She bent down to the ammo case, just as a flying Warped burst into the cargo hold. It missed the ducking woman by a hair’s breadth and struck one of the other guards instead. The guard fell to the floor, yelling in fright, trying to fight off the bat-like creature with his rifle. The creature let out a piercing shriek and spread its leathery wings. Before anyone could react, the monster launched itself and its prey out of the ship.

Nori walked toward the edge slowly, as if daydreaming, and watched as the flying creature dropped the still-screaming man to the sea of monsters below. The poor man was instantly ripped apart and devoured, then the flying Warped turned around for another bout.

Nori lifted her arm and pointed at it. A single dart materialized above her metal bracer. She launched it just as the creature was about the enter the cargo hold and the ensuing explosion tore it apart, raining blood and pieces of torn wings at its allies below. The other monsters didn’t care and devoured their friend’s remains with the same gusto they gave to the humans.

The sound of gunfire from inside the shelter intensified as more and more people grabbed weapons and rushed to defend their sanctuary.

The creatures were still widening the gaps, but finally, the combination of shots from within and above seemed to be diminishing their numbers, injuring them faster than they could regenerate.

More and more monsters fell, the level fours and fives first, with the level sixes taking longer to die. Nori shot one more missile, tearing the leg off one of the largest beasts, then, in an effort to conserve her remaining two darts, she grabbed and unstrapped Cattie’s unused carbine.

The hail of bullets continued as the humans shot hundreds of bullets every few seconds. A minute later, the horde was mostly taken down. Mostly.

The two hulking, level eight monsters remained. The smaller caliber bullets pinged off their hardened skin, doing little to no damage, and even the Warped Busters rounds shot by Cattie only caused shallow wounds that healed up almost instantly.

“This isn’t working!” Cattie shouted. “They’re too strong for that. We need more firepower!”

A shudder ran through Unity’s hull and Nathan’s head snapped upward, his expression full of wonder.

The young man stood up, leaving the opened case of ammunition on the floor and walked toward the open cargo door as if in a trance.

“What the hell are you doing?” Cattie shouted at him. “Reload damn it, or we’re all dead.”

The young man ignored her and continued walking.

“Nathan?” Lana asked hesitantly. Her own Zapper ran out of energy long ago. “What are you doing?”