The drop-ship's altitude warning had sounded for ninety seconds. Caleb watched its red light pulse against his visor while the restraint pressed his rifle into the bandage at his collarbone.
He shifted the stock an inch lower. The shoulder hurt less there, though the vibration still worked through it whenever the ship banked.
His closed public icon turned green. Purple text appeared beside it.
[??? : I'll open the public feed for this drop. Keep the chip on.]
Caleb touched the access control and got the padlock. She could open another session; he still couldn't. He cleared the message so he could see the landing marker.
Across the aisle, Kei breathed through his nose in measured pulls. His thumb moved along the edge of his new optic, checking that it was seated. Taichi stared at the bay-door ceiling with his scatter-gun held between his boots.
Suzu sat two seats down. Her plasma rifle stood barrel-up between her knees, and her gloved palm rested flat on the receiver. When the deck tilted, she pressed harder to keep it steady.
The pilot spoke beneath the rotors.
"Surface isn't stable. Sub-surface displacement, three to five meters a minute. I can give you sixty seconds on the rocks east of the marker. You'll jump the last twenty feet."
Suzu touched her comms chip.
"Acknowledged. We'll jump onto the east rocks."
Caleb leaned against the restraint to look through the bay door. From miles out, the corruption had kept the shape of a mountain. Here, the valley below them flexed in dark folds, with veins showing through the wet surface. Mist lifted off it and blew toward the cabin.
The mountain shoulder ahead was still rock. It made a small island above the moving ground, and the pilot was trying to hold the ship over its eastern edge.
A red bolt of lightning climbed past the door. Taichi lowered his eyes from the ceiling to follow it, then pulled his scatter-gun closer.
"Boots in fifteen," Suzu said.
The hydraulic ramp dropped. Caleb smelled the valley before the wind reached his skin. Hot decay caught at the back of his throat. He closed his mouth, took a shallow breath through his nose, and checked that his helmet seal had stayed fastened.
Kei swallowed hard across from him. Taichi held his breath while he unlatched the restraint. Suzu stood and made room at the ramp for the next man.
"Go."
She jumped first. Caleb followed with his rifle close against his chest, keeping the barrel clear of her landing spot.
He hit the rocks hard. The new suit took some of the force through his legs, and his knees took the rest. He dropped into a crouch before the loose stone could roll him downhill. The sling tugged his sore shoulder when he brought the rifle up.
Suzu had her back against an outcrop, covering the path below. Caleb moved beside her and turned to watch Kei land.
Taichi came down last. The ship pulled away as soon as he was clear, blowing the mist off the ridge for a few seconds.
Caleb used that brief view to check the squad. Four had landed; Kei was already on his feet. Beyond the rocks, a path descended into the valley and vanished beneath the red haze. He couldn't see another firm place to stop along it.
"What's the move?" Taichi asked.
He looked at Suzu. She opened the deployment map, but the contour line at the edge of the ridge no longer matched the ground beneath them.
"Right-hand path," she said. "Something's been using it. The left is shorter, but I can't see where it comes out."
Taichi studied the marks pressed into the right-hand slope.
"Something with big feet."
"We can watch for it," she said. "We can't watch the footing through that mist."
Caleb kept his rifle low. He could smell more than the rot that had reached them in the cabin. Each gust carried a colder trace underneath, sharp enough to stay in his nose after the warm air passed.
Suzu turned toward him when he stayed quiet.
"There are different smells down there," he said. "I want point. If they change, I might catch it before we step in something."
She looked at the path, then at his arm. He lifted the rifle far enough to show he could hold it, though he kept the sling taking most of its weight.
"Call what you find. Taichi, follow him down; I'll take third. Kei, watch our rear."
Kei checked the rocks above them with his optic before he nodded. He could cover those while they started down; once the mist closed, he'd have to work with whatever view remained.
Caleb tested the first step with his heel. The rock held. He moved down the path while Suzu checked that the others followed.
***
For the first forty meters, loose stone shifted under their boots. Caleb kept to the larger pieces and called the ones that rolled when he put weight on them.
Then his next step sank without a stone moving. He stopped and held up his left hand.
Taichi caught himself before walking into Caleb's back. Suzu called the halt down the link, and Kei turned to cover the curve behind them.
Caleb crouched and pressed his palm against the path. Warmth came through the glove. A thin skin had spread over the rock, matching its color closely enough to hide the change.
He lifted his hand. The shallow impression filled slowly.
"Keep your weight light," he said. "Short steps. If it starts sinking, get low and spread out what you're putting on it."
"Does it hold?" Taichi asked.
"Held me so far. That's all I've tested."
Taichi put one boot where Caleb had stepped. He rocked forward, watching the surface give around the sole, and waited until Caleb moved again.
The mist closed around them. Caleb could see about four meters ahead, enough to follow the path around a low rise. Growths crowded its edge, hiding whatever lay beyond it.
He kept his eyes on the exposed strip under his boots. Stopping to inspect every growth would leave them standing on the warm skin longer than he wanted.
"Which smell are we following?" Taichi asked quietly.
"The cold one."
"Like rust?"
Caleb breathed through his nose again. He knew rust from cutting apart yard machinery. This stayed sharper, closer to the smell left on his gloves after cleaning a blade.
"More like unused steel."
Taichi tightened his grip on the scatter-gun.
"I was hoping you'd say the dead stuff. I know how to avoid that."
"Keep watching the edges."
Behind them, Suzu called another slight shift in the path. Kei passed it down the link so the warning reached Caleb without anybody raising their voice.
***
The first creature slid out of the mist on Caleb's left. Its body was low and about the size of a large dog, but the head had too many wet pits for him to pick out eyes.
It pulled itself forward on long front limbs. The rear pair dragged until the front feet found purchase. Caleb watched it cross a bare stone: the hind limbs caught, and its forward movement faltered.
His rifle hung against the sling. Raising it would take longer than drawing the combat knife, and the creature was already reaching the edge of the path.
He took the knife in his left hand. The front limb stretched toward him, opening a pale fold beneath the joint.
Caleb stepped across its lunge and drove the blade up into that fold. The resistance gave beneath his hand. He turned with the creature's weight, keeping the injured shoulder away from it, and pulled the knife clear as its front leg folded.
It struck the path with a sound like wet rope pulled tight. He kicked its body off his boot and backed onto the stone it had struggled to cross.
Two more shapes moved through the mist behind it.
"Right side, two," Suzu called.
Taichi fired past Caleb's shoulder. The closer creature's head broke against the slope. His second shot went wide when the other one changed direction, scattering chips of rock into the mist.
It came at Taichi while he brought the scatter-gun down.
Caleb stepped into its path. The neck stretched as it lunged, showing a seam beneath the unfinished jaw. He put the knife into that seam and leaned his weight through the hilt, using the angle he'd used to cut apart carcasses in the yards.
The body fell across Taichi's boot. Taichi shoved it off with the stock and dragged his foot free before the ground could soften beneath the weight of both of them.
"Thanks. It turned under the muzzle."
"Let it finish turning before you fire."
Taichi opened the action and checked the next load. "If it gives me time."
Suzu kept her rifle trained on the mist while Kei watched the path behind them. Caleb waited for more movement, holding the knife low where he could use it without lifting his sore arm.
The three bodies lay still. Black fluid worked into the surface beneath them. He scraped the blade clean against a bare stone and checked the joint of his glove for a tear.
His right shoulder had tightened from the landing and the turn. He took a small mouthful from the ration on his belt, chewing while Taichi covered his side. Food eased the pull beneath his ribs enough for him to loosen his jaw.
"Anything ahead?" Suzu asked.
"Same smell. I can walk."
She waited until he had the ration put away, then signaled him forward.
***
A gold square flickered at the corner of Caleb's visor. It vanished before he could open the indicator.
He kept looking at the place where it had been. The color matched the authorization that had interrupted his buyer in the simulation arena, when the older voice had apologized for her.
Mabel had said an SSS operator was attached to this theater. He couldn't tell whether the square meant that operator had opened his feed, or whether he was seeing the edge of another override. He had no channel name to check.
Suzu touched his elbow to get his attention and pointed down the slope.
Mist was lifting there in a widening circle. It pushed outward from the valley floor, carrying small pieces of the wet surface with it. Caleb watched a stone roll uphill for a few inches before falling back.
"Cover the slope," she said. "Kei, keep our route in sight."
Caleb returned the knife to his belt and brought the rifle up. The sling took its weight, though his shoulder protested when he settled the stock. Taichi moved far enough beside him to give the scatter-gun a clear lane.
For a breath Caleb thought of his mother's door and the machines behind his brother's bedroom wall. This month's fifty thousand was paid. He had checked the cleared receipt himself; tonight's collectors wouldn't take the equipment over that installment.
He wanted to get home to hear it running. The principal was still there, and he'd have another month's interest to meet, but he had bought time with the tunnel fight. Dying here would waste more than a number on a screen.
The circle opened below them. A knot of growth the size of a transport truck rose through the valley floor, pulling thick roots out of the slope. The surface stretched between them until it tore.
One root dragged across the path ahead. Warm skin folded over the stones Caleb had been testing, wiping out the route toward the insertion marker. He could hear more rock breaking beneath it.
"Back to the outcrop," Suzu ordered. "Kei, find us another way down."
Kei pointed above Caleb's left shoulder. A narrow cleft ran between bare rock walls, high enough that the spreading roots hadn't reached it.
"That gap. I can see a ledge through it."
Taichi backed toward the opening, covering the moving growth while Caleb tested the first stones. They held without giving under his weight. He climbed into the gap and waved the others after him.
Suzu came through last. The root rolled over their old path behind her, grinding the surface against the outcrop they'd left.
Beyond the cleft, orange lane paint showed beneath a thin layer of moss. The marked outer quarry route descended into a ravine, with enough exposed stone for Caleb to test it step by step.
Suzu reported the closed eastern path over the command link and checked their position against the briefing map.
"This meets the outer approach. Treadwell takes point. Taichi, keep the growth off our backs until we reach the turn."
Caleb lowered his rifle and stepped onto the marked stone. The heavy roots kept moving behind them, leaving the squad one route forward.