“Calling the rover. The autopilot should follow the path we made. If we leave now, we might make it to cover. Let’s go,” I replied.
“Lilea can’t run. Once we drop these flames, she’s dead,” Iylene called.
A dozen of those bugs descended behind the first. Hitting the ground with all their pincers nearly sent us to our knees. Lilea dropped, disappearing below the ferns.
“Stay here then. It’s your life.” I looked at Arana, who cast our group a cursory glance, then dropped her flamethrower. Ryker followed, then Zavir.
Iylene made a strangled crying sound while they maneuvered toward Lilea. Lilea wobbled toward us with the bugs landing in droves. Our flamethrowers wouldn’t last against an army of those things. The flames, too, roared higher, taking over the field too fast for us to control, reaping utter destruction. Just like Ryker said.
Our exoskins could protect us from the smoke and flames, but inevitably, they would give out. Those bugs, too, could beat through them, as we saw with Lilea. Iylene got their arm around her. The bugs scattered. Dozens upon dozens, too many to count, wandered through the field, rolling and slamming their pincers.
I came skidding to a stop. The bugs were acting strangely. Were they putting out the fire?
“Less staring, more running,” Arana called.
I obeyed because it was stupid to hesitate, to have patience in a world that would bleed us dry if we dared to care about anyone other than ourselves.
Iylene pointed their flamethrower behind them. Lilea tried the same, causing the first bug to charge. The creature screeched and swiped, digging into the soil. The other bugs weren’t coming toward us. They rolled through the field and ripped up the remains, chewing voraciously on the ferns.
I made it to the canopy with Arana and Ryker. Zavir lingered, muttering to himself, then waving his arms. “Stop firing, Iylene!”
Iylene may have had an apathetic expression, but their eyes were full of rage.
“Seriously, stop!” He pointed toward the other bugs.
Arana and Ryker investigated. I kept moving, glancing over my shoulder to find Lilea and Iylene had lowered their flamethrowers. The bug at their back hissed, scooping up the ground to put out the fire before licking up the venom.
Theywereputting out the fires and eating the remains, like all those bugs following us. We had cut up supper for them, and practically rang a dinner bell.
Lilea and Iylene made it to Zavir, neither of them looking away from the field long. I had seen enough and kept moving. We didn’t stop until the smoking field was a mere speck at our backs. We made it beneath the canopy where Lilea fell. I leaned against a stalk before dropping, too.
“Okay,” Arana wheezed, laying fully on her back. “What just happened?”
“We were attacked by alien bugs,” Ryker replied on his knees. “I need a smoke.”
“They were eating the flora. The venom, we were leaving trails of it behind us,” I explained. “They caught the scent and came rushing over for a big meal. Caused us to torch the place, which pissed them off, but they got what they came for, regardless.”
“I’ll make a note of it in the catalogue.” Zavir took to the commlink, just like Iylene was. Probably messaging Roys to tell him what happened.
I suspected I would be receiving quite an earful when we returned to the habitat.
013
“Youareconsistent,aren’tyou?” Roys was the biggest thing in his office.
Corporate didn’t believe in sending more than what was absolutely necessary, so they decorated the captain’s quarters minimally. Roys’ desk couldn’t fit in the rectangular room without pressing the side against the wall, creating a hall that someone of his stature had to walk sideways through. The clunky gray desk had a built-in holo screen, turned off the moment I walked into the room. A single chair sat in front of the desk, and hooks on the wall held his supplies. A console table by the door had his new exoskin folded on it. On his desk, he had an open box of candy.
I lounged in the chair, hands in my pockets and head knocked back over the seat. “Consistency is key, they say, and I would hate to disappoint.”
“Ethin,” he said.
“Lucky,” I corrected.
He leaned forward, hands steepled on the desk. He was in captain mode, entirely too stern and ready to lecture at a moment’s notice. While that was annoying, his tone of voice was far from it. The way his words seemingly clawed their way out of his throat like a growl made me want to press my lips against his neck and feel every syllable against my tongue.
“You don’t bring much luck to your team, do you?” he asked.
“They all survived, didn’t they?”
