No shit, Rona thought.Maybe the Mercs Guild should have sent more than three dudes, huh?
But she kept her mouth shut.
Aeron pointed to a cluster of figures near one of the mine entrances. “Zoom in on that group right there. Let’s get a closer look at these assholes.”
Murdok leaned forward and tapped some buttons on the console in front of him. The image on the screen centered on the group of figures Aeron had indicated and expanded until they were filling the entire window. The top-down view and green coloration made everything look a bit strange, but Rona could tell that she was looking at a group of large, brutish males. They were not entirely unlike the mercenaries in the cockpit with her now, but they were a whole lot less human. The invaders had long, pointed ears and big, clawed hands with only three fingers apiece. They appeared to be huddled around a heating device, passing around a bottle of liquor.
“Mutants,” Aeron said. “Parahumans. Could just be a random roving gang, but my instincts tell me they came from offworld. Zoom out again. Let’s see if we can find their ships.”
They didn’t take long to find. A small fleet of transport vessels parked on the far side of the mountain that contained the mine.
“Shit,” Rona said. “I had no idea.”
She took a step back and started to sit down, forgetting that Zeth was already occupying the seat behind her. By the time her butt had touched his thigh, it was already too late. The young Merc grabbed her around the waist and pulled her all the way onto his lap again.
“Let’s take a look at the situation underground,” Aeron said.
“Sure thing,” Murdok answered.
He tapped a few more buttons, and the image shifted again. Now, instead of green, everything had a bluish tint. And instead of an overland view, it showed the tangled network of tunnelsthat made up the mine itself. Rona gasped softly in surprise. These guys had even better tech than she’d expected.
“Shit,” Murdok growled. “Place is a damn labyrinth.”
Aeron nodded. “Yup. When we go in, we’ll need one person to stay behind on overwatch duty.”
“Wait,” said Rona. “You mean only two of you will be going in?”
“Two’ll be more than enough,” Aeron said.
Rona’s eyes widened in disbelief. Looking at the image, she could see that inside of the mine was absolutely crawling with mutant raiders—hundredsof them—and they appeared to be heavily armed.
For some reason, that fact didn’t seem to bother the Mercs.
“Hey, what are these things?” Aeron said.
He was pointing at a big, eight-legged creature that was moving down one of the corridors of the mine. There were lots of them. Almost as many as there were raiders. In spite of the weird angle and distortion from the scanner, Rona recognized the creatures immediately.
“Those are raknids,” she said. “They’re like big domesticated spiders. They look scary, but they’re fairly docile. They spin the silk that we gather from the mine.”
“Hmmm…”
Aeron was still staring at the image of the mines, brow furrowed, fingers scratching at his coarse beard.
“What’s up?” Murdok asked.
“It’s strange,” the Merc leader said. “These raiders, they come in, kill a bunch of miners, and take over the mine… but it looks like they haven’t killed any of the raknids. And as far as I can tell, they’re not trying to steal any of the silk for themselves either.”
“Raw silk isn’t worth much on its own,” Rona said. “It’s gotta be taken to a refinery to be processed.”
“Besides,” Murdok said. “Mutants are known for being lazy bastards.”
“True,” said Aeron. “But they also have an appetite for violence and rape. The village is only a few klicks away. It would be easy for them to go over there and indulge themselves. Yet they’re remaining in the mines and just… squatting.”
Murdok shrugged.
“Beats me, boss.”
Aeron studied the image a moment longer, then he turned toward the copilot’s seat.
