[+20,385 XP ]
[+7,875 Credits ]
[Item acquired: Power Cell (x2)]
The valve-like doorway at the end of the chamber pulsed. It was alive.
I stared at it, half-expecting it to start breathing. The thing twitched, rippling like muscle under skin, the slimy membrane glistening under the dim glow of our HUD lights. A thick, translucent film covered the opening, flexing in slow, wet convulsions.
It was the single most disgusting thing I’d ever seen in my life.
Emily took one look at it and backed up so fast I thought she was about to turn around and leave the entire dungeon. “Nope. No. Absolutely not. I am not touching that.”
Honestly? I agreed with her.
Ryan, however, let out a low whistle. “Huh. That’s nasty.”
Danny, because he has no sense of self-preservation, stomped right up in his massive, armored bulk and flexed his metal-clad fingers. “Oh, come on. It’s just an organic barrier. Probably just needs some force.” He pressed his hands against it and pushed. The wall convulsed, then...
SPLURCH.
A wave of thick, steaming, viscous slime erupted from the membrane, drenching Danny from helmet to chest in a layer of freshly secreted alien mucus.
We stood in silence, staring up at Danny in his powered armor.
Then Zoe lost it.
“Oh my god, Danny!” she wheezed, doubling over laughing. “That was so much worse than I thought it’d be.”
Danny stood there, frozen, dripping with goo.
Joey, not to be outdone in manly problem-solving techniques, stomped forward, determined. “It’s probably just stuck. If we apply even pressure-”
FWOMP.
Another explosive splatter of slime, this time right on his visor.
Ryan wheeze-laughed, practically falling over. “Oh my god, they’re, they’re getting birthed by it.”
Chris, wiping tears from his eyes, wheezed, “You guys look like… like you just slid out of-”
“Do not finish that sentence,” Joey growled. The door, of course, was still very much shut.
And that’s when we heard it, that low, wet glurping noise. The membrane twitched, then flexed. In my head? Yeah, the whole thing was pretty suggestive. Then, like a living sphincter, it parted open.
Four drones stepped through, completely unbothered, their antennae twitching.
And the second they saw us, they attacked.
<hr>
It was quick, brutal, and sloppy.
Zoe and I landed headshots left and right, Ryan lit up the tunnel with his Plasma Rifle, and Emily’s Plasma Sword sliced through exoskeletons like butter.
Danny, still dripping in mucus, slammed his warhammer into one and sent it flying. Joey crushed the last one with an armored stomp.
By the time the last carapace crunched, everyone was panting.
[+11,648 XP ]
[+4,500 Credits ]
[Skill Level up! Situational Awareness Proficiency Level 7 -> Level 8]
[Item acquired: Power Cell (x2)]
Ryan nudged a corpse with his boot. “Okay, so… why did the door open for them?”
Danny, deep in scientific mode, crouched next to the corpses, rubbing his slimy chin. “It’s pheromones,” he declared.
I blinked. “The fuck do you mean, pheromones?”
"Like at that stream?" asked Zoe, looking at the mangled, goopy remains.
"Yeah, something like that," replied Ryan. "Something about these reacts with the valve up ahead allows them to pass through."
Danny gestured at the still-steaming corpses. “These drones must emit a chemical signal that tells the door to open.”
I stared at him. “And how the hell are we supposed to do that?”
Ryan grinned. That stupid, shit-eating grin. “Oh, it’s easy,” he said, crouching next to one of the corpses and giving it a shake.
Emily’s voice shot up an octave. “Oh my god, Ryan, no!”
Ryan waggled his brows. “We just need a gland.”
Chris gagged. “That’s fucking vile.”
Danny nodded enthusiastically. “Makes sense! If we extract the organ producing the pheromones, we might be able to mimic their biological passcode.”
Ryan clapped his hands together. “We need to gut one of these boys.”
Emily gagged. “I hate you both.”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
<hr>
No one wanted to do it, but Ryan insisted that since Emily was the proud owner of the plasma sword, she was the designated butcher. Plus, it was the only thing sharp enough to get through the TL9 carapace. Zoe, of course, was all in on the action and couldn''t wait to try her energy dagger against the carapace, and it just didn''t work.
Emily let out a long, suffering sigh. “I swear to god, if this gets in my hair, I’m murdering you all.”
Then she plunged the sword into the drone’s gut. The heat of the plasma blade reacted with whatever insides the bug had, giving off nasty sizzle and pop sounds as the organs were fried or boiled, depending on your take on the situation.
Thank God I still had my armor fully sealed as the stench hit us immediately.
Joey gagged while Chris turned green. Danny? Completely fascinated.
“Look at that,” he murmured, leaning in to examine the melting insides. “These segmented structures here must be the enzyme-producing glands responsible for breaking down organic matter! And over here...”
“Danny, shut the fuck up,” Emily snapped, pinching her nose. “This is already bad enough.”
Ryan held out a collection vial. “Scoop out the nasty part, Em. We should be taking photos and cataloging these.”
Emily’s face contorted in revulsion. “I swear to god, Ryan.”
“I know.”
She carved deeper, her Plasma Sword hissing through alien guts. And there it was, a swollen, pulsating gland, dripping with yellow-green sludge.
Emily hissed in disgust. “Oh, that’s fucking gross.”
Ryan grinned. “Perfect.”
Danny clapped his gooey hands together. “Alright! Time to see if this works.”
I just stood there, staring at this absolute nightmare scenario, and wished I’d stayed in bed.
<hr>
The next tunnel was hot.
Not just warm or just humid. Fucking hot.
The deeper we went, the worse it got. My HUD’s temperature gauge was climbing steadily, from 100 degrees to 110. I could feel the heat seeping through my armor, turning my bodysuit sticky against my skin. The air was so thick with humidity I could almost chew it.
Then we stepped into the chamber, and holy shit, this was next level.
The walls moved. Not just pulsed, but moved, shifting rhythmically, like a massive lung inhaling and exhaling. A low, wet squelching noise filled the cavern, layers of veiny tissue rippling in the dim glow of bioluminescent sacs. Goopy slime kept dripping from the ceilings into large, hot puddles throughout the chamber. The whole place was alive, a breeding ground, and it reeked.
Eggs. Hundreds. Maybe thousands of semi-translucent, pulsating eggs, lined the walls, the floors, and clustered in writhing nests of sticky resin. Some were empty, cracked open, their occupants already loosed into the tunnels. Others… weren’t.
And the drones were here too.
They moved between the eggs, working, tending, like creepy alien nurses tending to their horrible mutant infants. More drones than we’d seen before.
"Jesus Christ," Chris muttered. "I’m gonna have nightmares about this shit for weeks."
Emily let out a slow, steady breath. "Let’s move. Get through this fast, quiet, and clean."
<hr>
We stuck to cover, slipping between the disgusting, mucus-covered eggs.
"Stay in formation," Ryan reminded, setting up his turret. "No overextending. No pulling a second wave. And Luca, no stupid hero moves."
I scoffed from my position up on the ridge. "Yeah, yeah, Mom. Maybe focus on hitting your shots instead of lecturing me."
Zoe snickered beside me, sighting down her energy sniper rifle. "Seriously, Ryan. You gonna try aiming with your eyes open this time, or are we just spray-and-praying like usual?"
Ryan flipped her off. "How about you snipe something before talking shit, Woods?"
"Don''t have to," she purred. "I let my work speak for itself."
Chris crouched behind his cover below, rolling his shoulders as he powered up his Energy Driver. "Less talking, more shooting. We hit them in waves, take them down in order, and no one pulls too much aggro."
Danny twirled his energy warhammer in one hand. "Or we just let them all come at me. I could use the workout."
"Yes, let’s definitely get you swarmed," Emily deadpanned, dual blasters already primed. "That always works out great."
Joey, holding his blaster like it was more of a suggestion than a weapon, sighed. "Can we just not make my job harder today? I like having a quiet shift."
"Too late for that," I muttered.
Below us, the hive pulsed, walls of resin shifting as the first wave of drones skittered forward, antennae twitching, bodies clicking as they locked onto us.
I lined up a shot. My energy sniper rifle hummed as I fired, the TL8 bolt streaking forward, slamming into the nearest drone’s armor. The impact sizzled, scorching the carapace, but the thing barely stumbled. This was going to be fun. Not a one-shot kill.
Zoe fired a split second later, her shot punching into the same drone, finally dropping it. "Gotta love outdated weapons," she muttered.
The moment the first bug hit the ground, the rest shrieked and charged. The hive was awake.
Chris let out a low curse and fired his Energy Driver. A beam of crackling light lanced forward, punching into one of the incoming drones. Its chitin smoldered, cracking, but it kept coming.
"Goddamn it," he muttered, adjusting his aim. "If I hold this too long, it''ll overheat."
Ryan’s turret opened fire next, energy bolts hammering into the drones. Unlike the rest of our TL8 weapons, his turret could at least weaken them at a faster rate, but at a huge energy expense. But it was still taking too long. We weren’t putting them down fast enough.
At least these things weren’t shooting at us. No energy bolts, no acid spit, no weird sci-fi hive bullshit like exploding sacs or poison gas. Just good ol’ fashioned close combat bugs, ugly, fast, and tough as hell, but predictable. We could work with predictable.
Emily ducked between cover, her dual blasters rapid-firing into the swarm. One bug’s leg shattered under the barrage, but it still dragged itself forward, screeching.
"Okay, fuck this," Emily growled.
Holstering both blasters in one smooth motion, she pulled her Plasma Sword, the blade igniting with that distinct hum. Blue light flickered across her armor, outlining every sharp movement as she darted forward.
She was so fucking good at this.
One second, the drone was lunging for her, mandibles snapping. The next, she stepped to the side, blade flashing in a perfect arc, clean cut, no wasted motion. The thing dropped in two pieces before it even realized it had been bisected.
Jesus Christ.
I swallowed, shifting in my spot. Yeah, okay, my brain was definitely in the gutter. How was I supposed to focus when she moved like that? Every step, every strike, graceful, lethal, ridiculously sexy. It wasn’t fair.
"Showoff," I muttered, mostly to cover the fact that I was definitely staring. We were going to have a private conversation when this was all over about her exposing herself like this and putting herself at risk. Yes. Definitely. Probably behind a bush or something.
Ryan shouldered his Plasma Rifle, the only other TL9 weapon in our arsenal, and took careful aim.
Unlike the rest of us, he didn’t have to whittle down armor. His first shot punched clean through a drone’s head, sending molten chitin spraying.
"You see that, Zoe?" he grinned. "Perfect shot."
Zoe rolled her eyes. "Oh wow, you actually hit something. Mark the calendar."
"Keep talking," Ryan smirked. "Maybe I’ll start calling my kills like you."
"Yeah? Call this one." She fired again. Another drone staggered but didn’t fall.
Ryan lined up a shot, right as another wave of drones came barreling around the corner.
Chris groaned. "Shit, we pulled too many."
"Ryan!" Emily snapped. "You had one job!"
Ryan didn’t bother defending himself. He fired another plasma shot, burning a hole through one drone’s torso, but we were already swamped. The chittering rose in pitch. The second wave was closing in fast.
"Danny!" I barked.
"On it!" His Aggro Beacon flared to life, pulsing bright red. The drones veered toward him, drawn by the artificial pheromone signal. The moment they clustered, he slammed his warhammer down.
A kinetic boom rippled through the ground. Bugs went flying, stunned, twitching. It bought us a second, but only just.
"Ryan, Arcwave!" I yelled.
Ryan slid his trap in front of him and activated the device. A shockwave blasted outward, electricity crackling over the battlefield. The drones seized up, their limbs spasming from the surge.
Emily wove between their twitching forms, her Plasma Sword carving them apart.
Joey, still chilling in the back, sighed. "I really hope none of you need medical after this."
"No promises," I muttered, lining up another shot.
[+35,601 XP]
[+13,500 credits]
[Skill level up! Precision Shot Proficiency Level 7 -> Level 8]
[Skill level up! Light Armor Proficiency Level 7 -> Level 8]
We weren’t done yet, and Chris? Yeah, he needed to start using his Plasma Rifle, what the hell.