"Hunter, RUN!" Cody shouted from behind him, even though the sergeant was already moving as fast as he possibly could.
Hunter stumbled, caught himself against the wall, and regained his balance. The chittering and cackling of half-formed voices followed the small team as they ran, and shadows and shrieks tangled in the barely-lit corridor ahead of them.
The dusty air and the long minutes of steady running made his chest ache despite his helmet filters. Footsteps shuffled and pounded behind him, ever louder and it was all he could do to keep from looking over his shoulder. Two sets of the running footsteps belonged to Cody, and Quinlan . . . but the others? How many of the warriors were there?
All he knew for real was that there were too many for even his enhanced senses to pick out, and that there were more now than there had been moments ago. Where were they all coming from?
"Turn right!" Quinlan gasped, and Hunter skidded, catching sight of the narrow gap in the wall just ahead of him. "They might – not fit –!"
Who might – WHAT might not fit –?
There were Geonosians, both living and dead, that had been following all along, but now Hunter was hearing other creatures, too . . . creatures that had heavier, denser bodies. He gritted his teeth and forced himself not to look, despite the increasing itch in his spine as he ran instead of turning to shoot. There wasn't time.
Ducking beneath the low-hanging stones that edged a rocky, carved-out gap, Hunter squeezed between the narrowing walls, having to turn almost sideways at one point. His only thought at that moment was, Cross would absolutely hate this.
Then he was able to face forward again, and Quinlan's hand was on his shoulder, shoving him forward despite the fact that Hunter was running at full speed. He tripped again, twisted past another outcropping of rock, and tried to make himself move even faster.
Those things had moved so slowly, earlier – how were they catching up now?!
That was when he felt rather than heard the strange shift of Cody's injured ankle, and the increased chittering.
They know the Commander is injured. Hunter almost turned around, but there was nothing he could do in the narrow confines of the tunnel – and Cody already knew as well.
"Hurry!" The Commander, who had remained silent since shouting for Hunter to run, stumbled and caught himself against the wall with an audible clack of plastoid against rock. "Hurry, General, they're catching – agh!"
Hunter heard him fall.
This time, the sergeant whipped around without hesitation. He was brought to a sharp halt when the front of his helmet met the back of Quinlan's head as the Jedi also turned and stopped short.
Cody lay twisted onto his side, reaching for his gun with one arm while a Geonosian warrior clung to his upper back and shoulders, screeching against the side of his helmet while its loose jaws tried to bite his head off. Its remaining eye was a glassy white in the searchlight from Hunter's helmet. A husk-like, translucent skin – wings? – hung like rags from its starved frame, and dirt sprinkled off its body.
Hunter saw all that in a flash – that, and the rest of their pursuers mere meters behind and closing in – and Cody, not getting up. Hunter had shot the Geonosian in the head twice before he even realized he'd lifted his weapon. At the same instant, Quinlan hurled the creatures back with a swift thrust of both arms before reaching for his saber.
With a quick burst of movement, Cody drew his pistol, flipped onto his back, and braced himself on one elbow, firing into the throng of buzzing Geonosians and human bodies – when had those shown up?! – that crowded in the hallway, hindering each other's progress.
Moving automatically now, Hunter fired at a writhing body near the Commander's feet. He didn't recognize the alien, and he didn't care – the only thing he wanted to know about it was whether or not it could be killed. It wasn't a Geonosian, so it probably could . . .
Five lasers pierced it before the long, brown body of the sluglike creature froze and slid toward the ground. Then it seemed to shake itself, and a pale, yellow-green worm protruded from its face and vanished back into its head. Quinlan hoisted Cody bodily to his feet and shoved him forward, then stepped aside, putting himself at the back of the line.
"Move!" he barked, giving Hunter a sharp look that the sergeant understood despite not really knowing the Jedi.
The sergeant hurried to place himself in front of Cody, who was limping worse than before. There was a shallow cut above his knee that was probably taking a toll.
Again, they ran.
The things followed close behind, bumping and fumbling against the narrow walls. Hunter's enhanced hearing began to pick out the different species. Rasping wings and sharp clicks – Geonosians. Solid but staggering steps – humans, or what remained of humans. No clones, thank the Force, at least not so far. Slithering, flopping sounds – the strange, meter-long slugs. What could they possibly want with three humans? They were herbivores. Or were they? Had they been? Wait, why would the human bodies be following? Only then did Hunter realize he didn't even know why they were being chased. He'd had this vague idea that maybe Geonosians ate humans; Tech would probably know. But that didn't mean he wanted to know.
Quinlan's lightsaber hummed abruptly. Something squeaked, then thudded wetly to the sandy floor. Hunter readied his knife for a throw. He could see wavering, dim twilight from somewhere up ahead – they were near a way out!
"Almost there!" he gasped over his shoulder, every muscle in his body aching from the pounding run he'd had to maintain while twisting and turning.
Quinlan looked up, past him, but Hunter was already turning to face forward again, so he only just caught the alarmed look that flashed through the Jedi's eyes at that last second.
"There are more!" Quinlan yelled.
But Hunter couldn't stop in time. The Jedi hadn't even finished his sentence when Hunter burst out into a more open area – a wide chamber with several doors, all of which were filled with writhing, knotted masses of the pale green worms.
Dozens of long-dead Geonosians and humans and the massive slugs lined the perimeter of the room, and every single one of them was looking right at Hunter. Even a human that was missing both eyes was staring at him.
Cody caught Hunter's shoulder, trying to draw him back into the tunnel, but at the same moment Quinlan crashed into the Commander from behind, pressed by the oncoming rush of dead attackers.
"Go!" The Jedi spun on his heel, lightsaber vibrating with a hum of both light and sound that felt strange.
Go? Hunter thought desperately, controlled panic clawing at his throat. Go where? We're trapped, General!
One Geonosian clicked something, and the others moved.
Cody took a quick breath and settled his weight, standing in a ready position as he lifted his gun. Hunter gripped his knife and pistol in either hand and shifted to put his back to Quinlan's and Cody's. Now that they had no choice but to stand and fight, his mind was abruptly focused, so calm and clear that he registered every tiny movement, every breath from his companions, every glance and head-tilt from the enemy.
Somehow, he was sure they were not going to survive, but that didn't really bother him at the moment. All he knew was that there was no way they were going to make it easy for the monsters. He picked a goal to fight towards so that the uncertainty and chaos of battle wouldn't overwhelm him: he had to take down as many as he could and fight his way to the opposite door – the one least clogged by green worms.
The clutching, crawling forms of the enemy paused and shifted together, almost as though leaning their collective weight away from the Jedi. The light from his green blade probably annoyed the worms, if nothing else.
Ready to fire but not wanting to trigger an attack, Hunter steadied his aim on a large-boned human male who was missing his lower jaw. The gruesome injury had dried, but that didn't make it any less horrifying to see. . . Especially when the body looked back at him, tilted its head, and worked its throat soundlessly for a second before a crawling scream dragged its way up its throat.
Hunter jerked all over, fright gripping his ribs as his clarity of mind faltered. He'd never seen anything scream without opening its mouth before, and yet . . .
Quinlan gripped his arm tightly, though Hunter couldn't tell whether the Jedi meant to steady himself or the sergeant. Quinlan was looking sick – probably himself, then. The strange scream died away. Then the entire row of creatures before the three living humans straightened and shuffled, opening their mouths together as they shrieked in reply, each pitch varied but all meaning the same thing.
Hunger.
Hunter's head rang, and for a brief instant vertigo twisted his senses around. The undead still occupied with squeezing into the crowded chamber answered the screams with shrieks and roars of their own, and all over the group, little green worms appeared, flickering out of the nostrils and ears of the bodies they had taken over, and then vanishing back inside.
"We can't kill them," Hunter said, his voice sounding higher than normal and almost fevered. Now the fear was setting in.
Quinlan took a deep breath and lowered his chin, resolve crossing his features as he released Hunter's arm. "Well, we're sure as Force gonna try," he said. "If you think I want to be turned into one of those things, you're seriously mistaken."
He reached out a hand and clenched it. There was a very faint pop! and one Geonosian crumpled to the floor. The pale body of a green worm, crushed to death, slid out of its left ear and lay limp.
Grabbing Quinlan's arm, Cody pushed him back to stand behind Hunter and himself. "You focus on the worms, sir!" he ordered sharply. "It's the only way to take them down. Hunter and I'll keep 'em off you."
The Jedi did not argue. He simply drew a quick breath and held out his hands, eyes shut in concentration. Almost immediately, the body of the jawless man twitched and crumpled. Then a slug, which had been hesitating only a few meters from Cody, collapsed.
All the zombies shifted to one side, then screamed together. The sound was so overwhelming, and yet so muffled in the sandy cave, that Hunter's felt as though his head were also full of sand.
Cody hissed a warning. Quinlan reached out farther, as though that would somehow help him kill the worms faster. As the next body fell, the creatures swarmed, and Hunter fired, pulling the trigger as fast as he could. It wasn't enough. None of it was.
Within moments, limp hands and ragged bones were clawing at his arms and legs, dragging him forward beneath their weight as he struggled to fend them off. He killed three with shots to the face – three worms, three enemies – then grabbed his knife in his free hand. Another enemy. Another. A green worm leaped at his face, and he slashed it in half mid-air.
Only seconds later, he heard Cody gasp and fall next to him. Spinning around with a cry of fury and terror, Hunter shot the human body that was clasping Cody about the knees. The Commander tried to get up, and a Geonosian gripped his face in both hands, ripping off his helmet with a victorious screech.
Hunter killed it. He killed another one. And then another. Cody had gotten to his knees, but once again he didn't fully get up. One of the heavy slug creatures had flopped across his lower legs, and though Cody could have twisted free, he hadn't – it would have meant leaving Hunter's back open to the enemy.
Just get up! Hunter slashed out again. "Commander, get up!"
Behind him, Quinlan let out a shout, and several more enemies fell at once. But already, some of the tangled green worms that had filled the doorways were moving forward, toward the dead bodies. One of them slithered inside the jawless man's head, and he started to move all over again.
Horrified, Hunter shot him in the head. Again. Again. Again. He was distracted by other enemies, though, and the green worms kept crawling up into the larger man's body, as if they knew he was the strongest host they had –
And the man moved quickly, muscles not yet completely stiffened by his recent death. Before Hunter could kill the worms for a sixth time, he found his wrist caught in a vise-like grip.
Hunter twisted, ready to fire. The corpse jerked his arm to one side and threw him down, knocking the air out of his lungs. Instantly, the other creatures swarmed him, crawling over his legs and torso and face, pinning him on his back on the ground as he shouted and fought.
Cody was nowhere in sight. One second, Quinlan was fighting – the next he was kicked in the back by the jawless man and slammed onto his hands and knees.
Hunter's knife was ripped from his hands, his pistol torn away. The bodies surrounded and buried him alive with their stiffening muscles and the dry, dead smell that pervaded them. It made Hunter sick, but he couldn't get sick, because they were keeping him pinned on his back.
He fought not to choke on the acid crawling up his throat as the bodies swarmed him. The buzzing and clicking and shifting motions quickly made his vision blur. The last thing he saw was Quinlan falling flat beneath the creatures' rough clutches, and the last thing he heard was Cody's nearly silent moan of pain.
The first thing Cody noticed when he came to was the stench. The cloyingly sweet smell of the brain worms, combined with the distinctly acidic, yet earthy scent of the Geonosians, coated the inside of his nostrils and his throat. He coughed, trying without luck to expel the taste, and finally opened his eyes.
The floor was moving. Cody blinked at it, confused. Then feeling returned and he realized that he was lying on his stomach, being dragged by his forearms. His head pounded and streaks of pain shot slowly through his right leg from his twisted ankle.
But as he woke up more fully, those injuries dulled to almost nothing in comparison to the slashes he'd been given. That warrior's claws had gotten him pretty good – better than he'd realized at the time. The raw, fiery feeling extended from the left side of his collarbone and over his shoulder, stopping at the backplate of his armor, and the whole area around it was throbbing unpleasantly with heat.
The last memories of the attack returned, and the commander turned his head slightly, trying to catch a glimpse of his companions. Where were they?
The two Geonosians dragging him paused, clicking to each other in a short conversation before they suddenly released his arms. Cody, who didn't manage to catch himself in time, landed face-first against the floor. He coughed and lifted his head, spitting out sand, and only then realized that his helmet was gone. Again. Blast it, he thought bad-temperedly. I'm getting as bad as Kenobi with his cloak.
Something kicked him in the side, prodding him to turn onto his back. No sooner had he caught a glimpse of the ceiling than a Geonosian's face appeared, thrust very close to his own. Cody swung instinctively, bracing himself against the floor with his bad arm.
Kriff. He gritted his teeth and looked up. Hopefully, that had hurt the warrior a lot more than it had hurt him. . .
It hadn't.
Cody narrowed his eyes at the way the bug chittered and fluttered back out of range, seeming irked but unhurt by the punch in the face. Then more clawed hands were clutching at him, lifting him onto his feet.
Darkness closed in briefly as his blood pressure dropped, but he managed to get most of his weight balanced on his uninjured leg.
"Told you he was fine," a husky voice from in front of him muttered.
Cody blinked against the blur in his eyes. General Vos had been caught? That didn't bode well.
"He's conscious," grumbled another, more familiar voice. "Doesn't mean he's fine."
"He's . . . better than dead?" tried Quinlan. "But only marginally. Hey, bugface, where are we headed, anyway?"
A burst of chittering and clicking was followed by a sharp thud of a pikestaff against flesh, and a grunt from Quinlan.
Hunter cleared his throat hesitantly. "Didn't think they understood Basic."
Before Quinlan could answer – and that was probably for the best – the clawed hands were back on Cody, pushing him forward.
He followed the leading Geonosian at a steady limp, focusing his attention on the path, carefully memorizing every turn it made. Soon, they left the well-ventilated corridors and entered what seemed to be an older section of the labyrinth. Dust floated tangibly in the air. His eyelids were sticky, and he could feel the back of his throat going dry.
They'd traveled nearly half a kilometer when they rounded a sharp turn and the air suddenly changed again, becoming clean and fresh. . . if one ignored the continual smell of dry rot. The airflow seemed to be coming from the room up ahead, which was brightly lit.
Hm. Seemed like the Geonosians had decided to use electrical lighting here. That was odd – he'd been under the impression that the elite caste of bugs always kept the technology for their own use. Then again, Cody had never actually entered a hive of drones. Maybe they all had technology and just preferred to keep it out of their weird labyrinths. That seemed likely, considering how much weaponry even the drones had at their disposal.
Cody had to close his eyes against the sudden brightness when he was pushed into the room, and continued to squint while he was dragged to the middle of the floor and thrown onto his stomach. Bony hands held him forcibly in place while others grabbed at his upper armor, removing it. That was never a good sign. Cody growled in the back of his throat. If these guys had dragged them all the way down here just to interrogate them, he was going to be really ticked off. They could have done that upstairs.
His vision was still adjusting as he was hauled into a sitting position and shoved back to lean against his two teammates. The Geonosian warriors wrapped a long chain once around his chest, then looped it over his left arm, under Quinlan's right, and around the Jedi's chest. By the time the circle of prisoners was complete, with Quinlan's left arm bound to Hunter's right and Hunter's left bound to Cody's right, none of them could move without the others' weight holding them back.
But the warriors were not quite satisfied, because after a short, unintelligible argument, one of them stooped to cuff Cody's hands together in front of him. Hunter was given the same treatment, but the bugs took longer with Quinlan.
Cody cast a wary look over his left shoulder. The Geonosians had made Quinlan cross his forearms over his chest, hands against the opposite shoulders, and were now cuffing his wrists tightly to the chain wrapped around his chest. Obviously they had decided not to take any chances with the Jedi.
From a practical viewpoint, Cody certainly couldn't blame them.
A half-minute later, their captors backed away and headed off in three different directions. Cody followed the visible guards' path with his eyes and finally noticed the other occupants in the room. There were two bugs – living warriors, not dead – tied to a pillar that stood next to a mound of sand. One of them, a winged Geonosian, was chittering impatiently, wings buzzing against the stone.
The guards released both of them, and after a moment more of conversation, all of the Geonosians left the room together.
"Okay," Quinlan murmured. "Does anyone get the feeling that – whatever those guys were meant for – we're supposed to replace them?"
"There were six of them," Hunter said uncertainly, the implied, and only three of us, remaining unspoken.
"I'm more interested in those sand piles," Cody said.
"Cody!" The Jedi sounded relieved. "Good. I was getting a little worried about you, there."
Cody snorted in disbelief.
"Well, I was," Quinlan muttered defensively, and Cody could feel him turning his head to look at him. "Those cuts look infected."
"Probably because they are," Cody said dryly. "What about you two? Any injuries?"
"Only a few scratches, Commander," Hunter replied.
"My head hurts?" Quinlan said thoughtfully. "But like – whatever. I think we're in trouble, though. Just in case you hadn't noticed."
"I noticed," Cody answered. "Any idea where we are, General?"
"In a cave. In a labyrinth. In the Geonosian's disgusting creepy palace – temple – thing. Also, it's not fair. I'm chained up a lot more than you guys are."
"With all due respect, sir, stop complaining," Cody requested formally. "We need to get out of here. Where's the end of the chain?"
"Cuffed behind my back to the other end of the chain," Hunter admitted. "I don't think any of us can reach it, Commander."
"Yeah," Quinlan agreed. "And I don't know if you guys noticed . . . but there's a wide corridor around this chamber, and it's filled with those weird undead guys. I'm currently taking suggestions as to how we should escape."
A short silence fell. Cody tilted his head back to study the ceiling. That fresh air had to be coming from somewhere, and the most likely answer was through the roof. He wondered how far below ground they were. Most of the time they'd been walking, it had been pretty much a horizontal path. Maybe they could climb out of here.
To his right, Hunter stirred. "General, did you see where they put our armor?"
"I'm looking at it . . . Can't seem to pick it up, though." The Jedi sounded impatient. "I never was good at picking things up with the Force without moving my hands."
"Did they leave our weapons with it?" Hunter asked.
"No, the guards have those."
"Oh." Hunter sounded concerned. "I guess . . . we don't need our armor, then."
This time, several minutes of silence passed before the Jedi shifted and spoke again. "Anyone want to place bets on how long I can annoy the Geonosians before they take me out?"
"No, thank you, sir," Cody answered. "I'd rather see how long we can stay alive."
Heaving a world-weary sigh, Quinlan nodded. "I guess that would be better. After all, death would be hazardous to our health."
Hunter let out a faint, amused scoff. He said something in reply, but Cody didn't hear it through the sudden rush in his ears. Hanging his head, he breathed slowly until the spell of vertigo passed. When his hearing returned, Hunter was talking.
"Commander? Are you all right, sir?"
"Yeah. Just stared at the ceiling too long." Cody coughed, then pulled his knees towards his chest. "Dehydration isn't helping. We're probably all feeling it."
"I'm thinking we'll be even more dehydrated by the time this is over," Quinlan said, but now the joking tone was gone from his voice.
"The Geonosians that brought us here," Cody said after a moment. "Where are they?"
"They went down – pretty deep," the Jedi answered. "I can't pick them out from the others anymore."
Hunter shifted uneasily. "Guess we were wrong, Commander. The Hive isn't dead after all."
"It might not be the same one. Geonosis has multiple hives. . ." Something stirred in Cody's memory, something that Tech had told him on their way to the surface in the gunship. "And each has a different queen. . ." He turned his head, trying to catch Hunter's eyes. "Sergeant. When you were sent here, Tech must have done research on the locals. What did he say about the queens?"
Hunter went abruptly, completely still, and Cody's pulse picked up as he realized that the answer wouldn't be good.
"Umm . . ." Quinlan said, into the tense silence. "Tech . . . He's the nerdy little guy with the goggles, right?"
"Yeah," Hunter said automatically. "He was reading about the queens. I guess they're just normal female larvae, but the workers go through the eggs and pick out two or three to become queens. Something to do with what they're fed. I guess the egg grows with them, because they stay inside it after that until they're needed."
"Wait," the Jedi interrupted. "You don't think they're going to feed us to baby Geonosians, do you?"
"Not exactly, sir," Cody answered, twisting his cuffs together. "But if I remember correctly, the new queens only hatch after the previous one dies. Isn't that right, Hunter?"
"Yes, sir." Hunter considered for a long moment. "I wasn't really paying attention the whole time, but I think the queens . . . the ones for a particular hive all hatch at the same time, and then fight to the death."
Nobody spoke for nearly a minute. Cody closed his eyes, trying to reserve his strength. Force knew he was going to need it.
"Oh, kriff it all," Quinlan said feelingly. "So, Obi-Wan and Anakin killed one of the queens, but we're going to be food for the new one, aren't we?"
"Seems like it, sir," Cody said neutrally, eyes still closed.
The Jedi groaned and tilted his head back, bumping it against Cody's. "This is just great. I don't know about you, but I never was very fond of royalty . . ."
