White plastic patrol trucks rolled in slow and sweeping arcs across the dusty hardwood of the master bedroom floor. The quiet whir of electric motors underscored the low murmur of activity as Beau, Tessa, and a team of researchers continued to work near the base of Gerben’s massive desk. Between the table legs and discarded trophies, squads of militia in Black Bird crested uniforms moved in practiced formation, their axes slung across their backs. The ceiling above stretched like a distant sky. The open blinds spilled soft morning light across the massively scaled-up furniture.

  On the desk above, the researchers had developed a peculiar system—three-person spoon crews. With a lightweight plastic spoon found in a nearby drawer, trios of scientists hoisted and pressed individual keys on the giant laptop, letter by painstaking letter, copying and pasting data onto their Paradise Dome hard drives. Tessa oversaw their efforts while Beau hovered nearby, half-impressed and mostly distracted.

  Beau rubbed the back of his neck. The message on the fortune cookie was still bothering him. What was once small may yet become monstrous. It sounded like something torn from a myth. It sounded like a warning.

  And yet, somehow, standing beside Tessa, he found it hard to hold onto dread for too long. She was too composed, too driven, and maddeningly capable. She was smart enough to reprogram fabricators and still have time to sharpen her combat knives. She was better at him than most things.

  One of the militia men down below yelled up at them. He pointed to a new discovery, something near the entertainment cabinet.

  “Looks important,” Tessa said.

  “Alright,” Beau said. “let’s check it out.”

  Beau and Tessa ziplined down. They followed the soldier to the base of the entertainment center where a remote control the size of a bus lay. Its back plate had fallen off. The batteries inside of it had burst open at their tips, spilling white residue. They were completely ruined.

  “There’s a fresh pack in the drawer,” said the soldier. “We’re working on pulling them out. We believe they’re fully charged.”

  “They’re not expired?” Tessa said.

  “They don’t appear to be. They are still holding a charge, mam.”

  Using a crane and pulley system, they pulled the battery pack up and over the cabinet. Once it crashed to the floor, they cut the plastic wrapping. Sweat rolled down Beau’s temples as the blade caught again and again, slipping on the hardened polymer. Finally, with a sharp crack, and a shout of victory, they pried the casing apart. Inside were twelve pristine AAA batteries.

  Together, they loaded the batteries into the truck beds. They were only able to fit two per truck. Each battery was like lifting a tree trunk.

  Beau ordered ten of the batteries to be returned to the stockpile inside of the dome. They were too valuable to be left laying around. However, they left two batteries behind per Beau’s orders because he had a plan. By that point in their operation in th bedroom, they had constructed something of a workshop under the table with the laptop. Beau and Tessa spent the next couple of hours experimenting with the batteries. By the end of their work, and a couple shocks to the system, they rigged the batteries to their truck’s energy supply system.

  “That’s done it,” Beau said. “What do you think?”

  “It should triple our effective range,” Tessa said. “So long as you don’t mind sacrificing a bit of storage. This truck is now perfect for ultra long range recon missions.”

  He handed Tessa a bundle of his notes. “These are for Dr. Lorne. Let’s begin compiling any useful information. Maybe she can improve on the design?”

  Tessa shoved the plans into her pocket. She squinted toward the far end of the room. “Before we go back, I want to check something.”

  Beau’s smile faltered. “What is it?”

  “The rear exit. The map said there’s a back corridor, right? It might lead to the back yard.”

  “That area remains unexplored,” Beau said.

  “Could be a way out. Like you said, we haven’t explored it.”

  “We shouldn’t split our focus right now. There’s a lot to find in this room, alone.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  She crossed her arms. “Come on, Beau. We have a convoy. You’re armed. I’m armed. Don’t you want to know what’s out there? Just a quick scouting mission? This could be our way out.”

  Beau hesitated—then sighed. “Fine. We can go look, quickly.”

  They climbed into the truck and radioed to their plan to the others. Beau ordered two more trucks of militia to follow them in case they got ambushed. Beau and Tessa hopped into their truck and sped down a corridor which led to the back half of Dr. Gerben’s mansion. They turned down several dusty corridors until they reached an atrium with some natural light.

  Beau hit the brakes.

  Their convoy stopped in the middle of the atrium, which connected to three different hallways.

  At the far end of the central hallway stood two towering glass doors. Sunlight spilled through the ornate glass pattern. Through the windows, they saw the expanse of green and wild flowers. It was the backyard. And the doors were cracked open! They could easily fit their trucks through the gap if they tried.

  “That’s it,” Beau said. “That’s our way out of here.”

  “What’s all that activity?” Tessa said, straining her eyes. “There’s something down there, at the end of the corridor. Do you see it?”

  Beau grabbed his binoculars and peered through them. She was right. There was something at the end, a mesh of something dark green like a weird jungle without trees. There were green spires. Things moved around. It looked sticky. It looked unnatural. He focused his lenses and tried to remain still. He focused his area of vision where the sunlight hit directly to get a clearer picture.

  Something nestled amongst all that hardened dark green goop. He spotted dark green figures, occasionally brown ones. They moved in weird twitches. Some of them jumped and flapped their wings, hopping to a new destination. They had thin limbs. Their forelegs were folded, their edges gleamed in the sunlight.

  He then realized what they were.

  “It’s a nest of mantids.”

  From their position in the atrium, the nest was about a mile away in Tinyling distance. In human terms, it was about fifty feet. It gave them a gap of distance for safety, but even from there Beau still felt his heartbeat hammering in his chest. He considered fleeing. But he forced himself to stay. They’re only bugs. They’re only bugs. Yet, they were blocking the only known exit out of the mansion.

  “They’re massive!” Tessa said. She peered through her binoculars. “Are you seeing those blades on their arms? Is that natural?”

  “Nothing about this is natural.”

  If the average Tinyling was five to six feet tall, each mantid stood at a height of eight to ten feet in height. They moved like soldiers. They stood in scattered patterns across the floor and participated in some strange ritual. They each took turns passing an acorn shell bowl around. They sipped its nectar. Their heads swiveled in mechanical patterns, scanning, communicating. One raised a forelimb and pointed—an eerie, almost ceremonial gesture.

  Tessa leaned closer, her voice low. “Do you think they’re dangerous?”

  Beau nodded slowly. “Their formations are not random. We’re looking at some kind of organized military force. These are not like giant ants. They look much more organized. They look…intelligent.”

  More movement flickered in the corner of his lens. He adjusted. Behind the patrols lay fortifications—a nest, yes, but more than that. It was a forward operating base. Scanning the compound, Beau saw several distinct structures. Towering spined pylons jutted into the sky—they looked like communication relays. Near one, silken scaffolds wound around a marble bust of a tall-hatted man, possibly a barracks or a ritual hatchery. A circular platform half hidden in the thicket beyond the doors pulsed with molten orange light—some kind of forge? He didn’t recognize most of the buildings, their alien forms interwoven with organic materials, but their layout betrayed their intent which was clearly military. They had defensive checkpoints, elevated silken bridges that linked watch posts, and hardened spires positioned for maximum visibility. They didn’t just build the nest to survive, it looked as if they prepared for conquest.

  And then, beyond the compound’s rear perimeter, Beau spotted it: a grotesque monument rose from the scorched soil and shattered stone like a wound. A mound—easily the height of a two story house at his scale—constructed entirely from melted black plastic. There were some shapes to the melted objects which looked similar to the trucks they used inside Dome 101, except these were black. The pile of plastic was on fire. Some spots on the black melting plastic bore faded stencil markings that read “4455.”

  The Dome 4455 vehicles were stacked like smoldering bones. Then he saw the smoldering bones inside the trucks and scattered amongst the base of the tower. It wasn’t just a scrap pile, it was a war trophy composed of hundreds of Tinyling bodies. It was a warning. The mantids hadn’t just overrun Paradise Dome 4455—they had displayed their victory in a twisted and blackened pile of plastic decay.

  Beau lowered the binoculars. “They’re responsible for the destruction inside Dome 4455? This is a whole other level of crazy.”

  “Can they see us from here?” Tessa asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  Tessa looked out past the glass, then at Beau. Her expression shifted from curiosity to a grim calculation.

  “We need to go,” she said. “Now.”

  Beau nodded. He didn’t see what she saw, but he wasn’t going to question her. He trusted her. He threw the truck into reverse and called out to the convoy. “Pull back. Quietly. No lights. Let’s hope they didn’t see us. Back to the dome!”

  The militia convoy followed orders without hesitation, steel axes clinking softly as they retreated into the dim corridor. The doors behind them remained open and let in the sick-sweet scent of grass and the promise of freedom. But first, they had to come up with a plan and deal with the mantids in their way.

  ###

  Author's Note:

  This episode is published here up to the 75% mark.

  The remaining chapters—including the climax and aftermath—are available in the complete episode on Amazon.

  https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B0GC95NRJC

  Thank you for reading and supporting the series.