If you've never seen an ultralisk...it's bigger than a goddamn tank, and louder, and faster. Tall as four marines in full armor, and long enough that in the jungle you can be fighting the front end before you can even see the back of it coming out of the bush. It's got two pairs of scythes attached where wings might be on a dragon. They're called kaiser blades; I don't know why, but I've seen what they can do. They sweep through marine battle armor like it's tinfoil. You can unload a C-14 at an ultralisk until the barrel melts, and you'll only make it mad. Correction: madder. They're already mad. Ultralisks get out of bed mad and hungry. When they're done slashing you to bits, they stomp on the pieces of you before you're all the way dead.

• Sergeant Norwood Doakes