The turbine field loomed like a graveyard of metal giants—rusted blades creaking as the storm winds howled through the skeletal structures. Lightning flashed across the dark horizon, illuminating the battered forms of Netoshka's squad as they stumbled toward the outpost.
At the base of the largest turbine, several figures stood waiting—silhouettes backlit by the cold shimmer of floodlights. One of them waved.
"About time you showed up!" Genrihk's voice boomed through the comms, his tone laced with relief and reprimand in equal measure.
Netoshka slowed, catching her breath.
"We didn't have much of a choice," she replied. "Tunnel's gone. Flooded. Lost half our gear."
Zopi collapsed against a crate, panting.
"And we had a pack of Decapitators chewing on our heels for three miles. You're welcome."
Genrihk grinned, then motioned toward the nearby machinery.
"Battery's inside the Bloodhawk—he almost done patching the nav-core. You'll have your ride out soon enough. Ron, since you're here, help Battery with the repairs."
"Soon enough?" Zopi snapped, her nerves fraying.
"They're not gone, Genrihk. We didn't kill them all. They followed us."
As if to punctuate her words, a low chittering echoed through the wind. Then another. Then dozens.
The sound slithered across the dunes—metallic, hungry.
Genrihk's concern vanished. "Positions. Now."
The squads moved in unison, setting up defensive lines along the base of the turbine. Zev and Rue flanked left with the heavy repeater. Taran and Genrihk took the right with the pulse cannon. Netoshka stood at the center, her rifle braced against the barricade, eyes narrowing as the wind shifted.
A flicker of movement. Then another.
Shapes emerged from the storm—skeletal outlines of the Decapitators, their obsidian armor glinting in the lightning flashes. They were faster now, more feral, crawling on all fours before bursting into full sprint.
"Contact front!" Taran shouted.
The air ignited with gunfire. Tracer rounds cut through the dark as the first wave slammed into the barricades. Sparks showered the ground. Screams—both human and inhuman—echoed across the turbine yard.
"Keep them off the ramp!" Netoshka yelled.
"Rue—reload on my mark! Zev, push the right flank!"
Rue slammed another mag into her rifle, firing through the chaos.
"They're swarming too fast! I count at least twenty!"
"Make it ten," Zev grunted, tossing a plasma charge into the crowd. It detonated with a blinding flare, scattering limbs and molten fragments across the sand.
Genrihk's visor flickered with static. "Battery! Status!"
A burst of static, then his voice came through, strained but steady:
"Almost done—fourty seconds and the Bloodhawk's flight systems will be online!"
"Make it twenty," Netoshka snapped, ducking under a blade swipe that cut through the air beside her. She twisted, shot the creature point-blank in the head, then slammed her boot into its collapsing frame.
Lightning tore across the sky. For a split second, the battlefield was frozen in light—corpses, burning metal, and the wind turbines looming like ghosts.
Then the light died, and the Decapitators surged again.
Taran screamed as one pinned him down, its claws tearing into his armor. Netoshka spun and fired three shots into its back, pulling him free.
"Stay with me, soldier!"
"I'm fine," he growled, coughing blood. "Let's end this!"
Genrihk fired the last of his revolver rounds, then slammed a fresh cell into the weapon.
"We can't hold forever!"
"Battery!" Netoshka shouted into comms.
"Talk to me!"
"Ready!" came the reply. "Systems green—boarding ramp is down!"
Netoshka turned to her squad, her voice sharp and commanding even over the chaos.
"All units—fall back to the Bloodhawk! Now!"
They ran through smoke and flame, bullets whizzing past as the Decapitators swarmed behind them. Zev turned and fired one last barrage before the ramp lifted.
The Bloodhawk's engines roared to life, turbines spinning as the ground below erupted with the creatures' screams.
"Everyone accounted for?" Genrihk called.
"Rue, Zev, Taran, Battery, Alev, Zopi, Raine, Ron, Serah, Cirke, Surgien, Spectr, Twila, Ginny, and Renzo—check,".
Netoshka confirmed. Her eyes stayed on the viewport as the turbine field shrank below them, fading into a sea of fire and wreckage.
Genrihk leaned against the bulkhead, his clothes tattered. "That was too close."
Netoshka didn't answer. She watched the storm below, her reflection ghostly against the glass.
"This world's dying," she muttered. "And we're the ones holding the line."
Rue looked up from her seat, voice soft.
"Where to now, Netoshka?"
Netoshka exhaled, reaching for the comm terminal.
"To Delta City," she said. "Lucretia's waiting for our report. And I'm not letting this mission die in a hole."
Outside, lightning split the sky open once more, bathing the Bloodhawk in pale white light as it soared into the storm.
The containment zone burned below—a graveyard of machines and monsters.