Chapter 3

Planet Hephaestus. Badlands.

The rain never stopped. The only thing that changed was its intensity - from a slight drizzle to a solid wall of water. By the time the group reached the road, the rain let up a bit, and visibility improved enough to allow passing drivers to notice the girls standing by the roadside.

"Time for you to hide," Rie reminded the replicants and headed for the wide strip of the highway that slashed across an endless ocean of mud. Her sister followed behind. She took the helmet off as she walked and hid the paralyzer inside it.

The replicants nodded in unison and activated phototropic stealth mode, dissolving into rocks that crowded the highway. Looking back, the girls could see no sign of two armed people.

The highway between Stratos city and the mines was rather busy. Unfortunately, most of the traffic consisted of robotic trucks carrying ore from the mines to smelters. About a quarter of an hour passed before a red sports car stopped for the sisters and the driver called out to them.

"Hey tourists! Are you going to the city? Get in, I'll give you a ride."

Sergeant tensed.

"Get ready," he ordered.

The twins got into the car - perhaps to make sure they could shoot the driver point blank. The doors closed and...

And then the car sped away.

"Happy trails!" a very pleasant voice said over comm link.

Next, there was a muffled rustling - it would seem the girl was peeling the mic off her neck. Then, her sister's cheerful voice, followed by the same noise.

"Got talked into playing some war game with friends. It's fun for the first couple of hours, but then you're just tired. Slogging through mud all day, who decided that was entertainment?.."

The rest of the conversation was cut off by two characteristic clicks indicating that comms were turned off.

The link was dead.

"Did you understand this, sarge?" dumbfounded Blaze asked as he watched two green dots on the tac block moving towards the city.

"I think so, yeah..." the sergeant said slowly, feeling every hair on the back of his neck stand on end. "It appears you were right, brother - they really are spies. Not ours though, but enemy spies, do you understand now? And I, defective moron, let them go. Ugh.."

He banged his helmet against a rock in despair, then slammed a fist into the mud for good measure.

"What are we to do now?" Blaze started rising carefully.

"Find and capture," sergeant declared gloomily. "We were ordered to deliver them to Eldorado at any cost; it's our duty to complete this mission. Let's go."

He got up, hoisted the duffel bag onto his back and adjusted the straps for the march.

"Chimbick, don't blame yourself." This was the first time Blaze called his brother by name today. "It's not your fault. "The commanders didn't see fit to inform us about their status. "And now there's nobody to brief us."

"Brother," Chimbick put his hand on Blaze's shoulder. "They didn't know how to use our gear, did you notice that? I should have realized!"

He sighed and pointed. "Let's move. "The crash site will be found soon."

Silently, the replicants disappeared into deepening twilight.

***

Half an hour later, a helicopter landed fifteen kilometers away from the road, next to the abandoned pods. Landing compartment hatch opened wide and several militiamen led by a man dressed in customs officers' uniform rushed down the ramp.

"Check the pods," the officer ordered.

Two three-man teams split from the main group and ran to the escape pods. The rest spread out in a circle to create a defense perimeter. The first group reached the pod and opened the hatch.

Next, an explosion thundered.