They confirmed, so I slowly opened the door. The interior of the arena was clear of fog, the elevator car was visible. And it was huge. It was 300 feet wide and shaped like a donut crossed with an avocado. Its round exterior walls were illuminated by the glow of tall light poles scattered around the arena’s dirt and gravel floor. Instead of there being light bulbs, though, little creatures resembling frogs splashed in glass-like globes at the top of the poles.
Standing among them were Xeno guards, the praying mantis-like kind I knew. If they used the same ammunition, it would be the baseball-sized infertile egg pods called ootheca, which would be filled almost to bursting with acid concentrated from their own blood. The weapons were effective at all ranges, but when the Xeno got close, they preferred to stab, slash, and rip their opponents apart with their pointed legs and steel-hard exoskeletons.
There were only about ten of them, though, so I was sure there were many more hiding among the stands, ready to snipe anyone who might have snuck in. I wondered if the rest of them were already deployed, or if they lay among the dead in the dark streets of the city.
I motioned for everyone to come out quietly and slowly. Our position wasn’t lit by the glowing frog light poles. Once everyone was out, I signaled them to designate their targets. I wasn’t sure if everyone understood, but there were enough of us to drop any survivors if anyone didn’t.
On the count of three, five weapons fired, and five Xeno fell. A half-second later, another four fell. A half-second after that, the last one was shot five times. Skrew laughed maniacally.
“Reaver,” I said, “you’re with me. The rest of you get to the elevator car and secure it. We’ll take care of whatever guards we find at the main entrance.”
Reaver and I stealthily made my way to the gate. There was little chance the guards hadn’t heard us, so hurrying was too dangerous. My only hope was that their controller would think the noise was a distraction, or its own controller would order it to remain on post.
When we passed the holding pens, now defunct and partially collapsed, we stopped to look and listen. The Marine had taught us that, when entering known hostile territory in darkness, it was important to stop and take in the sights and sounds. It was an opportunity for the Marine to become acquainted with what normal meant for the area. It was a time to study the noises, the animals, and the wind. If a new sound was heard or the animals suddenly became quiet, it was time to worry.
The night in the arena was almost completely quiet. The wind hardly moved. There were no sounds of boots crunching stone or pointy Xeno feet tapping as harbingers moved. There were no radios transmitting static, nor periodic radio checks between sentries.
I was just preparing to move, shifting my weight, when I noticed the outline of a Xeno warrior’s arm. I signaled Reaver to look. She lifted her Void-tech rifle and peered through the scope, held up one finger, and hooked her thumb to her right. One guard was at least partly concealed around a corner to the right. If we kept going, we’d risk being seen. We’d come as far as we could without taking the guard out.
Reaver made a gesture that indicated she wanted to shoot the guard. I wanted to let her, but I didn’t know where the others were. I shook my head and pointed to my sword. She nodded and slowly lay down on her stomach in the dirt, without letting go of her target.
I drew Ebon and took one careful step when a tiny pebble bounced off the back of my head. When I turned, Reaver corrected her first assessment. There were two guards, not one. The second guard didn’t make a difference to me. It would take one more stroke of my sword to decapitate the second one. Not even a half-second.
I moved across the open ground as quietly as I could and spotted the first guard we’d seen. It was a regular Xeno worker, he wouldn’t put up much of a fight. When I reached the corner, I took a slow, quiet breath and stepped around—and straight into the biggest, baddest worker Xeno I’d ever clapped eyes on. His eyes screamed murder and his body seemed more than ready to obey.
I swung my sword, more out of instinct than anything else, and severed the Xeno’s bulging, pulsing head from its body. It fell before it knew what had happened. Immediately, the first harbinger dropped its weapon, as did four others I hadn’t spotted yet.
“Take them out,” I transmitted to Reaver. “I just killed their controller. They’re all yours.”
Five clinical shots later, the coast was clear.
We had a quick look around but soon decided the coast was clear and joined the others at the elevator car. Nyna was harassing a panel with one of her tools. The others were providing guard. I joined the priestess-cum-mechanic while Reaver took a knee and watched for targets.
“What do you have?” I asked Nyna.
“Not sure,” she said. “There’s something like circuitry here, but I just can’t work out what I’m looking at. Beatrix already tried bashing her way in with her hammer. We tried shooting our way in, too. But unless you’ve got another ship to ram it with, I think this thing is holding on to its virginity.”
“That’s probably not a bad thing. If we need to take this elevator up to the other end, it needs to be perfectly sealed, or we’ll die in the vacuum of space.”
“Oh,” Nyna smiled, “good point. Here, take a look.”
She moved so that I could see what she’d
