The beast had to be three times a man’s girth and just as tall. Bulky enough that it was struggling to get into the chamber.
She unslung her rifle and aimed its light at the creature as hairy legs swiped the air.
“Kill it!” Alexander shouted. He shouldered his rifle and fired at the misshapen eyes, spattering the ceiling with green goo. The beast roared and tried to advance into the chamber, its clawed appendages scraping the rocky floor and throwing up divots of moss.
When her rifle clicked dry, Katrina drew her sword. She waited a second for Alexander to change his magazine, then set off across the tunnel.
Jed’s body slumped off, and the creature finally managed to get through the entrance, scuttling toward her. She raised the sword, flicking off the headlamp and bumping on her NVGs for a more complete view of the monster.
Two arms with pincer claws swiped at the air as it set off to meet her in combat. This nightmare arachnid was also part scorpion, with only four legs, the two clawed arms, and a spiked tail ending in the curved spike that had skewered Jed.
“Watch out!” Alexander yelled.
She brought her sword up and parried one of the clacking pincer arms. Then she ducked as Alexander unloaded another magazine, exploding several of the eyeballs on the front and near side of the creature’s head.
The beast now had a blind spot, and she used the opportunity to hack at a leg, severing the horny exoskeleton and the fragile flesh beneath with a single swing.
It fell to the ground, pushed itself back up, and darted its spiked tail at her. She moved to the left, and the pointed tip hit the floor, catching in the springy moss. Then she swung the sword in an uppercut, taking the last foot of tail off before the beast could retract it.
A spray of green blood showered Katrina. She rolled away from the thrashing tail, got back up, and sliced off another leg, bringing the beast down onto its belly. Down to the two legs and the arms, the creature tried to snag her with the scissor claws. A single wrong move, and it would snap her in half as it had done to the bird.
The next swipe came close, but Katrina ducked, swinging overhead. The blade chipped the armored appendage, but before she could react, the other claw snatched her sword and sent it skidding across the cave floor.
The abomination pushed itself forward on the two remaining hind legs and brought both arms up, claws open. She staggered backward and fell, holding up an arm to shield herself as the creature moved in to finish her off.
“Captain!” Alexander yelled. He fired from the side into the clawed arms and the head.
More gunshots sounded from the entrance of the passage, and the creature reared and twisted toward the gunfire. Katrina didn’t waste the opportunity to scramble upright and run for the sword.
By the time she grabbed it and turned, the monster had collapsed to the ground, its remaining eyeballs staring at the Hell Divers who had brought it down.
“Guys!” shouted a voice. “Guys, I think I killed it!”
Panting, Katrina staggered over to the fallen beast. She jabbed the sword into the last forward eyeball and leaned into it, pushing the blade so deep that she had to put her boot against the carapace to pull it out.
The pincers clacked together once and fell open as the monster finally went limp.
Katrina wiped her visor clear of goo and staggered away, trying to compose herself and catch her breath. She hurried over to Alexander, who was kneeling beside Jed. The reading on her HUD told her he was already dead, but to be sure, she pulled off a glove and felt for a pulse.
She bowed her head at what she already knew. He was gone, and there was nothing they could do to help him.
“Captain,” Alexander said. He put a hand on her shoulder, and she stood to go check on Trey.
“My God, it just came out of nowhere!” Vish said. His rifle shook in his hands. He hugged the wall, inching his way around the dead horror. “Ew-w-w, that thing is really gross…”
Vish stopped, his words trailing off at the sight of Jed on the ground.
Trey stirred and put a hand on his helmet.
“You okay?” Katrina asked.
“I… I think so.”
Katrina gave him a minute to get his bearings and gestured toward Jed. “Vish, Alexander, help me pick him up.”
“You want to take him with us?” Alexander asked.
Katrina hadn’t realized it needed to be said. “We never leave a diver behind.”
“X is still alive,” Katrina said over the comms.
Michael would have pumped his right fist if he still had it—and if bad news hadn’t followed so quickly. But that was how things seemed to go these days, and he had a feeling the news was going to keep getting worse.
“Jed?” Michael asked.
“Yes. I’m sorry, Michael,” Katrina said. “I know he was your friend. He really respected you.”
Michael clenched his jaw at a fresh wave of phantom pain. “He was a good kid,” he said. “Always looked after his mom.”
The crew of Deliverance huddled around the comms station, holding a moment of silence for the lost diver. Every officer was present: Les, Layla, Michael, Dave, Bronson, and Ada. Despite the bad news, they all were eager to hear what Katrina had planned and what Timothy Pepper had transmitted from the Sea Wolf.
“I’m going to play the last transmission for you all to hear,” Katrina said.
The voice of Timothy Pepper on the Sea Wolf crackled over the channel. Michael leaned closer to listen to the replay.
“I’ve translated several conversations from my captors and can tell you that at this moment, X is definitely alive. Apparently, he just achieved a great victory in a place known as the Sky Arena.”
“The transmission was interrupted when the vulture snatched Trey off the Zion’s deck,” Katrina said. “But there’s more…”
She played the next message from Timothy Pepper of the Sea Wolf.
“If my translation is correct, the sky princess is slated to marry el Pulpo, and the sky beast has become his personal pet.”
“Sky princess?” Layla said.
“Sky beast?” Les added.
“Has to be Magnolia and Miles,” Michael said. “They are still alive.”
“Yes,” said Katrina, “and it also means we have time to keep planning, which is a good thing. Listen to this.”
Another old transmission came over the speakers.
“From my calculation, there are hundreds of Cazador soldiers, and probably closer to a thousand. They have dozens of oil rigs and hundreds of boats, and that’s just at this location. There could be more I am not aware of…”
“Let me talk to her,” Les said. He moved in front of Michael, who backed up to let him through to the comms.
“Captain, I’ve been able to recruit only thirty militia soldiers, and fifty civilians ranging from farmers to shopkeepers. How the hell are we supposed to win against those kinds of numbers?”
A pause came on the other end.
“We can’t,” Katrina finally said. “We will have to use our weapons and hope el Pulpo surrenders.”
“And if he doesn’t?” Les asked.
“Then we start destroying his home until he does.”
Her words sounded sharper than normal, and Michael exchanged a glance with her XO. Les had been in a somber mood since learning that his son had been carried off by a vulture. Although Trey was safe now, the close call had brought home just how dangerous this mission was.