

No warning could have come quick enough for him to get out of the way. The Hunter-Killers were more nimble than they looked, but the monster flew at him like a missile. He had just enough time to swing his shield into place to take the brunt of the impact before it smashed into him.

Alarms screamed through the Hunter-Killer. His shoulder servo almost blew out completely under the tremendous impact, and he was shoved back hard, the monster lifting him and carrying him clean across the cavern until they slammed into the opposite wall. Pulverised rock exploded all around him, warnings bickering from the rear armour of his mech.

He was a lot more concerned with what was in front of him. Ryke kept firing, his cannon biting chunks out of the thing's underside as he swung it in a clumsy arc. Several of the things limbs smashed into his front armour, barbed ends biting into the metal. The armour held, but he couldn't move. He twisted the warblade free from his shield arm, contorting awkwardly to try and saw at the legs holding him in place on that side.

The monster reared up, its double-jawed mandible snapping as it unleashed a hideous, gurgling scream of triumph. Ryke squirmed, trying to wrench himself out of its path before the gnashing cyclone of teeth on the thing's underbelly could fall on him and rip the Hunter-Killer apart. But the sheer weight of the monster was too much for the mech's reactor to overcome. Pistons screamed in desperation but he couldn't move. The maw fell towards him and he could only watch in horror.

Something rammed into the monster from the side.

It happened so fast he didn't get a good look. One minute the serrated teeth were coming to tear him to pieces, the next the thing fell sideways, something big and dark ramming into its flank with the force of a battering ram. A sludgy grey liquid of its blood was splattered across the front armour of his Hunter-Killer.

He lurched forward with a gasp, twisting to see who had saved his life.

To his astonishment, he saw a Scraegan. The bulky warrior had one shoulder wedged into the junction between two of the thing's legs, holding it off balance, but more incredible than that, was that he recognised his saviour. It was the stocky Beta they'd encountered in the valleys. He knew because the Scraegan had rammed the serrated horn of its helmet all the way into the flank of the shrieking creature, having charged it like a bull.

"Lockjaw!" Thaye exclaimed. "We've got company!"

The sound of pounding feet followed her warning cry, and looking to his left he saw several more Scraegan warriors thundering into the chamber, weapons raised as they let loose their battle roars. He tensed, not knowing what in the Everflowing to expect.

They ignored the Hunter-Killers completely, racing forward to aid their comrade as the Beta battled to hold the thrashing monstrosity in place. The Scraegan leader strained, a low, bass growl trembling the loose rock as muscles stood out on its bulky frame, keeping the creature levered up to one side.

Ryke soon realised why.

The first of the newcomers swung back with an enormous, tooth-headed axe and buried it with sickening force into beast's underbelly, right into the flesh of the circular under-mouth. More grey blood spewed in all directions and the monster shrieked, thrashing in fury. The Scraegan Beta stumbled, twisting its head to dig its horn deeper and anchor itself in place. It looked for all the world like the warrior's head was about to snap clean off under the tremendous weight.

"Havoc, on my lead!" Ryke barked, snapping out of his daze and breaking into a run, even as the other Scraegans buried their weapons into the creature's underside. Its tail whipped at them; one Scraegan turned and flung its heavy body onto the muscular limb and try to hold it down.

To her immense credit, Thaye didn't even hesitate. They'd fought through the worst kinds of hell together side by side, and that trust galvanised her into action without a thought. With her right behind him, Ryke launched his Hunter-Killer into the fray, ramming his shoulder shield into the creature alongside the Beta, driving his machine's reactor to the limit as he pushed, trying keep their foe elevated.

Thaye did the same on the opposite side, locking herself into place beneath the thing's battering rear legs to stop it from tipping back down. The other Scraegans hacked and stabbed at the vulnerable underside of the monster for what felt like an age. Ryke's muscles ached; grey sludge fountained out onto the rocky ground and still the thing wouldn't just die.

It took minutes before the failing finally lessened, before the strength began to fade from the monstrosity. The huge mass of the thing turned into a dead weight; the shrieks subsided and the legs curled inwards in death, like a spider. By now sweat was coursing down Ryke's cheeks, his whole body sore from maintaining the position.

"Boss...?" Preese's voice came over the comm.

"Yeah?"

"You okay?"

"I think so."

"You can move back. I'm pretty sure it's dead."

With a gasp of relief Ryke lurched away from the corpse stumbling back quickly to make sure it didn't fall on him. Thaye moved back with him, her cannon still aimed and warblade raised high, as though she didn't quite believe that the thing was dead. He couldn't blame her for that. The Scraegans edged away. The Beta ripped its horn loose with a guttural bark of triumph, leaving the creature's massive frame to thump to the ground.

Limping slightly on a damaged leg gyro, Ryke moved back to join the dumbstruck ranks of his squad, staring in utter amazement at the corpse.

"Ricardo," he said, not taking his eyes off the thing. "Damage report?"

"Some gyros knocked about and a warped front plate," the rookie replied shakily. "Still combat effective."

"Lockjaw – Medea?"

"Go ahead." Qadira's voice was a rasp and a jolt of worry shot through him. Her mech's readout showed half a dozen critical damage indicators.

"You still alive in there?"

"Just about." A pause. "Shield arm is completely shot, no blade functionality and my left side servos are wrecked."

"What about you?"

"I'm in one piece. Thanks for asking."

"Maybe we do care just a little bit, huh?"

"Roger that... sir."

Satisfied that his pilots were out of immediate danger, Ryke turned his attention to the next problem in the room: the Scraegans.

They'd disentangled themselves by now, and getting a good look at them he could see most of the pack was caked in grey blood, a lot of it dry. So much for a blissful instant of wishful thinking that the monster they'd just killed might've been one of a kind. He had no idea what these things were or where they came from, but it seemed clear they didn't discriminate between Scraegan and human.

The Beta turned to face him, shaking blood from its helmet. Its hammer hung in one massive hand, furnace cannon boiling with destructive energy in the other. It did not, however, take aim. It stumped out in front of its comrades, dark, unreadable eyes scanning the assembled Hunter-Killers. One lip curled in a growl, revealing a blunt canine.

"Ryke," Thaye said quietly. "We can finish this here and now."

He glanced back at his soldiers. Hunter-Killer cannons were fixed on the Scraegans, ready to kill. Ready to do what they'd been trained to do. He felt the uncomfortable twinge of indecision in his gut. The human war was with the Scraegans, but what they'd discovered here went beyond that. He couldn't even begin to start sorting through the implications now, but whatever else had happened, the Scraegan pack in this chamber had saved his life. He sighed heavily.

"Stand down."

"Are you sure-"

"I said, stand down!" Ryke snarled, cutting off any further objections. "Drown me, lower your damned guns!"

Despite their obvious reticence, the squad obeyed. Barrels dropped to aim at the floor. He waited until he was absolutely sure no skittish trigger fingers might kick off another fight, before turning his attention back to the Scraegans. He walked slowly, hoping it would be clear he wasn't spoiling for a fight as he moved to stand opposite the Beta.

Taking a deep breath, he punched the keys on the internal interface to open the front armour of the Hunter-Killer.

"Boss! What are you doing?" Preese gasped.

"Call it diplomacy," he murmured in response. The thick plates of solid metal cracked in front of him before peeling back. The stink of death washed into his cockpit bringing a swell of nausea with it. He fought down the sensation as the machine opened up, revealing his vulnerable human body to the Scraegan Beta.

The warrior took a step closer, cocking its head to one side in interest. Ryke waited until it focused on him, rather than the Hunter-Killer he was sitting in. Once its black eyes fixed on him, he gave it a slow, exaggerated nod, hoping that he could convey some level of gratitude. Then he reached out and pointed, pointing past the Scraegan to the corpse of the monster.

It took a moment for the warrior to realise what he was doing. It looked back over its shoulder once then snorted. Its gaze swung back to him, brutish snout crunching in something that might have been frustration. Then it barked something in the Scraegan language, a short, two syllable phrase. One that he recognised.

All-Na.

Then the Beta growled a command to its pack and the Scraegans formed up in a loose column behind their leader. Without a backward glance they trudged from the chamber, disappearing down one of the side tunnels and leaving the Hunter-Killers alone in the aftermath of the carnage.

"By the watching Lords," Thaye murmured. "Ryke ... what's happening out here?"

"I wish I knew," he replied.

"Orders, boss?" Preese interjected.

"We're leaving." Ryke punched in a command. Hydraulics hissed gently inside the pilot's station and his front armour closed around him once again. "I have a feeling our war just got a lot more complicated."