Chapter 14: Succession

Jade led them through the maze of tunnels, and they eventually emerged into the Queen’s cavernous chamber. The team made their way across it cautiously, skirting around the giant control panel in the center of the room. Evan glanced up at the tether that still hung from the ceiling high above, a mass of what he knew to be neural connectors dangling from the near end like fleshy fiber optic cables, still glistening with slime. The Queen connected to the hive in exactly the same way that Sunny hooked into her suit, just on a far larger scale. Maybe her massive brain was the central computer for this whole place. Her egg sack was still lying beneath it like a beached whale, oozing clear fluid that pooled on the ground beneath its puckered orifice.

“Can she reattach that thing?” Hernandez wondered as he grimaced at the sight.

“The tether? Yes,” Jade replied. “The egg sack? I don’t think so. She’d probably have to regrow it, which is why Queens only detach themselves in emergencies. It costs them weeks of egg production.”

Save for a scare caused by a Nurse that was climbing a nearby support pillar with an armful of eggs, they encountered no Bugs. The Queen could be anywhere, her entourage of Drones in tow, but they weren’t here. It was hard to feel relieved when she was certainly hot on the heels of one of the other groups that had been separated in the confusion.

Jade sniffed out the tunnel mouth from which they had taken their first potshots at the Queen, the group climbing the incline of the bowl-shaped room, leaving the strange sights behind them.

They rounded the bend and came across the carnage left over from the initial firefight, Drones piled several deep, a lone Supermajor lying among them. Tatzi waded through the bodies, relieving the dead giant of its rifle. She checked the magazine, turning to nod to her companions.

“Five rounds remain.”

“Don’t waste them,” Foster replied. “We don’t have anything else that can bring that bitch down.”

They moved deeper into the egg chamber, Evan kneeling to check the vitals of one of the dead Marines. Tatzi paused, her eyes locked on Borzka’s suspended body, the glaive still jutting from his chest.

“I’m sorry,” Evan said, one of her ears swiveling in his direction. “I know that you two had been through a lot together. He was the last member of your original pack.”

“He died a martyr’s death,” she replied. “His name will be woven into the great tapestries of Elysia.”

“We’ll get him down from there once the area is secure,” Hernandez added.

“This way,” Jade said, gesturing down one of the passages that led out of the chamber. “Bainbridge went right – I have his scent. Cardinal was with him.”

As they made their way deeper into the maze, Evan spied more dead Drones. One of Yates’ people was lying against the wall of the tunnel, his body pocked with burn marks from plasma weapons. They had given as good as they got – there must be another two dozen dead Bugs lying around him. Evan didn’t need to check the pulse on this one, there wasn’t a lot left. The hive’s outward resemblance to an ossuary was starting to become disturbingly literal.

“The Queen was on their ass last I saw,” Hernandez muttered. “You think they could have gotten away from her?”

“We have to assume that she knows exactly where we all are,” Garcia replied. “Those cameras are everywhere.”

Each tunnel brought new signs of combat, the resin walls pocked with plasma burns, dead Drones scattered about. It seemed as though the lion’s share of the Drones had accompanied the Queen as she pursued the other teams.

“Let’s pick up the pace,” Tela grumbled, leaping over a dead Drone. “Private?” she continued as she glanced at Jade. “Do you smell my flock, too?”

She didn’t say it aloud, but Evan could tell that she was dreading rounding a corner and coming across one of her own companions lying on the floor.

“They were with the rest of my team when we split up,” Jade replied. “Don’t worry – Cardinal was with them. She’ll make sure they find their way back.”

The sound of gunfire and raised voices echoed from somewhere ahead of them, but it sounded far-off, the winding and branching tunnels making it hard to pinpoint exactly which direction it was coming from.

“This way!” Tatzi said, her sensitive ears swiveling like little radar dishes. The sound grew louder as they rushed down one of the winding tunnels, emerging into a gunfight.

Bainbridge was immediately identifiable by his cumbersome armor, leaning out from behind an egg-encrusted pillar to fire a captured plasma rifle at a horde of Drones that were attacking from an adjacent passage. Donovan and Collins were nearby, the Marines laying down covering fire. Cardinal, Simmons, and the three members of Tela’s flock were trapped in another tunnel off to the right. They must have been caught in the open while entering the room.

“Friendlies!” Foster yelled at the top of his lungs, announcing their presence in the absence of radio and IFF.

Evan’s group piled in, helping push back the attacking Drones, their numbers quickly thinning under the hail of plasma fire as they were bottlenecked at the tunnel entrance. Several of them dashed forward, their blades drawn, simply running through the fire with no concern for their own safety. All of them were cut down save for two, who managed to close, making for Cardinal and the Valbarans.

Tela and Tatzi sprang into action, moving to intercept them, the Bugs turning their attention on the newcomers. The Borealan swung her rifle like a war hammer, carrying enough force that the stock turned her target’s head to mush when it made contact. Tela darted in with surprising speed, sweeping her tail as a martial artist might sweep their leg, sending her opponent crashing to the ground. As the Bug scrambled to right itself, she melted a hole in its torso with a burst of plasma fire, the smoking corpse falling back to the chamber floor.

The Marines mopped up the last few stragglers in the tunnel, then Cardinal and the other Valbarans left their hiding place, hurrying over to join the growing group. Tela reunited with her flock, her relief palpable, Jade and Cardinal touching antennae in a greeting.

“I finally found you,” Cardinal sighed. “I was following your scent, but we had to evade the Queen. She went after the other humans, I have no idea if they’re alive or dead.”

Foster pushed past his friends, making his way over to Collins. The Marine’s arm was hanging limp, his sleeve soaked in blood, a Bug handgun held in his good hand.

“Collins!” he exclaimed.

“Good to see you alive,” Collins replied, his pale face breaking out in a smile.

“Are you-”

“I’m not done yet,” he insisted.

“It’s about time you fuckers showed up,” Bainbridge said, his brow drenched in sweat beneath the narrow opening of his visor. “Did we lose anyone else?”

“Everyone is accounted for,” Evan replied.

“Lieutenant!” Tela chirped, hopping clear over a startled Hernandez to land in front of Bainbridge. “We have a plan.”

“A plan?” he asked. “I was gonna suggest we retreat and regroup. We can’t take the Queen down with that shield active – we need heavy support.”

“Private Jade has proven her theory that the shield is powered by induction coils in the ceiling,” the little alien explained, talking so quickly that Bainbridge had to concentrate to understand what she was saying. “We believe we can destroy them and cut the Queen off from her power source, which should collapse her shield long enough for Private Tatzi to dispatch her, in theory.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” he replied with a nod of approval. “You need bombs? I got bombs,” he continued as he patted a satchel on his hip.

“We need to set them to blow on the ceiling, some distance apart,” Jade explained. “If we’re right, it’ll break the circuit between the coils and stop the flow of power.”

“How big of an explosion are we talking?” Bainbridge asked.

“Big enough to damage the machinery below the surface, but not enough to collapse the tunnel,” Jade replied. “I don’t know how helpful that is, but I can’t be any more precise.”

“I’ll figure it out,” Bainbridge said. “If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s blowing up Bugs.”

“Remember, we only get one chance at this,” Evan added. “The Queen is too smart to fall for the same trick twice. If she chooses only to engage us on her terms, then we’re screwed.”

“Try not to look like you’re settin’ a trap,” Hernandez added, Foster giving him a sideways glance.

“What does that even-”

They were interrupted by the sound of a scream, Evan snapping his head around to see a Marine come sailing into the chamber from another tunnel as though he had been thrown. He hit one of the pillars hard, crumpling to the floor, flashes of light emanating from further down the passage. Three more of Yates’ men came running down the tunnel, one of them pausing to fire back at his pursuers. He was answered by a stream of plasma fire that vaporized him where he stood, leaving nothing but tattered fragments of his charred pressure suit floating in the air.

The Queen lumbered towards them, the barrel of her massive cannon crackling with arcs of plasma, more Drones swarming about her feet. The massive crest on her head skirted the ceiling, her shoulders almost broad enough to touch the walls, the energy field that shrouded her wavering as she moved.

“Pull back!” Bainbridge ordered.

They turned to run, heading back down the tunnel towards the previous chamber, but Tela and her flock remained.

“What the hell are you guys doing?” Simmons demanded.

“Buying you the time you need to set those charges!” Tela replied, shouldering her rifle. “We’ll loop around and lead her back through the tunnel that we just came down – it’s straight enough to give your Borealan a clear shot!”

“How the hell are you gonna find your way back here?” the sergeant asked.

“Perfect recall,” she replied, tapping the side of her helmet as she began to run. “Don’t tell me that you forgot already?”

Before Simmons could argue, the Drones came flooding into the chamber. They split into two groups, likely at the Queen’s behest, their towering regent turning another of Yates’ Marines to a cloud of boiling gore with a burst from her rifle. That thing had probably been designed to kill Warriors sent by an invading nuptial fleet, and she was using it against soft targets. Evan waved frantically for the surviving Marine to join them, the man narrowly avoiding a barrage of fire from the Drones, putting one of the pillars between him and his attackers. He made it to their tunnel, most of Evan’s group already hurrying back the way they had come. Before Evan could follow, he saw the Queen’s slatted visors turn on him, the fifteen-foot creature raising her weapon to aim at him between two of the pillars.

There was a flash of light, her shield flickering as plasma fire began to pour into it from off to the right. Evan glanced over at Tela’s flock, seeing them leaning out of cover from a tunnel mouth, harrying her with a stream of bolts.

The Queen switched targets, giving chase as her entourage of winged males swarmed ahead of her, the Valbarans darting deeper into the tunnel. Evan’s relief was short-lived, the second group of Drones heading in his direction. He wheeled around, Jade waving him on as she lagged behind the rest of his comrades.

They raced down the winding tunnels, the blind corners and branching paths giving them cover, the Bugs hot on their heels. As they rounded a bend, they found a dozen rifles pointed in their direction.

“Get down!” Bainbridge yelled. Evan, Jade, and the surviving Marine threw themselves to the floor as the team opened up over their heads. The Drones that had been chasing them were cut down, taken by surprise by the sudden coordinated gunfire. Evan rolled onto his back, raising his plasma rifle to defend himself from a wayward Drone that had taken cover behind the bend, his bolts burning smoking holes in its torso.

He scrambled back to his feet, helping Jade up, the Marine following behind them as they caught up with the rest of the group. Cardinal guided them down the maze of tunnels, and they soon emerged into the passage that led to the first egg chamber. Tela had been right – it was long and straight enough to serve their purpose. If Tatzi set up at the far end, she would have a straight shot at the Queen, and there was room enough to space the two charges a good distance apart. That was, if Tela and her flock were able to lead the Queen back in this direction without getting vaporized.

“Tatzi, get down to the other end of the tunnel!” Bainbridge barked as he reached into his pouch. He began to shape the plastic explosive as he ran, sticking a detonator into the malleable substance like a toothpick, connecting it to a spool of wire. “The rest of you – set up to cover her in case any Drones come at us from behind!”

“Delta, on me!” Simmons added as he waved for them to follow him.

Bainbridge skidded to a stop, glancing up at the ceiling.

“We might have a problem!” he announced.

“What’s wrong?” Foster demanded, stopping to look back.

“I don’t think you guys took the height of the ceiling into account,” the lieutenant continued, gesturing to the snaking cables high above his head. “That’s gotta be six meters!”

“Toss us the charges!” Jade said, wheeling back around. “Cardinal, come on!”

Bainbridge threw the charge to Jade like he was passing her a softball, and she caught it in her lower pair of hands, then headed for the tunnel wall. Using her remaining arms, she began to scale the resin just like the Bugs did, its uneven surface providing ample handholds for her. She reached the apex of the ceiling remarkably quickly, parting some of the fleshy cables as she hung there, upside-down.

“Where should I put it?” she asked hurriedly. “Does it matter?”

“Just stick it somewhere beneath those tubes – that should do it,” the lieutenant replied. “Make sure the Queen can’t see it!”

“What about the wire?” she asked, tugging the thin cable that was still connected to the spool of det cord on his hip.

“Fuck,” he grumbled, pausing to think for a moment. “Okay, I’ll give you the spool, then I need you to run it along the ceiling where the Queen can’t see it. She shouldn’t notice it if you wind it through the existing cables, right?”

Jade buried the charge among the insulated cables, then Bainbridge tossed her the spool, the Jarilan crawling along the ceiling as she hastily threaded it into the existing wiring. They couldn’t just run it along the floor – not without it being obvious to the Queen, and the EMP had neutralized any capability they had to detonate the charges remotely.

Bainbridge finished shaping the second explosive, tossing it into Cardinal’s waiting hands.

“Put that one a few meters away from the tunnel entrance!” he said, Cardinal nodding as she set off at a run. “Jade, just wind the cable around the little electrode that sticks out of the charge – I can blow them both at the same time.”

Evan and the rest of the team arrived in the chamber, easily identifiable by the bodies that littered its floor. He tore his eyes away from Borzka’s remains, taking up position beside Tatzi as she leaned against the wall beside the tunnel opening, keeping to cover. From here, they could see all the way down to the bend in the tunnel some thirty meters away. The Queen would be boxed in, and missing would be practically impossible. Delta fanned out, covering the other angles, ensuring that they couldn’t be flanked.

Cardinal dropped down from the ceiling just as Jade and Bainbridge reached her, the trio hurrying over to join the rest of the group, taking up position with their rifles aimed back down the passageway. Jade handed the spool of wire back to Bainbridge, who cut it loose with his knife, holding the severed end in a gloved hand as he fished in one of his pockets with the other. Cursing, he tore off his glove with his teeth, then produced a stormproof match kit of the same kind used in MREs. It was a little orange tube with a screw-on cap and a striker on one side.

“And they told me I was being paranoid,” he chuckled to himself, using his teeth again to twist off the cap. He prepared one of the fat matches, his eyes fixed on the far end of the passage. The team waited, the silence punctuated only by their labored breathing as they recovered from their sprint.

“What if she doesn’t show?” Hernandez whispered. “What if she wasted the Valbarans, and she attacks us from behind or somethin’?”

“We have to trust Tela,” Evan replied. “She helped get us this far.”

The sound of gunfire echoed down the tunnel, the team bristling, Tatzi pulling her long rifle tighter against her shoulder.

“Hold,” Simmons whispered. “Don’t fire until you see that shield go down, or this was all for nothing. The rest of you – take out any Drones that come around that corner.”

Evan gripped his strange, alien weapon tightly, reminding himself not to squeeze the grip too hard for fear of a misfire. After everything – a coordinated invasion on a planetary scale, hundreds of ships, almost a million men – it all came down to a match and a rifle.

The far end of the tunnel was illuminated by flashes of green light, a few stray bolts striking the right wall. A moment later, a small figure raced into view, skidding as it changed direction. It was Tela, her three flockmates following behind her. They were stumbling, exhausted, their limited stamina already drained. What they lacked in endurance, they made up for in speed, the four of them flying down the tunnel as the rest of the team shouted encouragement and waved them on.

When they were about halfway down the thirty-meter passage, the Drones that were chasing them rounded the corner. Simmons shouted a warning, the Valbarans ducking low, moving to the base of one of the walls as the team opened up. Plasma filled the tunnel, streaming past the fleeing Valbarans, cutting down the Bugs before they could react. Tela and her flock dove into the safety of the chamber, panting as though they had just run a marathon, the Marines snatching them out of the line of fire. More Drones followed, taking potshots as they leaned around the bend, but the withering suppressive fire kept them at bay. That was, until a larger shape strode into view.

The Queen rounded the corner, stepping into the hail of bolts, her shield flickering as it rendered the plasma harmless. What remained of her horde began to advance behind her, using the shield as cover, some two dozen Drones forming a column at her rear. The towering insect raised that massive rifle to aim it down the tunnel, the team withdrawing into cover as she sent a burst of return fire streaming towards them. This wasn’t some piddly plasma rifle, the bolts impacting the pillar behind them with enough energy to melt into the resin, the eggs popping like blisters as they boiled. She loosed another barrage, the projectiles blasting the tunnel mouth, forcing the defenders to leap to safety as they were showered with fragments of melting resin.

Bainbridge scrambled to his feet, shaking off some of the smoldering debris, checking that his wire was still intact. He shuffled closer to the shattered edge, peering into the passage beyond, Evan hearing him count down under his breath. The Queen passed beneath the first charge, the lieutenant waiting a few seconds longer, then he struck his match. The det cord ignited with a flash, the small explosive within racing down the wire in a fraction of a second, the hive shaking as the hidden explosives went off.

The Queen reeled as the ceiling behind her collapsed violently, unidentifiable fluids spraying from the torn cables, sparks showering from the severed power lines. Large chunks of resin rained down, crushing some of the less fortunate Drones, cutting off most of her trailing entourage as the passage filled in with rubble. The blast exposed machinery, too, pieces of damaged electrical equipment hanging from the gaping hole in the tunnel. The explosive ahead of her detonated in tandem, though it was far less destructive, likely by design. Bainbridge was an explosives expert – he knew what he was doing. It was still powerful enough to tear apart the winding cables, blasting a chunk out of the resin, exposing the twisted induction coils beneath.

The shield that enveloped the Queen flickered, then died. The wavering plasma contained within its powerful magnetic field escaped in a flash of boiling gas, warping the tunnel walls around her. The Drones that had survived the cave-in were caught in the blast, the release of energy vaporizing them. She turned her massive, crested head, scrutinizing the ceiling through her slatted visors. There was understanding there, the trap that they had set now obvious to her.

She raised her massive weapon, but as Evan ducked further into cover, he noticed that no bolts came racing towards their position. When he leaned out again, she was examining her rifle, using one of her dexterous lower hands to fiddle with the biomechanical components. Maybe the gun had been powered in the same way as the shield, or perhaps the sudden collapse of the magnetic field had damaged it. Either way, it wasn’t firing.

“Now, Tatzi!” Bainbridge bellowed.

The Borealan stepped out into the open, taking aim with her unwieldy rifle. The Queen knew what was happening, and with the tunnel behind her blocked, she had no way to go but forward. Tossing her massive weapon aside, its weight enough to shake the ground, she began to charge. With her long legs, the thirty meters between her and the egg chamber were nothing more than a few strides. Even without her rifle, she was still plenty deadly, strong enough to tear them limb from limb like a sadistic child pulling the legs off a spider.

“Tatzi!” Hernandez warned as he began to back away, the team moving deeper into the chamber as they wavered between standing their ground and getting out of the Queen’s path.

She didn’t reply, waiting for the perfect moment, taking careful aim at the lumbering behemoth. Her rifle resounded, its crack echoing off the tunnel walls, recoil slamming it into her shoulder. The first round struck the Queen in center mass, making her stagger as though she had been hit by a hammer, the chest piece that cradled her torso erupting into a spray of shattered carapace and ichor. She reeled as Tatzi blew more bleeding craters in her suit, each follow-up shot stripping away the layers of protection to expose quivering meat and sparking electronics. The next round hit her armored torso at an angle, creating a spray of shrapnel that severed one of her lower arms, the pieces of flesh that still joined it to the bloody stump tearing as the limb fell to the tunnel floor. The fragments peeled open the plating on her narrow midsection, creating an ugly tear in the amethyst-colored carapace beneath. Tatzi fired one more time, aiming for the head, the Queen flinching away as it shattered her branching horn. The bullet punched through, ricocheting off the armor that protected the Queen’s crest, still carrying enough energy to crack her skull. One of the cables that connected her mask to her suit tore away, spraying off-green fluid as it snaked through the air.

The Queen stumbled, bracing herself against the tunnel wall, Evan’s breath catching in his throat as he waited for her to topple over. His elation soon turned to dread as she righted herself, covering the bleeding wound on her midsection with one hand as she resumed her advance. Her armor was little more than a torn mass of wet meat and broken chitin that hung over her shoulders like a tattered shawl, but it had kept her vital organs intact.

“Tatzi, what are you doing!?” Garcia yelled. “Shoot her!”

“I am dry!” she replied, tossing the empty rifle aside.

The team scattered as the Queen stumbled into the egg chamber, passing the second damaged induction coil. Her shield flickered as she reconnected to the hive’s grid, the protective bubble that surrounded her reigniting. It only lasted for a moment, petering out again, her armor too damaged to sustain the field. Ichor dripping on the soil behind her, she swiped at the fleeing Marines, raising another forearm to shield her face as she was peppered with plasma bolts.

“God damn it, try and get some fire through the gaps in her armor!” Bainbridge yelled.

Evan followed his friends deeper into the chamber, putting the pillars between them and the rampaging Queen, the air filled with the sound of gunfire and panicked yelling. The Queen’s footsteps shook the ground beneath their feet, the giant creature making an attempt to grab Collins, who only just managed to leap out of her reach.

“What the fuck do we do!?” Hernandez asked, putting his back to one of the supports. He broke an egg, cursing as the clear fluid inside spilled over his shoulder, seeping down his chest piece.

“We’ve got no fucking ammo!” Foster replied, sliding in beside him. Jade followed Evan into cover, glancing back over her shoulder to see the Queen lean around a nearby pillar like a monster from a nightmare as she pursued Simmons and Garcia. “That was the last anti-materiel rifle we had!”

“There has to be somethin’ we can use to kill the bitch!” Hernandez added.

A giant arm rounded their pillar, chitinous fingers the size of a man’s forearm reaching for them, forcing them all to duck in tandem. It raked at the eggs a scant foot above their heads, those digits as sharp as claws, spilling more amniotic fluid as it drew back. Evan shuffled around the base of the support, reaching for Jade’s hand, pulling her along with him as the Queen leaned into view. She was distracted from her hunt by another scurrying Marine, the ground shaking as she set off in pursuit, Evan exhaling the breath that he had been holding.

“Where the fuck are Bainbridge and Simmons?” Foster hissed. “We can’t let her scatter us like this! We need to regroup!”

“Wait!” Evan said, shuffling around the pillar. He located the tunnel that led to the Queen’s chamber, clogged with dead Drones and one of the fallen Supermajors. A few meters to its left was Borzka’s final resting place, his body still suspended off the ground by the giant glaive. “This might be a bad idea, but hear me out.”

“The glaive!” Jade hissed, following his gaze. “But, who’s strong enough to wield that thing? It has to be three meters long!”

“Tatzi,” Foster added. “She’s the only one of us who’s big enough!”

“We gotta do this fast,” Evan confirmed. “Wait until she’s far enough away, then make a break for it.”

“I got this,” Hernandez said, giving Evan a nudge with his elbow.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” he whispered.

“You always said I was a loudmouth, right? Now’s my fuckin’ chance to shine.”

“Wait, you can’t just-”

“Don’t let me get smushed,” Hernandez added. “Tatzi’ll pull your arms off.”

Before Evan could stop him, he raced out into the open, jumping up and down as he waved his arms above his head.

“Come get me, you party-sized cunt!” he yelled at the top of his lungs.

The Queen paused, her slatted visors turning on him, then she began to lumber in his direction. Hernandez spun around, leading her towards the opposite side of the room at a mad sprint, the Queen weaving through the pillars as she gave chase.

“Now!” Foster said, Evan and Jade following as he ran towards the glaive.

They skidded to a stop in front of Borzka’s body, hopping over the Supermajor that he had slain as his final act, Evan reaching up to grip the long haft of the weapon. It was angled slightly down, bringing it low enough that even Jade could get a good grip. She wrapped all four of her hands around the resin, Foster taking up position behind her.

“One, two, pull!” Evan groaned. They strained against the weapon, but it barely budged, embedded deep in the wall behind Borzka’s body. They tried again, panic flooding Evan’s veins with adrenaline. It wasn’t enough – the thing was just too large for them.

“Again!” Foster bellowed, the three of them giving it another tug.

Evan felt the haft vibrate, turning his head to see Tela and her three flockmates joining them, the prehensile feather sheaths on their forearms wrapping around the resin like tentacles to give them more leverage. She must have seen what they were trying to do.

“Pull like your flock depends on it, Earth’nay!” she trilled. “One, two, heave!”

With the extra help, the weapon loosened, Borzka’s limp body shifting.

“Again!” Tela chirped, and they gave it another pull. This time, it came free, the still-lit plasma blade at its tip flaring as it emerged into view. Borzka fell to join his dead foe on the ground, everyone holding the three-meter weapon between them.

“Tatzi, on me!” Evan yelled. With her sensitive Borealan ears, she should be able to hear him over the yelling and shooting.

A few moments later, she came barreling towards them, not even slowing as she snatched the glaive from them. She hefted it in her blood-soaked hands, wielding it like a medieval pike due to its length, her face contorting into a snarl as she turned to face the Queen. Tatzi let out a feline roar that rose above the din, the blood-curdling sound getting the Queen’s attention. The towering arthropod turned to face her, acknowledging her challenge, ichor and fluids still leaking from her damaged armor. She broke into a lumbering run, Tatzi bracing herself, everyone else scrambling clear.