Mizar swung around just as a many-limbed creature burst from the waters. It stood taller than a man, its wings spanning near ten feet. Hideous compound eyes framed a bladed proboscis, and it was quick to sink this weapon into the nearest infantryman, lifting him from his feet even as he shrivelled, his inner organs eaten away as the monster supped upon his life essence.

‘We are under attack!’

Shard flinched at the sound, glancing over her shoulder.

‘You don’t have to shout. Who’s attacking?’

‘Down there!’ I said, as the creature tossed the withered corpse aside, already bounding onto its next victim before his comrades could bring their weapons to bear. A couple of las-bolts were fired, one ricocheting from its carapace.

‘That’s just a banner-bug,’ she said. ‘Like a big fruit fly. They must have disturbed its nest. Unlucky, those things are normally nocturnal. Don’t worry, they’ll deal with it.’

‘Can’t you do something?’

‘Of course,’ she said. ‘I can swoop down and let rip with both Punisher cannons. It will turn that bug into a smear. Unfortunately, it will do the same to anyone within about ten feet. Might even take out the Chimera if it clips a fuel line.’

Two more soldiers died as she spoke, their bodies reduced to shrunken bags of skin and bone. But another hurled himself onto the beast’s back, even as it lunged for a fresh victim. His knife glanced from its armoured carapace, but the ricochet tore the insect’s delicate wing membranes. Off balance, it suddenly pitched into the mud, twisting as it fell, a clawed limb disembowel­ling the attacker. But the squad was mobilised now. Another volley from their lasguns pinned it long enough for the squad’s flamer to be brought to bear. Mizar’s vox was struggling to make sense of the cacophony unfolding, but I swear the creature emitted an almost human scream as its carapace cracked under the heat. It crumpled into the swamp, and soon was nothing more than an untidy stain upon the waters.

‘They got it,’ I said.

‘Good.’

‘But we lost four soldiers.’

‘Sounds about right.’

The survivors bent to retrieve their fallen comrades, but were stilled by a barked order from their sergeant. Instead, the dead were stripped of equipment and offered a short prayer before being condemned to the swamp waters.

‘They left the bodies,’ I said.

‘The banner-bug might have left eggs,’ she said. ‘You don’t want those hatching inside a Chimera. That’s why it was feeding – they use our blood to gestate their young before injecting them into the desiccated bodies.’

‘How vile.’

‘It’s only during breeding season. Most of the year they subsist on vine-fruit.’

‘So, they are only dangerous when laying eggs?’