"It stinks," complains Han. "I can smell it through the filters."

"Yep," grunts Yosip. "And the humidity's starting to gunk up my legs."

The patches of crystal become increasingly dense the farther we go. The multitude of colors grow over and around each other, creating unique specimens. Of all my companions, it irks me that only Somner Zek shares my interest in the synthetic gems adorning the walls. Her bandoleer contains a selection of unique gems gathered during our frequent rest periods.

Upon hearing the complaints of the Supply-Master, Zek turns away from the citrines she's observing. Her posture is less than submissive when she stops before him, but I doubt she cares much for the rank of an alien. "If you are willing to trust a demon," she gestures with an upper tendril toward where I'm housed on Han's back, "I can alter your equipment, or assist you in repairs."

Yosip glares at her, as does Han. They even cross their arms over their chests at the same time.

"If they do no want yer help, I'm sure sick o' breathin' stale fart."

Twin glares shift to the Weapons Operative. He throws up his hands and walks away, muttering to himself.

"Give her your helmet," Yosip orders the youth. As he speaks he hands the thaumatist his breathing mask. "Thanks, for earlier."

Ignoring the Supply-Master's words, she takes the equipment and returns to her place at the wall. With an empty tendril she removes a vial from the leather strap holding it. With quiet efficiency she drains the contents and returns the empty container to her bandoleer.

I focus my native senses upon her, expecting to see her flooded with new energy. The dust does sparkle with energy, though to a far lesser extent than I would have thought. The amount of power that the dust adds is almost inconsequential compared to the other results of consumption.

The dust activates insider her body. Flashes of heat, localized to the odd structures within her, as well as bursts of very short-lived radioactive particles fill her. The constructs twist and warp as they absorb the dust, growing almost imperceptibly.

It is these modified structures that become most active while she works upon Yosip and Han's breathing equipment. With one lower tendril, itself full of tiny structures and twisting pathways, she scrapes citrine from the wall. The particular cluster she selects is interspersed with darker patches of emerald. She presses the largest yellow-green nodule into the plastic shielding of Yosip's mask with one tendril while rubbing smaller samples into the metal of Han's helmet with another.

Bruen slides over to us while we watch and greets Yosip with a nod. Yosip grunts in acknowledgement before returning his scarred countenance to the dust eater's work. Only Gelly and the soldiers seem disinterested in the thaumatist, the former cleaning his knife while the latter guard the tunnels.

The crystals meld and flow under her touch. She shapes them into runes, the simplest part of her labors. The runes she uses as both anchor and focus of a higher dimensional crafting. Rather than create the workings from bare sand she instead builds a bridge that connects to an older artifact. A few additional runes, layering upon the bridge, control the functions.

It is a technique I had often overheard the dust eaters whispering about amongst themselves. The younger me had dismissed it as not dissimilar to how Mos cultivate fighting styles within bloodlines but now I see that it is much more than that. Knowledge of another's martial technique is not the same as mastery of it.

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What she's actually doing is still beyond my ability to duplicate. Even to say I understand what she does or how she's doing it would be dishonest. With time I may be capable of understanding, and perhaps more, but other concerns are more immediate.

The soldier at the lead tunnel signals and the whole camp goes quiet. Han grabs his laser, as does Bruen. The two aim at the entrance, where the soldiers stand on either side. As soon as the first misshapen limb is visible, they send beams of weaponized light burning into the monsters.

Bruen shouts, "Wait, back up!"

The soldiers slide back, allowing the gunners a clearer shot. The creatures claw their way past the smoking bodies of their fellows only to fall beside them. When the lasers overheat the spear wielding warriors charge forward. The dark tide of malformed flesh overwhelms one of the unfortunate soldiers, and he's torn apart by their twisted claws.

Yosip, armed with Bruen's spear, battles fiercely. Even without using his jets his movements are powerful. Though slow, his attacks pierce through the tough clusters of minerals dotting the hides of the beast with brutal force. If he knew how to activate the enhanced abilities of the weapon, he would be truly frightening.

At the sight of the dead warrior, Bruen's mouthparts begin to work furiously. He lunges into the fray, leaving only Han to guard the dust eater. The armored youth keeps himself between her and the enemy, and provides me with a view of both.

Strong lower tendrils wrap around the fallen soldier's weapon. Mos Bruen's presence amid them lends new ferocity to the remaining soldiers' attacks and the beasts die amidst sprays of inky blood. A pair of claws, shining crimson in the runelight, rip the tendrils free of the smaller soldier's carapace. Azure joins ebon in puddles upon the stone.

The other soldier stabs the beast that had wounded her squad mate and pushes it back with her tentacles. It takes her spear with it as it falls. Gelly darts forward into the opening, knife flashing in broad arcs. She uses the brief respite to grab her wounded companion's dropped spear.

While the others keep the horrors off of him, Han runs forward and drags the wounded soldier to safety. Zek aids the struggling youth and sets to work once out of combat range. Han pants heavily, but retains his grip upon his laser, returning to his position clear of the fighting.

As the last of the creatures flee deeper into the tunnels, Gelly shouts, "There's somethin' comin' behind us!"

Tired combatants reposition to deal with this unknown threat. The relief is audible when a uniformed officer glides around the corner. The five soldiers behind him are fresh and carry spare weapons and supplies.

Two of them are left to guard the recovering soldier. The rest of the group, after a brief meal, form ranks and trek deeper into the rune-lit tunnels. I quickly learn that the leader of the new arrivals is a casteless soldier in the service of Gelly, who answers to Drev.

After the close walls and mad turnings of the tunnels, the wide space that opens before us seems even larger. Insane structures of flesh, metal, and crystal sprout from the walls and floor. Fleshy wires hang from the ceiling dripping black fluid into deep pools. Lights flash from the unhealthy growths that twitch in mad harmony with the pulsing illumination.

"Stay together," orders Yosip. Spear in one metal hand, the Supply-Master leads the others between dripping spires and twitching metal arms that reach from the inert stone.

As we come to the center of the cavern, the floor lowers. More and more stone gives way to horrid amalgamations of living tissue and inorganic mineral. Circuits and power cables can be seen intertwining with the awful growths, though their purpose is unguessable.

Crystal shards fly through the air, shattering against Yosip's metal limbs. Han turns and I'm able to see the source of the attack.

A creature towers in the center, at least forty ubits tall. Black compound eyes dot the pillar of flesh, and hundreds of tentacles sprout from it in thick clusters. Silver oozes from the skin of this creature. The base of the thing is hidden beneath crusts of silver metal and jagged spires of crystal.

It bellows from openings across its body. The scream reverberates through our group, and I can feel higher dimensional energies accompanying the sonic attack. Weakness washes over me, but the effects upon Somner Zek are far more severe. She collapses, blue oozing from her eyes.