Taki fumed in angry silence. That asshole just killed a student.

He tightened his grip on his maces and rose from the chair, determined to avenge his classmate.

Don't. He is not your enemy. Yet.

The fuck? He hadn't heard the voice in at least a day. Natsuki seemed to have stopped mid-step as well, her hand already on the hilt of her katana. They shared a meaningful glance.

Good. You will have a chance for revenge. It is not the right time.

If anyone else besides the two of them heard the voice, it wasn't clear. Daisuke's face was a mask of impotent fury, but he too didn't move. Sakura was crying quietly while Benzo patted her, clearly unsure what else to do. A pair of teachers silently dragged the body away.

Later that day, with no pomp or circumstance, deployment began.

The students were loaded into buses and driven to the crater. The ride itself was not very long, but seeing even more of the destruction that had been visited upon their town made the students even more angry and their experience that much more surreal. The impact had flattened an entire square block, the damage to the town worsening the closer the bus got to the epicenter. Shattered buildings, the burning wreckage of cars, bodies that had yet to be cleared. It was hard to tell if the blast had done this or the creatures.

The crimson "collar" around the crater stood high and jagged all around it - at least five stories tall at the peaks and made of some strange crystalline substance. Taki wondered how they would actually access the crater until the bus rumbled to a stop. Waiting before them was a doorway that had clearly been cut by the engineers who were now busy assembling additional structures that would serve as sturdier alternatives to the tents that had been erected by the entrance.

"C-team," a different military official, one who was not wearing shades, called out. "You're first in." Taki felt his stomach flutter. That was it? No briefing, no intel? Just "you're first in?"

Can you at least give us some information about what we're heading into?" Sakura, whose eyes were still a bit red, implored. Her tone was flattened, not the usual cheery singsong that Taki was used to.

"You'll find everything you need here." The man tapped his forearm, implicitly where his level (if indeed he had one) would be.

"Cryptic answers. Great! Thanks a LOT," Benzo sneered.

C-Team passed through the "collar" and stepped onto a grated surface suspended above the gaping chasm. A simple pulley elevator had been hastily assembled and put in place. It looked about as rickety as the tents outside.

"Are we sure this thing is going to hold us?" Taki tested his weight on the grating, nervously considering the edge of the lift.

"It'd better. I'm afraid of heights and the dark. I'm not going out like that," Benzo replied. As if on cue, the red light above them buzzed and the lift roared to life, beginning its shaky descent into the depths.

"I don't like the idea of fighting these things just because that asshole asked us to," Natsuki had been silent for the better part of an hour.

Sakura nodded. "I don't either, but if we can take them out at the source, then we'll completely eliminate the threat to the town. Right?"

Taki wasn't so sure. There were clearly more of these craters, these crash sites around the world. It seemed likely then that if someone somewhere failed, the monsters would keep coming. They knew virtually nothing about these things and it was clear at this point that the government didn't either; that or they weren't sharing.

Take heart. We will guide you. We will help you become stronger.

The voice again. It was unsettling and comforting at the same time. He felt his resolve steeled, despite the doubts that still ran through his mind.

"So here's what I propose," Natsuki said, "We'll do what we have to do to get this done. But after this mission, we all agree that C-Team is finished running errands for that murderer. Agreed?" The rest of the group nodded decidedly.

"Great. Let's wreck some aliens and get the hell out of here."

Just then the elevator creaked to a stop, jarring all of them. The entire journey couldn't have taken more than a few minutes. The rusted doors screeched open upon what looked like a cavern. A hastily planted sign indicated that this was "Shaft 1."

"As in, there are more than one?" Natsuki rolled her eyes.

"They must be deploying different teams to different shafts."

"That or we're first in and they're just going to send waves of us until we clear it out."

Taki had to admit that the more he was seeing of the way the military was handling things, the more he believed the second option.

Sakura popped a light-stick. "So we can see where we're going," she said without a trace of irony. Another light shone to her left, illuminating her face in a violet glow.

"Well, this is new," Natsuki marveled. She held up her tattooed arm, the 1 just barely visible. From her sleeve emanated a glowing violet map, a hologram. The projected image displayed a series of interconnected tunnels undulating before them. This was not a simple shaft - it was a hive.

"Welp. This could take a while," Natsuki sighed.

"No kidding. Let's get started," Benzo sounded like he was already tired.

They had taken a few steps further into the darkness when everyone's blood ran cold. They could hear otherworldly screeching in the distance.

"Ready or not, I think they're on the way," Sakura cautioned

"Fine. Let's get this party started," Taki gritted his teeth.

As the screeching and sounds of footsteps grew louder in the darkness beyond, C-Team stood ready.