[Xios]

It had taken almost half of the planet's dark period for Xios to get rid of the survivor with the bolt-rifle, but he had finally done it. The only weapon capable of causing him real and immediate harm, had been removed. As an added benefit, its owner was likely being ripped to shreds at the bottom of the battlement.

That had not been a simple matter to make that happen.

Truthfully, if Xios hadn't been able to determine the firing algorithm the AI turrets were utilizing, he would have never made it to the base of the wall still capable of combat. He supposed spending a large portion of his existence in the military had its advantages. In fact, he knew had probably enlisted before those things were installed.

It was an odd thought for him to consider, as his host body dripped blood in a quiet fountain. One of his mighty limbs would be next to useless now, but the strength of the other three were more than capable of achieving his goals tonight.

He was unconcerned.

He had a plan, and he would gladly stick to it.

If Xios had any true allegiance, it was to that statement. When everything in your life is a calculated risk and your identity is only allowed to remain for the retention of knowledge, planning for everything becomes more than a necessity: It turns into a motion as natural as breathing.

Or, in the case of a Gemynd, respiration, because lungs weren't generally worth the effort.

His move was planned out for each reasonable scenario, and several unreasonable ones for good measure. When he finally made his charge, he was ready. As a whole hive of the shelled carnivores seemed to be flowing from the jungle in a torrent of seething hunger, Xios had waited by the edge of the treeline. The swarm had gone into a frenzy at the scent of blood from the original few who were foolish enough to walk into turret range. Now it was just a giant feedback loop. Each new death was encouragement to draw in more, and more still.

Xios wasn't exactly certain their numbers, but at this point, there were probably over a thousand of them. More and more of the creatures crawling out of the underbrush towards their percieved prey.

A majority of the swarm would plow straight ahead, but the smarter individuals would carve around the sides and flank. Almost all of them avoided the opposing side of the base, where the turrets were posted along the battlements, but even there, Xios saw some of the creatures ran forward and died in droves.

This had been the ideal scenario.

By using the horde as cover, Xios had maneuvered himself in zigzag motions, occasionally plucking an unlucky creature from the midst of the pack to raise as a meat shield. When he made it within the coverage provided by the tall outer wall, he waited, and using his new senses- he listened.

Sounds almost seemed like another form of sight with this body. When he really focused, Xios was amazed at what he could determine. The was so much information just out there, floating past, and it could tell him everything he needed to know.

At first, in the din of chaotic charges and surges, screams and wails, Xios had not been sure. From a distance, he had seen figures on the tops of the walls which surrounded the base, but what they carried he could not determine. The beast he now possessed could not see through the haze of the air from such a stretch, but it could hear. And smell, for that matter. With these senses, it wasn't long until he was certain.

After waiting patiently for long enough, Xios knew that he had finally determined where the true threat was positioned. His charge, straight up the wall in three quick bounds, had been without hesitation. His claws sinking into the metal and etching indentations of his passage as he finally reached the peak.

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To the survivor's credit, the defender on the wall somehow managed to fire off a shot as his claws smashed their weapon hundreds of units away from its grasping appendages. It had even managed to throw itself backwards as Xios had spun in his decent, while lashing out with his tail. He had connected, but not to the degree he had expected. There had been no satisfying crunch with that impact. Instead, it was more more of an eye for an eye, a hit for a hit...

Still, the fall would likely clean up what his attack had not.

As Xios landed with a heavy impact, he relished in the feeling of soil once again beneath his claws. Using his three good limbs, his massive body lunged back for the safety of the far wall as turret fire peppered his position.

Now that the real threat had been removed, he would wait. Perhaps he would be able to hear the screams of pain...

He was honestly beginning to enjoy those.

Most life in the Union was fragile, even out here on the fringes, species were almost all from lower gravity environments than this. Higher gravity worlds were just less likely to see intelligent life sprout and prosper to the point of reaching the stars. Xios had always wondered exactly why that was. There had been many debates and studies on the topic. Some of the theories he'd heard circled about the fact that it was much more difficult to break free of orbit, and species would expend their natural resources before they could put a focused effort on leaving their safe and familiar environment.

Xios preferred the more obvious explanation, though: The higher the gravity, the more brutal the life there. Everything on high gravity planets seemed to be taken to the extreme.

How could it not?

When something as simple as standing up and walking on dry land required bones that were on par unit for unit with metal alloys, you could place some bets that the world would be a cruel mistress to any life attempting to prosper. Denser bodies required more caloric intake, which required more food... which required more life.

It was no fluke that the most terrifying and dangerous creatures had come from higher gravity planets such as this. And this world was just the tip of the iceberg, compared to some...

Xios quivered in excitement, as a scream sounded from the top of the battlement. The panicked tones of a struggle followed shortly after. He could charge soon, get inside that building while the hive of hunters swarmed over what was left of the survivors. He could sniff out his prey's scent, take it over while it was still recovering from its trek to safety. The others survivors had likely stashed it near the main facilities medical bay, and those could be locked down for quarantine scenarios. He could wait it out there, and if he played his cards right, none would be the wiser when rescue finally did arrive.

As Xios prepared to scale the wall and enter the base, he felt something resonate his entire being. Sounds from off in the distant fog gave way to a huge uplifting of small flying creatures: a panicked frenzy taking to the sky.

Another sense nagged at him, this time a solid shift beneath his scaled feet threw him to the ground. More creatures took off, airborne from branches in the jungle behind him, the foliage shaking from the struggles of life attempting to flee...

But flee from what?

Was this an earthquake?

What were the chances of an-

The thought died as Xios began running straight out across the field. The remaining instinct of the creature he'd taken as a host was going wild now, and he had a hunch that this might be something much more dangerous.

Turret fire ripped across his hide with heavy blasts of plasma, and the scents of cooked flesh began to fill his nostrils, but the body continued. Thick as it was, nothing crucially important had been ruined.

Focusing, Xios dulled his sensations of pain, and withdrew sections of his true body from their intricate webbing throughout the creature's system. As the sprint continued, he tried leaping as he felt another terrible tremor pass through the ground. Below him the ground actually seemed to tremble, and as he landed it bucked his body back into the air. A snap was audible as Xios continued, his weakened limb was now truly ruined, and dangling uselessly, but three legs would be enough; he could make it far enough away on three.

That turned out not to be the case.

The sound of metal on rock, on wood, on flesh, overpowered everything as the jungle ripped apart.

Trees, fifteen times his current body's size, went flying into the air, and mounds of soil blasted in its wake.

It was a ship.

If he truly had time to consider the obscenely large, metallic, rectangular block, that was plowing the very planet apart before it, perhaps Xios might have thought it the ugliest freighter he had ever seen. As it burst through from the treeline and into the open ground before the base, the impact of the up-welling ground shattered his body and threw him airborne in a horribly synchronized manner. Such, was how Xios found himself with a view of the red stripe that which stretched over the front end of vessel, as it plowed past.

It seemed that the shipmaster he'd been waiting for had come to make her delivery after all.

Xios felt a profound sense of irony as his broken body smashed into the ground.