“Bravo One, we have contact in the rear!” Plumes of fire sprayed outwards, lighting up the back of the squad, mixed with intermittent shots from the pair of Pulverizers accompanying Page Loraine.

“Understood, Bravo Three. Scorch and skirt, keep moving and burn anything that ain’t us!” Said Squire Rale. He turned his attention back to the front of his squad where more fighting was taking place. Warriors of the softer kind had flooded the hallways shortly after they began making their way down the hallway and they’ve been having to stagger their attacks in order to keep back the torrent of monsters at bay without burning through all their ammo. The current rotation was about to switch out so the others could reload when the horde ceased. They didn’t retreat, they just stopped coming. It almost seemed like they killed all the reinforcements, finally.

‘Like Hell,’ he thought. “Everyone, reload! Bravo Three & Four, make sure your rifles are ready to be deployed once you run out of fuel. Oh, and Page Durd? Have those explosives ready, we might need to crack open another of those heavy bugs and I’m not going to have one of mine shish-ke-babed again.” Squire Rale kept an eye and ear out for both sides of the hallway, looking to see any more bugs try to sneak up on them. Once everyone was done checking their gear, he gestured with his hand and they began to move forward again.

In the front, Page Durd alongside Pages Yester and Ronald were sweeping their lights back and forth while Yester jabbered on constantly about the architecture and design of the long hallways, thank goodness for private channels. Behind them were Pages Ulied, Creed, agent Rolo and Squire Rale himself while Loraine, Clive and Ness made up the rear guard.

Slowly, they made their way through the suddenly quiet hallway, carefully walking over the eviscerated Swarm warriors and the hundreds of burnt drones that they had first encountered. The silence was eerie, unnatural, worrying Squire Rale more than when they were under constant assault. After traveling through several intersections, agent Rolo’s head snapped to the side, his ears twitched and his forked tongue tasted the air rapidly.

“There’s gunfire nearby, this way!” With a little more urgency, agent Rolo broke from the center of their group and headed off in a different hallway. The hallway twisted and turned, lights broken from the ceiling in most places and the current norm of debris and blood marked every few feet. A few minutes later, they heard the distant echo of heavy gun fire and Squire Rale’s heart began to race.

“Bravo team, double time!” With everyone upping their pace, the squad soon came across signs of conflict. Swarm warriors and drones littered the hallway, their blue and green blood masking the red and painting the walls in macabre art. But then they started to see soldiers, the price of their deaths being the piles of Swarm corpses near their bodies. Some of their bodies were mangled, bent too far out of shape and fragments of metal bent and twisted outwards while a few had their visors busted in, shattered against the tide of beasts that hammered against them. The scene told a story through the art of violence, the sound of pained screeches close by and the staccato of gunfire said that the story wasn’t over yet.

Squire Rale hurried, almost running when he saw a tide of monsters trying to fight their way through a doorway. Pausing far enough away, he went to one knee and began opening fire. The heavy bullets shattered the smaller drones while ripping limbs off of the warriors, occasionally glancing off of their armor. Drawn to this new threat, the Swarm switched targets and began charging towards him instead. But he wasn’t alone, his fellow soldiers planted themselves next to him and lined up at his back before firing with him. Together, they unleashed a wall of lead and fire, mincing the creatures before they could get close enough to spit on. They reloaded their weapons when the magazines went dry, waiting for the smoke to clear from the gunfire and the burning bodies.

When the smoke dissipated, nothing alive was left in the hallway but the angry soldiers of Bravo squad. Slowly, Squire Rale rose from his kneeling position, switching his visor through a spectrum of visual tools to see if they were truly dead and not playing possum. Once he was satisfied, he stepped forward, his squad following in his step. They stomped over the mangled forms of the creatures on their way towards the doorway, large bullet holes punched through the metal walls. He prayed that the person who made those holes were still alive. He made it all the way to the door before stopping, placing himself against the entrance as he turned on his speakers.

“This is Squire Rale of Bravo team, hold fire. I repeat, hold your fire!” He waited a few seconds before he pivoted through the threshold, taking in the carnage. Bodies lay scattered everywhere, bugs and humans alike. The floor was covered in a thick layer of corpses and the bodily fluids serving as the glue. Soldiers were cut in half, their red life blood in stark contrast with the more copious amounts of ichor. Along the back of the room, a soldier sat against the wall, smoke curling out of the barrel of their gun. A bladed arm of a defeated bug was shoved deep beside the head of the soldier, keeping them pinned to the ground. Their armor was scratched and scraped all over, leaving pale lines against the black metal. When Squire Rale got closer, he saw the remaining members of the soldiers team eviscerated in a semi-circle in front of them.

Carefully, Squire Rale stepped over their bodies, grimacing as his feet seeped in their blood. He crouched down and slowly reached for the soldier's gun, still aiming upwards towards the doorway.

“Calm, soldier. I need you to lower your weapon, my men are out in the hallway and I’d appreciate it if they don’t get killed by friendly fire. As long as we’re here, nothing’s getting in, so relax. What’s your name?” There was some resistance, but the soldier’s shoulders seemed to sag slightly, though hard to tell while in an Excalibur suit, but he allowed the Squire to lower their weapon. They began to nod slowly, as if just hearing the Squire’s soothing words.

“My name… they call me… called me Page Borenth. I’m uh, what’s left of Echo team. I guess. They’re all dead, aren’t they?” He said quietly. Squire Rale counted the bodies and none of them were in a healthy state. Closing his eyes, he prayed silently before answering the Page.

“Well these bugs saved the best for last, but we stopped them in time. Your team is dead, fallen heroes who won’t be forgotten. But only if you can make it back to base alive, otherwise they’ll just be a blank name on the obituary. You’re gonna see this through and make sure their names are remembered, right soldier?” Most people wouldn’t feel too comfortable being smacked in the face with the death of their friends and makeshift families, but a soldier who can’t fight is as useless as the corpses cooling on the floor and Squire Rale needed soldiers.

For a moment, the Squire feared he’d gone too far, but the Page examined the room slowly before scooting out from underneath the dead bug, it’s mandibles and fangs drooping in death. Silently, the Page stumbled past Squire Rale and reached down to one of his fallen comrades, taking something from them. When the Squire stood and walked over, Page Borenth was looting ammo from the body.

Looking up, Page Borenth said, “The dead don’t need bullets. You and yours are more than welcome to take what you need, my team would’ve wanted to be helpful, even in death.” Grimly, Squire Rale gestured and the others walked inside, gagging inside their suits at all the death. But they would soon be low on ammo and lord knew how many more of these things they had to kill before getting to the Queen. When all was said and done, the group repositioned out in the hallway with the injured and the new Echo member in the center. Or at least, Squire Rale tried to place him there.

“I appreciate the concern, Squire Rale. But with all due respect, I’d like to be in the front.” Page Borenth said.

“If you think you can handle it, but if you start looking unhinged I’ll drag your ass back in the middle and make you carry Page Ulied on your back.”

“Understood, Squire Rale. I’ll carry my fair share of the burden, don’t you worry.” Snapping a fresh magazine in his scratched rifle, Page Borenth walked towards the front to stand side by side with Pages Yester, Durd and Ronald. Agent Rolo turned to Squire Rale slightly and nodded, before pointing down the direction they needed to head.

“There isn’t much further to go Squire Rale, the scent dried up long ago but I can sense signals being transmitted not too far ahead of here. A few more turns and we’ll be face to face behind the mind of this hive,” agent Rolo said.

“So, we kill her and we beat the Swarm?” Squire Rale asked, uncertain. He found it hard to believe that the creatures would just drop dead.

“No, this is only a small splinter faction of any Swarm we have knowledge on. Their empires span a significant portion of the galaxy as far as our scouting records go, but them being here is unusual. An anomaly, if you will. But the queen holds value, in several ways. This mission is beyond significant, but you already knew that.”

Keeping his thoughts to himself, Squire Rale directed the soldiers according to agent Rolo’s gestures until they entered what would be the last chamber before the final confrontation. At the agent’s indication, they stopped to take a short rest before being thrown into the unknown. Squire Rale took the opportunity to check in with Alpha team since the last order they were given was to retreat.

“Alpha one, this is Bravo one, we are still on board. What’s the status on the other squads?” A few seconds passed by before someone responded.

“Squire Rale, I gave all the teams an order, please tell me you’re making your exodus.”

“I’m afraid not sir, we have orders for a smash and grab, no wiggle room. How’s your team holding up?”

“I should be asking you that, Jesus Christ everything went to shit quick. You were the first team to run into them, I’m surprised you’re still alive. Most of my team is a little beat up but we’re fine. Can’t say the same about India and Golf though, something big and bullet proof came and tore them apart. We had everyone freeze it’s feet to the floor and put some lead in the cracks of it’s armor, but too many died. Charlie's squad is silent. We haven’t heard anything back from Echo squad either so I figured that section of the ship is a hot-zone. Hotel and Juliet made it out without any signs of contact, but Delta and Foxtrot are waiting by their vessels. The bastards are trying to bring some of the infrastructure with them, the fucking pirates.” Squire Rale couldn’t help but laugh at that. There’s always that one team who were eager to try and strip a ship down for parts.

“Well, we got one survivor of Echo squad with us,” Squire Rale confessed.

“Shit, I figured they were gone but I’m glad at least someone made it. How’re they doin?”

“Honestly? I think the kid’s gonna fucked up for life because of it, but Echo squad died hard and he’s joining us on the assault. When we get back, I’ll make sure that he gets taken care of.”

“An optimist, are ya? Well I’ll have the whole squad pray for you and yours.”

“When things go to hell, how can’t you be an optimist? Otherwise, we’ll all die horribly. Thank you Alpha one, we’ll report again once we get back to the Infiltrator.” Focusing back around him, Squire Rale saw that everyone had rested enough.

Turning his speakers on, he said, “As my ancestors once said, hell hath no fury like some pissed off soldiers. Let’s show ‘em hell Bravo Squad.” They didn’t cheer, there was no need. They weren’t prone to being noisy, except for maybe Yester when she drank too much, but they all stood up and got into position with a snap, waiting for his orders to march them into hell. He couldn’t ask for a better group of people to die beside with. Shaking his head to rid himself of dark thoughts, he checked his magazine and loaded a fresh one, saving the partially used magazine for later.

For now, they had a queen to kill.

***

Defeated. Her Blooded, tempered warriors who had ascended beyond the fragile shells of their former selves, had torn through the metal shell of this hive and killed everyone in it to the last. Back then, she could not fathom a single one falling, but now? Dead. All but the few that remained to protect her inner sanctum were killed. Surely, they had killed their fair share of the invaders, but were drowned under the waves of their piercing metal. So many of her spawn had died, sacrificed to eliminate this new threat and still they lived. She didn’t know how many more of the invaders there were crawling around her new home, but it didn’t matter. If she couldn’t be rid of these few, then who cared how many there were? Maybe if she sent all her Blooded at once, but then she’d be deprived of her defences until her Guardian awakens.

She stared at it’s smooth, black face, devoid of features but for it’s large mouth. The black carapace is a staple of the Hai’Tix Swarm, effective against sharp weapons and resistant to sudden temperature changes. It was the same dense material present around her Blooded and only trace amounts in her warriors and drones. She knew the protection was effective against the invader’s weapons, but still feared it would not withstand their onslaught. She turned towards one of the gestating pods in the back of the room, keeping her cords connected to the Guardian to fuel its final adjustments. Once she reached the pod in the back of the room, she leaned over and grabbed an egg from the incubator, hesitating as she made the minute adjustment to its genetic code so that it would grow as she desired. It wasn’t the act of changing its nature that made her pause, that’s how the Swarms grew to be.

With a few adjustments, she could make a bomb. A bomb that would hopefully take her and everyone else in the ship with her once it grew to maturity. To even consider the thought confirmed that she had run out of time. With any luck, she could abort the egg before it could finish and all would be well. But if not?

With a satisfying plop, the egg sank to the bottom of the gestating pod, growing as it took in the nurturing liquid. As she turned away from the pod, a foreign signal stopped her in her tracks. As a queen, she had intimate knowledge of where her spawn was at all times. A massive culling towards one section of the hive took place over the course of a half-cycle, leaving her mind blank of what’s approaching. Even the spawn that attacked another group of invaders were stopped completely and she dared not send more less they died just as quickly. Covering the surface area in it’s entirety, the strongest of her remaining warriors clung to the walls and ceiling of the chamber, ready to pounce at a moment’s notice to protect their queen.

But Queen To’Hens of the Hai’Tix wasn’t paying attention to them, her focus on something else entirely. In the void of her mental map, a signal responded but unlike any she was familiar with. When she reached out towards it to demand more information, a mental shock ran rampant through the link, stunning her. But she was a Queen and she was used to these tactics from rival queens, not… whatever it was that called out to her in the first place. It only took a few moments to regain her stability and start weaving the link to her advantage, but it was long enough to distract her from several large metal orbs that rolled into the room. The warriors and the Blooded, unsure what they were, waited for their queen to give them instructions, but the orbs broke apart and spread throughout the room like a black fog.

Once more, the Hai’Tix experienced the first gift of man and were bathed in angry fire. They didn’t crawl into the carapace of every warrior in the room, but deep enough to cause catastrophic damage when detonated. Stunned from her mental assault, Queen To’Hens was tossed back from the shockwave and watched as fire tore apart her spawn. From the black maw of the farthest tunnel into the chamber room, a violet light appeared. They had little time to investigate the light as orange light consumed it and a figure came flying out of the hallway. It was armored similar to the Hai’Tix, but more slim and fragile. Queen To’Hens was immediately relieved, fearing nothing from the inferior specimen.

That was until it flew by one of her Blooded and severed it in half with one swing of it’s weapon, flaring violet light as it cut through one of her few remaining members of her bulwark. As the severed halves of her Blooded fell to the ground, the remaining few tightened up around Queen To’Hens. One her Blooded reached forward with it’s venomous stinger in an attempt to weaken the deceptively dangerous opponent, but was easily sidestepped and a flick of the wrist cut deeply in the tough chitten of it’s tail. Pulling back, it spun on all four clawed hands and spun, whipping it’s tail horizontally to crush the interloper. Simultaneously, the other two Blooded armed with spike-spitters took aim and prepared to fire where they thought it would be next. As they waited for the moment it would either take the hit from their brother or dodge into their planned spots, a rapid series of flashing lights accompanied by loud bangs erupted from the direction which the interloper appeared from.

Spread out in a wide arc, the dark figures that had laid waste to so many of her spawn were firing their deadly weapons against the thick plating of her Blooded, sparks spraying everywhere with every shot that failed to penetrate. But blood was shed in the torrent of gunfire, evidence of the mortality of her Blooded. Enraged, they switched targets and turned away from the interloper, firing at the invaders. The melee between the interloper and the injured Blooded went without interference in the mayhem of the chamber. Unaided, the Blooded stood no chance as the interloper shoved it’s weapon through it’s abdomen after only a few exchanges, stealing it’s life force with each pulse of the violet light. It’s blood rapidly decayed in its veins, but still it tried and pushed beyond limitations in order to take the interloper with it, raising one of it’s clawed hands to steal agent Rolo’s life before it died. With a twist of his sword, it’s body went limp and he yanked it out, a thin line of viscera spraying out.

Taking a quick glance, agent Rolo saw the two Blooded were engaging in a losing fight against the better armed Bravo squad, who knew what to look out for this time and aimed for the small gaps in their thick armor. Of course, some of them were pinned against the walls, the large spikes running straight through their Excalibur armor. Seeing that it would only be a matter of time before Bravo would emerge victorious, agent Rolo turned his gaze towards the rapidly retreating form of the queen. She was large, taller than any of the Swarm they’d fought so far, but slow with the amount of mass she carried. She had two sets of arms, one set much larger than the other which he assumed was used for more careful manipulations. He strode forward with wicked intent as she scurried away, eager to get his hands on the prize his people sought so desperately.

He never saw the swinging fist coming from his left side, sending him flying against the wall. Yelling, agent Rolo tried to right himself but the floor beneath him was swaying rapidly and he felt a debilitating pain in his side. Stunned, he couldn’t see but heard the heavy footfall of what had just kicked his ass and quickly rolled to the side just in time. A crash of metal came from where he was just a half second ago, louder than the pain screaming from his side. He limped onto his feet and coughed blood as he tried to gain some distance and recover. The faceless monster turned towards agent Rolo, snarling with enough power to shake his bones from just the strength of it’s vocal cords. It coiled it’s hind legs, claws digging into the metal for traction as it prepared to pounce at him. Afraid, agent Rolo searched for his sword and saw it next to the monster, too far out of reach.

Cursing softly, he prayed for his fractured bones as the next set of movements would likely worsen their condition. He tensed the muscles in his back, preparing the chemicals to burst in a brief explosion to give him a familiar edge. Despite the circumstances, he was grinning madly. It was for situations like these his brothers were made, forged to fight and to adapt. In these situations, where life was just a balance on the knife’s edge, time did not slow. People who claim so were just woefully unequipped to handle the speed at which things occured, their brains too slow to respond at the instant reaction needed to come out on top. Everyone else was just lucky to live and tell. Agent Rolo was not those people, his kind were a different breed, engineered.

When the creature finally decided to leap towards agent Rolo with claws outstretched and mouth gaping wide, he released the fluids and felt the flaps of skin on his back lift and vent the reaction outwards, much like jet engines from ages back. Along with his running start, he sprinted directly towards it in what would appear to be a suicidal charge from another’s perspective. But with his momentum, he leaned back, losing traction on the bloody floor as he slid underneath the monster’s chitten by mere inches. Slamming into his back, the reaction ceased and scraped his contracted wings against the rough surface, but he was able to roll to the side and grab the hilt of his sword. Held one handed, he panted as the pain in his ribs began to escalate. Focused on the blurry image of the monster, he wished the chamber was wide enough to accommodate his wings, but moved beyond that thought process. Adrenaline flowing heavily in his veins now, Agent Rolo’s vision cleared up in time to see the monster lunging at him once more. In the brief window he had, aided by his improved body and the attention focusing drugs, Agent Rolo snapped his arm up as he stepped to the side. Blood trailed in a smooth arc as his enhanced blade cut through the thick flesh of it’s left arm, leaving it dangling and useless. Blood flowed heavily from the wound but ceased soon after, as if someone was watching the events unfold and had their hand on the valve, turning it off as quickly as they could.

Pulsating green light flashed across the room from the back, where the queen’s retreating form was last seen, but the Agent’s gaze never strayed from the monster. It stood tall on it’s back legs, looking at it’s limp arm with that horribly smooth, blank face. Growling, it lunged forward, ripping off the appendage and tossing it to the side. Dark red blood splattered across it’s smooth face as it threw it’s useless arm away. Snarling, it made its way towards agent Rolo with more caution who was silently praying for thanks as he tried to recover from the painful movement. Every action was threatening to crack his ribs further and he feared that if the fight continued that one of his internal organs would get punctured. As the beast slowly approached, it’s muscles rippled and leapt towards agent Rolo.

But this time, he wasn’t off guard or barely able to see. With a force of will, he uncompressed his wings from his back, grimacing at the damage done to the outer bones. The membrane still clung to the appendages as he forced them down on the beast's remaining arm and back, pinning it to the ground. Roaring, it threatened to rip the wings from their sockets, but he pulled with the tips and the heavy creature slid across the floor with the help of its own blood. Once within arms reach, agent Rolo decapitated it in one smooth cut before relieving it of its other arm. Not wholly satisfied, he pierced it’s body rapidly in the chest, shoulders and stomach until it resembled nothing but a pile of blood and meat.

Agent Rolo walked away from his fresh kill, blood dripping down his chin and staring ahead with wild eyes at the defeated queen.

“Nowhere left to run! Can’t hide from me, you bitch,” he snarled. A warrior caste charged towards agent Rolo before kindly falling to the ground in two halves. The green light he saw earlier was growing brighter now from somewhere in the back, but he continued to ignore it along with a slew of organic structures made of a fleshy material. They would bring whatever they could with them, grabbing a sample or two at the least. No, his focus was on the large Swarmling in front of him, the prize hidden beneath layers of carapace, flesh and bodily fluids.

And he would have his prize.

***

Man versus nature played out in a scene of cosmic horror as monsters thought only existed in movies were crawling towards the remains of Bravo team and the last survivor of Echo in a literal wave of movement. An angry Lorain stood defiantly to the left of the tunnel mouth, pouring flames onto anything that approached her and Durd was posted symmetrically, but no one would mistake his wild screaming as anything other than vocalized fear. The rest of the soldiers were aiming for the closest Swarm bugs while trying to eliminate the queen’s two remaining Blooded before they tore them up any further. They made an effort not to look at Pages Ronald and Clive, who’s lifeless bodies were pinned to the wall via large spears fired from the Blooded.

They were running out of ammunition too quickly at this rate, the Swarm still coming at them as the bodies began to pile up, at least tall enough to affect the aim of the Blooded. Growling, they waited as the fodder rushed forward until they covered every bit of surface area. The fighting had continued like this for what could have been a minute or two before the Blooded thought to turn and finish off the Hunter. As they scanned for the dangerous foe, they found the Guardian dead sliced to ribbons, jaw slack and cut in twain. Following the trail of blood, they saw the foe walking towards their queen, backed into a corner. He was still some distance away but they knew how quickly he could dash and anxiously took aim.

Designed to protect their queen and to eliminate threats to the hive, their biological reaction to seeing their queen threatened like so had taken over their instincts, blurring out the world around them except for the immediate danger. But if they were listening, they’d have heard the crash of metal on carapace as one of the invaders bulldozed their way through the bodies of the Swarm and stopped after breaching the barrier. He tossed a heavy sack and dived back through the rapidly closing opening, turning back around as the sack hit the ground between the Blooded.

“Now!” Squire Rale yelled. The horrible bug-like faces of screaming, murderous creatures tried to charge through the gap, blocking their view of the events beyond their small conflict. But that turned out to be in their favor as a bright light flashed through the room, followed by a thunderous roar that smashed upon the G.U.N. soldiers. The Swarm was either crushed from the force of the explosion, consumed by raging flames or torn apart by shrapnel.

All except for the Blooded. They stood tall, burnt and broken but defiant still. One of the Blooded had their firing arm hanging limply, bent at the wrong angle and scorched. The other was better off, but not by much, it’s face shredded by the shrapnel. It looked towards the soldiers with ugly hatred, wild violence just moments from lashing out. Within seconds, they began charging towards Bravo team, howling something fierce as they held their claws out.

“Aim for the heads!” Squire Rale yelled. Loraine and Durd remained where they were, keeping the smaller warrior and drone castes from surrounding them on the flanks. The remaining soldiers of Bravo team and the lone survivor of Echo turned their weapons to the battered Swarm elites and fired. A surge of gunfire was unleashed from their barrels, from the continuous firing of shell after shell to the heavy cadence of the armor piercing Brutalizers. Many of the rounds bounced off of their heavy shells, but more gaps were torn open from the explosion, leaving them more vulnerable. By the time they made it toward the speartip of their formation, the Blooded fell at the feet of Squire Rale, their skulls mashed to a bloody pulp and the sides of their chests gaping holes.

Panting, Squire Rale was so focused on the dead Swarm in front of him that he didn’t realize the constant clicking in the background was from his empty weapon. Quickly, he switched out the magazines and snapped back into his role.

“Bravo two through four, stay here and guard the exit. The rest of you are on me, we’re reinforcing agent Rolo.” With their vision impaired by the smog in the room, courtesy of the still burning bugs, Squire Rale was unsure of the agent’s fate. The five of them made quick ground as their adrenaline began to pump again as they anticipated more contact with the hostile aliens. When they made it clear through the smoke, agent Rolo was on his target, his sword shoved through her chest and withering the flesh around the stab wound rapidly. His hand was pressed against the thrashing queen, her limbs severed on the ground. Squire Rale stopped and gestured for the others to as well. Something was wrong, a bright green light was pulsating, at frantic speeds, drawing Squire Rale’s attention and sending his internal danger meter soaring through the roof.

His eyes widened as he took in the large, fat grub-like alien, it’s skin translucent as it’s insides flashed an intense green light. He stared at the monster, hesitating what to do when the light vanished. Blinking, he was about to order his soldiers forward when the light flashed once more in a brilliant flare. But the light was accompanied by the Swarm’s own version of explosives, sending the five soldiers backwards. Squire Rale felt as if someone had reached through his Excalibur suit and tore through his guts as he hit the ground hard, rolling with the momentum. Soon, he stopped near the hallway entrance and tried to blink the stars out of his vision.

What was once a metal room with an unfamiliar design had turned into a gaping hole into the void of space. Debris and dead Swarmlings were flung out into space, drifting and rotating in the vacuum. Anything unbolted was loose in the area near them, but the soldiers hadn’t budged despite the strong pull and rapid depressurization. Their suits were designed with the inevitable in mind and the current situation was not an unusual one. But it was the act of self destruction that had Squire Rale remain on the ground, afraid to investigate further in the room. The back of the room was destroyed, the flesh like structures ripped asunder and their fluids floating outwards through the gap out to space. Struggling to stand, he searched for agent Rolo and the queen he was engaged with but found neither of them.

“Hunker down everyone, I’m going to search for agent Rolo’s remains.” Because he had to be dead. Without a suit there was no protection from the harsh temperatures of space, no air and nothing to resist the pressure.

As the rest of Bravo team checked their ammo and spoke to the incredulity of the events that occured in the past few hours. Squire Rale took a few heavy steps away from the rest of them and placed his weapon on the back of his suit where it mag-locked into place. He leapt and floated his way through the hole in the ship's hull, using his Excalibur’s innate propulsion system. Unlike the older versions, his came with an AI handled system similar to the Page set, except with faster reaction times, drug enhancers and a few other implementations.

Once beyond the ship and in the wider void, Rale stopped and slowly scanned the area closest to the ship. Out in the vast Black, light worked much differently. There were no comforting cones of muffled light, no bright ambience. Only things that caught the light revealed its presence. Even the outside of the ship was dark and revealed little, hiding what secrets it had from curious passersby. The debris glittered as Squire Rale scanned outside the ship’s wound, searching for any signs of the agent or the queen he was hunting.

Eventually, his search produced a bulging mass of flesh, covered in dark veins and pulsating a small violet light. Squire Rale approached cautiously, wary of the size of it. Few things could survive contact with space but those that could were killed from a distance and best stayed away from, just in case. He slowly floated around the structure, disturbed by the pulses as the flesh contracted each time, as if beating like some fallen god’s heart until he came across the bottom of it. Slowly floating around, the bottom of the flesh reached the side as a small white strip of smooth bone was connected to by the flesh and was the source of those many veins.

“Bravo team, I believe I’ve found agent Rolo, he might still be alive. My beacon is active, hurry to the infiltrator and begin extraction, leave the defensive hardware for now. Just get to Page Altimer and head this way ASAP, who knows how long he might have.” Through the comms, Squire Rale could hear the commanding voice of Page Ulied pushing the soldiers to quit their resting even while she was injured herself. Squire Rale already had the tags for Ronald and Clive, their suits set to explode in the hour. It was the least he could do, but they still deserved more. He stared at the pulsing mass, with angry eyes as it quivered with the flicker of the light.

He hoped whatever was happening inside was worth the death of good Pages.