Chapter 36: The Drunduh Board

‘Supreme Queen, you are our friends. We will not abandon you in your time of need. You stand between a terrible enemy and the Paradigm. So be it if we are the first to fall from the Paradigm. Give us weapons, and we will do our best to support and protect you.’

The old Queen looked at them. ‘Our armor will not fit you, and you will find our lightest weapons heavy.”

‘We will do our best.’

The Supreme Queen gave her orders. The liaison Queen gave Ashlyn, Brendan, and David swords and a chainsaw.

‘Ashlyn, I have my orders; I must leave you. My younger sister will accompany you and assist you to the best of her ability,’ said their Liaison.

A younger queen arrived fully clothed in armor, carrying a much bigger chainsaw than Ashlyn had. ‘I will show you how to use these weapons. The swords are also proto-beam weapons. We use these weapons because assault rifles are too powerful to use on the ship,’ said the Queen.

‘What do these enemies look like?’ Ashlyn asked.

The Drunduh is an insect species bigger than us, with a heavy, naturally armored body and six thick legs. They are powerful psychic fighters who try to paralyze you before they suck out your psychic being. Then they sink a proboscis into your thorax and feed. They also produce an acidic compound that will digest you from the outside in. They spray you with acid when they get close to you. Our armor protects us; you are vulnerable. Some of them attack using lightning. Fortunately, that is rare.”

‘Where do we strike them?’ Ashlyn asked.

‘They have two large compound eyes, much bigger than ours. Aim for their eyes when you use that beam, as I showed you. They are also vulnerable between the neck and thorax, thorax, and abdomen. If they get close to you, they have two tentacles on either side of the upper thorax, which will grab you and draw you to the needle-like proboscis. Cut the tentacles before you attack the eyes, and be aware of the feeding needle. It is hard and fibrous, rapidly moving in and out, and hard to cut.’

Brendan laughed. ‘I thought we would be safer spending time with the XaX.’

‘I don’t think I can manipulate and use the sword for more than five minutes; it’s too heavy for me,’ said David. He spoke only to Brendan and Ashlyn on the Paradigm telepathic channel.

‘I will be surprised if I can last three minutes with this chainsaw,’ said Ashlyn.

‘Me too,’ said Brendan, looking down at the floor. ‘This decision will be our downfall. There must be something we can do.’

‘What about that stuff Seka tried to avoid when she taught us what we can get from the developmental program?’ David asked.

‘I was thinking about that myself. Prof. Shohsukit told us everything about how to do it without doing it. Could it work?’ Brendan asked

‘Are you talking about that sword, the shield, and armor Seka was ducking and diving about? The weapons you can allegedly get from some of the levels of consciousness?’ Ashlyn asked.

‘We’ve got nothing to lose if we try. Some people have powers; the investigators asked us if we had psychic abilities. Seka was trying to avoid giving us access to weapons or any way to defend ourselves. I bet that rotten Anayees Parnok ordered her to avoid teaching us anything we could use against her. We know how to deal with telepathic attacks; let’s attempt to access powers and weapons,’ said Brendan. ‘I’ll try it first, and if it works, we might last a little longer if the Drunduh attacks this area.’