The jungle didn't sleep, but it did breathe.
High in the Fog Layer of Sector 8, the air was a thick, suspended ocean of white mist. Visibility was limited to five meters. Sound was damp, muffled by the moisture, turning every snap of a twig into a gunshot.
Rix crouched on a moss-covered branch, his blue-ringed eyes piercing the gloom. He wasn't alone.
Beside him crouched a Wolf-Kin.
The Beast-Man was seven feet tall even while hunched. He wore armor made of woven vines and boar leather. His fur was a mottled gray that blended perfectly with the fog. He didn't carry a gun; he carried a pair of tomahawks made of sharpened flint.
"You breathe too loud, Little Mouse," the Wolf-Kin whispered. His name was Fang, the lead scout of King Leomon's tribe.
"Rix is quiet!" Rix hissed back, offended. "Rix is ghost. Rix is void."
"You smell like oil and processed meat," Fang sniffed. "To the Union machines, you are invisible. To the jungle, you are a beacon."
Fang reached out and rubbed a handful of pungent, crushed leaves onto Rix's fur.
"Mask the scent," Fang grunted. "Smell like the tree. Move like the wind."
Rix sniffed his arm. It smelled like mint and rotting compost. He wrinkled his nose, but he nodded. He was learning. The Dregs knew how to hide in trash; the Beast-Kin knew how to hide in life.
"Target ahead," Varian's voice crackled over the secure comms.
Varian and Gorgon were moving on the ground level—or rather, the dense root-mat that formed the floor of this specific canopy layer. Varian's Abyssal Armor was active, but the helmet was retracted. He wanted to hear the world.
Through the fog, a shape emerged.
The Tower of Silence.
It wasn't a building; it was a spike. A black metal needle driven into the heart of the jungle, rising two hundred meters into the sky. It was unmistakably Union architecture—brutal, efficient, and ugly.
At its peak, a massive dish rotated slowly. It didn't emit sound. It emitted Silence.
[Environmental Hazard: Sonic Dampening Field.][Effect: Neutralizes biological echolocation and long-range radio frequencies.]
"I can feel it," Echo's voice whimpered over the comms from the safety of the ship. "It feels like... cotton in my head. I can't hear the birds."
"That's why Leomon hates it," Varian whispered. "It blinds them. The Beast-Kin rely on hearing and vibration. This tower makes them deaf."
He looked at the base of the tower.
A perimeter fence of laser-grids surrounded the clearing. Inside, automated turrets scanned the fog.
"Standard Union outpost," Varian noted. "Efficient. Cold."
"And guarded," Fang growled from the tree above. "Look closer, Sovereign. At the gate."
Varian squinted.
Standing in front of the main blast doors was a shape.
It was hunched, massive, and still. At first glance, it looked like a boulder. Then, it moved.
It was a Gorilla. A Silverback, easily twelve feet tall.
But half its face was replaced by a steel plate. Its massive arms were reinforced with hydraulic pistons. A heavy minigun was mounted to its shoulder, wired directly into its brain stem.
[Genetic Archivist Scan.][Subject: Beast-Kin (Gorilla Variant).][Status: Cybernetically Enslaved.][Designation: Unit Kong-09.]
"That's him," Fang's voice was thick with grief. "That is Goliath. Leomon's brother."
"The Union captured him?"
"They took him during the last raid," Fang spat. "They hollowed him out. They turned a King into a watchdog."
"Leomon said to kill him," Gorgon reminded Varian, hefting his hammer. "To end his shame."
Varian looked at the cybernetic beast. He saw the red light of the Union control chip glowing on the Gorilla's temple.
He remembered Saint Celestine—the brain in the jar. He remembered Silas—the boy turned into a weapon.
"We don't kill victims," Varian said, his voice hard. "We break chains."
He tapped his comms. "Architect. Are you seeing this?"
"I see it," The Architect's voice buzzed, sounding excited. "Union Neural-Link, Model 4. Crude but effective. It overrides the frontal cortex with aggression algorithms."
"Can you hack it?"
"Remotely? No. The encryption is hard-lined. But..." The Architect paused. "If you can plug a Data-Spike directly into the port on his skull... I can rewrite the IFF (Identify Friend/Foe) codes. I can give him his brain back."
"Directly into his skull," Varian sighed. "While he's trying to rip my arms off. Perfect."
He looked at his team.
"New plan. We aren't assassinating the guard. We're performing surgery."
"Rix! Fang! Disable the turrets!" Varian ordered.
"On it!"
Rix and the Wolf-Scout dropped from the trees. They didn't shoot. Rix used his Phase-Shift to walk through the laser grid. He scrambled up the turret tower and jammed a piece of scrap metal into the rotation gears.
GRIND-SNAP.
Fang threw his tomahawks. They struck the sensors of the second turret, blinding it.
"Breach!"
Varian and Gorgon charged from the fog.
The Cyber-Gorilla, Goliath, snapped to attention. His organic eye was dull and glazed; his cybernetic eye zoomed and whirred.
"THREAT DETECTED. ENGAGE."
The voice coming from the Gorilla wasn't animal. It was a synthesized computer voice broadcasting from a speaker in his throat.
Goliath roared—a sound that merged biological rage with mechanical feedback.
The minigun on his shoulder spun up.
BRRRRRRT.
A stream of high-caliber tracers tore up the ground.
"Gorgon! Shield!"
Gorgon slid in front of Varian. He planted his tower shield.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG.
The bullets hammered against the shield, chipping the stone. Gorgon grunted, sliding back inches in the mud.
"He hits harder than the mechs!" Gorgon yelled.
"Keep him busy!"
Varian flanked.
"Onyx. Speed."
The Abyssal Armor streamlined. Varian moved like a blur of gray light.
He closed the distance.
Goliath saw him. The massive cyborg turned, swinging a fist the size of an anvil.
Varian slid under the blow. He thrust the Sun-Piercer.
[Catalyst: Frost-Core.]
He didn't aim to kill. He struck the Gorilla's hydraulic elbow joint.
CRACKLE.
The ice flashed. The hydraulic fluid froze. The arm locked up.
"ERROR. HYDRAULIC FAILURE."
Goliath roared in frustration. He swung his other arm—the organic one.
BAM.
It clipped Varian.
The impact was immense. Varian flew ten meters, crashing into a tree root. His armor absorbed most of it, but his ribs groaned.
[Armor Integrity: 90%.]
"He's strong," Varian gasped, scrambling up. "Architect! I need an opening!"
"I need access to the port!" The Architect screamed back. "It's on the left temple! Under the metal plate!"
Goliath charged. He was fast for a tank. He raised his frozen arm and smashed it against a rock, shattering the ice to free the joint.
"Gorgon! Wrestle him!"
Gorgon dropped his shield. He dropped his hammer.
"You want to wrestle?" Gorgon roared, the Crimson Paladin armor flaring red. "Let's wrestle!"
The two titans collided.
Stone met Flesh and Steel.
They grappled, hand to hand. Gorgon was stronger, but Goliath had leverage and hydraulics. They tore up the ground, smashing through trees and ferro-crete barriers.
"Hold him still!" Varian shouted.
"I'm trying!" Gorgon grunted, holding Goliath's wrists. "He's slippery!"
Goliath headbutted Gorgon. Metal met stone. Sparks flew.
Varian saw his chance.
He sprinted. He didn't attack. He jumped.
He landed on Goliath's back.
He grabbed the metal plating on the Gorilla's head.
"UNAUTHORIZED CONTACT. PURGE."
Goliath thrashed. The minigun on his shoulder swiveled inward, aiming at Varian's face.
"Oh no you don't," Varian growled.
"Onyx! Jam it!"
A tendril of black liquid shot from Varian's armor into the minigun barrel. The metal hardened instantly.
CLICK-BANG.
The gun misfired. The barrel exploded, blowing the weapon off Goliath's shoulder.
Goliath screamed in pain.
Varian jammed his thumb into the seam of the metal plate on the Gorilla's skull.
"Open wide."
He channeled the Solar Core. His thumb glowed white-hot. He melted the seal.
He ripped the maintenance hatch open.
Beneath the metal, wired directly into the gray matter of the brain, was a blinking red chip.
[Union Control Module.]
"Rix! The Spike!"
Rix dropped from the sky, holding a Data-Spike—the hacking tool they had bought in the arena.
"Catch!"
Rix threw it. Varian caught it mid-air.
He slammed the spike into the chip's port.
ZZZZT.
Goliath went rigid. His eyes rolled back. He fell forward, taking Gorgon and Varian down with him.
Silence fell over the clearing.
"Did we kill him?" Gorgon asked, pushing the massive weight of the Gorilla off his chest.
"Architect?" Varian tapped his comms. "Talk to me."
"I'm in," The Architect's voice was frantic. "Bypassing the firewall. Deleting the aggression subroutines. Restoring memory pathways... Done."
The red light on Goliath's temple turned green.
Then, it turned off.
The Gorilla stirred.
He pushed himself up. He looked at his metal hands. He touched the ruined minigun mount on his shoulder.
He looked at Gorgon. Then at Varian.
The mechanical whir of his cybernetic eye focused.
"Where..."
The voice was rough, deep, and distinctly not synthesized. It was a biological voice, rusty from disuse.
"Where... is... the... sky?"
Varian stepped forward, retracting his helmet.
"You are in the Fog Layer, Goliath. You are free."
Goliath blinked. Tears—real tears—welled in his organic eye.
"Leomon?" he asked.
"He sent us," Varian said. "He thought you were gone. He wanted to end your pain."
Goliath let out a low, shuddering breath. He stood up to his full height. He towered over them all.
He looked at the Tower of Silence looming above them. The source of the noise in his head.
"Loud," Goliath growled. He bared his fangs. "Too loud."
He looked at Varian.
"Break it?"
Varian smiled. He summoned the Sun-Piercer.
"Together."
Destroying the tower wasn't a tactical operation. It was a demolition.
They planted Scrap-Jack's Seismic Charges at the base of the spire.
"Fire in the hole!" Rix squealed, running for cover.
BOOOOM.
The foundation pillars shattered.
The massive black needle tilted.
It groaned—a sound of twisting metal that echoed across the jungle.
Slowly, majestically, the Tower of Silence fell.
It crashed into the canopy below, taking a swath of trees with it.
The silence that followed wasn't the artificial silence of the dampener field. It was the natural silence of the jungle holding its breath.
Then, the birds started singing.
The insects buzzed. The wind howled.
The jamming signal was gone.
"Comms are clear!" Iron-Jaw reported from the Sovereign. "I'm picking up signals from the entire sector. And... I have a map update."
Varian looked at Goliath. The massive cyborg was sitting on a stump, listening to the birds.
"Thank you," Goliath rumbled.
"Don't thank me yet," Varian said. "We need to get you home."
The return to the Beast-Kin village was tense.
When the Iron Sovereign rolled back into view, the warriors raised their spears. They saw the massive shape of Goliath walking beside the tank.
"Monster!" a Bear-Kin shouted. "Union machine!"
King Leomon stepped forward. He held a spear made of white bone. His eyes were hard.
"You bring the machine back?" Leomon roared at Varian. "I told you to bring me his head!"
Goliath stepped forward. He dropped to one knee. He bowed his head, exposing the metal plate and the scar where the minigun used to be.
"Brother," Goliath whispered.
Leomon froze. He dropped his spear.
The White Lion walked up to the Cyborg Gorilla. He touched the cold metal of Goliath's face.
"Goliath?" Leomon's voice cracked.
"I... woke up," Goliath said.
Leomon roared. It wasn't a roar of anger. It was a roar of grief and joy. He embraced his brother, hugging the metal and the flesh.
The Beast-Kin lowered their weapons. Some howled in solidarity.
Varian watched from the deck of the Sovereign.
"Good work," Venom said softly beside him. "You made a friend."
"I made an ally," Varian corrected, though he was smiling.
Leomon turned to Varian. He wiped his eyes.
"You have paid the toll, Sovereign. And more."
He pointed south.
"The path to the Dragon King is open. But be warned."
Leomon's expression darkened.
"The Dragon King is not like us. He is not flesh and blood. He is... Old World."
"Old World?"
"He was here before the Union. Before the Church. He guards the Heart Key. And he does not sleep."
Leomon reached into his cloak. He pulled out a map. A real map, drawn on skin.
"Take this. It shows the Thermal Vents. The Dragon feeds on heat. Follow the heat, and you will find his throne."
Varian took the map.
"We leave at dawn," Varian said.
"One more thing," Leomon said. He looked at Goliath.
"My brother... he cannot stay here. The village... we don't have the parts to keep him alive. His heart is a battery. If it fails, he dies."
Leomon looked at Scrap-Jack, who was tinkering with the Sovereign's treads.
"Your tribe understands the metal. Can you... keep him?"
Varian looked at Goliath. The cyborg looked back, hopeful.
"He's a tank," Gorgon grinned. "I like tanks."
"He's family," Varian said to Leomon. "He comes with us."
As the Iron Sovereign rumbled away from the village, descending deeper into the Thermal Layer, Varian stood on the bridge.
He had a new soldier: Goliath (Heavy Weapons / Tank). He had a map. He had a clear shot at the Third Key.
But as they moved deeper, the air grew hotter. The fog burned away.
The jungle changed. The trees were no longer green. They were red. Petrified wood glowing with internal heat.
[Environmental Warning.][Temperature: 50°C and rising.][Sector 9: The Magma-Jungle.]
"We're getting close," Silas whispered, looking at the thermal readings. "The heart of the world."
Varian gripped the Sun-Piercer. The spear was vibrating. It liked the heat.
"Let's go say hello to the King," Varian said.