“Ranger six, prepare to breach with the uberatomic charge.”

The garbled voice echoed in Ranger six’s helmet and he responded with an affirmative. It was Ranger one that spoke to him, and despite them not sharing a common language - or even a common ancestor - the comms chip in their suit’s communication box allowed seamless translation in real time.

Ranger six was a Waxatl, and his webbed hands fit perfectly into the custom fit gloves of his power suit. Their tactile grips had extremely sensitive feedback which made them even better than bare hands for handling a powerful bomb like this one.

His forked tongue flicked out and licked at the droplet of blue sweat that trickled down his cheek. It wasn’t his first time priming a uberatomic charge, but no one ever claimed that it got easier.

Or less nerve wracking. Ranger six thought. I feel like I’m going to ink myself, I’m so nervous.

If anything went wrong, Ranger six wouldn’t even know. He would simply stop existing. He would be scorched to less than dust, left to float as disparate atoms for all time throughout space as the Biter continued on its full course rampage of the Universe.

The little package in his hand beeped once, flashed green, then blue, then green again. Ranger six closed his eyes, offered up a quick prayer, and stuck the bomb to the outside of the Biter’s twentieth molar. From so close, the tooth looked like nothing more than a cliff face pockmarked by the sea, or pitted from ages of rain and storming winds.

But it wasn’t a cliff. It was enamel. It was destruction and gluttony incarnate.

It was just one tooth.

And it ate my fucking planet, Ranger six cursed. He wondered if he could see some remnant of his civilization far below, trapped and wedged between the Biter’s teeth like a popcorn kernel. I hope you enjoy this toothache, bastard.

Ranger six disengaged from the tooth, saddling into his personal flight pod that hovered beside him like a magical egg. He sealed himself inside and rocketed away at thousands of miles per minute before returning to the rest of the Ranger squad. They all hovered in the void of space, watching as the Biter slid forwards, closer to the next planet.

The last planet left before every home world of the various United peoples of space would be devoured. It was called Oog, and in the distance it looked like nothing more than a pink and blue and yellow gum ball, just waiting to be swallowed. On it were a dozen different sentient species, refugees with no home to return to. It was overcrowded. And if they didn’t find a way to stop the intergalactic world vacuum, then it really wouldn’t matter.

“Ranger six reporting. Charge is set on the fault line at the peak of the twentieth molar. Detonation pack ready. Just give the word.”

His garbled, underwater tongue was translated into a dozen different languages all at once as the rest of the rangers listened in. None of them were even shaped remotely the same. They were the last and most resolved of their various peoples. They were ready to die.

“Ranger six,” came the tinny, metallic tone of Ranger one, a Vegadroid, “Make the big boom.”

Ranger six smiled with all the reserved bloodlust and hatred and anguish of an entire species whose world had been crushed to mud. With the rage of forced cowardice, having no choice but to flee as the core of their world exploded inside the Biter’s mouth like the gooey center of a piece of candy.

Ranger six clenched his webbed fist around the detonator block and growled, “It would be my greatest pleasure.”

He pressed the plunger and a new sun was born. The black void of space turned as bright as day. Furious detonations collapsed one after another, flowers blooming before fading. The specially treated specs in every Ranger suit flashed into place to stop them from going blind

When the light cleared, and the silent explosions were gone, the damage became evident. There was a fresh wound weeping blackish sludge at the peak of the twentieth molar. Pieces of tooth sloughed away, falling like the shattered remnants of a cracked planet.

Ranger six’s heart dropped. That’s all? He could hardly believe it. He knew how powerful that charge was. It could have ended a planet - caused an extinction - leveled mountains and summoned tsunamis.

The beast’s black hair hadn’t even been singed. It’s tooth had only been chipped.

Ranger one began to move. “It’s enough.” The Vegadroid said, emotionless. “Let’s move.”

Ranger six closed the viewing panel on his egg vehicle and sullenly followed after their leader. He had been hoping to destroy the entire tooth. Maybe blow half the beast’s face off.

I should have known better than to hope. The star-cannon didn’t even scratch the thing’s eyelid. He shook his head ruefully. What did I think I could do? Useless…

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

The dozen or so egg pods careened into the oozing gap, splattering several parasites that had arrived to make the best of this impromptu feast. Below, the world wriggled and shifted as the floor rose up towards them.

With a sudden dreadful, sinking feeling, Ranger six realized that the floor was a tongue, and it was coming towards the newly formed wound to explore. Just like anybody would a sore tooth.

“A toothache…” Ranger six mumbled. “That’s really all it is.”

Thankfully, their egg-pods were more than fast enough to avoid the enormous muscle as they entered into the vast cavern of the Mouth. Thousands of creatures scrambled and fell as the tongue rose and twisted. Most splattered where they landed. The rest were left to suffer as a feeding frenzy began and scavengers rose from the river of churning saliva to eat their fill.

“Begin second point operation.” Ranger one’s voice echoed in every pod at once. “It’s time to put this beast down.”

In a unified motion, all of the pods swooped towards the ceiling where bright beams of light began to search among the dangling chords of sticky ooze for the nasal cavity. An entrance to the sinuses. Anything to get close enough to the brain.

Unfortunately, it was impossible to do a full scan inside of the Biter no matter how hard you tried, so they were stuck searching basically by hand along the roof of the Mouth. That was also the reason they had no backup or remote command - no signal could reach in here from the outside. Every participant of the mission was already here. They had to be.

Ranger six rose close enough to the roof that he had to remotely pilot at points when the collection of ooze became too dense for the automatic driver to avoid. He was determined to find the sinus and drive a pneumatic tungsten spike into the base of the Biter’s brain.

He was so intent on finding the sinus in fact that he didn’t even notice the dangling hook and the net of smart-threads that hung from it. His egg shot solidly into the collapsing wires like a baseball into a glove. He didn’t even have time to curse as the threads tightened, blue sparks showering out at the points of contact as they cut and sawed into the duro-plastic shell.

“Mayday! I’m trapped in a net! It’s scrambling the autopilot!” Switching to manual controls, Ranger six was horrified to find they were unresponsive as well. “Manual is malfunctioning as well. I’m going to emergency eject and clear up the-“

The communication went dead as a small metallic orb thumped onto the top of the egg and pulsed blue. An expanding wave of electric tendrils passed through the drone, through Ranger six, and the inside of the shuttle went dark.

“Fuck… ohhhh fuck…” Ranger six’s translator was fried and his voice came out in its usual, undulating tenor.

Something was on the outside of the egg and it sounded like it was trying to get in. It was scraping and banging with a primitive hammering tempo.

Drawing his commercial IX78 Blaster Pistol, Ranger six loaded the weapon, and then pulled out his nano-carver. He slammed the manual eject just as the roof of the drone caved in like the egg it was shaped as. An alien face glared down through the hole as Ranger six dropped out the bottom of the egg, cutting through the net with his nano-carver and firing a single shot through the skull of the grimy Pirate.

His body went limp before the one inch diameter hole could even start steaming. The body that fell into the cockpit was dressed in ragged leathers and had a mess of black hair on its head and chin. It’s eyes were brown in the center with white surrounding it. And it’s skin was a ruddy pale pink.

A Human.

Ranger six stared in shock for a moment at the supposedly extinct creature. How long ago had their planet been eaten? A hundred years? No. It was before the Inter-planetary alliance against the Biter had been formed. At least two hundred years ago.

Humans still exist? How have they survived in this hell hole for two centuries?

Further musing was cut off as a different creature peered into the cockpit. It’s face was craggy and pitted like stone. A Golath - one of the Rangers was a Golath. Ranger six had nothing against Golaths.

This Golath in particular didn’t seem to care about that. It saw the human corpse slumped halfway into the pod and its face turned wrathful. Ranger six fired once but didn’t stop to see if his wild shot landed, as he was already clambering onto the side of the net and fiddling with his fried suit.

Lights flickered back on in his helmet as the suit returned to life. He slammed his thumb into the pad on his opposite arm and dropped away from the pod. More pirates were already clambering down from a hole in the roof of the Mouth. There were more than ten already out, scaling the wire down to the net.

“-ook for Ranger six. I’m sending the last signal location to your pods. Converge-“

Ranger six interrupted as soon as he realized his comms were back on. The jets in the base of his boots began sputtering to life with flickers of blue flame. “Pirates took my pod. They had some sort of trap for flying creatures set up. Maybe for other people in flying vehicles, actually. They had EMP and a constricting net. Sending my current location. I’m gliding away now but I’d much rather not be in the open air. There are beasts out here. I’m worried they might-“

A sudden collision of flesh and power suit sounded. To Ranger Six, it was only a blur of motion, leathery wings and reddish flesh. Black claws scrabbled for purchase against him. He couldn’t find the time to spare another word to the other rangers as he struggled to right himself in the air.

Up became down. Down stopped existing. Wide wings spread out around him and with sudden, painful clarity he realized he couldn’t find his blaster or his knife.

Ranger six screamed wordlessly into the comms link.

——

Peri watched as the man in the chrome black suit plummeted towards the ground far, far below. A screecher had dropped from above and rammed right into him as he was gliding away.

“Tough way to go…” Peri lamented, watching over his shoulder from his perch on the wall as the man tumbled and struggled against the screecher. It’s red leathery wings were more than large enough to fully cocoon the smallish man inside, where several pairs of rotating claws were airing drill and slash and rend you to paste for it to slurp up.

He shook his head and continued climbing. He had pulled out the aluminum-camo sheets from his storage bib and draped one over his shoulders before beginning his climb. Corma did the same, and soon the both of them were just red colored splotches slowly ascending the wall.

Nothing to look at here. Nothing for violent pirates to descend upon and strip for parts. Nothing at all.

Peri thought about the rumbling explosion that had come rolling in from the distance as they started their climb again. It probably had something to do with that man and his ship. Thankfully it was far enough away that he didn’t need to worry about the Gaxax that would be attracted by the eruption of energy.

Maybe he tried to blow his way out of here with some bomb he found in the rubble of the Teeth. Peri guessed it hadn’t worked out, since he had come back this way instead of simply leaving the Biter for good. Or maybe they blew their way in.

Peri chuckled lightly to himself at the thought. Who would be crazy enough to break their way into the Biter? Shaking his head, he continued his climb alongside a silent Corma.

The man hadn’t said a word since they spotted the pirate hook. Peri had asked if he was alright but the man had just looked over his shoulder at the once-empty net and shook his head

“I’m fine,” he had said, “I just hate the Fishers.”

Peri understood that. There was nothing to not hate about Fisher pirates. They were worse than the monsters down below - and scar-faced Corma knew that better than most.

He’s not the first one to lose something to pirates, Peri looked over at the egg-like ship that was already being stripped apart by the voracious pirates. They swarmed and dismantled it like locusts. He spared a glance down but could no longer spot the screecher or the remains of the unfortunate pilot inside of it. He’s not the last to lose something either.

Peri just stopped his knife from stabbing a soft pustule of flesh that would have rained blood down on the both of them once again. He closed his eyes, took a centering breath, and then opened them and focused back on the wall stretching out above him.

Mind on the climb. Peri dug his knife into the flesh beside the pustule, his bare hand grazing the throbbing flesh. Mind on the climb.