The battlefield stank of burning ichor, scorched steel, and ozone. Black smoke curled upward, smothering the last hints of daylight as the sky churned with Hivebug wings. The swarm had already thrown everything it had—thousands of drones, hundreds of tanks, even twisted new breeds that clawed through armor like it was cloth. The Terran line had held. Barely.
But when the ground quaked again, deeper this time, even the veterans froze.
From the rift beyond the ruins, the Hive Queen fragment emerged.
It towered above the battlefield, grotesque and bloated with armored plates that pulsed as if alive. Its screech wasn't sound but something worse—psychic static ripping through every skull on the line. Soldiers staggered, clutching helmets as HUDs crackled, ammo counters flickering to zero, turrets twitching aimlessly.
Sirius Blake felt ARI's voice crackle in his mind, distorted, half-broken.
> "C-c-cognitive disruption detected—s-s-systems integrity at risk. Warning: telemetry fal—"
"ARI?!" Sirius barked, slapping his helmet as if it might help. Nothing but static. For the first time since boot camp, he felt the world without her constant guidance, without the quiet stream of numbers and projections smoothing the chaos into order.
Panic clawed at the edges of his mind. He shoved it down. His voice cut through the comms, ragged but sharp.
"Listen to me! Eyes on me! We've beaten every wave they've thrown at us, and we'll beat this too! Hold the line—hold the damn line!"
The words carried across channels, grounding soldiers in the storm. Where ARI faltered, Sirius' voice became the anchor.
Bear Ivanov's mech groaned under the psychic pressure, systems blinking warnings, but Bear's voice rumbled steady. "You heard the Renegade. We hold. Mech shields up—cover the line!" His armored behemoth knelt, plating spreading wide to block a fresh surge of drones. Infantry huddled behind it, rallying.
Stone Varga spat blood into the dirt, braced his heavy autocannon, and growled into comms. "Renegade says hold, we hold. I've got the left flank!" He squeezed the trigger, his weapon coughing thunder, cutting down a line of Hive tanks trying to roll through the breach.
On the ridge, Shade adjusted her scope with shaking hands. The psychic noise blurred her vision, but she gritted her teeth, forcing her breath steady. She whispered the old mantra from training: one shot, one death. Her rifle cracked, slicing through a Hive tank's exposed vent as it charged Bear's mech. The explosion lit the dusk.
Down in the trenches, Whisper Kade sprinted between the fallen, dragging soldiers back with medics in tow. Her voice was hoarse from shouting orders, but she didn't stop. "Pressure bandage—go! Next one! Don't you dare die on me, damn it!" Bullets and ichor sprayed overhead, but she never faltered.
Inside the turret nest, Sparks Novik slammed fists into consoles, sweat streaking down his face. With ARI's systems glitching, the turrets jittered like half-blind beasts. He rewired, overrode, cursed, and forced the network into sync. "Come on, you bastards—line up, line up—YES!" The turrets steadied, sweeping the swarm with disciplined bursts.
And at the spearpoint, Jinx Alvarez was a blur. Reckless as ever, she vaulted barricades, twin rifles spitting fire, screaming with laughter in the face of death. "COME ON, BUGS! CHASE ME IF YOU CAN!" She darted into a knot of Hive drones, forcing them to bunch together—right into Stone's crossfire.
For a moment, Sirius simply stared. His friends—his squad—his family. Every one of them fighting like they were the tip of humanity's spear. His heart hammered. He wasn't just the boy in the workshop anymore. He couldn't be.
He lifted Carbine X, the rifle humming as its counter flickered back online, resisting the interference.
"Target the joints!" he roared. "Eyes, vents, weak spots! Don't waste a single damn round!"
The soldiers snapped back to discipline. Even under psychic assault, they shifted fire, aiming where it mattered. Ammo stretched further. The line stopped crumbling.
But the Queen fragment screamed again. A wave of psychic force tore through the outpost. Men dropped to their knees, helmets sparking. One turret twisted, barrels drooping as if drunk. Sirius' vision fractured with static. His knees buckled.
ARI's voice bled through in shards.
> "S-s-sirius—s-systems corrupted—too strong—"
He slammed a fist against his chestplate. "Damn it, ARI, don't you quit on me now!"
> "Calibrating… hold…"
The static ebbed slightly. Numbers flickered in the corner of his HUD, half-broken but enough. His breath steadied.
"Bear! Hold that line no matter what! Stone—keep those heavies reloaded! Whisper, I need triage centers behind the third barricade! Sparks—manual override every turret within range, no excuses! Shade, Jinx—you're my knives. Cut out their eyes, cut out their guts!"
Orders rolled like thunder. Soldiers looked up, stunned—not at the rank on his collar, but at the fire in his voice. Sirius Blake wasn't just the Renegade tech anymore. He was their commander.
They roared back in unison: "AYE!"
The Hivebugs surged, endless waves crashing into the Terran line. The Shatterstorm Mk I sang its brutal rhythm in Stone's hands, cutting swaths of drones apart. Carbine Xs across the squads fired in harmony, ammo counters glowing through the static, each soldier counting every bullet. Turrets stabilized under Sparks' desperate rewiring, belching fire across the field.
For every bug that fell, three more took its place. Tank-class monsters rolled forward, black ichor steaming as they crushed barricades underfoot.
"Frontline brace!" Sirius shouted. He swapped mags, auto-eject clattering at his boots. Carbine X spat death into a tank's eye as Shade's shot followed, the explosion staggering it back. Bear's mech stomped forward, hammering its cannons into another tank, plating screaming as claws raked against it.
Hours bled into a blur. The battlefield became a furnace. Soldiers dropped, screaming, only to be dragged back by Whisper and her medics. Jinx darted like a ghost, drawing entire swarms into overlapping killzones. Sparks screamed at his consoles, forcing fried circuits to life with bare hands. Stone roared until his voice cracked, the Shatterstorm blazing white-hot in his arms.
Sirius fought until his arms shook, until his throat was raw, until blood trickled down his temple from psychic backlash. And still he stood, still he shouted, still he pulled the Terran line back together every time it threatened to break.
When the swarm finally thinned, when the field was littered with steaming ichor and shattered carapaces, a silence fell.
Too quiet.
Sirius raised his head. His gut clenched.
The ground trembled again. Cracks split the earth wide. A sound—not just heard but felt in the bones—rolled over the battlefield.
From the rift, the Hive Queen fragment pulled itself free. Taller than turrets, broader than Bear's mech, armored plates bristling with spines that pulsed with psychic energy. Its many eyes burned like pits of fire. Its shriek ripped through helmets, systems, and minds alike.
Soldiers staggered. HUDs went dark. Ammo counters blinked out. Even Carbine X buzzed in Sirius' hands, trembling against the interference.
Turrets twitched violently. Sparks slammed his fists into his console, screaming, "I'M LOSING THEM! SHE'S JAMMING EVERYTHING!"
Whisper dropped to her knees, clutching her head as medics screamed. Stone fell back, eyes wide, muttering, "Gods above… what the hell is that?"
ARI's voice cut back through the storm at last, broken but clear enough.
> "Sirius… c-c-confirmation: not the Hive Queen. Only a fragment."
Only.
Sirius staggered, bile in his throat. If this was just a fragment, what did the true Queen look like?
He lifted Carbine X, hand shaking, then steadied it. His voice roared into the comms.
"LISTEN TO ME! Eyes on me! We've beaten every wave, every monster, every damned Tank they've thrown at us! We're still standing—and we'll beat this too! HOLD THE LINE! HOLD THE DAMN LINE!"
Soldiers who had faltered lifted their heads. Stone slammed a fresh drum into the Shatterstorm and bellowed, "You heard him! Line up!"
Bear's mech lurched upright, plating scorched, but his voice thundered. "Renegade leads, we follow!"
Shade wiped blood from her eye, sighting her rifle again. "One shot, one death."
Jinx laughed, wild and fierce. "Let's make history, boys and girls!"
Even Whisper, still trembling, pushed herself to her feet. "Medics—on your feet! Soldiers are waiting!"
The Terran line steadied once more, eyes locked on the towering abomination shrieking before them.
Sirius raised Carbine X high, his voice carrying above the storm.
"THIS IS OUR WORLD! THIS IS OUR LINE! WE DON'T BREAK!"
And with that, the battle for survival truly began.