After a short hallway from the control room, the tunnel opened up to a large vertical shaft, with a narrow pathway being the only path. A couple of old elevators hang in midair, and several cables are visible all the way to the pitch blackness that was the bottom.

The dripping sound was louder now, and a cool breeze gently blew into Puffie's face. Puffie shivered slightly and observed that there was the air-lock door a good two-hundred feet above where they where.

As Peter and Puffie walked silently, Puffie’s mind wandered back to Rabbitearth. The cool air of the mountains there was way fresher than this musty mine air. The dirt, trees and vegetation that grew in the forests of his hometown brought memories of racing his dirt bike down dirt roads with Peter, looking out for miles on top of a mountain, and diving in a lake to cool off and find fishing lures.

As the thought passes through his mind, he gets an idea, and grabs a rock. Peter noticed this and looked as Puffie tossed it over the side. There was a barely audible splash. "I did not know Minerva had water on it." Peter said.

"The Pit must go through an aquifer, holding water from the condensation that happens... But this might mean that anyone who took a plunge down there would have a hard time getting back up."

"That means that we have to follow the narrow trail up, and that's a lot of places for traps."

The two reached the point where the airlock was in sight, 100 feet of their position. As they approached the next bend in the uphill path, a start of an air-compressor jumped them off their feet. Puffie nearly lost his gun off the edge as he regained his balance from falling. Then an elevator started descending.

"This is bad" Peter said as they watched a spotlight click on aboard the elevator and begin searching the pathway.

Puffie thought fast. He was quite sure Peter would agree that they did not want to be caught like a deer in the headlights, but what should they do? They could split up, but-

He felt Peter grab his shoulder and push while in a run. He then grabbed his radio. "Terminators! Scouts here. We have an elevator with spotlights and possible mounted machine guns. We need support NOW!" Peter shouted into the radio as Puffie grabbed the idea and started running down the trail. "RPG getting in position scouts. Hightail it outta there!" replied the radio. The spotlight caught up with the running pair and a gun started puffing projectiles at them.

Rock chips flew as projectiles hit the wall. Puffie thought of the idea of screwing up the machinegun tracking by suddenly changing direction, but that would walk him right into the path of fire, and one a one second delay in turning around could get him nailed.

Almost immediately, a puff of smoke and a tracer emerged from the tunnel entrance, and a missile collided with the elevator, sending metal flying everywhere. Two rabbits tried to hold on to the remains of an elevator, but both fell off with a cry.

Some splashes sounded as Peter and Puffie caught their breath and watched as the group emerged from the tunnel. Puffie noticed a tank hanging from the still-descending elevator. “What kind of gun is that?” asked Puffie as a soldier came up.

“That’s a “Rebel Special”. Basically, it’s a rapid-fire air nail guns used just about anywhere. The rebs call them “Rifnil’s”

”I take it its homemade?”

“Pretty much.” The rabbit said as the team started moving up the trail. “Most of them are modified Construction guns. They don’t have much penetrating power, but make up for their rapid fire and common supply of ammo, if you can call it that. I’ve seen a few bodies literary pumped full of nails. Nasty.”

The elevator to the top was replaced with a ladder, so Puffie and Peter got the joy of climbing it and making sure there were no rebels waiting for them at the top. The first thing Puffie felt when he exited the mine was relief. He could only crawl around in those tunnels for so long before the world closes up on him.

An old military truck sat at the entrance of the mine. It had a decal on the side that Puffie could not recognize. It showed a two-toned background, with a rabbit holding a rifle in its hands high up. A mounted nail gun with a compressed air tank stood in the back.

“That’s the rebel’s insignia” said a rabbit from the task force. “This truck must have been military surplus that was imported from the moons. Note the vacuum shielding?” he said, pointing at the sealing around the doors and the air tank on the bottom of the vehicle.

The Task force leader toned in. “The base is about half a kilometer from here. We could use this truck to sneak in by the main entrance.” “What if the rebels are using ID checks?” asked Peter. “Why not just charge into the corner of the base like we planned?”
The leader shook his head. “The base is on a hill overlooking the valley. If we walk over to there, they would spot us. Also, I doubt this truck could climb that steep a hill.”

“Then we have to disguise ourselves.” Said Puffie, shuddering about the fact of scavenging from a battlefield.