out another capsule from his belt and put the hatchling within.
He snatched another and stuffed it in his mouth. It fought as his teeth crushed it and his poison simultaneously killed it. Swallowing, Hysterian closed his eyes.
Strangely sweet, slightly bitter, the bug settled his stomach. He grabbed another.
It gave him information, more than any scientist could discern in a day.
The bugs didn’t have venom—anything for his systems to replicate. But they did have blood. The hatchling’s chitin was not developed yet either, making them easy prey. They only had two segments, making them part of the arachnid family… If they’d been discovered on Earth.
Though they had more than eight legs.
Something crunched the rocks around the bend of the passage ahead. Thousands of more hatchlings were gathered on the ceiling before him. He continued anyway, eating as he went, his systems usurping everything useful and destroying the rest.
The crunching grew louder as he neared the bend.
He quieted his approach. A breeze gently slipped across his cheek, and his brow furrowed. The air grew chillier with each step.
He turned the corner.
A giant cavern lay before him, one crawling with alien spiders. Throughout lay other passage openings similar to the one he stood in, pocketed amongst the thousands of creatures. There were so many they climbed atop each other.
They swarmed.
There were so many his systems could only give him a rough estimate. And as he recorded the cavern, he noted the bugs came in many sizes. Some, far below, were the size of a small house. The biggest ones had antennas that were three times their body length. They dug at the walls with their many legs while dust and rocks fell from the cave ceiling high above.
It’s a hive.
One that had been here long before any human ever knew Titan existed.
Fuck this.
Titan’s ambassador lied. How hadn’t Hysterian caught it? Because I was thinking about fucking black-haired little human females who are way too serious.
They had to have known what was down here. Hell, I bet the tunnels weren’t even made by machines. Looking back, the tunnels didn’t have the clean finesse of perfection. He’d thought perhaps Titan’s miners cut costs by using old tech.
They’re sending men and AI—sentient shells—down here to die. And they want me to help them eradicate this?
He couldn’t eat all these bugs in a day.
Nor was he planning to die today. Not here, and not on Titan of all planets. It was a drummed-up mining planet similar to Earth, but worse. In every possible way.
Hysterian slid to the wall and calibrated his suit to shift in color and texture. Releasing a minuscule drone from his pocket, he sent it flying into the cavern. It was programmed to send the feed to his databases.
He made sure the spiders didn’t attack his drone before he did a final once-over. The cavern was miles deep… Not only was Titan a shit planet, but it was also infested.
Cursing, he turned to leave before he was spotted.
Hysterian stopped, startled.
The hatchlings are gone.
Hysterian paused. His scans showed the entire passage as being empty.
How?
He glanced behind him to make sure the hive was still there. They were. He rubbed his mouth.
There was nothing to tell him where the hatchlings had gone, and they had to be somewhere. There were far too many for them to vanish entirely. But they had, and they had done so within the minute he had his back turned.
The only ones that remained were being digested and dissected in his stomach.
Something moved up ahead, catching his eye. His tongue shot out catching it, bringing it back. A hatchling. He swallowed it as he moved forward.
It had been heading back the way he came. His brow furrowed.
Leaving his drone behind to collect data, he made his way for the surface, watching for the hatchlings as he went.
He came across them a short time later.
A wave of them, to be exact, filling the entirety of the passage and blocking him in. Chittering and screeching pierced the damp air, echoing low. Stunned, he watched as the hatchlings swarmed the larger bug he’d caught earlier, devouring it whole. It had woken up just in time to be eaten alive. And they were fast, so much faster eating than they were moving about.
Yeah, Titan has a problem.
A real big one.
And he suspected they already knew that. Hysterian’s nostrils flared.
He waited until the hatchlings finished their meal—when they noticed him—before he pulled out his laser gun. They charged at him right as he twirled the weapon, melting