Tidy Up

Upon exiting the fleshy, burning hive, Fate and his squad were greeted by a loud, low sound similar to that of a whale. Those that looked toward the source of the sound saw an amazing sight: the Cragoloss that had been harrying the troops on the ground was falling from the sky. Currently, it was descending so slowly that it matched the speed of a feather, but those with keen eyes noticed that it was steadily accelerating.

The troops on the ground cheered and resumed their assault on the defending Cragost with renewed vigor, knowing that the Cragoloss was a few miles to the East and its landing shouldn't impact them. The Cragost, meanwhile continued fighting despite the obvious outcome, the massive pyre that their hive had become lighting up behind them and the Cragoloss' steady fall making the air scream. The Cragost were nothing if not determined.

Fate and his squad jumped into the fray, flanking the Cragost from behind and killing a handful while they were too surprised to react. The flamethrower-wielders in Fate's squad cooked many of them alive, throwing them to the same fate as the hive the squad had exited.

Meanwhile, Fate was shooting his railgun and crushing Cragost heads left and right, a one-man blender that kept a sphere of death around him, killing anything that walked inside it. About a minute in, Fate heard a strange whirring noise. Keeping his TK senses ready for trouble, he took a quick glance at the direction the sound was coming from, before doing a double take and squinting at what he saw.

"Is that…?" Uttering a quick curse, he ducked just as a Cragolo swooped overhead.

The Cragolo made a narrow U-turn and landed next to Fate, flattening three red Cragost in the process. On top of the Cragolo, clinging for dear life, was a disheveled Tom with wild hair and wide eyes. After staring at the ground for a bit, Tom released his hold on the Cragolo and hopped off, before turning around and sending a short laser beam through its skull.

"The hell were you doing on one of those things?" Fate shouted over the noise of battle.

"Had to escape THAT," shouted Tom, pointing at the falling Cragoloss, which was now less than three miles from the ground.

"You did that?" Tom nodded. "You'll have to tell me about that later," Fate said and resumed his slaughter.

Tom ran towards the burning hive, using his TK to throw fireballs from the hive's crackling walls toward the Cragost. With the Cragoloss out of commission, the air forces were able to focus more on supporting those on the ground, while simultaneously decimating the remaining Cragolo.

With the support of the Firebirds and the Kraken, the battle ended within the hour. The Collective had lost about fifty-five percent of their ground troops and only a negligible twelve percent of their fighter ships. The Cragost, of course, were completely eradicated, as every single member of the species fought until they were killed or all their enemies were dead before them.

Overall, better than usual. The Collective was spending every day making new weapons, learning new Cragost weaknesses, and fighting back against the invaders. Every battle saw lower and lower casualties, although the General Cragost still proved troublesome for the time being. The Firebirds in the sky made a few passes at the still-burning hive, dropping a few bombs on it to make sure it was leveled and wouldn't be a problem anymore.

The next few hours were spent checking the Cragoloss for any survivors. It took a good hour to get over there for the ground troops, and another three to comb the entire surroundings of the Cragoloss for any tenacious Cragost. They found zero survivors.

When that was done, the Kraken landed, opening its doors and allowing the survivors to board. Tom went in with Fate's squad, earning him a raised eyebrow from Fate.

"Lost my ship in the Cragoloss," Tom explained. Fate grimaced and nodded, the two taking a seat inside. Shadow Jumpers were expensive to replace, as they had to be made to order by Klentoon, which was almost always busily churning out war machines for the Collective.

"Y'know, seeing that big hunk of flesh today made me think of something. How do these hives and Cragoloss taste?" asked a soldier in the cabin.

All but three of the people in the room looked at the man with weird expressions on their faces. Two of the ones that didn't respond looked like they were ignoring him, and the other one, to the astonishment of many, appeared to actually be thinking about it.

After a short, awkward silence, this man said "It would solve a lot of food problems. Apparently, it's extremely expensive to feed the Collective's army."

The soldiers in the cabin grimaced, including Fate and Tom, although their expressions weren't as visible behind their masks. Changing the subject, Sergeant Robert started debriefing the men, asking if they had found any insight during the battle that may come in handy to fight the Cragost in the future.

One soldier explained her discovery with a Seasons knife, and how the Cragost could shrug off the cold setting but were exceptionally susceptible to the heat setting.

"When the monster tried to stab me with its pincers, I swung my knife in reaction and cut the whole hand thing clean off. Went through the forehead even easier."

Next Tom detailed his experience with the Cragoloss, going into length about the multiple hearts, the massive brain, and the dreaded food cages. The last subject left everyone furrowing their brows in anger, a few even shaking in rage.

"Are you sure they're beyond saving?" asked Robert.

"Yes, sadly. I think they've been raised as food since birth. I doubt they even know what happiness is, and the look in their eye says they just don't care anymore."

Sergeant Robert continued getting reports for another twenty minutes, then they spent the rest of the ride in silence, thinking about what the Cragost had done and will do in the future.