"I hate this fucking planet." A swirling mass of white-grey misery slunk over jagged steps. Ghenya's frown deepened. "Brace for power outage and message the troops to stand ready."
"Does 'the troops' include us?" Vashund griped, recognizable by the lilt and drawl of her heavy accent.
Ghenya focused her gaze to the port's reflection where her meager watch group milled, donning scowls.
Recorix was a shit hole and storms amped the hellishness beyond tolerable. Back-up generators diverted to life support only, making their meager bits of entertainment obsolete when the power cut. Kept the heat up enough to avoid frostbite, can't shoot a gun without a trigger finger and Heimdall wouldn't pay for mechmods when it was cheaper to replace a body.
"Unless you want your asses permanently assigned to babysitting icicles, troops includes everyone." Ghenya growled, turning just enough to flash pointed teeth at the squirming batch of humans.
"Shouldn't Lieutenant Adel make that decision?" Vashund, brave but stupid, stood up, her chin raised and eyes dark and flinty.
"Lieutenant Adel isn't here." Possibly. Ghenya couldn't predict where she'd show up. Even batarians' heightened sense of smell and hearing didn't aid her in locating the Lieutenant when she chose her xenomorph form. She'd seen Adel unravel herself from impossible crevices where she'd melded like a piece of the ship. Hearing everything. Seeing everything. Invisible to the rest of her crew. Ghenya quelled a shiver.
"We can't know we'll be attacked," sniffed Basak, a reedy man with a face like a wasp. "They wouldn't try the same ploy twice. Climbing up here in a storm can't be easy for them."
"Can't be easy?" Ghenya wheeled toward them, teeth bared fully now, all her eyes narrowed in disbelief. "Can't be easy for a seven foot shag carpet with claws the size of your daft head?"
Humans. Ghenya couldn't stand the lot of them back in her own universe and these seemed just as incompetent. Whiny, sniveling creatures hardly worth being made into soldiers. Ghenya didn't want to trudge outside with snow up to her thighs and temperatures that would freeze your face right off your skull, but it was her job. And it was inevitable. The fuss was mostly to make Ghenya feel like shit, to make certain she knew how much of an outsider she was. The lone alien among a company of humans, given a ranking position before several other senior staff. They didn't like her and Ghenya hated it.
So she hated them right back. Wore it like armor. Like a cloak. Tight and warm against her skin and fueled with red-hot rage every time one of the blistering idiots waved their cowardice in her face.
Ghenya didn't want to be the brave one, she just wanted a place for herself. She figured her otherness is what got her assigned to Recorix to begin with, but with a small crew in hostile environments she'd hoped some of the idiocy would be left with the poor weather. She was wrong.
A dark figure appeared at Ghenya's side. A hand fell heavy to her shoulder. It bled warmth through her uniform so she didn't shrug it off.
Josie. "Everyone gets suited up or Adel will have you thrown out with the trash to freeze to death."
It was hideously embarrassing. Ghenya was Josie's superior officer, but every blasted human in the room straightened to attention and murmured consent at his order. Ghenya would loathe it if she didn't like Josie so much. He was the most competent of the bunch, even if he was also a creepy ass xenomorph-shifter. She'd been told (eavesdropped over rumors) that both Josie and Adel chose to become the monsters. Volunteered for some genetic tampering initiative at Heimdall's headquarters. As sleek and powerful as their xenomorph forms were, Ghenya couldn't imagine volunteering to have that done to her.
"Shouldn't we do a risk assessment?" Vashund again, squeaked out with averted eyes. "Last time we left the HAB during a storm we lost people."
"Losing people is part of this job." Ghenya tilted her chin high. "We protect the mines, shit weather or otherwise. If you disagree I'll toss you into the cold myself."
Vashund ducked her head, mouth soured and thin.
"What about two teams?" said Basak. "One to remain in the HAB as back-up and the second to infiltrate the mines. That way if something does happen we still have trained mercs on hand."
"Two teams who both need to suit up to be effective." No other command personnel received this flak. Ghenya should have them all flogged and stripped of privileged but she couldn't. Her position was tenuous enough, and if she pushed these people to far it was all too easy for one measly alien to have an untimely accident and get locked outside the HAB with no protection.
"Enough bickering, you heard the Corporal." Josie took a commanding step forward. "Suit up, get ready for deployment."
"Canzu," Ghenya barked.
The little man spun in his chair, blinking owlishly at her. "Y-yes, ma'am?"
"You stay at comms and monitor the storm."
"Yes, ma'am!"
There. That's what they could've got for not being pricks. Ghenya didn't give two shits about Canzu but he skulked around her like a beaten pyjack. If she was going to go easy on anyone, it'd be him. Ghenya turned on heel and marched toward the exit. Chairs shuffled and feet scuffed as the bridge crew trudged behind her.
The observation deck doors whooshed open seconds before Ghenya reached them. She narrowed her eyes at the empty stretch of hallway, fingers inching toward her gun. A scythe like tail flickered down from the ceiling followed by the oozing, immense body of Adel. Her carapace gleamed in the fluorescent lights. She towered over Ghenya. Ghenya's heart kicked up, the fear response automatic despite knowing this was Adel, and therefore not a threat.
In an uncomfortable shimmer of tar black and copper, Adel returned smoothly to her human form, shrinking to a reasonable height.
"They need to learn to listen to you," she hissed.
"I don't disagree, ma'am," Ghenya replied, holding her gaze.
Cold blistered Ghenya's skin through the enviro suit. Heimdall's habitation unit was separate from the miner's, a few clicks ahead of the mine overlooking a steep drop beyond rock and ice. The team were forced to march the ten minute trek to the mine entrance through rancorous cold and biting hail that pecked and pebbled their visors. They'd used a plow weeks back to clear a path between the units, but the strip of cleared snow was obvious even from a distance, making it an easy target for potential attacks. Ghenya kept her eyes trained on the ground, testing each step with a careful brush of her toe before placing any weight. The Recorixian's weren't technologically advanced - no space faring vessels, no intranet, disgustingly backward medical systems - but they had explosives.
"Hold!" Adel's voice crackled over the comm.
The team stumbled to stillness, crouching. Heads bobbed to and fro as the lot of them searched for something in the blinding white. Ghenya didn't bother. Whatever Adel sensed was beyond her and the rest of the team, exempting Josie. Squinting, Ghenya could just make out the shape of Adel's fist held aloft. She counted her breaths and waited.
"Movement at 3 o'clock," Adel hissed. "Two figures at the mine entrance. Stay low. Guns ready."
The party set off again, impossibly slower. Indecipherable voices grumbled over the comms. No one wanted to be out in this shit, but the lot of them needed to shut up.
They neared the entrance. Ghenya made out the towering shapes of two shaggy Recorixians. She ducked under the edge of their snow trench before Adel's fist came up and the others followed suit. When Adel gave them the signal to advance, both shapes were gone. Into the mines. Adel led them out of the trench and through the mouth of the main entrance. The mine was swathed in darkness, miner's lights shorted out or smashed, impossible to tell. Helmet lights flicked on to compensate, revealing nothing but a scuffle of footprints in the snowdrifts.
And two dead bodies sporting Heimdall uniforms, riddled with gaping bullet wounds. Face up in the snow, their chests crusted with red rivulets of ice.
"Basak, Geggorok. East tunnel." Adel snapped.
Ghenya grimaced and shot Basak a withering look. The human returned it, scathing. They paired off toward the tunnel with Ghenya leading, her thin helmlight creating a white line in the dust and footprints of the steadily darkening trail. Adel's voice crackled over the comms, ordering more teams to pair, more tunnels to be searched.
"Don't get us killed." Basak snarled. He shoved into Ghenya, jostling her into the wall. His voice hadn't come from their comms.
Ghenya snapped her gaze to him. His waspish face was free of the faceplate, bare skin to the open air. So what? So Adel couldn't hear them? Idiotic.
"Be quiet," Ghenya hissed, realized he couldn't hear her without the comms, and shot him a rude gesture instead.
Basak marched ahead of her, slinging his rifle from his shoulder and flicking the sight on. The pinprick red beam scoured through the darkness just below the weak yellow of his helmlight. Ghenya paced behind him, gritting her teeth. She could pull out her knife, slash his throat, and leave him here for dead - a casualty of the Recorixians. Infuriating little human. She'd love to see him broken and bloody somewhere.
But he was her team mate, a fellow soldier, and as much as she'd like to wring his neck, she wouldn't.
"What's that?" Basak stuttered to a halt so sudden Ghenya threw a hand at his back to keep herself from ramming into him. He stumbled forward, cursing, and dropped his rifle.
Ghenya straightened and scanned the area while he scrambled to pick it up.
Rocks, rocks, more rocks, and a scattering of footprints. Some the booted soles of the human miners and other, larger, prints belonging to the Recorixians with deep claw gouges through packed dirt and ice. A lump of strange white clay oozed at the bottom of the tunnel wall, lumpy and twisted.
Wait.
That was no rock.
Ghenya stepped closer, adjusting the beam of her helm to disperse wider.
The mangled white lump was a twist of limbs with a splash of red icicle blood from a wide gash across the miner's throat.
"Fuck." Basak reached Ghenya's side and flashed his light down the tunnel.
More mounds of crumpled white lined the darkness.
"Fuck." Ghenya agreed. She jostled Basak's shoulder and tapped his bare chin. "Put your helm back on."
He got the just or read her lips. Either way, no arguments from him this time. He flipped the visor back up and his commlink crackled to life.
"We've got bodies down the eastern tunnel," said Ghenya.
The commlink crackled static.
"Aw fuck." Basak rapped his knuckles against his helm. "Can you hear me?"
"I can. Short range communication seems intact." Ghenya fiddled with the comm dial and tried again. "We've got bodies in the eastern tunnel. Anyone copy?"
Nothing but static and the tickle of Basak's breathing.
"Storm must've knocked them out," said Basak, entirely unhelpful.
"Let's head back to the main group. No telling how many Recorixians are down here and I don't want to be caught in a corner." Ghenya pulled her pistol from its holster and readied the charge.
"There's something else." Basak shoved in front of her. "There's a light or something."
"Oh good," Ghenya snorted. "Someone's flashlight didn't burst." It could be a working commlink, though. The miner's used different devices than the Heimdall, but it might be able to penetrate the storm. Ghenya could wire it to transmit Heimdall frequencies. Calling for back up was better than backtrailing, not knowing if anything was at their six.
Basak merrily marched down the corridor and Ghenya followed. She spotted what Ghenya had seen as the tunnel opened up into a wider area, walls stripped bare of metal with glistening green rock peering through the darkness. The light was tiny, two blinks - red white, red white, red white - and coming from a box propped against the structural support beams for the nodule.
"What is that?" Basak inched closer.
Ghenya's nostrils flared. "Mining equipment?" She tried the comms again. "Corporal Geggorok in east tunnel, does anyone read? We have a situation."
Static.
Ghenya whipped her helm open, snarling. "These fucking things."
A chemical smell pervaded the air, sharp as razorblades. Ghenya raised her head and inhaled sharply. What was that? The unsurprising musk of Recorixians drowned the acrid scent, but something tanged familiarity.
It hit her.
Ghenya grabbed Basak and yanked him back. "It's a bomb!"
"Oh shit," Basak stumbled against her, eyes wide.
"We're heading back. The team needs this information, let's go." She grabbed his elbow and spun him toward the exit tunnel.
She turned just as the ghost of something dark and enormous burst from the shadows like liquid rock. Basak shouted, but his unwieldy rifle left him with no room to aim or fire.
Ghenya wheeled. Something heaving rammed into her, knocking her to the dirt. She scrambled for her pistol as weight dug sharply into her sides, crushing the breath out of her. Her helm light spun across the tunnel, illuminating Basak's crushed and bloodied faceplate. A wide, grey paw clenched around his neck, digging dagger-like talons through suit and sinew both. And Ghenya was on her way to join him. She jammed an elbow back. The solid thing above her grunted, jostled loose an inch. Ghenya shoved herself forward and wrapped her fingers around her pistol. She twisted as best she could beneath the thing's weight and fired a tattoo of blinding, deafening rounds.
The comms weren't working, but gunshots would echo.
The Recorixian's weight dropped, crushing her. Ghenya gasped for air, scrabbling for purchase.
Josie slunk the tunnel walls with silent efficiency, aware through heat and telempathy of his teammates yards behind him. Flashlight beams danced across his exoskeleton and the shadows ahead, lighting up rock and dirt and nothing worth his interest. He didn't want to be the scout, but as a xeno-shifter and possessing superior senses, Adel had all but volunteered him to lead his party through the labyrinthine mine. The darkness was no obstacle and the twirling lights only served to distract him. The air tasted of death and dirt, sweat of toil and the alien stink of Recorixians. There was blood to be found in these tunnels but the trail variegated down each corridor. Josie didn't know which to follow.
Someone's pace quickened behind him.
Josie paused, lowering himself to the floor in a crouched position. Soft footfalls whispered Vashund's approach.
"The comms aren't working," she said.
Josie flicked his tail, bashing the blade against rock walls. Vashund flinched.
"Should we go back? Regroup?"
Yes, Josie wanted to say. Yes, they should all stay together. Josie with Adel and Ghenya, who tolerated him like this. Who didn't flinch back when he touched them. People he felt safe with.
Josie shook his head, the elongated dome reflecting Vashund's light back at her. He started down the tunnel again, this time on the ground, crawling on all fours like the beast he was. He merged with the darkness once the beams were out of range, but kept the march of his teammate's boots within audible distance.
No comms. Probably the storm. He could feel Adel's mind in the near distance, black and sinuous with cunning. He relayed the information to her.
:: I know ::
The reply wasn't truly words. The notion coalesced into acknowledgement, passing between their minds, instantaneous and utterly understood. The storm could shut down all communication but theirs.
:: Seen anything?::
A vision of mangled bodies, the stink of Recorixian's sodden fur, oil spilled in dirt spiraling noxious fumes through dark crevasses.
More than Josie noted.
A gunshot clamored the tunnels.
Josie's head snapped up, his tail smashed into the nearest wall, creating a crumbling mess of rock.
The electric hum of short range communication burst static bright through his mind, screaming at him. His teammates' squawking confusion and worry, the click of guns drawn to the ready, charges set. Josie lurched down the tunnel, racing the ringing trail of gunfire until something worse blasted his mind.
Anguish. Pain. Worry. Teammate. Ghenya. Hive.
Adel was coming too. Her mind steady as river, rushing and powerful but in control, bursting through the flimsy dam of fear.
Instinct engulfed him. Josie sprang through an opening and leapt at a hulking grey shape before his mind comprehended what it was. Enemy. Not Hive. His claws dug into thick fur, unable to reach flesh. He extended his second mouth and stabbed, stabbed. The beast fell. A rapport of bullets slammed into his side, cracking chitin and spraying acidic blood. A Recorixian screamed. Their fur was no protection against Josie's acid.
Another black shape blurred into view, bringing home hive QUEEN bursting through his mind.
Pain-fear-panic still welled from hive inside the cavern. Josie paused his bloodshed, tasting the air.
Ghenya. He spotted her hand gripping a pistol butt flattened beneath the bulk of a Recorixian. Already dead, it's middle burst open from Adel's tail spade. Josie sprang next to it and ripped the corpse off Ghenya. She rolled to her back, gasping for air, her black eyes wild, pupils pulsating.
"Bomb!" she screeched.
Both Josie and Adel stopped. Josie traced the chemical scent of explosives beneath the blood and fear. They turned in unison toward the blinking box propped in the corner.
If there was one, there were likely more.
:: RUN:: burst between them.
Josie grabbed Ghenya, shoved her to her feet, and took off down the freshest tunnel.
Ghenya slammed her hand against her helm's comm, the thing cracked and half-hanging around her neck. "Everyone get out. We're rigged to explode."
Static. Crackling. Nothing.
Josie and Adel ran with Ghenya between them, urging her on beyond her limits. They burst into the main entrance cavern to find a muddle of Heimdall officers and a few battered miners, milling.
"Get the fuck out," Ghenya shrieked.
The earth boomed and shuddered. The first explosion rocked the mine, cracking earth and raining a terror of rocks over their heads. Stones glanced off Josie's carapace and sizzled where they touched his dribbling yellow blood. Miners shouted and Heimdall officers shoved until the last pack of them wriggled free of a now crumbling entrance. They emerged in a torrent of snow, the blizzard raging them all to blindness, even Josie. Even Adel.
:: Alive inside.:: Adel hissed, tail slashing the cold air.
:: Don't go back.:: Josie bared his teeth, knowing the thought would be visible to Adel, even if the image itself wasn't. If she returned to the mine, she'd die. They both knew it.
Adel's fury lanced through him. He ducked his head, deferent to her on a biological level. He squirmed, thick, black discomfort rising in his inability to quell her anger.
:: Take point. Back to the habitation unit.::
Affirmation threaded between them. Josie rounded up the miners and officers he could spot through the blaze of snow and trudged along the path with them in tow. Adel's mind remained distant, lingering at the edge of the mine. Snow sloughed off the cliffside, shifted like deadly waters all around them. Adel didn't follow until the explosions ceased, but it was her mind alone that returned to the group.
Chief medical officer Alistair hovered over Ghenya brandishing a pencil thin frown and a scalpel. "Lost the whole mine, hm?"
Ghenya didn't enjoy the human doctor, she didn't like any human doctor, but few batarians joined the Sails Between Stars and Ghenya didn't imagine any of them had taken up the medical profession. If they had, they'd likely find themselves with better digs than Recorix. Alistair carried the same medicinal stink of any human physician, his dark skin swathed in cleaning alcohol and devoid of any natural scent. Ghenya's nose burned with it.
She wasn't going to mention it while that scalpel hovered over her wounds.
"Most of it," she replied. "Scans suggest the far west tunnels are still intact, but if there were any survivors they won't last long enough to be dug out."
Alistair hummed. "Shame."
The scalpel bit into Ghenya's skin. She held back a hiss of pain.
"Bit of talon stuck in you, we'll get this out and you'll heal in a jiffy." Alistair murmured nonsense words of encouragement as he worked the claw from Ghenya's side. She was lucky it hadn't killed her. Several broken ribs, gouges from the Recorixian's teeth and nails, and a myriad of scratches were things she could come back from. She'd had worse, unfortunately.
"Suppose the Heimdall might lose this contract," Alistair sniffed. He dropped the bloody claw in a tub of alcohol and retrieved suture gel. "Shouldn't underestimate more primitive cultures. People can be so fastidious about protecting what's theirs."
"Good," Ghenya grunted. The gel was cold and pebbled her flesh, but it numbed the last of the pain. The antiseptic smell clung to her. "Maybe we'll get reassigned."
"It is strange how a few aliens with poor weaponry got passed highly trained Heimdall soldiers."
"Laziness," said Ghenya. She took the shirt Alistair offered her and slipped into it, hugging it close to her body to stave off the chill. Recorix's cold permeated everything. "Underestimating the locals, like you said."
"Of course," Alistair smiled broadly at her, eyes crinkling. He looked the very picture of a genial old man and patted her shoulder to complete the picture. "You're patched up. Let those ribs heal and you'll be fighting fit in no time. At least you'll stay warm for a few days!"
"At least." Ghenya tilted her head respectfully. "Thank-you, doctor."
She made to leave. Paused. Turned. His words mulling in her mind. Two Heimdall officers killed in the entrance way, with no sign of Recorixian blood or bodies in the area. Bullet wounds only, despite the alien's penchant for clawing their enemies to death. All injures to the chest and head, so the officer's hadn't been blindsided from behind.
Why so many dead miners, then? Why the Recorixians at all? Ghenya narrowed her eyes at Alistair. "Do you think it was an inside job?"
"Nobody likes this planet." Alistair shrugged. "Least of all the miners."
"And get their own people killed?"
"They're hired help as much as we are. If I thought I had a way to get off this planet, I might tap a few dominoes myself."
Ghenya frowned. "Have you spoken to any miners?"
"I had to patch up the handful you lot brought back to the hab." Alistair grinned, mischievousness brightening his honey eyes. "Everyone talks under the right sedation."
Ghenya turned and left.
Sergeant Souad Adel lived her life for the Heimdall, clawing her way through the muck of the bottom rung to come out clean and shining in black carapace. She'd been loyal to the outfit since she was old enough to volunteer, viciously competent, prepared to commit any atrocities needed in its name or underneath it for the success of the mission. Lust for position and hubris had been her downfall.
"What's this?" Major Dobrilo Beverly regarded the flimsy data pad Souad shoved across his desk with a passive expression, slow blinking like a contented cat.
"Transaction records regarding your platoon's deployments." Souad's voice remained deadly even. "From your personal accounts."
For his part, Beverly appeared nonplussed by the revelation, but Souad's senses went beyond a normal human's. She heard the quickening of his pulse, tasted the adrenal glands bursting fear flavor across her tongue. The beast inside her ached to come out, to punish this worm for harming the hive, but she shushed it. This wasn't a job for a monster.
"I see," said Beverly. "I assume this isn't the only record."
That didn't merit a response.
"There's a reason you brought this to me, instead of internal affairs." The major drummed his fingers and pushed the pad toward her. His voice turned steely. "What do you want?"
"An officer's position in your company."
"Why Sergeant, you already have a position of rank. Why would you want more weight on your shoulders? You'll probably be assigned to something important in due time. Most of Dr. Krum's.... experiments receive special treatment, when she's ready to dole it out."
Few of Krum's experiments with xenomorphs worked to her satisfaction. Most of the soldiers involved were turned into mindless beasts, controllable, but no longer sapient, thinking soldiers that would ever make an officer's position and they were used as such. As weapons. Souad had been a rare exception, keeping her brilliance and her cognitive function even as she morphed into her secondary form. Just as deadly cunning as she'd been prior to experimentation. But she'd been cooped up on the Heimdall since, monitored constantly for changes in behavior. The missions she'd been assigned to were little more than catch and carry, banal things that bored her. No glory. No chance to climb the ladder. No promotion in sight.
Beverly's records weren't the only set she'd discovered, but he was the softest to crack. He smelled like a drone, weak and simpering, despite his tough facade.
"I see," Beverly's stretched smile faded. "I'll be asked why."
"Assign me to your team as a Sargent. There's a mission that just came in-" she tapped the datapad and the information switched over to a mission transcript. "Rescue mission commissioned by a murdon diplomat. We need their good graces. I'm particularly well suited to this and you'll find I'll be the most valuable member of your team. I complete this mission successfully, you promote me to commissioned officer."
The Major gingerly plucked the pad to eye-level. It took him far too long to read and his expression remained stiff. His scent changed, though, the fear mingling with someone else. His breathing quickened, exhaled hot mist over the pad.
"Very well." The Major set the pad down and met her eyes, steely. "I'll have you reassigned to me. Then these records disappear?"
"Unlikely." Souad cocked her head. "But possible."
She should have agreed. Perhaps things would have played out differently if she'd been more cautious. The murdon's mission to retrieve a stolen creation had not gone smoothly. Beverly's enlisted men attempted sabotage at every corner. Souad barely scraped through with her life. She'd been successful, but only just, and most of Beverly's team had been killed. The creation, whatever it was, was badly injured and scoured with acid from Souad's wounds. She was blamed, deemed dangerous.
But she had succeeded, and the Heimdall did need more of Zar's good graces, so by the murdon's behest she as rewarded with the rank of Lieutenant.
And promptly sent to Recorix where her access to Heimdall records was severely limited.
And now this. Mines in shambles, most of the miners killed or lost in the collapsed tunnels. Her only mission, her purpose on this despicable ice rock, to protect the mines, and she had failed. A demotion would be likely, perhaps worse. Maybe Krum would have her assigned to his monster divisions after all, with Josef "Josie" Tyra in tow as a bonded drone. The rest of their little hive torn apart and scattered across the universe. Her subordinates would not be so badly punished. This was her fault, not theirs.
She sad in human form in front of her vid come, legs crossed, long nails tapping the lacquered desk. She waited, watching the empty screen with black eyes. Hating it. Hating everything that would come from it when decisions about her fate were made. She felt the rustle of people outside her office, the kick of fear each time one neared.
Only Josie's thready mind voice remained constant, a feedback loop of trepidation... but also support. He would follow her into the depths of hell. The Heimdall wouldn't tear them apart.
The vid screen popped to life. She'd expected to see Beverly's simpering face but this was far worse. Skeletal and pale, admission's officer Merete stared down at her with passive, black eyes.
"Lieutenant Adel," he started, voice like silk, ready to twist around her throat and throttle her. "These are unfortunate circumstances but I'm glad to see you well."
"Likewise," Souad replied. She'd met Merete only a handful of times, mostly in passing.
"The Reese Initiative is suitably upset at the destruction of their mines and we'll be forwarding a team to investigate our failings." Our failings. Always so politic.
Souad waited, silent.
Merete continued. "It's come to our attention that Recorix requires a heavier hand than we initially determined. We've promised the Reese Initiative that we'll be investing more resources as no additional cost."
Relief flooded Souad. They hadn't lost the contract. Souad may still be reassigned, but at least she hadn't caused irreparable damage to Heimdall.
"Dr. Krum has discovered the usefulness of bonds. Already many of our team have been sent to various locals to stand at clutches and returned with success." Merete thumbed at something below the screen. "And with the Heimdall's relationship with the Refugium flourishing it's only natural we expand our interests to share theirs."
Souad frowned. "We're being recalled?"
"Only temporarily, my dear."
Merete tapped something an image flashed across the screen. Dark sands, cavernous holes, black shadows. The xenomorph inside her squirmed with delight, but Souad frowned. "What's this?"
"Koshi Keidai," Merete replied. "Recently rediscovered a batch of... very promising eggs and sent out a request for suitable candidates. Dr. Krum herself recommended I contacted the crew stations on Recorix. After we learned of the mess with the mines, of course."
A dragon. Heimdall's officers intended for some of them... perhaps even her... to bond a dragon. Souad smothered a grin. This was no punishment! Souad, standing proud with a winged beast at her back, a queen, breathing fire and acid together. Glory!
"Am I one of the candidates to be sent here?" Souad asked.
"Of course. We'd like to send an additional pair, but you know your team best. I'm forwarding an application to you now-" Souad's personal comm beeped "- there we are. You choose who you believe will be most suitable to accompany you, and we'll have you shipped out once the investigation team arrives."
Ah. Two fold, then. She'd be replaced (albeit temporarily) with new, unbiased leadership - likely until the reason for their failure was sussed out - and she'd be returning with reinforcements the Recorixians couldn't hope to contend with. She could handle the embarrassment of failure for that. Something else occurred to her then, niggling.
"Do these Koshi Keidai dragons bond as hatchlings? Or adults?" She'd heard of both, in a variety of forms and species. Her lungs seized in trepidation. "You said they found eggs."
"Hatchlings, most likely. One hopes. Regardless, you're being sent to observe the hatching in hopes you and your compatriots will bond."
"How long does it take for a dragon to reach adulthood?"
"Oh, months, probably. Maybe even years. No one's entirely positive what's in these eggs, but no matter. Recorix deserves a full fighting force of dragons and this is the best way to achieve it."
Years.
Years assigned to this horrid ice planet. The blood drained from her her face, molten acidic heat frozen to ice.
"You have the applications. Please send them back to Heimdall as quick as you may, we'd like to get procedures started. If there's nothing else, I'll bid you good evening, lieutenant."
"Morning," Souad growled. "It's morning here."
"So it is. Good morning, then!" Merete logged out with a wave.
Fuck.
Miners were civilians and as such weren't permitted to stay in the Heimdall's habitation unit beyond the few days Alistair required to patch them up. Five survived the explosions and two dozen more remained unharmed by the luck of not having a shift that evening. Ghenya hadn't spent time with any of them, except idle chitchat when she stood parade rest at the mine's main entrance. She couldn't place names to faces and humans mostly looked alike anyway. None of them left their own meager domicile while repairs were performed.
Ghenya and the other Heimdall soldiers were not so lucky.
Blistering snow swept across her visor, obscuring her vision and sending shots of chill through the thick material of her suit. She didn't even have the lip of the mine's entrance to buffet the wind. She, Josie, and Vashund stood point before the heavy machinery used to plow open the collapsed shafts.
"This is shit," Vashund chattered, her voice quavering over the comm.
"Agreed," Ghenya huffed.
Josie remained silent but shuffled closer to her. He remained human, complaining that the cold upset his xenomorph form. While it could withstand extreme temperatures, it didn't enjoy them, and cold in particular set its teeth on edge. Josie explained it had something to do with xenomorph reproduction. Eggs did best with heat and humidity, the dry subzero temperatures of Recorix wrecked havoc with it.
She'd confided to Josie what Alistair suggested. That someone, Heimdall or miner, caused the explosions. Josie had said nothing, but his eyes narrowed sharply and he'd taken off, shifting as he bound away from her. To investigate? Inform Lieutenant Adel? Ghenya didn't know and didn't much care. It wasn't her job to uncover plots, she wanted as little to do with it as possible.
Or... she wished she did. It niggled at her. She itched to explore the miners' quarters and beat some honesty out of the survivors.
There hadn't been another storm since the mine's demolition. They'd spotted a few Recorixians at a distance and sniped them off before they gained ground. Best be safe now, considering. Days stretched to weeks resulting in fewer sightings.
Which meant guard duty was garishly boring. Nothing but each other's company to keep one's mind off the biting cold.
"What was your homeworld like?" Josie's voice crackled over the comm.
"Mine?" Ghenya swung her head toward him. She fielded questions like this when she first arrived, but most of her answers were uninspiring. Space, the same as here. Different aliens, a little different tech, but mostly the same. She hadn't spent a lot o time in the nicer parts of her galaxy. "Bad enough I was happy to leave."
Vashund laughed. "Worse than this?"
"Fuck no," Ghenya admitted. But really, some of it was. Kar'shan might have been warmer, but it was far more dangerous, and at least here she was free. No risk of slavery in this part of the universe, dimension... whatever this was. Prison? Sure, but that had always been a risk in her line of work. The Heimdall blanketed her from the worst of that. She didn't have to pay for status here, didn't have to scramble for money to keep food in her belly and skin on her fingers. She still worked, but even Recorix was better than the harsh labor she'd experienced as a child.
She laughed along with Vashund and Josie joined in with a deep, thrumming chortle.
"Really, though," Josie pressed, sidling closer to her. "Is there anything you miss?"
This was too personal. Ghenya squirmed, frowning. Josie backed away as if she'd hit him, shrinking a little from her stare. Guilt bit at her.
"Ehh," she shrugged. "I didn't have anything. Nothing left behind to miss." No family, no friends.
Not since Upetia died. Ghenya shut her eyes to block out the memory, but it came anyway. The feel of steel around her, closing her in. Her breathes hushed behind her hand. Watching through the grate as Upetia met her gaze, ironwilled, and turned toward heavily armed security to meet her fate. She was the last, the only thing Ghenya had cared about. The only thing left for her in citadel space was imprisonment.
As shitty as Recorix was, she preferred this universe. A new life, top to bottom.
"Do you miss anything?" Ghenya tried to open her expression, but batarian facial features were vastly different from a human's and she wasn't certain she got her point across.
Josie shrank back a little more. "Yes."
And he fell silent.
Uneasy quiet fell over their trio for the remainder of their shift. Ghenya sighed relief at the crackle of her comms announcing the next batch of merc arrivals. They'd suffered a huge loss with the mine's collapse, more than half the team confirmed dead or missing and presumed so. They were granted barely enough time to eat and rest before marching out in the cold once more, but reinforcements were coming. Eventually. This universe didn't have mass relays, although it did have dragons capable of teleporting instantaneously. Not enough involved with Heimdall to drop off a new platoon.
The skif's engine rumbled over the horizon.
"At ease," said Ghenya.
The trio holstered their guns and approached the skif. Three more suited humans ducked out, already grumbling from the cold. Ghenya grabbed the armhold, ready to swing herself aboard, when a hand landed heavy on her shoulder. She whipped around, teeth bared, but it was only Josie.
"The Lieutenant wants us to stay back," he said. There was no point whispering over the comms.
Ghenya glowered. She'd received no such orders but there wasn't privacy to ask. Vashund eyed them nervously, shifting weight from foot to foot.
"Get on," Ghenya said to her, stepping out of the way. "Take the skif back to the HAB, we'll join you later."
"You're gonna walk?"
"Done it before." It wasn't long, it was just cold as balls. A lot of the terrain was safer on foot than in a skif anyhow.
Vashund shrugged and clambered into the skif. Josie took off after it at a steady lope. Ghenya cursed. She was in no mood for running, especially not in this weather, muscles stiff with chill. She smashed the button to open her visor and silence comms, wincing as stinging cold battered her face.
"What's this about?"
Josie slowed, casting a look over his shoulder. Judging the distance between them and the party they left behind, no doubt. He frowned, then raised his own visor. "What you said before, about the explosions."
Ghenya balked. "What?"
"Adel wants us to look into it, just us, she said."
And he wouldn't have thought to ask why, Josie never questioned Adel's orders. Ghenya didn't want to be involved in this. She'd dropped the info to the appropriate parties and washed her hands of it.
"Where the hell are we going, then?" She could barely see through the blinding white. The angry whir of excavation equipment droned to nothing more than a whisper.
"The miner's quarters."
Ghenya barked mirthless laughter. "You might blend in there, but I sure as hell won't. Not a good choice for a stealth mission."
"It's not a stealth mission, we want to be seen. We're going to interrogate some of them. Intimidate them. Adel said we're the best for the job."
Ghenya respected Adel, liked her even, but this was ludicrous.
"Whose head is this going to fall on when shit hits the fan? Adel's or ours?"
Josie stared at her, pace slowed. He veered off the track toward Heimdall's HAB, tromping fresh snow to north-west for the miner's unit. He didn't answer.
He'd have lain on a grenade for Adel, it didn't matter that she was putting his head on the chopping block. Well fuck that, it mattered to Ghenya. She grabbed Josie's arm and yanked him back. He was solid, unmoving at first, and Ghenya felt when he eased into her grip and let himself be moved to face her.
"Look," Ghenya hissed. "I'm pissed this shit went down but I'm not getting myself axed to fix it. Adel should report what info we've got - which is jack squat and a crackpot theory - to headquarters. Not send a couple enlistees off to investigate. We're not trained for this. I'm fucking not."
"Adel doesn't trust anyone else."
"I understand you, but why me?"
Josie paused, considering. "You feel right."
Ghenya scowled. What did that mean?
"You want to be part of something," Josie said. "You're mind is open to the hive, it connects us." He touched his gloved hand to her exposed cheek, warmth, inhumane warmth, bled through to her.
"This is that xenomorph shit?"
Josie grinned, toothy and dark. "It changes us."
It was the closest to acceptance Ghenya felt since she'd joined the Heimdall. Since... since she'd been part of Blue Suns and fell in love. She hated it. She'd abandoned her previous team to save her own skin and she'd do it again without hesitation. Her life came first.
She felt the brush of something against her mind, the strangest sensation. Like liquid black oozing between the spaces in her brain. She lurched back.
"The fuck was that?" she snarled.
"Us," said Josie. "You're open to it."
The sensation disappeared and left her empty.
"Right," she said. "Right. Let's go, I'm freezing my ridges off."
Josie grinned, turned, and led the way.
The miner's habitation unit was a squat, dome-shaped building, mottled grey-white to blend with the environment. Josie and Ghenya sunk to their bellies and watched, waiting for an exit to appear in the seamless structure. Ghenya flipped her visor back and cycled through viewing options. Even heat sense couldn't penetrate the dome.
"It's got to be locked." Ghenya cycled sensors to movement. Still nothing. "And tough enough to withstand a storm. Might be able to shoot our way through but there goes any amount of subterfuge. They'll alert the Heimdall's HAB in seconds and that'll go straight back to HQ."
"Adel gave my passwords," said Josie.
"Won't help if we can't find a door." And it didn't look like anyone was going out for a smoke break any time soon. "We should go back."
"I have an idea." Josie rose to his feet. He stripped his gloves and suit, exposing flesh to the cold air. Ghenya didn't need to ask why. Once naked, Josie's form began to shift, black chitin crawling over his skin. Insidious gleaming tubes sprouted from his shoulders, down his sides, writhing over his thighs. He crouched, slimmed, grew, until he was no longer human but wholly alien, towering seven feet tall of vicious predator.
"What are you gonna do, stab your way through the unit?" Ghenya gathered his discarded suit and struggled to her feet, joints aching, frozen stiff.
Josie hissed, flicked his tail, and tore off across the snow. Ghenya followed him, cursing. Even with the snow he was easy to spot, a smear of quick black across ice white. If the miners had anyway to view outside their unit, they'd spot him coming. They might not know what a xenomorph was, but the survivors of the mine collapse would have seen both Josie and Adel's monstrous forms and could well associate them with the Heimdall.
Josie reached the dome and waited. He held one of his lanky hands open and dragged a razor sharp claw across his palm. Chitin split and acid yellow blood bubbled up, steaming. He slammed his hand to the unit's outer wall and smeared it. The metal gurgled and melted like spun sugar, leaving a three foot hole just wide enough for something human shaped. Josie stepped out of the way and Ghenya squeezed through, careful not to touch the smoldering edges. Josie followed silently after her. Curious no hull breach alarm wailed, but Recorix' atmosphere was livable to most humanoids, if not pleasant, so maybe one hadn't been installed. Shortsighted, but fortuitous for Ghenya.
The unit was sparsely lit, dim lights flickered over head as they sensed Ghenya's movement, highlighting a dusty hallway that curled to invisible corridors. A few doors lined the hall, steel with rusted locks. The Heimdall's HAB was worlds better than this. Ghenya could see why the miners would go to extreme measures to get off this planet. The air was chill, worse with a hole blasted through the hull and snow pouring in.
Ghenya wished she had some way to communicate with Josie. He could understand her just fine, but his xenomorph form could only hiss answers.
Intimidate and interrogate. They probably wouldn't get too many chances. Would Ghenya recognize one of the survivors if she saw them? Probably not. Humans were all shades of brown with bland, featureless faces.
If she was a human trying to get off this planet, would she risk blowing herself up? Or would she make sure she had a different crew shift?
That left the possibility of finding a culprit even further unlikely.
"You planning on changing back anytime soon?" Ghenya held out the bundle of clothes.
Josie regarded her a moment, then stretched to his full height, reaching for the ceiling. He popped open a panel and hauled himself into the pipe work. Ghenya scowled. She stashed the suit outside the makeshift hole.
"You're following me then," she said.
A low, oozing thrum wriggled through her mind in answer.
Lights flickered on and of as Ghenya paced the corridors, silent with worry. The halls remained empty and dark ahead of her.
"Invading creepy, deserted corridors," Ghenya muttered. "My fucking favorite."
She turned a corner into brightness. Three humans turned to stare at her, conversation puttering off.
"You're not supposed to be here." One of the miners, a bulky woman reminiscent of a beetle, strutted toward her.
"Right," said Ghenya. "You're right. I... uh... I got separated from my team and lost in the snow. Four eyes don't see any better than two-" an absolute lie and it pained her to state it. "I was gonna knock but I saw you had a hull breach and figured it must be Recorixians, right? Tried to keep quiet, might be lurking nearby."
The miners shifted, stinking of unease.
"We didn't see anything," said the beetle woman.
"Yeah, good thing or your guts would be scrubbing the floors." Ghenya tapped her pistol but didn't remove it from her holster.
"Shouldn't you alert the others soldiers?" squeaked a short round individual of indeterminate gender, inching closer to the larger lady.
"Already did, first thing when I got lost and again when I saw the breach. You should probably hole up somewhere safe while I sweep the halls." When none of them moved, Ghenya scowled, flashing teeth. "I mean it, move on."
The beetle woman lifted a device from her belt, crackling it to life. A radio. "Good afternoon Reese employees. This is Ms. Nowak. An intruder has been reported, please make your way to your quarters in an orderly fashion and remain there until further notice. There is no need to panic, Heimdall officers are on their way."
Ghenya didn't know if that helped or hindered her plan. "Yeah, uh... thanks."
"I'm team lead," said Ms. Nowak. "I should accompany you."
"I can't put a civilian at risk. You should bunk down like the rest of your crew."
"I should, but I won't." Ms. Nowak dismissed her crewmates with a flick of her hand. They hurried to the nearest door, running key cards through the slot and disappearing to safety. Safety from absolutely nothing, but they didn't need to know that. Ms. Nowak turned oil spot eyes on Ghenya. "I can act as navigator. Where do you suspect this alien's gone?"
Crawling around the vents searching for clues.
"Possibly trying to plant more explosives. That was my first thought, anyway, seeing as we're repairing the mines after their attack." Ghenya started down the hallway. Nowak kept pace with her. "They obviously don't mind killing anyone."
"Should we wait for your backup?"
"No time. If they want to set bombs, we gotta find them fast."
"Life support is the most obvious target." Nowak ducked down a corridor and unlocked an elevator Ghenya hadn't noticed her first time around.
Would Josie be able to track her if she took a lift? She eyed the ceiling but received no indication Josie was even present. She followed Nowak into the elevator.
Ghenya hated the confined space of elevators, walls too close, boxed in and at the mercy of levers and cables. She checked her gun and eyed the door.
"How did they breach our unit?" Nowak slid her key card into a slot that lit up red. The elevator groaned and descended.
"Beats me," Ghenya shrugged. "Tore it open, claws and teeth? Did you hear a detonation? The hole was pretty big."
"No." Nowak turned to face her, arms crossed and lips pressed thin. Her eyes were steely black, stance rigid. "No proximity alarms went off either."
"Funny." Ghenya hated the way she smelled. Poised, at ease, the previous trappings of nervousness bled away with her compatriots. She wasn't right. Too calm, too collected.
It occurred to Ghenya that a high ranking member of the mining operation had the most to gain from getting off Recorix. Reassignment to a cushier job, probably. Somewhere warm. And if the Heimdall was blamed she'd face no repercussions. There's no way a woman as pristine and proper as this would have dragged bombs into the mine herself. She had to have accomplices.
Josie said to get tough with her, didn't he?
Ghenya didn't like this. It put her ass on the line. If Adel didn't protect them both they'd be courtmartialed and jailed and Ghenya fought too damned hard to get herself thrown behind bars. She cracked her knuckles, fingers flexing at her thighs.
Did she trust Adel to keep her safe?
"I'm sorry about your friends," said Ghenya, forcing the wariness from her voice.
"Friends? You mean my employees." Nowak's lips pressed even tighter but she otherwise didn't stir. "Casualties are always unfortunate, but Recorix is a dangerous planet. We all knew that when we agreed to work here."
"Agreed?" Ghenya spat the word before she'd thought about it. Too many years laboring at jobs she had to take to survive to think most of the miners here were in any better situation.
"We all signed contracts. It pays well."
"You too?"
"Of course, Mr... what's your name?"
"Corporal," Ghenya corrected. Misgendering wasn't uncommon. Humans didn't seem capable of discerning the gender dimorphism of batarians and Heimdall armor left no impression of breasts. It didn't matter.
"Mr. Corporal," said Nowak. "You have interests in mining?"
The elevator stopped. The doors slid open to reveal a poorly lit subfloor, buzzing with the gargles of a life support generator. Ghenya strained her ears over the noise and heard nothing. Smelled oil and metal tang, static on her tongue.
Ghenya grabbed Nowak's arm, swung the woman out the elevator, and shoved her against the nearest wall. She was almost a foot taller than Ghenya and not small, but surprise and experience were on Ghenya's side. She shoved an arm under Nowak's chin, twisting the woman's wrist in the other until the bones creaked, verged on snapping.
Ghenya bared all her sharp teeth and snarled. "Who planted the bombs?"
Nowak's throat bobbed against Ghenya's forearm. She squirmed, testing Ghenya's grip, then relaxed against the wall.
"You're responsible for the destruction of the mines," Ghenya continued. "Did you get lucky with the Recorixians or was that planned?"
"You have no idea what you're talking about."
Ghenya pressed harder. Nowak gasped, clawing Ghenya's wrist with her free hand. If Ghenya was right, she'd gotten lucky. She didn't know a single damn miner, but there was a reason this woman wanted to keep her eye on Ghenya. Suspicion oozed off her, pervading her confidence. She knew something, Ghenya just had to tear it out of her.
"If it wasn't you, tell me who it was. Save yourself."
"The natives," Nowak spat. "Obviously."
"Taking on Heimdall soldiers from the front without suffering a single casualty? No Recorixian blood at the mine's mouth? Humans took them out."
"Then they're dead, in the mines."
"Who's that stupid? Set the charges and hang around for the place to come crashing down?" Ghenya itched to sink her claws into Nowak. "Or did you deliberately send someone there to die?"
"We needed casualties!" Nowak slammed a knee into Ghenya's side.
Ghenya grunted, stumbling back. She caught herself in seconds, rushing forward to ram Nowak against the wall. "You're going to be a casualty if you don't cooperate!"
"You're certain of that?" Calm. Cool.
Metal bit under Ghenya's jaw. Her eyes widened. She grabbed for her pistol to find her holster empty. The charge buzzed to life against her chin, burning hot and electrified.
The miners' innocuous conversations grated at Josie. He slunk through the pipes, metal pressed tight at all sides, forcing him to squeeze and wriggle through spaces too tight for a creature as large as a xenomorph. Still, the alien was far more suited to hiding in dark places than his human form. The air thickened with fear, making him salivate. Instinct barked at him to take the nearest lifeform and drag it somewhere warm and wet to incubate a facehugger, but Josie remained human enough to stamp the urge to the smallest corners of his mind.
"... bombs in the unit? Are we even safe in here? Maybe we should evacuate."
"If there's Recorixians outside we'll all be dead anyway. I hate this planet."
"Wish we'd been shipped home when the mine went under."
Snippets of conversation floated from the rooms, none of which was any interest to Josie. Maybe Ghenya was wrong and no one here had set the charges at the mines. The planet might be terrible, but it was a paycheque at the end of the day. Adel didn't want to excuse incompetence on Heimdall's behalf, and it would be better for their outfit if a miner had done it, but nothing was catching Josie's interests. The miners huddled in quiet fear, waiting and reeking of fright.
Josie wriggled his bulk around and turned back. He should grab his clothes, return to human form, and contact Ghenya. Perhaps she was having better luck.
He'd intended to follow her and use himself to intimidate anyone they found suspicious enough to interrogate, but he saw no easy means to trail her down the elevator shaft without putting himself at risk.
"They know something," a reedy, squawking voice pitched from down below.
Josie paused.
"They don't know anything," replied a woman's richer dulcet. "It got lost and needed an excuse to be here."
"You don't know that! It's probably snooping. It knows what we did."
Josie crept forward careful inches until he reached a vent. Below him was a kitchen, the lights left on unlike every other room he'd crossed over. Inside were two miners, the pair that Ghenya had run into - a small round man and a tall woman with limbs as lanky as a xenomorph's.
"They don't know anything, Elryn, calm down."
Elyrn, presumably the rotund man, didn't. He proceeded to pace the room, his hands jammed deep in his coverall pockets. "We shouldn't have done it."
"You want to stay on this ice planet forever?"
Elyrn wheeled on her. "It didn't work, did it? We're still stuck here! Reese wants the Ubratine enough to completely rehaul the entire mine. They will never let us go."
The woman pressed her lips to a firm line. Josie watched her breath billow out in shivering puffs. Her warm-alive beating heart quickened. "We could riot."
"We'll get shot," Elyrn squealed, jabbing a portly finger at her. "Those Heimdall soldiers will kill us all and we'll be replaced. We mean nothing to Reese. We're just bodies."
His voice carried enough to be heard from the hall. If there had been aliens (apart from Josie himself) they'd have been caught and killed by now. Lucky for them this alien didn't want them dead. Josie threaded his fingers through the vent and jerked it out of place. It crashed to the floor, startling the room;s occupants to leap and whirl. Josie waited, drooled at the fear pervading the room, the thick scent of anxiety.
"Who's there!" shouted the woman.
Elyrn grabbed for a kitchen knife.
Josie lowered himself, inch by long inch, through the vent, and stood towering black and gleaming above them.
"What the fuck is that!" shrieked the woman.
Elyrn ran for him, brandishing the knife. Josie knocked him out of the way with a slap of his tail. Elyrn careened to the floor and sent the knife flying. Josie snapped his inner jaws and gargled as his form shrank, chitin splitting to reveal flesh, as he returned to human form. A naked man was far less intimidating than a xenomorph, but he was confident he got his point across.
"You're going to tell me everything you did," he said, "Or I'm going to eat you both."
They did.
The sting of her pistol's charge numbed Ghenya's tongue, reverberating up her jawline to make her skull hum. She breathed, blinked, but didn't move. She matched Nowak's pathetically inadequate gaze and waited. If Nowak intended to kill her immediately, she would have done so. She wanted something else from her first so Ghenya had a few seconds to breathe and consider her next move. Nowak remained pinned against the wall but Ghenya had no illusions as to who was now in charge.
"What do you know?" said Nowak, tipping Ghenya's chin with the gun. "What does Heimdall know?"
"Enough."
"Don't test me."
"Wanna know if you're getting off this planet in handcuffs or with accolades?" Ghenya snorted.
"When does your back up arrive?"
Did Adel know they were headed her now, today? Or was this a spur of the moment decision on Josie's part? Ghenya wished, cursing Josie's name, that the man had shifted back and taken his comm with him. Ghenya didn't know if back-up was coming at all, and even if it were, it'd be far too late for Ghenya.
"I don't know, how long will it take you to hide all your evidence?"
Nowak's eyes darted to the side, just enough to let Ghenya know there was evidence.
"We've already got what we need," said Ghenya. "My team mate is forwarding it to the HAB now."
Nowak's eyes narrowed to predatory slits. "How would you know?"
Ghenya lifted a hand, palm open and fingers splayed, and with sluggish increments tapped her comm. "You think we're not in constant communication with each other?"
"Tell them you're dead if they don't stop right now. Tell them to come here or I'll shoot your brains out."
"Josie," Ghenya hissed into the empty crackle of her comm. "I'm gonna need some assistance."
Nowak eased her grip.
Ghenya jerked back, grabbed the woman's wrist, and twisted. A blast of energy sizzled past her, scorching her ear. Ghenya snarled against the pain and slammed her head into Nowak's. The woman yelped and crumpled, her grip going lax. Ghenya jerked her gun free and flipped it toward the human, but Nowak sprang forward and launched herself into Ghenya's knees. Ghenya landed with a heavy thud, her pistol flying toward the shadows of machinery. Nowak crawled over top of her, hands like talon diving for Ghenya's throat.
Ghenya punched her. Her knuckles crunched into bone, sending Nowak flailing to the side. Ghenya leapt to her feet and spun. Where had her gun gone?
Nowak's groan of pain morphed into an angry shriek. Her heels clacked against the floor.
Ghenya spun to face her. She was just a human, Ghenya didn't need her gun. She whirled and grabbed for Nowak's arm, twisting hard until the woman's back was to Ghenya, her arm cocked in a painful angle at her spine. Nowak kicked and elbowed with her free arm, but Ghenya bent her harder, snarling between clenched, pointed teeth.
"Let me go!"
Ghenya spotted her gun half hidden under the shadow of a rumbling machine. She shoved Nowak and dove for it. The woman raced for the elevator.
Ghenya charged her pistol and fired at shot at Nowak's feet. "Don't move!"
The woman stopped, seething, breathing hard enough her shoulders shook. She turned once more, slowly now, defeated turning her face pale.
"HAB operators?" Ghenya slapped a hand on her commlink. "I need an extraction team at the mining unit. We have an issue."
Three miners arrested and sitting in the Heimdall HAB's holding cells bestowed Souad with quiet confidence for the first three days after HQ was informed. She paraded the halls of the HAB proudly. Both Ghenya and Josie would receive adequate recognition for their aid in clearing her good name, she'd make certain of it. Heimdall wouldn't keep her trapped on this planet for years now. She'd caught the culprits, her team were fighting fit and worthy of a better operation.
For three days Souad waited for Heimdall's call.
On the fourth her good mood dissipated.
She called. 'Connecting' spiraled in little blue circles on her vid link, taunting her. She ached to be in her xenomorph form, lashing tail and gnashing jaws. She wanted to destroy something.
"Lieutenant Adel!" Merete's long face flashed into view.
Souad wanted to tear it off his skull and devour it. She straightened her posture, tugged her uniform tunic to creaseless perfection, and said," Why haven't I received word since the culprits were arrested?"
"We've gotten in touch with Reese to determine how they'd like the bombers handled," said Merete. "It seems their government would like them imprisoned proper, but most of their prisoners end up on mining colonies, so you see the dilemma." He laughed.
Souad didn't. She didn't care. "And myself, my team?"
"Excellent work all around. You've received some lovely reports on your record."
That was it?
"Am I still to be sent to Koshi Keidai?"
"Of course, why wouldn't you be? Do you think a dragon is a punishment? My goodness, Lieutenant, Rosenheim herself is going to stand a clutch given the first opportunity for something that suits her. We're trying to pair as many of our soldiers with dragons as possible. If you truly don't want one..."
Of course Souad wanted a dragon. What little information she'd been able to garner about Koshi Keidai and the possible hatchlings from the mystery clutch had been tantalizing. Xenomorph hybrids. That would suit her just fine.
What she didn't want was to be trapped on Recorix for the years it would take a dragon to reach maturity.
"We've proven we don't need dragons to be effective here."
"Oh indeed!" Merete grinned, his mouth stretching lizard-like, skin taut over his skull. He looked more inhuman that Souad ever did. "But they would be useful and these Koshi Keidai hatchlings should be suitable for Recorix's extreme temperatures. Have you chosen who you'd like to accompany you? We haven't received your applications yet."
The finality of the situation sank into her bones. Recorix would be her grave.
Fine. She'd take her dragon and build her hive here. She would rule Recorix like the queen she should have been. The ice, the cold, the snow, the storms, they'd be hers. And she'd keep her two loyal drones at her side.
"Private Josef Tyra and Corporal Ghenya Geggorok," Souad replied, steely.
"The batarian?"
"Yes."
"Interesting. We'll have transport sent for you and the prisoners shortly. Hold tight and stay safe, Lieutenant. Good evening." Merete disconnected.
"It's morning," Souad snarled to the blank screen.