Aboleth sprinted down the hall.

  Alarms were blaring and emergency lights were flashing. People were panicking, trying to hide deeper inside the frigate—away from the invading Zykra. While fighters were moving to face the enemy at the breaches.

  Should she change yet? No. Their allies might confuse her for the enemy. But she would move faster. Damn these human legs!

  Outside, Desuran's forces had begun to engage Ku'senai's brood at least. Several new caasioks had arrived. One of which was clinging to Preston's frigate; the others were engaging the Protectorate.

  Desuran likely realized by now that if he didn't pry Ku'senai's brood off, it would be impossible to reach Selene.

  This was an opportune situation for them—believe it or not. Strategically. The two opposing forces would wear themselves out while their own forces conserved their strength.

  Selene had their forces moving to the edge of the battle intentionally for that reason. So when their backup arrived from Endelon 2, they could beat whichever side won.

  That was their path out of this. And it wasn't her plan; it was Selene's... She was becoming quite the little tactician. Aboleth felt a little proud; after all, she felt she had earned a little credit for that.

  Aboleth rounded the corner and entered a wide open room. A few stories tall and about fifty meters in diameter. A type of lobby, or event area. There was a bar, as well as numerous tables positioned around. Soldiers barricaded behind an airlocked door.

  The tables had been flipped over, and other more official barricades had been deployed into the room. Where dozens of soldiers were positioned, their weapons trained on the door. Aboleth had just seen this kind of defense fail against their own Zykra.

  Preston, Ron, and Xaya were there as well, dressed in enforcer armor. Though theirs are bulkier than normal, like miniature mechs.

  Preston noticed and turned towards her.

  "Aboleth, come to help? Sorry, we don't have another set of armor for you."

  "Don't need it. How are the doors holding?"

  Xaya sighed. "Not well. We locked everything between us and them, but they're running through it like tissue paper. We already lost so many in the opening attack... We'll have to hold them here where we have the advantage."

  "I'll serve as a frontline. Just kill any that get past me."

  They all shared a skeptical look.

  Preston coughed awkwardly. "I, uhm... Are you sure you're capable of that? We all know Selene is a powerhouse, but what can you do?"

  The Zykra was coming; she almost had no time to explain.

  "I'm a preatorian—one of the most powerful variants of Zykra outside of queens. Needless to say, I should be able to hold the line against cannon fodder. Just stand back and make sure no one shoots me."

  She waved them off.

  They listened, moving further away from the bulky door.

  "Don't shoot me!" Aboleth commanded. These soldiers were still getting used to being around friendly Zykra.

  Then her body expanded rapidly. Well, her hips and legs did. They fused together, becoming a serpentine tail in an instant, ripping the fabric of her clothing away. She rose up higher towards the ceiling as her lower half uncoiled.

  Two scimitar-shaped claws grew out of her hips, and her scales shimmered like they were made of metal.

  The soldiers gasped and flinched as she began to loom over them, but none fired on her. Mostly due to their commanders insisting they don't.

  Her skin turned green, and antennae grew from her scalp, but apart from that, her muscled upper torso didn't change much. The green uniform she wore was still intact; the gold pauldron that indicated her rank shone on her shoulder.

  "That'll do," Preston said, smiling. "Maybe we'll survive this yet." He took his position behind a barricade.

  "We just have to buy time for them to kill each other," Ron said, following him.

  Xaya laughed nervously, racking her carbine with a new magazine.

  "Rounds on Preston if we survive this."

  Preston glared at her but then shrugged.

  Moments later they could hear the layers of doors being torn down one by one. Each sealed chamber was breached and filled with Zykra.

  "Ready!" Xaya called out.

  Aboleth knelt forward; the scythes on her hips flicked outwards like pinchers ready to close.

  The door exploded outwards as a slaad came barreling through; the rhino-sized bug had its meter-long mandibles reared to gouge Aboleth. She deflected the mandibles with her hip-scythes and then snipped its head off with them in one fluid motion.

  Then set on the Zykra pouring in from behind it. She used her tail's heft to great effect in this way, smashing the scantids without bothering to attack them directly. Slaads and munlocs were the priority targets. The humans can kill whatever scantids got by.

  Which, judging by the gunfire, they already had started.

  She pushed her way into the hall. Punching and slicing her way through. She yanked a munlock up by the tail end and used it as a flail.

  The Zykra stopped flowing forward at a constant pace. They stopped and chittered at her angrily instead. She smiled. "What, scared?"

  "No. Patient." She heard a familiar voice say.

  They parted to allow a hulking form to move forward. He filled the hallway at least as much as Aboleth did. Perhaps a bit more. He was more brick-shaped than she was.

  His lower torso was like a crab, walking about on eight legs. You wouldn't be able to tell he was human once if it weren't for the patch of his face that remained. His dark eyes glared at her, with a single lock of his grayed dreadlocked hair remaining.

  The other half of his face was entirely insectoid, with 3 eyes stacked on top of each other and mandibles growing out. Silver spurs were growing out of his back like a porcupine, and each of his arms was tipped in 3 disproportionately long claws.

  "Ugh... Your queen didn't really care about your human side, did she?"

  "And neither did I," he said contemptuously. "It would seem that Selene has restored your independence, as I feared. Her foolish idealism will be her undoing; she's leading humanity to its extinction. You do know that—don't you? You're intelligent, Major Masuka; surely you can see that you are choosing the losing side. Join us, and live."

  She didn't even consider it. But images of her family flashed in her mind. Her children and husband. Waiting for her somewhere in the Protectorate territory.

  "Not all of us can leave everything behind so easily, Bryant. I'll admit, our chances are slim. But yours is the path that leads to extinction. You're not human anymore; you're a monster. Even in regard to infestation, Selene is the better option. Ascension isn't worth it if we're not doing it on our own terms. Our way."

  Bryant half smiled, the half of his mouth that was still lips anyway.

  "'Our' way? Selene will not create a democracy, a people's republic, a confederacy, or any of these things. She's a dominion. A tyrant. Some girl playing at queen. Nothing more. Nothing less. And after I kill you, I'll end her little dominion as well."

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  Aboleth started to stretch and rolled her shoulders.

  "...I guess we'll see."

  Then they clashed.

  Crab vs snake style.

  The grapple was intense; each was pushed into the walls one after the other, denting them inwards in the process.

  Bryant's body was very well balanced and difficult to push. Eight legs had a way of doing that. While her serpentine body was no slouch either, he had the advantage in wrestling. He bear-hugged her with both arms and held her close, then gurgled.

  Aboleth knew in an instant what his next attack was.

  Acid spit.

  She coiled the tip of her tail around his neck and pulled as hard as she could; they twirled around as acid erupted from an opening between his mandibles. Spraying everything around them, Zykra and metal alike.

  A bit landed on her—and it hurt like hell, but it was not the lethal attack it could have been.

  "Ah! You disgusting fuck!" She leaned back out of his grasp as much as she could and headbutted him. Which stunned him long enough that she could dig her scythes into his sides and lift him... It was like lifting a building.

  Then slammed him into the floor, breaking a few of his legs in the process.

  With all the damage they did, the floor fell in. Melted away from the acid and the force of their attacks.

  On the way down he pelted her with attacks from his many legs, stabbing her tail and torso multiple times. And she delivered a mean elbow to his face a few times over, caving his mandibles into his acid mouth.

  They crashed into the floor below. Lights sparked around them, and steam was blasting out of exposed pipes.

  Aboleth took this chance to run. Her body needed a breather. She tore away from his legs and arms, then disappeared into the fog.

  Bryant was hot on her trail.

  Tough bastard.

  She could hear her flesh healing. How was he so strong? Did Ku'senai make him a pretorian too? That process took a bit of time, and that didn't seem to line up...

  The massive snake woman swerved through the desolate maze-like halls of the frigate, bashing through pressurized doors as she went.

  Eventually she came into what looked like a gymnasium of sorts. It was reinforced to be a bit stronger than the rest of the frigate, as this was the place people would hide during disasters like this.

  Had she really moved so far so quickly?

  They all peered at her in fear, dead silent. A hundred faces of the families who served aboard the vessel. Huddled in a corner of the large open room away from her. Her queen's family was here.

  In an instant she turned around to face Bryant.

  No more time to heal. She had to finish this now. His distorted laughter could be heard through the opened doorway.

  "...Did you really think I would have attacked if I was not confident in my victory? Even if by some miracle you manage to kill me, nothing will change. I'm just a part of the first wave; many more will come. And when our species is one with the swarm, our ascendance will be assured."

  "Everyone get out of here!" She ordered the huddled civilians behind her.

  "We're trying!" Someone shouted from the door. A red light kept flashing from the panel. She broke the seal to the room, and now the room was on lockdown to prevent the life-support systems from leaking. It would take someone with a higher level clearance to open it.

  Her wounds were still healing; if she could keep him talking—he charged straight towards her.

  "Fuck."

  With no other choice, they clashed again. Aboleth slid backwards as Bryant powered into her; he knew she was protecting the humans behind her and meant to crush their morale by crushing them with her own body.

  "Shit, shit, Selene—a little help!?"

  Send a Caasiok or something.

  The doctor cackled madly as she cried out.

  Selene saw what was happening through Aboleth's eyes and knew instantly what the stakes were. She was about tapped, but she only had to hold out a bit longer for reinforcements to arrive.

  None of that would matter if her family were killed. It would all become pointless. She pooled what remained of her power and directed it towards Aboleth.

  Finish It

  She ordered, and Aboleth felt rejuvenated by a wellspring of essence. Her body repaired itself almost instantly, and she stopped sliding backwards, only a handful of meters away from the crowd of humans.

  The veins throughout her body began to be visible like purple roots digging through the muscle.

  "Not laughing now, are we!?"

  He went to impale her with both of his burly clawed arms, but she caught both between each of her armpits and hugged them tight. Then she went to work with her scythes; the strikes came so fast they blurred.

  Chunks of Bryant came off like he was inside a blender.

  "Die!"

  His blood was splattering across her face and torso in thick sheets.

  She impaled him one final time, coiled her tail around his torso, and flung him across the room, shattering the far-end wall. Sparks and steam flooded out.

  The many intricate muscles that controlled her scythes were on fire now, and she felt a deep, spiritual fatigue.

  Aboleth looked over her shoulder at the humans, specifically Jen and Camden. She was relieved that they were fine. She won. It was over. Now they just had to survive the rest of his forces—

  'shrunk'

  Her blood splattered on the people behind her, surprising both them and her. A thin silver barb was poking through her stomach. She quickly coiled her tail around herself and positioned herself in front of the civilians.

  'Shunk,' 'shunk,' 'shunk'

  They came in quick succession then. They riddled her body like a pincushion. She looked between the gap in her tail-ball to where she had flung Dr. Bryant.

  His body was pulsating—he was healing himself rapidly. The silver barbs that lined his back were now lifted above him like a tongue or a cape. Many of them were removed.

  "Isn't this poetic? What you just did represents perfectly why humanity will lose against the Zykra... I was wrong, Major. You are a fool."

  Aboleth could feel her body giving out. She was at her limit, and so was Selene. Her body uncoiled, and she collapsed against the floor. Silver barbs covered her. One stuck out the side of her head even.

  Bryant walked towards her, wobbling on the few legs of his that remained. He coughed up acid onto his chest, which sizzled a bit.

  A similar sound emerged across the room as the door near the civilians hissed open.

  A line of soldiers dressed in enforcer armor stepped forward into the room.

  And a hail of gunfire followed.

  Bryant shielded himself with his arms. He let out a primal growl and raised his barbs, firing them again. This time into the soldiers.

  They tried to dodge without leading him to fire into the civilians, but most were hit.

  Preston, Xaya, and Ron all ran into the room.

  "...Pathetic," Bryant muttered. Relatively unaffected by the rifle fire. It was barely an inconvenience.

  The soldiers began to surround him as his barbs depleted themselves.

  He swiped into the crowd, using his still significant speed—even on half of his legs—to dismantle the soldiers. Many sets of limbs went flying at once with each cleave. But his arm stopped halfway when it hit Preston. His heavy armor locked, and his arms gripped Bryant's claws. They began to bite into his armor a bit.

  "Graphene, nano-fiber muscles woven into the armor. That's some fancy equipment you have there, Commander."

  Xaya stepped forward and cleaved Bryant's hand off with an extra-large machete.

  "Argh!" Bryant pulled his arm back, but the stub quickly began to regrow.

  "Don't let up!" Ron shouted. He was positioned behind Bryant now, twirling some kind of spiked grenade from its pin.

  'chink'

  The pin came out, and the grenade twirled through the air, stabbing itself into his back. Bryant reached behind him, but his fingers weren't quite regrown yet.

  "Get them out of here!" Preston shouted just before the explosion.

  Most of the surviving soldiers were rather distracted, but they did begin herding civilians out of the gymnasium.

  Bryant waved away the smoke from the explosion. There was a crater in his back now; a bit of spine was showing.

  "Ants... Insignificant ants!" He grabbed a piece of floor panel that had been damaged in the fight and peeled it off the floor. The heads on the bolts popped off, and it came away easily.

  He flung it like a Frisbee.

  "Ron!" Jen warned, but Ron already saw it coming. It was just too fast.

  It flew through the bottom half of his torso, half-bisecting him. Blood spouted out from the armor and speckled the floor. He groaned and stumbled onto his back.

  "Goddammit, somebody get him to medical!" Preston ordered.

  "Bold of you to assume you'd manage to get past me!" Bryant laughed.

  He started to pick up other pieces of rubble and floor to fling at the remaining soldiers.

  Aboleth heard Selene's voice echoing in her head.

  Her vision was darkening in a vignette; she was on the verge of passing out.

  "Get up! Please, Aboleth!" Her voice was tearful and desperate.

  "Shit. Need to reload, cover me!" Xaya shouted and knelt to retrieve a mag.

  At this point most of the soldiers were either dead or close to it. Bleeding out, groaning in pain.

  Bryant turned to Ron, who was one of the latter.

  "I wish I had the time to tell you what a profound disappointment your daughter ended up being... But your death will be a positive step in atoning for that."

  He raised a leg over his body. Ron looked up at it with an expression that read, 'I suppose this was bound to happen sooner or later. Might as well be now.'

  The leg stabbed downwards.

  "Stop!"

  The entire room went quiet. No gunfire. No voices. Everything froze.

  Dr. Bryant, his burned, torn, and mutilated Zykra body, looked over to the small child standing in the center of the gymnasium.

  "Ah. That's right. You inherited your father's abilities as well, I must say: you possess a remarkable aptitude for it, young man." He lowered his leg to sit beside Ron. Then started to walk in Camden's direction.

  He stood there, tears streaking his face. Red-cheeked and frightened beyond belief.

  "Perhaps I will take you with me. You could succeed where your sister has failed... Yes, the experiment is quite salvageable still."

  Blood began to leak from the child's nose.

  "Ss-Stop!" He shouted again. Bryant flinched for a second but continued on.

  Camden clenched his fists and threw them down to his sides and screamed at the top of his lungs: "I said stop!"

  Bryant stood still then for a moment.

  "Are we finished?" he asked.

  Blood began to drizzle down and off of Camden's chin. He fell to the floor and began to spasm.

  Everyone else in the room snapped out of it, no longer compelled by Camden's ability.

  Including Aboleth, who shot up and pulled two of the silver barbs from her body and shoved them deep into Dr. Bryant's exposed spine.

  He stammered as he looked over his shoulder at her. "R-reconsider! If you—AGH!"

  She pulled the barbs in opposite directions, splitting him almost entirely in half. His body swayed.

  Aboleth grabbed him by his lower and upper halves and then ripped them apart. Then fell unconscious beside him.

  "Absurd..." Bryant's voice faded as his body stilled.

  "Camden!" Jen shouted and rushed to her son's side, turning him over. "Moms—Mommy's here! Please, no!"

  She looked over her shoulder at the stunned survivors. Then to her bleeding-out husband and son.

  "What are you all staring at!? They need a doctor!"

  Behind the Chapter...

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