2025-08-08 00:23:02
Neo MoroengRachel’s infection begins to accelerate, with green luminescent veins spreading from the baboon bite. Her transformation is more than physical—it’s biological rewriting, a terrifying reminder of the Rakes’ hybridization tactics. As the team pushes through the ruined outskirts of Mafikeng, tension mounts: dwindling supplies, increased alien patrols, and Rachel’s deterioration create constant pressure. A breakthrough comes when !Guruseb discovers an old data log at a ruined military base. Rachel activates it, revealing the location of a long-abandoned experimental launchpad. It’s off-grid, forgotten—making it the perfect place to attempt escape. The chapter ends with fragile hope, but Rachel’s worsening state and the memory of her momentary snarl warn that time is running out. The mission is no longer just about escape—it’s about saving Rachel and uncovering the aliens' deeper motives.
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Chapter 42: The Scramble
The terrain had been a punishing blur of fractured rock and thorn-choked scrub for days — but all of it narrowed now to one valley. Rachel’s green-lit wound throbbed with a feverish pulse, her steps faltering more often. She gripped the cracked data log like it was her lifeline.“I think… we’re close,” she rasped.!Guruseb froze ahead, raising a hand. “The silence is wrong,” he murmured.We crested the ridge — and there it was.The launchpad. Rusted, leaning, a relic from before the Great Shift. The domed hangar loomed against the dying light, its surface choked with vines, the steel skeleton beneath scarred by decades of storms.But it was guarded.Dozens of mutant baboons prowled the cracked tarmac, their black eyes like pits, their temple chips glowing faintly — each pulse in perfect sync. Their patrol pattern was deliberate, mechanical. They weren’t searching. They were keeping something in.“They’ve claimed it,” Rachel whispered, voice trembling.No time for debate. !Guruseb slip
Chapter 41: The Lost Shuttle
The green luminescence on Rachel's arm pulsed with a sickening rhythm, a stark, alien glow against her pale skin. It spread steadily, a network of glowing veins branching from the baboon bite like a grotesque, living map. Every few minutes, she'd wince—sharp, shallow breaths—as her body stiffened under the strain. This wasn’t infection. It was mutation. Her biology wasn’t deteriorating; it was being rewritten.And it was my fault. I’d dragged her through this. I’d brought her into the war zone.“How are you holding up?” I asked, even though the answer was written across her face.“It burns,” she whispered, avoiding my eyes. “But also… it’s like my blood is cold. Like something’s slowing me down… and speeding something else up.”She didn’t say what. She didn’t need to.!Guruseb kept a few paces ahead, quiet and alert. His silence wasn’t indifference—it was calculation. He kept glancing back at Rachel, his eyes narrowing slightly every time the green glow brightened. He knew, like I did
Chapter 40: Converging Threats
The sun cast long, skeletal shadows across the broken terrain of Mafikeng, painting the ruins in hues of bruised purple and fading orange. My head still throbbed, a dull echo of the fugue, but the ringing in my ears had receded to a manageable hum. Clarity came at a cost. The absence of Aris pressed against my chest like a weight. Every twisted beam, every shattered window whispered his name.Rachel walked to my left, her energy rifle held ready, eyes scanning every ruined corner. Her jaw was set, the grief wrapped tight around her like armor. !Guruseb, silent to my right, moved with the lethal grace of a predator. Where I faltered, he remained precise. Alert. Steady.“They’ll consolidate around the launchpad,” I said, voice still rough. “It’s their primary hub now. They'll expect retaliation.”Mafikeng—once a thriving urban sprawl—was now a maze of decay and stubborn regrowth. Vines crawled up cracked facades. Wild grass pushed through fractured pavement. Steel bones of buildings str
Chapter 39: The Fugue State
The explosion still echoed in my mind, a thunderous crack that had shattered more than just concrete and steel. A high-pitched, insistent whine rang in my ears—a sharp, piercing note that drowned out everything else. My vision blurred at the edges. The world around me was a smeared canvas of gray ash, firelight, and shifting shadows. I stumbled forward. My legs moved on autopilot. My body wasn't mine.My mind had become a broken circuit, firing phantom signals. The familiar overlays of mission logs and vitals—always there in my HUD—were gone. My thoughts were like strangers, whispering through static.Rachel’s voice buzzed faintly through the haze. Her lips moved. She clutched my arms, trying to anchor me—but I couldn’t hear her. Not properly. Her voice was distant, underwater. !Guruseb’s face entered my field of view, his expression carved in worry. He spoke, too—but it was muffled, like sound behind glass.I couldn’t answer. My thoughts were drowning in fog. The high, chitinous shri
Chapter 38: Price of Freedom
The tower’s steel door slammed shut behind us, its thunderous clang echoing like a final verdict. We were free—no longer prisoners of the Nova Corrective Facility—but it felt more like we had traded one cage for a far wider, deadlier one. Behind us, the facility—part alien monolith, part relic of Earth’s forgotten infrastructure—lay in ruin, shattered across the R503, about seven kilometers from Mahikeng’s CBD.“We have to move!” I barked, adrenaline still crashing through me. “They’ll swarm this place in minutes.”We were on the outskirts of Dihatshwane Village. The name itself felt like a warning. The R503 stretched before us, a cracked and ruined ribbon of tar lined by the skeletal remains of a small industrial park. But it wasn’t the silence that chilled me—it was the scent. Not just the metallic tang of alien air, but something else… musky, primal. Baboons.Dr. Kim motioned us forward, urgency etched across her face. “This way—those service buildings!”We bolted, slipping between
Chapter 37: The Red Ground Rebellion
The first sensation was cold. It seeped into my bones from the graphene bench beneath me, a stark and sterile chill that was the opposite of death. I swept my body for wounds, surprised to find only the phantom aches of a brutal impact. I was alive. I was lying in a transparent cell, a fiberglass cubicle framed by thin carbon tubes. My mind, still swimming in a fog of ozone and desperation, slowly began to piece together my surroundings.My gaze drifted to the necklace around my neck, a small pendant made from a fragment of the Red Rock. I wrapped my fingers around it, the familiar weight a tangible anchor to a life I'd left behind. A memory, sharp and vivid, cut through the haze. Jarek’s smile, his infectious enthusiasm for the Martian landscape, our shared sense of wonder at the Rock’s unique properties. The bittersweet reminder of what I'd lost hit me with a physical pang. I held the pendant for a moment longer, a symbol of my past, a tangible connection to the Martian world, a sile
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