Marines would use their taser handguns to capture a few wasps, he looked forward to killing plenty of them. His backpack rockets carried napalm and cluster bomb warheads, which did a fine job of clearing a room or a deck. The aliens had discovered that killing human leaders did not prevent other humans from rising to lead in the fight between ships. Now, they were about to discover how deadly humans could be in person.
♦ ♦ ♦
Support Hunter Seven watched the front perception imager that relayed color images from the remotely located eye tools. In images of ultraviolet, orange and white-yellow he saw the approaching Soft Skin nest. It had slowed its approach as it neared their ice ball hideout. Clearly they had been discovered. He focused his two major eyes on the details of the nest’s hard shell. Attached to it were three small shapes. Earlier images of Soft Skin nests of this shape and length had shown only a smooth outer skin, excepting for stinger bulbs. This flying nest did not match the earlier images. The small shapes resembled the air bubbles his Swarmers used to enter the air of a colony world. Were the three shapes separate flying nests? He put the matter to his backmind. It was time to fight these intruding Soft Skins.
“Servant for propulsion, activate your devices!” he scent cast in a mix of releaser, primer and signal pheromones.
“Activating,” the young female responded in a mix of aggregation and signal pheromones. “Hunter Seven, recall that one of our two propulsive devices is still dead from the earlier attack by a Soft Skin nest.”
“It is recalled,” he scent cast.
He remembered that. In truth this Soft Skin flying nest was identical in length and width to the nest that had pursued him as he had launched particle disruption seeds and Storm Bringer globes at the Soft Skin colony world in the fourth flight zone. But there were three such nests among the eight that had defended the world. Whichever it might be, its head end carried a heavy particle sky light stinger that was most deadly. Time to leave their hideaway. Their nest must be free to use its stinger rings at rear, middle and front.
“Alert!” called the Servant responsible for monitoring perception signals from cold space. “The Soft Skin nest has dispersed three parts of itself!”
His five eyes took in the new imagery. The three small flying nests had the shape of one of his mandibles. Orange flame flew out from the wide end of each nest as they arced away from the home nest. It seemed he now faced four opponents rather than one.
“Stinger Servant,” he called to the Swarmer responsible for directing the stingers of his nest. “Do these small nests have any stingers? Or are they just large versions of particle disruption seeds?”
“They are different from the two particle disruption carriers launched earlier by this Soft Skin nest,” the young male replied in a mix of signal, aggregation and trail pheromones. “My eye tools say each small nest has a single sky light stinger tube at the end of its body.”
A rumble and deep vibration told him his nest was now moving up the tube their stingers had cut into the ice ball. Soon they would be in cold dark space, able to fight with all their stingers. And able to fly freely in whatever flight path was most helpful.
“Flight Servant, guide our flight path to a space above the incoming Soft Skin nest,” he scent cast to the older female who guided the movement of his nest among the empty coldness of the dark outside.
“Guiding,” she scent cast back to him, her pheromones thick with aggregation and trail scents.
The front perception imager showed the white surface of the ice ball falling away as his nest rushed into cold darkness. He saw that the Soft Skin nest was well within the range of his stinger weapons.
“Stinger Servant, fire on the large flying nest! And use our middle stingers to bite on the three small nests!”
“Biting!” called
♦ ♦ ♦
Support Hunter Seven watched the front perception imager that relayed color images from the remotely located eye tools. In images of ultraviolet, orange and white-yellow he saw the approaching Soft Skin nest. It had slowed its approach as it neared their ice ball hideout. Clearly they had been discovered. He focused his two major eyes on the details of the nest’s hard shell. Attached to it were three small shapes. Earlier images of Soft Skin nests of this shape and length had shown only a smooth outer skin, excepting for stinger bulbs. This flying nest did not match the earlier images. The small shapes resembled the air bubbles his Swarmers used to enter the air of a colony world. Were the three shapes separate flying nests? He put the matter to his backmind. It was time to fight these intruding Soft Skins.
“Servant for propulsion, activate your devices!” he scent cast in a mix of releaser, primer and signal pheromones.
“Activating,” the young female responded in a mix of aggregation and signal pheromones. “Hunter Seven, recall that one of our two propulsive devices is still dead from the earlier attack by a Soft Skin nest.”
“It is recalled,” he scent cast.
He remembered that. In truth this Soft Skin flying nest was identical in length and width to the nest that had pursued him as he had launched particle disruption seeds and Storm Bringer globes at the Soft Skin colony world in the fourth flight zone. But there were three such nests among the eight that had defended the world. Whichever it might be, its head end carried a heavy particle sky light stinger that was most deadly. Time to leave their hideaway. Their nest must be free to use its stinger rings at rear, middle and front.
“Alert!” called the Servant responsible for monitoring perception signals from cold space. “The Soft Skin nest has dispersed three parts of itself!”
His five eyes took in the new imagery. The three small flying nests had the shape of one of his mandibles. Orange flame flew out from the wide end of each nest as they arced away from the home nest. It seemed he now faced four opponents rather than one.
“Stinger Servant,” he called to the Swarmer responsible for directing the stingers of his nest. “Do these small nests have any stingers? Or are they just large versions of particle disruption seeds?”
“They are different from the two particle disruption carriers launched earlier by this Soft Skin nest,” the young male replied in a mix of signal, aggregation and trail pheromones. “My eye tools say each small nest has a single sky light stinger tube at the end of its body.”
A rumble and deep vibration told him his nest was now moving up the tube their stingers had cut into the ice ball. Soon they would be in cold dark space, able to fight with all their stingers. And able to fly freely in whatever flight path was most helpful.
“Flight Servant, guide our flight path to a space above the incoming Soft Skin nest,” he scent cast to the older female who guided the movement of his nest among the empty coldness of the dark outside.
“Guiding,” she scent cast back to him, her pheromones thick with aggregation and trail scents.
The front perception imager showed the white surface of the ice ball falling away as his nest rushed into cold darkness. He saw that the Soft Skin nest was well within the range of his stinger weapons.
“Stinger Servant, fire on the large flying nest! And use our middle stingers to bite on the three small nests!”
“Biting!” called
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