Beatrix, Reaver, and I dove away from the doorway when we heard Skrew’s minigun spin up again. A half-second later, the creature was retreating back into the ground as heavy metal slugs chipped small holes in its armored, iridescent exoskeleton.
Another segmented appendage, this one ending in a black hook the size of my whole body, erupted from the ground and slashed at Skrew. The wall behind us shook, and little bits of hot rock fell from the gouge it left behind.
Skrew kept shooting for another two seconds before his gun ground to a halt. “No!” he roared across the comm. “Gun broke! Is fire! Stupid, stinky gun!”
The creature slashed again with its hooked talon, then stabbed toward and through the doorway at Skrew. The mech’s big hand appeared, wrapped around the tentacle, and pinned it against the doorway.
“Ha!” Skrew said through the mech’s external speakers. “Dirty, buggy thing caught! Is stuck! Now what, dirty buggy?”
Dirty buggy, my mind repeated. There was something about what he was saying that brought back a flood of memories. The iridescent scales were unmistakable. It was a Xeno, but not one I’d ever seen before. How far have they inserted themselves into this world? How far have they spread?
A single shot from my pistol severed the spidery limb and sent hot green goo splashing to the floor. The stump retreated back into the sand. Reaver was on her feet a moment later, peppering anything that moved with angry bolts of energy. It wasn’t having much effect, but the appendages flinched with every shot, so I knew it hurt.
Beatrix looked a bit lost. She was standing on the edge of the walkway, peering in at the soil. I could tell she was waiting for an opportunity to smash something with her glowing hammer, but I hoped she wouldn’t be tempted to rush in.
The sound of Skrew’s stomping feet told me he’d entered the building. His gun was no longer working, but he was carrying the severed Xeno appendage in his hands like a club, the black talon at the far end behind him.
“Bad bug!” Skrew scolded as he swung the hook over his head at the dirt. It hit with a low, sickening thud.
Two more appendages shot out of the soil. I shot one, winging it, and it retreated back under the sand. Skrew whacked the second with his makeshift whip and sent it right at Beatrix. My breath caught in my chest for a second as I saw it heading toward her. She didn’t try to get out of the way, though. Instead, she raised her hammer above her head with both hands and sent it crashing into the creature’s claw. There was an explosion of green.
A second later, I found Beatrix standing in the same spot where I’d seen her before. She was covered in green goo and was surrounded with broken, smoldering bits of Xeno carapace at her feet.
“I love this hammer,” she said, lovingly cleaning goo off its surfaces before she wiped her face.I caught sight of Reaver on the spiraling stairs heading toward Tortengar’s suite but didn’t have time to ask her what she was doing. Two more appendages erupted from the sand, both headed toward Skrew.
“Do it again!” I ordered as I shot one.
But instead of continuing toward Skrew, the creature changed direction and lashed out at me.
I rolled to my right, narrowly avoiding the sand, and hissed as hot bits of the walkway peppered my back. The Xeno snapped its black hook into the air above me. There was no time to try to bring Ebon up, and I didn’t think cutting through the thing would do any good. There was no time to aim my pistol, and even if it hit it, something would smash down on me. So, I dropped both of my weapons and reached for it.
The impact sent shooting pains through my wrists and shoulders. The creature was powerful, and it pressed hard against my grip. I held the sharp, black point only inches from my left eye when I felt it start to pull me toward the sand. There was nowhere to plant my feet, no way to stop myself from sliding, so I didn’t. Instead, I turned my head to the side and yanked the limb toward the walkway. Hot sparks landed on my cheek, but I ignored them as I arched my back and squeezed with both arms. I’d pinned the creature by its talon.
“Skrew!” I shouted. “Come stand next to me!”
“Want Skrew to smash?” he asked.
“No, not yet,” I said, “but get your ass over here!”
The mech was standing a few inches from me a second later, rubbing its big and small hands in anxious anticipation.
“Stand on the end,” I said. “Keep this thing in place.”
I moved my hands out of the way as a big, heavy foot planted itself on the Xeno’s talon. Then, I stood up, walked to the edge of the sand, grabbed the thing, and began to pull. It fought hard, but couldn’t stop me from pulling it out of its hidey-hole, one inch at a time. A huge eye appeared in the sand, extended itself like a snail’s eye, and stared at me. It vanished when Reaver burned a hole all the way through it with her rifle. Skrew laughed.
A smaller tentacle sprang from the soil, but Reaver truncated it with another blast from her rifle. When another appeared, she burned that one off as well.
“I think I saw its head!” Reaver said across the comm. “Keep pulling!”
A few seconds later, the main body of the creature appeared. It wasn’t covered in tough scales like the rest of it. The thing looked like a round, pink mouth surrounded by eye-stalks, like a starfish who’d lived its entire life too close to a
