It made not a whit of difference.

My being here was anathema to the creatures, yet it didn’t prevent the child from dying.

Hell. That’s what they should have named this place. Nothing less than the depths of the seventh Hell. Only here Beelzeebub didn’t have the fiery form, wings of flame and horns. The devil was small, cute and cuddly.

They were creatures no taller than my knees, with a winning smile and sharp teeth capable of shredding steel.

Which is what happened here.

A family strayed, either knowingly or lost, from the Ipecache highway between colony stations 1 and 3. Five minutes after the battery failed their hopper had been set upon by these. The Ipecache demons

I’ve seen a pack of five of these beasts tear a hopper to pieces in ten minutes. In fact it was the shrieking of metal that drew me here. Just in time to see the last child killed, intestines, liver and heart torn out so fast, the child still blinked, once, twice, before she died.

No one should have to endure this Hell.