The Varnathi pushed forward, their formations breaking and reforming as casualties mounted. A towering insectoid [Titan] with thick chitin armor charged into a squad of grenadiers. A plasma grenade arced through the air, detonating against its thorax in a fireball that consumed the creature and three Varnathi soldiers nearby.

The whole place was a meat grinder, and Luca's panic was climbing his throat like bile.

"Luca, we're not clearing this ourselves," Zoe said, catching her breath as she loaded a fresh cell into her plasma sniper. "This is a battle between armies. We're seven people."

No shit. Luca's palms were slick with sweat inside his gloves. Seven people in the middle of thousands. What the fuck was I thinking?

"The objective's still the same," he forced out, trying to sound like a captain. "Take out those fog generators. They're deeper in the camp, somewhere behind the heavy defenses."

"Then we move with the Varnathi," Joey suggested, peering over the rock as a squad of scouts sprinted past, firing at advancing insectoids. "Use them as cover to reach the outpost."

Ryan grinned, shouldering his scattergun. The bastard actually looked excited. "Hell, if we're tagging along with an army, let's do it right. When else are we gonna fight alongside Varnathi battle mechs?"

A massive explosion tore through the sky. A dropship above them took a direct hit from insectoid artillery, spiraling out of control before crashing somewhere ahead. The shockwave rippled through the ground, nearly knocking Luca off his feet.

He took a shaky breath, trying to rally his team, trying to rally himself. "Alright. Move with the Varnathi advance. Don't lose sight of each other. We find a path through and get to those generators."

They broke from cover, sprinting across churned earth. Luca's [Proximity Threat Map] flared to life automatically, his interface lighting up with hostile markers in every direction. Red dots everywhere. Hundreds of them. The overlay was so saturated it was almost useless.

Too many. Way too many.

Zoe engaged her active camouflage, fading her into the smoke. Luca did the same, his scout suit's systems blurring his outline as they maneuvered around the edges of the battle.

An [Vexillary Swarmer] charged from the left. Luca's rifle was up before conscious thought, muscle memory taking over. He fired. The plasma bolt caught the creature center mass, punching through chitin and dropping it mid-stride.

[+11,160 XP] [+4,500 credits]

"Let's show these bugs what we're made of," Zoe whispered, her voice carrying forced bravado.

"Couldn't agree more," Luca replied, already tracking his next target.

Like any of this matters. Like seven humans make a difference in a war between thousands.

They sprinted from cover to cover, boots pounding uneven ground. The whine of an energy lance cut through the chaos, high-pitched and deadly. Before anyone could react, it struck the lead Varnathi mech.

A beam of incandescent light bored into the machine's torso. For a split second, there was no explosion, only the sound of tearing metal and the sight of armor plate glowing cherry-red, warping, melting away. The mech staggered, its frame groaning under the impossible heat.

Then its core went critical.

The machine erupted in a blinding flash. Red-hot shrapnel rained down, shredding through the Varnathi infantry squad that had been taking cover at its feet. Luca was already diving, throwing himself flat as a wave of heat washed over him. A chunk of twisted plating slammed into a tree trunk three meters away, still glowing.

We could die here. Any second. A stray shot, a piece of shrapnel. We're going to die here.

"Everyone hold!" he barked into comms, scanning the smoke-filled clearing. The path to the fortress was a churned hellscape of debris and bodies. No clear route forward. No easy way through.

We're fucked.

Zoe slid up beside him, breathing hard. "Luca, we need a new approach. That outpost is a fortress. We won't get anywhere near it in this mess."

No fucking shit.

Danny crouched behind a jagged boulder, checking on Joey. "So what's the play?"

Before Luca could answer, something shifted. Every Varnathi soldier dove to the ground simultaneously, their bodies pressing flat against the earth like they'd rehearsed it a thousand times.

Chris's voice crackled sharply with urgency. "Down! Everyone hit the deck, now!"

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Luca dropped instantly, his hands going to his head. Chris wasn't one to panic, which meant something catastrophic was incoming. He could see Ryan and Emily follow suit, faces pale, weapons gripped tight.

Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck.

Luca triggered [Heightened Awareness], his Perception attribute spiking as the skill flooded his brain with sensory data. Time seemed to slow. He could see individual smoke particles drifting. Hear the crackle of distant fires. Feel the electromagnetic buildup in the air like static before a lightning strike.

A deep, bone-rattling hum vibrated through the ground as two massive orbs of plasma descended from the sky, scouring the landscape in a flash of blinding blue.

The ground heaved as the bolts struck, the impact so violent it punched the air from his lungs. A roar of pure pressure tore through his suit's audio dampeners, and a physical blow overwhelmed his suit's audio dampeners.

The fortress shield flared brilliant blue, arcs of energy crackling across its surface as it absorbed the impact. Dust and debris swept outward in a shockwave, pelting them even behind cover.

Luca's [Heightened Awareness] was still active, feeding him too much information. He could see the stress fractures forming in the shield. Count the secondary explosions as the energy dispersed. Tracking every piece of debris spinning through the air.

It was too much. His head pounded from the cognitive strain, temples throbbing as the skill drained his Willpower.

He let it drop, gasping.

The rumble in his chest from the blast left him stunned. This was industrial warfare on a scale he'd never imagined.

We're fucked. We're so fucked.

Ryan's voice came through comms, shaky but alive. "Ship-based weapons. We're in the middle of an orbital bombardment. This is... I've never seen anything like this."

Emily lifted her head just enough to look at Luca, eyes wide with shock. "How do we even approach something like that? The whole fortress should've been vaporized!"

Joey's usual confidence was gone, replaced by awe. "It's no wonder these Varnathi are so fierce. They're throwing everything at this, and that shield's still up."

Danny's jaw clenched. "If we stay frozen here, we're dead. We need a plan that doesn't end with us as smoldering craters."

Zoe's voice cut through. "Luca, there's got to be a way around. We can't go through the main assault. We need a flank route, a weakness in their defenses."

Luca forced his thoughts into order, pushing past the shock. He triggered [Cover Spotting], his interface highlighting potential paths through the chaos. Most routes led directly into kill zones. A few showed possible cover positions, but they'd be exposed for long stretches.

None of them were good.

"Alright," he said, voice low as he scanned for gaps in the fortress defenses. "We regroup. Find an alternate route. We're not dying here. We cut through the forest edge and try to get behind their lines."

That sounds like a plan. Whether we can actually pull it off is another question entirely.

The Varnathi infantry surged forward again, their advance relentless despite mounting casualties. Another mech strode past, its plasma cannons firing in bursts. Dropships circled overhead, their weapons carving through insectoid air support.

Luca watched the fortress shield flicker and stabilize, watched the Varnathi throw themselves at fortified positions, watched the insectoids defend with desperate ferocity.

There's no way in hell we're getting through this.

Green clouds of toxic smoke began billowing from the fortress, rolling across the battlefield as a fog of pure death. Luca's helmet display flashed warnings as his suit's sensors detected the chemical composition. Toxic. Corrosive. Lethal.

"Fall back!" he barked into comms, already moving. "Get away from the fog, now!"

The team scattered, putting distance between themselves and the expanding vapor. Luca watched through his visor as vegetation withered instantly, blackening and curling in on itself. Varnathi soldiers fell gasping all around them, clutching their throats, their bodies convulsing as the poison took hold.

The scene was chaos, compounded by the new waves of troops surging forward, now equipped with breathing masks, their eyes fierce and unyielding behind their visors.

Chemical warfare. They're using chemical weapons. What the fuck kind of war is this?

"Everyone, check your seals!" Joey called out. "Make sure your suits are airtight!"

Luca did a quick systems check. Green across the board. His armor was holding, but they couldn't risk exposure. Not to whatever hell the insectoids had just unleashed.

"Keep moving back!" he ordered, motioning them away from the chaos. "Get clear of the gas cloud."

They pushed through thinning trees, the sounds of battle fading to a distant roar behind them. Plasma fire lit up the toxic sky. Explosions rumbled. But ahead, the forest opened up.

Luca stepped into the clearing and stopped dead.

"Holy shit," Ryan breathed.

The field stretched out before them, vast and impossibly organized. Rows upon rows of troops disembarking from massive starships that gleamed under two moons and a bright sun. These were full-scale military transports, each one the size of a city block.

Mechs stomped down ramps, their frames groaning under the weight of plasma cannons. Armored personnel carriers rolled forward in formation. And everywhere, thousands upon thousands of Varnathi soldiers poured out, weapons raised, moving with discipline that spoke of endless training.

Earth's entire combined forces couldn't match this. Not even close.

The scale was overwhelming.

This was beyond anything humanity could ever assemble. Starships descended into the fields, each one disgorging thousands of troops. Mechs that dwarfed anything built on Earth stomped down ramps. Artillery vehicles rolled into position.

This was what an advanced civilization looked like when it went to war.

Zoe clutched Ryan's arm, her voice barely above a whisper. "Ryan, are you sure you still want to wake up the Varnathi from those stasis pods?"

Ryan didn't answer immediately. His expression shifted between wonder and grim realization. When he finally spoke, his voice was steady. "Yeah. More than ever."

Luca scanned the staging area, forcing his tactical brain to take over from the shock. At the center of the organized chaos stood a temporary structure, reinforced panels and active shield generators marking it as important. A command post. Officers and strategists moved in and out, their body language radiating authority.

Guarding the entrance were mounted Varnathi cavalry. Their mounts were something they hadn't seen yet: sleek creatures with midnight-black feathers and powerful legs built for speed. Wings folded against their backs, twitching restlessly. The riders wore dark armor, their visors reflecting the toxic light.

"That's not something you see every day," Danny said quietly. "If those guards are any indication, we're not walking in there without a damn good reason."

Joey stepped forward, eyes locked on the command post. "Then we'd better figure out what our reason is. We need intel, and fast. That fortress isn't falling on its own, and the Varnathi clearly know something we don't."

We need answers. We need to know what we're dealing with. And we need to figure out how to get the hell out of this portal alive.

Luca's mind raced through options. They could try sneaking past the staging ground, but where would they go? The fortress was ahead, heavily defended and under orbital bombardment.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.