With 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.

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Once we got the cart around the first bend, it became clear why the drilling had taken so long. Goblins apparently tunneled the same way they blazed new trails. The meandering tunnel curved this way and that, occasionally looping back on itself with little rhyme or reason.

"Figures," I muttered, pushing the cart on. Behind us, I could already hear the shouts and clash of combat and the fwoosh of flames at the mouth of the tunnel as nymphs tried to force their way in, as well as a resounding boom that must have been one of the adult null devils impacting the surface. Deeper in the tunnel, the sound of System's heartbeat was like a slow bass drum, reverberating through the tunnel walls and shaking dirt loose from the ceiling. I swept it from the top of my head and pushed on.

One of the goblins on the cart squawked and pointed up. I followed its gaze to where a null devil nymph forced its way through the ceiling of the tunnel. Its grub-like body twisted and hissed at us from a mouth ringed with tearing teeth. And it wasn't alone. Small dust-falls and bulges in the tunnel ceiling marked the spots where other nymphs were burrowing. Through the tunnel above, I could also hear the rhythmic schwoosh, schwoosh of something moving massive amounts of dirt with massive claws.

Armstrong pulled a pair of cleavers from his belt and launched himself, shouting at the emerging nymph. Other scrappers joined him, their motions a blur thanks to their poacher bonus. A spray of venom from the nymph blasted several of them, and it pressed out despite its wounds and flopped to the tunnel floor.

"Keep pushing!" I said to the rest of the goblins, putting everything I had into the mine cart.

Several goblins ran up from deeper in the tunnel, shouting. Buzz listened for a moment, nodding along, and then turned to me. "We found it, boss! They're clearing it now."

"Good," I grunted. The sounds of combat behind us were growing closer, and the goblins holding the line were about to be fighting on two fronts. "Let's get this down there."

Armstrong rejoined us, covered in black goo and with fur singed by acidic toxin. His cleavers were chipped and melted in places. "We don't got much fight left in us, boss," he admitted.

"I've got one more surprise in store for these jerks," I said. "But we've got our own job to do."

As if on cue, the ground around us rumbled and shook as a great impact struck. All of us instinctively ducked at the noise and the falling dust. The sounds of the chittering and digging overhead stopped. I grinned. "Thanks, John," I muttered, and put my shoulder to the cart again.

The last mass driver shot had been kept in reserve, to be launched at the dig site once it was overwhelmed. It had just killed thousands of nymphs on the surface, and hopefully one or two of the bigger ones, as well. But more would come. Raphina was absolutely infested with the spaceborne parasites.

We pushed the mine cart down the tunnel, through the nonsensical looping route, the heat and the heartbeat growing more oppressive with every meter. Finally, after what seemed like hours, we came to a large chamber where Buzz's crew had cleared away a section of pearlescent flesh that shimmered as though coated in a sheen of fine oil.

"Alright," I said. "Let's get this lined up and prepped."

"Boss, more nymphs!" shouted Armstrong. I looked overhead, but these ones weren't coming from overhead. These ones were coming from up the tunnel, having burrowed down behind the defenders at the mouth. Armstrong and his remaining secretive service took what weapons they had remaining and launched into combat with the crawlers. "Go, boss!"

"Help me, Buzz," I said. We pushed and pulled, getting the mine cart turned around and angled toward the wall of pale flesh. I reached up and pulled a crank on the top of the payload, extending a choom-long steel needle, and then dropped the back gate of the cart to reveal the payload's rocket motor. I figured it would take a hell of a push to penetrate 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.

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