The Iron Sovereign was a hundred meters of steel, spikes, and firepower. It was a fortress on treads, built to crush stone and defy gravity.
But here, in Sector 8, it looked like a toy.
The transition from the Obsidian Ravine to the Core Jungle was a shift in scale that the human mind struggled to comprehend. The trees here—Titan-Oaks and Sky-Ferns—didn't grow in feet or meters; they grew in kilometers. Their trunks were as wide as city blocks, their bark furrowed with canyons deep enough to hide a platoon of soldiers.
The Iron Sovereign wasn't driving on the ground. The "Ground" was three kilometers below them, a pitch-black abyss of rotting vegetation, toxic mold, and beasts too heavy to climb.
Instead, the land-ship was navigating the Canopy Highway.
"Starboard tread slipping!" Scrap-Jack screamed over the bridge intercom, wrestling with the steering yoke. "The bark is slick! It's covered in moss slime!"
Varian stood on the observation deck, gripping the railing as the massive vehicle tilted fifteen degrees to the right.
Below them, through the gaps in the titanic branches, clouds drifted lazily.
"Steady," Varian commanded, though his own heart was hammering against his ribs. "Trust the treads. The spikes are diamond-tipped."
With a groan of hydraulics and a shower of woodchips the size of dinner plates, the Sovereign regained its traction. The massive treads dug into the branch of the Titan-Oak, leaving a scar of fresh, green sap in their wake.
"We are driving on a tree," Gorgon muttered, standing beside Varian. The giant was pale—or as pale as a rock-man could get. He hated heights. "I like stone. Stone doesn't sway in the wind."
"It's not wind," Silas noted, leaning on his cane. He pointed to a massive leaf overhead, fluttering rhythmically. "It's breathing. The tree is breathing."
Varian looked out at the horizon. It was a sea of emerald green, stretching infinitely in all directions, illuminated by shafts of light filtering down from the distant Industrial Belt far above.
[Environmental Scan: Sector 8.][Oxygen Level: 140% (Hyper-Oxygenated).][Spore Count: 450 PPM (Filter Mask Recommended).][Gravity: 1.25x Standard.]
Everything felt heavy. Varian's armor weighed more. His breath came shorter. The hyper-oxygenated air made him feel dizzy and energetic at the same time, like a sugar rush that wouldn't end.
"How far to the Dragon King?" Varian asked.
"According to the map," Silas checked his wrist-comp, "we are in the Outer Ring. The Dragon King's nest is in the Central Canopies. About three days' travel. Assuming we don't get eaten by a squirrel the size of a tank."
"Don't jinx it," Gorgon grunted.
"Boss!" Rix dropped from the rigging above, landing on the railing. The Rat-Captain was twitching. "Sun is going. Not real sun. The Core Light. It dims."
Varian looked up. The ambient light from the upper sectors was fading, simulated by the massive geothermal vents cycling down for the "night."
In the Wilds, darkness didn't mean sleep. It meant the dinner bell.
"Combat stations," Varian ordered. "Lights out. We run dark. I don't want to be a beacon for every predator in the zip code."
Night fell in minutes.
The Iron Sovereign killed its headlights. The massive machine became a shadow creeping along the branch.
But total darkness was impossible in Sector 8.
As the artificial light faded, the jungle woke up.
It started with the moss. A soft, blue phosphorescence began to pulse on the bark of the Titan-Oaks. Then the leaves overhead ignited in veins of neon pink and purple.
Within an hour, the jungle was a psychedelic rave of bioluminescence.
"It's... mesmerizing," Echo whispered. She was sitting on the deck with Elian, listening to the hum of the forest. "It sounds like a million tiny bells."
"Don't look at the lights," Lady Venom warned, walking out onto the deck. She was wearing a sealed re-breather mask, her tail agitated. "In nature, bright colors mean 'I am poison' or 'Come here so I can eat you.' Usually both."
Varian activated the Abyssal Armor. The helmet slid over his face, filtering out the spore-heavy air and dampening the glare of the neon plants.
[Passive Sonar: Active.][Movement Detected: 360 degrees.]
"Something is out there," Varian said. "Lots of somethings."
Buzz.
A low vibrating sound, like a chainsaw idling, drifted from the darkness.
"Engine trouble?" Gorgon asked, looking back at the smokestack.
"No," Varian drew the Sun-Piercer. "That's not an engine. That's wings."
BUZZZZZZ.
The sound grew louder. Closer. It surrounded them.
"Rix, flare!" Varian shouted.
Rix fired a flare gun into the air. The red phosphorus ball illuminated the space above the ship.
The sky wasn't black. It was shifting.
Thousands of insects hovered above them.
They looked like mosquitoes, but they were the size of German Shepherds. Their bodies were bulbous sacks of translucent amber fluid. Their legs were long, spindly wires. And their proboscises were meter-long hypodermic needles tipped with diamond.
[Enemy Encounter.][Subject: Petrol-Mosquito (Swarm).][Rank: Servant (Peak).][Diet: Blood / Oil / Hydraulic Fluid.]
"Bugs!" Gorgon yelled. "Big bugs!"
The swarm dove.
They didn't just attack the people. They attacked the ship. They could smell the hot oil of the engine, the hydraulic fluid of the turret joints.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG.
The mosquitoes slammed into the hull. Their needles pierced the thick steel plating like it was cardboard.
"They're drilling into the fuel lines!" Scrap-Jack screamed over the comms. "Pressure dropping! Get them off!"
"Open fire!" Varian roared.
The Legion Dregs on the deck opened up with their M-55 Assault Rifles.
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT.
Muzzle flashes lit up the night. The mosquitoes exploded in showers of yellow ichor. But for every one that fell, three more took its place.
One mosquito landed on a turret gunner.
THWIP.
It drove its needle through the gunner's Roach-Shell armor and into his chest.
The man screamed as he was drained dry in seconds. He shriveled up like a discarded juice box.
"No!" Varian launched himself into the air.
[Void Wings: Manifest.]
He flew at the mosquito, slashing with the Sun-Piercer.
SHH-LICK.
He cut the insect in half.
But the swarm was overwhelming. They covered the ship like a blanket of buzzing death.
"My armor!" Gorgon shouted. He was covered in three mosquitoes. They weren't piercing his stone skin—they were piercing the Crimson Paladin armor plates, trying to drink the energy stored inside.
"They eat energy too!" Gorgon roared, grabbing two of them and crushing them in his fists. SPLAT.
Varian landed back on the deck. He looked at the chaos. Bullets were running low. The Dregs were panicking.
"We can't shoot them all!" Varian realized. "There are millions!"
He looked at Lady Venom.
"Venom! Do you have anything?"
Lady Venom was cowering under a steel overhang, swatting at a mosquito with her tail.
"My poisons are for blood!" she yelled. "These things eat acid for breakfast! I need a repellant!"
"Then make one!" Varian shouted, deflecting a needle with his spear. "Use the jungle! You're the Alchemist!"
Venom paused. She looked around.
She looked at a massive, glowing orange flower growing on the branch of the Titan-Oak next to the ship.
[Genetic Archivist Scan.][Flora: Sulfur-Pitcher Plant.][Property: Emits noxious sulfur gas to deter grazers.]
Venom's eyes lit up.
"Gorgon! Throw me!"
"What?"
"Throw me at that flower!"
Gorgon didn't ask. He grabbed Venom by the waist and hurled her across the gap.
Venom sailed through the air, her tail acting as a rudder. She landed inside the massive cup of the Pitcher Plant.
It was filled with sticky, orange sludge.
"Gross," she gagged.
She pulled a vial of Concentrated Ammonia from her belt.
"Let's see how you handle a chemical weapon," she hissed.
She smashed the ammonia into the sulfur sludge.
Reaction: Instant.
A cloud of thick, yellow smoke erupted from the flower. It expanded violently, heavier than air, rolling down onto the deck of the Iron Sovereign.
It smelled like rotten eggs and burning tires magnified by a thousand.
The mosquitoes hit the gas cloud.
SCREEE!
Their wings seized up. Their spiracles (breathing holes) clogged. They dropped out of the sky like stones, writhing on the deck in suffocation.
"Gas masks on!" Varian ordered, sealing his helmet.
The Legionnaires scrambled to pull on their re-breathers.
The cloud covered the ship. The buzzing stopped, replaced by the sound of thousands of giant bugs hacking and dying.
Varian walked through the yellow fog, stepping on twitching insects.
He reached the edge of the deck. Venom swung back over on a vine, looking smug but covered in orange slime.
"Effective," Varian nodded. "Smells terrible, but effective."
"That's my specialty," Venom wiped her face.
"Clean the deck!" Varian ordered the survivors. "Toss the bodies! Check the hull for leaks! We keep moving!"
They didn't stop. To stop in the Wilds was death.
By morning, the Sovereign had pushed through the dense foliage of the Outer Ring. The trees here were scarred, broken.
"Rix sees something," the Rat-Captain called from the crow's nest. "Big nest. In the fork of the tree."
Varian looked.
Wedged between two massive branches of a Titan-Oak was a structure. It looked like a bird's nest, but it was made of woven steel cables and torn sheets of metal.
"Stop the ship," Varian said.
"Why?" Silas asked. "It's just debris."
"No," Varian narrowed his eyes. "Those cables... they have serial numbers."
Varian, Gorgon, and Rix disembarked. They climbed the rough bark of the tree toward the nest.
Inside, they found a clutch of eggs.
There were three of them. Massive, oval objects the size of cars, covered in mud and moss.
"Dino eggs?" Gorgon asked, tapping one with his hammer. CLANK.
It rang like a bell.
"Metal," Gorgon frowned.
Varian wiped the mud off the shell.
Underneath, the surface wasn't shell. It was a hexagonal mesh of polymer and alloy. It pulsed with a faint, blue light.
[Genetic Archivist Scan.][Subject: Incubator Unit (Type-4).][Contents: Bio-Mechanical Larva.][Origin: Bio-Alchemy Union.]
Varian stepped back.
"They aren't eggs," Varian whispered. "They're pods. The Union isn't just exploring the Wilds. They're seeding it."
"Seeding it with what?" Silas asked, poking the pod with his cane.
"With weapons."
CRACK.
The pod Silas poked split open.
Steam hissed out.
Something uncurled from inside.
It looked like a panther, but its skin was sleek, black synthetic muscle. Its teeth were serrated steel. Its eyes were red optical sensors.
[Enemy: Prowler-Bot (Mk II).][Status: Newborn / Active.]
It hissed at Silas.
"Cute," Silas sneered.
The Prowler leaped.
Silas didn't move. The bat on his shoulder, Nosferatu, screeched—a sonic blast that stunned the bot mid-air.
Silas swung his cane. The handle concealed a blade.
SHINCK.
He decapitated the bot. Sparks and white fluid sprayed.
"Union tech," Silas confirmed, kicking the head. "High grade. This isn't old salvage. This was placed here recently."
Varian looked around the nest. He saw tire tracks. Massive ones.
"They're here," Varian said. "The Union has a forward base. Right under our noses."
RUMBLE.
The branch beneath them shook.
"Did you feel that?" Gorgon asked. "Another earthquake?"
"No," Varian looked up.
The "leaves" above them were moving.
But they weren't leaves.
A massive section of the jungle canopy—vines, moss, branches—began to rise. It stood up.
It was a camouflage net.
And underneath it was a walker.
A Union Siege-Walker.
It was fifty meters tall. Four legs. A main cannon the size of a train car. It was painted in digital jungle camo, almost invisible until it moved.
It swiveled its turret downward. Toward the Iron Sovereign.
[Target Lock Detected.]
"AMBUSH!" Varian screamed into his comms. "JACK! EVASIVE MANEUVERS!"
The Walker's cannon charged. A blue sun formed at the barrel.
BOOM.
The shot fired.
It missed the Sovereign by inches, obliterating a branch the size of a skyscraper. The shockwave knocked Varian, Gorgon, and Silas off their feet.
Wood splinters rained down like mortar fire.
From the surrounding jungle, more shapes de-cloaked.
Troop transports. Spider-Tanks. Drones.
A voice boomed from the Siege-Walker's loudspeaker.
"ATTENTION, FUGITIVES. THIS IS COMMANDER KAIN OF THE UNION RECLAMATION FORCE. SURRENDER THE SOVEREIGN, OR BE MULCHED."
Varian stood up on the edge of the nest. He looked at the army surrounding them.
"They were waiting for us," Varian realized. "The blockade at the Obsidian Ravine was a diversion. They knew we'd come this way."
He grabbed the Sun-Piercer.
"Get back to the ship!" Varian ordered. "We can't fight a siege walker on foot!"
"We can't outrun it either!" Gorgon yelled, pointing at the massive legs stepping over the branches.
"We don't have to outrun it," Varian's eyes glowed violet. "We just have to knock it down."
He looked at the tree they were standing on. The Titan-Oak.
"Gorgon. How hard can you hit?"
Gorgon looked at the massive branch supporting the Walker's weight. He grinned, the Crimson Paladin helmet sliding over his face.
"Hard enough."
"Then break the branch."