The iron-ribbed sky of the Bastion's middle tier groaned under the weight of a massive transport convoy. These were the Terra-Goliaths—six-legged, armored walkers the size of houses, designed to haul refined "Gravity-Ore" from the Deep Mines to the High Overlord's private vaults.
To the people of the Sump, these convoys were a symbol of their theft. To Kael, they were a moving armory.
"Target in sight," Sia's voice whispered through the neural link. She was perched on a rusted ventilation pipe three hundred feet above the convoy trail. "Three Goliaths. Escorted by a platoon of Terra-Sentinels and a localized 'Pressure-Dampener' unit. If we trip the alarm, the High-Gravity sky-forts will be over us in less than two minutes."
Kael stood in the shadows of a collapsed bridge, his Sovereign Vanguard mantle camouflaged to match the rusted iron of the walls. Behind him stood the first fifty members of the Sump-Legion.
They didn't look like rats anymore. Sia had spent forty-eight hours straight at the Mobile Forge, "up-cycling" their scrap into Inertia-Plating. They wore matte-grey chest pieces that hummed with a low platinum light, and they carried "Gravity-Spikes"—short, heavy rods designed to disrupt the Terra-Gen Bloodline energy.
"Remember the drill," Kael said, his voice a vibration in their minds. "Jax takes the lead Goliath. Rin silences the scouts. The Legion handles the Sentinels. I handle the pressure."
The lead Goliath let out a deep, tectonic honk, its massive hydraulic legs crushing the stone road.
"Now," Kael commanded.
Rin was the first to move. The Mute didn't drop from the sky; they simply appeared on the back of the scout-bike hovering at the rear. With a blur of the obsidian katar, the scout's throat was opened before he could reach for his siren. The bike didn't even crash; Rin caught the throttle, steering it silently into a side-alley as the Zone of Silence swallowed the entire event.
Then came the mountain.
Jax "The Iron-Lung" leaped from a second-story balcony. He didn't use a parachute. He activated [Taurus Root] mid-air. He hit the lead Goliath's head with the force of a falling moon.
CRUNCH.
The Goliath's front legs buckled instantly. The massive machine tilted forward, its iron chin slamming into the road, sending a shockwave that shattered the nearby windows.
"Ambush!" the Sentinel Captain roared, raising his Gravity-Hammer. "Deploy the Pressure-Dampener! Crush them into the mud!"
The Terra-Sentinels activated their collective resonance. The gravity in the canyon spiked from 3x to 30x in a split second. The ground cracked, and the very air turned into a crushing wall of lead.
In the past, this would have ended the rebellion. The Sump-Legion would have been flattened.
But as the 30x gravity hit the Legion, their Inertia-Plating flared platinum. Kael stood at the center of the formation, his hand raised.
"Absolute... Inertia."
Kael didn't just cancel the gravity for himself; he extended his domain over the entire Legion. The 30x pressure hit his field and vanished. The Legionnaires, who had spent their whole lives under 3x gravity, suddenly felt as light as feathers.
"Charge," Kael whispered.
The Sump-Legion moved like lightning. To the Sentinels, who were struggling to maintain their own 30x field, the rebels were a blur. The woman with the missing eye—now known as Lieutenant Vora—slammed a Gravity-Spike into a Sentinel's chest-piece. The spike didn't just pierce; it emitted a counter-resonance that caused the Sentinel's own reinforced bones to vibrate until they shattered.
Kael walked toward the Sentinel Captain. The Captain swung his Gravity-Hammer with a desperate, two-handed arc.
Kael didn't dodge. He caught the head of the hammer with one hand.
The impact should have leveled a building. Instead, the hammer hit Kael's palm and the kinetic energy simply... died. It didn't bounce; it didn't vibrate. It became a piece of cold, dead iron.
"Your Overlord has spent years teaching you that weight is power," Kael said, his platinum eyes looking through the Captain's visor. "I'm here to teach you that weight is a choice."
Kael closed his fist. The Gravity-Hammer—the pinnacle of Terra-Gen engineering—imploded into a ball of scrap the size of a marble.
The Captain stepped back, his 30x field collapsing in fear. "You... you're the one from the Spire. The Azure Usurper."
"I am the one who is taking your ore," Kael said. He looked at the three stalled Goliaths. "Sia, hook them up."
Sia dropped from the pipes, trailing hundreds of golden light-filaments. She lashed the three Goliaths together, connecting their hydraulic systems to a central "Sovereign Link."
"Convoys secured!" Sia shouted, a grin on her face. "Kael, the sky-forts are moving! We have sixty seconds before the orbital bombardment hits this sector!"
"Legion, withdraw to the Sump tunnels!" Kael commanded.
He turned toward the sky. High above, three massive, black iron fortresses were drifting over the canyon, their underbellies glowing with the dark orange light of the Taurus-Annumerators—weapons designed to flatten entire city blocks.
Kael didn't run. He stood over the captured Goliaths as his Legion disappeared into the sewers. He raised both hands toward the sky-forts.
"You want to drop a mountain on me?" Kael's voice echoed through the entire Bastion.
[SYNC RATE: 9.5%] [ABILITY: DIRECTIONAL VECTOR — ASCEND]
As the sky-forts fired their 100x gravity beams, Kael caught the energy. He didn't block it. He reversed the vector. The 100x downward pressure was flipped into a 100x upward thrust.
The three sky-forts didn't fire. They were launched upward with such violence that their internal stabilizers exploded. They tore through the Bastion's upper iron-ribs and were catapulted into the high atmosphere, flickering like stars before vanishing into the orange haze.
Kael lowered his hands, his breath coming in a steady, calm rhythm. He looked at the Captain, who was now shaking on his knees.
"Tell your Overlord," Kael said. "I'm keeping the ore. And I'm coming for the Array next."
[DEAD MAN'S SWITCH: 08:10:05] [RESOURCES ACQUIRED: 50 TONS OF GRAVITY-ORE] [LEGION MORALE: UNSTOPPABLE]
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