The ship plummeted through thick cloud, shuddering and groaning.
"Remember who's getting you in on this"
Barnas yelled, leaning around from the flight seat to eyeball us all. In case anyone missed the point, he jabbed a thumb at himself
"Me"
In the cramped space behind the cockpit, seven of us were strapped in tight.
"They come out jest once a year" Barnas continued "and ain't no-one else knows it"
We dropped out of cloud cover. Rockets roared like some wild beast, and tension in the cabin ratcheted up another notch. Through the cockpit window I could see only dirty brown clouds, no reference point to guess when we might hit ground.
The landing, when it came, could have been worse. Seems Barnas isn't so bad a pilot.
We unbuckled and started to retrieve our gear. My duffel was heavy with ammo and water I began to transfer to my suit, to keep it from freezing.
"Hold up, hold up" said Barnas. He was older than any of us, short and grizzled with a paunch and a limp.
He flicked up a projection of a long, hourglass-shaped canyon. Where it narrowed it was five or six metres across, and about the same depth. Close by was the research station, the only permanent human presence on this rock.
"This" Barnas indicated the narrow part "is where we set up. That's where they come out of", indicating the yawning black mouth at one end.
The projection changed to show one of the creatures - like a pear cut in half, but two metres long and with dozens of clawed feet ringing the cut side.
"Got it?" Barnas paused to look at us all "Now don't just start shootin' soon as you git there, alright? We need t'arrange who's shooting where"
"What's that?" A drawling voice asked. I looked round to see a pale, scrawny-looking guy – Pel, I think - pointing at the buildings.
"Y'all can leave what that is to me. You just focus on killin'"
I gave Pel a quick look over. He was a few years older than me, maybe 21 or 22. I recognised the type. School attendance is optional in the free colonies, and there are no handouts either - everything has a price tag. I suppose I am lucky, some families can't or won't shell out even for basic ed., but mine did. People like Pel grow up unschooled to skulk on the edges of colony society, doing the most miserable jobs for the worst pay. I guessed he needed the money even more than the rest of us, but he would probably blow it in a week on booze and girls.
Outside, air pressure was high, and it was seriously cold. We all wore thin, lightweight environment suits, some newer than others, leased from the company for work in the deepest mines. The creatures lived deep underground too, at even higher pressures. Would they be hard to kill? Most of us had large-bore projectile rifles, a couple had power weapons. Mine was a projectile hunting rifle with a wooden stock, old but well made and reliable. I'd skimped on armour piercing rounds though. We would see.
We strung out into a loose formation and walked up and over a rise. A single figure in a bulky suit walked towards us from the research compound. Barnas waved us on and made towards the lone figure, who changed direction to follow the group. We met at the lip of the narrow. We could see the cave mouth maybe 500m away, but nothing moving. Yet.
The stranger was tall and his face deadly serious as he looked at us all. Barnas tried to lead him off to one side, but he wouldn't budge.
I realised Barnas had switched to a private channel. I walked over and tapped on my helmet to indicate I wanted in. Barnas looked irritated, but complied.
"...this is what happened on Earth" the scientist was saying
Barnas waved a hand in dismissal "Those is just fake stories"
I'd learned how humans made the earth unliveable, but linking that to killing a few mindless beasts was a bit of a stretch, it seemed to me. We were 5th generation colonists; we, our parents and their parents had missed out on the boom years. We needed cash more than history lessons.
"Some of my colleagues talked about climbing down there. To act as a shield"
"Wouldn't do no good" Barnas responded, "next year, there'll be a hundert lining up here. You ought to be happy it's only us"
The thum and recharge whine of a plasma rifle ended the conversation. It seemed the first creatures had appeared.
"Hold up hold up" yelled Barnas, switching channels to broadcast. He quickly shoved us into two groups, one facing the creatures now pouring from the cave, the rest of us positioned to shoot where the gulch opened onto a wide plain. From what Barnas had said, they poured out onto the plain once a year to mate and lay spawn. When the spawn hatched, the tadpoles, or whatever they were, would swim up against the floods that came every spring, and those that made it would descend down into the caverns to begin their next lifecycle.
"Kill the ones on the edges, that'll send 'em through this bottleneck here" he shouted at the other group, then turned to mine "don't make a big pile they can't get around. Shoot the ones what spreads out on the sides. Choose yer firin' angles an' keep yer own tallies"
The thunder of discharging weapons shattered the air. The researcher, forgotten, was gone by the time it stopped.
My tally came to 162. My arms and shoulders ached. Pel, to my right, had had frequent jams and I doubted he had bagged more than 50 or so of the creatures. Still, if they were worth what we were expecting...
Those of us with handguns prepped them, and we all took out knives. Pel pulled out a cheap looking bowie longer than his forearm.
We descended into the gulch. Less than half of the creatures had been killed outright. Some thrashed when approached, and got a bullet. Others we finished off with our knives, to save ammo. Not so hard to kill after all.
I heard swearing over the comms and turned to see Pel stabbing at one of the beasts while he slipped about in the flood of viscous blood. I shook my head and continued cutting the hide off one of my kills.
Their hides were thick, and skinning them was tough going. By the end of it we were all exhausted and sticky with their violet blood.
But what Barnas had told us was true; in the creatures' innards we found pearls, and the inner layer of their hide was criss-crossed with glinting deposits of what he claimed was rhodium.
"Look!" came Pel's voice and I turned to see him advancing towards me, grinning through the gore spattered on his visor. He was holding up a raggedly cut skin that glimmered in the fading light. "Silver linings!"
