“I-i'm gonna nuke the worms...” Kayters voice was shaking, still comprehending the situation, shakily raising her arm cannon and fumbling around her armoured belt.

“DO NOT NUKE THE WORMS!” Akila spoke sternly, like a mother shouting at a disobedient child. She pushed herself up from Kayter's front, climbing out of the now uneven and mud-like cave surface, restoring power to her weapons and letting her reactor cool. Slowly however, the mass was untangling itself and beginning to spread over the cave, unlike the longer worms they fought just seconds ago, these ones were covered in a thick black goo which was helping them slip away, but Akila new exactly what they were covered in...

Without a second thought, she drew her pistol and fired a large pulse shot into the mass and the worms exploded into a searing inferno, screeching and slithering around madly as they burned to death, clouds of toxic fumes billowing up and concealing the top of the cave, there was some serious heat coming off the mound of burning worms but thankfully, the caves wood-like material did not seem to easily catch fire and the girls just stood back from the billowing inferno, both their armours being heat resistant enough to prevent further damage. Akila seemed quite happy with herself as that seemed to be the end of the worm attack for now and she helped Kayter out of the hole she was lying in.

“You saved my ass there, Akila. I've only got some mild surface damage thanks to you, I could have died there...” The girl still seemed to be taking the situation in but was deeply thankful for her squad-mates fast thinking. Orion armours were typically well suited to standard conflicts but vulnerable to more unusual weapons...

“Don't mention it. How's the hole coming, 'Dave'? Holy shi... look how far its dug!” Akila looked behind them to the far wall where Dave was no longer visible, instead, it was about 30m deep into the wall, having made a significant tunnel that was large enough for the girls to walk down, from which, a stream of black sludge poured from and oozed over the surrounding floor.

“You know... I think i've had enough of acid for now.” Kayter sighed, peering down Dave's tunnel, the bug didn't respond however, continuing to spew acid onto the wall. Despite just saying she'd had enough, she couldn't help watching the bug get on with the tunnel. “How does it keep doing it? Its like- 3 foot tall but it just keeps going, that must be hundreds of litres of acid by now. I know what, I don't want to know. That's Dave's business.” She went to turn away but was faced with the mass of burning, screeching worms and decided to turn around again and look back down Dave's tunnel. “There is NO WHERE GOOD FOR ME TO LOOK RIGHT NOW!” Kayter stamped on the floor on frustration, huffing loudly.

With the worms neutralised, the next few minutes were spent checking equipment and supplies and thankfully, all damage done to Kayter was surface level and Akila's reactor had already cooled back to nominal levels. Down the tunnel however, Dave had reached a new system, its acid melting a fist sized whole into the room and rapidly burning it larger with each passing second, but the bug was anything but happy to proceed.

“Attention team.” Dave announced, peering through the hole. It fiddled with its weapons nervously as it surveyed the cave. “I have opened the tunnel up, but I have hit a substantial obstacle in our path.”

The two girls padded down the acid carved tunnel towards Dave who refused to enter the new cavern.

“What have you located, 'Dave'?” Akila questioned, checking the mission brief and details she was provided with.

“I-i believe we have hit an Ohbeyde infestation...”

Akila came to a stop and looking into the new cavern, within its dense blackness, a single Kaiserian stood perfectly still, occasionally chattering its sharp mandibles in a bizarre, out of time fashion. It did not react to having light shone on it and had a series of cyan crystals lining its shell and protruding from its head-plate.

It stood awkwardly and alone, far different from the aggressive mannerisms of its kind, twisting its head left and right in a slow, deliberate fashion, as if it were a curious dog witnessing something new. Behind Akila, Kayter scowled angrily at the discovery.

“If we've come all this way only for a fucking Ohbeyde cluster, i'm gonna lose my shit!”

“Please calm yourself, Kayter. We shouldn't risk agitating the cluster. Is everyones filtering system suitable for removable of Ohbeyde seeds?” Dave inquired, quickly double checking its own armour and powering up an additional shield layer.

“Calm myself?! Dave! You realise what this means if thats the payload, right? It means-”

“Its not the payload.” Akila quickly leapt in, eager to keep Kayter calm.

“You fukkin' sure, Akila? Really now? Two completely separate anomalous materials in one Kaiserian nest?”

“I'm completely positive. This doesn't match the signals our commissioner was getting from this place. It also explains why this was blocked off... i'm guessing the nest mind tried to cut it off and prevent further infestation. Still, we need to push through this area, you have suitable filters right, Kayter?”

“Yeah, they're fine. As long as you're sure this isn't the payload.”

Within the cave, the singular, infested Kaiserian had remained perfectly still, continuing to twist its head from side to side but there was no other signs of infection within this cave, still, the crew felt a pit in their stomach, even with good filters, if they took a nasty hit, a single seed would kill them should it reach their body.

Shining their lights into the cave showed the area was full of silver slithers, easily mistakable for dust aside from their slight blue tinge, but the good news was, the burning mass of worms in the previous cave would provide enough heat to prevent the spread of the damned thing for a few hours at least.

“We're gonna need a full decontamination after this. I'll get it scheduled in. Remember that armour stays on folks, we're not losing anyone to Ohbeyde today.” Akila reminded the squad and they slowly tread into the cave together, revealing several smaller tunnels branching out in different directions on the far side. Akila fired a sonic pulse into the cave to map out the tunnels as best as possible and picked their best route to the other half of the squad. With a slow, quiet pace, they skirted around the edge of the cave to avoid rousing the isolated individual, Dave watched the creatures every movement, half fascinated, half horrified at its state.

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“God, I hate that stuff.” Kayter whispered, taking extra care with avoid making noise in her much heavier armour. “Such a horrible way to go.”

“I thought an Orion meat hea- Soldier like yourself would relish the challenge, Kayter?” Akila questioned, leading the group over towards the correct tunnel.

“You'd have thought so, sure. But I hate what this shit does to people. A friend of mine lost her cousins family to this, someone got infested in the night and it grew over the house in hours, colony got wrecked. Nomads are so unprepared for this shit. Its a brutal way to go.”

“You got Nomad friends?” Akila seemed rather taken a-back but was still focused on her sensor readings.

“I got friends all over the place, sure. Even got some Battle Sisters friends!” Kayter seeming not able to talk and concentrate at the same time, kicked a large stone on the floor which rattled loudly and skidded across the chamber. The squad froze, waiting to see what the creature would do, agonising seconds passed by and thankfully, it seemed not to stir.

“Careful Kayter!” Akila scolded her again, her eyes bolted wide in fear as she came to the tunnel entrance.

“Sorry! Sorry... Maybe we could try burning through the infestation? I don't like this quiet approach very much...” The Lioness noticed that the squad-leader had gone silent. “Akila? You've got a bit quiet for my liking...”

“Shit! Shit shit shit!”

The tunnel narrowed down significantly after only a few meters, to the point where it would be a tight fit for Kayter at the very least, but the tunnel was lined with Ohbeyde crystals... From top to bottom and across the ceiling, a thick layer of beautiful cyan and sapphire crystals lined the tunnel. Despite their beauty, they were absurdly dangerous as a single cut to bare flesh would kill and disturbing them would summon their infected defenders.

“We could just shoot-”

“No, Kayter! We can't solve this with firepower, we have no idea how bad this infestation is, if we damage the crystals, we could be calling half an army of infected Kaiserians here and you know how much higher the stakes are with this shit! One seed gets through your armour or filter and you're dead!” Akila was whispering as loudly as she could but the creature behind them was still unaware of their presence, or so it seemed...

“We've killed hundreds of Kaiserians so far! We can take these ones too!”

“Its not the same! You know its not the same! Don't be so cocky!”

“Ugh! I thought we were getting along but you Enigma types always find a way to ruin it!”

“Orion meat-head! You can't solve every problem you encounter with lead and muscle!”

As the two girls argued, Dave kept its eyes on the creature behind them, deeply concerned with its actions. The glowing nature of its crystalline infestation meant it was easy to see in the dark but Dave had a growing level of concern as it began to twitch faster, unnaturally so... the twisting of its head sped up to an alarming pace and it suddenly shuddered violently and turned its head directly towards Dave, the crystals across its back and face began to pulse...

“Attention! Team!”

“What is it Dave?!” They both barked together, no longer whispering.

“I think we've roused the infection...”

There was a sudden, deep growl, like the very earth itself was full of hatred, from the other tunnels nearby. Although faint, there was an intensifying glow coming from all of them, with a rumbling stampede of armoured hoof and chattering mandibles as the victims of the Ohbeyde did as they were ordered.

“Defensive positions!” Kayter yelled, reaching for her minigun.

“I'VE GOT A FUCKING CHILD SITTING AT HOME FOR ME, WE'RE NOT HOLDING GROUND!” Akila yelled, grabbing Kayter firmly by the armoured chestplate. “MY SENSORS ARE SCREAMING AT ME, THERES THOUSANDS! GET DOWN THE FUCKING TUNNEL – NOW!”

Dave followed her orders instantly, disappearing down the crystal lined tunnel easily due to its smaller size. Akila followed immediately, squeezing herself down it and avoiding the sharp protruding crystals as best she could. Although deeply hesitant, Kayter stopped reaching for her minigun and instead pressed through the serpent like tunnel to the best of her ability. Full of blind turns, this labyrinthine of deadly blades was extremely difficult for her to navigate and she kept snagging her armour on crystals, breaking them off the walls when she did so, although this didn't really damage her armour too much, the accompanying bellow from behind that followed it was harrowing to the absolute core.

The tunnel became too narrow for Kayter to be able to turn, she had no way of knowing how close the pursers were and instead pushed on as fast as she could, snagging on more and more crystals, the sound of screeching metal scraping across walls filled the air and she could no longer see her squadmates as the sharp turns cut off her vision...

to her absolute horror, her pace slowed as the tunnel became even more narrow and suddenly, her movement ceased abruptly, her significant armour jammed tightly between the walls, a bleeting and screeching behind her was getting closer, the infected Kaiserians were closing the distance...

“GUYS...?! AKILA?! I'M TRAPPED!”

She pushed with all her might, servo's straining loudly as she tried to push herself through but there was no give and the crystals lining the walls were jamming her comms causing nothing but a horrifying whisper-like static to play through them whenever she tried to communicate.

The first Kaiserian turned down the tunnel and was promptly met with a arm cannon shell to the face, bursting its infected head with a thunderous splat, her HUD showed the weapon had 22 shells left in it and it was the only thing she had to defend herself with, more of them showed, desperately crawling over one another to get to her and one by one, she lined up a killing shot and punctured their furious flesh.

Her ammo dropped to 10 rounds, the corridor was half filled with corpses and they continued to pour in. The arm cannon continued to fire, 9 rounds, 8 rounds, 7 rounds, 6 rounds.

“FUCK! GUYS! I NEED HELP!” Kayter screamed at the top of her lungs, perhaps they could have heard her by sheer volume alone, but the helm and the environmental shielding damped ones voice within their own armour... She dare not open the seal, a single seed would of this bastard material would end her and she could see them floating lazily through the air, clinging to her shields and exposed armour like cyan glitter.

5 rounds, 4 rounds, 3 rounds.

“PLEASE! THEY'RE GOING TO TEAR ME APART!”

2 rounds.

There was some movement in front of her as Dave scuried back into the tunnel and climbed up Kayter's armour, perching on her shoulder-pad and opening fire his its rifle at the intruding Kaiserians, blasting a couple more as they inched ever closer to the trapped Lioness.

“HOLY FUCK DAVID! THANK FUCK YOU CAME BACK!”

He was doing something on her though, tapping away at a tech gauntlet and fabricating something on the spot, quickly producing a complex looking orb and chucking it down the tunnel without wasting a second.

The orb produced a mass of black froth that rapidly expanded and filled the tunnel at the corner, encasing all the corpses and completely blocking off the tunnel, within seconds, the froth rapidly hardened and produced a tough, rock-like material with a brilliant sheen, completely locking the tunnel off. From behind it, the unified and titanic roar of the Ohbeyed horde screeched out in anger.

“My god... Dave... thank you... can you get me out of here?”

“Negative! Akila is protecting you from the other side, the tunnel's exit is a few meters ahead but she's under assault.”

“Wha... c-can you burn me out with your acid or something?!” Kayter began to hyperventilate in her armour as she realised she was trapped in the tunnel for the foreseeable future.

“Negative, Kayter. Too many reasons to list. Akila has assigned me a critical objective. The other team have a high power mining laser, I must locate them and bring them to your aid.”

With the words uttered, Dave quickly left, scampering back down the tunnel and leaving her. Behind her, an army of infected bugs wanted her dead, ahead of her, her only defence was Akila and the only person that could help her in the tunnel was now being sent off to find aid...

She reduced the power in her armour to minimal, dimming the HUD lights in her helm and the mounted ones on her plating, leaving her with the cruelly seductive glow of the Ohbeyed pressing against her and the vague sound of pulse fire just barely audible through her shielding.

“This... this is bad.... isn't it?”