They all managed to reach the hangar bay without any further incident. The six Predators and two Sangheili came to the flight control center. One of the Predators pointed. The Arbiter and Ship Master peered into the darkness, only to spot a large creature that towered nearly to the ceiling.

"The queen," the Arbiter muttered.

The Predators nodded in unison.

They left the flight control room, coming out onto a catwalk that was across the room from the alien queen. The Predators' plasma casters whirred as they rose from their wielders' armor and targeted the Xenomorph Queen. It noticed the six small triangles pointed at it, and screeched in fury as the Predators opened fire.

Blue bolts of plasma shot forward, blowing off chunks of the creature's body. The Predators jumped from the catwalk, drawing their various weapons. The Sangheili went down via the stairs, keeping the Predators in view as well as they could. Six yellow dots were moving around his motion tracker, and the queen was screeching from time to time.

The story was far different from the point of view of the Predators. They leapt and jumped as the queen shot her stinger at them, smashing boxes and vehicles as she attempted to impale them. Bladed discs flew through the air, slicing into the queen's armor then boomeranging back to their owners. The lead Predator backflipped over a box to avoid the queen's stinger then ran forward. Running up the stinger's length, he threw his spear at the queens' head. It struck her in the middle of her head, sending a spurt of acidic blood arcing into the air.

The leader then spun to the side, firing a burst of plasma. The others followed his example, throwing their spears at the queen. She screeched in pain even more. A frenzied slash of her tail beheaded one of the Predators, the others increasing the ferocity of their attacks.

Rtas and the Arbiter joined the battle, firing their plasma pistols. The green bolts hit the queen, melting her armor. A swipe of her tail swept the Arbiter's legs out from under him; only his armor and shields saved him from being maimed. Rtas lunged at the stinger with his sword, slicing the razor sharp tip clean off.

Their pistols spent, the Sangheili drew their swords and rushed towards the queen. As another Predator, impaled and mortally wounded, fell past them, they ran onto the queen. Running up her body as the remaining Predators continued to distract it, Rtas tossed his plasma grenade to the Arbiter. The Arbiter reached the queen's head, and as she opened her mouth to scream at him, he primed the grenade and threw it into her mouth.

Both Sangheili ran, managing to dive to the floor as the queen's head exploded.

The body teetered for a moment, then fell and landed on the metal floor with a great crash.

Utter silence fell. The surviving six looked at each other. The leading Predator looked at its two slain companions, then walked over to the queen's carcass and removed the six spears embedded in her carapace.

He tossed two of them to the Sangheili, then it and the remaining three picked up their fallen and left the ship.

The Predator vessel was already on the ground when they got there, and the Predators boarded without incident from the Fleet of Retribution.

As it flew away, Rtas contacted the Shadow of Intent to send down clean-up teams and to move the human ship to a place where they could blow it up safely.

After this was being done, the Arbiter went to the top of the Vadam Keep.

The sun was rising over the state, its golden glow bathing the city in light.

A shame, he thought, that almost none survived to see it.

The Sangheili bodies were all laid on countless pyres in several days of backbreaking work. The Arbiter and the remaining Vadam Sangheili walked among the pyres, burning them, to give the Vadam Sangheili a proper warriors' funeral.

Rtas walked over to the Arbiter as he watched his subjects' pyres burn. "It will be all right, Arbiter. Vadam will rebuild, and become stronger for this ordeal."

The Arbiter nodded. "Yes. And we will be ready, if these creatures should ever return."

Amid the plumes of smoke rising into the sky, there came a great blast from the Shadow of Intent. It was a shot of plasma aimed at the massive pile of Xenomorphs that had been gathered and scornfully put in a deep crevice. To make sure they stayed dead, they were being burned to atoms.

The Arbiter sighed again and looked up at the sky. Vadam would rebuild, and time would pass on. But among history, in any conflict that Vadam was embroiled in, Vadam would never come as close to annihilation as it did that night.

And there it is. This is probably one of the shortest stories I've written, partly because I was anxious to finish it, partly because I think I moved the plot too fast. Hope you enjoyed it!