“We got a cow!” Joker announced. “Hold the line! Sir, we need you up here!”
Well done. Combat was no time for formality. If he needed me, he could tell me. To hell with rank when lives were on the line. I reminded myself to tell him so later, even if he ended up dead.
I charged to the right flank of the line against the cave wall. The path between the boulders narrowed and provided us the opportunity to interlock shields.
We were about to face a Xeno Queen, and these Marines would need all the help they could get.
Chapter Two
“My Gods,” Joker whispered over the communications channel.
I tried not to roll my eyes as he invoked the divine. After all, I was just as awed by the sight of the Xeno Queen as he was, even if this wasn’t my first rodeo. I didn’t care if Joker invoked his gods or called upon them to help him fight the galaxy’s worst. A man with faith is difficult to defeat, I thought.
As for me, I didn’t have that kind of faith. I relied on science, brutality, and swiftness of action. Those three pillars had served me well all my life, and I wasn’t about to start praying just because the galaxy’s ugliest Xeno Queen had shown up.
There were only two Harbingers left, but they held back. The little rows of razor-teeth inside their wide mouths clattered together, and I guessed they were laying out battleplans now that their Queen was present.
“Hold the line,” Joker reiterated. “Count off!”
I started the count by saying “One!” and the rest of the line finished the count. Nineteen Marines, including myself, responded. We were all alive and ready to party.
The Queen was a giant of an alien with enough ferocity and firepower to eliminate every Marine present. She benefited from Xeno tech that seemed to enable their spaceships to move around the galaxy at will. We weren’t certain of the range of their ship-mounted portable generators, but personal ones like the tech belonging to the Queen could transport them up to a mile away in any direction.
She could have ‘ported in from anywhere on the planet, or she could have been inside the cave the whole time. I’d never faced a Queen that used cloaking technology, but accounts of the most recent forays with humanity’s dreaded enemies suggested it was possible. It was probably where the coders had gotten the idea for this one.
Except it didn’t really matter how she got here. Putting her down was all that mattered.
The Queen was at least twice the size of the aliens we’d already killed, but she was something different. Sizably different. And she was ugly, dangerous, and greener different.
Queens resembled big leaves from paw paw trees. They had four beefy arms and four spike-tipped legs, each ending in claws, just like their arms. An armored carapace hid wings behind its back. A Queen was kind of like what the offspring of a centipede and a Harbinger would be if they could have a baby—a really ugly, nasty, bloodthirsty baby that even the mama’s best friend wouldn't tell her was cute.
I knew that the acid produced by the Queen was identical to the substance inside the projectile sacs. Queens laid two different kind of eggs; the first would turn into baby Xeno while the second contained the corrosive material used for killing. Queens could load their gullet with their own sacs, then squeeze them and spray the poison over their opponents. They would only release a single blast, but it was often enough to take down their prey or anything foolish enough to attack them.
I knew enough to take one down. But today wasn’t about me. It was about the Marines around me and how they decided to deal with it.
Queens were a special kind of prize and were lauded as some of the most difficult opponents the alien scourge had to offer. It was time my MSM squad earned themselves a trophy.
“Even numbers, guard the top!” Joker continued. “Watch for the spit! Odd numbers, cover!”
With everyone still alive, the alien bitch didn’t stand a chance. The problem was that the Queen didn’t seem to give a shit about that piece of information. She leaned her triangle-shaped head back and sprayed the line with acid.
I stepped to the right, pressed against the Marine who’d counted “two,” and took a knee. The even-numbered Marine’s job was to protect us from the acid, but mine was to protect us from everything else.
I held my shield out in front of me while my shieldmate grunted under the pressure of taking almost all of the Queen’s attack. The acidic onslaught kept coming as the Queen released every last ounce of ooze from her maw.
A skitter of movement alerted me to trouble, and I spotted the two surviving Harbingers as they charged. A scream rang out behind me, and I guessed one of the odd-number Marines had been so focused on shooting the charging bugs that he forgot to make sure he was under the even-numbered Marine’s shield.
My rifle sizzled, and the alien invader went down in a tumble of limbs nine feet away. I put four more blasts into its one visible compound eye. If the alien was only faking, it would still be at a huge disadvantage once it rejoined the battle. I adjusted fire and opened up on the Queen.
The big bug crouched, unfurled its leathery wings, and folded them in front like a shield. They weren’t impenetrable, but as far as we knew, they were useless for flying. The Queens’ wings, some million or billion years ago, had become too big and heavy. Now, they served as defensive tools.
With the Queen’s first acid spray discharged, I stepped out from the protection of my shieldmate and reached for my belt.
“Grenade!” I called as I lobbed one at the Queen. I aimed to land it within her folded cocoon, but at the last moment,
