Published at 29th of January 2026 7:06 am

Chapter 326: Ambush

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The pair of Highspawn buzzed out from the tunnel, wrapped in shields and armed with crackling energy. They paused, taking in the silent bugs.

The tall bug, lurking in its corner, stiffened. The bugs began to shriek and shift, setting themselves to charge, Symbiotes rippling from a few.

Wait! cried one of the Hornets. There is no need for us to fight. You have far more pressing business than us. He paused, peering around. Come out then, High Caste. Obviously one of you is about.

Invaders, hissed the tall bug in its own ripples, similar but different. You will be expelled!

Your queen is being hunted, spoke the Hornet. Your fellows are fighting and dying. A Hive is here in force. But perhaps you have a chance, if you can go and assist your queen. The Hornets drifted to the side, gestured at the tunnel from which they had emerged. We will not prevent you.

The tall bug was hunkered behind a rock, Symbiotes rippling, emanating anger and worry. Why?

We hunt our own prey. A human.

The owner of the dead workers, and the dead queen?

The Hornets shifted, confused. Dead workers?

Over there, the tall bug gestured. They have no Soul, and yet they live.

Have you seen a human? asked the Hornet.

No human. Only Soulless.

The pair exchanged glances, then one flicked a hand dismissively. Whatever. He is this way. We will pursue him. You may depart through the tunnel, and aid the rest of your kind.

This is agreeable, replied the tall bug.

Not in Nicolais opinion, it wasnt. Hed already finished unloading his pistol and slotted in a fresh magazine of sub-sonic rounds. The silencer was screwed carefully into place. He sighted down the weapon, aimed at the tall bug, dead centre. It was about 140 metres away. He raised the pistol a little to compensate. Aiming nudged it a tad higher.

He squeezed the trigger three times. Cracked dents appeared over the tall bugs Skin Shield, though the low-powered rounds had little chance of getting through.

That wasnt his intention.

Treachery! screamed the tall bug, and this ripple was also a command. With a unified shriek of rage, the bugs lunged forward.

The Hornets reacted instantly, and decisively. Even as the tide of bugs howled toward them, they flickered invisible, and through sonar he saw them fly across the space. In the larger cavern they were able to easily remain invisible and avoid the general mass of bugs.

Moments later the Artifact Ball smashed the tall bug to death. From there, the Ball began to pulp the few Symbiotes using bugs in the crowd, while the rest chittered with confusion.

Nicolai hadnt expected the Hornets to win so quickly and easily. They were able to avoid losing their invisibility, so long as they just used the Artifact Ball. Hed guessed at much, but hed thought the tall bug would put up at least some kind of fight, during which he would creep up and kill them.

That was no longer possible and his disappointment was titanic in scope. Hed barely even begun to move by the time the Hornets had effectively won. Now the Hornets had stopped attacking, and watched as the bugs, after a confused moment, began to rush out through the tunnel. Responding to ripples for aid from the rest of their kind, perhaps.

The Highspawn would be after him soon, and these Hornets hadnt been sent randomly. Theyd been picked, because their Symbiotes were a good counter to his capabilities. He calmed himself, the Modules and the Dark. Always a way, always a method. This one had failed but he could already envision a better method, one that wouldnt rely on a surprisingly useless tall bug. As he retreated towards his base he and the Modules conferred. A plan unfolded within him, all sparkling and perfect.

The bug corpses he passed watched him with dead, unfeeling eyes.

###

Nicolai lurked in the roof of the cave like a monster in its den, waiting. The Module in the Infiltrator was speaking to him, but he increasingly struggled to understand what was being said. He gleaned enough to know the plan would unfold without issue.

The Hornets entered cautiously, sweeping with Soul Senses and ripples. They were looking for him and last time they had found him easily, simply with a sweep of ripples, but this time they wouldnt because he was a rock, a stone. He was still and silent and cold and empty. There was nothing here. He didnt even exist.

His conviction was titanic in scope and it merged with the Modules and the Dark, forged a delusion around him, a gentle one. His Soul was Shelled so perfectly that nothing could find him, excepting a direct touch of Soul Sense.

But that was only one part of his stealth. The other came via a distraction. The other was in the base, lurking to one side of the ruined security doors, on the inside. They couldnt see it, but they could see its Soul Sense, when Legal quickly thrust the Infiltrators tendril out then pulled it back.

At the same time, the ripples of activated Symbiotes came from it. Hed given Legal his spare Grasping and Repulsive fingers, which it had activated. As those Symbiotes were part of the makeup of the Spectral Claw, the ripples that washed out could easily be mistaken for those the Claw made when activated.

Through the sonar pulses he was endlessly emitting, Nicolai watched the Hornets. They were painted as vague white figures in his HUD, freezing every quarter second before the next sonar pulse hit them. Like watching a show, stuttering over a bad connection.

His whole body was tight and coiled, murderous, on the verge of frenzy. His need to kill was something physical but he held it tight, drew it on to strengthen his will and his mind. Here he would wait. They would come to him. He knew they would.

The Hornets exchanged glances and gestured to one another. They began to move toward Legal, across the mine. Going slowly, carefully. The one with the ball had it close, within his Soul Sense. They werent Shelling their Souls, and their Soul Sense tendrils stretched out and felt at everything around them.

A little like someone with a minesweeper, checking the ground before they stepped on it. That let him watch them more easily as he could track them with his eyes, able to see their Soul Senses, but the benefit was greatly outweighed by the problem.

They werent moving in the right direction, and if they kept going slow those tendrils might find him before they were in killing-range. He gave the signal.

From hidden positions all over the cave, the surviving bots aimed whatever loaded guns they still possessed at the two Hornets and opened fire.

A beautiful wall of sound came from everywhere at once. 7.62 and.50 calibre rounds roared through the air, poured at the Hornets. He could feel the bullets eagerness and drive.

One of the Hornets flashed into mist, the other was surrounded by zipping white lines as its Silver Net worked to deflect all those shots. But he felt its sudden horror, saw it rapidly retreat and throw itself around a corner. The Silver Net had been about to break under the strain. It sent its Ball Artifact out but the bullets just targeted that instead, struck sparks from the metal and knocked it through the air until the Hornet had it retreat to the same corner.

His eyes glimmered as he watched the other one, in the form of a localised mist flowing over the bug-corpses carpeting the ground. It was coming in his direction. This Hornet was taking the initiative, just as decisive as the pair had been against the tall bug. Its target was two of the bots, the nearest ones.

It believed itself safe because it had seen his Soul Sense, was taken in by Legals brief performance, therefore believed there was no risk of him attacking it with the Claw, which would go right through that mist form. He guessed that once it got within oul Sense range, it could use one of its Symbiotes to kill the bots without them being able to retaliate. It wouldnt take something particularly strong, if it was able to attack with impunity.

But it would never reach them. Hed positioned the bots with deep thought, considering where the Hornets would enter. Not only were those two bots closest, they were also in the most threatening position. Hed known this would push the Hornets to want to remove them first. The bots were also positioned such that the most direct route from the Hornets entry point to the bots would take this Hornet directly underneath where he hid.

He was glad this was the one lured out here. Its anti-Symbiote Art was the most dangerous tool these creatures had, even more than the Ball Artifact. Removing it would secure victory.

The mist was beneath him. Nicolai dropped. Even with the hungry mass of desires peaking within him he was utterly silent, a shadow drifting through the air. The Quiet Knife glimmered in his hands, extended downward.

The Hornet had only an instants warning and that was not enough. The bullets stopped all at once, just before he crossed into the bots firing lines. In the deafening silence he arrived and punched out with the activated Knife, aiming at the shape of its Soul within the mist.

A faint resistance and he felt the Knife activate, felt its spirit-rending Art activate.

The Hornets Soul imploded, and with a loud pop the mist snapped together into the Hornets form. It dropped, lifeless, instantly dead. The Knife was right through the back of its head. It fell in a boneless mass onto the carpet of dead bugs and he landed atop it.

The perfect kill gave him an almost orgasmic rush but he didnt let it distract him, his head whipping around to find the surviving Hornet, the next one to die. There. He saw its Soul Sense tendrils. Theyd come out from behind its corner to watch and were staring at him.

The tendrils darted away as the Hornet turned and ran.

Nicolai lashed out the Spectral Claw, activated Pegasi rings, seized a big dead bug and used it to launch himself forward. He was flung into the tunnel itd been in and saw its Soul Sense disappearing around a corner, moving quick. Quicker than him. He could feel the thrashing ripples of its spiritual wings working at full power.

Within him, a dull foreboding was rising.

Threat Analysis was gibbering that the Queen had said the Highspawn must not see him with the Knife and live. This one had seen more than that, itd witnessed him kill its companion, and now it was fleeing. He was pretty sure the fact theyd been hunting him would have little bearing. If it could get that knowledge back to the others, the Queen would be forced to have him killed. Which normally neither he nor the Modules would have cared about, but without her antidote hed be dead in a week.

And all the while as it ran the need to kill it pushed at him like some great hand from behind. His steps were perfect and fluid, and he knew his body was moving at the absolute peak of speed he was capable of. But the Hornet, with its wings and whatever speed-boosting Symbiotes, was faster still.

His Soul Sense poured out into the same chamber where the Hornet had killed the tall bug, and he burst out after it. All the other bugs were gone, now. Disappearing to go and assist their Queen, he supposed. He saw it, his target.

The Highspawn was flying toward the tunnel exit. Possibilities flashed through him. The M99 would be deflected by its Silver Net. He was too slow to reach it. It had the water barrier to block his laser. There was nothing nothing? he could do

But the Highspawn, for no understandable reason, was slowing, backpedalling.

He understood when a figure appeared in the mouth of the tunnel, levelling a short spear at the Highspawn.

Serrin.

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