· · · · · · ·

Cloaked and careful, Karga'te followed through the open hangar. The tracks had scattered just beyond the cave entrance. The Auton base had been abandoned in time, appearing as little more than a storage space now. If their enemies were smart, they'd keep the all but inevitable fight to this location.

Their dim scent thickened inside, they'd spent longer here. Scratch marks on the walls indicated climbing skills and small size. The scent lay over everything unpleasant even to him. They weren't as those he had met before, and further yet from Ayo.

He told Kirindi and found she was already inside, ahead of him by a few passages. Hmm.

Partway through the hall, he stepped into a few small, stinging holes. A dim trail of acid drops led into the dark.

"~Kirindi?~"

It wasn't her blood, but she responded to the concern by bounding into the hall. His glare was met with, "~They're a threat. Eliath wanted them gone."

Figured. Something had to be done about Eliath.

"Did you explain him starting a fight right here would get in the way of his mother?"

"Eliath thinks the opposite, this will clear the path."

"There is no path, we have teleporting ships and enemies with gunfire who are not here. Unless they come barging in. The only path it clears is to the damn abyss."

It didn't faze her. A small smile played on her lips, waiting, betraying nothing of doubts. She saw no wrong in Eliath. Either all was hidden, or she was more xenomorph than he understood; was her mind utterly blank at times?

Couldn't figure that out now. He told Hguthreeit to relay the conflict had moved below the plateau, but the ruse was worth keeping before the other humans. They could deal with it in here.

Kirindi's sharper senses told him that the largest group of the enemy had gathered within the Auton's old communal room. He let her lead the way.

She slowed down at the corners, often at the sound of skittering ahead.

Everything screamed they were awaited in a trap. Nra'tex-ne had once taught him to always go around the trap to find the perpetrator in their hiding, but this wasn't like a hunt. They had come onto their turf, in closed space. The enemy had no business thinking of themselves as hunters.

So there was just rounding one more corner, and freezing to Kirindi's low hiss.

"What the ..."

Long lines of small sickly human children stood around the hall, rocking on their heels and staring up. Slowly, their faces turned to him.

A bewildered Kirindi found bestial minds similar to her own, enough to shake her out of instinctive hatred for a second, but no longer than that. Karga'te's pause was only as long as realizing she wouldn't try to bring them into the hivemind.

Their skin hardened as they flooded forward into a writhing mass of biomechanic monsters. Within these next seconds Kirindi found the faces of their leaders in their memories, shared, and Karga'te recognized one.

Not from his own eyes, but another.

Know what? Screw caution, let's stage a setting to hunt.

He spun around, ordered Kirindi to follow, and ran. Not for fear, just to set a better trap, much to Kirindi's satisfaction. She almost asked why the sudden urge to take them down, but held back.

· · · · · · ·

Lemura found Jay and Bison first. They were held captive in cells, and they didn't get good food anymore and weren't happy, that much she could tell telepathically. Seeing was impossible, there were no windows for them. There weren't any vents in the area either, so she had to crawl out.

Jay told her to leave, worried for everything real and some things not. They knew rescue was coming, right? Lemura told him again just in case.

There were cyborg guards here, but weirdly enough they were all offline. Lemura could drag two on top of each other to reach the door panel. She nicked her tongue and spat acid on it.

It didn't make the doors open like she'd hoped. Maybe she had to fumble with the electric strings a bit, like in one of the movies Sarah had telepathically remembered to her. She pulled loose strings and tried connecting them, which took a while and some outside inspiration till it worked.

Bison flitted out, towards Jay's cell. He handled that one much quicker. Bison hugged him as soon as the door opened, then they both hesitated.

"Time to leave! Time to leave!" She bounced up and down at the entrance.

"I guess we'll have to."

She hoped either would pick her up, but they didn't. Jay still found her scary, and Bison was still so closed of. They passed her, and Lemura ran on all fours to keep up.

The humans paused at the disabled cyborg guards, wondering.

Wasn't it more important to leave?

Where to now?

A weird woman with a head like the wind stood at the end of the hall.

"This way!" she called. "We're going home! Wooooo!"

Lemura chased after her, because Sarah said so, the woman knew where to go.

· · · · · · ·

To Sarah's disappointment, Walltraud fled. So much for taunting him into staying for his death. The moment of reckoning dimmed as she had to wait for escape. The drones were too simple to lead the way, and she didn't recognize the room she was in.

Curious, she leaned over the edge of the table to her new hivemates.

One had bulging eyes and a body too small. Another almost human, but eyeless with deformed hands. The last had a head more like a drone, blended into her back, only capable of crawling. Her children, that sense ran through her. Alright then. The question for why they existed was for later.

They seemed to be alright, albeit scared. Nearby were a bunch of tanks, they must've escaped from there. Monitoring equipment lay between her table and the tanks; testing resonance?

She pulled back the sheet covering her legs.

They had been cutting into her leg, apparently to insert the prods that lay scattered on the floor. He upper skin layer had been peeled back. It hurt like hell, but at the same time it didn't incapacitate, and her blood was limited. Pain was noted, but could be put on the back burner. All that mattered was stilling the blood flow.

That somewhat acidic yellow blood.

The meat of herself was still human shaped, though there were tough extra layers holding everything together. Enforcement rather than transfiguration; turning human structure that was designed for soft meat into outright hard resin would just result in inflexibility. Clever.

She pushed the skin back in place, and mentally pushed one of the drones to fetch her needle and thread.

· · · · · · ·

Jake followed the drones in a daze. He shot down whatever enemy he found with no care. Following not one but two mental leaders made it awfully easy, they just told what danger to dodge when.

It wasn't even boring. Every move, every hit he coordinated with the flock was satisfying. This was how xenomorph found contentment in their existence, their following of the rhythm for the hive.

Every door broken a step towards the goal, every—

Something shrieking launched itself at his face, scratching at his skin. That jarred him out of his dear haze.

"Don't shoot!" he yelled, just in case the Auton did anything.

Someone pulled her back, and she skittered to the floor.

Her being a ball of bony paleness, and over her two men, faces he'd never seen but still recognized. No need for introductions, they knew each others names through the hivemind, though unlike himself they didn't share the peacefulness; these poor sods had been here so long they had nothing but anxiety.

"Lemu, please calm down," Bison said softly, both hands held up before her to placate.

"Sometimes she just gets these instincts going wild," Jay said. "She's been aggressive before, even attacked Bison over rejecting some food."

"But I'm gonna be a better monster," Lemura muttered. "Sarah was dreamwalking, Eliath was being mean. Irritating."

"Eliath acts up again?" Jay asked.

"Eliath's ... " Jake pried into the hivemind. "Eliath's not talking with anyone right now. Sarah's ... weird. I'm not in the right way?"

Lemura calmed down, and so Jake held out a hand. "Hey, little one. I'm not gonna hurt the hive. I'm a little joinky in the head, but you can blame that on Shadhahvar."

"Oh ... oh, the other one?" Lemura got words out almost human, he might mistake her for a true toddler. Strange she was less than a year old, and that was more than the drones at home.

A tiny hand closed around his finger. "Sorry."

"Apology accepted. Would you let me carry you? It'll be more nicer than lifting along on a drone."

She climbed onto his arm. He kept his other with the weapon poised and took the lead towards their next goal : Sarah.

The door had been barricaded with much dedication. Just shooting it wasn't enough, but the Auton had explosives. He told the drones to stand back and let the synths do their work, he himself disabling a few frosters in the walls with accurate shots — really, so easy to get this guidance. He started to see the appeal of the physical upgrades. Imagine what he could do with more of this.

The door caved with little ceremony.

Sarah walked right past the Auton, drones flocking after her. A disturbingly serene smile played on her face. "You are right on time, thank you. Let's go home."

She took Lemura in her arms, laying her bony chin over the small head. Jake caught only glimpses of their silent exchange and didn't pry. Not his business.

Right, the Auton had given him another business: survivors.

Jake slipped back into the room, intent to check whether any of the slaughtered people were alive, but his motivation all but drained as he remembered his first visit here. The dread pushed back in force, and he turned away and didn't think of them again.

· · · · · · ·

Warrain had the closest telepathic link to his brood, naturally, but maybe he should direct them better. Andrew found only a few of the children in the burning hall.

"~These aren't all.~"

"~Yeah, the rest are burning elsewhere,~" he said calmly. "~We found an unknown alien and her, a chimera. They fled, led my kids to an area with fuel and just incinerated most of them. The others are dragged off by a xenomorph. Are you sure you don't want me to send in the space marines? It appears we need ranged weaponry after all.~"

"~There is no sign of either Auton or Amy B. Can you confirm that they saw an actual chimera? ~"

"~ Not with tangible evidence. ~"

"~ Shit. Any signs of the marines being mentally compromised? ~"

"~ Not as far as I can tell. Lots of complaining about this weird mission,~" Warrain said. "~I'm sharing the sentiment. Listen, what's down there, I think it had a visual cloak. We wouldn't be able to record it. ~"

Hunters, then?

Andrew knelt down.

All the brood remained in their monstrous, malformed shape, clinging together and to him for support. Several had burn wounds and all were full of fear.

Helpless, he patted the nearest on the head, knowing it'd do no good at all. They could have handled bullets, lasers, and Auton with their compassion. Sending children at them would have slowed them down and they should have been immune to Amy B's influence.

They weren't supposed to run into someone who know them before they knew it. Least of all the rumored hunters, and one who knew to go right for the fire.

"~ I could report that I spotted a hunter to the marines,~" Warrain said; Andrew wasn't sure how much that was driven by concern, or irritation.

"~ If the locals are covering for the Auton, they'll deny it and accuse us of inciting conflict. I'll bet most of them know hunters won't attack unless given a challenge. ~"

The hair rose on his neck, and he cut off contact to focus. If only his telepathy wasn't so limited.

Just a glimpse of himself, but enough jump.

The plasma bolt scorched the spot he'd just been at.

He spun around. The brood scattered. The fire was near, weren't hunters supposed to be bad at seeing around it? It had to have filters, so ...

They wanted him to know, that was the only reason he picked them up.

Two others, both telepathic, one xenomorphic and the other more the way humans were : sharp and singular, not natural to a hivemind, but all the more pressing and — it knew him.

Something dropped behind him and he spun around.

A pipe had fallen to the ground; something had to have moved it, but no sight or sound indicated this.

Andrew backed away into the passage he's come from, ready to bolt back into the crowded public. If he could make it in time for the cover ...

The door shut, and behind it an explosion incinerated the remainder of the brood. Their pain and fear overwhelmed, and he ran.

· · · · · · ·

Sarah's first steps out of that torture room had been triumphant, just to ebb into terror. She wasn't far enough yet into a monster to stop breathing, but enough to move faster than a human could.

It didn't want her to leave. Noasyvé, her, the rest. Belonged. To. It.

"Nuitar's coming," Jake and Sarah whispered.

The suffocation encroached like water without pressure still stealing air.

As thrilling, shrieking sound, that didn't touch her esrs.

Rather than a riddle, fathomable in the most human ways and all the decay of it. Like a human grabbed her head, banged it against metal and complained about why she wouldn't just be good enough to pass out.

Why aren't you?

The ease with which all others of her were dismissed was worst — all younger children easily pushed out by more complex thought.

They ran on. The drones surrounded them, on walls, everywhere, a shield, chaos ... cyborg ... the world scattered around as —

A deep shriek brought back clarity, granting her focus.

She lay on the ground without memory of how she'd gotten there, eyes up. Lemura clung at her neck, and the hiss of drones surrounded them.

Through Lemura's eyes, she saw.

One of the drones was at the walls, half pulled into the vents. Acid leaked out to melt the wall, but the drone was still alive. The shell had mutated strangely, but only insofar the blood didn't reach. Bioemechanic tendrils surrounded it, and reached for the other drones.

Though she heard no approach, someone leaned in from behind and helped her stand.

When she turned around, a blur of light just vanished into a nearby hall. A glimpse of strange feather, like broken bone fanning out with webbing.

Flee.

The heat rose.

Sarah scrambled to her feet, checked for the other three, found a drone to haul her along, and didn't look back.

· · · · · · ·

Eliath slipped in with his mouth and tail full, dropped a few more into the pit and left. The last captures he would do, now to return to Kirindi's side. Odygos let him go without complaint.

Overlaid on ancient instincts was a fresh direction, the kind that had been burned into him at conception in the same way as preserving Sarah had been : destroy these things. He had one up, the pit fillings were reserve.

A single drop of acid blood scorched them in a way that did not heal. That was interesting, but it not enough.

He sprayed some blood into the pit, and watched. The same disruption. Some of the smarter ones figured out they could rip the affected area off, and the bigger hole would heal better, but it was slower than their standard. It took them precious minutes.

It wasn't enough for a solution.

It sent him right into a wall. How would he even begin? There wasn't enough blood in him to burn them all up — two here, their brood, Ayo said there were many thousands more in the future.

The things writhed and called for help. Small, stupid and endlessly hostile, but intelligent enough to think beyond baseline drones. They might change over time, be more precise like the adults.

Thus, Odygos had to learn to stay ahead right now.

Fire hurt them, but that meant sacrificing the environment. Sarah might be upgraded, but she was tougher, not less flammable yet. Much of the human machinery they could use for the hive would be vulnerable as well. They'd have more vulnerable allies like that eventually, so fire would have to be a last resort.

His current target still writhed below his claws. He twisted it onto its stomach and bled on its spine.

The thing screamed and hollered much more than usual. It couldn't reach back enough, and the lower end went limp as the spine burn through. By then, it tried clawing off its lower body.

He put a drop at the base of the skull. Now that got a truly good result : it just started mindlessly trashing around without concerted effort against him. For at least a few minutes, at the end of which it was left a gasping head on a limp body.

Still not good enough.

· · · · · · ·

In the hangar hovered a strange small ship, windowless and full of spikes and — alive? It has something biomechanic about it, but of a very different nature than what Sarah was used to.

Together with the Auton stood tall white plated creatures, like someone had combined marsupials with insects, the heads without nose or mouth, only large empty eyes. Markings adorned them from head to tail.

The Aing Tii, she now knew. Noasyvé had met them through Ayo's team. They these creatures were powerful in ways she'd expect them to feature more prominently as allies, but they were only here for transport. How unsatisfying. Maybe they'd renegotiate, once Noasyvé had fully recovered.

A few of the Enigma crew stood around, fully consciously yet utterly complacent. Sarah rounded them, and some nodded at her in recognition.

"What are they—"

"Waiting to board," Ayo said. "~ It's a mind trick. Don't worry about it, it's a harmless push of intent that won't last longer and is limited to simple suggestions.~"

Persephone and another Auton started guiding the scientists onto the ship without any resistance.

"Why?"

"There's no reason to let anyone die if we can save them," Persephone said.

Noasyvé let her known they would be exploding Enigma II with the bomb the Auton had planted earlier.

"You're setting off the bomb now?" Sarah asked.

"Change of tactics," Persephone said. "The odds that we can infiltrate the other stations is slim. A show of power to send a message was the best we could aim for, but now? We have better allies and a better idea of what we have to fight."

"Ah. Good," Sarah said, eyes still on the scientists. She didn't trust them to be around Noasyvé, and it was her duty to keep the hive safe. Maybe she could throw them off a platform later.

· · · · · · ·

Andrew ran into dead end after dead end. He left his human form behind a few times so he could tear down walls and keep moving. It wasn't until he stood before walls too thick and a ring of burning children that he accepted he'd been herded.

Most of the children were already dead, but a few still flinched and whimpered in the fire. He swallowed hard, torn between helping them and fleeing blindl.

The one open entrance was the one he'd come through, so he faced it.

Excruciating seconds passed by before a the air distorted. The vague sense of the other two was behind it, further, distanced.

His hairs stood on end. He was prey today.

"~ If you had not killed that woman, all would have been different. ~"

The voice in his head carried no tone he knew, it was raw knowledge forced into a sentence. This kind of telepathy was hard to keep up with, harder yet when a memory forced into his mind so vividly, he had double vision.

Andrew was again upon the scorching planet of Ghilsaer, the sun blinding ahead of him, and he saw himself from below, standing against a ruin, just beyond the back of ...

"True, you are not a human. Your kind will benefit from Jormungandr's reign, so what does it matter to you if it gets out?"

Oh no. Her.

"I was raised a human, with all the ethics and morals of our kind," Andrew said. "I will not let that AI get out and threaten life!"

His own words were a punch in the gut. He'd burried all that under countless justifications for survival and distant ideas and ...

"It is too late to stop Jormungandr," Bakarne said.

... this belief.

"It is not. Even aboard that ship, it will still need someone to help it! Don't give it that help! Please!"

The plea sounded so different in the girl's ears. Hopeless, full of her mother's insistence all was futile.

Andrew saw himself shoot the woman from her eyes, himself the monster in this scenario.

"Mom?"

She grabbed her mother's hand, felt the life still in the cells, but there were no more thoughts or feelings.

The pain of the blades through Andrew's gut were dull in his memory now, overlaid with her senses. It paled compared to her mother's death.

His death at the hands of the hunter was little, even as it kicked off his rapid transformation. Little, because it matter nothing for everything the girl went through, and what the sender hated Andrew for.

Bakarne's death, which sent off the slow transformation of the child. The hunter wouldn't give him any other details, only impressions, pain and death, hers and others. A whirlwind he could not make sense of, centering down on him like a target found at last until one concept stood out clear.

Barely could he put his senses back in the present, or two thin blades carved through his stomach. Blood welled up his throat. The looming presence behind him rattled and thrilled in malicious laughter, or something close.

Transformation into his own monster was reflexive, but the wound could not grow shut with the weapon still in place.

The hunter lifted him on one arm and took a heavy step towards the fire, dangling him over the nearest flames. Thick as his transformed skin might be, he felt it.

He screamed with voice, and in mind — the others, anyone, help — before kicking back. His soles hit the hunter just enough to push himself off the blades, right into the fire.

Rolling out, he bypassed the hunter's legs and shot away.

His injury knitted, but still slowed him enough. The hunter caught up and the blades pinned one of his legs to the ground. Screeching against the floor, he started dragging him back this way.

Striking his claws into the ground didn't help, the hunter hurled him back into the fire.

The flames tore. He screeched, pain took over, and he let his second level transformation loose. No choice, he told himself.

· · · · · · ·

All the vents and doors burst open in a drafting explosion, but no fire followed. Move on, now. On board. Sarah pushed on her brood and the nearest Auton, move now, go, and on and on.

The heat rose sharp just before tanking. She risked a glance back. Black veins and pipes grew from the broken walls like hive resin expanding way too fast. It stung on a level she could not understand, like the blood was sucked from her body and all her energy might be stolen. Like choking.

Nuitar had run out of patience. The drones cried in the shift, begging Noasyvé to let them attack it, but she only urged them to hide. Bleed if they had to, but hide first. Sarah followed the command.

Only she could fight it.

· · · · · · ·

It got bigger, stupider, and clumsier, but still more skilled than his prior encounters. Despite the clunky body it was fast enough to match a xenomorph, having learn to use its own momentum, and big enough to not incinerate entirely.

It stopped outside the fire just long enough to regenerate itself, and tear off what had burned too badly.

This one had never mutated alongside yautja, but still had the same similar traits : the lower jaw broken into mandibles and a head full of fleshy locks knotted together. The rest of it was a bulky rib cage with legs like an animal born xenomorph, no pretense of muscles to hold it together.

It was four against one and there was plenty of fuel around here, even if none of their telltale allergies could be exploited now.

Kirindi was smallest, if she could get on its back and detach the head, they could burn it right away and— she already moved, only for Eliath to jerk her back by the tail.

Oh, fucking great. Eliath still wasn't going to let Odygos protect Kirindi.

The enemy launched itself at them. Karga'te rolled out of the way. Odygos jumped in, grabbed the arm and tossed the enemy off balance.

Back on his feet, Karga'te slashed off the trashing hind leg.

Eliath still blocked Kirindi, but at least pounced on the limb and bleed it shut from regenerating.

Odygos went for the other hind limb, but the arms caught him and tore over his side. Karga'te drove his wristblades through the neck. Odygos shot out of range in the distraction, jumped at the ceiling, and tackled from there.

The weight forced the enemy down before the missing leg regenerated.

Karga'te twisted the arm off in a spray of blood, tossed it in the fire and pinned the body with his foot, adding to Odygos's weight.

It trashed helplessly, even as the arm slowly grew back.

At his mercy.

He hadn't realized how badly he'd wanted to fight these things. A much more fit target for revenge.

· · · · · · ·

It grew and grew and onward, pulling all energy from the world around. The ship groaned under the weight as it dropped in from above.

It ... it wanted to leave. Desperate. It had fled from and to Noasyvé, eager to keep her or escape in this vessel. It wanted to own her.

Like a chorus of countless voices, the same knowledge echoed through every member of the hive awaiting.

The drones left the ship, expandable, blood to halt the assault. Sarah could only curl up, arms around Lemura, the others holding onto her, and hate Nuitar.

· · · · · · ·

The ribs cracked below his own claws, blood searing on his skin. Tempting to be enough, but no, they needed fire. This was already regenerating. Odygos held it down in part, but it was bigger than him.

When it thew them off and regenerated, it spotted Kirindi. An easy target? Eliath right away planted himself between them, blocking Kirindi from joining the battle — he must've done that all along, Karga'te realized.

Shouldn't have gotten lost in the bloodlust.

Odygos demanded help, just to get a hiss from Eliath. Kirindi looked at Karga'te for different help, not knowing what to do about a hive member who wouldn't let her fight.

They didn't have time to deal with Eliath's bullshit right now, while that thing sorted itself out.

It lunged at Odygos's head. Karga'te tackled it with a shoulder, pushing it aside and fired a plasma bolt. He missed.

Odygos, already injured, wasn't fast enough to scramble out of the way. Karga'te pulled Odygos along just as the enemy's claws came down.

Kirindi tried again to come to his aid, this time nudged back by Eliath's tail. The enemy used that distraction to launch at Eliath's wide open side.

Karga'te roared at Eliath, who ignored him and tore the enemy's head clean off the body, then tossed it away.

Oh fucking great.

Finally able to pass, Kirindi pulled Odygos further out of range of the trashing body. Eliath still tore into it, vicious and thoughtless. Karga'te couldn't aim the cast right, not like this.

The head rolled down the ramp. Shit! Only within a range of about thirty meters, dislocated body parts would try to rejoin. He shot at it, but the moment he turned his back the enemy slashed his back. The shot missed.

At cue Kirindi shot past the trashing body, but Eliath left his position to grab her tail and pull her away. She twisted to lash out, but right then all around shifted.

Odygos, Eliath and Kirindi shrieked in pain as two whole new bodies formed. Even Karga'te felt an cutting shift in the fabric of space as matter congregated out of nowhere. It had been there before in a passive state, but twice over active and right in their middle was so much worse.

By the time the shrieks stopped, the head of the main body had regrown. The other just about finishing up forming a new torso, starting on regrowing the legs.

Odygos climbed back to his feet, unsteady over the blood loss. Eliath didn't even care, that disgusting piece of shit. He needed to organize them, but with a broken team didn't know how.

The last shift subsided. The body down the ramp took one look up before turning to flee, still incomplete. The other one hurled itself right at Karga'te.

Well, if it volunteered ...

· · · · · · ·