The battlefield was already hell before the Hive Queen fragment emerged. For three days and nights the Terran forces had held the line against endless waves. Carbine X rifles barked, auto-eject mags rattled, and turrets spat their fury across the fields until barrels glowed red. The smell of scorched ichor and burnt steel hung over the trenches like a choking fog.
But nothing prepared them for what came next.
The ground trembled, deep and guttural, like the heartbeat of the world itself. Soldiers froze mid-fire, their instincts whispering a warning they couldn't name. From the far ridge, the smoke swelled and split, and then something titanic dragged itself into view.
The Hive Queen fragment rose above them—its grotesque frame a mix of jagged carapace and pulsating flesh. Its elongated limbs scraped the earth as it pulled forward, its massive thorax shimmering with green bioluminescence. Its maw split into too many jaws, shrieking a sound that wasn't sound at all.
Every HUD flickered. Every comm cracked into static.
And in the back of every soldier's skull, the psychic interference slammed like a hammer.
Men clutched at their helmets, women screamed, weapons slipped from trembling hands. Ammo counters blinked with ghost numbers—50/∞, 00/00, 13/9999. Turrets spun aimlessly before stuttering into silence.
Sirius staggered where he stood in the command trench, gripping his Carbine X like a lifeline. His vision doubled. ARI's voice struggled to cut through the psychic storm.
"Warning… cognitive disruption detected. System integrity at risk."
"Dammit!" Sirius slammed a fist against his helmet, trying to clear the fog in his mind. Around him, soldiers wavered, some dropping to their knees. The Queen fragment's psychic scream tore at the very fabric of their will.
And then Sirius did the only thing he could. He forced his shaking body upright, gritted his teeth, and shouted into the comms—his voice raw, but cutting through the static like steel.
"LISTEN TO ME! EYES ON ME!"
Dozens of helmets turned, blurry but desperate.
"We've beaten every wave they've thrown at us, and we'll beat this too! You hear me?! Hold the line—hold the damn line!"
For a moment, silence. Then a roar—hundreds of throats, screaming their defiance back into the psychic storm. "HOLD THE LINE!"
ARI's voice steadied, regaining clarity as Sirius' own mind anchored. "Stabilization achieved. Probability of survival increased—though temporary."
Sirius didn't care about the math. He raised Carbine X and squeezed the trigger. The rifle roared, micro-slugs punching into the Queen fragment's thick carapace. Sparks and ichor spat out, and soldiers followed his lead.
Stone Varga bellowed like a titan, his heavy autocannon spitting rounds in defiance, each blast hammering against the Queen's legs. "COME ON, YOU BASTARD!"
Bear Ivanov's mech thundered to life beside him, shoulder cannons booming, tearing holes in the ground around the monster. "This mech was built for war, and so am I!"
Whisper Kade's voice cut through the din, calm but trembling. "Medbay, brace yourselves! We're about to drown in bodies if we break here!"
Shade's rifle cracked from a ridge, one precise shot after another hammering into the Queen's sensory nodes. "I've got her attention! Sirius, don't miss this chance!"
The psychic pressure surged again, stronger this time, dropping men to their knees. But the soldiers clung to Sirius' words, clung to their weapons, clung to the training that had been burned into them by years of war.
Sirius' heart pounded. His lungs burned. He fired again and again, even when the counter hit zero and the mag spat out. His hands moved on instinct, slamming a new micro-mag into place, chambering, firing again.
The Queen fragment shrieked, flailing its limbs. The ground split as tanks of the swarm pressed closer, supported by thousands of lesser Hivebugs pouring around its massive legs.
"ARI, give me firing data! Weak points!" Sirius barked.
Her crystalline voice answered, strained but steady. "Joint cluster on left thorax—structural weakness detected. Coordinated strike required."
"Stone! Left thorax! Pour it in!" Sirius screamed.
"ON IT!" Stone pivoted, his autocannon hammering the joint. Bear's mech followed with a barrage, Shade's shots picking off the support bugs trying to swarm their heavy units.
The Queen reeled, ichor spraying across the battlefield.
But then it roared again—this time the psychic blast was so violent the very air seemed to ripple. Soldiers collapsed, some screaming, some vomiting blood as their neural links overloaded. Turrets sparked and died outright.
Sirius staggered. His knees buckled. Darkness clawed at the edge of his vision. ARI's voice cut in again—urgent this time.
"Warning… Operator cognitive collapse imminent."
He dropped to one knee, gripping Carbine X so tight his knuckles went white. Sweat poured down his face, teeth clenched so hard his jaw ached.
He wanted to fall. Gods, his body screamed for him to fall.
But then he remembered the faces—the young techs in FAWS, whispering "lost cause" with faint smiles. His friends who trusted him with their lives. The infantrymen who had nicknamed him Renegade and believed in the tools he built.
He forced himself up again, every muscle trembling, and roared back at the monster.
"YOU DON'T BREAK ME!"
The soldiers heard him. They saw him. And they rallied once more.
Even in the storm, even as systems glitched and ammo counters blinked nonsense, the Terran line held—because one madman refused to fall.
The Queen fragment's massive claw slammed into the earth, tearing trenches apart, but the infantry fired back, heavies unloading, Bear's mech driving forward like a shield. Whisper dragged the wounded into cover, barking at her team to keep pressure on wounds despite the chaos.
And Sirius? He kept firing, kept screaming, kept standing.
But deep inside, he knew this wasn't the end. The Queen was only testing them. The psychic assault was building to something worse.
The cliff loomed before them.
The final page of the chapter was simple.
Sirius raised his weapon again, breath ragged, voice cracking—but unbroken—as he shouted into the comms:
"WE'VE COME THIS FAR! WE DON'T BACK DOWN NOW! HOLD—THE—LINE!"
The Queen fragment shrieked in reply, psychic waves tearing across the battlefield. Soldiers screamed as their HUDs blinked out. ARI's voice whispered in Sirius' mind like a fading echo.
"System integrity… failing…"
And the chapter ended there, the line between survival and annihilation razor-thin.