The Grey Barrens were a landscape of perpetual twilight, a dead plain of packed ash and skeletal, lightning-blasted rock formations under a sky the color of old bruises. Prana Farm 7 was a cancer on this landscape, a low, sprawling, windowless complex of grey ferrocrete and stained metal, surrounded by a high, electrified perimeter fence. Automated turrets, like silent vultures, sat perched on its roof.
As dusk settled, bleeding streaks of sickly purple into the grey, three forces converged on the facility from different directions, their movements cloaked by the terrain and the region's natural electronic interference.
Rudra and his ten Blood-Iron warriors were the first to arrive. They hunkered down behind a low ridge a kilometer from the main gate, their massive, scavenged weapons held in hands itching for violence. Rudra looked at the gleaming facility, then at the small, encrypted comm unit in his hand. He grumbled, "This 'silence' chafes the spirit. A battle should be announced with a war cry, not a whisper on a box."
A few kilometers away, two of Zara's Hydro-Nomads, their bodies wrapped in chameleon-cloth that blended perfectly with the grey rock, lay motionless on a high cliff overlooking the rear of the farm. They were whisper-thin and utterly still, their filtered goggles analyzing the patrol patterns of the roof-mounted drones. One of them, a woman named Leena, gave a silent hand signal. The target, the primary comms antenna, was in sight. They were ghosts, waiting for the storm.
On the roof of the farm itself, having been guided by Zara's scouts through a blind spot in the turret coverage, the third force lay flat against the cold metal. Kalpit, Kaelen, Anasuya, and five elite Jwala warriors. They were the ghost element, the heart of the operation.
"Everyone in position?" Kalpit subvocalized into his comm, his voice a calm center in the growing storm of anticipation.
Rudra's growl came back. "We are ready to break their gates and their teeth!"
Zara's whispery voice was next. "My scouts are poised. The knife is ready to cut the cord."
Kalpit looked at Kaelen, whose face was a mask of focused intensity. This was the moment. The first true test of their alliance. "Alright," he said, taking a deep breath and letting the fire of his Manipura burn steady and low. "Rudra, you are the thunder. Begin."
THUNDER. NOW. The two-word command was all Rudra needed.
He rose from behind the ridge, a giant of fury and iron, and let out a roar that seemed to tear the very air. "FOR THE WASTES! FOR FREEDOM!"
RAAAAAAAAAAGH!
His ten warriors rose with him, a chorus of bellowing war cries joining his, and they charged. It was a magnificent, insane, and utterly suicidal-looking attack. They sprinted across the open barren, their heavy armor clanking, their monstrous weapons held high, a tidal wave of brute force aimed directly at the farm's fortified main gate.
Instantly, the farm came to life. Searing spotlights snapped on, pinning the charging warriors in their beams. Alarms blared, their piercing shrieks cutting through the dusk.
PERIMETER BREACH! HOSTILES DETECTED AT MAIN GATE! ALL DEFENSIVE UNITS, CONVERGE AND NEUTRALIZE!
Automated turrets swiveled and opened fire, unleashing a storm of plasma bolts. The Blood-Iron warriors laughed, raising crude but effective shields of layered armor plating, the plasma fire splashing against them in showers of molten light. They didn't slow. They were the perfect distraction: terrifying, loud, and seemingly unstoppable.
On the cliffside, Zara's scout, Leena, saw her opportunity. The roof-mounted drones, their programming dictating they assist with the primary threat, began to move towards the front of the farm. She and her partner fired their grappling lines.
thwip. thwip.
The lines latched onto the base of the comms antenna. They zipped across the chasm, silent as moths, landing softly on the roof while the farm's entire attention was on the glorious chaos at the main gate. They immediately went to work, placing a shaped explosive charge at the antenna's base.
"The comms tower is set," Leena's whisper came over the comm.
"Rudra has their attention," Kaelen confirmed from the roof, watching the distant firefight.
"Our turn," Kalpit said. He turned to the heavy, circular grate of the cooling vent. Atri's codes flashed on a datapad in Anasuya's hand. She quickly interfaced with the lock. A series of soft clicks, and the mag-locks released.
Kalpit and Kaelen heaved the heavy grate open, revealing a dark, vertical shaft. A blast of hot, recycled air billowed out. One by one, they dropped into the darkness, their boots magnetizing to the ladder rungs inside.
Just as the last Jwala warrior descended, a muffled BOOM echoed from above. Leena had detonated the charge.
Inside the farm's command center, a handful of human technicians and a single, presiding AsuraCorp Prefect stared at their consoles in disbelief.
"Sir! The main gate is under heavy assault from... wasteland savages!" a junior technician reported, his voice trembling.
"And sir!" another cried out. "Our external comms link just went dead! A localized explosion. We're cut off from Dharma-Kshetra!"
The Prefect, a man with a stern, cybernetically-enhanced face, sneered. "Savages. Brute force. They believe they can isolate us and overwhelm us. Pathetic." He tapped a control. "Seal the main blast doors behind the gate. Funnel them into kill-zone Alpha. And dispatch the internal sentinel drones to sweep the perimeter from the inside. This 'rebellion' will die on our doorstep."
What he didn't see, what his sensors, now blind to the outside world, couldn't tell him, was that his enemies were already inside the walls.
Kalpit and his team moved through the spire's upper maintenance corridors like wraiths. The blaring alarms and shouted commands over the internal comms were all focused on the front gate. They were a ghost in a machine that was looking the wrong way.
Atri's intel was perfect. They bypassed sleeping barracks and empty mess halls, heading deeper, towards the farm's core.
They reached the captive bay first. The door was heavy, reinforced. Kalpit did not use an explosive. He placed his hand on the locking mechanism, closed his eyes, and sent a precise pulse of Manipura energy into it, speaking to the delicate tumblers and circuits in a language of focused vibration. With a soft click, the lock disengaged.
The sight within was a vision from a sterile hell. Hundreds of humans lay in transparent bio-stasis pods, stacked from floor to ceiling. They were pale, their bodies thin, tubes and wires snaking from them into the complex machinery that harvested their life force. Their faces, however, were masks of serene, blissful peace. They were dreaming of paradise, unaware of their fate.
A wave of cold, righteous fury washed over Kalpit, stronger than anything Markandeya's test could conjure. This was real. This was the enemy.
The Jwala warriors let out gasps of horror. They had heard the stories, but to see it…
"We get them out," Kalpit's voice was low and hard as iron. "Anasuya, you know this tech. How?"
Anasuya was already at a master control panel. "A general release is possible, but it would be a traumatic shock to their systems. We need to override the sedative protocols and bring them back gently. It will take a few minutes."
As she worked, a new set of alarms blared, this time inside the facility.
INTERNAL PERIMETER BREACH DETECTED. SECTOR GAMMA. CAPTIVE BAY. ALL INTERNAL SENTINELS, REDIRECT.
"The Prefect finally figured it out," Kaelen hissed, he and his warriors taking up defensive positions at the door. "They know we're here."
"Anasuya, how much time?" Kalpit asked, his eyes on the corridor beyond the door.
"Too much," she replied, her fingers flying across the holographic interface. "At least three minutes."
The rhythmic, clanking tread of approaching sentinel drones echoed down the hall. They were about to be caught between a rescue operation and a legion of killing machines.
Kalpit looked at the pods, at the peaceful, dreaming faces of the people who were unknowingly fueling their own damnation. They had fought their way into the heart of the enemy. But now, they were trapped, with the full weight of the fortress about to come crashing down on them.