“I can’t,” I said. “It shouldn’t last long, though. Hang in there.” I turned to the others. “I want to thank you all for doing this. Especially those of you I haven’t known as long. You’ve put your faith and trust in me and my mission. You’ve joined me in the quest to free Druma and the rest of the galaxy from the clutches of the Xeno. Together, we’ll end their slavery. We’ll stop the suffering they’ve caused. We’ll help the communities and people they’ve affected to recover. And we’ll kill every single one of the bastards.”
“I’m just in it. . . for the sex,” Nyna grunted.
We laughed, except for Skrew, who gagged and tried unsuccessfully to cover his ears.
“Just… kidding…” Nyna groaned under the acceleration. “But yeah, the sex… is great.”
“Good job, sport,” Reaver said as she slapped me on the butt.
Soon, the tongues seemed to have found a happy rhythm and settled into it. Skrew and Nyna were able to stand.
But the further we were from the surface of the planet, and the closer we got to the other end, the less we were affected by gravity. I could see the others also felt it. I silently hoped the Xeno ship we found ourselves on was equipped with gravity generators like the last one I’d been on.
I could fight in zero gravity, though. So could Reaver. But I wasn’t sure about the rest.
Sooner than I’d expected, we transitioned from weightlessness to a kind of artificial gravity, but in the opposite direction. The tongues were slowing down, and the deceleration was pressing us against what used to be the ceiling.
“We’re almost there,” Reaver said. She sounded eerily calm.
When the tongue slowed to a crawl, I removed the communicator from my ear and held it out so everyone could see. A few seconds later, we stopped with a soft thump. Thankfully, instead of letting us floating away, gravity here felt normal. This would help those of us who weren’t Marines.
I tapped the communicator three times rapidly. I felt the elevator car shudder and shift slightly to one side. The spiderweb-like cable had been severed. We were no longer connected to the planet.
I thought of Enra and the others I hoped to see again. I’d find a way to take control of the enemy’s ship and add it to my arsenal before returning to the planet.
“That’s it,” I said. “We’ve detached from the planet’s surface. We’re floating out into space. Now, it’s time to split some skulls. Everyone ready?”
Everyone nodded, except for Skrew, who looked like he was practicing how he was going to fit his rifle inside a Xeno. This said more than any enthusiastic confirmation ever could have.
“Open the door,” I told Nyna.
Chapter Seventeen
I positioned myself in front of the hatch to the Xeno ship, about eight feet back from it, while the rest of the team stacked up behind Nyna.
Once everyone else had exited, I joined them, and Nyna closed the hatch behind us. The last thing we wanted was to give the enemy a place to hide. However, once I saw the configuration of the space we found ourselves in, I wasn’t sure if it made a difference.
An alien ship, whose design I could not identify, was parked on the floor of a vast room and was held in place by thousands of long buttresses made of the same shiny material the bugs grew as exoskeletons. So we were in some kind of hangar.
The ship was teeming with small, unidentifiable shapes that moved like a swarm of ants on a caterpillar. Little bits, no larger than my hand, were being removed and hauled away to some unknown destination. They were Xeno, but not like any kind I’d seen before.
The rest of the room was a cluttered mess compared to the organization and precision of the Xeno disassembly team. Organic storage containers that resembled shiny whiskey barrels littered the floor, walls, and ceiling. Where two or more were stacked on top of each other, they were supported by several buttresses.
Among them were scattered military containers. One of them I recognized as Martian.
“Son of a bitch,” Reaver whispered. “They’ve got some of our cargo.”
“Looks like stuff we can use, too,” I whispered back. “I’m going for the closest one. Cover me.”
Reaver and Beatrix continued scanning for targets as I slowly crept toward a dark green box with “MSM” painted on the side. Martian Storm Marines. It felt light, but I hadn’t lifted one of them since my encounter with the Lakunae, so I chalked it up to my new strength. I brought it back, and a few seconds later I had it open. There was a box inside the barrel.
“There’s only one left,” I said, turning to Reaver.
She frowned.
The box had contained 36 plasma grenades. They were powerful short-range weapons. If one detonated, it would vaporize everything within fifteen feet. Anything within another five feet would be singed, but there was practically no damage to anything beyond that.They were useful for penetrating bunkers or taking out equipment in a hurry when finesse was not required.
“Here,” I said as I strapped the grenade to Beatrix’s belt. “Be careful using it here, though. If you create a hull breach, you’ll do a lot more damage than I’m sure you ever intended.”
“Thanks,” she said. “Hopefully I won’t need to use it.”
Out of nowhere, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I wasn’t one who got afraid like this when I was in a tricky situation, but on this planet I’d learned to truly rely on my instinct. Some danger was imminent. I looked behind me.
One of the little things I’d seen crawling around on the alien ship a moment before stood on the wall behind us and held up its two spider-like legs. The skeletal creature was about ten inches wide from foot to foot, slate gray, and didn’t appear to have any armor at all. Its head was
