The air inside the primary processing hub was heavy with heat.Even with the smelting vats dormant, the ambient temperature in the cavernous space lingered uncomfortably high, radiating from the industrial slag and the heavy titanium cooling grids.Sergeant Rael hit the manual override on the wall panel. With a grinding groan, the thick circular vault doors shut, sealing the twelve surviving Ash Walkers and Cyrus inside the refinery."They'll cut through that in five minutes," Rael warned, his breath catching as he adjusted his grip on the heavy repeater."Let them," Cyrus said. He looked up at the maze of suspended catwalks crisscrossing the space thirty feet above the main deck. "Height is our only remaining advantage. If we stay on the floor, their numbers will overwhelm our ammunition reserves. Get your men onto the upper scaffolding. Establish intersecting firing lanes over the main ore containers."Rael didn't hesitate. He began issuing rapid hand signals and curt digitized orde

Sergeant Rael stared at the heavy freight elevators, the word hanging in the sweltering air of the refinery."A dreadnought," Rael repeated, the digitized rasp of his voice failing to mask his disbelief. He looked at the five battered Ash Walkers standing behind him, then back to Cyrus. "Vanguard Command reported skirmishes. Boarding actions. A dreadnought requires a Class-4 shipyard and thousands of engineers. You’re telling me the Othari are building a capital ship in a mining outpost?""I am telling you they are adapting your infrastructure," Cyrus said. He walked toward the massive elevator doors. "The synapse-commander wasn't simply coordinating infantry. It had been directing the logistics behind the assault. The boarding specialists were sent up here to secure the raw materials—titanium, tungsten, specialized alloys. They are feeding it all into the lower bays."Rael followed him, his boots crunching over the scorched ferrocrete. "If they launch a dreadnought from the Terminus

Kinetic rounds chewed through the rusted iron of the upper crossbeam, scattering jagged metal shrapnel across Cyrus’s shoulders.The Vanguard’s elevated position was rapidly disintegrating. Below, the surviving Othari boarding specialists and armed worker-drones were laying down a dense, overlapping blanket of suppressive fire. The two Goliath-class mechs were repositioning, their heavy hydraulic servos whining as they attempted to find an upward firing angle that wouldn't compromise the surrounding scaffolding."We are pinned!" Rael shouted over the clatter of incoming fire, pressing his back flat against a heavy steel support pillar. "If those Goliaths get a clear line of sight, they’ll melt this entire grid!"Cyrus didn't seek cover behind the pillar. He stayed low to the grated catwalk, his Agility 13 tracking the rapid cycling of the incoming kinetic rounds. He watched the overlapping firing lanes, noting the subtle micro-hesitations as the worker-drones paused to reload their sc

The sound of tearing membrane did not remain isolated to a single pod. It cascaded through the colossal access shaft, a rippling wave of wet, fibrous snapping that echoed like heavy rainfall against titanium.All around them, the dim red bioluminescence illuminated the waking hive. Hundreds of bone-white spikes pierced the resinous sacs clinging to the circular walls."Go!" Cyrus commanded.He sprinted onto the grated structural bridge, his boots ringing loudly against the metal. Sergeant Rael and the five Ash Walkers followed instantly, abandoning stealth for raw speed.The bridge spanned fifty yards over an abyss that dropped straight down into the bowels of the dreadnought. Ahead, the massive central service column hung in the center of the shaft, anchored by heavy Vanguard cables and atmospheric pipes.Twenty yards into their sprint, the first wave of antibodies dropped from the walls.They angled their descents, using their scythe-like limbs to catch the suspension cables anchori

The crimson optics of the corrupted medical-mech flared, casting a blood-red glare across the polished ferrocrete of the concourse. A sound erupted from its internal speakers—a digitized, skipping loop of a Vanguard medical emergency siren, distorted by biological interference into a mechanical shriek."Contact front!" Sergeant Rael bellowed. "Focus fire on the infantry! Leave the machine to Vane!"The five Ash Walkers didn't hesitate, immediately fanning out behind the scattered remnants of residential barricades. The roar of kinetic repeaters shattered the tense silence of the corridor. The six Othari boarding specialists dropped the heavy biological sac they were carrying. It hit the ground with a wet thud, spilling pale, fibrous biological material across the tiles. The aliens raised scavenged kinetic shields, forming a tight phalanx to deflect the Vanguard barrage.But the corrupted medical-mech didn't seek cover. It accelerated.Built originally for rapid trauma response in zero