Pa-5 hadn't kept track of when she lost the strength burning in her chest. By then, she'd reached one of the tunnel walls. The broken stones were a good place to prop herself. Some semi-conscious part of her worried about causing an avalanche.

  Her coughing had gotten worse. Blood regularly dribbled from her lips, letting the warmth coat her chin as it dribbled out. Her tongue felt like it was swimming at all times. She sneezed. One of her nostrils felt slick and hot. Moist.

  At this rate, she'd drown in her blood for sure. She sighed and did something she would've never considered: she shut off the sensors. Her remaining feeds disappeared, and the sounds from outside the suit stopped. There was her stuttery breath; it sounded like she was a cornered lab mouse.

  It didn't matter where she looked. It could be at the ceiling, or staring straight, or at the tunnel floor, or any other direction. It was all stifling once she shut off the LEDs.

  Covered in sweat and coagulating blood, she couldn't say she enjoyed the change of pace. The heavy pounding in her head disorganized her thoughts enough to prevent her from taking stock of her situation. That was good.

  The anemia had to be helping too. She didn't want to rationalize that she was dying. That she'd do it alone. That she'd failed. Well, she could understand the notion, but it hadn't hit her. Shock? Pa-5 wasn't sure she could handle feeling worse.

  One thought pulled through, though, nagging at her. She should remove her helmet if this was it. She could enjoy the tunnel's breezes on her skin. These harder winds never reached far enough inside the Gaiss Hollow. No one stationed at the forts ever felt them stronger or louder than a whisper.

  She scratched at the latches securing her helmet. They'd weakened; they wouldn't've wriggled before when jerked side to side. The bolts holding them felt crumpled when she fingered them, searching for weaknesses. Her other arm was unhelpfully numb. Two was her limit; the others stayed no matter how much she tugged.

  The irony wasn't lost on her. Now that she wanted a bit of the WAV to act faulty, it wouldn't. The two latches she'd removed allowed her to crack up the helmet and take a whiff of unfiltered, cavern air.

  Its dampness carried mildew and gravelly scents, mixing with the copper in her mouth. She wasn't sure if there were any toxic fumes. Without the airtight seal in place, it wouldn't matter regardless of what the HUD said. Now that she reflected on it, what if she'd pulled off the helmet successfully?

  She grunted, pushing back further into the rocks. Although common sense told her they had to be hard, jagged, and immensely uncomfortable, she didn't find them that way. The WAV's plate protected her from the worst sensations.

  What it left her was feeling like she was relaxing on a stacked pile of mattresses. Which was odd; she'd never slept on more than a single mattress, and thin ones at that. Would sleeping on more than one feel different from several?

  She'd questioned herself a few times while following the HUD's path. It felt like a decent way to cope. But cope with what? The inevitability of death? The realization that no one would ever find her body? The guess that humanity's last fort would succumb to a second planned ambush after? There was too much to cope with.

  So she did what she always did. Distracted herself with more--

  Thud. Her droopy eyelids shot open. She wasn't sure she had enough strength left for something so simple. The dark remained as inscrutable as before. If it ever gave up its secrets, it'd be long after her time.

  Thud. Followed by many more. There was no halting pattern. This was continuous, slow, and heavy. Far heavier than an Aud.

  Thud. After a few more seconds, the great tunnel absorbed the noise, rocks in all parts taking up the vibrations. She could almost hear it over the winds; both picked up around similar times.

  Thud. Which direction? Weren't the tunnels done torturing her yet? She pushed against the rocks, coming to a sitting position. Was it sitting if you didn't have--stop thinking about it.

  Thud. It was heavier each time. She was sure of it. Louder, too. It had reached the point where each instance rattled her teeth. And that made it unpleasant for the rest of her body. Even with the anti-grav barely cushioning her body, the breaches in the WAV let the tremors crawl inside.

  Her chest flared, and she forced down a cough. The burns she had to endure with each breath were worse. The heat progressed, and she was sure her star had begun to form. Every time she took in oxygen, it was like she was directly feeding a newborn blaze. The thought might've comforted her if she didn't know she'd be its first and last victim.

  Thud. It was below her. She was sure of it.

  The feeds inside the helmet flickered back up. Her breath caught in her chest as she realized what had been making the noise.

  A peripheral feed aimed left caught spider webbing cracks running through the ground. The center of that site was about a hundred meters away. She figured assuming the inevitable, miniature collapse wouldn't catch her was safe. While she couldn't vouch for the lesser tunnels, the greater tunnels were tough.

  The hole in the ground became larger and larger, with more stone yanked down by gravity each second. The disturbance grew wider; it seemed determined to take with it everything it could.

  She heard the cries of some Aud as they went over the edge, dragged down by the destabilization. She couldn't help lifting a corner of her mouth, even as the edge of it approached.

  If she wasn't injured--or at least, not majorly so, she could've run, bodily. No, she could've walked at the speed it was headed toward her. How ironic.

  Wait. She pulled up the diagram, refocusing on her tunnel. Yes, there was another greater tunnel underneath it. But what had been strong enough to drill through the floor and ceiling? It had to be another Aud. Blue or purple. Had it heard the explosion?

  Something slithered out. She gaped as she watched it fight against gravity, pulling meter after meter of its length out of the hole. Had that been below her the entire time?

  No, more accurately, the newest contender dragged its bulk from the depths. First, she saw a head. Two large insect orbs shone in the darkness, almost blinding her. The fiery whites couldn't've been less than ten times her size.

  Smushed between them was a snout. Over it, there were contracting and shifting plates she assumed were nostril covers. The disturbing, mechanical motions overlapped with every time the cavern breezes came through.

  It had dozens--no, hundreds, or--that wasn't right either. This thing had thousands of small legs, each straining to support the body's weight. They were digitigrade, ending in what looked like suction cups.

  Each knee on the legs also had a secondary extending limb, like two legs fused, one leading into the knee of the other. They all ended in claws, like the Aud. Eerily so.

  She tried to estimate the beast's true length, but it continued dragging its ropey body out, forcing her to reset. It began coiling around itself like a snake. A long, low wheeze of air flooded the tunnel. She realized it was hissing, and the head turned back and forth within the center of the coil. It was searching for something.

  She froze when it stopped turning. It looked at her. That made begrudging sense. Although the creature looked formidable, it would rather hunt for weaker prey when it could help it, as opposed to tangle with Aud. It could right now.

  She felt rooted to the place she sat as it undulated, wriggling around the hole's edges with surprising agility and floatiness. At one point, it even dipped to go along an inner edge, increasing momentum. Before she knew it, it'd covered half the distance.

  She trembled. She knew the Aud. Of course, she was afraid of dying to them, but what was the worst she had to fear? Disembowelment? This new abomination--she knew next to nothing about. It openly defied nature with a slap and harsh words with its sheer size alone. It even beat the Aud on that front.

  How would it kill her? Suck her inside a mouth and crunch through her suit like a flimsy shell? Or was it like an oversized parasite? Would it suck her dry and leave behind a shriveled corpse?

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  Four slow blinks were all she had before the ropey animal bared down on her, its eyes pinning her.

  Up this close, she could see far more details than she wanted. The brightness still hurt her eyes--what kind of evolution even prompted that? So long as she dulled the feed and looked anywhere but the giant orbs, she could work around that. And that was the nice way to tell herself she could still study the thing about to do her in.

  Thousands of legs brought the creature closer. The legs created a melodic staccato of clinks. Metal smacking metal. She turned on her WAV's headlights. They passed through the ropey animal's eyebeams, then glittered off the shell.

  What a magnificent shell. Though it lacked any pop of color, the different, tiny armor segments protecting it fit into each other smoothly. All movements were transitions that left no part uncovered or excessively stacked.

  Why would it? If she could help it, she would evolve to remove all eye-catching traits the Aud could track her with, too. Except those damn eyes. She stared up at it, wondering if she was its first find of the day.

  It stopped a short distance away, close enough for her to feel the heat radiating off it. What looked like a jaw unhinged, and all the noise in the world seemed to fade. The scampering Aud coming nearer and nearer, no doubt ready to tear a piece of the pie for themselves, disappeared from her concerns. It'd be quick. She clenched her eyes shut.

  Just as quickly--no, even faster, they jerked open as she heard muffled noises. Syllables. Words. A voice. Before she could turn to look at the rope animal again, her HUD beeped. The power core was empty.

  No, no, no! The suit slumped, suddenly too heavy for her exhausted muscles to prop up. What was worse, the servos that'd previously shouldered the weight joined the useless bulk, pressing her down more. She needed to see what made the noise!

  She tracked movement. A lot of heavy thuds rattled around. Some passed by, others went away from her. Aud? Were any going towards her? There was an explosion. No, several. What was fighting? She flinched, feeling the tremors from one especially close. Why now? After holding out this long, why'd the core have to expire now!?

  She felt jittery all over. Something was happening, and all the drugs dulling her mind couldn't make her numb to it. The still-growing pain in her chest helped her stay coherent. It had spread to her stomach, and she could feel it clawing at the rest of her body, ready to engulf her whole if she let it.

  The suit slumped more, and she screamed as her spine got pressed down.

  That distraction let the heat reach lower and higher. No. She was still in control. She could use the pain to her advantage and could direct the heat to where it would keep her alive. Though uncomfortable now, it still originated from something meant to heal her. What other choice did she have?

  The front of her armor jolted, knocking her head back. She cried out as her scalp smacked against her helmet. Her ears buzzed. With the power drained completely, the anti-grav padding was no longer there to protect her. Unable to tell if it was a one-off occurrence or if it'd happen again, she braced herself.

  That was a good choice. Stronger this time, whatever it was, drilled into her with an indifferent force. She couldn't hear anything beyond the explosions. Was the rope beast still going to eat her? Was it fighting the Aud?

  Again. Pain and spots in her vision. She bit down on her lip to keep from crying out again. Something cracked in her chest. Did she still have ribs left to break? Or was that lower, in her spine?

  It took more jolts, each harder than the last. She was coughing blood after the first three, desperate for the torment to stop. Were the Aud playing with their food at this point? For crying out loud, she knew next to nothing about what was happening!

  One of the explosions hit way too close. No more than mere meters away. Preoccupied with gagging out her blood so she could breathe, she didn't have the lung capacity to cry again. Maybe that was why she heard a different cry. Not the Aud. One more like her own.

  She froze. There were other humans! They'd found her! How?! The jubilation took her like a cavern collapse. It crushed every iota of exhaustion and pain she'd carried. How they did it wasn't important right now! It wasn't over yet! She wasn't done yet!

  They were trying to get her out of the armor. Why? Couldn't they lift it and take the whole thing with them?

  She clenched her hands, feeling the dull sensation of blood rushing through her joints. They were taking too long. She needed to do something to help. The thing was, what could she do?

  Her body was a hair's breadth away from breaking down from anemia and overdosing on liquid sun. Other nasty complications like tachycardia couldn't be far behind. Her suit was uncooperative, for completely legitimate reasons. She still didn't know the first thing about what was happening.

  No, she did know a few things. Each jolt drove a spike into her head, but she forced her thoughts back together. She had to ignore how her bones were slowly cracking. How her blood was close to boiling. How her torso felt like someone was applying a welding torch to it.

  The rope creature wasn't immediately hostile, or she'd already be dead. The Aud had noticed them and were approaching, or were already nearby. She could think of two reasons why she was still breathing.

  A large enough force of humans had appeared from the black to rescue her and was holding back the Aud and the ropy animal. She didn't need to be in sound mind to guess how unlikely that was.

  This left the other reason: someone pitted the two "sides" against each other. The Aud saw humans as prey. Something of the ropey animal's size would have no difficulty reaching the same conclusion.

  Before she could continue, she heard another crack. Thankfully, not whatever rib had survived the thrashing. It was the suit. A hot rush of air flooded inside the suit as another explosion sounded. She flinched back and cringed. It was as if she'd been stuck under a rock, and only now was it lifting away.

  All the dampened noise returned in full force, drowning out her coughs. Those were human cries. She was ready to cry for real when she heard sonics blasting away. Another jolt, and she felt the crack press inward, but more importantly, widen.

  Once a single flaw opened in the torso plating, the process sped up. Whoever was cutting her out was precise, yet willing to take risks. All the blood spilling down her front acted as evidence for that. They only spent long enough on any segment to loosen it, then moved on. She ground her jaw as the next jolt jarred her neck. They were going higher.

  She pressed back far enough where she could see down the shaft for her neck coverings, so long as she strained. At the very bottom, the jolt broke open a new crack, extending it upwards.

  Light from outside--why was there light? Had they gone mad? Although the explosions lit up this greater tunnel already, using any continuous light was like waving a neon flag.

  The breach went far enough upwards that she could hear snippets of conversation. She disregarded everything else. If she could hear them, there was a good chance they could hear her.

  "The helmet's latches are damaged! Rip it! Rip it--" She broke off to whimper when the throbbing intensified. There was silence--relatively speaking, and she feared she'd gone unheard. She braced for another jolt.

  Instead, her helmet was there one moment and gone the next. She didn't even question how they'd torn it off so fast. Jubilant, she squinted against the bright lights, trying to catch a glimpse of her saviors.

  Someone was shouting. "She's conscious!"

  "Fantastic! Now rip the rest of it off!"

  "The plates covering her--"

  "Damnit! Work faster!"

  Someone seized the sides of her head, yanking her forward. She cried out but did her best not to resist as the same jolts slammed into her back. One split at a time, they were separating the WAV down the middle. She hacked out another glob and choked on some that detoured up her nose, holding back fresh tears.

  "We're being too rough! She's not--"

  "She can hold out, or she can die! We're rushing this!"

  The jolts increased in tempo. She found herself half-swallowing, and half-spewing red fluid as fast as it came. How was there enough left to continue the fountain routine?

  She could tell the ordeal was nearing its end when she felt lighter, and heard clatters behind her. The suit had finally reached the end of its journey. The other servicemen dismantled it on the spot. The thought made her sad; it would rest here, forgotten as she'd worried about her own fate not long ago.

  Wait, who cared about the armor? Her storage compartment! The blood and triangle emblem! She needed to get them to take--

  An explosion went off so close she could feel the heat singe her face. There were dull screams of both kinds. She failed to keep her thoughts in order this time and went limp.

  Something grasped her shoulder pauldrons and yanked. With the groan of a dying animal, the WAV split open, revealing bloody, dying insides. Her. She would've fallen backward if large, clumsy gauntlets hadn't snaked around her back.

  "We'll yank the arm plating inside! Go, go, go!"

  "Don't be a hero, damnit! Get over here!"

  They shook and jarred her while moving her. Someone was cradling her, but she had reached her rope's end. The spark in her chest had turned into a flame. No, that wasn't an apt description either. Pain boiled her insides as the embers tore through her. All the numbing agents and other drugs in the world couldn't keep her safe any longer.

  It felt like the flame was burning them out of her body, determined to make her suffer even more if it could. Make sure she got the full experience. Veiled by her eyelids, the tunnel dissolved into flashes and sparks. Vague silhouettes dashed around.

  Her ears, however, escaped none of the spectacle. She had to hear the screams--of horror, of pain--and the explosions. Her rescuers didn't cover them, leaving her without any protection to seal out the noises.

  The explosions were closer, and several bangs she recognized as flash cylinders. A louder bang at some point made her ears ring louder. Louder. Lou--

  "Get her in first! Stop standing around!"

  She mustered the strength to tug open her eyelids. Oh. Both her guesses were wrong? The ropey animal had never been an enemy to begin with. It had never been a living organism at all.

  The unhinged jaw--the lowered boarding ramp--led to a long garage stretching as far as her cloudy eyes could see. All around, WAVs were retreating inside, and others stepped out. Some dragged and carried limp suits with them. The dead or injured.

  Of course. It all made sense now. She lost her grip on the flame.