"Noted!" Paco chirped, grinning toothily at Bumblebee. "I'll just have to remember to aim carefully. Francisco's played a lot of video games, he's not bad at hitting moving targets."
He couldn't exactly shoot them where they were, though. Not without risking the machine. But Sub-Visser 7 had a plan for dealing with that. He pulled a remote control out of his plantsuit and pressed one of the buttons.
A large section of one of the walls began to slide up, to the sound of hissing almost-cheers and the scrabbling of hundreds of little pointed feet.
"In case you were wondering, these are Taxxons," Paco explained. "Stacy thoughtfully had some onboard for some reason. Very handy, but they make horrible hosts. See, they're always hungry. Always. It's a madness. The entire species submitted willingly to the Yeerk Empire to try to escape it." He gestured down where long red tongues were licking out from under the rising walls. "These poor fellows have been living in captivity for who knows how long, breeding and eating each other and breeding and eating...ugh."
Taxxons began pouring into the room like a flood. Giant centipedes, as big around as a manhole cover and ten feet long. They scuttled forward on dozens of needle-legs, racing toward the three crew members and the unconscious Controller. Paco was too high up for them to reach. The others, though...
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He couldn't exactly shoot them where they were, though. Not without risking the machine. But Sub-Visser 7 had a plan for dealing with that. He pulled a remote control out of his plantsuit and pressed one of the buttons.
A large section of one of the walls began to slide up, to the sound of hissing almost-cheers and the scrabbling of hundreds of little pointed feet.
"In case you were wondering, these are Taxxons," Paco explained. "Stacy thoughtfully had some onboard for some reason. Very handy, but they make horrible hosts. See, they're always hungry. Always. It's a madness. The entire species submitted willingly to the Yeerk Empire to try to escape it." He gestured down where long red tongues were licking out from under the rising walls. "These poor fellows have been living in captivity for who knows how long, breeding and eating each other and breeding and eating...ugh."
Taxxons began pouring into the room like a flood. Giant centipedes, as big around as a manhole cover and ten feet long. They scuttled forward on dozens of needle-legs, racing toward the three crew members and the unconscious Controller. Paco was too high up for them to reach. The others, though...