Nera could see torn mandibles littered throughout the corridor, pale and broken like teeth.

  Nothing stirred. Only the squelch of everyone’s boots on flesh.

  Rifles swept every corner.

  The stench of decay overpowered helmet filters.

  Her eyes tracked Karauro as he took point.

  He glanced back and shrugged. “This doesn’t appear to be my beastly work.”

  “Smartass. Do you sense anything?” she asked, amused, rolling her eyes.

  “No. Tenant’s throwing a fit.”

  Noose bumped her shoulder into his, not gentle, not cruel.

  “Keep going, monster boy.” Onyx soldiers trailed behind, boots careful on the living floor.

  ---

  A green glow pulsed through vine-like veins, lighting a massive atrium.

  Two grey Berserkers crouched in the flashlight beams, green ichor pulsing beneath their skin as they fed on a Queen Swarmer.

  A larger figure lingered by a central pillar, motionless.

  It growled.

  Bug-like mandibles crushed a glowing core like candy glass.

  Karauro’s halo eyes locked on it, orange simmering.

  “A Queen Berserker,” Noose whispered over comms.

  The Queen’s head snapped toward them.

  One thick finger pointed straight at Karauro.

  He scoffed. “Why am I popular with ugly looking things?”

  A low grumble vibrated through the floor.

  The two grey guards charged.

  “Legs!” Noose shouted.

  Bullets shredded their shins.

  Both hit the ground roaring.

  Then one guard twisted and turned on the other.

  Huge hands clawed into ribs, dug deep, and tore out a throbbing core.

  It gulped it down.

  The guard’s flesh tightened. Carapace crawled over the wounds like it was thinking.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Nera swooped in, blade flashing.

  The Cannibal Guard grinned.

  It swung a huge fist at her.

  She dodged.

  A sharp bone blade snapped out from its knuckle.

  “What the,” Nera murmured.

  Karauro’s wires snapped out and yanked her back a heartbeat before the bone blade cut through the air.

  “They evolve too fast,” Karauro grunted, hands braced on her shoulders.

  “Yeah. Thanks for the save,” Nera spat, eyes never leaving it.

  “Aim for the Queen before she cocoons!” Noose barked.

  Across the atrium, dark flesh erupted around the Queen.

  It hardened into a bulletproof veil.

  Onyx soldiers boxed the Cannibal Guard in while Fey sighted the cocoon.

  A charge round latched to the veil.

  Silence.

  A dud.

  “Damn it, I’ll have to—” Fey started.

  The Cannibal Guard charged her, fist crashing down.

  Nera’s red-hot blade intercepted.

  Steel hissed.

  “Rejected,” she said, and the monster’s fist fell away in pieces.

  “Detonate that charge!” Noose snapped.

  Nera tossed her sidearm to Karauro.

  He caught it with his kinetic glove, but his left arm hung useless.

  “Can you manage?” Nera yelled.

  “Not like I have many choices!”

  Karauro clamped his teeth onto the slide and jerked his head back.

  The round snapped into the chamber.

  He aimed one-handed.

  -Clank-

  The bullet struck the dud charge.

  The explosion jolted Karauro backward.

  The cocoon cracked.

  The Cannibal Guard stopped fighting.

  It scrambled to the fractured shell and dropped to its knees, trembling like a dog that found religion.

  Karauro watched from a few meters away, breath ragged.

  Two vivid red hands pushed from inside the cocoon.

  They forced the shell open.

  The Queen Berserker stepped out, wet and pulsing red, green veins crawling under her skin.

  Her bulging eyes locked on the kneeling Cannibal Guard.

  The guard spread its arms, offering itself.

  The Queen plunged her hands into its chest.

  She ripped it in half and claimed its core like a prize.

  Karauro groaned and reset his dislocated shoulder with a brutal shove.

  “Damn it.”

  “Ciro, get out of there!” Noose yelled.

  “On it!”

  He pushed off the ground and sprinted.

  “Fey, another round! Nera, get him out!”

  Karauro was inches from safety when the Queen charged, swinging both fists.

  He ducked behind flesh pillars as meat splattered from the impacts.

  Then she caught him in a bear hug.

  Her face split open.

  Jagged teeth inched toward his face.

  A new charge round slammed into her shoulder.

  Karauro engaged his gauntlet blades and drove them through her biceps.

  The Queen snarled and released him.

  The charge detonated, tearing chunks off her side.

  Karauro coughed, choking on the hot rot in the air.

  Through the smoke, a giant hand caught his leg and flung him into a far wall.

  “Karauro!”

  Nera’s boot thrusters kicked. She shot a wire and yanked his body toward her.

  His head sagged onto her shoulder.

  “I’ll lend you mine… next time,” he murmured, and his eyes shut.

  ---

  The Queen roared, half her face charred, and surged again.

  Noose slid across the slick floor, firing alongside Onyx soldiers.

  “Shit,” Nera cursed. “He’s out—”

  Karauro’s halo eyes snapped open, glowing orange-red.

  Then they shifted.

  Stingers speared soldiers, pinning bodies in place.

  Black tendrils retracted toward Karauro’s spine.

  He moved.

  Fast.

  Karauro dashed in and struck the Queen’s fist.

  Nexon gauntlets fractured from the blow.

  Spore fog haloed around them.

  Noose caught a glimpse of Karauro’s grin.

  His armor shattered. Tendrils wrapped his arm.

  The skull mask cracked, revealing part of his human jaw beneath.

  “Focus on the Queen,” Noose ordered.

  “Make sure you avoid hitting me,” Karauro warned, voice gravelly.

  Nera rushed forward, arm-blade glowing.

  Karauro smashed tendrils into stingers aimed at her.

  “How nice of you, mutt,” Nera said, then snapped back to the Queen.

  Karauro yanked Nera forward with a tendril and launched her in.

  Carapace split.

  The Queen staggered.

  “You’re up, handler,” Karauro called.

  Noose sprinted in. They locked arms, and he whipped her over the Queen’s head.

  Halo wires deployed from Noose’s back and bit into the Queen’s throat upon landing.

  -THUD-

  The Queen’s head slammed concrete.

  Nera’s blade punched into the chest, tearing tough skin apart.

  “Do it!” Nera yelled.

  Karauro latched the fleshy ceiling with tendrils, kicked off, and dove into the wound.

  Crimson ichor sizzled.

  Green ooze erupted.

  The Queen tried to raise her colossal arms.

  Nera sliced them clean off.

  Severed hands thudded to the floor.

  Stingers lashed out.

  Karauro’s tendril speared her chest, cracking bone, while another hooked the core.

  Wet snaps.

  He extracted it.

  The Queen fell still.

  Noose retracted her Halo wires from the corpse.

  Then she turned.

  Karauro was already drawing the core toward his mouth.

  “I’m sorry, Ciro,” she murmured lowly. “Not this time.”

  “Ruined Jackals, hold him down!” she commanded.

  Halo wires ringed him.

  A drone anchored into the ground.

  The core dropped from his restrained tendril.

  Karauro growled, one halo eye twitching, flickering orange.

  His claws dug into the Queen’s corpse.

  Nera seized the core and launched away.

  Noose watched Karauro fight the hunger.

  Her fingers hit the bracelet.

  Dampeners initiated.

  Four needles punched from the collar and sank into Karauro’s neck.

  Liquid flooded.

  Tendrils withdrew into his cracked suit.

  The skull mask disintegrated into ash.

  Karauro’s halo eyes flickered at Noose.

  Then dimmed.

  Green Berserker ooze smeared his cheek.

  His eyes closed.

  Noose’s jaw clenched.

  Don’t hate me for this, she thought.

  She motioned for Onyx soldiers to lift Karauro’s unconscious body.

  Then she sealed the core in a container.