"Sector four is clear of thermal signatures," a harsh, mechanical voice crackled through the comm-unit of the leading corporate scout, the sound cutting sharply through the frigid gloom of the lower level. "Moving deeper toward the main shaft. Keep your weapons hot." "Not on my watch," Vance muttered from the pitch-black void behind the rusted ore-crusher housing, his boots shifting silently against the frost-covered iron grating as he braced his weight for the strike. Before the corporate scout could take another step into the cavernous chamber, Miller lunged forward from the shadows, his face hardened by weeks of unrelenting survival and desperate desperation. The iron-shod spade in his grip whistled through the freezing air with terrifying velocity, catching the lead soldier square across the armored chestplate. The impact produced a dull, sickening crunch of fractured ribs and tearing synthetic fabric. The scout crumpled instantly, his p

"Give me thirty seconds and I can loop the dead man's status ping," Rian muttered, his one-handed fingers flying over the encrypted dials of the corporate radio with frantic precision. "It won't fool an inspector at point-blank range, but through a howling mountain blizzard? It'll buy us enough time to breathe." "Time isn't what we're buying," Kael said, pushing himself off the steel beam despite the white-hot agony radiating from his leg wound. "We're buying an exit. If they sweep this facility tomorrow morning with full heavy infantry support, our walls won't hold. We need to cut them off entirely before they reach the valley mouth." Vance wiped a smear of frozen condensation from his tactical blade, his eyes narrowing as he looked toward the northern exit. "Cut them off how? The mountain paths are already choked with snowdrifts. Even if we wanted to bury them under an avalanche, we don't have the explosives for a cliffside blast."

"And if a stray snowflake hits it the wrong way while we're carrying it down the scree, we won't even need the bridge to blow ourselves to pieces," Vance muttered, his gaze shifting from Rian's fever-bright eyes to the heavy, canvas-wrapped crates resting on the rusted floorboards. "Nobody's blowing up here," Kael said, his voice hard as he stepped forward, testing his weight on his bad leg with a sharp wince he hid behind a flat, emotionless stare. "We pack it carefully, we move in the blind of the storm, and we plant every ounce right into the primary load-bearing joints of the trestle. Rian, are the detonators stable?" "As stable as homemade black powder wired into corporate remote triggers can be," Rian replied, his left hand deftly securing the housing panel of the radio. "Which is to say, don't drop them, don't shake them too hard, and for God's sake, don't let the damp get inside the wiring harness." "So, a normal

"The wind's dying down," Sera whispered, her boots sinking two inches into the crust of the scree slope as she dropped flat against the frozen shale. "Which means the fog is clearing out faster than we planned. Look at the lower rail spur." Kael didn't need the warning. He pulled himself up beside her, biting back a sharp curse as his bad leg took an awkward angle on the ice. Below them, stretching across the yawning, grey-white maw of the eastern gorge, the high-trestle rail bridge stood like a skeleton of rusted iron. And crawling along the upper ridge, breaking through the thinning squall like iron-jawed beasts, came the unmistakable, high-intensity headlights of corporate armored personnel carriers. "They're early," Vance muttered, sliding down the shale behind them with the canvas-wrapped crate balanced precariously against his chest. He dumped the heavy explosive package onto the frozen dirt with a dull, muffled thud. "By at least twen

"I’ll cover the ridge, you two get under the deck," Sera said, her voice dropping into that cold, absolute tone she used whenever the shooting started and the world narrowed down to the next heartbeat. She jammed her shoulder against the frozen shale, resting the barrel of her rifle across a jagged shelf of granite. "If a single one of those scouts looks down into the ravine, I’ll take out their optics before they can blink." "Just save enough rounds to keep your own head down," Vance muttered, hoisting the heavy canvas crate of homemade blasting powder back onto his shoulder with a sharp grunt. He spared a single, grim look toward Kael, whose face was beaded with cold sweat despite the sub-zero air. "You're moving too slow, boss. If we get caught out in the open on that iron webbing, we're just targets on a platter." "I'm moving fast enough," Kael snapped back, his teeth gritted as he dragged his stiff, half-frozen leg forward.