Page 14 of Bonded Queen: to the Alien Warlord Triad

I have to save her.

I cut with my blade, opening the side of the console. Frayed wires don’t even spark. I deactivate my blade, turn it, and press the Orb in its hilt against it.

“You do as I say, Orb,” I snarl, as the console flicks on. The Orb is forced to obey my command, powering the ruined shield console.

The power is severed completely. Gods. We must have lost a third of the ship in the rift. The shields are still operational, but they flicked off, without any input from the technicians. The display flickers from the foreign power source, and I grit my teeth and force it online, putting all power to the very front of the ship to blunt our impact.

They glow to life an instant before a Scorp tumbles through the air. Its sticky, huge body slams against me, and I smash against the back wall, winded, sucking in air as we whistle downwards. All I can see is the Scorp.

I’m eye to eye with it. I’ve never been so close to one of the bastards. It has red, gleaming eyes, staring at me with pure hate. I ignite my blade and slam it between its eyes. It twitches, and its tail darts forward. The sharp venomous point jabs towards me and I grab it at the last second, venom dripping down against my bare chest. I’m stuck to it, the resin material still covering its scaly flesh, and I laugh to the heavens.

“You’ll be a damn fine airbag!” I yell, as the ground swallows us up.

4

Rachel

“Reload! Dammit, Rachel, reload!” I take in a huge, racking breath, like she pulled me out of an ocean where I was drowning. My finger presses over and over on the trigger, the clicking sound the only answer.

My cheeks are wet, salty tears and sweat. The last hour has been spurts of terror, until I’m so scared my body hits a peak and goes back to baseline. The wounded Scorp pulls itself up. I snap back to sanity and eject a clip, slamming the next one in, and start firing again.

It falls, like the dozens that fell before it.

They don’t stop. They don’t stop.

Snap out of it!

We lugged three crates of ammunition up before the Scorp came within a mile of the manor. Now two boxes are empty, the third between Kat and I at our window perches. Two huge claws come over the wall, digging into the stone, and the clacking mandibles follow. It wants to feed. It wants to grab hold of something and bring it to the rows of jagged teeth in its mouth.

I fire, and fire again, until blood streams from its destroyed head and it falls back.

“I didn’t know they could climb,” I gasp, and watch the next wave coming. An Org-Ship fell three miles away, and though most of the Scorp rushed towards the city, I watched the enormous Queen point her tail towards our manor. Dozens of Scorp rushed in a raid we barely held off.

More are coming from the city. Their claws swing as they run, but their tails stay calibrated, always in the same spot over their heads as they race towards us on their muscled, scaly legs.

The more we shoot, the more we attract, but we’ve got no choice.

“Ohfuck,” says Kat, as the sun is blotted out and we’re cast into shadow.

An Org-Ship is hurtling down towards us. It’s on fire, the thick, organic coating on the egg-like ship sloughing off in burning chunks as it tumbles down right towards us. I’m glad the rest of the servants are in the cellar, hiding. I’m glad I don’t have to hear their shrill screams. None of them joined in the defense. All of them cowered in what they thought was safety—and Kat didn’t tell that they were going into a tomb.

“They’d just get in the way,”she told me, after she marched them into the cellar and locked the door. I told Lola it was going to be okay, and I hope she believed me. She looked so innocent and scared as the door closed her off from the rest of the world. She tried to convince me to join her there, still hoping that Aurelians would come to save us.

Then we lugged up the last box of ammunition and took our spots.

I’m saying something back to her, my lips are moving, but there’s no sound. The shrill klaxon of the relentless alarm ends mid-tone, and the deafening thunder of the anti-air batteries cuts off, as if someone put a dampener on reality.

I can’t process what I’m seeing. First, the Org-Ship is rushing downwards to crush us…

And then, something is inside of it, ripped through, appearing out of nowhere and forcing the air and sky to move to grant it a place to exist.

A jet-black warship. It’s huge, but it’s barely held together. It has holes in it, straight through so I can see the sky, perfect circles missing. It has plate armor and guns bristling, but it lookswrong.The missing circles disappear so quickly I thought I imagined them, fusing together in a strange moment, as if reality itself is distorted.

The ship is falling like a comet, pushing the Scorp Org-Ship off the path, away from us, and I drop my rifle in awe. Sound returns, louder yet after the absence, as it hurtles downward straight towards the ground. It’s right about to hit the ground when the front of it shimmers.

The warship drives into the ground, piercing straight through the Org-Ship. I thought it would explode, but it bores into the ground, until two thirds of it are underground and the angular warship is driven into the earth.

“What…what…” My voice is weak, shaking.

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