SCT-Novel Chapter 186 - Tunnel Vision
Chapter 186 - Tunnel Vision
Chapter 186 - Tunnel VisionWith the Ifrit safely away, I took Armstrong, and together we pushed the payload to the mouth of the tunnel. A steady supply of builders were still going in with shoring equipment and coming out with dirt. Warm air billowed out of the mouth of the tunnel, and I held a hand against it.
Buzz came up beside me. “We’re close, boss. We can feel somethin’ moving through the walls and it’s warmin’ up the closer we get to it.”
“Good,” I said. I considered for a moment, standing up to get a look at the situation. Swarms of null devils pressed in on three sides, and their larger brethren were coming in numbers too severe even if we weren’t down more than half the railguns and all of our missiles. Flying nymphs swarmed overhead, engaged by gun buggies that were quickly running out of rockettes. Parts of the walls were scorched and melted by the acidic null devil toxins while scrappers and wranglers fought to keep more crawlers from pushing through the gaps.
“Pull everyone back,” I declared. “We can’t hold the drill site. Fall back to the tunnel and focus our defenses on the entrance. Armstrong, get everyone evacuated.”
“Aye, boss,” said my secretive service chief, dashing off.
Promo leaned out of his rig. “Hoss, thinkin’ I’d like to stay up here, keep this rig runnin’ long as I can.”
I shook my head. “Noble, but no. This place is going to be null-city in a few minutes and they’re not going to leave you to run the drill. I need your igni holding the line while Buzz’ boys finish digging down to System.”
“Aye, boss,” said Promo. He reached in and shut the rig down, then slid out of the driver’s seat and waddled over to join the steady stream of goblins making for the tunnel entrance.
Armstrong returned, somewhat more covered in null devil guts than before. “Boss, most everyone is heading back. Canoneers and their zealots is refusing. They want to hold the line, give the rest of us time to get down the tunnel. They just ask we add their deeds to the histry books.”
I looked out at the battlements, which were now crewed by the sigil-festooned zealot corps led by my shouting canonneers. Only about half the zealots we’d brought were still alive. Even with their group bonuses, they weren’t going to hold out for long without the railguns and gun buggies. But they’d surprised me before when taking on the infant null devils en masse.
“If they won’t listen, we can’t make ‘em,” I said. “Let’s make sure their effort isn’t for nothing, yeah? Help me with this.”
Armstrong and Buzz pushed against the wagon carrying our payload. I added my meager strength, and together with another handful of goblins, we started to work the wagon over the rough terrain at the mouth of the tunnel. The last of the scrappers and wranglers fell back from the barricades, crawlers chomping at their backsides as the null nymphs swarmed over the hasty fortifications and into the camp. The canonneers and zealots fought on, stemming as much of the tide as they could but it was like trying to catch a waterfall with a colander.
We passed a staging area, where goblins were shrugging on flame spewers and picking up rifles and melee weapons and running past us to hold the line at the tunnel entrance. With it no longer safe at the dig site, lines of builders with buckets of dirt were throwing the excess into the staging areas as fast as other goblins could clear their contents.rate the skin of a creature that used a planet’s crust as a blanket.
“Boss, we can’t hold ‘em!” shouted Armstrong. About half of the secretive service had fallen, and others were injured by the weight and frenzy of the null devil attack. It was now or never.
I looked up at Buzz. “Ready?” I asked.
“Ad Luna!” he replied, and struck the igniter on the payload.