The Humans that had stayed out of the inner sanctum to fight and defend their new home didn’t have a real weapon to arm themselves with, but that didn’t keep them from picking up nearby sticks and the biggest stones that they could find to use to bash the Crita with. Some even pulled their shirts off and used them for slings or to fashion protective wraps for their hands. They didn’t bother fighting one on one. Instead, the Humans ganged up on individual Wasps. The first few that the Humans took down cost them several lives and critical injuries, but with each minor victory they were able to get their hands on the weapons of the invaders. That wasn’t all. In classic Human tradition, no part of quarry was wasted. It was difficult but they pests were pinned down and ripped apart as they screeched in existential horror. Mandibles and stingers were hastily used to craft spears and claw-like weapons utilizing the hand wraps after being ripped from the aliens’ bodies. Their body was then pulled apart, flushed of their internal organs, and every piece that could be used as armor without much modification was fitted to a Human fighter. And their abdomen was split in two using the heaviest axe they could find creating the perfect set of shields. This was the last thing that each Crita that were brought down by the Humans saw and felt.

The effect of this monstrous brutality was that the Humans that started off unequipped and unable to handle the incoming tsunami of attackers soon became the most heavily armed units in the battle. Moreover, they were able to shift between group tactics or fighting individually with different units playing different roles that pulled in and ensnared more of the Crita’s numbers, leading them to their horrific deaths one by one.

The Crita were not stupid. They saw what was happening. They were terrified, but they had no way to communicate a change to what the plan was and more just kept coming in pushing them forward into the death mill that the Humans had set up. It spurred many to fight harder on the intersecting fronts between the Humans and other alien groups, but all this did was cause chaos and errors to overcome them. More and more fell. If they could they would move to where the Humans were not. It was futile though. The Humans chased them and where they weren’t able to get to they found the whirlwinds of the T`kata ripping them apart in bloody hurricanes or the walls of the Tok`phane pushing them back.

By this point, the Thisin had taken note of the Humans and instead of shedding blood in vein. They retreated and turned to helping them. They were used to the dirty work and they were stronger which made them more capable of processing the Wasps. They also got in line to be equipped in the same way the Humans were. At first they thought there was no way that they’d be allowed to, that this was a step too far. It was one thing to grant them general freedom, but once again the Thisin were surprised. Not only did the Humans not prevent them, they let the Thisin to go ahead of them in equipping themselves.

Similarly, the Sil`phane who had been killing individual Wasps as they came over the wall started dragging their kills over to the pile of Crita ready to be dissected and turned into gear for the extermination of their kin. They acted like they were just keeping the place clean, but the Sil`phane had begun become attached to their Human cohabitors and loved the innovations they brought. It was like the whole Human race was performing a courtship ritual with the Sil`phane race to the Sil`phane. To the Humans… the behavior reminded them of an outdoor pet cat trying to show affection for their owners. Most found it cute. Some found it disturbing. All were made somewhat uncomfortable by the implications on both sides. There were a few former Otaku in the group of survivors who were simply in love with the real live Neko-jin and showed an infatuation that would likely have to be dealt with in the near future if they survived, but for now, the issue could be put aside in favor of dealing with the trouble with the Crita. When the Sil`phane saw that the Thisin had started getting armor they also started wanting to get outfitted, but had specific requests as to how the chitinous material was turned into armor and weapons for them. One of the things they wanted were claws made from the stingers of the Crita which had piled up. They had seen mandible claws and thought that if that could be done then why not with the stingers which had them all excited as the first ones were made. It was gone in the blink of an eye as an excited Sil`phane snatched it away and ran off to test it. Moments later she came back a carcass in tow, requesting another for her other hand. They went into mass production along with the modifications that they wanted for the armor, mostly to allow for more range of movement or to remove weight.

The Crita who had come in overwhelming numbers were now falling left and right, but much more concerning to them, their fallen kin were being made into the armor of their enemies to push them back and kill them. A sense of dread filled them and they wanted to turn back. They tried to turn back, but they couldn’t. Retreating resulted in death. Pushing forward resulted in death. There was only one way left to go that they thought could provide them with safety. Up. But it was useless. They would take off only to be pelted out of the sky by a stone flung by one of the slingers. The end result of this was just as assured a death as the other ways for when they fell they’d lost their balance and fell all the way to the ground where they’d be trampled on by either side they fell into.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Meanwhile, Rina was running about trying to heal each of the injured allied fighters. At first the fallen were ignored, but allies began to notice her cures suddenly washing over them amidst the battle. Then they began running over when they needed a quick refresh, but as the fighting became worse fallen wounded allies were drug over to her in hopes that they could be saved. Rina was soon in full triage mode, choosing among those injured who she could save and those she couldn’t in the short period she had to get them back on their feet. An invader got through the other defenders and almost got to Tina, but a passerby stopped it, putting it quickly into the ground. The next second Rina had a team of personal bodyguards that dealt with any attacks that made it through who also served as nurses and aids to move her patients around as needed. She was the only healer they had. This made her a critical point to target. Despite her age, she proved to be a solid back bone to the defense of the town. She made mistakes but had she not been there the situation would have been far worse.

Jason lead from the center, passing along orders to the closest allies and hoping that the game of telephone wouldn’t go too far astray. He kept in contact with all that he could with his VUI, making a point to check up on and reassure Rina as she was being pushed to the breaking point both mentally and physically. The stress of dealing with the piles of dead that were being dropped at her feet would likely weigh on her conscience in the future, but this was now the world that they lived in and she would have to learn to deal with it because it wasn’t likely to get better any time soon. Xev on the other hand was having fun destroying the wasps with ease. It was easily some of the most fun she had in a while besides tormenting Jason. She was force unto herself equal greater than any of the other sub-factions within the battle. There was a sense that if she really wanted to she could handle all of them alone, but it was more likely that she’d be swarmed and overwhelmed without the excess being diverted away from her. She didn’t fight too far from where Jason was and was still in tip top shape like you’d expect from any robot while he was flagging. He could feel every inch of his body crying out for a break, even a brief respite, from the continuous battle that they had waged for hours. The only thing that kept him moving was that failure would result in the end of this town and the end of the battle growing ever closer.

The Crita ceased pouring over the walls and their numbers were slowly thinning out. With each one falling the rate at which the next was dispatched increased until there were few remaining. This allowed the wasps to have brief counter attack surge that proved deadlier than they had been in a group. They could now more easily move about, making them a harder target, but in the end most were put down. Those that had any sense remaining took the opportunity fly up and escape. Some were grabbed onto and pulled back down. Others were knocked back to the ground. Almost all of them met with the same fate; Death, dissection, and made into new armor for the defenders.

With that, the day was won and all that was left to do was to clean up the mess that the invaders had made. Dozens of houses had been destroyed. Burnt to the ground or leveled by the waves of wasps. What wasn’t damaged from a direct attacks was covered in blood and the dead were all around. The new town’s population had dropped by at least 5%. They would be mourned, but there were things to do first. They were all tired and needed to rest. As soon as the last wasp exited from view almost all of the living dropped to the ground in exhaustion, even the T`kata that never seemed to tire. Jason would have followed suit, but his legs were on fire and locked. Rina’s job however wasn’t over. She just continued to heal all that she could get to, ordering her squad of helpers around even more quickly than before as the wounded began to make their way to her. Jason heard her shouts and realized that all the other people that had medical experience were in the inner sanctum and sent word for them to hurry out to aid the wounded before they lost more of their friends and allies.

The day was coming to an end. They had survived the onslaught and more, they had united and begun to fight as a single cooperative people. In the back of their heads they all believed that if what they had just went through happened in their former homes, they would all be dead, or at the very least, suffered much worse devastation. It likely wouldn’t have happened to Gondaluke they knew, but had it, they feared the results. But this thought barely registered. The much louder line of thinking was the sense of starting a new adventure with new family and friends that they could count on and trust. They were in wonder at the inventions the Humans developed, but anyone create a miracle or two with the write knowledge or devices at hand. Now they began to truly believe in the cause and the future that they could create if they worked together. These feelings all disappeared the moment a roar came over the walls, louder than any of the previous ones and much, much closer. A dark black silhouette of a skull the size large enough to eat a man in a single gulp could be seen peeking over the wall with yellow cat-like eyes.