The Third Book of the Alienbutt saga. Emperor of the Universe. Part 63.

Guerick moved into the large chamber, the men that followed him did so with a fear he could feel. The confidence they had gained in the corridors melted away as they entered the cavernous room. It was again dark and only the faintest glow of emergency lights gave any illumination. Before him stood hundreds of stasis tubes in their holding chambers, a prisoner in each. They were the prisoners he had been sent to take back for Emperor Fluffy. They were the most dangerous criminals in the history of the universe, held in a time prison they could never escape from. For more than two thousand years, the bounty hunters had been tasked with capturing them and incarcerating them there, well those they hadn’t killed.
The first prisoner had been the Hive Queen who had almost taken over the universe in an ancient war, but others had been added as a few of the most dangerous had been taken alive. Mr Fluffy wanted the criminals for cybotic implantation, to control them and increase the effectiveness of his forces. Guerick had the task of delivering them to him.
As Guerick entered the large chamber, he was relieved to see no sign of the creatures. They had killed most of his hired guns in a series of running battles since they had arrived and he was getting sick of them.
An explosion rocked the room and smoke billowed out from the stairwell behind them. Guerick sighed, he could tell his men were close to panicking and he stepped forward.
“Come on, guns at the ready, they have to come through that little doorway. You stand here and face them and we’ll kill the lot of them,” Guerick said, pushing the one closest to him forward.

The men formed up around the doorway ready to face whatever came through the door. When the doors burst in and the first of the creatures burst through, it was knocked backwards as every man opened fire. Geurick watched as his men fired an endless volley that ripped apart the walls around the doorway and anything beyond it.
With a slight shake of his head, he slipped back and in an instant he had melted away into the shadows. Intent on the doorway, the hired guns failed to notice the large shadows crawling along the ceiling until it was almost too late. One of the men saw movement from the corner of his eye and just managed to bring his gun to bear as the first creature launched itself.
The chaos was brief as more creatures dropped onto them and it ended in a large explosion as one of the gunmen pressed the button on a grenade just as a creature removed his head; he had intended to throw the grenade into the stairwell. The explosion set off the man’s other grenades and the combined force ripped apart men, creatures and the nearest stasis tubes. The stairway and part of the ceiling fell in as a result of the explosion.
Geurick stood in the shadows and cursed the stupidity of the man for trying to use grenades in such a confined area. The loss of the stasis tubes was something he could do without and he hoped the Hive Queen’s was not one of the lost ones. As the noise of the explosion receded, he heard a scratching noise and saw two of the creatures advancing along the ceiling from the far end of the chamber. He put on his glasses and again he could see as though he stood in daylight. He pulled out his pistols and waited for the creatures to get closer. He had to ensure that they all died so he could hunt down Blackarachnia before sending for his droid fleet so they could reclaim the stasis tubes.

To be continued.
All images are mine.