“How long before the spares arrive?” Alan tried to get some shots in on the unknown creature. He failed to connect a hit and nearly got shot down by the creature’s rapid fire green bolts.

“ETA 7 minutes!”

“Damn it!”

Another mini tank went offline. One left.

“Spares have any rockets?”

“Nope. Not enough time to make more yet. We’re nearly out of the explosive green goop too.”

Alan refrained from rolling his eyes yet again to avoid advancing a headache that was already forming. Alan tried a few more times to get shots on the creature. It was hard to see in the smoke. He could see the communications dish rotate to a new position. “Change of plan. Take out the dish.”

“I thought we needed the communication matrix out of it for the ship!”

“We did... we do. Too late. Take it out.”

Sara moved the mini tank out from cover to a place where she could take shots at the dish.

“Try and shoot out the rotor at the base. Maybe the matrix will be protected enough to not get slagged.”

Alan needed to get closer. He moved around to the opposite side of the dish from the creature. He poured shots into the connection point. He squinted, as if it would help him see through the smoke that was getting thicker.

Green repeater blasts shot out from the smoke. Alan was too slow. His drone tilted as it lost altitude. He tried to fire shots at the source of the green blasts in the hopes it would stop. It seemed to work. Not that it mattered much. The drone was going down.

“GOT IT!” Sara said.

Alan saw a shower of sparks fly from the connection. The rotor exploded from the strain of shifting weight. Green repeater blasts pounded against the remaining mini tank. The indicator on Alan’s HUD changed from yellow to red.

The green bolts showered Alan’s personal drone again. The screen went blank. Alan threw up his hands and let them fall to his lap. The spy drone hovering in the distance was the only visual they had left. Alan watched what little he could see.

The dish started into a slow motion fall into the smoke. The sound of metal snapping and grinding was mixed with pops and snaps. The dish gained speed. There was an explosion followed by a small mushroom cloud of fire and black smoke from where the center of the dish had been.

Alan just slowly shook his head at the loss.

The weight of the massive dish hitting the ground caused the metal to buckle and crumble. Dirt went flying as metal dug in. Metal under tension broke loose, flying through the air indiscriminately. The creature that remained scrambled to find some sort of cover from the flying debris.

“How far out now?”

“Still have two minutes to go.”

“How many do we have?”

“Thirteen.”

“What a terrible number...” Alan muttered. He contemplated bringing them back.

Sara moved the spy drone to hopefully get a better view. She found a gap in the smoke that allowed some visibility of the opening to the mining facility. Alan watched to see if anything could be determined from it. He was half afraid more Ustobo would come pouring out of the entrance.

Nothing seemed to happen until they caught a good glimpse of the new creature. It’s weapon was raised as it slowly came out from the broken down wall it had taken cover to hide behind. It seemed to be taking a look around as it slowly made it’s way back to the mining entrance.

The creature had eight legs. It’s back legs paired sided by side and the front pair had one set in front of the other. It’s main body was in two sections like two cattle joined together like a sectional ant, similar to the Ustobo creatures.

It’s torso was humanoid in form unlike anything Alan had ever seen. It was upright, barrel chested, and muscular. It’s arms and three digit hands were large boned wrapped in thick muscle. It carried a rifle looking weapon that looked to be pretty heavy. The creature had to be nearly three meters tall.

It’s face was shaped like an owl. Around it’s mouth was a small group of something that looked like tentacles. Large patches of white fur covered most of the body with the bare places being just a gray looking skin. It’s four eyes at the top of it’s forehead glowed with a purple light.

With lightning fast reflexes the creature lifted up it’s weapon and fired at the spy drone.

Alan’s heart sank. “Damn.”

Alan took off his VR headset.

Sara’s console image was gone. She stood beside him, looking down at him. She looked concerned. “What do we do now? Keep going?”

Alan shook his head. “Bring the drones back. It would be a waste to go after that thing. Thirteen is unlucky anyway. There might be a bunch of Ustobo still underground yet.” Alan buried his face into his hands. “Or not. I have no idea. I have no idea how to take down that... Super Ustobo, if that is even what it is.”

“That thing wasn’t in any of the records that Father sent us. You think it’s Ustobo? Like a queen or something?”

Alan walked over to the holographic table and pulled up the video footage they had. He zoomed in on the creature.

Sara created a three dimensional model of it as best she could from all the video that was taken. The model of the creature hovered above the table and slowly spun so Alan could see all sides of it.

“I can see the resemblance to the Ustobo in general form,” Alan said. He looked closely at the face of it. “Look at the mouth on that thing. We’ve seen that on the Saru mechs.”

“Why would the Saru mimic that feature, I wonder?” There was a soft distant rumble. Sara’s head turned to look in the direction of the Outpost.

“Saru charging in to cleanup?”

“I don’t think so. It looked like it might be an orbital strike around the outpost! I don’t have any spy drones close enough to see what’s happening on the ground to know what got hit. Judging from the dirt cloud I can see, it was on the outskirts of where the Ustobo patrol and Saru containment line is.”

Alan waited for her to tell him more. His heart raced and he could slightly feel his blood pulsing. He got out of the VR console. There was another explosion that was a bit closer.

Sara looked at him with wide eyes. She acted like she was breathing heavy. “I just lost contact with the thirteen tank drones!”

Any thought Alan had of going outside to see what was happening evaporated.

Sara seemed to look around and up as if seeing something else.

“What it is?”

“I just saw heavy laser weapons fire from someplace far off shoot into the sky where the orbital bombardment may have come from. Looks like there was an explosion up there too.”

“Supposedly the Saru have been shooting down Ustobo ships from orbit for years and then doing a cleanup. That Super Ustobo must have called in that orbital stri-”

Alan was thrown backwards from the explosive force. The metal of the entrance doors of the cavern fragmented and scattered as deadly shards mixed with stone projectiles of what used to be the wall.

Alan struggled to regain his breath after impacting against the floor. Another two explosions occurred above him. Stone and dust rained down all over inside. The noise was ear splitting and made his ears ring. Alan desperately tried to pull his disoriented senses together. He choked on the dust as he gasped for air. He felt hard objects hit him all over his body just before everything went black.

Alan groaned as he woke up. Everything hurt. He still felt disoriented as he tried to force his limbs to do things they didn’t seem to want to. As he lifted his face he could just barely make out the blood pooled up around where his head had just been in the shadows. His ears still had a slight ringing in them. He struggle to get free of the loose stones that had partially buried him. He coughed. The action felt like he had just been stabbed in the side.

He looked down and gently put his hand to his side to see if anything was sticking out of him. There was nothing. The very act of breathing was painful. He managed to struggle to his feet. Everything in the cavern was still and quiet. The only source of light was the new cratered opening where his stone and steel doors had been. Smoke drifted to the ceiling and out the front entrance.

“Sara?”

He looked to where the server section of the cavern was. He could just hear snapping a popping of electrical occasionally break the silence. A bulk of the smoke was coming from there.

“Oh no... Sara!”

He started to move to his bench area when movement caught his attention outside. His mind went to the blood on the floor and which predators might be attracted to it. The list was long. Alan hobbled as quickly as he could to where his hand held weapons were stashed. His limbs were slow and not cooperating very well. His laser pistol was still on his strong side hip holster. He pulled the small amount of debris from the weapons storage locker despite the surging pain coursing through his body. He managed to pull out his rifle and a few power clips. The effort of doing so felt like it would finish him off.

He turned to address whatever threat was approaching the door. He hobbled his way closer to the entrance where he could take cover and still see what was coming. As he was about to pass his work bench, he came to a dead stop. His heart sank to a new low. On the bench where the remains of the cap to the crystal module, still plugged into the now dead computer. The crystal was gone.

Tears formed in Alan’s eyes. The sense of loss and hopelessness threatened to crush what remained of his heart that was already struggling. “Why did I leave it out...”

He nearly fell to his knees, when he hear something move at the entrance again. Alan considered letting whatever it was to just come in and kill him. He turned his head to see what it was. A surge of adrenaline dumped into his system as his hopelessness transformed into rage. His teeth clenched tight as his aching muscles would allow. He brought the laser rifle up to bear on the first target.

Aiming was difficult with his beaten arms. His trigger finger worked fine. He fired repeatedly until three shots hit the mark. The first Ustobo collapsed to the ground dead. Small laser fire exploded against mass all around him.

Alan moved at what felt like a snails pace to take cover. More laser fire filled the cavern trying to take him down. There had to be at least six of the damn things.

One of the shots pierced Alan’s side. Other shots hit his legs. He waited for the shooting to die down before returning fire. Despite the flaming pain in his side and legs, he stood up from cover and fired off as many shots as he could before his legs gave out and he fell to the floor. His rage wanted to kill them all. Sara was gone because of their kind. More anger and a smaller dump of adrenaline surged through his system.

He managed to kill another one before his legs gave out on him, likely for good this time. As they focused fire on his position he dragged himself with his arms to take cover from another position. He tried to figure out the locations they were shooting from.

The broken tool cabinet he had taken cover behind was taking repeated hits. So much for surprise from the new position. He managed to muster up strength to stand. Leaning on the top of the cabinet to support his weight that his legs couldn’t bear anymore, he took aim at his next target.

Four out of twenty more shots went into another Ustobo. Not without cost. Alan collapsed to the ground. Both of his legs had taken hits again and now refused to move like he needed them to. Using his arms he dragged himself to the now destroyed vehicle and waited.

He could hear multiple Ustobo move around. One came around a corner of debris on the floor, right into the wide open for Alan. Alan fired off what remained in his next to last power clip. The Ustobo fell.

Alan’s arms and hands fumbled loading his last power clip. The adrenaline was wearing off. His left arm had now been hit a few times and was nearly unusable. A laser bolt had also grazed the side of his jaw. His body was burning within. Breathing was a struggle more now then when he woke up.

Another Ustobo popped out into the clearing near it’s dead companion. Alan was down to just the use of his right arm. He fired off his rifle repeatedly as his arm wavered under what felt like a huge weight.

All thirty shots went wild. The weapon died and Alan let it fall to the floor as the strength in his arm gave out. He sat there with his back leaning on debris to keep himself upright and watched the Ustobo approach him. The Ustobo seemed to be curious as it slowly got closer. Alan didn’t have enough strength to even pull his pistol from the holster, let alone hold it up long enough to shoot it.

Alan gasped for more air that his body demanded despite the pain. The Ustobo stopped and took aim with it’s rifle. Alan waited for the little alien to finish the job. He waited for all the pain to suddenly end. Fatigue was starting to hit him hard.

Laser fire erupted at the entrance of the cave. The Ustobo that had taken aim at Alan’s head looked in that direction. Alan felt the heat of the blue laser blast. He flinched with the explosion of dust, stone, and metal not far from him.

He struggled to open his eyes. His right eye refused to open and the side of his face felt numb. All feeling was lost in his right arm. The Ustobo that had been pointing a rifle at him was now just a body laying there on the floor in front of him, it’s head missing.

There was some sort of commotion going on near the entrance. There was a familiar rapid chattering in the air. Shock had replaced the exhausted adrenaline. The urge to sleep and rest was becoming overwhelming. A small furry creature popped up with pistol in hand on top of some debris. It jarred Alan awake just a little more. Alan saw it chatter excitedly. Another furry creature came running out of seemingly nowhere.

“Alan alive?” the familiar creature said excitedly.

Alan couldn’t speak. With great effort he partially raised his right arm and gave the creature a weak looking thumbs up.

The creature rattled off what seemed like a thousand syllables to it’s companions. Alan was struggling to keep his eyes open. He wasn’t sure if he cared anymore. Maybe, he thought, if I just let go... all the pain will stop. Sara, he thought. I failed to keep her safe. I should have stashed the crystal. “Sara... I’m so sorry.”

The creature startled Alan when it touched the side of his face with his hand. “Alan! Father fix! Alan stay alive! Saru need Alan! Saru need Alan very much bad! Bad things happened to Saru. Saru need Alan very much bad!”

Alan couldn’t think of why they would need him so much. Nothing seemed to matter except ending the pain and giving in to the deep fatigue. Alan gave up struggling to keep his eyes open. They were burning anyway. The burning ebbed when he closed his eyes.

“Alan!”

The world went dark and quiet.