“To replicate. I know they need…” Sayori twitched a muscle in her cheek. “Bodies...but they must need metals, plastics, oils...this place looks like it hasn’t been touched.”
Davrry paused, and scratched at his stubble. Sayori noted that he didn't take his eyes of the corridor, but his furrowed brow told her her question had hit home on something.
"The others laugh at this." Davrry sniffed, then gestured for the party to move forwards again. "But I've been out in the corridors more than them. Seen them without them seeing me. Sometimes, I swear, its like they fight over territory. Resources. There is a hierarchy a. . .an ecosystem for want of a better word. They don't fight hard. More like the threat displays of buck deer. But if this area is untouched. . . "
He ran a hand over an undamaged fuse box.
"Means something really bad is down here. An alpha."
+++++
Winters finished dumping decoy bodies, some only kept together by their suits, into the shuttle. It was difficult to tell if they had been Lyran, Human or Kel'cyre. Two were Charabidian, in pilot suits. They had never even made it to a ship.
As she finished up dumping half a dozen bodies in the decoy, she felt something watching her. She put it down to the silent drone sitting waiting for its last kamikaze run, and double timed it back to the mission team and the waiting stealth shuttle.
+++++
Winters clambered aboard and the ramp swung up. There was a dull thump as the interior of the ship equalised its pressure.
+Alright. . .I think we are good to. . . oh, holy shit+
The hangerbay was a cavernous, dark space, and something had unfolded from the upper bays. Something massive, and silent.
It padded, on pulsing, reshaping hands formed from masses of cable, across the hangerbay. It seemed torn. Swinging its vast, shuttle sized head between the decoy and the mission teams own ship.
+Go go go go go!+ Davrry urged.
Bookmarks