Thick black-and-brown fluid oozed from its slack mouth.

Tag put four rounds into the Dreg, and it wheezed like a balloon deflating. Its wings burned, making it look like some kind of rejected demon banished from the three hells. “Their individual lives are nothing compared to the life of their colony,” Coren said matter-of-factly, as if he weren’t roasting a swarm of ugly flying slugs.Ī Dreg, still on fire, crawled forward using its insectile legs. She jammed a fresh magazine into her rifle. The fire allayed the assault somewhat, but it hadn’t turned the tide of their numbers. They retreated into a narrow tunnel, forcing the Dreg into another funnel. “How do you think they survive in this atmosphere?” Coren asked, the glow of the flames flickering over the front of his suit. “Little shits are tough as nails,” Sumo roared, firing into the slowed-down masses. Their bodies shriveled and crisped, but still they pushed against the flames. The monsters shrieked in high-pitched wails that felt like someone was hammering a nail into Tag’s eardrums.

Blue-and-orange tongues of fire licked from Coren’s wrists and swallowed a swathe of Dreg.

Pain rocked through him as Coren stepped to his side.Ī few of the grotesque monsters latched onto Coren’s suit, but he paid them no heed as he aimed his wrist-mounted weapons at the swirling masses still flooding from the hatch. His shoulder and hip slammed against the deck with a boom that echoed in his suit. His boot landed on one of the creatures, and he slipped, falling backward. In a wave of muddy brown, they roiled toward Tag. A few of the Dreg struggled to fly again, scrambling over each other and making sickening slurping noises. The little flying aliens hit the deck where Tag had been moments ago, thudding and slapping against it in a cacophony that sounded like a fisherman unloading a catch large enough to keep him set for life. Tag and the marines scrambled away from the swarming Dreg.

Anthony melchiorri eternal frontier