Dadab knew the basics of Huragok reproduction, or rather Huragok creation. The creatures manufactured their offspring out of readily available organic materials with the same deft activity of their tentacles' cilia, which Lighter Than Some was using to bore a neat hole in the alien box. It was a truly fantastic process, but what Dadab found most unusual was that the most difficult step for Hu-ragok parents was to make their creations perfectly buoyant-to fill them with the exact right mix of gases. As a result, new Huragok would initially float or sink, and their parents would name them accordingly: Far Too Heavy; Easy To Adjust; Lighter Than Some.

- Page 47

Dadab slipped out of his harness and swung his oversize fore arms across his chest. His jaw ached from his mask's tight seal, and he tore it off and flung it away. But before the mask hit the floor, it was intercepted by a lighting-fast pearlescent swipe.

Floating in the center of the suite was a Huragok, a creature with a stooped head and elongated snout held aloft by a collection of translucent pink sacs filled with a variety of gasses. Four anterior limbs sprouted from its spine-tentacles, to be exact, one of which held Dadab's mask. The Huragok brought the mask close to a row of dark, round sensory nodes along its snout and gave it a thorough inspection. Then it flexed two of its tentacles in a quick, inquisitive gesture.

Dadab contorted the digits of one of his hardened hands so they matched the default arrangement of the Huragok's limbs: four fin gertips, facing straight out from the Deacon's chest. < No, damage, 1, tired, wear. > His fingers splayed and contracted, bent and over-lapped as they formed each word's unique pose.

The Huragok released a disappointed bleat from a sphincterlike valve in one of its sacs. The emission propelled it past Dadab to the tank receptacle where it hung the mask on a hook that protruded from the wall.

<Did you find the device? > the Huragok asked, turning back to Dadab. The Deacon held up the box, and the Huragok's tentacles trembled with excitement: < May I touch what I can see? >

< Touch, yes, smell, no. > Dadab replied.

But the Huragok either didn't mind the box's residual Kig-Yar stench, or it simply failed to get Dadab's joke. It wrapped a tentacle around the alien plunder and eagerly lifted it to its snout.

- Pages 46 and 47

A melon wedge tumbled through the air and hit the side of Dadab's blue-gray head with a syrupy thwack, spraying juice on his orange tunic. Like the rest of his body, the Unggoy's head was covered with a stiff exoskeleton, and the blow didn't hurt him in the least. But the three Kig-Yar erupted in shrill laughter all the same. "An offering for his holiness!" one of them sneered through dagger-sharp teeth. This was Zhar, the leader of the crewmen's little clique easily differentiated from the other two by the length and deep pink color of the long flexible spines that crested the back of his narrow skull.

Without breaking stride Dadab loosed a powerful snort, dislodging bits of rind that had lodged in one of the circular vents of a mask that covered his pug nose and wide mouth. Unlike the Kig-Yar, who were quite comfortable in the oxygen-rich environment of the alien vessel, Unggoy breathed methane. The gas filled a pyramidal tank on Dadab's back, and flowed to his mask via hoses integrated into the tank's shoulder harness.

More melon sailed Dadab's way. But he was past the Kig-Yar now, and he ignored the sticky projectiles that slapped against his tank.

- Page 43

But Avery's reach was just a feint. As the bouncer leaned forward to follow, Avery grabbed the man's wrist and pulled it over his shoulder. Then he yanked down, breaking it at the elbow. The girl on the stage screamed as ragged bone tore through the bouncer's shirt, spattering blood on her face and hair.

- Page 38

Avery waited for Byrne's two-burst response, then he pushed away from the workshop's pitted polycrete wall, raised a knee to his chest, and smashed his boot against the thin metal door, just above the lock.

The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) had suggested there would be stiff resistance. But it turned out most of the Insurrec-tionists inside the workshop were unarmed. Those that were carried snub-nosed automatic pistols; inconsequential weapons whose rounds simply clattered off Avery's armor as he and his squad sidled through the shattered door like hulking crabs, weapons up and scanning.

What the marines knew that ONI didn't was the real threat would come from the Insurrectionists who weren't firing-the ones with free hands who might trigger hidden explosives and blow the workshop to smithereens. The one Insurrectionist who dared took a three-round burst from Avery's silenced submachine gun and flopped back onto a steel worktable, arms outstretched and twitch-ing. Avery watched a small, cylindrical detonator slip slowly from the man's lolling fist... and hit the floor with a harmless ping.

- Page 3

["I was the first to turn my back on our people's cruelty. The first to reject Argall and his rule of strength. And the first to risk everything for my beliefs."]()

Thaedus was one of the most powerful figures in the Viltrum Empire, Thaedus was a high-ranking veteran warrior before he became the first Viltrumite to betray the Empire by assassinating the ruling Emperor Argall. Soon after, he founded the Coalition of Planets to oppose and contain the expansion of his own species' tyranny. Among his most significant achievements was the development of the Scourge Virus, engineered using his own DNA, which led to the near-extinction of the Viltrumite population. In the end, Thaedus was killed by Grand Regent Thragg after participating in the battle that resulted in the destruction of Viltrum. After his death, his closest ally, Allen, succeeded him as leader of the Coalition as per his wishes. Anticipating his demise, Thaedus left a final message for Allen, in which he gave clear instructions to utilize the newly upgraded version of the Scourge Virus against the remaining Viltrumite survivors, including Nolan and his two sons, Mark and Oliver Grayson.