"Destroy that damned Tree trunk! It's the core!" Chelast's roar echoed through the vast core chamber, drowning out the rustling vines and the whispered wails.
His crimson Visor lenses locked onto the horrific, pulsing Tree at the center of the chamber, formed from flesh and networks of nerves.
Countless hanging "brains" trembled faintly, as though issuing a silent warning.
No further words were needed. Lucius moved almost the instant Chelast shouted.
He snatched a Frag Grenade from his belt with lightning speed, flicked the Safety Pin free with his thumb, and prepared to throw.
At the same time, Chelast steadily raised his Plasma Pistol. Destructive blue-white light gathered at its muzzle as he aimed at the Tree's ceaselessly pulsing trunk, so thick it would take several people to encircle it.
Their intent was clear: unleash their strongest firepower and kill it in one strike!
But the living space station's ultimate defense mechanism far exceeded anything they had imagined.
Just as Chelast was about to pull the trigger and Lucius was about to swing his arm, everything changed!
Several vines that had lain hidden in the shadows, their colors almost indistinguishable from the darkness, suddenly shot out faster than bullets!
Rather than attacking the two men directly, they lashed precisely at Chelast's gun hand and the body of his Plasma Pistol!
Crack!
Chelast felt a tremendous force strike his wrist, and his entire arm instantly went numb!
The Plasma Pistol he relied on for ranged combat was knocked clean out of his hand. It spun through an arc and landed on the sticky floor some distance away, its Gun body flickering a few times before going dark.
"What?!"
Chelast was startled.
But the attack was not over!
Almost as soon as the pistol was knocked away, the "floor" beneath him—the constantly