Sunny spun her spear sharply in a circle stabbing a shadow through the center of its midnight chest. The creature screamed as she tore the spear free, spraying a fan of tarry black icor in a short, sharp arc, an arc that ended against the, theoretical, skull of a second shadow.

The shadow dropped, and another figure rose behind it, black silhouette framed by the light of roaring orange Morzen fire.

It didn't loom long, as two curved blades sprouted from its back. Despite its featureless black face, sunny could almost see the shock and confusion as it stared down at its impaled body. Sunny didn't leave it too much time to contemplate and withdrew her weapons with a short tug.

The creature fell back, dissolving into a tarry puddle that slicked the metal catwalk beneath them. The remains of the creatures were simultaneously slippery and sticky, and she struggled to keep her feet as they slid across smooth metal,

Sunny adjusted the spear in her upper hands, and the short curved blades in her lower hands turned sharply to her right, throwing her lower right arm and sword into a shallow arc that judiciously separated a shadow's head from its shoulders.

Pivoting to her left she used her spear to stab another one of the oncoming creatures through the throat, pinning it down to the ground as it dissolved, The creature that took its place attempted to lunge for Sunny even as its companion fell, but she dodged last moment, the wind of its passing brought a blast of heat into Sunny's face that nearly stung her eyes.

The nostrils at the base of her neck flared in a desperate attempt to keep her air cool and moist, though they were fighting a losing battle. Despite all of their battle prowess, even skill could be overcome by sheer numbers. And if there was anything the enemy had, it was cannon fodder.

The doorway up onto the catwalk was choked with roiling black bodies, a thrashing mass that poured out faster than they could be cut down. Celex hovered nearby firing blast after blast into the open doorway, technicolor hair whipping around his shoulders in a rainbow halo. Firelight burned across his body, though the reflection in his eyes was drowned out by the steady golden glow that emanated from behind his pupils.

Sunny was doing her best to hold the top of the stairs, planted like a retaining wall against a stormy ocean of darkness.

Beneath them the lava river roared bathing them all in the deepest hues of firelight.

Another wave of creatures raced up towards her.

Sunny stepped up to meet them, ducking once to avoid a shadowy wip of blackness before wading into the carnage, her blades rising and falling with an inevitability she had trained into herself for years.

But still, it wasn't enough.

Slowly, she was backed up the stairs, and onto the landing pad where the others waited.

Despite her and Celex's efforts, shadows still continued to spill past them, water droplets making it over that retaining wall.

But on the other side, Maverick waited.

At first Sunny had assumed that Maverick's situation was similar to that of Noctus, a creature living inside her, cohabitating with the anima within, but she was beginning to realize that whatever happened to Maverick, wasn't quite the same as what had gone on with Noctus.

These creatures, the black shadows were relatively weak on their own, they had no real fighting experience, they were not particularly durable, and they could be put down with near impunity. It was only with their sheer numbers did they manage to accomplish anything at all.

But whatever had managed to make itself at home inside maverick, was a different beast entirely.

As the black shadows began pouring up the catwalk, Maverick's body had begun to pulse with that same dark aura her body twitching unnaturally, eyes beginning to glow with little orange pinpricks. Had Sunny not known maverick so well, she would certainly have made her death the first priority, but her trust extended far enough to watch, as a crawling black shadow ripped itself from maverick's skin before enveloping her in a churning cloud of darkness.

The blackness acted almost as an extension of Maverick herself, like a demonic exosuit.

Long spidery legs jutted out from the shadow, six of them in total, lifting her well into the air, and turning her into a creature that was no longer human, void, or maker. The shadowy legs of her new form ended in deadly points, which she used on anything that managed to make it past Sunny.

Watching her was something out of a nightmare, her movements incredibly fast, all six of her shadowy feet rattling across metal as she charged forward.

A shadow sipped by Sunny to her right as she was dealing with a problem on her left, Another leaped over her head well out of reach, but Maverick was there to deal with the problem. She came in a rush of blackness, charging at her hapless targets only to trample them repeatedly with her razor sharp legs, until there was nothing but dripping black tar.

And like that she cavorted across the landing pad, moving like no creature ever had or ever should.

Beyond that, was their last line of defense.

Ramirez and Red knelt next to Adam energy rifles held at the ready and firing repeatedly into the wellin black mass. They barely needed to aim, as with every shot their bullets found their mark. But in the end it was like trying to shine a flashlight into the sun.

There were simply too many of them.

Behind that Lay Adam, still inside his malfunctioning armor.

She couldn't let these monsters get past her.

Sunny planted her feet at the top of the stairs stubbornly refusing to move even as wave after wave rolled towards them. Inside her head, she could hear the roaring of her own blood, and the screaming desire of her instincts for combat, which had overridden her desire to protect herself at this time.

Even drev nesting instincts couldn't completely sate her bloodlust.

Hopefully her children would forgive a little exercise.

Somewhere a radio crackled.

Perhaps that was the Empyrean responding to the distress signal, though she doubted they were so close. It had been less than ten minutes, and she doubted they had more than five left as another wave rolled up the stairs.

She was, mostly, confident she could fight them off.

That was until the tar at her feet began to bubble.

There was a break in the fighting for a moment as some of the newer shadows pulled back, passing back through the doorway and into the compromised airlock. Celex lowered his hands which still glowed with power, but his eyes had gone where everyone else had.

To the bubbling tar beneath, which was now beginning to draw itself together.

They had killed a lot of these creatures.

In the past few minutes they had had probably dealt with nearly seven dozen or more, so there was a lot of tar.

When the puddle withdrew from her feet, it left her toes sticky and black, but that wasn't nearly her main concern as she watched the tar draw itself upward forming at the center of the platform where their ship had been parked not half an hour before.

Sunny stepped back and to the side, giving Celex a spot in the circle as they watched the creature mold itself from the bodies of its dead companions, ripping itself from the tar like a creature crawling tis way from the mud.

All in all the creature resembled no creature that had ever taken breath .

If she could have compared it to anything, she might have drawn a parallel with an earth Tree. It had a large black trunk and many branching limbs, with even smaller branching limbs. Large black roots held it in place against the ground as it swayed this way and that.

It was only a moment or so later, when it opened its first set of burning orange eyes.

"The Fuck!" Ramirez, Adam, and Red said at almost the exact same time, turning themselves, however briefly, into an acapella trio, in near perfect harmony.

That didn't last long.

Maverick was the first to move, rushing the creature so fast, she had clambered halfway onto its body before it could react, her six sharp legs stabbing repeatedly at the glowing orange eyes.

Limbs thrashed outward knocking her to the side and sending her rolling across the deck.

Celex fired two blasts of energy that took massive chunks out of the creature's trunk, but didn't kill it.

Sunny hacked off the two limbs that shot towards her and rolled to the side as another grabbed at her with surprising dexterity. Red doged to the side, and so did Ramirez, but Adam had no way to pull back. The creature grabbed him around the chest with one meaty arm and held him upward with clear intensions on hurling him over the railing and into the lava below.

Sunny bellowed a war cry that shook the metal beneath them and leaped forward. She landed nimbly with one foot on one of the black tendrils and launched herself into the air. WIth sure footing she took two more steps, and then jumped, coming down with enough power to sever the entire limb.

Adam fell to the ground, without the ability to break his fall, but landing on his face was probably better than being dead. However, in her attempt to save him, she was caught around her middle. The creature roared in triumph, a sharp squeal that filled the air with a piercing shrill that had her eardrums ringing. The air was so hot, and the exertion of battle was finally beginning to sink in on her.

Her breath came in short, shallow gasps.

And then.

The limb began to constrict around her middle.

Anger and bloodlust were suddenly replaced by fear as the meaty tendril bore down around her stomach constricking with intense pressure. Sunny snarled and plunged her spear desperately into the thing's limb. Her lungs constricted, her carapace groaned.

Her insides began to compress

And then came the overhead roar of a door mounted-six barrel chain gun, and the whooping of the bloodthirsty little tesraki bastard that manned it. The limb that held Sunny retracted, and she experienced a short fall through scalding hot air before landing in a sharp crouch .

The creature screamed as more rounds tore into its body, but Etium did not stop.

Sunny dove to the side pulling Adam out of the way with her as their tesraki finished the job from above with great prejudice.

The shuttle pilot brought Etium low, and the comms crackled.

There was still a lot of interference, but there was enough signal to hear, "GET IN."

No need to ask them twice.

With celex's help, sunny grabbed Adam and dragged him into the waiting shuttle, while the others piled in after. Maverick was the last to enter, twitching mildly as the void creature nested itself back within her body, leaving behind no trace of itself other than the slowly fading glow in the blackest center of her pupils

Behind them black shadows raced out onto the landing pad swarming like a tide of ants, but by that time they were airborne, and Sunny was left feeling cold.

She reached up resting one hand over her torso, which still ached from the pressure, and with the throbbing pain came a slowly rising fear, and concern that something could be terribly,

Terribly

Wrong