Storming the Hive

"I can't see a damn thing in here! Sarge, permission to switch on our flashlights?" asked one of the soldiers.

"Granted," said Sergeant Robert. The group switched on the lights attached to the sides of their helmets, illuminating the dark hive.

Doing so revealed grotesque walls made of the same hive mites as the exterior, pulsing and writhing like a beating heart. It was extremely unsettling. The group continued to move, before Fate suddenly stopped, raising his plasma rifle to point ahead of him. "Cragost incoming," he said. The group pointed their weapons in the same direction as Fate's.

Not too long later, they heard an ear-piercing shriek not that different from the ones emitted by the mutants earlier. Surging from the distant darkness, beyond the range of the flashlights, were several hulking Cragost: two blue ones and twenty red ones. T

he soldiers without flamethrowers started shooting plasma at the Cragost as they advanced, taking down five of them before they could get close. When they were in range, the P-X10F-wielders started cooking them. The Cragost started the same piercing shriek as earlier, only much louder and harsher. Meanwhile, Fate was using his TK to keep them back, shoving them back whenever they got too close.

Within minutes, the Cragost were smoldering husks on the ground. The smell coming off of them was so pungent that three of the soldiers leaned over and threw up their breakfast.

"I don't think the flamethrowers are worth the smell, Sarge," said one of the men that had vomited.

"Never mind that. Let's just get this done," Robert grumbled.

The group continued moving forward, stepping over the blackened corpses. Eventually, they arrived at the end of the 'hallway' they were in, their flashlights extending on into what looked like a large room.

"Feel anything, Null?" asked the sergeant.

"…A lot. What we saw outside, they have about a quarter of in here. Looks like they're trying to play smart and ambush us."

"A QUARTER? That's at least four hundred of the fuckers. How big is the room? Are the Cragan in there?"

"The room is bigger than I can sense, but it looks like around three-fourths of this structure is going towards this one room. I think there are at least three Cragans in there, but I can only sense the edges of them if that's indeed what they are. Probably best to set up right here, use the hallways as a chokepoint."

"Normally I'd agree, but we only have one portable shield generator, and there isn't enough sun in this place to keep it running for longer than a few minutes."

"A few minutes is all I need. Set up here, distract the Cragost. I'll set up incendiary grenades along all the exits to the room. We'll trap them in a cage of fire."

Robert sighed. "Alright. But when that shield goes down, we retreat with or without you and come back with better firepower. Hurry and set the generator up, soldiers. They already know we're here due to the light."

Fate activated Null and slipped through the opening, waiting for the shield to go up before he moved to the closest exit. While he was doing that, the squad engaged the enemy. The shield generator was set to cover the tunnel entrance up to the middle of their torso providing maximum coverage while allowing them to still fire their weapons.

The wide corridor allowed two flamethrower-wielders to stand on either side of the entrance a few feet away from the door, with enough room in between for two more soldiers wielding plasma rifles to fire comfortably into the room as well. Three other flamethrower-users positioned themselves to the back of the squad, covering their rear.

Fate set four incendiary grenades up at every exit, occasionally having to hide inside one of them when his headaches became too much or going to grab more from the squad when he ran out. The military's incendiary grenades were designed to explode on contact or be set to detonate when a remote trigger is activated.

After doing that, he chunked the remainder of the grenades at the feet of the five Cragan in the room. The Cragan were repulsive, shaped like the Cragost but with no carapace over much of their body, exposing their disgusting, wrinkled pink flesh and the many goo-filled holes along their long, legless, slug-like tails. Their faces were the stuff of nightmares.

While all Cragost caste members had mandibles and beady black eyes attached to stalks on the side of their heads, along with nostril slits, the lack of a carapace on the Cragans made them look like twisted mockeries of the Cragost.

Everything was still in the same place, except the eyes they for some reason lacked, but somehow the exposed flesh highlighted and enhanced the worst parts of the face. It didn't matter though. Soon, they'd be nothing but charcoal.

Fate made his way back to the squad, which was being severely overrun. The Cragost couldn't reach the soldiers through the shields with their claws, but there were a few mutants in the crowd that were shooting plasma through the gap.

Every Cragost in the hive was bunched around the door. The soldiers had no choice but to adjust the shield, covering the entire entrance while leaving small holes to fit the barrel of the P-X10Fs through. Using this tactic, the soldiers were slowly roasting the lobsters to death while they tried futilely to get through the shield. And then the shield ran out of power.

In an instant, the flamethrower men at the front were eviscerated by the many claws coming their way, and another twelve soldiers died in the confusion, leaving just sixteen soldiers including Fate and the sergeant.

Fate stopped Null, shouting "Hey, fuckers! Over here!" All the Cragost in the back of the mass of bodies looked over, followed by the rest of them.

There was a small moment of silence as the Cragost stopped wailing on the shields, then another headache-inducing screech as they all charged on Fate. When they were about to get to him, he threw an incendiary grenade at their feet and activated Null. The smoke and fire obscured him, allowing him to vanish from their minds, while also setting a bunch of them on fire.

Those not on fire looked around, confused and trying to remember what they were doing. After a bit they turned around to wail on the shield again, only to find that the shield was gone and the soldiers were retreating.

Shrieking, the Cragost ran after them and the mutants fired plasma down the corridor. Fate ran in between them and the tunnel, deactivating Null and firing his plasma rifle at them. The Cragost growled, and Fate ran to their side, away from the tunnel entrance.

When he was sure the majority were following him, he pulled the same thing he did earlier, chucking a grenade and activating Null. Unfortunately, a few dozen were still chasing after the soldiers, but the Cragost were slow creatures. The soldiers would make it.

Fate continued doing this tactic for about ten minutes, having to run around in the open toward a tunnel entrance most of the time to break eye contact. The psychic nature of the Cragost mind made using his power a pain. After the ten minutes were up, he chucked one last incendiary grenade, activated Null, and sprinted toward the exit he came through.