"Jaxel! Move all civilians to Sector Six! Reinforce the gates with the steel plates from the tanker trucks!" Bastian roared. He turned to Valerius, who was still standing frozen beside Grimbolt. "And you, Prince... come with me. Now." The smoke from the exploded reconnaissance drone still lingered in the air of the Rust Hole's hall, leaving a sharp smell of ozone and deep anxiety. The atmosphere, which had been full of victorious cheers, had now turned into a tense military scramble. Bastian shouted instructions, his voice booming over the sound of hammers striking iron barricades. Valerius followed Bastian into a small room behind the main stage. The room was filled with old maps and bottles containing a pungent yellow liquid. Bastian poured the liquid into two rough metal cups and handed one to Valerius. "Drink. It's synthetic apple cider," Bastian said, hi

"This is project legion," said Grimbolt.The roaring sound of lathes and sparks from plasma welding tools filled the air of Edna's stuffy workshop. Under the shadows of the cave ceiling vibrating from the explosions outside, a madness was taking place.Project Legion, as Grimbolt called it, was no longer just a theory. Hundreds of Servant-04 series service robots that were previously stiff and rusted were now lined up like corpses waiting to be resurrected."Valerius! Stop staring at that cable and connect it to the steam converter!" shouted Edna, her voice almost drowned out by the roar of the compressor. "We are not assembling children's toys! These are makeshift killing machines!"Valerius flinched, his oil-stained hands immediately grabbed a large copper cable and pressed it into the rear socket of a loader robot unit."I am trying, Edna!" he said, "but this robot's chassis is already very thin, the weld won't stick!"Edna stopped her activity for a moment. Her hand reached for so

The reddish light from the giant combustion furnace reflected on the walls of the damp cave. The sound of hammer clinking that was usually regular now turned into a clamor.Everyone, from the children collecting nails to the old people twisting wire, worked endlessly. In the middle of the hall, the row of servant robots that had been repaired and remodified stood stiffly.Valerius stood on top of a pile of cargo crates, looking at the workers who were now holding the control levers of the heavy machines. Their faces were covered in soot, and their eyes radiated fear that they tried to hide behind the roar of steam."You look like a statue thinking of a way to crack, Valerius."Edna's voice was heard from under the crate. She was adjusting the cables on Valerius's conductor gloves."I was just thinking, Edna. They are not soldiers. They are plumbers, welders, and scavengers," Valerius whispered in a hoarse voice. "And I am asking them to fight Vexxos Walkers.""In the Grind Valley, the

"Sector Three Workshop Door! Open now!" roared Edna through the internal loudspeaker.BOOM! CRAAACK!The giant steel door covering the deepest workshop area exploded open, not because it was opened automatically, but rather because it was rammed from the inside. From behind the billowing hot steam rising high, the ranks of the Legion began to emerge.They were slow, they were ugly, and they were covered in rusted iron patches, yet they carried a different aura of threat."Advance, my junk children!" shouted Valerius, his loud voice filling the hall. "Show them what the machines you underestimate can do!"Hundreds of modified servant robots rolled out first. Their movements were synchronized under the control of Grimbolt's Swarm-Link. Some of them had industrial nail guns mounted on their shoulders, others held heat cutters glowing red."Tactical analysis: Targets locked," Grimbolt's voice echoed, his eyes glowing bright white. "Pincer formation. Light units, attack the Praetorians' le

The whistling sound of the steam artillery missiles plummeting from the surface sounded like the screams of demons tearing through the cave ceiling. The next second, a massive explosion hit the top of the residential sector, sending thousands of tons of rocks and hot dust toward the main hall."Get down! Everyone get down!" roared Bastian through the suffocating dust.Valerius felt his body held tightly by Grimbolt's steel arms. The sound of falling rocks hitting the Sentinel's back sounded like a hammer striking an iron anvil.Around them, the steam lamps shattered, leaving the cave in the dimness of the red light of fires that began to ignite the piles of garbage."Valerius, the cave's structural integrity has drastically decreased by forty percent in the last minute," Grimbolt reported. "Vexxos missiles are not targeting our combat units. They are targeting the weak points of the ceiling to bury us alive.""Damn it! They really don't care about that fuel anymore!" shouted Cogs, who