The transport's hum pressed against the cabin walls like a heartbeat that didn't know who it belonged to. Everyone had fallen into that post-fight silence where adrenaline fades faster than blood pressure. Armor steamed faintly, runes cooling from overuse.
Brenda stood by the cockpit speaking low with the pilot. Sirone and Chinada cleaned residue off their rune-rifles; the smell of burnt crystal clung to the air. Apricot sat cross-legged on the deck, puppet cores laid in a neat line before her, whispering mana back into their threads.
I sat near the ramp with my blades across my knees. Two quiet demigod weapons—ice-forged, faint frost breathing from the edges. They always looked like that after killing. My arms pulsed with dull heat; veins flickered faint red beneath the skin, half warning, half repair.
'Hold a little longer,' I told them. 'We're not done.'
The pilot's voice cracked through the earpiece.
"Captain. We're over the ridge—strong mana flux below. Ground path unstable."
Brenda turned toward me. "Your call. We can circle or land and investigate. Sensors read movement in the canyon grid."
I stood, holstering the nearest blade. "We land. That much power means someone's running equipment. If the Federation's involved, we end it."
The ship banked sharply; light bled through the seams as the runic engines howled. Wind punched the hull. Outside, the canyon widened into a bowl of black stone streaked with green crystal veins—ancient conduits mined by the old empire. Broken statues rose from the cliffs, hollow eyes glowing faintly.
The ramp dropped, steam rolling past our boots. Heat hit first—air thick with mana discharge and the scent of ozone. My skin prickled; every breath tasted like iron dust. The glass charm on my wrist thrummed once at the pressure, then went still.
'Not pleasant,' I thought, 'but survivable.'
"Teams of three," I ordered. "Apricot, Nekro, and Mia—overwatch. Chinada, Sirone—west flank. Brenda, Olivia, and Toma—you're center with me. Rin, Brit, Sarian—south ridge intercept. Stay on coms; keep voices off unless the signal drops."
A chorus of acknowledgments followed. The formation opened like petals folding outward.
The ground trembled once. A low resonance crawled through our boots. Ahead, in the basin's middle, a fissure glowed—a doorway of light and dust. Shapes shimmered inside it, half-formed and wrong. Not demons. Not soldiers. Manufactured.
Sirone's whisper hissed through coms. "Contact. Constructs—twenty plus. Metallic frames, rune-stitched tendon fiber. Old Federation prototypes."
"Automata," Brenda muttered. "They sent exos?"
"Then let's break a few." I pointed toward the nearest rise. "Kill zone there. Funnel them in."
They moved without hesitation. Barriers bloomed, traps were buried, runes primed. The basin's slope became our design—angled for their death.
[Engagement — Basin Grid]
The portal screamed. Mana flared white, then collapsed inward. The first automaton stumbled out—six-limbed, all steel and runes, spear humming with molten light. Twenty followed, footsteps shaking grit from the cliffs.
"Targets confirmed," Sirone said.
"Hold fire until my mark."
They marched in tight formation, cores glowing through lattice chests. They hadn't seen us yet, still tracing their summoner's coordinates. Too bad.
They crossed the etched line Chinada had carved—a sigil shaped like a snake's grin.
"Now."
Lightning split sideways from the ridge, crawling over steel hides. Brit's illusions flared, drawing molten spears into empty air. Toma slammed her fists down; stone spikes tore upward, impaling three constructs at once. Rin flashed through the gap, blades carving runes from their cores.
I charged straight down the slope—pure muscle and momentum, no magic, just the body remembering what it was built for.
My blades met metal and sang. Frost hissed where pressure turned ice to steam. I drove one through the nearest automaton's chest; its rune-heart shattered, light spilling like molten glass. Recoil burned through my arms, but I didn't slow.
"Left flank folding!" Brenda's voice snapped in my ear.
"I see it." Olivia was shielding Sarian behind a fading barrier, a cluster of constructs pressing hard.
I sprinted, crossing fifty meters in three breaths, and slid between them. My blade caught a descending spear and redirected it into another automaton's torso. Steel split. Olivia dropped her barrier and slammed a storm-sigil into the ground; thunder erupted, tearing legs from the enemy line.
Brenda moved through the smoke, twin storm-blades crackling blue, every swing tracing arcs of lightning. She cut down two more before rejoining formation.
"Report!" I shouted.
Sirone: "West clear."
Chinada: "Ammo cores half."
Rin: "South ridge holding—barely."
Apricot: "Captain, movement under the fissure—something big."
The light convulsed. A deeper shape crawled through—spider-limbed, twenty meters tall, plated in mana-fused armor. A hammer clutched in its claws pulsed with live cores, each one screaming energy.
Brenda hissed, "Siege model."
I grinned despite the ache. "Finally, something interesting."
"Captain, your veins—"
"Still attached," I cut her off. "Form anti-armor triangle. Chinada, give me altitude lightning. Olivia, anchor barrier nodes. Everyone else—keep its limbs busy."
The giant stepped forward, ground quivering under its weight. The hammer's pulse made my skin crawl; my veins tightened in warning, pain threading through my arms as the healing fought to keep pace.
"Now!" I barked.
Sirone's rifle roared blue-white, punching through a shoulder joint. Toma's earth pulse staggered its footing. Sarian's glaive carved a burning line across its knee.
I dashed under the shadow of the hammer and leapt. Air roared past—thick with mana, heavy as water. My blades crossed overhead, weight biting through bone and tendon, and drove down into the exposed joint.
Metal screamed. The hammer crashed beside Brenda, missing by a meter. She didn't flinch—used it as a springboard, leaping and plunging her storm-blade straight into the construct's core. Lightning flared outward, dancing across its plating.
For a heartbeat everything went white.
When sight returned, the giant lay ruined—half-melted, half-frozen. Its hammer glowed, then fractured into dust.
"Status?" I called.
Rin laughed over coms. "All limbs accounted for. Ours, not theirs."
Brenda exhaled, wiping soot. "Captain, we're clear. Portal's collapsing."
I turned. The fissure was folding inward, pulling dust and light until only a faint shimmer remained. The air smelled of ozone and iron. The charm on my wrist cooled again, faint frost creeping over it. My veins pulsed once—pain, then calm.
'Healing's doing its job,' I thought, 'even if it hurts.'
Apricot's voice trembled. "Captain, flux dropping fast. That wasn't a summoning—it was a test pulse."
"Meaning?"
"Someone on the other side was mapping coordinates."
Cold slid down my spine. "Then they'll come again—this time with precision."
Brenda's eyes narrowed. "You think it's Federation work?"
"Not exactly," I said. "They don't use old-empire constructs. Someone else is playing with their scraps."
Sirone brushed dust from her rifle. "Orders?"
"Salvage what we can and level the site. No evidence left."
They moved fast. Nekro's shadows swallowed wreckage; Apricot's puppets stripped power cells; Brenda carved destruction runes along the rim while Olivia sealed them with heat. The fissure guttered out. The world exhaled.
"Mission logged," Sirone said quietly.
"Not yet," I murmured, staring at the empty air. "That wasn't a fight. It was someone knocking."
Brenda sheathed her blades. "Then next time we answer louder."
"Next time," I agreed.
With the Black-Ops transports already outbound with Dea aboard, we set temporary camp and waited.
'Don't burn out before the real war starts,' I told my veins. They didn't answer. They never do.
Through the viewport, the canyon stretched—black stone veined with cooling runes. For a moment, it almost looked beautiful. Then a shimmer reappeared far off, faint but there—a second pulse.
"They're already trying again," I whispered.
Brenda opened one eye. "Let them. We'll be ready."
"Maybe," I said. "Or maybe they just learned what bleeds."
The hum filled the silence. We rode it all the way back to the horizon.