The Serpent flared its tusks right after it emerged from the dark waters within the labyrinth of sewers beneath the colony. The scents here were different from the caverns of their original hive, the surfaces smooth and greasy, but it would do.

It clambered over the railing onto the grimy walkway, clutching the jaguar it had plucked from the canal walkway minutes before. The first of its smaller subordinates was already there, secreting and molding the resin they needed for their temporary habitat. The second was in another part of the colony, tracking the scent of the rhino's blood.

The jaguar was shivering, but unconscious. The Serpent found a gap in between the twelve hosts already fused to the wall of hardened mass and put her there. Then it stalked further down the walkway to check on the second batch of colonists and marines chosen for transmutation.

There were twelve in all, one for each host, in the final stages of the morphing process, a line of slime-dripping curled up corpses cultivated into eggs.

The oldest egg opened its pointed lips. The impregnator flew the short distance from egg to host. The Serpent looked up to the dirty ceiling, listening to the sounds above.


Six hours later, the sun burned red as it swiftly set on a bloody day.

Bogo almost couldn't believe what he had been hearing over the last five hours since he found himself back in his office in Fort Meadowland.

First his fiancé almost got caught in a shootout with Dr. Carthusia, whose true colors turned out to be messier that he'd ever imagined. Then he'd received a report of a massacre at Lionheart's Gate. They were still counting the dead, and the culprit's whereabouts were unknown. And now Chief Engineer Park had just informed him via radio that Private Wilde had discovered an intruder in the air ducts, one considered dangerous enough to recommend an immediate halt to all maintenance work currently ongoing in the AC system.

Of the six maintenance workers Park had recalled, only two had come out of the ducts. She was still trying to establish contact with the rest, fueled by a desperation that was alarming to see in a woman who on any other day took no shit whatsoever.

Bogo had given the order to inform every colonist that they were to return to their accommodations and stay there until further notice. It would take time for that order to be enforced, and that thought just piled on the stress.

As he stared at the fox and rabbit looking pathetically tiny in their chairs and blankets, he almost found himself missing Hornbull and Dr. Ewetani. They'd made the courtesy of visiting Bogo's office to discuss an enigmatic operation he had absolutely no choice but to permit. He hadn't liked the idea, hadn't trusted them, but at least the excavation was as far away from ZV-73 as possible.

"Sir…" Wilde finally broke the silence that had fallen after his debriefing. His wide green eyes stood out against the spatters of blood on his face. "I know I screwed up. If I'd shot sooner, Fangmeyer would still be-"

"Private, you can stop right there." Bogo snarled. "What happened to her… that's not on you. Ferrero's death… that's not on you. The fact that Hopps isn't lying in the morgue with them… that… is on you."

Nick's face contorted with sudden grief, and he shrunk in his seat as he screwed his eyes shut and rubbed at them. "Sergeant Bogo, if I may…" Hopps raised a slightly dirty paw. "I think I need to change my priorities. With your permission, I'd like to put my investigation into the saboteur case on hold and assist you in dealing with these creatures."

"Creature." Bogo tightened his fists. The brandy he'd taken after hearing of the latest deaths was taking effect. "Creature. Plural. There was only one creature."

"That's not possible, and you know it." Hopps said. "That creature was fast, but there's no way it could kill those marines at Lionheart's Gate and attack us in the bay at the same time. The methods of killing don't match either." She swallowed. "This creature was clearly feral. It tore Fangmeyer and Ferrero apart. Whatever committed the massacre at the gate used bladed weapons and explosives. Weapons I've never imagined could exist. You know something about this. I can see it all over your face."

At that, Nick looked up and locked eyes with Bogo. Judy stared at him, too. Their eyes were hard, daring Bogo to lie. Not that Bogo had any intention to. That was the Company's way of thinking.

"The object that hit Rochewool's vessel wasn't an asteroid. It was a ship." He said plainly.

"What?" Judy breathed.

"I found the point of impact. I know a crash site when I see one. The ship itself was gone without a trace."

"Vaporised?"

"Not by the crash. Something erased the ship from existence after it landed."

"Not something. Someone." Nick said. "But if they succeeded in destroying the evidence, why break into the colony? It's not like we've seen too much."

Bogo let out a vicious snort. "All that matters is hunting that fucker down and giving it a taste of its own medicine. Hopps, how do you plan on 'assisting' us?"

"I've been collecting samples that may have come from one of the creatures. If I'm allowed to access the Rainforest Sector's facilities, I can analyze the samples and hopefully get some helpful data."

Bogo rubbed his temple. "Helpful… data…"

"Sir, this thing bled acid, we need all the data we can get."

She had him there. "Alright. But stay away from Carthusia's lab. He's still under house arrest."

"There is one more thing." Nick said. "We need to lift the no-fly order and bring Flash down here."

"The sloth?"

"He's an android, sir."

Bogo blinked twice. "There are sloth synths?"

"Not nearly as common as gazelles, but yeah, he's a synth. And he's faced these things before."

Judy looked at Nick. "How do you know?"

"When we found him drifting in space a few years ago, he had acid burns just like the one that monster left behind. It's why his motor functions are so twitchy. He's never told us about what happened, but when he finds out those things are here on Rhamnusia, he may be convinced to open up."

Through the subtle haze of brandy, Bogo thought it over. Now that he thought about it, Rainforest may be the most secure sector in the colony, second only to Fort Meadowland. "I'm up for anything at this point. You two go to the Rainforest. Get some answers. Stay there until I say otherwise. When he's planetside, I'll leave it to Wilde to get him talking." He paused. "Just do one thing for me. Get Clawhauser from medical and take him with you."


Hornbull was unlikely to be awake at this time of night, Clawhauser knocked on the door just in case. When he heard nothing, he pressed the button. The door opened with an electric hiss and he stepped inside to see the pitiful-looking rhino still in bed. Hornbull coughed heavily but didn't open his eyes.

"Mr. Hornbull?" He asked gently.

To his surprise, Hornbull opened his eyes and actually smiled when he recognized his assistant administrator. "Evening, Claw- koff huh -hauser. The colony fell apart yet?"

"Not quite." Clawhauser forced a smile of his own. Best not to tell Hornbull about the massacre at the Car Wash until after they scanned him and ruled out internal injury. Hornbull frowned slightly, not convinced by Ben's expression and gave another cough.

He'd been coughing a lot lately. The medical officers didn't believe there was anything wrong internally, but Ben had convinced them to perform a scan, just to be sure. He'd figured he'd pay Hornbull a quick visit before the nurses came to wheel him away to the X-ray room.

"The talk with Carthusia went well, I take it?"

"Not at all. He's under house arrest with a broken hand."
"You broke his hand?"

"He tried to attack the marines I took with me. They shot the gun out his hand before anyone else got hurt." Clawhauser paused.

"Who exactly is watching him. Corporate Security?"

"The Corps are watching him for now. The Company'll want to deal with him, but first I have to report what happened."

"How much longer will it take to get Colony comms working?"

"Should be sometime today."

"And Car -koff koff- thusia? What did he have to say for himself?"

"He denied killing Green."
Hornbull's scoff turned into another deep cough. "If he didn't do it, who- huh hughhh -did?"

"That's what Hopps is gonna find out." Clawhauser grew worried with Hornbull's prolonged coughing. "You breathing okay?"

Hornbull didn't answer until after his coughing fit ceased and patted his broad torso. "A little short of breath. Chest feels tight. 'least I'm not spraying blood all over the place."

He settled in the bed and closed his eyes. He was napping within seconds.

Ben gulped silently. It was those symptoms that had helped persuade the medics that a scan was needed. He prayed internally that it was something fixable, whatever it was.

He sat down beside Hornbull, opened the War of the Worlds book, and started on the next chapter. What I saw at the Destruction of Weybridge and Shepperton, it said at the beginning.

Ewerwerwetwt

The Hunter perched on a platform ninety feet up the length of the colony's main comm needle, its gaze taking in the entirety of the complex, letting its helmet do the work of scanning the area, forming a map of basic shapes that represented the structures. The helmet's vision zoomed in on certain windows, and it noted the objects within. It recognized many rooms from past hunts. Offices. Recreational rooms. Bathrooms. Bedrooms. Laboratories. Medical rooms. The Hunter spied several rooms full of medical equipment in the building connected to the Rainforest Sector. A hospital. The place where wounded animals like the rhino go. With the press of two more buttons, it checked that the device it had planted in its first target, the building it had infiltrated before breaking into the Colony itself, was still primed.

The Hunter turned off the map, made sure the explosive fixed to the needle was primed as well, and started its descent down the tower. It had one last target before it could use the detonator.


The moment Clawhauser saw the message on his pager, he excused himself from Hornbull's room, leaving the book on the bedside table, and made straight for the lounge, where a communication monitor sat next to the vending machine. They were on the second floor, so the line of angled windows gave a decent view of the evening colony skyline.

When Clawhauser entered the room, he found occupied only by the bull cussing at the vending machine.

"Huh? Navigator Cudson?"

Rafe Cudson smacked the machine and turned to Clawhauser. He looked unsteady on his feet. "Administrator."

"What're you doing here?" Clawhauser then spotted the square bandage on the bull's temple.

"Waiting for the doc to tell me whether I'm getting a scan or not."

"What happened?" Ben walked up to the monitor and pressed in the Administrator's Master Code.

"After me and the Captain heard 'bout your damn No-Fly order, we went to the bar for a drink. Then another… and another…"

He trailed off, staring blankly at the space above Clawhauser's head. The cheetah waited for him to unscramble his intoxicated brains.

"… and I think this jaguar bumped Rochewool, and there was yelling, and the tender told us to take it outside. Rochewool hung back to take a piss. Me and that punk went outside. Sucker punched me. When I came to, he was gone. Left his bottle floating in the canal."

"Is the Captain here with you?"

"Mmmmm… he's taking another piss."

Cudson went back to trying to dislodge the bag of grass chips from the vending glass.

Clawhauser shook his head with a smile. With the massive disappointment of being informed that they wouldn't be receiving their parts of leaving Rhamnusia any time soon, he couldn't blame them for drowning their sorrows.

"Well, get well soon."

Turning back to the computer, he typed in the number for the office of the Chief Comms Officer. He hissed a sharp "Yes!" when the screen blinked and displayed the image of the donkey sitting at his desk. The wide window behind him displayed the comm Needle in all its glory. At the base of the tower, a team of about three mammals were screwing a large panel back into place.

"Fan!" Clawhauser breathed.

Fan Jianyu, the mammal who had the emotional range of a salt packet, looked as blasé as he always did. Clawhauser had been wary of commenting on it to avoid being accused of stereotyping. "Assistant Administrator. The comms are working."

"Oh my gosh, finally! No offense, I mean-"

"Your gratitude is appreciated." Even Fan's accent had no flavor.

"Ok, well, thank you. Give my thanks to the guys when you can. I'll give the guards at the Car Wash a heads up to expect the repair crew to be back soon."

"We'll conduct a routine maintenance tomorrow to make sure the replacement parts are functioning properly and then- wait, didn't anyone tell you about Lionheart's Gate?"

"No, what about it?"

Both Fan's and Clawhauser's attention was diverted to the elk frantically rapping on the window. The other members of the crew were pointing up the needle and backing away from the base. The elk was saying something, but the glass was too thick to make out his words.

Fan looked sharply between him and Clawhauser. "Excuse me, I need to check on-"

Three things happened onscreen in the space of half a second. Clawhauser gasped as he heard a pop like a starter pistol being shot. The view through Fan's view suddenly turned white. The donkey threw his arms in front of his face in the split-second it took for the light to burst through the glass and consumed him. Then there was nothing but static.

Clawhauser heard an echo behind the sound, and he and Cudson spun round to the window. The ball of fire midway up the tower was already dissipating, leaving behind a cloud of smoke that looked grey against the night sky. The upper half of the needle toppled like a tree, cutting right through the cloud. It didn't even hit the roof before the next explosion occurred. They saw the fireball first, then the sound of the explosion reached their ears, travelling all the way from the other side of the colony.

Where Fort Meadowland was.

Mansa, was all Clawhauser managed to think before the third explosion destroyed part of the hydropower plant. Building by building, ZV-73 went dark. Medical was one of the last areas to go, the lights above their heads vanishing in a blink.

Clawhauser and Cudson stared at the black skyline in blank shock, not moving even when the door behind them was forced open and an irritable Rochewool strode up to them.

"Can you people keep anything up for more than a day?" He grumbled as he closed his fly.