The Star Cats and Patterson reached the gateway to the Eden Park Stadium. The stadium was still standing, while surrounded by debris.

From the gate, they entered the lobby, and then dashed through a short tunnel, leading them into the stadium. They raced down the walkway, past the rows of seats, until they reached the open baseball field at the bottom.

After they stopped in the middle of the field, the Star Cats looked around. The field was clear, and it should be a good spot for the extraction.

Patterson pushed his com-link. “This is Patterson! We are in the Eden Park Stadium! Is the rescue shuttle still coming?”

“Negative sir!” the officer’s voice shouted. “The enemy ships destroyed them. We are sending another one to your position.”

“Thank you!” Patterson turned his attention to Tyger. “We have to stay here till-”

At the back of the stadium, the scoreboard exploded, alerting the team. The giant spider that landed, crawled over the rubble and entered the field. It stared at the Star Cats and roared.

Patterson dropped his mouth. “I think I crapped myself!”

Tyger, Red, and Jage pointed their weapons at the spider and fired. Their blasts only bounced off the metal plate on the spider’s forehead. The spider roared again and charged.

Tyger and his team spread out before the spider snapped at them. Red sprinted toward the end of the left field and aimed his light cannon at the creature. “I can’t believe I forgot to grab more black hole grenades!”

When the spider’s butt faced him, he blasted his cannon. “Fire in the hole!”

His energy blast hit the spider’s rear end, but it only left a burn mark. The spider turned around, facing Red.

The Russian cougar lowered his light cannon. “Wow! You got a nice hard butt!”

When the spider blasted its organic cannons, Red screamed and dashed for his life. The blasts rained behind him, exploding like fireworks. But he kept running like hell.

Maya formed an energy ball between her hands and tossed it at the spider. Her energy ball hit the spider’s left red eye, making it scream loud.

It turned toward her and blasted its cannons at her. Instead of running off, Maya held out her hands, creating her blue energy shield around her body. The blast hit her, sending her crashing against the baseball field wall.

Her shield faded, but she was still standing in the smoke. After the smoke cleared, Rila charged past her.

She pulled out her katana and approached one of the spider’s long legs. She swung her blade, hitting the spider’s leg. But her blade bounced off the armor on the leg.

“Huh?” Rila picked up her sword off the ground and slashed the legs again. Still, her blade didn’t cut through the leg.

Rila growled and climbed up the leg. She reached the top of the spider’s back while it was still moving.

While keeping her feet apart, she kept hitting her sword against its back. “Why won’t you die?”

Tyger rolled from the spider’s leg before it stomped upon him. Beneath it, he looked up and saw a yellow spot on the spider’s belly.

That should be its weak spot.

He aimed his rifle up and fired his lights blasts at the belly. When the blasts hit, the yellow belly exploded and globs of yellow goo spilled out. All of it landed on Tyger, getting his suit wet again.

After he wiped the spider’s blood off his face, he heard the alien monster roared in pain, and then he dashed from it. The spider collapsed to the ground and remained silent.

As Tyger stared at the spider’s giant corpse, his team approached him.

“Did you kill it?” Patterson asked.

Tyger picked the goo out of his ears. “The spider isn’t so tough when you shoot it from down under.”

The sound of a jet engine roared from above as the rescue shuttle descended toward the stadium. It reached the field and hovered toward Tyger’s team.

The side door slid opened, and an officer waved to them. “Get aboard now! The entire city is crawling with bugs!”

Tyger and his team sprinted toward the shuttle. Before they hopped aboard, a woman’s voice shouted at them. “Wait!”

Tyger turned around then saw a man and a woman running across the field toward the shuttle. They were carrying two kids in their arms.

“Please don’t leave us!” the man cried.

They stopped near the shuttle and faced Tyger.

“We escaped from our shelter!” the woman explained. “Everybody is dead, and we got nowhere else to go! Please let us come with you!”

The officer pointed his thumb at the back of the shuttle. “There isn’t enough room for you! We have to leave now!”

“Please don’t leave us!” the man shouted. “My family will die here!”

Tyger glared and turned to the officer. “You take Patterson and the civilians with you. My team and I will stay behind.”

“But how will you escape off this planet?” the officer asked.

Tyger smiled with determination. “We will manage.”

The officer nodded his head. “Let’s go now!”

Patterson watched the family get aboard the shuttle, and then he turned to Tyger. “Good luck and thank you!”

Tyger saluted to the admiral. “Always an honor, sir.”

Patterson saluted back and jumped aboard the rescue shuttle.

The Star Cats stepped back as the shuttle took off.

After the shuttle vanished into the sky, Tyger turned to his team. “You know securing civilians is our prime directive. No matter the cost.”

Red shrugged his shoulders. “Ah, we know this wouldn’t be fun without you comrade.”

“And it is an honor to stay with you till the end,” said Rila.

“Plus, I might find cute girls to rescue here,” said Jage.

Maya nodded to Tyger. “It is our duty, commander.”

Tyger smiled at them and reloaded his light rifle. “Thanks. Now let’s move out and find another way to escape this place.”