Keres's mandibles snapped and scissored at the empty pre-dawn air, wet clicks tearing out of him one after another. His eyes were looking at Ethan, who came from behind him.
Kkkt—kkkt—KKKT!
Ethan didn't so much as blink. His expression stayed flat and cold as a slab of ice. Keres's shrieking and thrashing meant nothing to him.
He looked down at the high-ranking grasshopper zerg pinned into the churned mud beneath his knee and saw only a problem.
Hiss—clack.
Without missing a beat, he yanked a second injector free from the harness across his chest. He weighed it once in his palm, thumbing off the cap.
SHLCK.
This time he didn't aim randomly, hoping for it to stab somewhere with zero margin for error. He drove the needle in deep, threading it past the hardened, overlapping plates of Keres's thorax where it would let it reach the secondary heart.
SKRRRIIIIIII!!!
Keres screamed.
"Shut up," Ethan muttered, laced with indifference.
But Keres kept wailing.
