I could hear screaming, struggling, as Pretty was taken somewhere. Needles spit insults as Slim cried for help. Nothing. I could do nothing. My lolling head saw the destination the flesh-forms carried me to, an open egg sac on one of the highest tiers. The astral came unbidden to my eyes, and within I could almost see the quivering, larval spirit that waited to consume my soul. I couldn’t close my eyes. I couldn’t look away. The stinking moisture began to enclose me—
An explosion rocked the hive, sending my captors to their knees. I landed halfway over the edge of the tier, the stake holding me from falling down. My unresponsive eyes fell on the depths of the hive. The pale ghoul-flesh forms fell in with the others, swarming from all over to converge on a single passageway, the same we came from. For only a moment, they stood clustered, shoulder to shoulder, clogging the passage, until they were thrown back, a pair of VTOL drones bursting through with heavy machine guns blazing. My eyes slid further down as the first FRT troops emerged.
The weight pulled me down, until it was only the stake holding me aloft. I cringed internally at the sensation of it ripping at my weight, flexing within until…almost…almost…
The wood snapped, the bits falling out of me as I tumbled down floor after floor, humid, wet air billowing past me. I almost smiled at the relief, partially turning to mist, drifting for a full, luxurious second of painless bliss, before I solidified near the floor, gear still on, falling into the muck with a thick splash. I scrambled to my feet, the queen not a meter from me and roaring in fury at the invaders, the bug shaman mirroring her movements.
Her twisted mouth spoke words that made my head spin. I looked up to see a Star officer stop shooting and slowly look down at the queen. She chittered hypnotically as he stared, enthralled, until a ghoul-flesh form tore into him with fangs and mandibles. The soldier didn’t scream. Not once, even as he and his killer tumbled over the edge to fall a few feet from me with a sickening crunch.
I reached behind me, pulling a bug bomb from my pack and breaking off the end. The queen looked down at me as I jammed it into a fold of her egg sac, the gray gas spraying out in all directions. She tried to bring her gnarled arms back to pull it free, to block the flood of gasses on its back. It wouldn’t kill her, but it would keep her distracted.
I leaped onto a ladder leading up one of the cisterns. I only had a moment before the queen got free of her spray or a drone came down on me. The VTOLs whooshed overhead, their guns never stopping a constant, strobing chatter as they swept over the hordes of flesh forms.
And still more of the abominations come pouring out from the tunnels.
At the top edge of the cistern I looked down. Shaking ghouls… and Needles. I took off my pack and lowered a strap down. He jumped up and grabbed it, and I strained with all my might to give him enough leverage to climb up. He scrambled up quicker than I thought, and dropped to the ground, running for the fallen Star. A full on tackle sent the ghoulish hybrid flying as he scooped up the soldier’s assault rifle, rolling to a kneeling position and opening fire on the queen immediately in one smooth motion.
Other ghouls had gotten the same idea, and were climbing up the pack to swarm out. I jerked back. None of them was ready for this kind of fight, safer out of the way. Hanging from the ladder, I pulled my gas mask on and grabbed another bug bomb. I couldn’t imagine a better place to use it, so I tossed it down by the queen to keep her busy. At another cistern’s lip, I could see Slim, mask down, climbing out, probably on the shoulders of other ghouls. He threw a wave my way and jumped down to hide behind the cistern. I threw him my pack and hit the ground running.
The chatter of gunfire above told me the Lone Star team was still going strong. An explosion rained down bits of drone and another scream let me know they were losing men. I tried to make my way to Needles until I felt white-hot power hit my chest. I was thrown down, clotheslined. My eyes cleared and I looked up into the leering gaze of the toxic shaman.
“I need you to stay here, my friend.”
I rolled to dodge another fall of his cudgel, studded with looked like greenish orichalcum. My chest still stung where he had hit me. My regeneration wasn’t handling it. Goddamn shaman. It was some kind of weapon focus.
He brought it up in a swing at my chin, missing by centimeters as I jerked a long Cougar fineblade from its sheath at my thigh. It came up, missing his face only barely. He smiled sadly and drew back, adopting a defensive stance.
“I won’t kill you, my friend. I have grand plans for you.”
“I’d rather you try and kill me,” I snarled, swinging at him with my heightened reflexes. The blade seemed to move slowly, arcing through the air as distant gunfire slowed its speed to the languid pace of a relaxed heartbeat. The toxic’s eyes followed the path of the blade, whispering words of power that made my flesh crawl. My blade sliced into his arm, drawing blood and striking bone. But his gaze didn’t falter. Maddened focus held as he completed his summoning, and the sludge beneath my feet moved to embrace me.
“Shit!”
The shaman smiled again and turned away, apparently confident his toxic water spirit could contain me. Maybe he was right. I tried to move my legs, but it slid up too fast, brackish muck covering my torso and arms. It slid into my mouth as I tried to scream, choking me.
Oh, spirits, no…
My breath stopped, clogged by acrid sludge. A world of difference from water for anyone else, but for someone who has drowned twice, it was a foul homecoming.
Oh god, they’ve killed me…
…Karl leered at my restrained form as he bent down to take my blood. The girl was dead already. I could hear her screams as they taunted me, chanting blasphemous words to conjure forth dark powers. That was the moment I knew magic was real. They had summoned it here, and the tall one, the one with the blond hair, took Karl and bit into his throat. I could almost see the glow of the girl’s soul brightening the room. Mana. Life. It all pulled into Karl right before the blonde… vampire, it had to be a vampire… gently lowered him to the floor.
The beast turned to gaze at me, grinning through Karl’s blood. “Take him.”
Fangs all over. Piercing moments followed by interminable ecstasy. My terror mingled into it, and I felt myself being drawn in a dozen directions, pulled and sapped, until nothing was left…
“Shall we keep him?”
“We have no use for one so defiant. Give him a proper Salem trial. If he floats, bring him.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
“He won’t.”
I struggled vainly, managing to move my arms enough to claw at my mouth. But it was useless. It was in my lungs. I strangled silently, barely able to see the carnage outside.
“Rick, she’s dead!” Thrall tried to hold me back, but I slipped from his grasp, leaving him with an empty coat as I dove from the ruined yacht. The warm Louisiana water pulled me in, but I ignored the panic as I cast about for Gypsi.
The beams from the yacht’s spotlights illuminated her in the corona of blood she drifted through. I thought she was floating, but we were both sinking, little trails and clouds of scarlet streaming upward as the light diminished. I swam toward her, cradling her slight body until I passed out…
There wasn’t enough sludge to cover all of me, let alone hold me down. I stuck my fingers down my throat to try throwing the vile substance up, but it moved within my lungs and throat, holding down and suppressing my gag.
…The termite queen had chased me through the subway, until we came out by the bridge on Columbus and Wacker. The wall on the other side of the bridge lit up with spotlights, and I knew Knight Errant would be here before long.
Behind me, Needles and my runner team were knee-deep in bugs. My ally was near, smiling demurely at me and seeming calm despite the massive mystical conflagration all around us.
“You don’t have to be here,” I said.
“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
I smiled, pulling my sword focus and Redline. The Queen was
stuck between me and the bridge. Maybe it was suicide, but if I could push her away from my chummers, drive her back toward those Ares troops, I might just live through it.
The alien intelligence probed at my thoughts. I let her. We might be evenly matched, when all the servants were taken out of the equation. I pulsed a spell of strength and speed into myself and rushed at her. She lowered her troll horns at me, charging across the bridge with a roar to shake the pillars of Heaven.
We met in one brief instant, my blade clashing against her head as she lifted me up with her pincers—
And the world became a firestorm. Falling, screaming, water, and then… Nothing.
I couldn’t cast a spell without speaking. My gestures were insufficient. My vision was going hazy…
...the full honey-moon on a calm, black lake...
The impact of purifying cold sent me flying, and my lungs were suddenly filled with cold, fresh water. I coughed, the crystal fluid gushing from me to join with the rest floating into the air to form into Mene. She stood defiantly across from the toxic spirit, placing herself between me and it, heedless of the horrific astral energies of the toxic hive.
“He’s mine, cousin.”
The creature burbled in a strange language as I retched on the ground. Mene looked back to me, eyes shining happily.
“I’ll discuss this with him. Meanwhile, could you negotiate his release from his Master?”
I nodded, searching about for the toxic shaman. Mene and the toxic water spirit splashed together, mingling and switching compositions like an animate lava lamp. Needles had retreated behind the cistern where Slim was writhing, clutching his face. The corpse of a flesh-form was nearby, and smoke rose from the hacker’s face and its body. Needles tossed a spare gun into the cistern, presumably for Pretty, then loaded the Alpha with a green-striped insecticide clip. He was also winding tape around something beside him. Above, the remaining LS drone continued its strafing runs as the Lone Star troops were pushed further and further back down their tunnel. From Slim’s eavesdropping, I knew the cavalry would arrive sooner or later, but would we still be alive by then?
The toxic shaman was one level above, holding one hand out to immolate an LS grunt with glowing white radioactive fire as she screamed. I bolted up the gooey ramp, coming up behind him and swinging the sword with all the force I could muster.
Again, the world seemed to slow at the critical moment. Blade met flesh, biting into his neck more deeply than I ever could. It hooked on his vertebrae, but the damage was done. His spell stopped, the burning trooper fell to the ground, still agonizingly alive.
The toxic’s neck exploded in magical energies, glowing yellow power erupting forth. I kicked the body into the pit with the queen. The soldier writhed, but there was nothing I could do for her right now.
Above, the fight was going more and more to the bugs. I could hear their screams even from here. I cast my gaze down to the queen, disposing of the second bomb even now. She was covered in the toxic solutions, but seemed less hurt than she should have been. Damn those mutations. Her shaman lay in a heap next to her.
“Red!”
Needles waved for me. I started running to him, but after firing a burst, he waved something with his other hand. An insecticide bottle was taped up to a gray block of plastic explosive. He gestured as though to throw it, like a football. Somehow, the idea of making a pass like that in a war zone with his off-hand made me nervous. I’d have given a lot to be able to cast in this mess right now.
He threw it, and I was surprised just how far it got. Not far enough, of course. It landed on the ramp up to my level, bouncing down toward the first cistern tank. I dropped the sword and dove for it, hitting the ground hard and hearing something snap on impact.
The timer on the explosives read five seconds. Ignoring the splitting pain, I sprinted back up the ramp, limping on my injured leg. I came to the spot where I was right above the queen, diving onto her without a second thought.
I landed on the egg sac, eliciting a scream as she twisted to claw at me. Her talons shredded my armor, leaving livid scratches where she grazed me. I jammed the package in the bloated crevasse between the egg sac and her body. She screamed again as she looked down. I flashed her a quick smile and dove—
Only to be snatched in mid-air. The queen held me close, sinking serrated mandibles into my shoulder as I screamed—
Boom.
An entire minute of unconsciousness passed. I came to in time to catch some of the crisping remains rolling down from higher levels. I was being dragged across the grotesque floor, splashing as my head bumped into the puddles within small craters. I looked up at the strong, human hands gripping my ankles. My bleary eyes caught the close-cropped hair of a FRT officer. He turned to look at me.
“You all right, son?”
I nodded. He must have thought I was another Lone Star trooper. I pushed myself up, shaking my head groggily.
“That was a really ballsy move you pulled back there, kid. Stupid as hell, but it worked.” He nodded at the burning remains of the queen. A few weaker flesh forms fell from tiers above, snapping as they impacted. LS troops were dispersing through the hive, maybe a dozen of them. Shouted orders, quick, casual. These were professionals, experienced bug hunters. They were looking for uncorrupted hosts.
“What team are you with?”
He startled me with the question. I was about to make something up when my earbud crackled with Slim’s rasping voice.
“Squad Three,” I repeated.
The officer, whose tag identified him as Kamer, looked puzzled. “I thought they only sent two squads.”
“To this zone. Two-squad groups were sent to other areas. We were closest. I guess we made it in first.”
“Looks like,” he said, looking upward. “With the queen dead, the rest got disrupted. We’re still looking for the victims.”
I nodded as though I knew exactly what he was talking about. I looked around. The cisterns were still untouched, but it was only a matter of time before one of them looked inside and decided the best move would be to toss in a grenade.
I looked around, gesturing at the half-decapitated remains of the shaman. “That one wasn’t an insect shaman. He was using toxic abilities.”
“How do you know?”
“Hell, he told me. They were gloating, supervillain-style. Laid out the whole plot. Evolution of bug spirits and metahumans or something.”
He shot me a confused look. “Don’t they only come in eco-terrorist and genocide varieties?”
“Sometimes they follow other Twisted paths. This one could be called a mutator.”
He smiled. “I thought command said no mages in here.”
“I’m not. I’ve just dealt with toxics before. Believe me, survive one encounter, and you’d want to know everything about them, too.”
“Personal fascination?”
“How to kill them, mostly.”
He laughed. “Well, looks like you got him.”
But what about his bound spirits? Toxics can go berserk, and the rads in here mean a ripe environment for them.”
What are you saying?”
“This area isn’t secure. Hell, he might not have been the only toxic shaman in here.”
He looked at the withered body, shaking his head. “All right, is your squad operational?”
I looked around. Needles and Pretty were trying to look inconspicuous with masks down, searching around the cisterns.
“Yeah, I think we’ll be okay. You wanna secure the perimeter, make sure there’s evacuation paths? We’ll locate any survivors here.”
He nodded. “I’ll leave two troops here to keep things secure so you can focus on your job.”
“Oh, that’s not necessary—”
“I insist. You’ve done enough of the hard work for one night.” He smiled and clapped my shoulder. I feigned a smile until he rounded up his squad and made for the tunnels. Needles and Slim came around the side of one of the cisterns, Needl
es supporting Slim. I noticed a pair of slap-patches on Slim’s arm. The two Lone Star troops took up guard positions at the main entrance.
“Shit,” Slim hissed over the comm. “What do we do?”
“We’ll have to take them out,” Needles whispered.
I shook my head. “There’s gotta be another way.”
He looked at me through his mask. “There isn’t.”
The pause was a moment only, but long enough for us to convey tensions and arguments. It was fought, won, and lost in total silence.
“Fine.” I sighed. “I’ll handle it. You get the survivors out. How about you take the ghouls and get them together out of sight? Slim can relax and find us a way out through one of these tunnels. Pretty can get the other potential hosts out of here and to another squad best of any of us.”
They nodded, moving to their tasks as I started around the cisterns, picking up one of the fallen Star’s snap batons and whipping it ready. I passed the dead shaman. Looking closer, I could smell his own decomposition, already advanced. The queen had just been puppeting his corpse for a mouthpiece. My eyes stopped on the smoking husk of the queen, and the basketball-sized stone orb within…
“I’ll be damned…”
I’d only seen it on the news, gray and somewhat rough to the touch, rune-carved in a fashion incomparable to any historical culture. There sat the Bhianchi Orb, pristine despite the gore all around it, amidst the smoking entrails. I peeked just slightly into the astral, resisting the alien compulsions that still polluted the area to focus on the Orb…
Nothing. Magic, certainly, but nothing specific. Nothing identifiable. I picked it up and placed it in my pack. It’d be worth something to the Institute, after all.
I walked carefully, not too quiet, but not loud enough to attract their attention. They were both facing outward, into the hall, a blonde woman and a large black man, both human as far as I could tell. I came up behind him, hefting the baton. If I could help it, I wouldn’t kill him. Either of them. This didn’t have to go down bloody…
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