Darkness. Darkness and silence. The drip-drip-drip of water punctuating the silence like a feeble heartbeat. Wet cold and damp warmth fighting for dominance against his skin. Immobilization by the very wall he was attached to, as if the rock itself had partially absorbed his body. That was all Hornbull knew now.

The last sign of life other than his own had been the scream. A harrowing scream of unending agony, the sound of and flesh being wrenched apart, and then silence once more. He didn't know how long ago that had been, or if he still had his watch.

He remembered how the dark of the night had unsettled him. How ghostly the trees had looked in the beam of his flashlight. Down here it was pitch black. How many hours had passed since he awoke in this opaque hell? Six hours? Ten hours? A day?

His dry throat elicited a cough, sharp and painfully loud in his ears. There was a hiss from nearby. Something drew close. It was invisible in the black. All Hornbull remembered before being dragged unconscious into wherever the fuck he was was teeth, silvery metallic teeth, one pair inside the other, and nothing else. He envisioned that awful eyeless face staring at him now. It was staring at him. He could feel its presence right in front of his dampened face.

The thing in the darkness studied him, making no noise other than a subdued, rumbling hiss. Hornbull quaked in his prison. Hot tears streamed down his face. Then he felt the presence vanish, and he was alone again.

A transfer. That was all he wanted. Had he really been ungrateful enough to deserve this?


The Hunter hit the bottom of the cenote with a splash that better resembled an explosion. Late afternoon daylight shone down from the opening above, reflecting dimly off the shallow water and wet moss. If it weren't wearing its helmet, it would have smelled damp, musty air.

It scanned its surroundings. Among the moss, damp and occasional plant were traces of the Serpents. Saliva. Impregnator fluids. They were definitely here.

The Hunter had known about the cave system, and suspected from the beginning that the Abomination would find its way to this place. A subterranean labyrinth of tunnels was the perfect environment for a hive. Anything dragged in there would never come out. The Hunter opened its wrist computer and brought up a holographic map of the system. The area was massive, containing numerous tunnels of all sizes, from great chasms as deep as oceans to claustrophobic pipes no taller than a fibula. It would be cold and wet, flooded in some areas. Cave-ins and rockfalls were also a risk. Absolutely no light whatsoever. No place for a creature which thrived on heat.

The Hunter wasn't daunted in the slightest.

There were at least fourteen exits through which the Hunter could leave and enter. There were many tunnels, but the Hunter would need only to explore a few. If it couldn't fit in a tunnel, or reach a particular cavern, neither could the Serpents. A simple process of elimination. And if it had to pass through a tunnel that was completely submerged, it's helmet was just as effective under the water as above it.

It couldn't use the explosive. Not yet. Not until it knew precisely where the hive was located. The cave system was too large to guarantee that detonating the device from here would be enough to eradicate the infestation. And its orders concerning the Queen were clear. Acquiring her now, before she fully grew, would save years of searching and casualty acquiring another.

The Hunter had five suns at least to find the Queen. It found the cragged tunnel and crept inside.

The tunnel was low enough to make crouching a requirement. Outside its black and acid green vision mode, it's surroundings grew steadily darker and darker until the daylight could stretch no further. The Hunter crept through the passage until it ended in a pit, rounded and riddled with handholds. It reminded the Hunter of the throat of a great beast with grey scales and a clubbed tail, from a desert of red sand. The Hunter had slit its neck all the way round, and still had specks of the creature's blood in the nooks of its armor years later.

It descended thirty feet until the tunnel widened and became horizontal again. The Hunter did not fear the small, lightless places of the world, but it felt good to be able to stretch its limbs again. It fought better out in the open.

This part of the tunnel was tall, but narrow enough for its shoulder plates to lightly scrape the walls. The rough rock was ice cold to the touch. The Hunter turned its body slightly to put a stop to the irritating sensation and pressed on, its vision mode set to detect any signs of the Serpents further ahead. Being in such a tight space was inconvenient in more ways than one. The noises it made squeezing through the passages could easily mask the sound of an approaching enemy, or to draw their attention. And Serpents could be very quiet when they needed to be. Their dark mesoskeletons would blend into the darkness and wet rock walls. The Hunter paid attention to every sound that wasn't its own, every rock face that looked too smooth. There was very little noise to be heard.

The narrow passage abruptly opened as it reached the first of the large caverns. There was no such thing as a level floor here, but a scabrous terrain of flattened rock that jutted out at varying heights. Stalactites jutted down from the ceiling like needle teeth. If it didn't have its helmet, the Hunter would still be able to make out the basic shapes. Its species naturally used heat to see. The helmet helped to refine that vision.

The Hunter saw bright green traces of saliva forming a path straight through the middle. There were drag marks here, too. Something as large as the Hunter had been dragged through here, likely more than once. So they'd found hosts already. The new brood would almost certainly have reached full maturity by now. The Hunter would face four at most. It looked forward to it. Three ribbed skulls to bring back to Homeworld, excluding the Abomination's. The infant Queen would be presented alongside them.

It brought up the map again. There were two passages connected to this cavern, not including the one it had just entered through. The Hunter deftly bounded across the rocks and found the nearest one, and immediately it could see that the Serpents had never passed through there. An animal would have to crawl on its belly to get through that passage. The Abomination would never have fit, not with those thick dorsal spines. It travelled to the second passage, one that was low but wide enough to pass through, and continued on.

The tunnel sloped down, descending in a body of cold, black water. The Hunter was submerged up to its shoulders as it kept a going. The conductive metal net covering its body protected it from the frigid temperature, but that did not prevent the cold from being felt. The Hunter had no intention of lingering down here. It would find the Queen, destroy the hive and get out.

The Hunter ducked its head beneath the surface every now and then, making sure there was nothing lurking beneath the surface. Serpents were not naturally aquatic, but they'd been designed to adapt to every possible environment. Then the tunnel abruptly sloped upward. The Hunter steadily pulled itself out of the water and into another chamber. It was warmer up here. At first the Hunter thought it was the effect of being out of the cold water. But a quick update of information from its helmet proved that the temperature was indeed higher than it was before. The Hunter had claimed enough serpent skulls to know what that meant.

It extended its spear. Remembered its strategy. Skewer a serpent in the most vulnerable spot. Wait for its heart to stop beating before it pulled the weapon out. Spill as little acid blood as possible. To much damage to the rock could cause a cave in.

It should still be daylight up above. The Serpents would be lying dormant. Stealth was key here.

The chamber split off into four tunnels, each of varying size. The Hunter ignored two of them for being too small and showing no sign of serpent activity. The other two were larger and spotted saliva traces and small scratches from clambering all over the walls. Only one showed an increase in temperature. There was also a faint air current, just like the currents which the Hunter's ancestors used to navigate the caves beneath Homeworld and other planets, searching for subterranean prey.

Building the hive here, keeping the hosts away from the tunnels with bad air… the Hunter would never underestimate how intelligent the serpents were.

It ventured deeper. Further along, almost a full mile underground, it spotted the first tendrils of dark solidified resin snaking up along the walls, floor and ceiling. Further ahead the tunnel was completely engulfed in the substance. As damp and luscent as polished bone, Hive resin had terraforming properties to satisfy the serpents' preference for warm places. Down here, where there was no light to reflect the sheen, the Hunter could barely make out the difference between resin and rock.

The Hunter examined the map once more. Ahead was a section of the cave system which resembled an inverted jawbone with a slash through the middle. A large cavern formed one of the intersections. An ideal egg chamber. It would find the Queen there.

The Hunter pulled out a triangular device and threw it at the nearest wall, where it immediately attached itself using extendable screws. Reds lights activated, confirming it was primed.

With the first exit covered, the Hunter crossed the threshold, approaching the first intersection. The floor of the tunnel was growing wetter with each step, until it was wading through yet another flood. The water went up to its muscular thighs, deep enough for a Serpent to swim through completely submerged.

From there it would need to turn left to reach the main cavern. Everything was dark, even in its vision mode. But there were traces of the serpents everywhere, like splashes of luminous green blood.

At the first intersection, it saw a large black shape that didn't match the organic pattern of the hive. It was a large animal, lying sprawled on the floor at the base of the wall. A brief switch to infrared showed residual body heat, indicating that it hadn't been dead for long. There was a gaping hole in its torso, framed by ragged flesh and the tips of its shattered ribs. Pieces of resin were stuck to its limbs. It must have broke free from the wall in its death throes. The lungs and stomach lay by its legs, looking like flattened balloons. If there was light in the chamber, the Hunter would see blood covering everything within a seven meter radius.

By the animal's tail lay the corpse of an impregnator, legs curled inward like a spider's, its purpose fulfilled. That meant two serpents to eliminate. At least.

The Hunter switched its vision back. There were no living impregnators in the immediate vicinity, and unlike the grown serpents, they never slept. But its helmet was designed to repel acidic fluids. They would be of little threat on their own. The real danger lay with the consequences of killing one within a hive. If an impregnator died an unnatural death, every Serpent in the vicinity would know it. The Hunter turned left toward the main cavern.

Midway through the tunnel, it found the first Serpent. It was concealed in the wall, curled like a fetus, almost deathlike in its stillness. It glowed a luminescent green, like a jade carving glowing from the inside. The Hunter paused, and searched the dormant form for tusks. It saw none. The Abomination was elsewhere. For reasons unknown it would look like solid amber in the vision mode.

The Hunter moved silently past the slumbering creature, and into the main chamber. It had to be more careful than ever here. Though it was unlikely that the Queen would be mature enough to lay eggs yet, that did not rule out the possibility of eggs being in the cavern when the Hunter got there. It had heard stories. Stories of elites that had ventured deep into a queenless hive… found living beings in a state between life and not-life, dead to the world, in various stages of metamorphosis. From animal to egg. An improbable process that had yet to be truly understood by those that had the stomach to study it. It was a rare horror, one that the Hunter would sooner eviscerate itself than experience first hand.

The chamber was large, as big as its ship, with a ceiling low enough to touch. The floor was half above water, half beneath it. There were no eggs on the higher ground, but there was another body. A Gorgon. It was still fixed to the wall, a hole in its chest where the Serpent had violently emerged. The impregnator lay dead in an inky black puddle. That meant three Serpents. Maybe more. The Hunter would need to know how many in total to account for.

A low sound. The whimper of a sentient, wounded animal. It was coming from the resin-encrusted wall to its left.


Hornbull felt the presence of something big approaching him and froze in his awful prison. Whatever it was, it crept right up to him. He still couldn't see a fucking thing, but he could sense the size of it. About his size, perhaps not as wide, but powerful nonetheless. Somehow it didn't feel like the monster that had brought him here. The monster often hissed in curiosity, and he could feel its breath whenever it came close. This one was more like a ghost.

A pair of blank yellow lights flashed noiselessly in the darkness. Eyes. Hornbull's stomach shriveled in on itself. Last he checked, the monster didn't have any.

He heard a quiet sound. Not a hiss, but a chittering. Like a cicada on Company-owned steroids. He heard nothing more after that.


It was a Rhinoceros, formerly known long ago as rhinokerōs, or 'nose-horned.' They were among the most physically powerful herbivores on Planet 'Earth,' the Homeworld of the colonists. Long ago the Hunter's ancestors hunted these beasts in the warmer parts of the world. They could pick whichever think they pleased back then, so long as it wasn't sick or pregnant. Then times had changed. The rhinos evolved along with the other mammals thriving on then planet. Then the clan had had to alter its code of conduct accordingly.

The rhinoceros was cocooned, encrusted so thickly in resin that he and his suit appeared to have been fused with it. He didn't look outwardly injured, as some hosts were if they resisted capture too fiercely. The Hunter had once seen a creature with all four limbs ripped off at the sockets and its intestines falling out, the wounds sealed with resin so it would live long enough to bear fruit.

The Hunter scanned the rhino with its helmet. It chittered at what the result showed him. Then it turned away from the rhino and resumed its secondary mission. Unless the hive was bigger than it estimated, there were four more exits to seal off. The Hunter found itself back on dry land as it left the cavern and continued to creep through the organic tunnels, planting a triangular device at each exit. Their locations were marked on the map with red lines.

Within minutes it was back in the first intersection, one tunnel away from the main cavern. The floor dropped off sharply here, beyond that the flood from earlier. It checked the map one more time. Every exit was covered. Everything was in place.

In a way, the hive's location worked heavily to the Hunter's advantage. This area of the cave system was reinforced with strong minerals. It should be safe to use the dual plasma casters here, so long as it didn't fire at the ceiling.

The Hunter roared and dropped heavily into the thigh deep water, letting the tremendous sound travel through every sound-conductive tunnel in the vicinity.

Long before the echoes quieted, screeching filled the hive as the serpents awoke as one. The serpent it had encountered was the first to break away from the wall, clinging to the resin like a glowing lizard. Two more appeared in the second tunnel. That made three to kill. No. Four. None of them was the Abomination, but it would show up soon.

Four Serpents. One impregnator unaccounted for. The Hunter felt a thrill at the odds as it pressed a button on its forearm. In a second, every way in and out of the hive was blocked by a web of crimson lasers. If there were any other creatures outside the trap, they would have to wait their turn.

The Hunter fired one of its dual casters, the bolt soaring through the tunnel like a blue flare. It hit the serpent square in the face, obliterating the skull and splattering acid blood everywhere. The blood soaked the walls, but didn't burn the resin. But now that the others had seen what the intruder could do, they would not be taken down so easily.

Just as predicted, the two serpents leapt from wall to wall, lightning quick, passing each other mid-air, making it nearly impossible to target them as they closed in. The first one to reach it lunged for the Hunter's face, screeching, and the Hunter countered, grabbed its neck and face and throwing it into the wall. It hit the wall hard enough to break the resin and its luminous form vanished into the ice water. The Hunter fired the caster at where it had fallen, but before it could see if it had hit its mark, the third serpent closed in and swung its long black claws at the Hunter's neck.


Hornbull blinked a few times. At first he thought he was imagining the cluster of glowing red lines somewhere on the other side of the black space. Then he saw a dark shake flash in front of it.

Something was happening. First he heard a roar, resembling a lion's roar with the bellowing reverberation of an elephant. Then the darkness wasn't so silent anymore. A fight was going on somewhere off to his left. He heard the monsters screeching for blood, and a sound that made him think of laser guns from the science-fiction B movies Clawhauser sometimes watched in his office when he ran out of paperwork, though slightly more liquid.

The monsters' lair had been invaded. He couldn't think of any other reason for the chaos. He knew the intruder, whether there was more than one or not, wasn't a colonial marine. But for the first time since his abduction, he felt a wild hope flood his limbs with strength. This could be his chance.

He clenched his fists and tried to force his arms forward with all his might. At first the resin was too strong, but then he heard heard it begin to cracks. The sound was wet and nauseating, like a bone breaking in the muscle and skin in supported. He kept going. His right arm came forward, inch by inch, the resin stretching and breaking. Before he knew it the arm came free.

He grabbed at the hard stuff covering his chest, ripping it off piece by piece. With one shoulder free he could now reach across himself to free his other arm. His legs came away next. He broke free sloppily, nearly losing balance and falling flat on his horned face. He was still covering in crap, was pretty sure he still had literal crap in his pants after his long stint on the wall, but fuck it, he was free!

He had no flashlight, but after a quick rummage in his slimy pockets he found that he still had his communicator. He increased the screen brightness to maximum and made a beeline for the red lights. There was no way he was going near the tussle. The ground was covered in the same stuff he'd been encrusted in.

Nearing the light, he realized that they were lasers, messily blocking the tunnel. Hornbull didn't even think about who or what had planted the metal triangle the lasers were sourced from. All he wanted was out.

Suddenly there was light, bright and red, coming from behind. He spun round and saw that part of the wall was on fire. Whatever the intruders were firing must have hit something flammable. The light hurt Hornbull's eyes, but now could he could see what was happening.

The fight had spilled here into the main cavern. Two eyeless thingswith long heads, slightly smaller than the one that had captured him, were clambering around the walls as they circled the intruder.

Fucking hell…

It was one being, as tall as Hornbull but lean as a tiger. It was no fur and all muscle. His only thought was that it looked like a giant, tailless lizard, its flat face hidden by a featureless metal mask. This was no wild animal.

The masked creature was standing almost waist-deep in the flooded part of the chamber, the strange bulky guns on its shoulders trying to get a bead on the constantly creeping monsters. The eyeless monster paused. The cannon fired a blue glowing fireball. The monster dodged, evading the blast at the last moment. Hornbull watched wordlessly as the other monster pounced, taking advantage of the distraction. Its sibling or whatever followed suit, helping to drag the lizard thing beneath the surface.

The dark water frothed as the monsters mauled their fallen enemy. Sucks to be him. Hornbull turned back to the laser grid, hoping to find a way to turn off the laser triangle while the monsters were preoccupied.

Then he heard another bellowing roar, and the dual screams of angry monsters. He spun round, and gaped at the sight.

In the few seconds Hornbull had turned its back, the masked lizard had turned the tables on its attackers. It was back on its feet, a clawed hand clutching each throat, their toothed tongues shooting out and falling short of the freak's face.

One apiece, even Bogo's not that tough-

It's obvious plan was to blast the monsters simultaneously with its dual guns in a finishing move worthy of Mortal Wombat. Then the fourth monster, the monster, exploded out the water and swatted the masked lizard with its skeletal, powerful barbed tail.

Hornbull threw himself against the wall as the masked lizard flew past him, heading straight for the laser barrier. Right before it was sliced and diced a blue blast came out, striking the laser device. The lasers died in a blink.

Run!

Hornbull obeyed his instincts, taking off past the masked lizard as it got to its barely, seeming barely fazed by the blow. The rhino kept running until his feet ran across cold stone, his hand feeling across walls free of that terrible sticky substance. The screen of his communicator lit the tunnel ahead of him as it gradually narrowed. The ceiling became so low he had to crawl. He fought off the feelings of claustrophobia as he kept going, his knees scraping painfully against the stone. Behind him, he heard the big risked monster scream, a rattling sound of pure rage. Then the scratching sound of claws on rock. The monster was coming after him.

Panic flooded his being. He scrabbled harder, faster, not caring of whatever damage he was inflicting on himself. The scrabbling of the monster behind him coincided with his own movements. They were just as hectic and wild as his own. It was as if the pursuer was just as frantic as he was. Hornbull pulled himself through the tight tunnel, begging that it wouldn't get any smaller than it already was.

Something grabbed his leg. Hornbull screamed and grabbed a handhold before he could be dragged, fighting to maintain his grip as he tried to kick the tusked monster away. In his struggle he turned on his back, coming face to face with the eyeless face as it clawed its way on top of him, its sharp fingers tearing through cloth and skin. It was trying to simultaneously drag him back through the tunnel and reach his head.

No! Nonononono-

In the pale light of the communicator, the edged rock above them shifted with a keening sound that made them both freeze.

Oooooooh FUCK.

The tusked monster looked up sharply at the ceiling that rumbled softly over their heads. It looked down at Hornbull, and even without eyes he could see it was conflicted, torn between its prey and self-preservation. It had seconds to make its choice. So did Hornbull. He chose first.

Using the handhold he pulled himself out of the monster's claws and scrabbled up the tunnel. The monster hissed furiously and reached for him again, just as the first chunk of stone crashed down between them.

Hornbull looked back only once, shining the light of his screen to see more rocks filling the tunnel, the smallest big enough to shatter his knees. The collapse ceiling was following him, gaining on himself. It was going to bury him. He crawled faster, his lungs sucking in and expelling cold air in a frantic uneven rhythm and burning from the effort.

Not gonna make it, gonna die…

His dirty, bleeding hands flailed through open air before finding the edges of the tunnel's exit. He pulled himself up and out, as an eruption of dust engulfed him and turned everything dark once more.