A mass of slaves were shifting the coal in wheelbarrows while a group of one-eyed guards watched on. They were armed with energy rifles, and one even had a whip.
On the right side of the building, two metal objects resembling ship’s wheels were mounted horizontally on the ground. Pipes ran in all directions but converged at a shiny dome. From the top of the dome rose a cylinder that moved up and down in a steady rhythm as slaves turned the two wheels. The slaves were being used not only to mine the coal but to pump water that would be boiled to turn turbines.
I’d seen enough.
A quick nod from Reaver and Beatrix confirmed they were ready. I jumped from the conveyor, landing halfway down the massive pile of coal, then immediately rolling and springing to my feet. A one-eyed guard spun to face me and grabbed for my throat, but I ducked and swiped at his leading leg with Ebon. The limb came off at the knee, and I skewered his skull with another strike.
The others had made their way down behind me and had spread out. Just when I looked, a guard raised his rifle to Beatrix and fired. In an instant, she raised her glowing hammer, and the red hyphen of energy struck it. It didn’t burn through, and it didn’t bounce. Instead, the hammer glowed a little more brightly as it absorbed the enemy projectile. Then, Beatrix rolled forward and struck a guard hard in his knee with her hammer. The joint exploded in a gory shower of flesh and blood, but before the guard could cry out, Beatrix had reversed her swing and smashed his head into his chest cavity.
I blocked a swing from a guard and opened his stomach with my sword. His rifle clattered to the ground, and as I spun round to find my next target I spotted a figure among the prisoners. Yaltu had made her way over there and was trying to free them from the chains binding them to the wheels. Most were human, but there were several other species I didn’t recognize. Most kept pushing their wheels, afraid to do anything else.
The guard with the whip joined the fight. I wasn’t worried about the whip until he activated its power source and turned it into a flaming snake. He cracked the whip, and I dodged out of the way. The guard calmly marched forward, the snaking weapon crackling. As I dodged and blocked the squirming lash, its owner began to make a noise.
At first, it sounded like he was coughing up a hairball. But as the sound grew in intensity, I recognized it for what it was: he was laughing.
Another guard was trying to sneak up behind me. Whether he meant to punch me in the back of my head or hold me for the one wielding the whip, I never found out. As soon as he was close enough, I turned and removed his head with a decisive slice. As the severed head topped to the ground, I returned my focus to the other guard. His whip flashed forward, and I spun aside a split second before it would have cracked open my skull.
“You sure you want to use that around here?” I gestured to the tall pile of coal behind me. “Sure would be a shame if you hit this instead of me, wouldn’t it?”
I couldn’t make out whether the creature had ears, but he glanced down at his glowing whip, then to the huge pile of coal, and hissed at me.
“Where’s the priestess?” I asked him. “Tell me, and I’ll let you join your friends outside to put out the fires.”
The guard snarled at me in return.
Beatrix and Reaver had dealt with the other guards, and now surrounded the final enemy alongside me. He hissed at Beatrix and bared his teeth in her direction.
I took advantage of his momentary distraction to press my attack. I came in high, telegraphing my move and forcing the guard to block high. As soon as I hit the ground I stepped to the side, spun Ebon vertically, and ran him through. I snatched the falling whip from the air before it could ignite the residual coal, crushed it in my hand, and tossed it.
“Everyone out!” I ordered the slaves. “Now!”
If these guards didn’t manage to put out the fires Skrew was lighting they weren’t worth half their wages, but I couldn’t risk turning the slaves into the victims of the guards’ possible failure.
The guard with the whip was still alive, and he groaned on the floor as blood escaped his body. I remembered Yaltu’s pheromones and gestured her to come.
“Can you use your pheromones?” I asked. “Make him tell us where the priestess is?”
“I can try,” she said as she knelt him.
She placed her hand on his forehead, and his eyes rolled over. He made a few grunts, and I figured he hadn’t said anything of importance, but Yaltu turned to me with a smile.
“The priestess is inside a secondary building made of discarded electrical items,” she said. “They call it the Switchboard.”
After checking for hostiles, I guided the slaves through the main entrance to the quarry outside. An elderly human seemed confused by my urgency, the sword, and the dead guards. I quickly gave up trying to talk him into leaving and resorted to picking him up and throwing him over my shoulder. He grunted once but didn’t fight back.
When I made it outside, two of the slaves lay dead on the ground.
“Sniper got them,” Reaver said quickly. “I got the sniper.”
I looked at the nearest guardtower and saw the blood splattered across the wall inside.
“I think we’re going to have to cut a hole in
