Palgret moved by the robots that had been carrying the female to the shrieking array, noting that they had been ripped apart. They weren't humanoid, like he had expected, but rather were function over form, three front legs with two back legs, five graspers, an upraised fungal-like section with lenses on it that had stuck up from the main chassis. The main rectangular chassis was ripped in half, the legs, armatures, and receptor stalk ripped off the body. While some had clean cuts, the rest of it looked like someone had grabbed the sections, twisted them, and torn them free.

He glanced at the Terran who was swinging his arms as if to loosen up the muscles, his rifle on his back.

The human wasn't in power armor. True, the armor he was wearing had 'minor power assist' according to what he had been taught.

But the endosteel was twisted like chewy candy.

Palgret noted that the sole black mantid that had accompanied them was giving the human plenty of space.

Even with the IR lamps the passageway was dark and felt closed in to Palgret. He was tall for his species, but still only came up to chest high on the massive human, who outmassed him by a wide margin.

Again, the black mantid was slapping detectors on the wall as they moved down the passageway.

"They'll be coming up behind us with their next victim," the mantid said over a private channel. "This will give us a little warning."

--be warned unlocking human safeties-- 030 put over the command channel. --if we get trouble we have unlocked human--

"Don't worry, if it's cold outside, we'll just detonate this atomic weapon and stay warm the rest of our lives. The plan is genius," the black mantid snickered. "Hell, Captain, if you're going to take off his combat interlocks, why are we here? Can't we go hide with the others?"

--at ease that shit sergeant-- 030 said.

The black mantid just snickered over the channel.

"Will it be safe to fully arm the human?" Mu'ucru'u asked, glancing warily at the armored Terran at the front of the file.

"Of course not. He's a Terran," the black mantid said.

--we safe enemy not-- 030 said. He put up an image of a woman looking at a sword asking 'is it safe for my children to throw at each other?' and Palgret found himself snickering.

They kept moving slowly, pausing at the corners, at any open hatches, at any gaps in the ceiling. Palgret could feel the vibration in the floor. It was faint, but there. Twice 281 stopped and drilled a hole in the wall before inserting a rod affixed to a small transmitter.

Just past the halfway point the someone's luck ran out.

Two snakelike clankers dropped from a gap in the ceiling, both landing on the Terran, while two others burst from beneath the floor, the endosteel pulling back to reveal that it had been a hidden hatch. The human had grabbed one snake, twisting his hands and pulling it into two separate sections, but the two from under the floor had grabbed his legs, pulling him toward them, but not managing to budge the big armored human. Two others lunged from side passages that the hatches lowered into the floor, grabbing the human's arms.

All of them pulled in different directions and Palgret expected to see the Terran dismembered right in front of him as they all yanked with robotic strength.

Palgret was looking right at the human, and for as long as he lived he would never forget what happened.

The human gave a sudden bestial roar, bending forward slightly, pulling his arms from the clanker's grip (one of the clanker's arms tore away at the shoulder), wrapping his arms around his stomach. Black mist poured out suddenly around him and he gave a roaring cry of sheer agony. Palgret saw the armor widen, the articulated plates of the matte black armor shifting as the human's back widened to nearly twice the width. Palgret could see the massive muscle definition as the Terran's arms and legs suddenly got thicker, the shoulders grew to massive size, and the Terran increased to about triple the mass. It roared loudly, and shook its head, and Palgret had the image seared into his mind of bared meat tearing teeth with blood running down the Terran's chin, burning red eyes below a heavy bone armored brow. Spikes, bone white, pushed from beneath the armor, a red diamond appeared on the Terran's back, on his upper biceps.

The two snakes were torn apart, literally ripped into chunks, by the black mist as the Terran screamed in agony.

Arcs of purple and orange electricity snaked around the human's body, coursing into the floor, as the Terran stood up. Palgret noticed he was at least a third against as tall as he'd been.

"STA-" Lieutenant Mu'ucru'u started to yell.

The human reached out, grabbing the clanker on his right and snatching it straight into his grasp. He started ripping pieces off of the clanker with his bare hands.

"ND"

The Terran turned and smashed one of the clankers up out of the floor with the corpse of the first one even as two other snakes fell in slow motion from the ceiling onto the Terran.

"FA"

The Terran grabbed the other one, lightning fast, the first snatching grab pulling the clanker's arm off, the second one the Terran's fingers sank into the battlesteel armor of the clanker like it was wet clay, and it ripped the clanker from its spot in the hatch, holding it close like they were lovers.

The Terran bit off the Clanker's head.

ST"

The Terran lifted the body of the clanker and ripped it in half, throwing the halves to each side.

Someone got off a shot that missed everything, bouncing and howling down the hallway.

The Terran grabbed the one in the hatch on the floor, the last remaining one, pulling it up into the air and ripping limbs off, even as the snakes writhed and started breaking apart from the black mist and the lightning.

Palgret's armor recorded a sudden temperature drop even as frost covered the endosteel corridor around the Terran.

"MEN!" the Lieutenant managed to get out.

The human slowly straightened up, the matte black of the armor that looked like it had become a second skin drinking in the light.

--check check-- 030 sent.

Palgret was a little shakey when he tabbed his green tab, letting his squad leader know he was all right.

The Terran just stood there, breathing heavy.

Palgret let go of his rifle and shook his hands out, first the left, then the right. He'd been squeezing his rifle so hard his hands were aching despite his gauntlets.

"What... what happened to him?" Lieutenant Mu'ucru'u asked, his voice trembling slightly less then his mouth tendrils.

"Full combat mode, Terran Heavy Assault Infantry," the black mantid said. "He's our team heavy weapons specialist," the mantid turned away as if that explained everything. "Gotta be big to handle the big guns, man."

--cybernetic heavy assault infantry comma monster series comma man sized comma one each-- 030 sent.

Mu'ucru'u nodded, closing all six eyes and swallowing. He'd heard it a couple dozen times over the last couple of days and he'd never really thought about it.

The Terran might look normal, but he was anything but.

Palgret just tabbed up a piece of stimgum and began chewing on it. He noticed that Culvit gave the now hulking Terran a bit more lead. Palgret couldn't really blame the other trooper, just looking at him for too long made Palgret's head ache.

The passageway ended in a door that the big Terren just sunk his fingers into and ripped out of the frame, the endosteel screeching as it bent and warped like soft clay.

Beyond the door light was provided by soft red, green, and blue lights that barely illuminated around them. Bubbling tanks of fluid held parts of Maktanan and Carikan bodies, all of them the head was mostly intact, the scalp and brain peeled back to expose the brain, with barbed probes stuck deeply into the brain tissue.

Palgret noticed all the ones he could see, all thirty of them, that were facing him, had their eyes open, their mouths open as they silently screamed, opening and close their mouths as they begged inside the liquid, their faces contorted with agony.

Nanuft gave a cry of horror and lifted his rifle, cocking his under-barrel grenade launcher.

Lieutenant Mu'ucru'u smacked the Maktanan's weapon down with a single slap of his armored hand.

"No. You'll give us away," the Lanaktallan snapped.

--hold fast-- 030 transmitted. --281 recon sergeant caldo check life status sergeant purohit stand by tp repel enemy counter assaults--

"Yes, sir," the black mantid said, scurrying sideways at the equipment.

--everyone else pick exit keep watch eyes peeled fingers on triggers-- 030 said.

"Everyone take cover. Use the Terran reflex triggers, the AWM's can move faster than you can react," Lieutenant Mu'ucru'u ordered.

Pelgrat crouched down behind a solid block of endosteel that vibrated slightly and did who knows what. He checked his ammo status, ensured he had a high explosive armor defeating round loaded in his underslung grenade launcher, and took a long drink off of the fluid system. He used his eyes to carat the doorway he was guarding, activating the reflex trigger.

It would use the exoskeleton system built into his armor to move his arms to bring his weapon into play and fire it faster than his brain would even register that the clanker was there.

He took another sip of the drink.

He had to admit, the taste was growing on him.

After a few minutes the Terran prowled by, much too quiet for something of that mass. His red eyes glowed in the dark and Pelgrat would swear he saw blood running down the Terran's chin. The edges of some of the spikes had softly glowing purple nimbus that trailed away like vapor.

All in all, the effect was unsettling.

The tiny Captain riding on his shoulder had his weapon ready, looking around. Palgret had to admit the idea of a being that small being an officer in the Terran military was surprising to say the least.

Still, he wasn't going to complain.

Time dragged on till the black mantid ran up. Palgret noted again that the mantid ran really weird, his body lower to the ground than normal, maybe a handspan above the endosteel floor, his knees actually higher than his abdomen.

--report-- 030 said.

"I'd need full trauma team to save them if we pulled them. They've all suffered massive tissue lost, extreme trauma, and the clanker didn't exactly approach jamming their brains full of data rods with any thought toward surviving being decanted," the black mantid said. The helmet unfolded and it took out another cigarette. "Be better to mercy them."

--transmitting standy by-- 030 said.

281 hurried up and Palgret faintly heard the datasqueal between the two green mantids. The black mantid turned and looked at Palgret.

"You doing all right, trooper?" the black mantid asked, lighting the cigarette.

Palgret nodded slowly.

"You're doing good, just keep your head on your shoulders," the black mantid said.

The Terran prowled by, bestial looking.

"First time seeing that?" the black mantid asked.

Pelgrat nodded, chewing on the stimgum, waiting for the hair over his spine and around his neck to lay back down.

"Startling as hell when they do that," the black mantid chuckled. "They don't make them like him any more."

"Why... why not?" Pelgrat asked, having to swallow after the first word. His throat was drier than he thought.

"Mar-gite war's over," the mantid said. "Those spikes keep a Mar-gite from attaching. He's all bioware and cyberware with about 5% original. Hell, he's even got wetware brain implants."

"Why?" Pelgrat asked, suddenly interested.

"To fight," the black mantid said, as if that answered the whole thing.

Maybe it does, Palgret thought to himself.

--blow array dig in reinforcements in two zero mikes-- 030 said.

"But... but what about the people?" Jagler asked.

--pray for them they already dead-- 030 said.

"I can see her! She's still..." Culvit started to protest.

"She's dead, trooper!" Lieutenant Mu'ucru'u snapped.

"But..." Nanuft started.

"She's dead!" the LT's voice held the whip-crack of command. "Get it together."

--281 wire it up-- 030 ordered. --blow in place dig in--

Palgret agreed with the Lieutenant. He could see several of the Maktanan in the tanks, slowly writhing.

They could be saved, if a trauma unit was right there, fully equipped.

But they were inside a clanker the size of a small city. Three miles wide, a half mile thick.

And wired into a shrieking array.

They're doomed, it's just a matter of what they are doomed too, Palgret thought to himself, turning away from where he could see a male Carikan writhing in agony. Better the demo charge than this.

"Armored Matthias shield these poor souls from the torment they have endured and guard them from further suffering, Chromium Peter bless them and take them into thine arms, Enraged Phillip, grant them thy mercy," the black mantid said quietly. "In the Digital Omnimessiah's name, end of line."

The silence dragged on for long moments.

"They'll come straight at us as soon as we blow this up," Lieutenant Mu'ucru'u said.

--yes--

"Is that part of the plan?" the Lanaktallan asked. He wasn't afraid, he just wanted to know. He'd come to understand, during the training to learn to work together, that once Terran Confederate Military Forces were deployed, they were committed.

He could appreciate commitment like that.

--yes-- 030 said. --shelter under attack we blow array forces 30-62.56% break off to assault us--

"There are few of us. Do you think we can withstand them for the," the LT checked his chronometer, "ten minutes until our reinforcements arrived."

The Terran prowled by, thick arms swinging slowly, spiked knuckles glowing softly, eyes red, a growl more felt then heard trailing after it.

Captain 030 pointed at the human with one bladearm, looking at Lieutenant Mu'ucru'u.

"I see your point," the LT said.

"Red eyes at fight, enemies take fright," the black mantid said.

Palgret could tell it wasn't a joke.

The other black mantid moved up, 281 sitting on the mantid's armored abdomen.

"Charges wired, sir," was all the mantid said. "281 welded shut the doorways but that one so we'll have some warning," the mantid pointed at the one doorway that Palgret was guarding.

--get everyone into position-- 030 said. --i will blow charges--

"I can do it," Lieutenant Mu'ucru'u said.

--i lead i take responsibility for Lima Niner Eight Actual-- 030 refused.

The Lanaktallan was silent a long moment, then slowly nodded.

"All troops report green when in cover and ready," the LT said.

Palgret checked his weapon again, glanced around, then shifted his crouch slightly. He chinned the green tab.

--fire in the hole-- 030 said.

The charges went off, not with the shattering explosion that Palgret had expected, but the slow dull crump of an inversion charge on high speed, with the sucking sound as air rushed into the space.

The entire inside of the Djinn seemed to hold its breath.

"Many sources coming at high speed," the black mantid that had been setting the wall sensors said softly.

--get ready-- 030 said.

"The Terran is immune to your fire. Do not be afraid to clear enemies off of him with your weapon. Do not fear engaging an enemy with the Terran on the other side," Lieutenant Mu'ucru'u ordered.

"Big corn fed fucker could take on a main battle wagon," the black mantid said, flicking away his cigarette. He closed his helmet. "Time to let the guests know we've got plenty of party favors."

--get ready-- 030 repeated.

The sound of oncoming clankers was faint, but audible.

Palgret took a pull of his drink tube and licked his suddenly dry lips.

His tongue still felt dry.

--get ready-- 030 said.

The sound was louder.

The human moved up next to Palgret. Palgret glanced over and saw the big Terran make a fist, lightning snarling on his knuckles.

--steady men--

Red eyes, dozens of them, could be seen in the passage.

"Here they come," the talkative black mantid said.

281 lifted up his rocket launcher.

--OPEN FIRE, RED DEVILS--