Starfist: A World of Hurt by David Sherman & Dan Cragg Page B

of the life that abounded in it, though hardly anybody wanted to think about what kind of life flourished in water like that. They suspected that the fish, eels, aquatic land animals, and the amorphous stuff that drifted with the sluggish currents were all poisonous, or at least too vile for anyone to eat.
    And the swamp stunk like an ill-kept sewage system.
    It was--by Buddha's great green balls!--worse than Quagmire, and Quagmire was nothing more than an overgrown mud ball!
    "What's the name of this island again?" Lance Corporal MacIlargie asked.
    "I don't know," Corporal Claypoole snarled. "Something dumb out of Norse mythology."
    He wiggled his heel to break the mud seal around his foot that threatened to pull his boot right off.
    "Nidhogge," Lance Corporal Schultz said.
    "What?" Claypoole asked, surprised that the big man said anything.
    "Nidhogge," Schultz repeated. He paused behind a root tangle in thigh deep water and rotated his shields through infra, light gatherer, and magnifier, picking a course through the next section of swamp.
    Claypoole snorted. "Got the 'hogge' part right. This is worse than walking through a pigsty." He stopped at a respectable distance behind Schultz and rotated through his shields, looking for whatever Schultz was looking for. He couldn't see anything different enough in any direction to see any point in rotating through the shields.
    "You'd know all about pigsties, Rock," MacIlargie snorted. "City boy like you." He stopped behind Claypoole and turned to watch their rear. He also cycled through his shields.
    "I know about pigsties because you're in my fire team and I get stuck living in one because of you," Claypoole shot back. Schultz moved out and Claypoole tapped MacIlargie, then followed. "Aargh!" he snarled as he hauled himself out of the water to clamber over the root tangle.
    "I am not!" MacIlargie protested.
    "Are too! You can't even talk right. Oof! " The water on the other side of the root tangle was deeper than he'd expected, and he went in waist deep. He felt about with his feet, found the higher ground Schultz had stepped on, and wondered how the big man had found it while he didn't. "I didn't say you are anything," he continued to MacIlargie, "I said you live in a sty."
    "Not me." MacIlargie grunted as he maneuvered over the roots. "Never me. My mama didn't raise no slob."
    "Your mama didn't raise you at all. She took one look and turned you in for a model that wasn't defective."
    MacIlargie, having watched Claypoole's progress more closely than Claypoole had watched Schultz, eased himself over the roots and into the less deep water on the other side. He was working on a riposte that would top Claypoole's last remark when Schultz stopped again.
    "Map," Schultz growled.
    "You want to see the map?" Claypoole used his light gatherer and looked around. There wasn't anything that would show up on the map, so there wasn't any point in looking at the map except to see where the map's inertial guidance system claimed they were. And they'd made so many turns and doglegs, he wouldn't be surprised to find the inertial guidance system put them on entirely the wrong side of Nidhogge.
    Schultz raised all shields so Claypoole could see his face and fixed a baleful look on him.
    Claypoole swallowed. "Map. Right. You want to see the map." He turned his head so the map would be oriented with the ground--he hoped his compass was functioning right--and flipped it on.
    Schultz stood next to him and studied the projected image. A small rosette showed their starting point and a larger one their destination; a simple X indicated their current position.
    After a few moments the big Marine grunted and set out again. Claypoole stood uncertainly watching him, then said, "Ah, Hammer? Shouldn't we be going this way?" He pointed on a tangent to Schultz's direction.
    "Inertial's wrong," Schultz said and kept going.
    "But..." Claypoole began, his distrust of the inertial guidance system of just a moment