Ambushed! (by Brandon Hill)

It had been awhile since I did an action scene involving Xerx and Neela. And Xerx is indeed a man of action. Here they are on a mission to Sepra, one of the Alliance worlds, with tons of deadly flora and fauna in its jungles. This gives a chance to show off their weapons of choice. As you can see, Xerx prefers the mechanical, and Neela has an array of very effective biological tools at her beck and call: specialized plants that live in symbiosis with her body.

And yes, I know the creatures look like something that crawled straight out of Metroid. :-P