Another hour of Marching in these fucking halls. The dimmer light doesn't help my mood. I felt the sourness growing. I felt like the blue grey ceracrete has started to blend into a gestalt of wandering alien landscapes. All Such places, merging into a Superposition of reality. Fucking Tunnels.

We stopped at another Intersection and setup to once again bait a trap. Lured them in again so I could try to track down their damned hive.

Honestly, I was getting sick of being down here, no wind, no plants, no nothing good. Except exp.

Funny thing was, my Nature sense kept telling me that there were plants, in the big rooms that all these Halls border, at least in some of them. Not that I could get into those rooms, even if I wanted to.

The scrabbling mass of sounds grew in volume.

Oh, here they come. Hello!

Brrrr-Brrrr, Brrrr-Brrrr, POP

The Bots worked so efficiently, that I felt pointless, grating more on my nerves.

More bursts of fire. More dead Xenos.

There they go. Good-Bye! No one will miss you.

Less of them this time. Maybe half as many as before. Perhaps, they were all charging the Traps Back to the West. That would be great.

We topped up again, might as well. Ammo and energy were vital after all.

More seemed to have come from the south this time. Well, that's something. South it is.

This time, it only took half an hour to find something. Blood and Ichor splashed everywhere at a junction with a stairway leading down. Trails of smeared blood leading down. Judging by the color of the blood and the degree of pitting in the ceracrete floors about a day old, maybe two.

Hmmm. The Ghouls met the Xenos and got snuffed, some where dragged down into the deeper levels. This is a chance. The only reason Gammas would drag prey is to take it back to the nest.

I couldn't forget that the Betas and Alphas are smart enough to use these signs as lures. Still, I thought it was unlikely.

I crept down the stairway slowly. I scouted the path, trusting in my stealth.

This stairway went down 3 levels. It didn't follow the normal pattern of one floor at a time. Odd, but not so odd I started to worry. The blood trail led all the way down. I poked my head out for a quick peek.

Ah, there we go.

A section of tunnels had been converted into the Organo-morphic hive material the Xenos use. It's basically a mixture of their shit and spit with the ground up bones of their victims. It hardened over time, rivaling concrete.

I had Meowser bring the gang down. The Spider Drone takes a while to get down, the stairwell was too narrow. I hoped we wouldn't have to run back up.

I take a moment to grab a dozen grenades. Clipped them on to my tact harness. Better to be safe, plus, I needed to test them.

Maybe I wanted to see some fire, purging the Xenos. Heh. Shhhh! Don't tell anyone.

Our pace was slower than it had been, I'd started checking every angle. Even ones that seemed impossible.

The Xenos are masters of ambushing people on their own terrain. They blend in too well with their hives.

When we get to the first intersection, the two Razior Bots with me go and cover the perpendicular halls, while the tailing Bots come up with me. When we are through the two standing guard will fall in at the tail. As long as we don't miss any of them behind us, this method should work.

If we do, the Swarmer Drone is leaving a trail of Webbers. If nothing else they could warn us with the POP. Maybe.

I found myself praising the air filtration on my Helmet, I was sure it stank in here.

The blood trail kept leading further into the hive.

We pass two more intersections. At the third, we were greeted by a horrid sight.

Oh shit! There she is. Thank fuck she's sleeping or something.

25' long not counting the eggsack. Built along bipedal lines, 2 thick legs with weird jointing, 4 arms and claws that can probably shred me.

The head an a jagged nightmare given form, three-layered jaws that constantly smashed against each other. Eyes, She has 10 Eyes. That's a sign of strength, though not always age. They start with six, and gain a pair for a certain amount of biomatter consumed. Food had been plentiful.

They are closed now, but they still terrified me. More eyes, more danger. That's the saying.

Two ten foot long tails that have huge bladed graspers at the end, they rustle around aimlessly. The susurrations of her sleeping movements are nerve wrecking.

I grit my teeth. I wasn't going to let a fucking overgrown bug get to me. My blood was stirring, something primal inside crouching.

I finally broke free of the initial shock. It probably wasn't as long as it seemed.

My eyes examined the area.

The Xenos had broken into one of the Big Rooms, an Agritech room from the remnant equipment. They had to have been here quite a while to tear down all that ceracrete.

I took a another quick peek around the room.

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A field of eggs. Shit! Fuck! Damn!

A metric ass load of them. Which meant there are Faceglompers about. My paranoia ratcheted up several notches. That was nightmare fuel.

I had the squad back up. So we are just out of sight.

The lore is clear these bitches always have guards. Usually hopped up Betas. Which means there has to be one near by, and we missed it. No way they had left this path unguarded. It would have to know we are here, and was waiting to pounce when we get distracted by the Queen, probably stalking us now.

I pulled the Avenger Mk II, I had to null this fucking bug before it could ring the lunch bell.

Where? My Ears strained. A stirring behind and to the left, I spun and fired.

I had hit it but that wasn't enough. Betas are slightly larger than Gammas, also bipedal, like the Queen, two arms, still eyeless. Their big distinctive feature was the mass of tentacles on their back. Their skin is thicker and stronger which is why my shot didn't put it down.

Asshole screeched for all it was worth. Fuck! It's bulbous curved head rippled and pulsed with it's cry. Repulsive.

The Beta's voice was louder and more dissonant than the Gammas, it carried much further. To all the local hive and beyond.

A thousand Xenos' throats took up the call. We were so screwed. So be it.

Worse than all of them, the Queen, her screech had a range down into infrasound like the guttural bellow of a Crocodilian or Elephant all the way to super high frequencies.

I froze. Even with the helmet's sound filters I froze. The sound reached a primal part of me and tried to crush it. I resisted but it was an struggle. If it hadn't been for the pure, raw hatred I felt for her, I might have crumpled under her psychic strength.

Meowser saved my ass. The Bots started firing. The Beta was cut down quickly.

My burning rage built up to a higher pitch. How dare this bitch? Fuck with my head?!

I.WILL.END.YOU.

I put away the Avenger and popped a grenade, towards the egg chamber. It bounced a bit, but got in there.

BOOM and then the satisfying hissing whoosh of burning fuel.

That bitch screams and I felt the pain in it. Good, Suffer. I growled with satisfaction.

I popped another.

Toss-BOOM shwhoosh. The crackle of burning flame. The halls lit up with it's dancing light.

Take that, Bitchcakes!

Another scream.

I laughed.

"Ah, It's beautiful!" I yelled back at her. A taunt, from my old life. Those fucking little green bastards knew what was up.

I heard the claws of countless Xenos rushing us. Starting with the heavier thuds of the Betas.

We back up even more so we are in the middle of the hallway. It's not much but it will limit the directions they can hit us from.

I tossed a grenade to the front junction towards the egg chamber. To get a fire going. It would stall them a bit. I'd toss one to the rear, but we might need to make a retreat and I still had to breathe. My armor could help for a while but eventually it would falter and I' be scrudged.

I lobbed another grenade, over the burning junction trying to get it into the Egg chamber. Miss, eh. I hoped no one saw that.

Here they come.

They are choking the halls, using every available surface to come at us, as fast as they could.

"Bring it bitches! We have plenty of death to serve." I bellow. Two can play that game. My roar actually seems to fuck with their echolocation for a second. Ha!

My Kraken added it's voice to mine. BOOM-BOOM-BOOM.

The ceaseless Brrrr of the LMGs starting formed a song.

For a moment, nothing but the fight rages in my heart.

Some part me of rejoices in the fury of battle, even as another part of my mind prepares for my own demise. If that was how it had to be, I'd make it epic.

"Towards Death! I'm Daring that Bastard to Take Me!" I rumbled. A shame, I couldn't headbang right now.

Each Bot has two of it's LMGs facing the enemy rush. Brrrr-Brrrr.

They also use their inner pointing LMG to cover the ceiling above the opposite two Bots.

The Swarmer drone was pumping out swarmers nonstop. Their POPs swallowed by the screeching and clicking and the LMGs purring. My Kraken played a deeper beat to the song.

I shook off my rage long enough to plot the best course, while changing my mag. I took stock, and knew what I had to do.

I was on ammo duty. I did send a few rounds with the Kraken now and then, but my main task here was keeping the Bots topped up with reloads. So we could maybe see another day, or kill as many as possible if not.

A few minutes into the storm and the halls in front and behind were clogged with Xenos corpses. They couldn't easily get to us, through their own dead.

I used the reprieve to top the Bots up again. Refilled my own grenade supply as well. I lobbed a grenade to the front again. Burning away corpses.

I tossed another to the front just to keep the fire going, buying a bit more time in that direction.

Behind us, the Xenos had finished pulling away enough bodies to resume their attack.

I had us push through their charge. This was a losing situation, unless the Queen came for us. Then it was lost, in these tunnels.

I tossed another grenade to cover our rear.

We plowed through their latest assault, killing dozens for every step.

The first intersection saw two Bots sweep to each side laying down punishing fire. The swarmers rushed the path of exfiltration, clearing the way. I popped another grenade to our rear.

I chucked a grenade down each side hall to buy a moment. We swept into the next section of tunnel.

We paused again in the middle of the hall. Again I topped the ammo off. The reserves were half down.

I was about to order another push, when I sensed movement above. I barely got my head out of the way of the tail spike. It sank into the area between my right side collar bones, I thought it was tickling the top of my lung. Better that than my first heart. It took a second for the pain to flare to life.

"Motherfucker!" I yelled. It hurt. Oh, it hurt. I do not have the proper words for what it felt like. Burning, tearing, sharp and throbbing. All at once.

Pissed me off more. I didn't think I could get angrier, I was wrong.

It was trying to haul me up, by the spike, but it hadn't accounted for how heavy I really was.

I glared up into it's glowing green eyes. All six of them. Cocksucking Motherfucker!

I had reflexively latched onto the tail with my left hand. I fell backwards and pulled the bastard down.

Once again Meowser saved me.

For the first time, the point defense turrets on the spider drone opened up, and shredded the Alpha that was falling on me. Without that it would probably have been too much for me on the ground.

I had pulled him straight down on to me. I let go of its tail and proceeded to pummeled the shit out it. Busting two of its creepy eyes apart and cracking its skull. My right arm wasn't responding.

It scored deep into my armor, even got through in a few places. Heh, what was a little more blood and pain now?

It didn't matter. Only killing this asshole mattered.

I was spewing obscenities, I no longer remember.

I stunned it with a brutal punch, and reached down for my left hand gladius. It came out eager for action and I stabbed that fucker again and again, until it was trying to pull away.

"Why are you running? You wanted this." I snarled.

My blade kept plunging into the jumped up piss-ant. It finally stopped moving.

I pushed it off of me.

"Stuck you good, bastard!" Spitting out blood, and worse. I had to pull off my helmet and cleared it out.

I noticed everything had gone quiet. It was eerie.

I got up staggering and swaying and surveyed the area.

The Gammas had stopped charging and were waiting. Shit.

The Queen was watching, I felt her attention. Double Shit.

They had all felt the Alpha's death. Now we weren't just a group of intruders, we weren't just food, or egg bait. We had done serious damage.

She might be trying to decide if She should risk herself. Bring it Bitch.

I slapped my helm back on.

I used the gladius to lop off the head of the Alpha and strap it onto the Mule drone. The gladius was shot, the Alpha's ichor too much for it. It was corroded beyond saving.

Even my beloved armor was smoking, but was mostly intact. Just a few breaches.

Like the Queen there was only one Alpha to a hive. Sure she could pop another out eventually, but for now their leadership was cut in half.

Thankfully, I could draw her out. Finish her. Then we would have some real breathing room. Queens take a while to come out of Gammas or even Betas.

The less said about how that Alpha would have made new members of their species the better. So much worse than faceglompers.

My Regen V was kicking in. If they'd hold off for a moment, I be ready to go. I pitched a couple of grenades to hold them off at least in one direction.

Yeah, just give me a minute, you fucking bastards, and I'd have tons more fun with you.