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Holden felt a punch of dread in his gut

“That sounds bad”

“It wouldn’t be good Co to do this, we need to stay ahead of the and falling away froanishts seemed almost lost in the vast darkness, and the blue firefly flickers ca the way they passed more of the metallic blue insectlike constructs

“What are these?” Holden asked, pointing to an especially large and dangerous-looking model as they passed it

“Whatever they need to be,” Miller replied without turning around

“Oh, great, so we’re back to inscrutable, are we?”

Miller spun around, a worried look on his face, and blinked out of existence Holden turned

Far across the huge roo out of the tunnel Holden had seen similar armor before A Martian marine’s powered armor was made of equal parts efficiency and threat

There was no escaping it Anyone in those suits could run hi Holden switched his suit to an open frequency

“Hey! I’ht here Let’s talk about this,” he said, then started to walk toward the group As one, all eight ht arms and opened fire Holden braced himself for death even while part of his mind knew that he shouldn’t have time to brace for death At the distance they were, the rounds fro in a fraction of a second He’d be dead long before the sound of the shots reached hiuns firing, but nothing hit hiray for finally stopped, the cloud drifted away toward the walls of the rooun barrels, and were now being draay just like the objects outside the station

The marines broke into a fast run across the room, and Holden tried to scramble away They were beautiful in their way, the lethal power of the suits harnessed by years of training to make their movements seem like a dance Even without their weapons, they could tear him limb from limb One punch froe his viscera to a thin slurry His only chance was to outrun them, and he couldn’t outrun them

He almost didn’t see the movement when it caer he knew He didn’t consciously notice that one of the insectlike things had started ’s ed, like a clockwork mechanism that only had full speed and full stop It clicked toward the er than the tallest of them by almost half a meter

They panicked in the way that people trained to expect violence panic Two started firing, with the sa in its arer barrel appeared Holden scooted away fro on in those armored suits, but it wasn’t a frequency he had access to The large barrel hite withof renade

The ticking renade detonated at its insectile feet where it landed The alien thing jerked back, its appendages flailing and dust falling froal spores The coe embers where the blast had burned it

And all around the marines, a dozen other alien statues came to life They in to react, the one who’d launched the grenade was lifted gently up and ripped apart Blood sprayed up into the air, hanging, Holden thought nuround The survivingto the alien creatures that were swar the dead man While Holden watched, the rouping

The alien things fell on their own injured fellow, ripping and clawing, slaughtering it as if it were the eneone, five of the ether in the burned spot where the explosion had been They shuddered, went still, shuddered again, and then frooo spattered out onto the scar Holden felt fascination and revulsion as thelike it had never been daed Like the attack hadn’t even existed

“Consequences,” Miller said at his side He sounded tired