The rats came in waves—gnashing, clawing, swarming like a living tide of hunger.
Kein had been hoping for a quiet day.
He hadn't wandered far from the last kill site, mostly to chart the territory and maybe trade a data node with a Bastion runner.
He didn't expect a swarm. Certainly not this dense, not this soon. His boots scraped over a rusted spine of an old guardrail as he turned sharply, gaze flicking over the terrain with a grimace.
"Really?" he muttered under his breath. "Today of all days?"
The System hadn't flagged the area as high threat in his last sync. Yet here he was, chased by a damn wave of cyber-rats with spines sharper than his last forge blade.
They'd probably nested inside one of the old grid bunkers below—hidden by static zones or cloaked under degraded anomaly layers. Damn unreliable maps.
A soft whir from the cube confirmed the swarm was closing fast. Kein clenched his jaw. This wasn't a fight—it was a flood.
Fighting wasn't the issue. Time was. Ammo was. Energy was. Every skirmish carved away his survival budget like a rusted blade.
"Fine," he growled. "You want a show?"
Kein sprinted across the crumbling highway, feet slamming on shattered asphalt. Behind him, the swarm boiled forward—dozens, then hundreds of chittering forms.
Each the size of a dog, their eyes glowing a sickly white, their fur matted with metallic spikes and twitching sensory nodes.
Zone W-13 was quiet no more.
He could kill them. Easily. But not all at once.
They weren't Feral-class. These had mutated under the Ashen Sky, evolved into coordinated behavior packs. Ambush tactics. Peripheral cutoff. His HUD screamed alerts at him.
> [Threat Density: Excessive – Estimated Hostiles: 340+]
[Recommend: Area Dispersal Protocol]
"Right," Kein muttered. "Time to thin the herd."
His cube pulsed in response to the spike in tension.
He skidded to a halt near a rusted overpass pylon. His fingers twisted in the air, forming a series of angular seals—one overlaying the next in luminous glyphs. A hum of low resonance echoed from his chest. Something between code and incantation, something ancient and newly born.
The cube's surface cracked open like petals, revealing a swirling core of sapphire plasma.
"Demi-fractal detonation," he whispered.
The orb lifted from his palm.
Kein stepped back, bending slightly at the waist, his eyes narrowing.
Then he hurled the blue orb into the heart of the swarm.
The moment it hit, the world tilted.
Light burst—not in a flash, but in fractals. Angles of space folded in on themselves, devouring sound.
The rats vanished into a sphere of silence, shredded by recursive energy and crushed under layered gravitational folds.
The sound returned like a breath being drawn back into the lungs of the Earth.
He didn't wait to confirm.
Ahead, the Wall stood like a sleeping titan. It rose hundreds of meters high, plated with gunmetal and circuit-veined alloy.
Huge spires jutted like horns from its crest, and panels shifted constantly, responding to the System's mood.
This was Bastion Theta-6.
He'd been here before. Barely made it out last time.
> [Authorization Request: Denied. You are being tracked.]
"Yeah, I noticed."
The Wall responded.
A claxon blared once. Then came the whirring of machines—gears grinding as panels opened.
From the top of the wall, figures in mechanical armor roped down on reinforced cables. They moved like spiders made of steel, fast and precise. Their armor gleamed dark blue, etched with shifting sigils of approval and rank.
Theta-Guards.
They hit the ground with coordinated grace, deploying spiked barricades and energy lances. The swarm reformed too quickly.
Spears hissed through the air—propelled on burst fire like rail darts, skewering mutated rats mid-leap.
Above, gunners took position. Their bolt rifles fired compressed plasma bursts that scorched the sky with every shot. The heat shimmered like water in the air, and dozens of rats ignited in spiraling flame.
Kein ducked behind a fallen column as the front lines clashed.
He didn't know whether to laugh or collapse. The Wall had actually helped him this time.
The ground trembled beneath his boots as Cairn materialized beside him, deployed just in time to swipe a lunging rat into the wall like a thrown rag.
Kein shouted commands as rats dove in from rooftops and collapsed vehicles. His forge-hub on his back sparked to life.
> [Blueprint: Shock Stake – Confirmed.]
He spun and punched his gauntlet into the ground. The terrain answered.
Shock rods burst from the soil, electrifying everything within their radius. Several rats twitched violently before exploding in arcs of blue-white current.
Cairn barreled forward with a roar, engaging with a pack directly. Two of its arms became plasma-fed cleavers while the other two formed wide-spray autocannons.
The machine tore through the swarm with military rhythm, limbs moving in fluid devastation.
One rat leapt onto Kein's back, claws digging in, but the cube reacted immediately.
A shimmering spike of energy lashed out from his shoulder and impaled the creature mid-snarl.
He spun, slashed, ducked—every movement a practiced ballet of grit and desperation.
And then, just as quickly as it began, the swarm broke. Survivors scattered into the hills. The rest were vaporized.
A gate opened in the Wall.
Twin slabs of alloy parted, and Kein stepped into a corridor flanked by heavy-armor sentries. The air shifted—filtered, cool, artificial.
Safety.
The doors sealed shut behind him. Outside, death howled. Inside, it was quiet.
"Name," barked one of the Theta-Guards, helmet retracted just enough to show the scarred human face beneath.
"Kein. Hunter-class. Registered under Bastion Accord Five."
"Affirmative. Last visit: 1 year, 2 months. Behavior record: Non-hostile. Serviceable conduct. Welcome back."
He let out a long breath.
The cube floated forward and produced a small holographic seal. Kein pressed his hand into it.
> [Transfer Complete – 1,200 Credits to Theta Defense Budget. Memo: Combat Assist/Wall Defense.]
A pause. The guard nodded.
"Gratitude recorded. Most don't bother."
Kein offered a crooked grin. "Didn't want to be vaporized with the rest of the rats. Seems fair."
The soldier stepped aside.
"Rest well, Reclaimer."
As Kein entered the bustling inner city of Bastion Theta-6—among traders, medics, and scavengers—he felt the burden of the wild lift, if only slightly. For a night, he could breathe.
But the sky above remained choked with embers.
And the System was never done watching.
---
The city interior was a harsh contrast to the wilds he came from. Clean metal streets crisscrossed the district like arteries, humming faintly with filtered power.
Modular buildings climbed vertically, layered like hive stacks, each marked with neon indicators and augmented banners declaring their function—med centers, trader hubs, gearsmiths, dormitories.
A pair of children ran past him, chasing a hovering toy drone shaped like a manta ray.
A merchant's shout echoed through a loudspeaker, promising reactor-stabilized boots at half cost. Kein moved through it like a ghost.
He passed a mech-repair bay where sparks flew from a half-mended bipedal loader.
Engineers in grease-smeared uniforms barely glanced at him, too busy arguing over missing plasma conductors.
The scent of clean oil, sterilized air, and synthetic food clung to everything.
Cairn followed behind him in storage mode, reduced to a floating core housed in a rectangular support capsule.
Even here, among allies, full deployment was unnecessary—and discouraged.
Eventually, he reached the inner plaza.
A wide platform surrounded by glasslight trees—translucent structures grown from fiber-optic roots, casting soft, reactive glows as people passed.
Kein sat on a stone bench, rubbing the ash from his fingers.
A hand tapped his shoulder.
He turned, already tensing, but relaxed when he saw the familiar face.
Tessa.
She wore the lightweight frame of a Field Marshal, painted matte silver with adaptive cloaking nodes humming softly along her shoulders.
"You're late," she said, arms crossed, eyebrow raised.
"Didn't know we had a meeting," Kein replied with a smirk. "Just escaped a rat swarm and dropped a singularity orb on half of them. I deserve a nap."
"You always think you deserve a nap."
They exchanged nods—the closest thing to affection either allowed anymore.
He opened his cube interface again and transferred 300 more credits.
"For your boys on the wall. They saved my ass."
She gave a short nod.
"I'll see they get it."
As she walked off, he leaned back against the bench, eyes drifting upward.
The sky inside the dome was an artificial rendering—pale blue, meant to simulate peace. But Kein saw the flickers of red on the borders.
The Ashen Sky was bleeding in.
And the countdown to the next calamity had already begun.
---
Kein lingered on the bench, fingers running across the grooves of his cube as if seeking meaning in the weightless shape.
The glasslight trees above him pulsed to a calming rhythm, matching his pulse, but the anxiety never left. He knew better. Calm in Bastions was a lull in the tide, not safety.
A hover-droid passed overhead, projecting the latest public announcement.
> [System Alert: Spatial Fold Detected on Outer Zone W-13. Recommend Non-Essential Evacuation in Peripheral Bands 3 through 7. Mutation Type: Unstable Bio-Synthetic Hybrid. Clearance Alpha-Black.]
Kein frowned. Peripheral Band 4—right where he'd been thirty minutes ago.
He muttered, "Figures. I just left hell and hell followed. Just the usual then."
From a side street, a pair of Theta Scouts sprinted toward the command hall, dragging a containment case that pulsed with flickering glyphs.
The city hummed with tension underneath the façade of normalcy. No one said it aloud, but everyone knew—Bastions were not forever. They were sanctuaries built on borrowed time.
His cube emitted a low tone.
> [Private Contract Alert: Tier-B Opportunity Available. Hazard Pay Enforced. Confirm to View.]
He didn't open it right away. Instead, he stood slowly and watched the simulated sunlight above flicker once more.
The System had teeth. And they were sharpening again.
He turned from the plaza, slipping into the crowd like a shadow, preparing for whatever came next.
Whatever peace Bastion Theta-6 offered—it never lasted long.
And Kein had never been good at staying still.
He made his way toward the supplies depot before the market shutters closed—picking up a fresh energy cell for his forge-hub, a thermal ration pack, and a new climbing filament.
The basics.
Because out there, beyond the wall… the only thing that kept you alive was what you carried on your back.
...