The Rust Wolves sprinted from the burning wreck of their VTOL, rifles blazing. Plasma fire screamed over their heads as UNE Marines took cover in the ruins around them. The battlefield was madness — the ground scorched black, soldiers screaming, mechs firing barrages, and alien beasts shrieking through the smoke.
Above it all loomed the Typonian hives.
They weren't buildings. They were monoliths — grotesque towers of bone and black alloy, pulsing with sickly light, stretching from the ground all the way into the planet's atmosphere. Clouds swirled around their spires. Entire ecosystems of alien machinery clung to their sides. The ground beneath them cracked with rivers of molten energy.
Raul's visor flickered as he looked up. "...Madre de Dios."
Marco muttered, breathless. "They're... alive. The buildings are alive."
Jerome's voice shook. "How the hell are we supposed to fight that?!"
Hunter ducked behind cover, snapped two headshots on advancing Typonians, then pointed his rifle toward the towering hive.
"You see that? That's our objective."
Woo Jin's heart pounded. "What?!"
Hunter's tone was grim but calm, like a veteran explaining the weather.
"The queens nest is up there. That's their command heart. Every Typonian on this rock fights for her. We reach the top, destroy it, and the hive collapses."
Hudson added, voice flat, precise:
"Cut the queen, kill the swarm."
Carla reloaded, smirking despite the chaos. "Sounds simple. It won't be."
Reaper's distorted voice rasped through his helm, blue visor glowing.
"It's never simple. But it always ends the same."
Asura finally looked up, calm as always. "...Then we climb."
⸻
The Push Forward
Carla waved them forward. "Move, Wolves! Cover fire — NOW!"
The squad burst from cover, sprinting through the cratered battlefield. UNE Marines advanced beside them, some carrying heavy rifles, others hauling wounded back behind lines. Above, drop-mechs slammed into the ground, unleashing railgun fire into Typonian beasts that screeched and tore at UNE armor.
But the Wolves' eyes stayed locked on the hive. It towered like a god, its pulsing glow daring them upward.
Hunter's voice cut through the storm as they advanced.
"This isn't just survival anymore. This is the mission. Top of the hive, destroy the queen's nest. And we're going to do it, or die trying."
The Wolves gritted their teeth, their rifles blazing as they moved into hell.
And high above, the queen stirred.
-
The battlefield roared with chaos. The Wolves pushed forward, plasma blasts lighting the ruins, the hive looming like a nightmare above them. Marines screamed, alien beasts tore through lines, mechs fired into the sky.
Then — Monarch's voice echoed in every helmet across the system. Calm. Steady. Divine.
"Attention all UNE soldiers. New directive from High Command. Objective remains clear: eliminate the queens. Without them, the hives fall."
Explosions rattled the ground. Woo Jin froze, listening as Monarch's words cut sharper than the gunfire.
"But hear this: the queens are not mere enemies. They wield powers on the conceptual level — unpredictable, devastating, beyond what most of you have faced."
Jerome swallowed hard. "...Conceptual? Like... reality-breaking stuff?"
Min-seo nodded grimly. "Exactly that."
⸻
The Warning
Monarch continued, his voice like steel:
"Captains, you are authorized to engage with Conceptual Tactic: Invisible Attack. Use it to counter unseen forces, to strike back against attacks hidden on metaphysical and erasure levels. It may look supernatural — but it is not. It is knowledge, calculation, and control of reality itself. Knowledge is your blade. Precision is your shield."
Across the field, Marines cheered in response, their captains raising weapons and activating tactical systems. The Wolves glanced at one another, hearts pounding.
Raul muttered, "Supernatural but not supernatural? Dios mío... I don't even know what that means."
Carla chambered her rifle, smirking. "It means when you see the impossible, don't freeze. Your captain knows how to cut it down."
Hunter chuckled darkly. "Trust the tactics. Reality has holes. You just have to stab through 'em first."
Reaper's distorted voice rasped over them all.
"Conceptual or not... everything dies."
⸻
The Push to the Hive
The Wolves looked up at the sky-high hive, its glow pulsing stronger now, as if the queen herself had heard Pandora's words.
Woo gripped his rifle tighter, his voice trembling but strong.
"Then let's get up there. Before she decides to kill us first."
Asura nodded once, calm and certain.
"The queen is waiting."
And with that, the soldiers pushed forward, into the storm, toward the hive that touched the heavens.
-
The battlefield shook with endless fire.
Marines crouched behind shattered walls and craters, their rifles glowing hot, armor scorched, visors cracked. The Wolves dug in with them, firing across a hellscape that stretched as far as the eye could see. Using energy shield bubbles to protect themselves from enemy bullets and explosions.
The bubble allows the soldier to move freely around it, while shooting back at the enemy.
But for every Typonian soldier they cut down, ten more swarmed in.
⸻
The Stalemate
Carla ducked low as a plasma bolt sizzled past her head, slamming into a Marine beside her. The soldier screamed, clutching a hole through his chest. Carla yanked a stim shot from her belt, jamming it into his neck — the nanite fluid surging through him, knitting the wound, dragging him back from death.
But her stim canister was half-empty now. She cursed under her breath.
"Damn it — we're running out fast."
Across the ruins, Monarch's voice echoed, sharp and steady.
"All units: conserve your stims. Repeat, conserve your stims. Planetary conditions unpredictable. Further supply drops may not be possible."
Woo Jin's heart hammered as he reloaded. He stole a glance over the barricade — the ground ahead was a sea of Typonians. Endless armored infantry, biomechanical war-beasts, and swarms of fliers.
Jerome cried out, "They just keep coming! For every one we drop, ten more take their place!"
Marco spat blood, chambering another round. "We only brought billions. They've got trillions! We're ants in their hive!"
Raul snarled through clenched teeth, firing until his rifle overheated. "Then we make the hive bleed anyway!"
⸻
The Casualties
The Wolves looked around — UNE soldiers were falling in waves.
• One Marine crawled, screaming, missing both legs.
• Another's visor cracked open, his body slumping lifeless before a stim could reach him.
• Squad leaders barked for cover fire, only to be vaporized seconds later.
For the first time, Woo Jin felt it deep in his bones: UNE wasn't invincible.
Even with billions of Marines, they were being drowned by the Typonian tide.
⸻
The Pressure
Hunter growled, firing burst after burst into the horde. "This isn't a fight — it's a damn meat grinder!"
Hudson's visor glowed faintly as he ducked behind cover, calm but cold. "That's what war is, Hunter. We either push... or we die here."
Carla slammed a fresh mag into her rifle, snarling. "Then we push."
Reaper finally lifted his hooded helm, those glowing blue eyes like fire in the storm. His distorted voice rasped out, steady as death itself.
"Numbers don't matter. The queen does. Kill her... and the trillions mean nothing."
Asura nodded slowly, standing tall despite the chaos. Calm. Unbroken.
"Then we cut our way to the hive."
⸻
The Wolves looked at one another — battered, shaken, terrified. But their path was clear.
The battlefield was a slaughterhouse. The odds were impossible.
But somewhere above them, high in the hive that reached the heavens, the queen waited.
And UNE soldiers do not retreat.
They rise.
-
The Wolves were pinned. Gunfire ripped across the ruins, UNE soldiers screaming as the Typonian tide pressed closer. Every second, more fell.
Then it happened.
Asura stood. Calm. Silent. His visor glowed faintly as he stepped out from cover.
Carla's voice snapped sharp. "Kid! What the hell are you—"
But before she could finish, he vanished.
⸻
The Blinkstorm
Not just one Blink Step. Not two.
Dozens.
Asura ripped through the battlefield in a blur, his movements so fast it seemed like he was invisible. One moment he was beside the Wolves, the next he was twenty meters ahead, then fifty, then a hundred — slicing through Typonian squads before they even realized he was there.
His rifle barked, his blade slashed, grenades detonated in perfect rhythm. In seconds, countless enemies fell — heads severed, limbs torn, plasma cores rupturing in fiery bursts.
To the Marines watching, it was as if death itself was dancing in the chaos.
Hunter froze mid-reload, visor glowing wide. "...No way."
Hudson, usually cold as stone, muttered, "...That's impossible."
Carla's jaw clenched, her eyes narrowing in disbelief. "He's a... private."
Even Reaper's blue visor flickered, his distorted voice low. "...Not human speed. Not training. He's using the damn Blink Step like he's been doing it for over a century."
⸻
The soldiers Pride
Woo Jin's heart pounded as he slammed another mag into his rifle, watching Asura tear the battlefield apart. He couldn't hold it back.
"That's Asura!!" he shouted over the gunfire. "Back at Genesis, the Commander himself named him Juno's first prodigy!"
The veterans' heads snapped toward him — Carla, Hunter, Hudson, even Reaper's glowing eyes fixed on Woo.
"First prodigy?" Hunter growled.
"In Juno history?" Carla muttered.
Hudson's voice was flat, but heavy. "...Explains everything."
Reaper simply whispered, his voice like steel scraping against the void:
"A prodigy... born in blood."
⸻
The Impact
Asura reappeared beside them, calm as if nothing had happened. His rifle reloaded with a click, his breathing steady. Around him, the battlefield was littered with burning corpses of Typonians — an entire wave wiped out in less than a minute.
Carla exhaled slowly, staring at him. "...You just saved this line, kid."
Hunter chuckled, shaking his head. "Prodigy, huh? Guess the stories weren't exaggerating."
Hudson simply nodded, his silence carrying weight.
Reaper tilted his head, blue visor glowing brighter. "...You'll be more than a prodigy when this war is done."
Woo's chest swelled with pride — his squad wasn't just surviving anymore.
They had a weapon.
They had a legend.
They had Asura Khan.
And for the first time, the veterans knew it too.
——————————————
To be continued...