Reid had made a lot of assumptions. There were recent ones he'd made about the mole king, quite a few things he'd assumed about stats and power, but he mostly made assumptions about people.

  In his mind, Reid had assumed Win's role in fights was healer first, and everything else second. He saw her as a clinician and apothecary, then adjusted that assumption to include her as a commander of people, standing above the battle and directing forces. He pictured her out of the action.

  As she used her F-grade spear to - quite literally single-handedly - tear through the first half dozen vicipods to make it through the tunnel, Reid resolved that misunderstanding.

  Win was a healer, but she was also a viciously efficient combatant. Every swing did heavy damage. She never moved more than a step out of where she needed to be. She'd even already adapted her armor's trait into her movements so seamlessly that the damage-cancelling "Indomitable" flowed into counterstrikes with a natural smoothness Reid couldn't hope to match - even with his new dexterity.

  Her spear lanced out again, and skewered an emerging beast. She brought it to the ground, and held it there while some of the other prisoners jumped in to finish it off.

  More vicipods were starting to emerge, from other cracks between rocks. They folded and compressed their flower-bulb bodies to scrape and push themselves through openings that should've been to small for them to traverse. One fell from a high opening, down to the cavern floor. Ivory - his ivory - plunged into the creature from six different sets of hands. The beasts were all in mid-G grade - while his weapons were near the limit of what G grade allowed him to create. As the battle grew, Reid realized how much of a difference his creations made. The same fighters that had struggled against a lone vicipod were holding the line, almost easily, with one of his weapons in hand. Nothing was as impressive as Win's spear - but the other, G-grade weapons were tougher than the vicipods, and possessed a brutal efficiency.

  Reid held himself fast as more creatures started to emerge, and more of the miners were forced to engage them. Lycra was silent at his side.

  Their role here was not to simply kill the beasts - it was to provide cover and support when they saw a need. Reid would've loved to just send a stone into the bugs as the emerged from the rocks, but Win had specifically asked him to not throw anything into the tunnel itself if he could avoid it. She was worried the whole thing might collapse, and then the beasts would try to find some alternate route.

  Reid had expected he would join in the fighting almost immediately, but so far there was little need for him. Two miners had been injured, but both were covered and evacuated promptly - so fast that Reid barely had time to identify the need before they were gone. Others took themselves out of the fighting as they encountered the vicipods' paralytic saliva, but there were thankfully few of those compared to what could've been. The long reach of his spears was keeping most from encountering the troublesome secretion. So Reid watched on in silence as beast after beast smashed itself against Win and her cobbled corps.

  #

  It was another five minutes before he made his first throw. A group with too many fatigued fighters had gotten a large dose of saliva after one missed a swing on the beast. It left them all vulnerable.

  A black rock hurtled through the air like a cannonball, and the vicipod's body exploded on impact. The legs and what remained of its mouth bounced up into the air and back towards the tunnel's opening. Wide, thankful eyes glanced up at Reid as the group rotated themselves out with a fresh set of fighters. They called out to Reid as they stumbled towards the field medics, where they'd receive the 'paralytic cures' the team had assembled. It was really just Win's apothecary specialty masquerading as medicine. Reid only smiled and gave them a small wave.

  The rock had sailed true, and obliterated the creature. Unlike the softer stone he'd used against the vicipod that killed Jim, these were strong enough to outright kill the beasts. Reid grabbed another from the pile, and swept his gaze over the battle.

  A pair of prisoners armed with iron swords had gotten too close to a beast, and the vicipod speared one through the arm with a leg. It was in the process of hauling the screaming man towards its mouth when the top third of its body exploded into mist.

  A team rotating out for fresh fighters didn't properly beat back the creature in front of them, and it found a gap in the lines. Its entire body folded in on itself as a rock impacted it from above, then splattered out into the dirt as it slammed into the ground. The new group stepped through the gore to reach the front line.

  An overzealous medic ran in to reach a prone fighter - and put himself within range of a vicipod's legs. Reid was proud of that throw. The rock snapped the leg off at its joint, then drove into the body and out the mouth of the thing. The projectile carried a trail of spit and gore that splattered on the ground. Some splashed back on the medic, and they had to pull themselves out of the fight to recover.

  The scenes played out again and again as fatigue rose and fighters swapped in. People were just too slow, or too weak, or too tired. Then, like lucky meteors, Reid's rocks slammed into the offending beasts and removed the majority of the threat. People still got wounded. They took debilitating or minor wounds. Some wouldn't be rejoining the fight. But somehow, they still hadn't had a single death. Reid squeezed the rock ready in his hand. Lycra pointed out a section in trouble that he hadn't noticed. Reid threw, and a bug died.

  #

  #

  Two hours. They'd been at it for two straight hours.

  The few competent ranged magic users they had were all completely drained, and one had fallen unconscious after overextending his mana pool to launch slivers of dull metal at the beasts.

  A growing stream of injured fighters were retreating back towards the clinic area. Broken bones and severe wounds would keep them out of the fight - and that meant there were less combatants to man the frontline. Teams rotated in and out with less and less rest as Win and the others desperately held onto control of the mouth of the tunnel.

  The rapid changes brought more errors, and errors brought death.

  No matter how ferociously they fought or how accurately Reid threw - no one in the Warrens was a miracle worker. A vicipod speared a leg through a fighter's neck, and used leverage to rip the hole open wide before Reid's rock connected. The man bled to death on the ground. Another pushed up too close to the wall in the heat of battle, and was surprised by a new enemy that emerged from a crack near him. It was the first time Reid had seen a mouth properly bite someone, and it was not something he'd soon forget. What was left of the man had been dragged back and covered in cloth.

  They took losses.

  But they held the line, and fought on.

  #

  #

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  Bugs continued to emerge from the tunnel, but for the first time it felt like their numbers were starting to dwindle. Reid's stock of stones had nearly run out at two separate points during the fight. A team of eager volunteers had subjected themselves to the hot tunnel - the only one still open - to keep him stocked. Reid could tell, from his current state after hours of ceaseless throws, that his entire body was working together more efficiently than it ever had before. There was a bit of targeted refueling going on, and he wasn't going to have a seamless recovery, but he could tell that even the blowback from overworking himself was going to be minor compared to the times he'd done it back in sanctuary.

  Going to be, because everyone could feel the wave of enemies was coming to an end.

  Win's spear, coated in bits of gore, tore another vicipod open from tip-to-mouth. She had barely left the battlefield, the entire fight. She rotated out three times over the course of the entire hours-long battle, and only stayed out long enough to finish a few waters and swallow one of her pills. Reid knew she was keeping herself up and going by staving off fatigue with healing energy. He knew she could remove the paralytic saliva's effects with her skill. But hours of fighting with almost no rest was still a bit insane. Reid couldn't imagine himself lasting that long if he was down there. And Win didn't even seem winded.

  Over the next fifteen minutes, the last of the 'wave' of vicipods threw themselves out of the tunnel, and into the waiting fighters. Most kept themselves sharp and fully in the moment, but Reid had to save more than a few that saw the end and took their foot off the gas. They might know the fight was starting to die down, but the vicipods certainly didn't. Over three dozen injuries and four deaths happened in those last fifteen minutes alone. Watching from his perch, Reid took in the phenomenon, and internalized it.

  The fight wasn't over until everything was done. Anything less, no matter how small a fraction was left, was still a fight. And that meant you had to give your all.

  The fighting didn't end with cheers.

  Vicipods were killed off until none remained, and no more came through the tunnel. Everyone around the mouth of the tunnel let themselves go still and leaned heavy on their weapons. They watched the openings, somewhat disbelieving that they'd managed to pull through the fighting alive. The cavern floor was covered in bodies and gore - even though teams had pulled dead vicipods away nearly-continuously during the fighting to try and keep the battlespace somewhat navigable.

  Win was the one to break the silence. She walked over and spoke to a few people from the medical staff, then climbed back up the battlements. Everyone else gathered around her. Most watched on with reverent gazes at the woman who'd spent hours decimating beasts with one arm. Reid let himself smile. No one was going to try and mess with her again for a good long while. Especially not Bartholomew. Her voice carried strong through the cavern.

  "Whoever's the most rested, stay up and keep a close watch on that opening! If you're up for it, we could use a scouting party to see whether there are more of those things in the tunnel. No one that's injured goes out to scout - no exceptions. The rest of you, get yourselves some food - and All-God's Tits, take a shower! I'm sure if I didn't have bug guts up my nose, I'd smell you all from here."

  A few chuckles sounded out in the crowd. Win raised her spear. Even as she worked to raise the spirits of the crowd, Reid saw her gaze slip, worried, towards the tunnel - already worried about another wave.

  "You're all alive, you miserable fucks! You're alive, and those things are dead. Yes, they took some of us down with them! Brave souls brought to an end they didn't deserve - but those people died fighting! They died with purpose and honor, and they did it so the rest of us would live. So celebrate their sacrifice. Raise your goddamn voices and your weapons. You exterminated the bug's attacking force, and live to fight another day! Cheer your victory! Celebrate fallen friends! We are victorious!"

  #

  Reid watched another vicipod get shoved into a processor chute. Every single chute was being used to get rid of the beast's bodies, and there were plenty to destroy. The people doing it were more than happy to, as each resulted in the machines giving them 100 credits for what it called a 'Pest' corpse. They had a fairly efficient system going where fighters double checked the vicipods were dead, brought them to a main pile, and then individuals or groups dragged them to the processors proper. It had been going on for a while now, and Reid wondered if - between their requests for help and the now-continuous line of dead bugs - someone was ever going to come down and investigate.

  Their scouts - in a move Reid wouldn't have wanted them to perform - scouted all the way down to the poop cave. It was only past that cave that they'd started to hear scrapes and chitters.

  Despite his worries and his nerves, Reid was alright. Lycra was fine. Win was more than alright - people were practically falling over themselves to thank her or offer personal help. There was a group that surrounded her, insistent that she not lift a finger to do anything physical. Reid's introspection on his mental state after the battle was cut short by the same kind of interactions - though his were just a bit less enthusiastic than those around Win.

  People walked over to Reid covered in bandages. They approached seemingly uninjured. They came alone, and in groups. Some sent notes relayed from their clinic beds out through friends. All came to Reid with gratitude. People he'd hurt in the marketplace fight and people he considered himself warm with approached him with matching appreciation. They thanked him for saves he had barely recognized in the moment. They thanked him for the spears that let them fight - and saved their lives. They thanked him for their survival just the same as they did the medics and Win.

  He hadn't done it alone. None of them had done it alone. Win's early words were right - they'd all done enough to make it through the first wave. The team that worked until they had to sprint away from approaching beasts. The fighters that threw themselves into danger. The medics hauling and treating the injured off the front lines. Those making sure everything stayed stocked with armor, weapons, food and water. Reid on his perch. The entire system would've broken down in so many ways if even a single pillar hadn't stayed upright.

  Lasting through the fight. Winning. Seeing so many people make it out alive, then realizing how many of them had made it because of his crafted weapons. It all built and healed something in Reid he hadn't known was broken.

  He breathed in familiar air, now heavy with sweat and gore.

  This was what it was like, to survive.

  This was the difference he could make.

  #

  #

  Half a day later, a series of rumbling booms snapped Reid - and every other resting miner - awake. He panicked and scrambled for his weapons, ready to fight the feared second wave of vicipods. His emotions were already full with worry that their fatigued forces wouldn't be able to hold the line. Then he realized the noise wasn't coming from the mouth of the tunnel. Instead, his fellow prisoners all had their eyes raised to the space above the net.

  Engines rumbled with a noise like a rocket booster as a shining silver figured shot down into the hole.

  Reid made sure Lycra and Win were near him. They'd slept next to each other again, but Reid had to make sure he knew where they were.

  The last time an enforcer had come to the Warrens, it spelled trouble. They'd invited that same trouble back by sending out the requests for help - but that was done when things felt more desperate. Now that they'd beaten back the wave, Reid regretted that they'd sent up the request at all. There was no telling what the new arrival would do.

  The shining power armor looked far more advanced than the other enforcer's had been. Reid's instincts told him that this man wasn't one he'd be able to fight - that there was simply too much of a gap in strength.

  As the arrival descended, miners shrank back towards the walls. Some of those still armed and armored squared themselves, ready for a new fight.

  The man surveyed the area, pausing as his helmet swept over the mouth of every tunnel before landing on the main, collapsed section. He raised a hand at the opening, and Reid swore he heard some sort of chant.

  A blue, circular barrier of light popped into existence and covered the entire tunnel opening. It rippled faintly, and Reid and others frowned at its implications. Some shouted with panic and concern.

  The next odd thing the man did got a greater reaction. Half a dozen cylinders launched out from the suit - straight towards the clinic area. Each popped like a flare - and fizzled out a grey, bubbly substance that quickly grew in size until it overtook the clinic entirely. People screamed and ran - until they saw the bubbling substance come into contact with a wound. Reid watched a half-healed injury almost instantly turn into new, fine skin. A cut on a forehead disappeared. A miner with their arm in a cast slowly flexed their fingers as they twisted a hand. Those that hadn't seen the healing-bubble effect continued to scream and run from the clinic.

  Between the blue barrier and the grey bubbles, the entire cavern was alive with motion, panic, and noise. The large, poorly maintained ship that rumbled into view above the enforcer didn't help.

  A voice, deep like gravel, boomed out from the armored figure. Reid felt like it was ringing out from inside his own head.

  "Everyone - please remain calm. I am a Cross-Cosmic Enforcer, and you are being rescued."

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