by Pal, J
Proving their intelligence once again, the kings flew in unpredictable patterns, making it harder for us to get a clean shot for them. The Balloon Pods were no longer just obstacles for them to avoid but served as cover for them as well. They stayed far enough away from the traps so they didn’t get caught in their blast radius. In the meantime, the Menagerie-born platyhawks got to work attacking the surviving elites.
I watched, wide-eyed, as one of them flew through the still burning cloud of spores. Its biometal took on an orange glow and a wing sliced clean through a nearby elite. They were instinctively using the plasma absorbers and chargers as assault weapons! Fin was right. Our specimens would be as powerful as boss monsters when fully grown.
One of the kings dove. Instead of attacking us from above, he chose to stay at or below eye level. It limited his flight patterns, since the Balloon Pods’ coiling vines got in their way, but at the same time, he had plenty of cover. The other boss-class monster tried to do the same but failed to find a suitable window. It wasn’t just trying to avoid Liam’s fire but our platyhawks too. They had turned on him after slaughtering the elites.
Caitlin and Liam focused on the creature above us. Their shots were a lot more accurate than mine at long range. They’d have an easier time nailing the beast without hurting one of ours. Meanwhile, David and I targeted the creature trying to be sneaky.
There were only a handful of buildings high enough to provide cover, so we split up. The creature would have a more challenging time hiding from us if we targeted it from two different points of attack. David’s multitool didn’t give him a lot of mobility—it was a part of his next intended upgrade—so he stayed on the Hub’s roof where he could cover Caitlin and Liam if needed.
I launched myself forward with the Pogo Heelies, going for a long, arcing jump. It carried me more than halfway to my intended destination. Once my forward momentum turned into a downward one, I activated the Grappling Belt to latch onto the closest ledge. The adrenaline running through my system helped me bend my knees and catch my forward momentum on the wall. It charged the Pogo Heelies to full and helped me get all the way to the roof.
The king jumped on seeing me. Instead of flying, it had turned to cling to the building’s side. The creature was crawling along the walls to sneak up on us. I whistled just as it dropped down towards the ground, and within seconds our ankylopus guards came running. The king took to the sky just as they dove at him. It didn’t get high. My Coil Gun was ready for him. I got him in the head just as he reached above us. The low power shot wasn’t enough to kill it, but David was ready. He landed a projectile from the cannon mode. The explosion set the creature ablaze, and it fell to the ground screeching. I left the ankylopus to finish it.
The final king fell moments later. It was one of our platyhawks that helped us take him down. I recognized the little guy. It was the first creature our Menagerie had hatched. I didn’t get to see how she did it, but the little thing got the king to chase her. She flew along the Hub’s walls, luring the boss to the Spiny Naiad. As soon as he was in range, the vines came to life. They wrapped around his torso and limbs. Still reasonably new, they weren’t strong enough to hold the creature, but the momentary pause was enough for me to land a critical hit and finish the monster.
Liam’s Scavengers helped collect all the bodies. It was a repeat of parts we already had and didn’t have any immediate use for. Then again, we could never have enough biometal glands. I offered one to Liam, but he turned it down. He claimed adding a second one to the 3D printer would be overkill. He suggested I save them for Kitty’s next golem—Winnie would pop any time now—or another weapon for Caitlin.
After some thought, I decided to hold onto them. Despite the current situation, I had hope for the Hub’s newest residents, especially Helena. If we could bring her over to our side, she’d make for an excellent bonus for the team. During the prior conversation, she’d explained her power: Elasticity. It not only gave her the ability to stretch her limbs but set elastic limits and turned her body into a slingshot. Also, it made her resistant to blunt force trauma. She had the potential to become an excellent frontline fighter.
Each boss had given us two McGuffins as well. Calling it a windfall would be an understatement. With the threat of the locals looming over us, we needed to use every tool at our disposal.
“I need one of those,” David said. “The multitool is ready for another upgrade.”
“Of course.” I passed it to him without a second thought. “What are you planning?”
“I’m torn. I don’t know whether to invest in mobility or another ranged option. The cannon isn’t enough when dealing with the platyhawks.”
“That might be true, but we don’t have to worry about them for long,” I told him. “These last couple of fights reduced the number of platyhawk bosses by four. That means there are two to four crippled nests that’ll take ages to recover. They won’t remain a major threat for much longer. I’d say go for mobility.”
David looked at Caitlin questioningly, and she nodded.
“Perhaps we should use a few of these to upgrade your weapons—”
“Just do the Mini-drone Launcher,” Caitlin said, interrupting me. “The Void Rifle is sufficiently powerful. Use the rest for the others and reinforcing the Hub. The vines and balloons helped us four-man a superior threat. This building is our real weapon. Don’t you think so?”
“You’re right,” I said.
I had built the Mini-drone Launcher with room for a McGuffin in addition to the batteries. Caitlin accepted the McGuffin graciously, leaving me with four. After saving one for Winnie, I had three to play with. After some thought, I decided to use one for further upgrades to the base and not make any decisions about the other two yet.
We watched the base absorb what was left of the platyhawk carcasses before heading back in. If Kitty or Jay didn’t pick up on the fight, Maya would. They’d be home soon. I was about to head up to the third floor and browse upgrade options when Liam froze.
“Something is going on in the basement,” he said. Of course. His technopathic link to the surveillance system helped him keep track of everything going on in the Hub. How many partitions did his mind have? “Anna is attacking Helena! We have to get down there!”
We rushed down the stairs and, much to our surprise, the door wouldn’t budge. We could hear the pair fighting inside, grunting and screaming, but couldn’t reach them. It had to be Anna. I just knew it. It had all been an act, and now she was trying to silence witnesses who saw through her. Clenching my jaw, I activated the Sonic Shotgun. My arm transformed into a long, Megaman-styled blaster. It had little trouble blowing the door of its hinges.
I ran into the basement, ready to disable Anna, but barely made it through the doorway before freezing. Anna’s clothes were ripped, and blood trickled down her limbs. She held a long piece of wood, probably a chair leg, and swung it at Helena. The implement glowed with a red light. She must have imbued it for enhanced strength.
On the other hand, Helena appeared reasonably unharmed. Considering her power, that came as no surprise. What did shock us, though, was what she was using as a weapon. It was a long whip made of biometal segments. It oddly resembled her spine armor and ended in two pincer-like claws. When it got close to Anna, she blocked it with her weapon and charged in at Helena, wooden stake at the ready.
David reacted before us, rushing in with his multitool ready. Caitlin stayed by the door, unsure of how to proceed, and Liam did the same. I followed David, modifying the shotgun to avoid lethal damage.
I expected Anna to turn on us, but it was Helena who did it. Anna fell back panting, and David rushed over to stand guard over her. It was tempting to avoid the camouflage function, but after incorrectly assessing the scene, I was no longer sure. No. We needed to keep Helena’s attention on me while figuring out why she was attacking us all of a sudden.
Then the whip came at me, and I just managed to duck under it. It was then I noticed the
countless little segmented digits growing out of the weapon’s sides. They wiggled like small appendages, looking for something to hook onto.
“It’s alive!” Anna yelled through ragged breaths. “She tried to put that thing on my back. It’s alive!”
Helena screamed, charging at me. If that weren’t terrifying enough, another whip shot out of her mouth. I activated the Sonic Barrier Projector, catching the weapon inches from my face. When it snapped at my nose, I finally realized what we were facing.
“Holy shit!” I swore. “It’s a centipede!”
My goggles scanned the creature as I raised the Sonic Shotgun.
Armored Skullipede
Skullipedes are bioweapons created by the Khjurnhalvan army during Season 2 of Survival Planet. When the events of season 1 taught them there would be individuals that resisted their mind hack, the showrunners added contingencies to their game plan.
Skullipedes are one such contingency. The parasites are designed to prey on developing vertebrate species. They lock themselves in over the victim’s spine and their pincers dig into the brain. They are among the few beasts added to the System that can take control of beasts and locals and then spill over onto neighboring sectors. For the sake of balance, only one may be planted in an area spanning a hundred sectors.
The skullipede then absorbs all of the victim’s memories and takes control of the body. Over time, it empowers the host and learns to control all of their System-given abilities. Skullipedes don’t die with their hosts or even if their armor body supports damage. If you want to kill a skullipede, go for the head.
Then I fired. Helena was thrown backwards by the blast. The centipede head stuck in the barrier stayed behind while the whip-like end went limp. Helena spat it out and was on her feet again in seconds. So she was resistant to the sonic attack too.
“What do I do?” Caitlin yelled from the stairwell.
“Stay back,” I answered. “Your weapons aren’t built for close-range combat. Contact the others.”
The Sonic Barrier Projector deactivated as my prosthetic changed modes once again. When Helena came at me, I hit her with the Gloop Shooter. It sprayed her lower half with glue. First she slipped, and then the quick-acting adhesive had her sticking to the floor. It probably wouldn’t hold her for long, but it was long enough to resume the base Charge Launcher weapon. The Coil Gun would’ve been better. Elasticity probably made Helena resistant to electricity too. A physical projectile would’ve likely pierced her body. I didn’t want her dead though. Everyone would want to investigate this creature further and figure out whether we could free her from its control.
The Charge Launcher’s projectile exploded on contact, showering her with bolts of electricity. It didn’t damage her skin, but her spine armor shook and wriggled, making her back spasm. The centipede she had been using as her whip froze. It fell to the floor, locked in a strange heap of loops. I kicked it at David, and he crushed its pincered head without instruction.
Helena tried getting back up, but I coated her arms in gloop. It didn’t give her enough traction to get up. Then the glue on her lower half hardened, sticking her to the floor. Caitlin ran into the room and threw a couple of drones at Helena. They came to life, running around the woman and tying her up with wire.
“I’m starting to think the story about Omar the Bioengineer is bullshit,” I said. “That’s an Alvan-made monster. If Frieda did exist, I suspect she dug into a nest and all of these buggers got body snatched.”
“You’re saying there are monsters out there with human-level intelligence and powers?” David asked.
“They don’t have powers, per se,” I said. “They’re controlling humans and supercharging their powers. I don’t think anything Helena has told us is true.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Hard Decisions
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Even though I trusted the drones to keep Helena tied up, Liam had his new armored drones shape themselves around her limbs, locking her in place. Then we checked on Anna. I wanted to spray her with the Gloop Shooter’s healing fluid straight away, but Caitlin stopped me. She had us leave the room to talk to her woman to woman.
David and I turned our attention to the centipedes. The biometal plates running along their back had locked together, curving their entire body. Meanwhile, their segmented legs folded up under their frame around the squishy undersides. My stomach churned, studying the blood-covered filaments.
“I reckon they wrap their victim’s spines with these,” I said.
“Correct.” Liam lifted the creature’s head. When he parted the pincers, dozens of little tentacles sprouted from under the shell. “These must be what dig into the brain.”
“These things are terrifying,” David said, shuddering. “Does this mean all of the locals are actually monsters?”
I nodded. “Looks that way for sure. We need to figure out whether we can remove the parasite without damaging the host.”
“It’s unlikely,” Liam stated. He picked up a tentacle and prodded it with one of his appendages. “I don’t know whether you can see it, but all of these end in tiny, barbed blades. I bet they’re made to hook onto the brain. I bet they’ll shred it on the way out. But that’s not the worst of it.”
“What is it?” I asked
“I dunno whether it’s true, but I’ve got a little theory about the monsters in every sector.” David and I looked up at him, listening intently. Liam’s Mega Brain hadn’t failed us yet. If he had a hypothesis, it was worth considering. “Tell me, David—you checked out quite a few nests in the old sector before coming here, right?”
David nodded.
“Did any of them house mantises?”
The boy shook his head. I could tell from his eyes that he didn’t know where the line of questioning was going. To be fair, I didn’t either.
“I reckon there was only one mantis nest. Mama was likely the only named boss in the sector. That’s because she was a doomsday boss.”
“What the hell is a doomsday boss?” I asked, also trying to figure out Liam’s line of thinking.
“It’s just a term I coined because I have nothing better,” Liam answered. “Think about it, Matt. If we didn’t take down Mama, she would’ve continued reproducing. The army of elites would continue growing until the tunnel network didn’t feed their appetite anymore. Then the bastards would spill out into the streets and overwhelm everyone and everything. Mama is a boss designed to dominate the sector, destroying all life in it until there is nothing left. I don’t think the monsters can travel between sectors, so they’d war with each other and engage in cannibalism. Eventually, they’d be dead, and the sector would be nothing but rubble.”
“That sounds like a plausible but horrifying concept,” David commented.
“What if it’s the same for the centipedes? Instead of killing everything, their purpose is to assimilate all creatures until they’re all ruled by a single entity. Do you know what worries me even more? What if these parasites can ride humans into other sectors? I hope I’m wrong.”
“Me too,” I said. “If you’re not, we’re all pretty screwed.”
Liam dropped the centipede when Anna and Caitlin returned.
“Sorry, boys, I just needed to make sure none of these things got on Anna,” she told us.
“I guessed as much.” I kneeled in front of Anna and activated the Gloop Shooter. She looked at Caitlin, worried, and backed away from me. “It’s alright. This is a healing tool; it will fix your wounds while you tell us what happened.”
Caitlin shot her a reassur
ing nod, and she submitted to the tool straight away. Instead of just spraying her all over, I carefully applied the fluid to her wounds. It didn’t just close her injuries, but washed the dirt and dried blood off her skin too. It took five minutes, but by the end of it, she appeared calm and refreshed.
Anna said they’d been talking and getting along just fine all morning, but everything had changed when the building shook. We compared times and figured out it was when the Spiny Naiads captured the platyhawk king. The biometal-covered beast must have sent tremors through the Hub while struggling to get free.
Helena’s expression had changed all of a sudden. She’d gone from friendly to mean within seconds, talking about how she needed to get out of the Hub as soon as possible. Apparently, we were evil. She and her father would purify the lands, ridding it of the planet’s murderers. Then the centipede she used as a whip had crawled out of her mouth. Initially, she’d tried to convince Anna to accept the gift and join her, but then had turned more aggressive with each passing second. It hadn’t taken long for the conversation to devolve into violence.
To err on the side of caution, I scanned Anna. The goggles didn’t give me any information. Unless a centipede had managed to get inside of her, she was clean. I hoped these creatures weren’t capable of burrowing inside an individual and then exploding out of their chest. Ridley Scott had the stomach for such images, but I didn’t. Considering the filaments and tentacles developed for latching onto brains, we figured their capabilities were severely limited.
“I think we should put her down as soon as possible,” Liam said.
