8. What Hides Beneath

Complete story — includes the ending

Colonel Porter returns to the 2nd Mass and informs them that not only has the 7th Mass been destroyed, there has also been no contact with the 4th and 5th Mass. At 2nd Mass, Colonel Porter tells Captain Weaver and Tom that the Skitters are falling back in every major city, this is the best time to strike the Skitter base, and he has a plan for coordinated simultaneous cross-country attacks. Weaver orders Tom to scout out the massive Skitter structure and determine how best to destroy it, and goes along himself because his former contracting experience could pinpoint the most vulnerable structural points. Meanwhile, Pope is placed in charge of developing the explosives required to destroy the structure. Anne performs a secret autopsy on the dead Skitter and finds a harness attached inside it, so suspects it may once have looked like something else, maybe even humanoid. While scouting the Skitter structure, Tom, Hal and Weaver spy a tall, humanoid third alien species directing Skitters. While returning to base, they are surprised by a strange woman who invites them into her home. Tom and Hal take up her offer. Weaver stays outside, ostensibly to guard their motorbikes, but leaves for his home, which Ricky has been drawing. Weaver removed the spark plugs on Tom and Hal's bikes, but they eventually follow. Tom finds him drinking whiskey in the backyard. Weaver explains that he had separated from his wife before the invasion and couldn't find her when the attack began. He found his younger daughter who had been harnessed and inadvertently killed her in removing it. They are interrupted when a Mech shows up, forcing Hal to hide and Tom and Weaver to work together to destroy it. Believing the strange woman betrayed them, they return to her apartment and discover she is an agent of the Skitters who use her to capture people. While questioning her, Karen, harnessed, asks from the other side of the door about them. Before Hal can do anything, Tom looks through the peep hole and comes face to face with one of the new 10-12' tall aliens. Back at the school, they find Pope demonstrating his new bullets made out from Mech armor. The shots can penetrate the Mech armor itself, to the applause of onlookers. Ricky, who observed this, takes off, followed by Ben.