Briggs led the way down the small offshoot. While his battle suit offered him some sense of security, he saw what happened at the first drop site and what was left of Eric in his suit. Still, he was better off than the fire team behind him. They moved slowly, covering all angles so something couldn't sneak up on them from behind, but after a while, it felt like they were walking in circles.

The large man approached another empty room. He and another fire team member entered simultaneously and swept opposite sides, ensuring nothing was hiding in the corners. This whole place felt abandoned, which was better than being swarmed by aliens like he kept imagining, but still, it was starting to creep him out.

Oddly, this tunnel was just a straight line with no turn-offs. Even rooms that looked like they should have a second opening only had one path available. Still, at least it made the exploration easy, and if they had to retreat, it would be a simple enough path to follow.

Looking ahead, Briggs could see another room. It would probably prove empty just like the rest, but that was fine by him.

-

Charlotte watched as one of the groups walked deeper and deeper into her home. They seemed unaware they were being herded, not noticing any of the false walls she had in place. The false walls were an old but effective design of her second predecessor's. Initially, they were used purely defensively, keeping invaders out of sensitive areas, like node rooms, but her fourth predecessor realized they could also be used offensively to herd the enemy into ambushes.

The room they were about to enter was an incubator for one of the few lifeforms She used that were not directly under her control. These were very effective swarming organisms developed by her fifth predecessor. Several She's had developed similar swarming organisms before, but the problem of their small size making them unable to link to a greater consciousness had always limited their potential. Her fifth predecessor overcame this limitation by removing their reproduction ability, leaving only an instinct to feed. Then, She shortened their lifespans to only a few minutes so they wouldn't threaten the hive as a whole and compensated for this by making their eggs able to sit dormant for years at a time, hatching once the ambient temperature raised to the appropriate trigger point. Of course, that still left the issue of them being a danger to both the host and invader, but that was overcome through one last innovation.

With the enemy in place, Charlotte withdrew the false walls in the room.

-

Briggs was about to order the team to move out when one of the men shouted, "Movement!"

Turning to see what was moving in the empty room, Briggs noticed several walls walking away on what looked like spider legs. Behind the now missing walls were what looked like thousands of tiny eggs.

He was about to order the eggs torched when another door withdrew, and at least a dozen large flying scorpions flew out. The men didn't need any orders and opened fire, taking out a good number of scorpions, but several got through and landed on the unarmored men. The men screamed and swiped at them, knocking the scorpions down, but two of them got stung first.

At first, they froze while Briggs and the remaining team member gunned down the last of the scorpions, but after a moment, they started laughing nervously. Briggs looked them up and down. "You all right?"

The man nodded. "Yeah, I've been hurt worse in a knife fight. This won't even slow me down!"

Briggs was relieved when he heard a buzzing sound behind him. Turning, he saw a swarm of tiny insects the size of fingernails rising from the eggs he'd spotted earlier. He grabbed a thermal grenade and popped the pin, but the insects were already moving and quickly swarmed two of the men. Their screams told him everything he needed to know. For some reason, the bugs ignored the third guy until he turned to run and stepped on one of the scorpion carcasses, which then exploded, covering his foot in its innards. A moment later, they swarmed him as well.

Turning and running back the way he'd come, Briggs threw the grenade behind him but kept running even as he felt the explosion. Except where he knew he'd come from, there was now a wall.

Stolen novel; please report.

Not slowing down, Briggs screamed as he charged into the wall, arm held out in front of him, and he burst through, exploding the fake wall with spider legs into viscera.

The large pirate keyed his com to the other fireteams. "The walls can move! Watch out for fake walls!" But all he heard in return was static.

Briggs ran on for a while, wondering how close to the end he was before he realized he'd probably run too far. Those damned fake walls had probably blocked off the exit. He was lost! He was debating what to do about it when his world flipped end over end, lifted into the air by his foot, dropping his rifle in the disorientation and panic of the moment.

-

Charlotte was pleased. This trap was one of her own designs, based on what she had learned from watching Scott in the early days. As tough as those human battle suits were, the real problem in dealing with them was how maneuverable they were despite that heavy armor. But suspended as he was and without his guns, this human was much less of a threat than the one before had been. If She had a blade handy, she could have taken him out easily enough, but those were all non-functioning after the last fight.

Thankfully, She was not alone in this fight.

-

Lucy walked around one of Charlotte's "false walls" and into the room as the pirate was struggling to get his knife out of his belt, probably so he could cut himself down. She wasn't sure how tough the substance Charlotte had made for this trap was, so she figured it was best to distract him.

As Lucy approached the oversized man, she taunted him. "You know, I didn't think much of Cooper's men before now, and seeing you strung up like a rabbit sure isn't going to change my mind any time soon."

The pirate in question froze and then looked at her. "You're...you're human!"

Lucy nodded as she ambled in. "Sure am. As human as you! Well, maybe a little more so. You see, I may not have been the best person in the past, but I sure as Hell never took any jobs that involved kidnapping a couple of kids. You gotta be something less than human to do something like that..."

The man swinging in place didn't seem to realize she wasn't the only one in the room with him, not noticing the two spiders crawling along the ceiling. "Hey, I didn't take no job to kidnap some kids. Cooper did! I just do what I'm told!"

Lucy stopped just a little shy of the man's reach. He seemed perfectly amicable at the moment, but she had no doubt that would change quickly if he got his hands on her. "Ah yes, the 'I just do as I'm told' defense. The fallback of cowards everywhere. See, here's the problem...I don't care why you did it. All I care about is that you threatened the lives of my children."

She drew her gun and pointed it in the man's face. He laughed before beriding her. "You think that little peashooter will do anything to this suit? You could unload the whole magazine into it, and all you'd do is scratch the paint job!"

Lucy nodded and grinned. "Yeah, you're right. But you see, I've found that whenever someone has a gun pointed in their face, even a small one like this, they focus on that and don't pay attention to anything else."

When the guy looked up, the two spiders had crawled down most of his body and spit more webs onto his hands. When he reached up to crush them, they dropped down to the ground, and more spiders came out, grabbing hold of the new webs and drawing them tight, pulling his arms out to the sides, leaving him helpless in front of Lucy, who now grinned wickedly as she undid the clasps around the base of his helmet. "You might not believe me, but you're actually really lucky today."

The guy sneered. "Oh yeah, why's that? Are you going to tell me you're gonna let me live?"

With a flash of movement, Lucy cut his throat. As the consciousness faded from his eyes, Lucy answered him. "No. You're lucky I'm in a rush and can't risk leaving you behind, or your death would have been a lot more painful."

Lucy took a moment to examine the suit. It was a pity it wasn't smaller. It would have come in really handy dealing with the rest of the pirates. But it would take too much time adjusting it for her build, and like she'd said, she was in a rush.

Still, it wasn't a total waste. Reaching down, Lucy picked up the rifle he'd been carrying. From experience, she knew she could only shoot something like this a couple of times before jacking up her shoulder enough to render it useless, but in a pinch, this could neutralize a battle suit or two...

With one last look at the now-dead man, Lucy turned her back and started walking back into the pathway as Charlotte closed the "door" behind her. She turned to the spider, acting as her guide through the tunnels. "Alright, lead me to the next group."

The mouth spider riding on top agreed. "This way. I'm leading the next group into another ambush as we speak."

Lucy nodded but frowned. "Don't expect them all to go that smoothly. We humans have countless sayings about how even the best plans can fall apart."

Charlotte was quiet for a moment before responding. "Well, if you can't count them, perhaps you could use human math to figure out how many there are."

Lucy blinked a few times. "Uh, no, that's not what I..."

Charlotte spoke up again. "I know, you were speaking figuratively. That was what Scott explained to be an intentional misunderstanding for the sake of lightening the mood."

That made Lucy actually stop for a moment. "You mean a joke? You tell jokes now?"

Charlotte continued walking, forcing Lucy to pick up her pace to catch up as the spider answered again. "Perhaps I've always told jokes, and you humans just don't understand my humor..."

Lucy wasn't sure if that was another joke but decided it was best not to encourage her. She also made a mental note to tell Scott to talk with Charlotte about comedic timing when this was over...