Wiser now, I stared at this one’s chest, not daring to glance up, not for a moment. Once he had control of my mind, I’d tell him anything he wanted to know. And I knew a lot.
I’d fought the Hive my entire career but had never been face-to-face with one. Never fought one. Up close, this one was… blue. Focused. Not real. The metal integrations gleamed in the starlight, reminding me this thing was not… one of us. It moved and spoke and killed, but it did not live.
Behind him, the two integrated Atlans appeared, clawing and climbing their way to stand where Bahre and I had been just a few moments ago. Bahre hadn’t moved. Damn him.
“Get the fuck out of here, Bahre. Sam. Take their ship and go.” Silence was no longer important, and one of us had to live. “Get bac
k to Lucy.” Reaching behind me, I wrapped my palm around the handle of a blade I kept on my hip for emergencies.
“Who is Lucy?” the Nexus unit asked.
“None of your fucking business.” I wanted to scream at this thing but knew it would be futile.
In my peripheral vision, I watched the Nexus unit tilt his head to the side as if curious. “I sense no fear. Good. You will be one of us now.”
I swiped up with my dagger, aiming for what I hoped would be the Nexus unit’s heart. Or central processing unit. Something… critical. The Nexus unit looked down to where my blade was buried in his chest and pulled it out slowly, the metal coated in thick, black liquid that looked more like tar than blood. “You resist.” He tossed the blade aside and reached for me.
“No!” Bahre bellowed and stepped forward, moving fast, faster than he should have been capable of with his injuries. He was in full beast mode, his body huge, his rage like a volcanic eruption. “No, Atlans!”
The Nexus unit looked up in shock, and I realized he’d been so fixated on me that he hadn’t seen Bahre hiding behind me. Ah, the Hive did have emotions, of sorts. It had not calculated that I had company.
Bahre took the Nexus by the neck, lifted him from the ground and… pulled his head off his body with a sickening slurping sound. Black tar blood spewed from the neck of the creature, spraying Bahre’s armor and helmet, covering his shoulders and chest.
Behind the Nexus, the two Atlans fell to the ground as if suddenly released from a trance, screaming inside their helmets, their agony making Bahre’s beast roar in response. In challenge? I didn’t understand what was happening, but even inside my helmet, the sound made my head ring.
“What the fuck is going on up there?” Sambor’s voice was crystal clear and calm. Shockingly calm.
“Bahre just ripped the head off a Nexus unit. The two integrated Atlans with him are responding. They’re free of Hive control.”
“That would explain it.” Var’s relief was clear in his own voice. “I’ve got a ship. There were three more Scouts inside. They just dropped dead.”
“Same here,” Sambor replied. “I had one more Soldier to take down. An integrated Prillon. He just hit his knees. If he survives, we’ll have to take him with us.”
I stood and pulled the ion pistol from my holster. The ion rifle was toast, and this little blaster would probably just make the Atlans writhing in pain on the ground angry—but it was all I had. “The two integrated Atlans are up here on the ground. They are no longer a threat.”
“Do not hurt them.” Bahre was still in beast mode, but there was so much blood inside his helmet I had no idea how he was standing, let alone talking.
“I won’t shoot them as long as they don’t try to kill us.”
That made Bahre snort. He grabbed the small ion blaster from my hand and tossed it aside like it was an old shoe. “Not hurt. Rage. Relief.”
“Yes, I figured that.”
Bahre went to stand over the two fallen, integrated Warlords and let out a battle cry I had never heard before.
In my headset, Sambor chuckled. “Gods be damned, that is music to my ears.”
“What the fuck is that?”
“Warlord victory cry. You should hear a battalion of Atlans after they rip apart a battlefield full of Hive.”
The bright light of a ship caught my attention as it settled on the ground below us. I watched as a hatch opened and Sambor climbed on board, hauling the injured Prillon Hive Soldier with him. Moments later the ship hovered above us, ramp down, Sambor on the other end with his hand out.
Bahre handed first one, then the second Atlan up to Sambor, who reached out and took them on board without question.
“Grab that Nexus head,” Var told me. “Helion will want it.”
Disgusted but knowing Var was correct, I picked up the blue head—tentacles and gadgets attached—and threw it up to Sambor.