Serpentine

When next we came to a stop, Wolf leaned in close and indicated to a barely visible opening in the wall. A spot of darkness within darkness—a door.

I shifted to see it better, then looked up at Wolf and nodded to let him know I saw it. He turned away again, and this time he completely disappeared from view.

My stomach dropped to my feet and I looked to Brutus for a sign, but he was already hiding in plain sight, invisible to me.

"Where'd you—don't leave me." I was sickened with how pathetic I sounded.

From across the hall I saw a flash of light, like a pair of eyes in the dark.

Not leaving, just out of sight. I had thought that was pointless when fighting these things, but maybe I'd been mistaken.

I let out my breath in relief and quietly inched toward the opening, assuming that's what I was meant to do. The closer I was to it, the more I realized that it wasn't a regular door, but a large bay entrance big enough to drive a car through.

It was bent in the middle, one side completely torn out as if something had broken it. I wondered if the Echo had done it or something else, but the gap was just big enough for it to have fit through.

It was bent outward, like something had smashed through to get onto the ship. Definitely the Echo, then.

Though I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing, I inched to the door and peered inside. It was just as dark as the rest of this section of the ship, maybe darker.

Still, I could make out the sounds of movement and a shadow shifted inside.

After a moment of contemplation and hesitation, I pulled out Jess' phone and flipped on the flashlight. 12 percent battery. It buzzed to remind me and I grimaced at my own thoughtlessness.

I should have turned it off earlier, but I'd forgotten during my encounter with Brutus. So long as I had enough to make a call, I was probably okay.

A few seconds of flashlight wouldn't break my battery, so I went ahead with my plan and shined the light into the room.

The while thing was too big for the light to penetrate every corner and crevice, but I could see enough, and the room seemed to be a sort of loading bay.

My eyes were drawn to a small scout ship parked on the side, almost completely concealed by the weird crust the aliens made.

Movement caught my attention and I swept the light toward the middle of the room. There didn't seem to be much else to look at; the bay had been converted into the perfect nesting ground for the damn things and was otherwise empty.

I swallowed one deep breath and ventured a few paces inside to get a better look.

Dead center in the room, though, sat a huge beast. It looked just like the hologram that Wolf had shown me, with a hide of pitch black. It was so much larger than I had imagined, as was its grotesque egg sack.

The sack itself was held up by strong strings of taut gum, and the eggs were being deposited in a neat pile. There were three right off the bat, but a drone soon trotted by and shuffled it away before heaving it onto its back so it could carry it off.

The appearance of the drone surprised me. I moved my flashlight around the room and spotted a little less than a dozen of the things flitting around underneath the queen, like ants without order. She was perched on her ovipositor like it was some sort of throne, and her busy bee workers were swarming around to keep her safe.

For a moment I thought that maybe they knew we were coming, but upon closer inspection I realized there were two or three corpses among the throne room, as I decided to call it.

More of Wolf's kind, thinking they could take out the queen by themselves?

At first I didn't think she was awake, but then her large head swung and she snarled out something like a command. She sat high up on the egg sack, her crown nearly touching the ceiling despite how tall it looked from where I was.

The group of drones ceased their aimless wandering and halted underneath their queen.

And they turned their heads toward the door—where I was standing.

I threw myself back outside and pressed myself up against the wall, my eyes wide. Seconds later, a few drones squealed and hissed. However, I soon caught the sound of them pacing again. I hadn't yet been discovered.

Not only was the Queen huge, larger even than the Echo, but she had summoned so many things to protect her. She'd tired of Wolf's friends coming to kill her and had rallied the troops.

How were we going to do it now? It had taken both Brutus and Wolf to kill a solo and already-injured Echo, and now the Queen had so many warriors at her beck and call.

There were three of us—two and a half, really—but maybe if we thought it through, maybe if we came up with some sort of plan, we'd be okay. None of us were in tip-top shape.

Brutus hadn't looked too injured, but I hadn't really studied him that closely. Not that I would have been able to see much in the absolute dark.

"What are we going to do?"

Wolf offered no answer or insight, and when I glanced around to gauge his response, I remembered he was invisible so I wouldn't be able to.

Sighing, I turned on my flashlight to try to get one more look inside, but just as I did the doors slid open with a metallic grinding sound.

The bits of bent metal scraped against the floor and I pulled my head away, gasping. I winced and recoiled away from the horrendous noise and flinched when sparks flew in my direction.

"A little warning would have been nice," I mumbled through clenched teeth.

The creatures inside responded to the noise with an uproar of screeches.

Still, Wolf felt no inclination to reveal himself and I wondered if I was supposed to be the bait again. I waited a few more seconds, then quickly dipped my head to take a peak with a single flash of light into the room.

It was done and over with in a split second, leaving me with not much of a picture. However, I wasn't bombarded with angry cries, so I leaned in for a longer look.

Everything was turned to face the now-open door, but didn't seem particularly perturbed by my light. I froze in place, mouth slightly open, and there were a few moments where we were all just staring at each other.

I flit away from the doorway when things started to move.

My dying battery was not completely forgotten. I took a step back and turned my head slightly to the side, to where I thought Wolf was, and said, "I won't be able to see anything soon."

A disturbance drew my attention. The Queen's lips were pulled back into a silent snarl. The muscles in my legs tensed and I tightened my grip on my weapon's hilt.

I started to back away, but something shoved me hard enough to make me stumble away from the wall and into the room. My shoes scuffed the ground and I winched at the sound.

My eyes widened and I turned toward the source, even though he was invisible. "You son of a bitch, why—"

Brutus? Wolf? Who cared who did it, I was pissed.

Anything else I wanted to say was cut off by an outraged screech. It startled me and I jumped about ten feet in the air before I crouched down and held my weapon out.

Apparently, all of those times getting smacked upside the head had the effect Wolf had desired, because I fell almost instinctively into the correct pose.

So, he demoted me back to bait again. Or maybe I'd never lost that title.

The drones swarmed, forming a barricade in front of their queen. They screeched and squealed, but didn't make an immediate move, just waited for a command.

My phone buzzed in my hand again to tell me I was losing battery fast. I swallowed and lowered it a fraction of an inch.

Then, the phone's power-save mode turned the flashlight off.

"Please," I whimpered, stowing it in my pocket. "I need a new source of light. I can't—I can't see."

Under different circumstances I would have run for it. Every instinct I had was telling me to turn tail, but the dark was keeping my rooted.

Besides, I wasn't alone. At the very most I'd be dealing with maybe two of these things, right? No way he'd make me fight them all off on my own.

Adrenaline coursed through my veins and sent my heart racing. Blood roared in my ears and I lifted my weapon just a little bit, preparing for them.

A blue light flashed by my head. It's heat brushed my cheek and its wake disturbed stray hairs on my head. I gasped and stumbled to the side, ducking down instinctively.

The scouting ship off to the side exploded in a spray of sparks and blue flames, lighting up the room. What remained of the ship flickered with fire.

My light source.

Another bolt hit a drone, splattering it all over, and then one more fell to the same fate as they all reacted in kind, rushing toward us. It still left about seven, and they were now too close to make them explode without dousing us in acid.

Then they were on us.

Wolf had already dispelled his cloak and was next to me, his wrist blades extended. I tried to match his confident posture, but I was trembling.

Brutus had rushed forward and was already knee-deep in a handful of drones, slashing and cutting through any and all that dared come close to him with a fury I hadn't yet witnessed from Wolf.

If there had been any doubt in my mind that he'd been pulling his punches earlier when he'd tested me, they were all gone now.

He was a fucking beast.

The first drone reached me and I swung just how Wolf had shown me. I didn't have enough force behind it to do much beside lodge my blade into the drone's hardened skull.

It's momentum made it slam directly into my side, driving the air from my lungs, and I was thrown across the floor with enough force to wrench my blade free of its head.

I couldn't maneuver into a slashing position, and I didn't want to stab it again, not after the last time.

Instead, I twisted myself around to slam the hilt of my blade against the creature's head. The hard chitin remained strong, but adrenaline had mustered enough strength to send it reeling.

With some distance put between us, I was able to get up before it and hoof the thing in the face, kicking it over. It screeched and tumbled away, already off-balance from the blow to the head.

Before I could stand, I spotted another drone bearing down on me. I let out a frustrated sound and struck blindly, in terrible technique, and caught the drone across the chest with my blade.

It staggered back, tail lashing and acid blood sloshing from the wound. It gave me just enough time to prepare myself for a fight, but only barely.

Both drones were already recovered. They screeched and advanced on me, driving me back a couple of steps. One lunged through the air while the other was slinking toward me on the ground. I tried to time the first drone's landing, then started swinging.

In the movies the enemies always came one at a time. Why couldn't they allow me such a courtesy?

Something else hit the first drone, driving it sideways through the air. It squealed in surprise as it flew out of my line of sight.

I backpedalled along the wall, collecting a sense of security by having it at my back, and searched for the second drone. When I couldn't immediately find it, I started to panic. Another quick scan revealed that Wolf had a hold of it by the tail.

He swung it around, slammed it into a drone in mid-leap, then killed both with one shot from his shoulder-mounted cannon.

So then what happened to—

A snapping sound caught my attention and I looked over sharply. A few yards away, there was a broken net and a bleeding alien. A grid-patterned wound was etched across its hard head, shaped oddly like the net.

It must have been razor wire, but it obviously hadn't been made to use on the aliens if the acid had broken it.

I turned to check on Wolf, but he was locked in combat with two more of the bugs. As much I wanted to watch his fight, the checkered drone was coming for me.

Stance wide, I waited for it to come. However, it stopped short when a shrill cry pierced the room.

Startled, I pressed myself against the wall and stared at the drone as it backed away, lips drawn back and tail lashing. I didn't tear my eyes off of it until it slunk away behind the agitated queen.

When I was certain it wasn't going to attack, I searched for my two allies.

They were trying to keep their enemies from regrouping, and Wolf used his spear as a projectile to kill the last of his lot as it retreated.

There was only a few drones left, including the one I had let fall back to the queen. The last two were with Brutus, who had a pile of alien corpses at his feet. Before they could make their tactical retreat, he ended them with his shoulder-mounted cannon, then discarded it.

Out if rounds.

The queen tossed her head and roared, a sound that struck me to my core and set my limbs to trembling. It seemed the very ground vibrated. If I hadn't already had my back against the wall, I would have tried to retreat.

Brutus backed to Wolf's side. They'd tried to use their numbers, but the two aliens on my side had proved that to be useless. With her army dwindled, she was left with no choice.

Squealing, she used her powerful back legs to shove herself away from her egg sack. It squelched and spilled copious amounts of slime across the ground, sloshing in a flood of nastiness.

She landed heavily in front of it with a splash, standing straight and baring her fangs at us. Her tail swung in a wide arc, knocking over a piece of equipment.

The Queen—solid, lithe, and towering. She stood erect on two legs, carrying herself with all the poise and presence of an ancient tyrannosaurus.

After a pause where we sized each other up, she roared a furious challenge and charged.