It was impossible to be completely certain what the tentacles were meant for. The officers who looked it over had estimated that in all likelihood they were used for grabbing small pieces of debris for processing as part of an overall process for assembling the raw materials the larger alien vessels needed in order to build. While the shape and composition was incredibly different, there were enough similarities for them to assume they were something like the squids the 13 used for harvesting and construction purposes.

The most important thing for the sergeant however, was the grim reality that they made a startlingly effective anti-personnel weapon. With each passing moment the tentacles thrashed away at everything within range, crushing the spine of the shuttle that had brought them over instantly, sending pieces of the laser that had just bored a hole through the hole off into the void. Vasquez and his men didn't respond with panic, fear or any other normal response; they were Marines. As chaotic and random as this event was, they were ready for it.

One moment the new mechanical bodies were being crushed and broken by Massive limbs, the next they were using their new blades to jam into the craft, firing with plasma rifles if they still held them. It didn't take many injuries, including one of the mass of tendrils being flung off into space, before the craft gave an abrupt thrust; of more power they even knew these tiny craft had, fleeing off into the void after its companions.

***

The surrounding space would not prove any sort of safe haven for the craft however. As he watched veritable swarm of small craft leaving the ship, CommodorePeterson didn't even say anything; he didn't need to. They had planned for exactly this sort of scenario; and were in fact surprised it had taken this long; though of course it was possible the enemy crew simply took time to board and launch. He just nodded at his weapons officer.

"Firing, sir."

The tiny craft had managed to subdue three of the missiles; but nine of the others opened fire in a cascade of high-energy death, slamming into each tiny vessel; and in two cases, through that tiny vessel and into the larger ship.

A new, previously unknown radio signal emerged; not the distress signal. Something different.

"More targets than expected, sir. All missiles down or detonated; still eleven targets. One looks like it was damaged by the second boarding party and is weaving an interesting course."

"Two additional volleys. Ten each, but don't activate the missiles on the second; we might want to collect them. Ignore the damaged one for now; we might be able to catch it."

As the new wave of missiles emerged; the first speeding ahead rapidly, the second barely drifting along; the tiny alien craft moved to put the body of the larger vessel between themselves and the threat; making only a few random volleys of shots before taking what cover they could; without any real success.

Each of the first ten missiles detonated successfully; and all the remaining targets vanished in the same second. The final mobile, damaged unit turned and fled; off into the abyss, heading towards the distant star system which would undoubtedly take it years to reach.

***

As the door; or wall; was hacked through, the marines encountered a fairly strange obstacle; the enemy crew, previously visible through the goop they lived in, suddenly seemed to vanish from sensors. The corporal in charge called out, tagging locations with his icon. "Nets out!"

The first two fire-teams through the breach all fired, launching nets at seemingly nothing; and two of the creatures suddenly appeared on sonar once more, writhing and struggling as the gravity-emitting nets jammed them against the wall, the bulbous, almost caterpillar-like creatures squirming and struggling to move.

Suddenly the others became visible; swimming with ease through the currents, a swarm of dozens massing on the marines at the breach point; and being met with numerous tiny needles from shoulder-mounted rail weapons. Their blood was a different consistency than the surrounding blue liquid; and, surprisingly enough, the injured began to heat up dramatically; dissolving much like anything else did.

Unfortunately, however soft and caterpillar-like they might appear, the claws they more were deadly; two of the marines at the breach had arms sheared cleanly off, and a third actually had the protective seal around his core ruptured; and the key non-metallic components within his CPU started to dissolve much as the wounded enemy were.

The marines ended up backing up into the corridor, keeping the range hopen as they maintained fire... until all of the crew in the chamber but the two pinned by nets were gone. More might still be there, invisbly lurking in the depths; but the corpses of the defenders were being rapidly dissolved by the contents of their own ship.

One fire-team remained at the door with the two damaged marines; and the one who was now, at least in this body, killed. The others moved ahead; finding that while one of the two prisoners was still bound, the other had cut itself free of the net; and was gone. Probably killed during the recent encounter.

Hoping to prevent their final prisoner from performing a similar feat, three more nets were fired; thousands of tiny filaments wrapping around the creature, hopefully binding it in place.

It was only after the fighting inside was over, and the sole prisoner secured, that the second boarding party; down five of its members, crushed by the smaller alien craft; emerged into the ship's corridors.

Sergeant Vasquez studied the results; examining the alien creature up-close, its dozens of short limbs lining its bulbous body. "Good work, corporal. I'm not sure how the hell we're going to take this thing prisoner if the shit it breathes eats through our walls... but good work."

***

"Look, I've only handled the stuff once, and it killed me that time. That does not make me the expert."

Commodore Peterson smiled down at the doctor from his chair. "You built us a storage tank to put a sample in if we got one. My team is fabricating a bigger tank... for a much bigger sample. I just want you to figure out how to safely get that thing onto my ship."

Doctor Howe rubbed his forehead for a moment. He'd been bald in the last years of his life, and wasn't quite used to this new hair.. except that he didn't really have hair, did he? "Obviously the issue is tracking down any breaches, and containing them. Probably a three-tier approach. We know this stuff eats carbon and silicon like crazy. First, we need to completely coat every surface in an airlock with metal plates. Have a single camera inside with a wireless transmitter... and dust it with a bottle of sanding powder. If we get a breach, it'll be visible as it reacts to the powder... just a few grains at a time to hopefully make a slow reaction."

He brought up a diagram of one of the outer airlocks on screen. "We basically take apart a few missiles and use scrap from that broken boarding craft for the inner layer. What are we putting it in?"

"Fuel tank. Currently holding pure hydrogen; we've got a set of manuevering thrusters designed to run cold so we can make some small manuevers without giving off any energy signatures; or if the reactor is offline. We're dumping it into space right now, and once we've made sure its clean, and run it through the fabricator for some modifications, thats going to be its cell."

"Hmm. Okay, just make sure that'll fit. We use gravity plates outside the cell walls to hold it in place, cover the tank in powder, and just keep the outer airlock door on a hair trigger. No promises... but best compromise between getting the thing home and not melting the ship."

"Good. Get on it. You're in charge of retrieving the sample."

"...I'll do it, but only if you let me trade bodies with one of those marines. Those bodies are literally built for this."

***

The Tisiphone slowly moved near the damaged alien craft; scanning it with every available sensor. Observing its internal structure as best it could. Soon, they'd be heading back to base with their samples; but one last look before they finished it off couldn't hurt.

The Comms officer looked over the readings closely; . "Commodore, I'd estimate at least sixty percent of these corridors are too small for the crew member we captured to pass through. Either there's a second subspecies here, or they have some sort of drone made of the same material. Also... there's no connection between the inner walls and the chambers those type-5s were in that we can see."

Peterson looked over the slowly updating plans of the alien ship. "She's still just moving in a straight line. No more manuevering, nothing. Not moving straight away from us, just... dead. Whatever doors there are likely just sealed off... hopefully we can learn more from this thing."

He nodded at a different screen; showing the scans of a tank carefully held in place inside one of the forward airlocks; and the netted caterpillar squirming and struggling inside.

"Weps, ready the hypercannon. No sense in wasting the ammo."

"Go for activation at your command, sir."

"Blow it."

***

A vivid purple slash across space intersected with the ship; the central heart of the vessel suddenly partially entering hyperspace and attempting to accelerate far more than realspace would allow. The resulting detonation left nothing behind... but a single, solitary, wounded type 5, slowly trying to reach the next star system.

A second shot dispatched it as well; and the Tisiphone turned away; nothing there to mark its presence but chunks of debris no larger than a pebble.

***

The Alecto emerged from Hyperspace right as scheduled; and just as predicted, it carried a message from the Commodore.Seconds after she re-entered the real world, Captain Amari received a message.

"Well, Ichika, we've got a weird one for you. We need to figure out how to hold a critter that lives in that glowing blue goop so that it can't escape.. and so that we can talk to it. Those marines worked perfectly, by the way. They literally had to swim in the stuff in the boarding action, and only one of them failed from it."

"So we've got a prisoner. Do we know what it eats or drinks? How are we keeping it alive?"

Captain Smith grimaced. "I have no idea. Neither does Dr. Howe. The thing is still alive, so far, and hasn't eaten in weeks... or responded to any attempts to communicate with it through the tank... so there's at least some hope that it'll make it back here. We might be on a limited timetable to question it."

"No pressure."

A soft chuckle at that response. "No pressure at all."