They dodged behind the oddly shaped console, being careful not to trip over the insectoid operator they had gunned down minutes before. Another squad of Kirrix troopers marched down the ramp, followed from behind by a looming Overseer. As soon as John and Alyssa could see the segmented feet of the insectoid forces, they opened fire, armour piercing rounds scything through the legs of the alien troops that couldn’t actually see what was firing at them,ing down the ramp as they were.


    The first few Kirrix had their legs shot out from under them and slid unceremoniously down the ramp, taking hits to their torso’s as John strafed fire over them. The remaining two soldiers and the overseer rushed down the ramp and into the room, heads tilted sideways so that they could see what was attacking them. One of the bugs was shot in the face by Alyssa and it copsed in a heap, killed instantly. The other began to return fire causing her to duck behind cover as urate neutron sts began to impact the console where her head had been. John popped up from the other side and fired thest few rounds of his magazine into the chest of the angry insect, causing it to slump over to its side with a inhuman shriek.


    Alyssa mmed in another clip and then popped out, preparing to fire at the Overseer, but her timing was unlucky and a shot from its neutron rifle nced off her right shoulder. The young blonde woman was knocked backwards and she dropped to the floor and screamed with pain.


    John nced at her in panic, but was relieved to see she that she wasn’t too badly hit. He had reloaded himself and flipped the selector switch to full auto, targeting the ugly overseer’s underbelly in his sights and then holding down the trigger. The muzzle climb from firing so many rounds walked his shots up from segmented belly to chitinous head and John emptied his entire magazine into the bug that had dared to wound his woman. The Overseer slumped over, its ruined body gouting green ichor all over the floor as its perforated torso sprayed blood around the room. Satisfied that he had killed it, John leaned down at Alyssa’s side to check to see if she was ok.


    “How bad is it Alyssa?” he asked, his voice tinged with worry.


    She looked up at him bravely and removed her hand from her shoulder.


    “Not too bad, the shot punched through my armour and grazed my arm, but it hurts like hell!” she said grimacing.


    John nodded his understanding and helped her to her feet.


    “Are you able to continue?” he asked with concern.


    “Yeah, that amount of pain was just a shock” She said stoically. “Let’s keep going”


    John reloaded his rifle and they moved forward cautiously to approach the big doors at the back of the room. He pressed the hexagonal button on the side and the solid doors ground open slowly, the strange chirruping sound getting much louder as the portal parted.


    “What’s making that noise?” Alyssa grimaced in annoyance, wincing at the loud, irritating sound.


    “Them” John said, as the door opened in front of them.


    The room this door opened out into had hundreds of hexagonal alcoves set into the wall on either side, the ones on the right cast in shadow. They could see strange writhing shapes in each of the alcoves, Kirrix grubs, all of which were adding to the horrible chirping cacophony as automated chitinous arms dropped pieces of flesh into their waiting maws.


    Movement in the centre of the room snapped them both out of their revulsion at the scene in front of them and an enormous multi limbed horror turned to face them.


    “What the fuck is that?!” Alyssa gasped in rm, at the twelve limbed fourteen foot tall monstrosity that lurked in the middle of the chamber.


    “It’s a Kirrix Broodmother!” John said forebodingly.


    “Aim for its eyes!” he yelled as he dropped into a crouch.


    Copying him, Alyssa dropped to one knee and she sighted the two sets ofpound eyes on itsrge, bulbous, yellowy brown head. The pair of them opened fire and the Broodmother reared back in pain as round after round mmed into its sensitive eyes. The insectoid beast brought two sets of armoured forews up to protect its face and their shots began to ricochet off the tough armour ting.


    The massive creature stood up on its six legs and began to lumber towards them relentlessly.


    “What now?” Alyssa cried out in rm.


    “Aim for joints, any ce where the armour is weaker!” John said curtly.


    The two of them began to walk fire over the Kirrix abomination, shooting at knees, elbows, feet and hands. One of Alyssa’s shots blow out a knee, spurting green blood over the walls and John’s shot took out a foot on the other side, causing the Broodmother to skid in the slippery green ichor. It still kepting though, screeching in fury.


    They both emptied out their magazines, incapacitating two more legs, forcing the Broodmother to crawl forward using two of its forews for support.N?velDrama.Org: owner of this content.


    “Now!” John shouted “Go for the eyes!” as he mmed another magazine home into his rifle.


    The two of them stood up and backed away slowly as they sprayed bullets into the face of the Broodmother. With only two forews to protect its head, rounds began to strike home, hitting it in the eyes and even shooting off a quivering antenna. It finally got within striking range andshed out with a six foot long scythed w, forcing John to leap to the side to avoid being eviscerated by the razor sharp chitin de. Unfortunately for the Broodmother, this left its headpletely exposed and Alyssa fired the entire clip into its face.


    Shuddering, the hulking beast slumped to its side, letting out a croaking inhuman death rattle.


    John looked up at Alyssa from where he had dived across the floor and he grinned at her victoriously. She returned the grin as she reloaded her weapon.


    “Only one clip left John” She warned him.


    “Yeah me too” he said with concern.


    They gingerly stepped around the bullet ridden corpse of the Broodmother and headed into the big chamber in front of them. They walked past row after row of Kirrix grubs, not wanting to know what provided the flesh the hideous creatures were devouring. They finally reached the back of the chamber and a corridor led away from the room and up to another set of doors. John and Alyssa jogged up to the doors and then cautiously opened them, wondering what mighty in wait in the next room.


    As they opened the door, they were met with the sound of a horrible wailing human scream. They nced at each other nervously and then moved through the door into the next chamber. This huge room was stacked floor to ceiling along the sides with chitinous cages, terrified human prisoners locked within. They overlooked a scene of nightmares in front of them.


    Three naked human prisoners were restrained on a round tform in the centre of the room. The first, a man, was slumped over unconscious with drool falling from his mouth and his bloated stomach pulsing as rounded shapes writhed within his abdomen. The second was a woman, who was screaming in fear and looking on in horror at her shipmate.


    The third figure was another woman, her body obscured by the hulking insectoid form that hovered above her. It was over ten feet tall and had six limbs, four of which were holding its body up above her and thest set holding the woman it had mounted in ce below it. Arge bulbous segment grew out of its lower body which ended with an ovipositor, that was shoved deep inside the prostrate figure below. The woman was crying and groaning in horrified revulsion as small spheres passed down through the pulsating transparent section at the back of the creature and were pushed inside her tightly packed ass, her midsection bloating obscenely to amodate the Kirrix eggs.