“John, we've got company!" Alyssa said, as the sounds of feet came from the ramp behind them.

"Got to go Captain!" John said and closed the call, Flintlock saluted him goodbye.

They dodged behind the oddly shaped console, being careful not to trip over the insectoid operator they had gunned down minutes before. Another squad of Kirrix troopers marched down the ramp, followed from behind by a looming Overseer. As soon as John and Alyssa could see the segmented feet of the insectoid forces, they opened fire, armour piercing rounds scything through the legs of the alien troops that couldn't actually see what was firing at them, coming down the ramp as they were.

The first few Kirrix had their legs shot out from under them and slid unceremoniously down the ramp, taking hits to their torso's as John strafed fire over them. The remaining two soldiers and the overseer rushed down the ramp and into the room, heads tilted sideways so that they could see what was attacking them. One of the bugs was shot in the face by Alyssa and it collapsed in a heap, killed instantly. The other began to return fire causing her to duck behind cover as accurate neutron blasts began to impact the console where her head had been John popped up from the other side and fired the Last few rounds of his magazine into the chest of the angry insect, causing it to slump over to its side with a inhuman shriek.

Alyssa slammed in another clip and then popped out, preparing to fire at the Overseer, but her timing was unlucky and a shot from its neutron rifle glanced off her right shoulder. The young blonde woman was knocked backwards and she dropped to the floor and screamed with pain.

John glanced at her in panic, but was relieved to see she that she wasn't too badly hit. He had reloaded himself and flipped the selector switch to full auto, targeting the ugly overseer's underbelly in his sights and then holding down the trigger. The muzzle climb from firing so many rounds walked his shots up from segmented belly to chitinous head and John emptied his entire magazine into the bug that had dared to wound his woman. The Overseer slumped over, its ruined body gouting green ichor all over the floor as its perforated torso sprayed blood around the room. Satisfied that he had killed it, John leaned down at Alyssa's side to check to see if she was ok.

“How bad is it Alyssa?" he asked, his voice tinged with worry.

She looked up at him bravely and removed her hand from her shoulder.

“Not too bad, the shot punched through my armour and grazed my arm, but it hurts Like hell!" she said grimacing.

John nodded his understanding and helped her to her feet.

“Are you able to continue?" he asked with concern.

“Yeah, that amount of pain was just a shock" She said stoically. "Let's keep going"

John reloaded his rifle and they moved forward cautiously to approach the big doors at the back of the room. He pressed the hexagonal button on the side and the solid doors ground open slowly, the strange chirruping sound getting much louder as the portal parted.

“What's making that noise?" Alyssa grimaced in annoyance, wincing at the loud, irritating sound.

“Them" John said, as the door opened in front of them.

The room this door opened out into had hundreds of hexagonal alcoves set into the wall on either side, the ones on the right cast in shadow. They could see strange writhing shapes in each of the alcoves, Kirrix grubs, all of which were adding to the horrible chirping cacophony as automated chitinous arms dropped pieces of flesh into their waiting maws.

Movement in the centre of the room snapped them both out of their revulsion at the scene in front of them and an enormous multi Limbed horror turned to face them.

“What the fuck is that?!" Alyssa gasped in alarm, at the twelve Limbed fourteen foot tall monstrosity that lurked in the middle of the chamber.

“It's a Kirrix Broodmother!" John said forebodingly.

“Aim for its eyes!" he yelled as he dropped into a crouch.

Copying him, Alyssa dropped to one knee and she sighted the two sets of compound eyes on its large, bulbous, yellowy brown head. The pair of them opened fire and the Broodmother reared back in pain as round after round slammed into its sensitive eyes. The insectoid beast brought two sets of armoured foreclaws up to protect its face and their shots began to ricochet off the tough armour plating.

The massive creature stood up on its six legs and began to Lumber towards them relentlessly.