“Stay quiet,” I said. “I need you to get Spirit-Watcher out and put it on.”
She made an expression that was equal parts confusion, concern, and curiosity. When she donned the Void-tech, I continued.
“I think we’re still being followed,” I whispered. “I need you to look around to see if you can spot it. I’d like to take it out before we get too close to the elevator. And if it’s spying for others, killing it early will give us the advantage. Whatever defenses the enemy has will have to spread out because they won’t know what direction we’ll come from.”
Nyna nodded and turned to face the rest of the column as we carefully picked our way over and around recently destroyed buildings and small civilian hovercraft. She took her time looking around so that it wouldn’t be obvious but gasped when she looked directly behind us.
“There’s three of them,” she whispered. “They’ve got some kind of tech, I think. They stand out like torches in a cave to me. I don’t think they’re here to watch. They’re getting closer. It looks like they’re going to attack!” Her voice had become a bit panicked.
“Take it easy,” I said in the most soothing voice I could muster. “Where’s the closest one?”
She glanced quickly over her shoulder. “It’s climbing over the rubble we passed about a minute ago. It’s almost at the top, crouching low to the ground. Damn, it’s ugly.”
I didn’t hesitate. I raised my pistol, aimed about fifteen inches above the pile of rubble, and pulled the trigger. The creature exploded, sending a fountain of green gore into the air. It hit the walls of the nearby building and the tarmac and began to sizzle. As far as I knew, only Xeno blood was acidic.
“Contact!” I shouted. “Xeno! There’s two more of them!”
“Yes!” Skrew shouted as he raised his rifle and hunted for a target. “Is time to see where rifle can fits!”
“Get down!” Reaver told him.
Skrew squatted just as a green beam cut the night and split the wall behind where his head had been.
Skrew answered with several shots in the general direction of the enemy fire, but they hit nothing but air.
I heard a noise above us and twisted around to take aim. A furry alien was leaning out its window. It held a Xeno rifle but wasn’t pointing it down at us. Instead, it was searching the rooftops across the street.
“Come to me, Sitar!” the alien bellowed. “I will show you what your intestines look like! I will eat my porridge out of your skulls!”
“Skrew will too!” the vrak bellowed.
“Come out, you coward!” the furry alien continued. “You will—”
When I looked back toward the Xeno, the rest of the furry alien’s words were swallowed by its scream. I snapped my head and pistol toward it again, and looked into the darkness that was its face. Its rifle was still pointed across the street, but it was staring down at me.
“You will die,” it whispered. Then it laughed, a high-pitched maniacal sound that sent a shiver down my spine. “And I will make you my meat-puppet.”
I quickly took aim, then rolled out of the way as the creature fell from the window directly toward me. It hit with a wet crunch, its neck bent at an impossible angle as dark fluid poured from its mouth.
Nyna gasped. “Look at the back of his head,” she whispered.
In the time I’d looked away, one of the sneaky, skinny Xeno had managed to rip off the back of the alien’s head, take out its brain, and literally turn it into a puppet. They were fast and dangerous.
“I believe they are making us wait,” Beatrix said, still searching for targets. “I believe they are causing us to stay here so that they may bring others to us.”
She was probably right. By staying hidden, they were keeping us pinned.
“Nyna,” I whispered, “find me another target.”
Nyna looked around, raised her rifle across the street, and fired once into an open window. A Xeno materialized and became more and more visible until it hit the ground. The creatures were able to camouflage themselves and completely blend in with their surroundings. They were assisted by the fog, it was their home.
“Like that?” Nyna asked.
“Yup,” I said. “Exactly like that. Now, do it again.”
Nyna spun her head back and forth, turned, checked behind us, and slowly lowered her rifle. I stood as well and felt the hairs on the back of my neck begin to stand on end.
“I don’t see any more of them,” she said slowly. “I must’ve miscounted.”
“Let’s keep going,” I said. “The elevator should be close.”
Reaver looked unsure but nodded, shouldered her rifle, and started walking. Beatrix sent Skrew to the second position and Nyna to the third so that she could be close to me. She glanced over her shoulder at me from time to time, her pressed lips and tightly wound tentacles letting me know that she expected trouble soon. I expected the same.
I felt movement behind me and tucked into a roll. Beatrix fired over me and shot the skinny Xeno three times before it hit the ground.
The rest of the team took a knee, and all except Reaver turned their rifles in my general direction. I waved them off and gave the signal to keep walking. They hesitated for a moment before obeying. I couldn't blame them for being nervous, but I knew that was the last of them following us. She hadn’t miscounted; the last one had just hidden very well right before its attack. Now, there were only a billion or so to go. Well—it was a start.
“Look!” Reaver whispered as she pointed to my body armor. I’d been close enough that some of the sneaky Xeno’s blood had gotten on me. My first instinct was to remove my armor, but I noticed in time that the fluid wasn’t damaging it. Damn, I thought, Void-tech is impervious to their acid. That
