You expected the alien base to be wetter. The gravlift deposits you and your squad into a surprisingly clinical, and surprisingly empty, entrance hall: Walls uniformly tiled with grey metal surround you on all sides, and hallways lead off into the darkness in four cardinal directions.
"Organized little bastards," Mikhail says. "You wouldn't think that the goddamn beasts would know to build like this."
Akinori, your commanding officer, reminds him: "They're a hivemind. Just because the individuals act like mindless beasts doesn't mean they are. There's an intelligence behind their actions, even if we don't understand it. Anyway..."
Your squad goes over the plan - the very simple plan of "find the alien command center, wherever it is, and destroy it, whatever that means" - and divides into fire teams. Stoddard's, Steinbach's, and Collignon's teams go off on their own way, while Akinori leads you, Mikhail and Damien down a hallway. Alien machinery scattered around the walls hums quietly. You think you see something in the shadows in the distance.
Damien agrees. He freezes in place and trains his rifle on the target. "Bogie!" he shouts at a high pitch. Then he is just about to let loose a bolt of hot plasma as--
He freezes in place. He looks distracted somehow, and you can see a smile on his face. Meanwhile the thing in the shadows approaches you: A noctid. It walks with a swagger as if taunting you, its glowing eyes seemingly drilling into Damien's. Akinori summarily dispatches the beast with a blast of plasma, and its head explodes in a shower of black goo.
"Can you explain to me what you were doing, squaddie?" Akinori asks.
"I-- I don't know, I just-- he was-- beautiful?" Damien stammers.
Mikhail guffaws. "If you're going to suck their dicks, kid, at least leave it until after we're done here."
Akinori reminds all of you to stay on mission.
The four of you continue walking, until you come to a dark, mazelike fungal garden