Planet B-17 A9, AKA Therek Lunara. Tier-9 civilization. Primitive Weapons. Human population. No AI civilians allowed by planetary law. Under IC Alliance protection. Communication dark after distress call. Nomad deployed under Commander Eve.
Ruins of Therek Lunara. Skybreak's sixth mission on Nomad.
Mid-sprint. Mid-fire. Mid-chaos.
Eve tore through scorched asphalt on a gasoline bike, engine howling, city burning around her. Entire districts lay in ruin — malls gutted, towers blackened. Swarm units filled the sky like locusts, mutated crawlers sprinting behind her, gaining.
Skybreak's rifle barked from above. Cover fire. He tracked her from the rooftops as she zigzagged through fallen light poles and dead tanks left from the last human push.
"Sky, I need you on the road."
"Roger that, Commander."
He jumped, landed in a humvee-style military vehicle, windshield cracked, engine snarling. Metal screamed as it tore onto the street behind her.
A swarm burst through the road ahead, blocking Eve's path. She didn't flinch. She throttled harder, jumped from the bike, glass-shattering through the humvee's windshield mid-air. Rolled inside. Took the wheel.
Skybreak, without a word, dove into the passenger seat, reloaded his carbine, aimed out the window.
"Mall's two blocks up."
"Perfect."
They crashed through the mall entrance. The alien swarm followed — skittering across broken escalators, pouring through shattered skylights.
"They're herding us," Eve said.
Skybreak replied. "Toward the source." They ran for it.
A resonating scream. Everything trembled.
The Leviathan stood in the middle of the block, twenty meters tall.
The creature shot charged plasma through its throat.
Eve turned too slow, too busy fighting the swarm.
Skybreak moved faster.
He threw himself between her and the blast.
It hit.
A wave of armor-shattering heat and force exploded across the floor. Skybreak flew back, metal fracturing on impact. He didn't rise.
"Skybreak!"
She dragged him behind cover. His chestplate was split. Heat scars ran down his jaw. Breathing — heavily. Eve's hands were trembling.
"You could've let it hit me."
He gave a crooked smile, blood in his teeth. "And let the only reason I'm still breathing get erased?"
"Don't say that."
"Why not?" he rasped. "If I burn out protecting you… that's not the end. That's the point."
He shoved a pulse detonator into her palm. "It's alive. Cut the core. I'll buy you time."
"You can't even walk."
"I don't need to. Just stall."
Worried, but she nodded.
Eve ran.
She wall-ran up collapsed stone, vaulting off rusted drone husks. Her Exosuit, was out of ammo, energy and shape. The interface wasn't working. She peeled it off. Now left in a shredded crop top, boots, jeans. Burnt skin. Scarred arms. She — her plasma sword humming like breath.
She somersaulted through air, slid under burning beams, then jumped high, struck mid-leap Leviathan's dorsal breach.
She embedded the charge in its heart.
"Skybreak—now." She barked into the comm.
The city erupted.
A flash. A tremor. Silence.
She woke in dust, rubble clinging to her skin. The mall was half-gone. Ash rained. Her nanites were already taking over where her skin had taken too many injuries.
Skybreak! She thought and instantly stood on her feet. Nothing. Silence. Her heart pounding like chaos engine.
A voice through static:
"You made it."
She ran — found him slumped beside a cracked pillar, half his armor melted, still clutching his rifle. Surrounded by swarm corpses he'd gunned down while she ran the core.
"I thought you were gone."
"Blast radius… was wider than I thought."
She dropped to her knees, pulled his head onto her lap.
"You can't keep saving me like this."
"I'd die again and again for you."
The comms buzzed back to life.
"Commander, SoulDrifter inbound," came Sapphirine's voice. "Hold on. We're coming in."