[Location: The Jungle Interior - Sector 4] [Time: Day 4. 04:00 Hours.]
We moved in a tactical column, navigating by the pale light of the shattered moon. The countdown on Vesper's datapad read: 02:14:33. Two hours left until whatever that signal was broadcasting went live.
Silas took point with her revolver. I covered the rear with my makeshift scrap-metal spear. Vesper, Lyra, and Rook stayed in the center.
The jungle wasn't just hot; it was alive.
"Humidity is 98%," Vesper noted, wiping condensation from her glasses. "My equipment is already showing signs of corrosion. This atmosphere is highly acidic."
"Quiet," Silas hissed. She raised a fist. We froze.
Ahead of us, the massive ferns had been trampled. Deep, three-toed claw marks gouged the bark of an ancient mahogany tree, oozing bioluminescent sap.
"Something big came through here recently," Silas whispered, tracing the grooves.
"And it was heavy," I added, examining the ground. The footprints were spaced far apart. A bipedal predator. Fast.
"Thermal scan," Vesper tapped her datapad, the screen illuminating her pale face. "I'm picking up... five... no, six heat signatures. Cold-blooded. Moving fast. They're surrounding us."
"Defensive perimeter!" Silas barked.
The bushes exploded.
They were Raptors—but not dinosaurs. They were bio-mechanical hybrids. Scaled flesh fused with rusted metal plating. Their eyes were glowing cybernetic red lenses, and their teeth were jagged steel.
"Contact!" Silas opened fire.
BLAM! BLAM!
One of the creatures took a high-caliber round to the chest, stumbled, and kept coming. It leaped right at Rook.
"Get back!" I shouted.
I drove my spear into the creature's open mouth. It bit down, snapping the thick metal shaft in half like a twig. I kicked it away, activating my Ouroboros arm.
WHIRRR. The blue veins on my metal arm flared. I stepped into its next lunge and punched it squarely in the armored skull. Steel crunched against steel. The creature went down, twitching violently before its red eyes flickered out.
"They're armored!" Rook screamed, swinging his pipe at another one to keep it at bay.
"Aim for the optics!" I yelled. "The lenses are their weak points!"