Cooper stalked down the main tunnel, flanked by Johnson and Hugo. Sure, maybe they weren't as tough as Brigg or as deadly as Archer, but they had something more to them...they were dependable. This crew was thrown together by grabbing any pirate worth a damn in a fight that was available and stuffing them in a ship. Of course, the only pirates usually available were the ones who didn't play well with others. Anyone else was held onto by captains with reputations or dead. Since Cooper was essentially starting over from scratch thanks to the better part of a decade spent playing family, he took whatever he could get and held the crew together through sheer force of will, as well as having the biggest guns at his side. The only exceptions were Johnson and Hugo.

Hugo was an old friend of Cooper's from back in the day. They'd run together before he knew Lucy, so he knew he could trust the man, at least as long as the pay was good. Johnson, on the other hand, was more of a mystery. He just showed up with the rest of the applicants. He was good in a fight and knew how to run a pirate crew, but he wasn't interested in the position of captain. Said it came with too much baggage. So he helped Cooper keep the ships in space and the crew happy, or at least happy enough not to mutiny.

Right now, Johnson had his nose buried in his sensors, but that was fine by Cooper. Any advance warning they could get for trouble was worth the lack of immediate attentiveness, especially since he and Hugo were here to keep an eye on things. Apparently, that would pay off sooner rather than later because Johson spoke up pretty quickly. "Captain, I'm showing multiple cave openings on either side of us. They seem to be behind thin walls, probably meant to herd us in a certain direction."

Cooper didn't like the idea of being herded. He frowned. "Where?"

Johnson pointed to a few locations nearby, one of which was right beside Cooper. The pirate reached out and gave the wall a shove, the servos in his assault suit lending many times his normal strength to the motion. Sure enough, the "wall" shifted, then wobbled back into place. Cooper reached back to really punch the wall, but Johnson spoke up again. "Captain, I'm getting odd readings from a room behind that one." He pointed to a different wall closer to Hugo.

That got Cooper's attention. "Odd, how?"

Johnson looked up from his sensors. "Lots of readings. Life forms, though pretty small, and something...else."

Cooper walked over to the wall. "Small lifeforms? Like kids, maybe?"

Johnson shook his head. "No, or at least I don't think so. This place is wreaking havoc on my gear, so it's hard to be certain of anything."

Cooper's grin became a little wild. "Well, there's one way to be sure!" With that, he reached back again, and this time followed through with a punch that turned the "wall" into a mess of viscera and...legs? With a wordless grunt, Cooper walked into the smaller tunnel, bending over slightly to fit and making sure he stepped on some of the legs as he walked past, turning them into a paste.

Hugo laughed behind him. "Now that's something you don't see every day!"

Bending closer to inspect the legs, Johnson agreed. "Yes...that's more than odd, though hardly without precedent."

Hugo seemed interested. "Yeah? You see stuff like this somewhere before?"

Johnson nodded. "Yes, back on earth, various animals create fake walls like this. Two that come to mind are the door-headed ant and the trapdoor spider."

Now Hugo just looked disappointed. "Aww, man, and here I thought you were gonna tell me about some crazy alien species you've encountered!"

Cooper rolled his eyes. "Stop your complaining. We're encountering a crazy alien species right now! If you pay attention and get out of here alive, you'll have your own crazy stories to tell!"

Stretching his neck, Hugo grinned. "Maybe, but a few walls with legs will hardly get me a free drink at a bar!"

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

As they walked into the next room, everyone was momentarily silent. Crawling around were a bunch of spiders, though not as big as Cooper had seen on Eric's recording, and in the middle was a large pulsating fleshy thing that just screamed nightmare fuel. The whole thing gave him the creeps, but he didn't get to be captain by showing fear. Instead, he laughed. "What about this? Think this story will be worth a drink or two?"

Hugo nodded. "Maybe even three or four..."

Cooper grinned, anticipating what would follow as he loaded a round into the chamber. "Well, memorize it quick because it's about to disappear!" With that, Cooper fired off a forty-millimeter round into the room, obliterating the thing in the middle and most of the spiders.

Hugo laughed and applauded, but Johnson just looked put out. "I would have liked the chance to study that first."

Cooper merely grinned. "You can study them all you want after we get the kids and get out of here. Until then, I'm killing every creepy bug in this place!"

-

The loss of a second node shocked Charlotte. She was aware it had been a possibility and had even planned on such a thing, but to experience it was something else altogether. She was only just beginning to recover from her crash and was already being set back again.

Still, it didn't matter. Charlotte had already moved her most substantial memories to the final node, near where Scott and Alice were staying. If need be, that would be where She would focus her defense. She still had two assets capable of fighting against the remaining threats, as well as Lacy, who'd proven quite an effective ally in this battle of survival. However, this last group would be far more dangerous than the rest. Not only did all of them have those armored suits that had proven difficult to deal with, but the leader, Cooper, Scott's father, had a heavier and more durable suit than anything She'd seen yet, and Charlotte was unsure how to handle it.

Additionally, there was the question of what Charlotte should do with Scott's father if given the chance. If She killed him in front of Scott, would he really be able to handle that? Or would he see her as some sort of monster, like he had before? What about little Alice? Would she still be so accepting after witnessing Charlotte kill three humans? Even Lacy, a hardened human used to life and death conflict, thought of her tactics as frightening.

Ultimately, Charlotte decided it didn't matter. Questions like this were for moments when survival wasn't on the line. For now, She had to ensure her and the children's survival. The nature of their relationship could be reevaluated only if all three survived, so that would be her focus for now...

-

Scott was consoling Alice and trying to keep her calm. They'd periodically heard the muffled sounds of gunfire and even an explosion or two, which was scary enough, but the most recent one had sounded much closer, too close, and Alice was sobbing as she called out for Mom and Charlotte. Of course, Charlotte had a mouthpiece present to assure Alice she and Lacy were fine, but even as young as his sister was, she knew something was seriously wrong.

Scott couldn't blame her. Even while he hugged his sister tight to keep her from running anywhere, he gritted his teeth, frustrated by his impotence in this final hour of need. At least he could use a gun! He'd trained on the firing range and had well above average marks. For all he knew, his presence might be the difference between life and death for their mom or Charlotte. Yet here he was, uselessly telling his sister everything would be alright, even as the young girl knew he was lying. The feelings of frustration and helplessness were enough to make his eyes tear up, though he was doing his best to keep them from spilling over, for Alice's sake. At least...that's what he told himself.

-

After clearing out the room, Johnson was once again buried nose-deep in his instruments while Hugo played with a large spider leg he'd found. Cooper wasn't amused. "What are you holding onto that thing? Just throw it away. It's disgusting!"

Hugo laughed. "Naw, boss, you see, this is my ace in the hole! This way, when someone calls me out and tells the whole Bar I'm bluffing, I pull this out, shut him up, and drink for free the rest of the night while I make a bunch of shit up! No one will call me out again after I pull off a stunt like that!"

Cooper shook his head. The only thing more stupid than that plan was the fact that it just might work. Still, he had other things to worry about rather than the stupidity of a bunch of drunkards. Johnson proved his point a moment later. "Hey, captain. I'm getting a strong signal ahead. A bunch of life signs, big and small, one bigger than anything we've seen yet..."

Cooper grinned. This mess was almost over. "Good, that must be the queen. We kill her, and this whole mess becomes a lot easier!"

Johnson shook his head. "That's an awfully big assumption, captain. What if the hive just goes berzerk afterward? They might tear those kids apart."

Cooper shrugged. "For all we know, they're already spiderfood. If that happens, we just bring the bodies back and let the old man figure out what he wants to do to these spider monsters. Hell, it might take a little bit of pressure off us!"

Despite his words, Cooper couldn't help but bite his tongue on another thought. He might not be interested in being a dad, but if these freaks did take his kid from him, he'd probably bombard the place into dust before leaving orbit... After all, as his ungrateful ex had put it, Cooper didn't like it when someone messed with his things...