Alien- LW Xeno Death

  The tools they were using are still in place. They jut into the air, carelessly thrown aside, transforming that small patch of the launch port into a forest of jutting blades, razored cutting tools, and jagged metallic edges. A catwalk runs directly above it, held in place with suspiciously narrow struts.
...

  But I hear the struts that hold the catwalk beneath the creature in place give way, their delicate connections shattered by the bullets. The entire section crumples and falls, leaving the creature with no leverage, no way to leap for safety. It falls, clawing at the air, tail lashing and cilia waving, and lands, as I had hoped, directly on the jagged piles of construction equipment.

  Chitin makes fine armor, but it’s not enough to protect against impalement. The creature shrieks, loud and agonized. Then it begins to thrash. The motion drives the spikes and cutting metallic edges deeper and deeper into its body. The bleeding has already started, but for once, I don’t think acid is the answer; it won’t be able to melt its way free. Not with those injuries.
...

  The creature is thrashing when I get there, the tools that pierce its armored skin more than halfway melted. It senses my approach and turns its head toward me, hissing. No pleas for mercy here, no tricks; it still wants me dead.

  The feeling is mutual.

  “Fuck you,” I say, and switch the gun to my good arm, using my weak one to brace myself as I fire the rest of the clip into the creature’s skull, shattering it.

  By the time I lose feeling in my arm, the creature isn’t moving anymore. It looks smaller now that it’s been broken. It looks no less horrific, no less alien. It and I were never meant to share a world.

  So let it have this one. Zagreus is a graveyard. Let these things be its ghosts.

Echo, Chapter 23