Maker was able to track the incoming horde, since they weren’t disabling scanners. That gave them all warning to be ready, if the sound of the claymores going off closer and closer wasn’t enough. The transition from a solid wall to melting metal and a bug swarm was still sudden and creepy as fuck. Crish’s and Kayo’s guns opened up, able to fire over the group into the swarm. Zander and his people joined in with grenades going out liberally since the defenders had makeshift barricades to save them from the shrapnel.
It was chaotic as fuck, and Zander had nearly forgotten what a true firefight looked like. The bugs spat acid back at the group, and, along with the oxygen being pulled from the room, this had security doing their best while being careful not to make mistakes. When one of the group was hit by acid, Origin portaled them to Dreams. The space suits they wore wouldn’t last under the acid, and with it being a vacuum, death was a possibility if the suit breached.
Things held for the first five minutes, and the bugs didn’t make much headway, even with the lucky hits that removed two of the security team. Pawntu was cursing when he was taken away; he was just a big target, even when kneeling, which is why he’d been tagged. But things held. The Entoma were held back and killed off barely into the room. Then the second wall sagged in, and another front was opened up. That divided the field of fire, and the Entoma began to make headway.
Zander hissed as he ducked down to reload again. “Maker, can you electrify the metal in here?”
“Possibly, give me two minutes, and be ready to be yanked out.”
The tide of bugs was closing the gap, even with all three emplaced guns firing and the defenders doing their best. As more and more got splashed with acid, though, the tide was getting closer to the core. Zander shifted aim to the ceiling, picking off the few bugs that tried to gain altitude on his people. A glob of acid nearly got him; another couple of inches to the side and he’d have had a face of it, or a helmet of it at least.
“Everyone, be ready to drop,” Maker announced. “It’ll be a drop, then a pause before we drop you back again.”
Rough affirmatives came back scattered as the group kept fighting. Maker counted down from three, then free-fall came briefly. Along with the sound of a couple of shots, as the defenders hadn’t paid enough attention. The ricochets thankfully didn’t catch anyone. The pause was for five seconds, then they dropped right back into the core room. The room was littered with bugs, most of which were twitching spastically.
“Ensure they’re dead,” Zander said and began firing single shots into twitching bugs.
The gun emplacements joined in, then the others did as well.
“Not a bad idea, we don’t know if the current was enough,” Maker said. “Can’t believe that worked. No idea why they went for the charge like that.”
Zander was quiet as his mind worked on the question. “Maker portal me back to the room with all the AIs.”
“Copy that,” Maker said. She saw his reasoning in his brain and did it.
When Zander appeared, he cursed and started shooting.
“How do we not see them?” Origin asked as Zander was killing things, but none of the AIs could detect the Entoma in the room.
“More friendlies incoming,” Maker said as portals opened up to drop people into the room.
The stealth bugs were beetles with a bright silver sheen, and Zander would bet they could deflect laser fire, which was likely why the sensors failed to detect them. The guns punched through the carapaces, which was good. The downside was that the beetles had foot-long mandibles that cut through suits, flesh, and even bone with ease. Lozat screamed when she lost a foot, but she managed to kill the bug that got her before Origin yanked her out. More screams of pain came as others were injured and removed. When all the visible bugs were dead, Zander looked around and found just him and Vorsa left standing. An air vent was also knocked askew, attesting to how the bugs had managed to get to where they’d been.
“Maker, this isn’t good,” Zander said. “We need a way to find these fucking things.”
“Working on it,” Maker said. “Grab one and put it on the scanner that’s glowing green.”
Vorsa was closer, so he did it.
“Tester, work on that,” Maker commanded.
“Yes, ma’am,” Tester said.
“The horde is dead, all of security was pulled out, injured but alive,” Maker went on. “Defense is running the scans she can on the ship. Stealth bugs were not on my bingo card, and we’re still down a Queen or something like a Queen.”
“This is why unknown signals in space are always a bad idea,” Zander snorted.
“Zander, thank you for coming when you did,” Origin said. “I detect a faint signal on one of the bugs in this area.” A blue light glowed where a few Entoma lay. “I believe it is either a bug enhanced to do something or an actual device, and I pray it’s a bug.”
Zander and Vorsa worked through the few remaining bugs and found one with an extra leg resembling a port. “It’s a bug, but this leg…is it a scanner?”
“Scanner,” Maker confirmed. “Make sure that port is not touching a ship port, please.”
“Teach your grandmother to suck eggs, Maker,” Zander grunted when he lifted the bug. “Got some heft to it.”
“Weightier than I thought they’d be, too, but not too bad,” Vorsa nodded. “They have metal plating or a similar carapace.”
“There is a shimmer on one frequency when it touches these Entoma,” Tester said. “Defense, use this frequency and scan again.”
“Copy,” Defense said, having learned from the people who’d come to help them. “Scanning bow to stern.” There was a moment of silence, but it didn’t last. “Catching shimmers in ducting heading to the bridge. There’s another slightly larger one with them, but it doesn’t reflect the frequency the same way.”
“Maker, send us,” Zander said as he slapped his last magazine into his rifle.
“This is my last magazine,” Vorsa said as he did the same.
“Then we make them count,” Zander said just before he and Vorsa dropped onto the bridge.
“Comms inside helms only,” Maker said to Zander and Vorsa. “We don’t know the capabilities of these bugs. They should come from these three spots, Zander, if you can point them out to Vorsa.” She used his bionic eyes to highlight the three vents for him.
“We believe the leader here is a junior brain bug, an offshoot of the Queen bugs. They aren’t as capable as the Queens, can’t control every bug in real time, but can issue orders to the different groups with her,” Origin said. “We only have the barest inkling of them, as they were theoretical when we were sent out. The brain bug is roughly the same size as the bugs you just fought, but shouldn’t have the same mandibles. We had nothing on these stealth bugs, as Maker calls them.”
“Do we have a count?” Zander asked.
“Roughly thirty,” Defense said. “I’m still refining my ability to find them.”
“Copy that,” Zander said. “Rasisar, how is the egg cleaning going?”
“Steadily,” Rasisar said. “The juggernauts have just returned to Dreams. The sections they could clean are done. I even had them go over the hull just to ensure nothing was left in the wake of the horde.”
“Copy that, keep it up, hopefully we’ll be done here in a few moments.”
“Affirmative, Badger.”
“Maker, are you out of claymores?” Zander asked.
“Yes. Won’t have any more made and ready until after the bugs reach you.”
“Damn, those would have been useful.”
“Agreed. Should be here shortly,” Maker said.
Vorsa and Zander each faced a vent, ready to kill the Entoma as they came out. They would let the lead elements out before they fired to ensure the rest followed. It left one vent uncovered, but it was the best they could do.
“Can’t get an emplacement built in time,” Maker muttered. “Three…two…one…”
There was another pause, then the vents were pushed aside, and the Entoma came scuttling out. The bugs slowed when they saw Zander and Vorsa, then they screeched and rushed in. That got the pair to begin firing at the silver bugs.
Both Zander and Vorsa finished with the ones they had in front of them, then they turned to the middle vent. Eight silver stealthers and another bug were there. The brain bug, for want of a better term, was already on the captain’s seat, one leg plugged into a port. Zander and Vorsa shot the silver bugs first, trusting Maker to buy them time. When their guns ran empty, two silver bugs remained and were nearly on them.
Vorsa let out a deep roar and stomped down with his full strength. The roar turned into a stifled scream of pain as the bug swung its head up so when Vorsa’s foot came down, its sharp mandibles went through his boot and foot before the bug was smashed into paste. Vorsa vanished in the next moment, off to Blurb’s care.
Zander switched to his pistol and fired twice, but both bullets flattened against the bug’s carapace, even if they did dent it. The bug had stopped at the impacts, then screeched and came forward again. Zander exhaled as he aimed better and fired again. With Maker’s improvements to his body plus his bionic eyes, Zander hit his target, the round punching into the beetle’s eye and then bounding around inside it, killing it. Zander switched target to the brain bug, which turned its multifaceted eyes to him.
A wave of sleepiness and hopelessness hammered into Zander. He should just lie down and die; it would be better if he did. There was no winning against the Entoma; they were inevitable, they were the perfect creatures made by the Antecedents to wipe all life from the universe. There to remove all the other failures the Antecedents made.
Zander felt his handgun drop, and then his knees hit the deck. The impact of his knees jolted him enough to shake off the bug’s influence. Snatching up the gun, he lifted it, without looking, and aimed at the captain’s seat using the base of the seat as his point of reference. He emptied the magazine before he looked up. What was left of the beetle on the captain’s chair was a mess.
“Maker?”
Silence greeted him.
“Origin?”
More silence.
“Dreams?”
Nothing.
“Oh, come the fuck on,” Zander growled. “Can this get any more B-rated movie? Hero kills bad guys but is left floating in space on a dead hulk?”
Getting to his feet, Zander swapped magazines in his pistol, then marched over to remove the leg from the brain bug that was still plugged in. The moment he ripped the leg out, he was bombarded with voices.
“Zee! Hang on!”
“The leg must have blocked the bridge—”
“Captain, they are working to—”
“He killed them!”
“We’re saved!”
“Pipe down!” Zander barked at the multitude of voices. “It’s dead, the leg is out, are we clear?”
“Scanning again,” Defense said quickly.
“Badger,” Tester said, “would you please take those remains and place them on the yellow scanner? The more I can learn, the better we can ensure no more are on board.”
Zander looked at the mess and grimaced. “Sure, it’ll take a minute.”
“I’ll send drones,” Origin said. “They can do it.”
“Zander, you had us worried when they lost contact with you,” Veldiami said.
“Sorry, Captain,” Zander said. “I’ll be staying here until we’re sure there aren’t any more brain bugs. And something to note, the fucker can make you give up. Some kind of mind fuckery. Now, Maker, how the fuck did it stop you from talking to me, you’re inside my head!”
“I don’t know,” Maker said softly, her voice tight. “You were just gone… It felt like I was in a jar, where I could see you but not touch you.”
“Make that it has a couple of abilities then,” Zander said. “And after I killed it?”
“It stopped when you pulled the leg,” Maker said, her mind spinning. “The connection must have had something to do with it. Some kind of blank on Antecedent tech, maybe? I fucking hated it.”
“A fucking pile of shit to learn from here,” Zander exhaled. He went over and sat in another seat as the drones arrived to cart the brain bug bits to the scanner. He let his helmet retract and then quickly put it back on, coughing. “Fucker smells like sewage, too.”
“Copy that,” Maker said, calming since she was fully back with Zander. “We’ll get it hospitable again soon.”