We are running on borrowed time and empty rations, and if someone does not patch up these refugees soon, we will not even have an army left to lead into the next battle."I know the medical supplies are critically low, Ethan, but yelling at the supply officer is not going to magically manufacture antibiotics out of the salty coastal air," Evelyn snapped back, her voice tight with a fatigue that went straight down to her bones."I am not yelling at the supply officer, Evelyn, I am stating a brutal fact that everyone in this tent is trying to ignore!" I shot back, rubbing a hand over my stubbled jaw as I looked around the damp, canvas-walled medical tent set up on the rocky shores of our temporary coastal base."We are all well aware of the facts, Commander, which is why we are rationing what little we salvaged from the polar outpost down to the last pill," Admiral Garrick interrupted, stepping into the tent with a heavy wooden crate balanced on his shoulder."Admiral, you shouldn't be

Teeth like razor-sharp alloy and eyes burning with synthetic malice descend upon us from the dark canopy before I can even draw my first breath."Fire, open fire, do not let them land!" Miller roared, squeezing the trigger of his rifle and unleashing a blinding torrent of kinetic rounds straight into the chest of the lead bio-mechanical beast.The bullets struck the creature's matte-black armor plates with a harsh, metallic ringing sound, flattening instantly and bouncing harmlessly off the hide as if it were made of solid diamond."My rounds are doing nothing, their plating is deflecting everything we throw at them!" Shae cried out, desperately sweeping her weapon barrel to track a second beast leaping sideways from a glowing fern frond."Don't waste kinetic energy on their armor plates, aim for the optical sensors and the joint junctions!" Calla yelled back, raising her hands to channel a bright wave of host-energy that slamm

The green chemical haze burns through the seals of my respirator with a cruel, suffocating heat that makes every intake of breath feel like swallowing crushed glass, clawing at my throat until my chest heaves with violent spasms."The filters are failing, Ethan, this gas is eating right through the carbon lining of my mask!" Shae coughed violently, her knees buckling as she slid down the cold steel wall of the sealed chamber, her fingers clawing desperately at her collar."Don't breathe it in, cover your mouth with your jacket and stay low to the floor!" Miller shouted, kneeling beside her while his own chest heaved with ragged, painful gasps, his rifle clattering uselessly onto the wet concrete."Staying low isn't going to save us when the entire room is turning into a gas chamber with no way out, Miller!" Calla cried out, slamming her palms against the thick glass cylinder nearest to her in helpless frustration as her vision blurred at the

Those crimson laser dots burning against my chest are the only things keeping the shadows from swallowing my last breath."Do not move a single muscle, Ethan, because if even one of those red beams twitches, your heart is going to be splattered across this bark," Miller hissed from the branch below, his voice tight and trembling with a terrifying realization of our helplessness."I am not planning on moving anywhere, Miller, but I am also not planning on standing here and letting them execute us like targets on a firing range," I shot back, keeping my eyes locked on the masked leader standing ten yards away on the swaying bough."They have the high ground and the optical advantage, Ethan, if we trigger them now, we are dead before we hit the ground," Calla warned, her hands glowing with a faint, unsteady psychic aura that flickered like a dying candle in the humid wind."They only have the advantage as long as we play by their

The raw, agonizing surge of current tearing through my hands vanishes instantly beneath the deafening roar of a thousand tons of exploding rock."Ethan, grab my hand, the whole cliff face is shearing off into the canyon!" Evelyn screamed over the roaring cataclysm, throwing her body forward and wrapping her arms around my waist to yank me away from the crumbling ledge."The charges, they caught the primary thermal core!" I gasped, coughing violently as a thick wall of grey smoke and superheated air rushed up from the exhaust port, nearly blinding us both as we scrambled backward onto safer stone."Never mind the charges, look down at the valley, the entire underground Bio-Forge is collapsing inward on itself!" Miller shouted, sprinting up from the lower path with his rifle slung over his shoulder and his face smeared with soot and dirt.Below us, the lush, bioluminescent jungle was tearing itself apart. The ground beneath the a