“Capital Outer Wall… breached.”
Khyren struck an activation sequence across the Black Hound's dash, and the rig roared to life with an engine shudder that rattled the decking. The canopy hissed shut with a powerful seal, muffling the distant screams that had begun to echo even within the fortified HQ.
“Strap in, Vex,” Khyren’s voice was a low growl, devoid of his usual arrogance, replaced by an urgent, focused intensity. He didn’t wait for a response, already throwing the Obsidian Hound into a sharp turn. The armored rig surged ahead, steel treads biting deep into polished plasteel before splintering the reinforced bay doors into scrap.
The fortress, once a bastion of order, was now a maelstrom of chaos. Hunters scrambled, their reactive plating clanking, pulse-rifles firing erratically into smoke-filled corridors. The air thrummed with a low-frequency hum, a sound that resonated deep in Xiraza’s bones. It was the precursor to a Rift-Goliath’s sonic attack. Chitter flattened six claws against Xiraza’s collar, emitting a sharp hiss.
“The Titan’s Gate,” Xiraza ground out, her voice tight. “That’s where they hit hardest. Get me to the primary command nexus.”
Khyren swung the wheel hard, navigating fallen girders and panicked squads. Near the perimeter, the fortress shield grid flickered out. The rig crashed through a pulverized barricade, throwing Xiraza hard against her harness while her suit's auxiliary battery hummed unevenly.
Beyond the collapsed arch of Titan’s Gate, where the ramparts had caved into gravel, loomed a beast plated in jet scales and jagged mineral spikes. It dwarfed the remaining perimeter bastions, forelegs tipped with talons the size of cargo haulers. A jagged maw split its chitin skull, leaking violet radiation.
[WARNING: UNIDENTIFIED RIFT-GOLIATH SIGNATURE. CLASSIFICATION: ‘VOID-EATER’.]
[ALERT: HIGH-ENERGY PULSE EMISSION DETECTED. ELECTROMAGNETIC DISRUPTION IMMINENT.]
The AI’s voice was drowned out by a terrifying, guttural roar that ripped through the air. The Void-Eater’s maw flared, discharging a wide shockwave into the fortifications. Rampart-mounted cannons shorted out as conduits burst in white sparks, and the power suits of nearby Vanguard infantry went dead black.
“An EMP roar,” Khyren snarled, fighting the steering column as the instrument panel sparked and restarted. “It knocked out the sensor sweep.”
Xiraza watched, horrified, as the Void-Eater took a ponderous step forward, its massive head sweeping across the battlefield. It wasn’t attacking the defenseless soldiers, not yet. Its multifaceted eyes, glowing with an eerie purple light, seemed to be searching for something. Or someone. Xiraza tasted bile as the pattern registered.
The beast’s multi-faceted eyes locked onto their cab. It wasn’t random. It was direct. And terrifyingly specific.
“It’s hunting *me*,” Xiraza whispered, her voice barely audible over the din of battle. The residual Scourge-Rot in her blood, Velza’s poison, was acting as a beacon. The mutated beasts were drawn to it, not to harm her directly, but to… absorb her. To incorporate the unique genetic signature of the ‘white moonlight’ into their monstrous forms. Velza hadn’t just made her sick; she’d marked her as a prize.
The Void-Eater rumbled, tilted its head, and charged across the rubble plain straight toward them.
A lightweight skirmish rig, painted in the gaudy gold and silver of Tyren Aegis, skidded directly into the creature's path. It was a stripped-down combat mech, barely armored. Jorik Tyren, his face a mask of desperate bravado, stood in the open cockpit, a standard-issue pulse-rifle clutched in his shaking hands. “Xiraza! Get back! I’ll handle this!” he screamed, his voice thin against the roar of the beast. He fired a pathetic volley of pulse-charges that merely pinged off the Void-Eater’s scales.
The beast swiped one foreleg without breaking stride, swatting the machine aside. Gold-and-silver alloy sheared apart, tossing Jorik into a shattered pylon where he collapsed limp.
“Fool,” Khyren spat, shifting gears as the Void-Eater closed the gap. Talons thick as steel girders lifted, radiating purple static.
“Full throttle, now!” Xiraza snapped, slapping the auxiliary fuel feed. The Hound surged, but claws caved in the rear bed. Steel peeled back, throwing a concussive shock through the cabin that tripped her suit's breaker pins.
Khyren grunted as the port frame warped inward, pinning his left shoulder against the console. He wiped blood from his lip, keeping both boots jammed against the drive pedals.
The Void-Eater opened its maw, charging another pulse while black exhaust belched from the Hound's fractured transmission.
Xiraza took in the smoking transmission, the charging maw, and the exposed breach behind them. Her powered plates would only act as a lightning rod for the next discharge.
Xiraza wrenched the primary neural cable free from her nape connector. Latches popped in rapid succession, shedding the heavy breastplate and greaves onto the floorboards. In her dark tactical skinsuit, blue plasma gathered across her bare knuckles.
“Reverse the rig, Khyren!” she shouted over the turbine whine. “Back out now!”
“Clear the blast lane!”
She vaulted through the cracked windshield straight toward the charging Void-Eater, leaving a trail of blue sparks in the dust.