Charlotte was both concerned and fascinated. This new group of humans moved and fought like no other humans she'd encountered before. As they steadily progressed through the station, they moved in what seemed to be a practiced manner, with each member moving to cover the vulnerable positioning or blind spots of the others. They all trusted each other to protect one another. In many ways, this level of coordination reminded her of the way She's coordinated their appendages. That fact, combined with human technology, made them a real threat. Things would likely have gone very differently if this group had first invaded her home to retrieve Scott and Alice.

Lucy and Charlotte were almost to the ship she'd singled out, but the new group of humans was not as far behind as Charlotte would prefer. Having spent many of her resources in the initial taking of the station, then again in the first conflict with the new human group, Charlotte was running low on the kind of appendages that were an actual threat for a combat suit on their own. But having learned from centuries of her and her predecessor's experience that in conflict, it was often wise to hold something back to use when things turned out suboptimally, it was time to employ her own "plan B" to buy them more time.

As the human group approached one of her positions, Charlotte waited to spring her ambush.

-

Dax kept one eye out for trouble and the other on the scanner from the center for the formation. As they moved, he could make out several smaller nonhuman biosignals in their vicinity, but none of the larger ones that posed an actual threat to their suits.

Once or twice, they'd come across a small group of bugs, but a tossed grenade could generally deal with them. However, soon enough, it seemed like they were staying spread out so as not to make an easy target. Maybe Dax was just being paranoid, but it was as if the bugs were somehow learning and adapting to their tactics. That made him feel uneasy. If these weren't just mindless bugs...

That was when the loud crack of a rifle went off, but not from the group. Instead, it came from a position to their left. Mixed shouts were coming from everyone. "Enemy fire on the left!" "Return fire!" "Medic!"

Several people were pouring suppressive fire down the hall, but Dax couldn't see who'd fired in their direction, at least not until a second round went off, piercing another squadmate through their leg armor. A gun was lying on the ground, braced up against the body of its former wielder, on which a dead spider seemed to be lying. A three-round burst made quick work of the thing, but the situation presented the possibility of a whole new level of threats. The thing was way too small to have aimed the gun, so it just waited for them to walk into the path it was already pointed toward, then pulled the trigger.

Thane seemed to have caught on, too. "Did I just see what I think I just saw? Can those bugs use our guns?"

Dax lowered his aim a little as he responded. "Yeah... this whole situation just keeps getting more messed up."

However, the commander was more interested in listening to the medic at the moment. "Well, Sam is fine, but while I can shoot Robins up with all sorts of pain meds so he can walk, he'll probably be pretty loopy."

Thinking about it a moment, he shook his head. "Send him back to the ship then. The last thing I need is one of you all taking someone out with friendly fire." Then, turning to the rest of the squad, he added. "Alright, form up and watch for fallen guns as we move! If there's a bug anywhere near one, dead or not, give it a safety tap!"

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That left just six of them. Half strength. Well, a few of the ones they'd lost weren't quite up to their standards yet, so more like two-thirds strength, but it was still annoying to have things going this badly.

Still, they were closing in on their quarry. It looked like she was trying to hijack a new ship. Now, it was just a race to see if they could board the ship before it took off.

-

As Charlotte had feared, that particular trick only worked once. These humans were very adaptive. It had done its job, though. There was one less human hunting them, and their movement through the station was just a fraction slower than before.

At the moment, Lacy was readying a charge to breach onto the bridge, choosing a more expedient route rather than taking the time to bypass the door's security. Charlotte was still fascinated by how well humans could refine their tools. It wasn't unheard of for her people to use bio-organic explosives in one way or another, but the way humans could direct and focus their explosions onto their intended targets with minimal collateral damage was evidence of their mastery of tools. A moment later, there was a bright flash and a loud bang, and where there had once been a door, there was now a smoking crater.

Not wanting to give anyone time to process what happened, Lacy lept through the hole, carefully avoiding some of the more jagged edges, and Charlotte crawled through not far behind. Two gunshots rang out, and once she was in the room, Charlotte saw two humans on the ground, holding their arms where they'd been shot. There was also a third still seated, looking confused. Of course, all eyes were fixed on Charlotte as soon as she was in the cabin, but Lacy seemed ready for that. "Now, don't mind my crewmate here. Charlotte won't bite anyone unless I tell her to, so you'll want to listen to what I have to say!"

As usual, Lacy, now in her role as Lucy, was striking a bit of a pose as she addressed the crew. She said a little drama helped speed things along. "Alright! I don't have much time to argue, so whoever has the codes to bypass the security on this pile of rust gets to stay alive and well on my new ship. So who is it?"

After barely half a second of hesitation, the two men who'd been shot were vying for her attention, including one on the ground. "I have all the codes you'll need! So keep me alive!" "I'm the captain of the ship! I can bypass every system on this ship!"

Lucy nodded to the third person. "Right then, get off my ship! You're gonna want to get out and clear of the hangar quicker than I can get this thing up and running!"

The "captain," who was lying on the ground, looked angry. "I thought you said you'd shoot anyone who didn't have the codes you needed, not let them go!"

Lucy smiled. "Then you weren't listening. I said you'd get to stay on the ship. I never mentioned anything about what would happen to anyone not useful to me!"

That didn't seem to appease the captain. "Well, you should let me go as well since you only need one of us!"

Lacy squatted down and pointed her gun in his face to drive her point home while the third crewmate took her up on the offer and got up to run out of the ship as fast as possible. "No, I like having two people with the info I need because this is how it's going to play out, I'm going to ask you for whatever I need whenever I need it, and if at any time you fail to provide me with that info, I'll shoot you, then get what I need from the other guy. In short, you're expendable, so don't give me a reason to expend you, got it?"

Finally realizing what kind of situation he was in, the captain nodded. "Uh, yeah, whatever you need!"

-

As they finally reached the hangar, Dax saw the ship had already powered up its engines. He and the rest of the squad broke into a sprint, headed for the hatch a lone crewmate seemed to be running from. At a glance, the crewmate didn't appear to be related to their target, but the commander wasn't taking any chances. "Sam, Raol, take them into custody!"

That left only four to take over the ship, but given how small this freighter was, that was probably more than enough.

Thane was the first aboard, with the commander right behind. As the ship started lifting off the ground, Dax jumped up and caught the door, using his servos to hold the door open long enough for Stilt to get in before sliding inside as the door slammed shut.