The fog generators pulsed with sickly green light, massive structures that dominated the plaza. Luca's [Combat Predictive Modeling] analyzed their function as plasma bolts sizzled past his head.

Terraforming equipment. They're renovating. And we're standing in their construction zone.

"Ryan!" Luca shouted over the chaos. "Set charges on those cores! Now!"

An energy bolt slammed into the wall beside him, spraying him with molten resin. He rolled left, his rifle coming up. [Target Lock Assist] painted three [Vexillari Warriors] advancing on their position. He fired. One dropped. Two kept coming.

Emily's jetpack screamed overhead, her dual blasters cutting down the remaining insectoids before they could close the distance. She landed hard beside Luca, already tracking new targets.

"We're pinned!" she shouted. "Heavy resistance from all sides!"

No shit. Vexillari were pouring in from every passage, their chittering drowning out everything else. Danny's Heavy Assault troops were locked in brutal close combat, war hammers and energy blades clashing against chitinous armor. Chris's mech held the main entrance, its cannons creating a wall of plasma fire that was the only thing keeping them from being overrun.

And in the middle of it all, Ryan's engineers were trying to plant charges while enemies tried to tear them apart.

"Joey!" Luca barked. "Get those engineers some cover!"

"On it!" Joey moved forward with his medical teams, his energy shield absorbing fire as Ryan's people worked.

Luca triggered [Systems Analysis Burst], his interface mapping the generators' power distribution through the chaos. Critical junctions appeared in his overlay. He transmitted the data to Ryan.

"These nodes!" Luca called out. "Target these specifically!"

"Little busy not dying!" Ryan fired his scattergun point-blank into a Vexillari Swarmer that had gotten too close. The creature exploded in a spray of ichor.

An explosion rocked the area. One of the generators sparked, smoke pouring from its damaged core. The insectoids screeched, their attacks intensifying.

They know what we're doing.

"Charges set on generator one!" an engineer reported, his voice strained. "Moving to two!"

More plasma fire. More screaming. The air was thick with smoke and the acrid stench of burning chitin. Luca's rifle was getting hot, the barrel glowing from sustained fire. He dropped an empty power cell, slammed in a fresh one, and kept shooting.

[Target Lock Assist]. Fire. An insectoid dropped.

[Weak Point Focus]. Fire. Another went down, its thorax blown open.

But they kept coming. For every one they killed, three more took its place.

"Generator two rigged!" Ryan shouted. "One more to go!"

Movement above. Luca looked up just as something massive crashed through the toxic sky.

Not something. Lots of somethings.

Hundreds of Vexillary dropships, their hulls glowing from atmospheric entry. And between them, smaller shapes. Assault pods. Thousands of them, screaming down like meteors.

The reinforcements had arrived.

"Contact!" Luca's blood went cold. "Air contact! Multiple capital ships in atmosphere!"

"I see them!" Zoe's voice crackled through comms, tight with controlled panic. Through the smoke above, Luca could see her fighter banking hard, trying to evade pursuing Vexillari interceptors.

One of them got a lock as energy bolts tore through her port engine.

"I'm hit!" Zoe's fighter spiraled, trailing smoke and debris. "I'm going down!"

The first assault pods slammed into the ground like artillery shells. Their armored sides blew open, and fresh Vexillari troops poured out. Elite units in heavy armor, weapons already firing.

And from one of the largest pods, something else emerged.

A Shade Hunter unrolled itself, thirty feet of segmented nightmare that shimmered and vanished as its camouflage activated. Luca only caught a glimpse before it disappeared, but that was enough.

"Shade Hunter!" Luca shouted. "Invisible contact, northwest quadrant!"

"Another one!" Emily's voice was sharp. A second pod had opened, disgorging its own Shade Hunter. The creature flickered once, then vanished completely.

Two of them. We're fucked.

Then the ground shook.

Something massive was coming through the breach Chris's mech was guarding. Luca turned and felt his blood freeze.

[Vexillari Cytosaur - Level 74]

The thing was enormous. Fifteen feet tall at the shoulder, built like a rhinoceros crossed with a praying mantis. Six legs thick as tree trunks, each ending in chitin spikes that cratered the ground with every step. Its head was all scissoring mandibles, four of them that opened and closed with hydraulic force. Armored plates covered its body, overlapping like scale mail.

And it was charging straight toward Chris's position.

"Chris, break off!" Luca screamed. "Inbound!"

"I see it!" Chris's mech pivoted, cannons tracking the massive creature. He opened fire, plasma bolts tearing into its armored hide. The Siege Beast didn't even slow down. The bolts scorched its armor but didn't penetrate.

It hit Chris's mech like a freight train.

The impact sent the ten-meter war machine flying backward, its legs torn from their mounting points. Chris's mech crashed into a generator building, sparks flying as systems failed.

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The Cytosaur roared, a sound that made Luca's bones vibrate, and charged into the plaza.

"Zoe!" Luca shouted into comms. "Where are you?"

"Right here!"

Her fighter screamed down from above, engines burning, trailing smoke and fire. Luca watched in horror as she aimed straight for the Siege Beast.

"Zoe, what are you—"

"Brace!"

At the last possible second, the canopy blew. Zoe ejected with her grav-harness, her body yanked skyward by the emergency system. The fighter kept going, a missile made of metal and fuel.

It hit the Cytosaur dead center.

The explosion was massive. The fighter's remaining fuel ignited, engulfing the creature in a fireball that turned the section into an oven. The Cytosaur shrieked, its armored plates cracking from the heat and impact. It stumbled, one of its legs broken, mandibles snapping at empty air.

Zoe hit the ground hard twenty meters away, her grav-harness smoking. She rolled, came up with her rifle, and started shooting the wounded beast.

She's completely insane.

"Charges set!" Ryan's voice cut through the chaos. "All three generators rigged! Timer's running!"

"How long?" Luca demanded.

"Ninety seconds!"

The wounded Siege Beast was still alive, bellowing in rage as it tried to stand on its broken leg. Around it, fresh Vexillari troops were swarming into the vicinity. And somewhere in the chaos, two invisible Shade Hunters were hunting.

"Fall back!" Luca ordered. "Everyone to the generator room! We hold there until extraction!"

"What extraction?" Emily shouted. "The portal hasn't appeared yet!"

"It will when these things blow! Move!"

They retreated in chaos. Danny's Heavy Assault covered the withdrawal, his troops forming a fighting retreat that was more 'fighting' than 'retreat'. Joey's shield blazed as he protected the wounded.

Zoe sprinted toward them, energy bolts chasing her every step. She slid into cover beside Luca, breathing hard. Blood ran down her face from where her helmet had cracked. "Those dropships are landing all around us. We're about to be surrounded."

"I know." Luca triggered [Pulse Scanner], desperate to find the Shade Hunters before they found him. The electromagnetic burst painted the world in wireframe for a split second.

There. Two massive shapes, circling their position. Getting closer.

"Shade Hunters are flanking us!" Luca transmitted the positions to everyone. "Watch your six!"

"Sixty seconds!" Ryan called.

The generators' pitch changed, their hum rising to a shriek. Energy crackled around them, arcs of green lightning dancing between the structures. Whatever Ryan had done was causing a cascade failure.

A Varnathi soldier screamed. Luca spun in time to see him disappear, snatched by invisible mandibles. Blood sprayed across the ground, but the Shade Hunter was already gone.

"Fire on my mark!" Luca activated [Pulse Scanner] again. Flash. The Shade Hunter appeared for a split second, caught mid-motion. "Now!"

A dozen plasma bolts converged on the space where the creature had been. Some missed. But enough hit that the Shade Hunter materialized, its camouflage failing as ichor sprayed from its wounds. It shrieked and lunged.

Luca threw his tomahawk. [Trajectory Focus] guided the blade into a gap between segments, punching deep. The creature collapsed, twitching.

"One down!" Emily shouted. "Where's the other one?"

Movement from the corner of Luca's eye. Too fast. The second Shade Hunter crashed into Danny's formation, visible for just a moment as it tore through three soldiers. Then it vanished again, leaving carnage in its wake.

"Thirty seconds!" Ryan's voice was shrill with panic.

The generators' shriek became deafening. The arcs of lightning spread, touching the walls, the ceiling. The entire area was becoming one massive electrical discharge.

Chris's mech cockpit opened. He stumbled out, his face pale, blood running from his nose. "Everyone get down! Shield your eyes!"

The Cytosaur, still alive despite Zoe's fighter crashing into it, charged toward the generators. Whether it understood what was happening or was just enraged, Luca didn't know. It didn't matter.

"Everyone down!" Joey shouted.

Luca dropped, pulling Zoe down with him. Emily landed hard beside them, her jetpack smoking. Danny threw himself behind cover.

The world turned white.

The generators detonated simultaneously, a triple explosion that merged into one massive blast. The shockwave picked Luca up and threw him like a doll. He hit something hard, his vision swimming.

The Cytosaur caught the full force of the explosion. Its armored body disintegrated, chunks of chitin flying in every direction like shrapnel.

When Luca could see again, the area was an inferno. Green flames licked at the walls. The generators were gone, replaced by craters that glowed with residual energy. Insectoid bodies were scattered everywhere, charred and broken. The Cytosaur was gone, vaporized by the blast.

[Mission Completed!] Clear out rogue defenders and disable the fog generators.

[Mission Reward accumulating...]

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

And in the center of the destruction, shimmering into existence like a mirage, the portal appeared.

Blue light. Safety. Home.

"Portal's up!" Joey's voice was barely audible over the ringing in Luca's ears. "Everyone move!"

Luca pushed himself up. His whole body felt like one giant bruise. Around him, his team was gathering.

Chris was on the ground, barely conscious. Joey pulled him up, supporting his weight.

The Varnathi soldiers formed a defensive perimeter around the glowing gateway, firing at the approaching Vexillari. They couldn't see what they were protecting, didn't know why their human commanders were suddenly so focused on this particular spot. They just followed orders, holding the line.

The first of the fresh Vexillari reinforcements hit the area area and charged.

"Go!" Danny bellowed. "Everyone through! Now!"

"Gant'Jiran!" Luca shouted over the chaos. "Hold this position! Cover our withdrawal!" The Varnathi commander's whiskers twitched in acknowledgment. He didn't question why the humans were retreating to an empty patch of ground. He just repositioned his troops, creating a wall of plasma fire between them and the advancing Vexillari.

Something shimmered in Luca's peripheral vision. The second Shade Hunter, still alive. Still hunting.

"Shade Hunter!" Luca activated [Pulse Scanner] one more time. His suit's power reserves were nearly dead, but fuck it. The creature appeared in wireframe, coiled to strike at Danny.

"Danny, move!"

Danny spun, his warhammer already rising. The Shade Hunter lunged, its mandibles wide. Danny's hammer caught it mid-leap, the impact shattering its forward segments. The creature crashed to the ground, visible now, dying.

But the distraction cost him.

The mortar round hit.

The explosion was catastrophic. Luca felt the shockwave, saw Danny thrown into the air like a rag doll. He hit the ground hard, rolling into a crater that the blast had carved into the floor.

No.

"Danny!" Ryan's scream was raw, primal.

Luca was moving before his brain caught up. They sprinted toward the crater, their legs pumping. Behind him, Emily and Zoe laid down suppressing fire so thick nothing could get through.

The crater's edge crumbled under his boots. He slid down, his rifle clattering away. At the bottom, Danny lay motionless. His Heavy Assault armor was torn open like paper, chunks missing where shrapnel had punched through. His legs were mangled, bone visible through torn flesh. Blood pooled beneath him, mixing with the toxic dirt.

The air hissed as it reacted with Danny's exposed tissue, sending up thin tendrils of smoke.

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.

Luca and Ryan grabbed Danny under the arms and pulled. Dannys weight was impossible, the armor making it worse. Danny's head lolled, his eyes unfocused behind his cracked visor.

"Stay with me," Luca grunted, his muscles screaming. "Don't you dare check out."

"Luca!" Zoe appeared at the crater's edge, her rifle spitting plasma. "Move your ass!"

Emily landed beside them, jetpack flaring. "I've got him!" She grabbed Danny's legs, and together they hauled him up the crater wall.

The portal was fifteen meters away. Vexillari reinforcements were pouring in now, a tide of chitin and mandibles that nothing could stop.

"Go go go!" Zoe fired without aiming, just spraying plasma into the mass of enemies.

Luca and Ryan dragged Danny forward. His blood soaked through Luca's gloves, warm and slick. Every step was agony. His HUD flashed warnings about suit integrity, about toxin exposure, about Danny's vitals crashing.

Ten meters.

An insectoid warrior broke through the fire. Zoe threw herself at it, her plasma dagger flashing. They went down in a tangle of limbs. Luca heard her scream, heard the sickening crunch of chitin on flesh.

"Zoe!" Emily twisted, her blasters firing point-blank into the warrior. It exploded.

Zoe pushed herself up, blood streaming from a gash on her forehead. "Keep moving!"

Five meters.

They threw Danny through. Joey caught his brother, pulled him to safety.

"Everyone through!" Luca shouted. "Now!"

Ryan went next, firing his scattergun over his shoulder as he dove through the portal's shimmer. Zoe followed right after him. Emily fired her jetpack one last time, propelling herself backward through the gate.

Luca turned for one last look. The area was filled with Vexillari now, so many they were crushing each other trying to reach the remaining Varnathi. Chris's destroyed mech was barely visible beneath the swarm.

Luca turned to Gant'Jiran. Their eyes met across the battlefield. The Varnathi commander's whiskers twitched once. A salute.

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