Zon Headquarters, First Quadrant, Andromeda Galaxy.

Amaryah

Mya had been focused on the electrical surge that was produced by the Tyrhung. It felt like what she imagined an explosion would feel like, such was the power of the electric pulses coming off of it. It drew her like a moth to a flame. She'd been so focused on her tracking and the fact that there was a room ahead full of bug like babies – right in their path – that she'd been taken unawares by the sudden surge of blinding power that had overtaken her. She'd tried to fight against it, but their energy stung like angry insects inside her skull; she'd lost consciousness and awakened in Zogan's arms.

The Zon's fixed attention had produced a feeling like hundreds of wasps that were suddenly aware of your presence and incensed by it – they were full of hunger and death. It had terrifying and overwhelming. When she'd come to – held in Zogan's tight grip she'd hazily thought it had all been just a dream and she was in fact safe and asleep next to him in his rooms which were usually pitch black when they slept. Her hopes had been dashed when he'd pushed down her goggles and she'd seen it had been real – it was all real.

Mya shivered; her stomach clenched into a ball of dread. Could you blame her? She'd never been in war or real combat before. Sure, she'd almost died a couple times in the forest and on the Elder's Sanctuary, but this was different. This was an actual military operation. Her heart pounded in her chest. Deep breaths Mya, Deeeeep breaths. Her mother's voice sounded in her mind, calming her minutely. You trained for this, you can defend yourself and you're surrounded by an elite highly – trained, badass warrior team, the voice continued. She'd never heard her mother curse but now seemed to be a good time to incorporate that trait into her inner mom voice. She breathed in deeply, almost gagging on the stench that had followed them into the other room, she released it slowly.

"Let's go, let them follow, we don't have the time for this." said Mara who looked expectantly at Mya, "the quicker we get the package, the quicker we can leave this cursed place."

Right. She was the tracker. Looking briefly at Zogan she pushed an emotion toward him, she was fine.

He nodded and pressed his hand to her lower back, "Let's move." He trusted her.

They walked into the nesting room, leading at a grueling pace. Mya looked around, quickly scanning- her eyes snagged on the large clusters of pod shaped things. They glistened with slime, some of them almost see-through showing veins and the thumping hearts of the things growing inside of them.

Thwump. Thwump.

The sickening sounds filled the room, their tiny hearts beating with a wet sucking sound, all Mya felt was disgust really. They would grow into the beasts that had almost killed her; there were no stirrings of any maternal instincts towards them.

They broke into another long and narrow twisting corridor, dimly lit just like the Zon liked it. Mya jerked her chin forward. The strands of energy practically pulled her down the narrow way and toward the sealed rooms at the end. The passageway had a series of sealed doors along its length. The lay out of the hive-quarters was like a complicated labyrinth, she could get lost and wonder for days. They jogged forward, well the Kozan jogged, Mya ran to keep up with them.

The sealed doors were right ahead, this was the hard part. The most dangerous. They needed to break through the doors and get into the rooms holding the Tyrhung. The doors were wired with alarms, alarms that they'd been unable to hack into. The moment those doors opened the Zon would know their exact location. Never mind the fact that they were probably scouring the place looking for them already.

The fact that the Kozan knew of the Zon hive-quarters location was going to be surprising to them already, so they might not have figured out the purpose of Mya's and the group's little visit just yet. The Zon weren't particularly smart, just savage killers, which was most likely the only reason the Ajal had chosen them to do their dirty work.

Ravanna knelt before the doors and pulled out some grey shiny pads that looked like plastic. Pressing the circular pads to the doors in a circular pattern he stepped back. Bringing up a hologram on his wrist screen he punched in a series of numbers too fast for Mya to make out. There was a soft pop sound and the shiny liquid from before spread out to completely coat the doorway.

Mya scanned the hallway behind them, hand wrapped tightly around her blaster. This was it, the moment when all the Zon's attention would become intensely focused on them. Zogan and Ravanna would stay at the doors to hold off any attacks with Azazel and Mara escorting Mya into the rooms where she would have to focus on following the Tyrhung's siren call.

There was a soft hiss as Ravanna started working with his laser. Mya's breathing filled her helmet as she stood with the group, eyes trained ahead. Like before there was a humming and a shift as the door gave way. Ravanna stood putting his tools back into his suit. There was only silence.

Mara grasped Mya's hand and began to lead her away, Zogan looked down at her eyes blazing with emotion and Mya placed her hand on his chest briefly before she turned to leave. Fear sprang up in her as she began to move further away from her mate. They took maybe two or three steps when- a jarring alarm sounded. So painfully loud that Mya clapped her free arm to her ears. Her suit immediately hummed, and the sound lessened, adjusting to the spike in her heartbeat and seeking to make its wearer comfortable.

She sighed and nodded at Mara who had stopped to look at her, unaffected by the rolling sounds. They began to run. Mya felt and saw the thrumming yellow energy before her like threads that sunk into her, pulling her forward. They ran through two connecting rooms – BOOM! The ground vibrated. The sound came from behind.

'Zogan.'

Her heart quivered but she kept running. Azazel was behind, trailing both her and Mara who was at her side keeping pace.

Entering the third and final room, she looked around and shuddered. The threads of energy were firmly embedded into her. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the coalescence of the thread ends in the center of the room. The room was littered with other artefacts, but she did not notice their presence. Her eyes were fixed on a multifaceted white object, the Tyrhung. It was about the size of her head. They moved forward with Mya leading. Before her was a large cylindrical shield. Its energy weak compared to what it was supposed to protect.

Mara knelt at the base and pulled out what looked to be a hexagonal clump of black rock. She pressed it near the force field, and they all sprinted across the room and ducked behind a sculpture of some creature that Mya's mind could not make sense of, all tentacles and eyes.

There was a whirring sound and Mya felt energy build in the room, from their hiding place a bright flash of light illuminated the grim lines of their faces. When Mya stood with them and moved back to the now vulnerable Tyrhung the room was blackened, everything melted to some degree, some completely puddled onto the floor completely unidentifiable. The creature they'd hidden behind was a mangled mess of glue-like liquid in the front, the back where they were hidden remaining unscathed from the pulse of whatever it was that Mara had used to disable the shield.

She worked quickly with Mya shielding her, blaster drawn and Azazel near the entrance to the room. There was only one way out, the room was completely closed off just as their holograms had shown on the ship. There were shudders of blasts coming from the rooms beyond. When Mara placed the Tyrhung into her suit, they moved swiftly through the doors, moving through the rooms with their eyes peeled for any visible threats. These rooms had multiple entrances. It made Mya antsy. She looked up and that was when the roaring began, fear skittered up her spine along with something else. Anger. If they'd hurt Zogan she would find a way murder them all. She gritted her teeth.

Three Zon burst into the room. They were uglier than she'd imagined now that she saw its form fully, wide gruesome mouths open showing rings of jagged teeth, burnt flesh colored skin, skeletal forms with four powerful arms ready to tear into anything that was not of their hive. Mya's group fired but the monsters jumped forward, further than Mya thought any creature should be able too, one landed on top of Azazel, taking him down. He grappled with the beast.

Mara moved forward, putting herself between Mya and the oncoming threat while aiming her second blaster at the beast. It's back exploded into a burst of blue green viscous liquid as the blasts met with its target. It screamed a shriek so shrill Mya's blood curdled at the sound. She drew her sword from its scabbard. Ready to fight her way out with them. Curved black sword held ready, and her blaster in the other she followed Mara.

One Zon lunged around Mara who was engaging in battle with them trying to draw them away from Mya. Their duty was to protect her – the newbie - but Mya sucked her teeth, she'd be damned if any of them got hurt with her standing there doing nothing to help.

She drove down her sword, slicing one of the beast's clawed arms off, twirling to dodge its teeth that had come dangerously close to her neck. The movement carried her closer to Azazel who had just crushed his attacker's bulbous head. Reminding her that they could not live without the bulb held in the center of their forehead. She aimed her blaster and fired two quick shots, the kickback causing her to stumble. One exploded into the Zon's eye the other missed, hitting the wall behind. The deadly beast roared and jerked forward ready to crush her with its powerful jaws. Azazel reached around her and jumped onto its back squeezing his arm around its neck, his claws elongated and he viciously ripped the bulb out of its head. It crumpled to the floor in a heap. Mya's breathing came heavily, they took off sprinting through the remaining rooms.

Mya gasped, before them the doorways that were once sealed were missing. There was a large, jagged opening, before it was Zogan and Ravanna locked into a fierce battle with clusters of Zon.

"We need to kill their master, or this will never end!" shouted Azazel as they ran into the fray.

"Not enough time," growled Zogan who plunged his shorter dagger into an eye of a Zon.

The rest of the group's arrival gained some attention and Zon pushed forward to meet them. Zogan roared as he saw one jump for Mya, but she was ready. Reaching into her power, she pushed it out around her sending out waves of fear and weakness into the minds of the beasts. They may be hive minded species their actions based on instinct alone, but they would get some degree of fear or indecisiveness from her energy blast. That indecisiveness would cost them their lives.

The Zon reaching towards her faltered, shaking its head as if confused and she fired, making sure not to miss her target. Its bulb shattered, spraying tissue onto Mya. She spun and raised her sword slashing into any Zon that got too close and killing those that faltered.

There was only her sword, her blaster and the beasts that were swarming around her. Her suit powered her movements allowing her to cut down a significant amount of the enemy. She found herself tiring after some time, the blast of power she'd used having cost her some of her endurance. Her arms grew heavy from the weight of her blade and blaster – but still she forced herself to continue.

They'd managed to push the dwindling swarm back and were steadily moving toward their rendezvous point. There was still radio silence from the ship, Dynah. Mya could only hope that they were ready and waiting to extract them. They had to move quicker; Mya's wrist screen showed that there were only a few minutes left before their escape window closed. The unit formed a tight defensive formation and pushed forward; nothing would get inside of the group.

They worked as one body, Mya seamlessly integrating into the movements thanks to her copious training. Whichever of the beasts that remained alive were blasted down by one of their fired-up weapons and they stepped over the remains. Clean and efficient. Keep moving! Keep Moving! Keep Moving! The mantra echoed through her head. Mya heard the wet Thwump Thwump sound to her right as they hurried forward and pulled a pulser from Zogan's hip – the same one that Mara had used before. He looked down at her sharply – stilling his attack reflexes and grunted in approval as she pressed it and smoothly threw it into the room. Their footsteps quickened as the whirring sound built.

A blinding light flashed behind them as they turned the corner up ahead, the only indication of the decimation that just occurred within the nesting room. Mya smiled savagely. There were more nesting quarters and Zon heading their way she was sure, but at least they killed some of the parasites before they grew up. They entered a circular hall; it was filled with things that resembled chairs and tables – all of which were piled up to the sides. There were circular balconies running around the room going up, her eyes blurred as she tried to count them. Up above the room was a transparent ceiling that rose into a peak at its center. It showed the dark skies above. The rendezvous point. There was no sign of their ship. Mara had been trying to contact them but had received no reply as they'd move towards the point. They stood in the center of the room, back-to-back in a tight circle, stars twinkling above them.

"Mara?" came Zogan's voice, rough from his roaring.

"Still nothing, I'm beginning to get worried." She said.

"Oh, now you're worried?" Ravanna snapped, voice dripping with sarcasm as he shot Mara a glare.

Almost everyone's eyes were blacked out with thin, colored slivers twitching in the center. Zogan's was the only completely obsidian gaze in the group. They all shifted, itching for more bloodshed and to rip their enemies apart. The only thing keeping them anchored was their dedication to getting the Tyrhung back to Kozantei.

"Dynah, are you in position? Dynah, can you hear me?" she said again whispering, but her voice still echoed in the space around them.

"We..." came a voice - it ended with static and abrupt silence.

Mara and Azazel exchanged glances. "We may need to find another way out..." began Azazel.

Zogan shifted his blaster in his arms and looked down at Mya, "I know, but it will not be easy for Mya."