The passage narrowed as Luca pushed deeper into the fortress, his [Ghost Protocol] active, its shimmer a constant heat distortion around him. Gant'Jiran moved beside him, a silent companion.

Luca activated [Pulse Scanner] every thirty seconds, the brief electromagnetic bursts draining his suit's power reserves but providing precious seconds of visibility. After that Shade Hunter, he wasn't taking chances. The scanner painted the world in wireframe, revealing any large mass within fifty meters. Empty passages turned into wire-frame corridors, and anything moving showed up as bright silhouettes.

Each pulse drained more power. His HUD flashed warnings about energy reserves dropping, but fuck it. Better to run out of juice than get torn apart by something he couldn't see.

Behind them, four Varnathi infiltrators flowed through the organic corridors. No comm chatter. No unnecessary movement. Just predators hunting in their element.

Where the hell is everyone?

His tactical display showed his team scattered across the fortress. Emily was somewhere above, her Air Assault company holding the rooftops. Danny was grinding through the central sectors with his Heavy Assault company. Ryan was still arguing about breaking contact in the west. Chris had lost two mechs and yet was still creating chaos in the mustering grounds.

And him? He was hunting for the generators deep in enemy territory with a squad of Varnathi who treated stealth like a religious obligation.

This is fine. Everything's fine.

The lead Varnathi raised a fist, freezing everyone mid-step. Luca pressed against the resin wall, feeling it pulse slightly under his palm. Ahead, the chittering of Vexillari voices echoed through the passage, getting closer.

A patrol rounded the corner. Six insectoids in segmented armor, weapons crackling with stored energy. They moved in formation, disciplined, checking corners and firing angles.

Luca held his breath. His [Ghost Protocol] was good, but it wasn't perfect. Movement gave it away. Sound gave it away. But the real problem was pheromones. The Vexillari could smell them even through the camouflage, chemical signatures that screamed "prey" to insectoid senses.

The patrol passed within three meters. One of them paused, mandibles clicking as it scanned the area where Luca stood. Its antennae twitched, sensing something wrong.

Gant'Jiran's hand flashed a signal. Eliminate.

The infiltrators moved as one.

Luca drew his tomahawk, the blade igniting with barely a whisper. The lead insectoid never saw him coming. He drove the blade up through the gap between its helmet and chest armor, punching into whatever passed for a brain. The creature spasmed once and went limp.

Around him, the Varnathi fought silently. Plasma daggers flashed. One insectoid's throat opened in a spray of green ichor, its scream dying before it could form. Another dropped with a dagger through its eye socket. A third went down with its spine severed.

The remaining three tried to raise weapons. Too slow.

Gant'Jiran's dagger took one through the thorax. An infiltrator's blade carved through another's skull. Luca threw his tomahawk, the energized weapon spinning end over end to embed itself in the last insectoid's head.

Six enemies. Four seconds. Complete silence except for bodies hitting the floor.

[Combat data accumulating...] [Calculating... XP] [Calculating... Credits]

[Item acquired: Power Cell] [Item acquired: Nutrient Bar]

Luca retrieved his tomahawk and the loot items, wiping ichor on the dead insectoid's armor. A lot of good that nutrient bar will do me in this toxic atmosphere.

Luca's comms crackled with distant reports, background noise from squads fighting across the fortress. Most of it was garbled, interference from the fortress's organic walls playing hell with their signals. But fragments came through.

"—contact, heavy resistance—"

"—casualties mounting—"

"—can't hold this position—"

Each transmission made his chest tighter. His company was out there. Fifteen squads scattered through this nightmare, searching for generators while Vexillari defenders closed in from every direction.

And more than half of them were already dead.

Focus. Keep moving. Find the generators.

The passage opened into a chamber whose walls were curved at angles that made Luca's eyes hurt. The floor sloped in three different directions at once. Bioluminescent veins pulsed through the ceiling like exposed nerves, casting everything in sickly green light.

And in the center, machinery. Alien tech that looked half-grown, half-built. Cables thick as his arm snaked between components that hummed with power. His [Systems Analysis Burst] lit up his interface with energy signatures.

These were something else, maybe power distribution, or life support. Hard to tell with Vexillari tech.

"Mark it," Luca whispered to Gant'Jiran.

The Varnathi commander tagged the location on their shared map. Another data point. Another piece of the puzzle.

They moved through the chamber, weapons up, eyes scanning for threats. The machinery hummed louder as they passed, resonating through Luca's bones. One of the infiltrators paused at a control panel, studying the alien symbols.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Luca's private comm pinged. Zoe's voice, tight with stress.

"Luca, they're breaching the atmosphere. We're running out of time."

His blood went cold. "How long?"

"Any moment now."

He switched to team comms, keeping his voice low. "All units, this is Luca. I need everyone to converge on my position. Emily, Ryan, Joey, Danny, Chris. Drop everything and get here."

Static. Then Ryan's voice, sharp with frustration.

"We're pinned down! Heavy resistance in the western sector. Can't break contact!"

"Taking heavy casualties," Joey added, strain bleeding through his usual calm. "We're trying to push through but they're everywhere."

Luca could hear the firefights in the background. Energy weapons. Screaming. The sounds of his friends fighting for their lives while he crept through corridors looking for generators that might not even exist.

They need to get here. We all need to get out.

"Guys," Luca said, forcing his voice steady. "We need to find the fog generators. We're running out of time. If those reinforcements arrive before we disable them, we don't complete this delve. None of us do."

Silence stretched. Then Danny's voice, solid as always.

"I'll find us a path to you."

"Copy that," Emily said. "Air Assault is breaking contact. We're coming."

The silence stretched for a heartbeat. Then Ryan exhaled, crackling over comms.

"Copy. Breaking contact. En route."

"Mechanized Infantry moving," Chris confirmed. "Two minutes out."

Luca marked the fog generator coordinates on everyone's HUD, the location burning bright in their tactical displays. Through the resin walls ahead, he could see the massive units pumping their corrosive clouds into the fortress systems.

So close.

But between him and them, the chittering of Vexillari forces was growing louder. A lot louder.

"Get together and find me," Luca said, already moving forward. "I'm not stopping."

"Luca, wait—" Emily started.

"No time." He pushed deeper, Gant'Jiran and his squad moving with him. "The fog generators are right there. We take them out, we win. We wait, we die."

Movement.

Luca spun, his tomahawk coming up as an insectoid warrior dropped from the ceiling. The creature was massive, easily twice the size of the standard defenders, its armor plates thick and scarred from previous battles.

Luca triggered [Trajectory Focus]. Time slowed. His interface calculated the optimal throw, adjusting for distance, gravity, the creature's momentum. His arm moved on instinct.

The tomahawk flew.

It caught the insectoid in what passed for its throat, the energized blade punching through chitin and severing whatever passed for a spine. Green ichor sprayed across the walls as the creature crashed down, twitching.

More movement. The walls came alive with insectoids pouring from hidden passages. Dozens of them. Maybe hundreds.

Shit.

"Contact!" Gant'Jiran barked, his rifle spitting plasma.

The infiltrators scattered, their camouflage flickering as they engaged. Luca grabbed his rifle, firing controlled bursts as insectoids swarmed toward them. His [Target Lock Assist] painted targets faster than he could track, highlighting vulnerable points on chitin armor.

He squeezed the trigger. An insectoid's head exploded. Another dropped, its legs cut out from under it. A third stumbled as plasma tore through its thorax.

But they kept coming.

Luca moved, using [Reflex Shot] to snap-fire at a defender that got too close. The insectoid's mandibles were inches from his face when the bolt caught it in the eye. It collapsed in a spray of ichor and twitching limbs.

His tomahawk was still embedded in the first warrior. Luca sprinted forward, sliding under snapping mandibles to yank the weapon free. Ichor coated his hands, burning slightly through his gloves.

An insectoid lunged. Luca pivoted, the tomahawk carving through its skull in a spray of green. Another came from the side. He triggered [Weak Point Focus], his overlay highlighting the joint where its head met its thorax. One clean strike. The creature's head tumbled free.

The infiltrators appeared and dissapeared as their camouflage flickered. Plasma daggers flashed. Energy rifles cracked. Insectoids died in coordinated strikes that were almost beautiful to watch.

Almost.

Then one of the Varnathi screamed.

Luca spun in time to see a massive insecto, much bigger than the others, with elongated forelegs, snatch the infiltrator by the torso. The Varnathi fired wildly, his plasma bolts scorching the ceiling as the warrior's mandibles closed around his midsection with a sickening crunch.

Blood sprayed. The warrior leaped upward, carrying its prey to the ceiling where other insectoids waited in the shadows. The Varnathi's screams cut off abruptly, replaced by wet tearing sounds.

"Commander!" Gant'Jiran's voice cut through the chaos. "We need to move! Now!"

Luca fired his last shot, shouldered the empty rifle, and ran. The infiltrators fell back with him, their retreat as coordinated as their attack. Behind them, the insectoid horde chittered and screamed, pouring through the passage in pursuit.

And between him and them, a army of pissed-off insectoids that wanted him dead.

Where the hell is my team?

Luca ran toward the generators, his tomahawk in one hand, his heart hammering against his ribs.

And prayed his idiots would reach him before the Vexillari did.

The passage opened into a wider chamber, and Luca nearly ran straight into a wall of insectoids before Gant'Jiran yanked him sideways. They hit cover behind a cluster of organic machinery, plasma bolts sizzling overhead.

"How many?" Luca gasped.

"Too many," Gant'Jiran replied, his rifle tracking targets. "We're pinned."

Perfect. Just perfect.

Then he heard it. The deep, steady thud of boots on metal. Varnathi boots. The sound of an entire company moving in formation.

The insectoids heard it too. Their chittering shifted, confusion replacing aggression.

The wall to Luca's left exploded inward.

Chris's mech came through first, its rotary cannons already spinning. Blue plasma fire lit up the chamber as the Mechanized Infantry Platoon poured through the breach, each mech a walking artillery piece that turned the insectoid defenders into paste.

Behind the mechs, Danny charged in with Heavy Assault, his warhammer already swinging. The first insectoid he hit literally disintegrated, chitin and ichor spraying across three of its companions.

"Thought we'd miss the party?" Danny called out, grinning like a maniac.

Emily dropped from above, her Air Assault troops rappelling down on grav-lines, firing as they descended. She hit the ground running, her dual blasters cutting down defenders before they could reposition.

Ryan appeared from a side passage with his Combat Engineers, plasma scatterguns roaring. "Luca, you stupid fuck, you couldn't wait five minutes?"

"Didn't have five minutes," Luca shot back, pushing up from cover as his team formed a perimeter around him.

Joey was last, his shield active as he moved forward with the medical teams. "Everyone in one piece?"

"Except Zoe, we got to get a move on," Luca said, checking his ammo. His rifle's power cell was empty, his tomahawk was covered in ichor, and he was pretty sure he'd pulled something in his shoulder.

But his team was here. All of them except Zoe, who was still flying somewhere above them.

Within minutes, the insectoids broke and ran.

"Charges set on the shield generators," one of Ryan's engineers reported. "Ready to blow on your mark."

Luca looked at his team, his family, all of them bloody and exhausted but alive. "Alright, you heard them. We're moving out."

He turned to Gant'Jiran and his infiltrators. "We're not done yet. The fog generators are next."

One of the Varnathi, her fur matted with blood, nodded. "Lead the way, Commander."

Luca pulled up his tactical display, marking the route to the fog generators. Through the resin walls ahead, he could see them pulsing with power. So close now.

"Ryan, set those charges on a timer. Five minutes. That's all the time we have before this whole place comes down."

"Copy," Ryan replied, already working the controls.

"Everyone else, on me. We end this now."

His team fell in around him, weapons ready. Together, they pushed deeper into the fortress, racing against time and a Vexillari reinforcement fleet that was getting closer every second.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.