Taking advantage of the explosions and flashes from the weapons platforms, Queen Yaaxil Chakchel had somehow led her people silently toward the Beta Defense Platform below. They descended from an edge section where no firepower platforms had been deployed, only sandbags serving as cover. By now, the palm-sized black beetles had almost all been burned to death by flamethrowers. Any stragglers were speared by the Yaaxil people with short lances. Slick bones rose from the tide of blood before her, gradually forming a small platform as though growing out of the ground. Queen Yaaxil let out a long cry, waving for her people to jump down with her from the blood-soaked sandbags.
While the First Secret Regiment soldiers and ten knights were busy pouring fire outward, no one had the ability or time to pay attention to them along such a long and winding front line. But things were different now. The officers noticed the Yaaxil Tribe's movements, and a searchlight accurately caught their trail. The news was also relayed to specialist Laura Croft and the Martian Technicians. The female archaeologist took the loudspeaker handed to her by a Martian Technician and called out to the Yaaxil in halting Quechua, warning them of the danger of the blood tide and begging them to stay.
But just as she finished speaking, Queen Yaaxil turned around and spotted her amid the complex fortifications. She gave a rough-throated roar, then jumped down from the sandbags without hesitation, falling toward the slick, sharp pile of bones below. Immediately afterward, a beam of laser heat shot toward the Yaaxil—precise, lethal, and without hesitation. A Yaaxil's head was pierced in the blink of an eye, and the corpse crashed from the fortifications like a falling stone, splashing up a great wave of blood. The shot came