Watching Scott as he worked in the field, Cleo was conflicted. On the one hand, watching a grown man maintaining a large field of plants like this was the single most country bumkin thing she'd ever witnessed. On the other hand, watching as he tilled the soil and effortlessly hefted large sacks filled with various materials and plants around was kinda fascinating to watch for some reason. On an unrelated note, seeing him now reminded her he was more well-muscled than he looked in those looser-fitting clothes he usually wore.

Cleo was just reminding herself this was just a kid who barely had any idea how the universe worked when Scott stood up and stretched, and for some reason, she lost her train of thought. Then he looked her way. "Hey, how's that section coming?"

Cleo blinked a little, then looked at the hoe in her hands. Was she supposed to be doing something? "Uh, yeah, just about done over here, I think!" She then hurriedly went back to digging up the dirt like another country bumpkin, trying to focus a little more on her work rather than letting herself get further distracted, even if said distractions were kinda entertaining.

As she worked, Cleo shook her head at herself. What was happening to her? Not long ago, the idea of letting her heart go all pitter-patter over some guy would have been laughable, yet here she was falling for her captor. Sure, she'd seen some prisoners do something similar out of necessity from time to time, but this was different; she was pretty much only a prisoner in name these days, needing only a light escort to go anywhere, usually consisting of Scott or Alice, but now that the alien had revealed herself to Cleo, she'd offered to escort the pirate around as well. However, Cleo had yet to take her up on that offer.

That was when "little" Alice came trampling through the garden, her many legs sounding almost like a small herd of horses as she ran. Cleo's feelings about the girl were also somewhat complex.

On appearance alone, Alice should be utterly terrifying, but the girl's bright and bubbly personality made it impossible to feel anything but affection for the girl. Cleo never had any little sisters growing up, which was probably for the best given how things turned out, but if she'd had one, she'd have wished for one like Alice, except maybe a little more human-looking.

Right now, Alice had a massive grin as she held up her prize. "Look! This one is ripe, right?"

Scott looked up and smiled as he examined the pumpkin-looking plant Alice was holding. "Yup! Looks great! Go ahead and add it to the rest of the harvest!"

As impossible as it sounded, Alice somehow made trotting with eight legs look cute as she proudly walked over to the wheelbarrow, swinging her abdomen and thorax in a way that was more of a strut than a walk. The sight made Cleo chuckle and shake her head. She couldn't help but be reminded of her earlier thoughts about getting soft, but then again, if things stayed this way, maybe that wouldn't be so bad...

-

Just as they were about to leave and head back to their ship, Lucy noticed an alert on one of the consoles. At a glance, it seemed a ship was docking without clearance. Given Charlotte's lockdown of the station, it wasn't surprising that they didn't have clearance. What was surprising was that they were docking at all, and of course, the new ship was right between them and their escape on the lower deck. She didn't like the look of that at all...

Looking over at Charlotte, Lucy started improvising. "We're switching to plan B, going to the upper deck and hijacking a new ship to escape. Watch our back; we may need to leave most of your appendages behind."

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

-

Charlotte rapidly repositioned appendages to clear the path ahead as well as watch their back. Apparently, Lacy had noticed something that warranted this extra precaution, and realizing speed was essential, Charlotte wasn't about to stop and ask for specifics.

With most of the station's security already dealt with, the resistance they faced moving forward was negligible. There were still a few pirates abroad who apparently hadn't gotten the message or didn't care and a few of the station's guards who'd run away. They were almost to the ship Lacy had picked out when a dozen humans in combat suits came pouring out of a ship that had apparently just docked. But these humans seemed different from those she'd fought not long ago or even back in her home. They somehow moved both cautiously and confidently simultaneously, examining every corner as they went. They were likely using human technology to communicate, but they also had a series of hand gestures that seemed to convey far more information than the simple movements merited.

Charlotte immediately opened fire with all her ranged options, including those she knew could not harm the humans in these heavily armored suits. She was able to lock one up with the projectile glue, which, while a temporary solution, should last long enough for their escape. A second was hit by several boring rounds, followed immediately by several flying parasitic organisms that resulted in the human screaming as it was dragged away by another. However, not everything went her way as the humans focus fired several of her appendages down.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Charlotte prepared to drop her hands onto the suits. She knew they wouldn't be able to do much damage, but they were only another distraction after all.

-

This situation reminded Dax to an uncomfortable degree of the job they'd had extracting a VIP from a literal warzone. They'd lost half their squad on that one, and he wasn't eager for a repeat performance. He saw another of those glue bugs taking aim at Thane, but he gunned it down before it could do more than get a single glob on her shin. Thane didn't even slow her firing as she spoke. "I owe you a drink for that one!"

Dax grinned. The oversized woman would probably try to use the opportunity to get in his pants, but he wasn't sure he was ready for that wild of a night again so soon. He was about to joke about it when the commander shouted over the coms. "Keep the channel clean unless you're sure it's something I won't give you KP for later!"

That also made Dax grin. The commander liked to pretend like this was a military squad and backed it up with the kind of punishments that would probably get an actual officer kicked out of the military. But that was fine by Dax. It was one of the reasons they had such a high survival rate on what most people would have thought of as suicide missions.

That was when giant spiders started dropping from the ceiling onto their suits. The new guy who's asked the stupid question back on the ship screamed in a way that would probably earn him a nickname while Dax scowled and reached for his knife.

That was when Thane screamed. "Big ones incoming!"

Forgetting about the knife, Dax turned and fired at the giant bug, jumping toward them with blades the size of his torso. Seeing around the giant spider on his faceplate as its fangs uselessly scrapped against the plated screen was somewhat challenging, but he recognized a greater threat when he saw one. Together, he, the commander, and Thane managed to cut it down in time, but a second one made it to their firing line intact enough to cut the new guy in two.

Realizing what the real threat was, everyone turned and fired on the giant bug, but even as holes the size of their fists punched through its carapace, it swung down with its blades into another squadmate's shoulders. As it fell, the man fell as well, screaming while the commander shouted out, "Medic!"

Finally grabbing his knife and cutting the spider off his face, Dax watched as Thane reached up and pulled a spider off her own before squishing it flat in her gauntleted hand. Another squadmate fell over, his joints plastered in that same glue-like substance that had immobilized Jake earlier.

They were almost down to half an effective squad already, but at least the bugs seemed to be thinning out as he gunned down the second glue bug.

Then, seemingly all at once, the bugs were either dead or gone. The commander stepped out. "Form up on me. We gotta move quick, but I want you sweeping every nook and crevice as we move. No surprises. Let's get this job done and get paid!"

Getting paid. Now, that was the kind of inspirational message Dax could get behind!