The first bullet screamed past her ear before she even heard the shout.
The Fox plunged through the shattered doorway of a half-collapsed office block, boots splashing in cold, knee-deep water. The building groaned above her, metal bending like old bone, concrete sagging from decades of storms and shifting tides. Something creaked so loudly it cut though even the pounding of pursuit.
Their footsteps weren't cautious.
They were confident.
They believed the walls would kill her before they did.
Shadows flickered behind her, flashlights bouncing off wet steel, old signs, the ridged backs of coral-like rust formations. The Fox ducked beneath a dangling beam and sprinted, splashing hard enough to sting her shins.
Behind her, the man with the wasp shouted,
[???] "Don't lose her! She's worth more than a month's rations!"
More gunfire answered him.
A burst of slugs tore through a glass wall to her right, spraying her with sparkling fragments. She coughed, covering her face with her forearm, stumbled, but kept running.
[M.A.R.S.]
"Left. Now."
She didn't argue. Didn't have time to.
She shoved herself through a crooked gap in the wall, debris scraping her shoulders. A bullet pinged off the metal inches from her mask, noise ringing inside her skull.
[M.A.R.S.]
"You're bleeding."
His voice felt too clinical for comfort.
[Fox] "I'll live,"
[M.A.R.S.]
"Statistically, not if you keep up this pace."
She didn't have the breath to insult him.
Another corridor opened in front of her, or what remained of one. Only half the ceiling existed. The rest had collapsed into a slanted ramp of broken floors and rusted support beams. Water dripped from every surface, pooling, trickling, feeding the mossy green blooms of decay.
She leapt over a desk half-submerged in the water, her foot landing on something soft.
A corpse, preserved by cold.
She didn't look down.
The shouting grew louder behind her. Three men. Maybe four. Boots slapping on the water, the man with the wasp cursing in short, angry bursts.
A light swung around the corner.
The beam landed on her back.
[???] "There!"
Gunfire erupted.
She dove behind a collapsed column as bullets chewed into the concrete, punching holes straight through. Chips sprayed like grit across her mask, clinking off the metallic casing of her backpack. Her turret attachments felt painfully absent now.
[M.A.R.S.]
"Fox, they are trying to funnel you deeper. Don't let them."
[Fox] "So very helpful,"
[M.A.R.S.]
"Then keep moving."
She did.
The Fox pushed through another doorway into a staircase flooded all the way to the landing. Something floated, a couch cushion, torn and moldy, drifting lazily in the oily water.
She sloshed through it all, gripping the railing to keep her balance as she climbed the half-collapsed stairs. M.A.R.S. marked a path across her terminal, a faint blue arrow hovering over reality. She followed it. Up a floor. Through a room leaning sharply to one side. Out a broken window frame where vines had conquered the concrete.
She saw it:
A gaping hole in the east wing where the building had sheared open decades ago.
Wind blew though it in cold gusts, carrying the briny scent of the nearby flooded streets.
M.A.R.S.' voice sharpened.
[M.A.R.S.]
"This part is unstable. Move lightly."
The men burst into the room behind her, fanning out with practiced formation.
The Fox sprinted out toward a broken section of the floor, dodging erratic beams of flashlight as gunfire erupted again.
A bullet grazed her calf, hot sharp pain.
She hissed but didn't look back.
The world tilted as she reached the broken ledge. Below, a lower floor sagged inward like a split open ribcage. A drop of maybe four meters. Water pooled in the center, dark and rippling from the tremors caused by gunfire.
No time to think.
She jumped.
Her boots hit the lower floor, knees bending to absorb the shock.Pain shot up her legs. But she rolled, letting momentum save her. A bullet hissed past and punched a hole into a pillar ahead of her.
Another shot cracked.
Then another.
Her heart pounded.
Her terminal HUD flickered with warning symbols.
Her lungs felt like they were burning.
She scrambled behind a broken server rack and pressed her back against it.
A voice called from above,
[???] "Fox! You can't hide forever!"
The man with the wasp. She recogonized his rasp.
[???] "Come on out. We just want to talk."
Another voice laughed, sharp, mocking.
She could hear them spreading out overhead, scanning angles, checking staircases.
Her pulse pounded.
A whisper in her ear,
[M.A.R.S.]
"Are you ready?"
[Fox] "For what?"
There was a long pause.
Then—
[M.A.R.S.]
"Duck."
She did.
A second later, the entire world erupted, painted in flames.
A deafening, chest-crunching explosion tore through the building, a wave of fire blasting down from the upper floors. The dormant mines hidden in the walls, forgotten by time, all detonated at once like a thunderclap.
Heat slammed into her back as debris rained down like a meteor shower.
Glass. Metal. Burning insulation. The building shook, coughing dust and flame through every seam.
The Fox covered her head with her arms as the ceiling buckled, coughing violently in the smoke.
The shockwave passed. The gunfire stopped.
Silence rolled in, heavy and absolute except for the crumbling of debris.
She pushed herself up slowly.
Her ears rang. Her vision blurred. But she was alive.
And around her, nothing else was.
The floor above had collapsed entirely, nothing left but a crater of rubble, smoke and fire.
Bodies lay scattered.
Most were unrecognizable.
She swallowed hard and tried not to look where she knew bodies were.
A tremor rippled through the pile of debris.
She turned sharply.
Something shifted. Metal scraped. And then—
The wasp emerged. Its wings were bent at wrong angles, sparking erratically. Its joints twitched uncontrollably. Half its body was shredded. But it stood. Somehow.
It aimed its tail. The Fox didn't even blink. Before it could fire, the machine collapsed again, its legs folding beneath it, its body failing like a puppet with cut strings.
She approached slowly, chest rising and falling in ragged breaths.
Her hand hovered over the wasp's broken form. She didn't know why. Maybe pity. Maybe habit. She reached down and ripped the core out.
It sparked faintly in her hand, a tiny pulse of dying energy beating like a wounded heart.
She shoved it in her backpack and turned away.
Exhaustion dragged at every muscle. She leaned briefly against a large chunk of concrete, letting her lungs fight for air.
[M.A.R.S.]
"Fox. Terminal pings. Multiple. They are closing in. Over a dozen."
[Fox] "How close?"
[M.A.R.S.]
"Within a hundred meters. You don't have long."
She groaned.
[Fox] "Can't I have a minute?"
[M.A.R.S.]
"No."
She pushed herself off the concrete and forced her legs to move, stumbling across the broken floor toward a gaping hole M.A.R.S. marked as the safest exit.
Behind her, more footsteps began echoing in the corridors above.
Not bounty hunters. Scavengers looking to finish off what had been started.
She slipped into a cracked hallway, crossed the sagging frame of an old doorway, and descended into the lower levels, vanishing into the rubble before any new predators could arrive.
_________________________________________________________________________
Somewhere in the buried server vault, deep beneath the waterline, a dozen machines blinked awake.
Threads of logic aligned.
A message pulsed outward.
Not words. Not sound. Just command.
A request.
A request to someone who did not answer.
Again. A request.
Again. And again.
A dozen voices of the Swarm broadcasting at once:
//QUERY: Assistance required.
//QUERY: Target in proximity.
//QUERY: Engage human?
Silence answered.
They sent the message again. Thousands of times in a fraction of a second.
The figure receiving the messages stood on a rusted bridge overlooking a mile of darkness. Cloaked in dim white light, their staff tapped once on the metal rail as they drifted back into the water.
_________________________________________________________________________
By the time she reached the dry streets two blocks away, her breath had evened out and the blood on her calf had begun to crust. Her clothes smelled of smoke. Her limbs ached. Her ears rang sharply from the explosion.
But she was alive. Barely.
She stopped beside a toppled streetlight and rested her palms on her knees.
[M.A.R.S.]
"Fox... I managed to secure you a one-time meet with The Church."
She straightened.
[Fox] "The Church? Seriously?"
[M.A.R.S.]
"They are your only hope considering the situation we have been put in. They will protect you. For a price."
[Fox] "And you think they're reliable?"
[M.A.R.S.]
"The Church is one of those rare organizations that don't mask incompetency behind fancy AI or some state of the art tech. They don't have any of that. They get the job done."
A pause.
[M.A.R.S.]
"And they aren't fond of AI, obviously, but they despise the Swarm. And they tolerate me because I'm... useful."
She snorted.
[Fox] "That's one word for you."
[M.A.R.S.]
"Listen carefully. You cannot sound loyal to me. Understood?"
She nodded.
[M.A.R.S.]
"Offer them a single service. One favour. A one-time 'I owe you.' and in return, they'll guarantee your safety from all threats until you reach Deepstrata."
[Fox] "Why would they agree to that?"
[M.A.R.S.]
"Because after decades of stagnance, the world is shifting. They feel it. And you, apparently, are a part of it."
She frowned.
[Fox] "What's that supposed to mean?"
M.A.R.S. didn't answer. Instead,
[M.A.R.S.]
"Connecting you now."
Static filled her ears. A quiet chime. Then a voice.
Calm. Measured. Ageless.
[???] "Young fox, you require sanctuary"
It wasn't a question.
[Fox] "I need passage. Protection, until Deepstrata. In return, I can provide a favor."
[???] "A favor. Your kind rarely offer such currency."
[Fox] "My... kind?"
[???] "People who survive alone. People who owe nothing. People who can vanish without leaving debts behind. A favor from such a person matters."
She swallowed.
[Fox] "Do we have a deal?"
Silence.
Long enough to make her pulse rise.
Then—
[???] "One favor. Any time. Any place. In exchange, we shield you from all paths of harm until you reach the Metro."
Her throat tightened.
[Fox] "...Fine."
Another quiet pause.
[???] "Welcome under our wing, child. Walk knowing you are watched."
The line cut, leaving her alone with the cold air and a faint tremor in her chest.
M.A.R.S. spoke softly in her ear, almost gentle.
[M.A.R.S.]
"Remember. I am your guide. And I am your guardian."
She shivered. Not because of the cold. But because she didn't know whether that was a promise... or a threat.