The screams wouldn’t stop.

Metal groaned around him as bright warning lights bled across the narrow corridors of the ship. The air smelled wrong — burnt steel, smoke, something wet and metallic.

Bodies.

There were bodies everywhere.

Humans. Mostly.

Some twisted beyond recognition.

Others dragged silently into the darkness by towering pale figures crowned with black rings.

The faceless beings moved through the corridor without sound, their smooth white exteriors stained with silver light. Halo rings rotated slowly around their necks, vibrating with layered frequencies that made the walls hum.

A child curled beneath shattered wiring, trembling violently as the ship shook around him.

Gunfire echoed somewhere far away.

The child couldn’t breathe.

Couldn’t move.

One of the creatures stopped. Bent one knee and lowered itself down.

Its featureless head tilted.

The ring around its feet hummed as it spoke,

"Shi vae thren’kai? Thaev. Vel’ith khae(why have you hidden in silence? Come. The journey of time has arrived)"

The child shook his head, "I’m scared!"

"Thaek nor... Vae shi’ith. Vaeshi thaev vel(Fear not... I’ll hold your connection amd we will walk this path)"

The boy nodded slowly and crawled out, another white figure stood behind the one who called out to him.

It’s head tilted and the rings around its neck and fingers hummed as if it was about to speak

Then—

The smooth surface of its face split open.

Porcelain-like plates unfolded silently outward, revealing layers of glistening insectoid structures beneath. Thin tendrils twitched around glowing inner eyes as a resonance click echoed through the corridor.

"Vae’ren..."

Child.

The being stepped closer.

The ship howled.

Not mechanically.

Alive.

A deep vibration tore through the corridor as blinding white light flooded the chamber—

"K-0-0-1!"

The nightmare shattered.

K’s eyes snapped open. His breathe frosting his helmet and quickly disappearing.

For half a second, he forgot where he was.

Then the battlefield hit him all at once.

Explosions thundered across the ruined district as chunks of molten concrete rained from collapsing buildings. Smoke swallowed the skyline of Meredith’s outer city, lit only by artillery fire, plasma lines and burning wreckage. Sirens screamed through the chaos while tracer rounds ripped overhead like streaks of fire.

Pain surged through K’s spine.

His mechanized frame recalibrated instantly.

WARNING — NEURAL LINK INSTABILITY

SYNC RATE: 91%

"Mayday! Mayday! Control Unit to N-Squad! Area clear, six casualties, we need medics now!"

Static crackled violently through the comm channel.

"This is Control to N-Squad. Medic dropships are inbound."

"Roger!"

"K-0-0-1!"

K blinked hard.

Lieutenant Finch crouched behind a shattered barricade several feet away, plasma rifle raised toward the burning street ahead.

"You good, man?"

Another explosion shook the ground

K steadied himself against the remains of a collapsed transport vehicle, breathing slowly as smoke curled from the vents lining his armored neck.

"...Yeah."

"You don’t sound good."

"I said I’m fine."

Finch stared at him for another second before muttering a curse under his breath and recalibrating his rifle.

"Then get your ass moving. We have to clear a path for medics. Before those bastards come back for round 2!"

As if summoned by the words, something shrieked overhead.

Every soldier in the street froze.

Then the sky split apart.

A black object descended through the smoke with a terrifying hum.

No sound of its engines. Just a sonic boom.

Just a massive shape gliding downward through the burning atmosphere like a descending eclipse.

K’s pulse slowed instantly.

The indicators in his helmet tracked the ship’s trajectory.

Vashki.

The transport vessel unfolded as it descended, sleek black surfaces separating like shifting bone. Pale light pulsed beneath its exterior while circular halo structures rotated slowly beneath the hull.

The soldiers around K opened fire immediately.

Rail rounds streaked upward.

Missiles launched from nearby defense towers.

The Vashki ship didn’t dodge.

A translucent distortion spread across its surface as every projectile curved away violently, crushed apart by invisible gravitational pressure before impact.

"Jesus Christ—"

"It’s a Doom vessel!"

A soldier yelled, "we need to fall back!"

"Anti-armor units!"

"MOVE!"

The ship opened like muscle tissue separating.

Pale figures dropped silently into the ruined street below.

Standing several feet tall adorned with multiple rings around their necks and fingers.

White biomechanical bodies glimmered beneath the flames while black rings rotated around their necks with soft harmonic vibrations.

The figures stood still, watching the chaos born of them.

Then the gunfire began.

A mechanized trooper charged forward with a combat cannon mounted to his arm.

"CONTACT LEFT—!"

One of the Vashki lifted its hand.

The air warped.

The trooper vanished.

Not exploded.

Gone.

A perfectly circular bloody crater remained where his body had stood. Like he had been squashed.

For one horrifying second, nobody moved.

Then the battlefield erupted into chaos.

"OPEN FIRE!"

Heavy railguns thundered across the district.

K launched himself behind cover as plasma rounds tore through the street, reducing concrete to molten debris. His combat visor lit instantly with hostile signatures.

TARGETS DETECTED

VASHKI UNITS: 2

THREAT LEVEL: EXTREME-U’KAN

One of the creatures moved.

Its body blurred forward through gunfire as halo rings accelerated around its neck. A mechanized soldier raised his rifle and aimed.

The Vashki’s face split open.

One minute the soldier was about to shoot, the next his head hung from the Vashki’s mouth.

Mandibles unfolded outward in a bloom of pale metal and black flesh.

A resonance click echoed through the street.

Someone screamed.

Blood exploded from his ears as he collapsed twitching onto the pavement.

"DON’T LET THEM CLOSE DISTANCE!"

K vaulted over the barricade.

His mechanized frame roaring to life.

Artificial muscle fibers contracted violently beneath reinforced armor plating as he accelerated straight into the battlefield. The pavement cracked beneath each step.

The Vashki turned toward him.

The moment their eyes met, pain slammed through K’s skull.

Fragments.

Corridors.

Silver light.

A porcelain hand reaching toward him.

K gritted his teeth violently and fired.

His arm-mounted rail cannon detonated with deafening force.

The round struck the Vashki directly in the chest.

For the first time, the alien staggered.

Silver-white blood sprayed across the street in glowing fragments before evaporating into the air like dust.

"Direct hit!"

"Holy shit, he hit it!"

K didn’t stop moving.

He slammed forward through smoke and debris, combat blade extending from his forearm with a metallic snap.

The Vashki recovered instantly

Its rings rotated faster.

The air around K distorted.

Gravity pressure pressed unto him from every direction.

WARNING — STRUCTURAL STRAIN DETECTED

His knees nearly buckled.

Nearby vehicles crumpled inward violently like crushed paper.

K roared and forced himself forward anyway.

The Vashki tilted its head.

Almost curious.

Then it spoke.

Layered voices vibrated through the battlefield.

"Kha’shi vae thren..."

K froze.

The words slid into his mind effortlessly.

Not as clicks or overlapping voices like the average human heard.

As understanding.

He couldn’t tell for how long but ever since that Vashki had saved him in that ship he had understood their language.

You are not silent.

"What?"

"K!" Rhyse shouted through comms. "MOVE!"

The Vashki raised its hand.

K reacted instinctively

He lunged sideways as an invisible force annihilated the street where he’d been standing milliseconds earlier.

The explosion hurled him through the remains of a storefront window.

Glass rained around him.

Pain flared across his ribs as warning signals screamed through his neural interface.

ARMOR INTEGRITY: 67%

Outside, the battle worsened.

Another Vashki transport descended through the clouds. Though it did not land.

Then another.

"Oh no..." someone whispered over comms.

Control barked instantly:

"All units fall back! Repeat, all units fall back to Sector Eight defensive line immediately!"

Nobody answered.

Static came again.

"This is control unit! All units fall back! Medic dropships are landing East of your location! Fall back! Do not engage the enemy any further!"

A mechanized titan unit opened fire from atop a collapsed highway, unleashing streams of anti-armor rounds into the advancing aliens. Explosions swallowed the district in fire and the second Vashki walked through it.

Each round exploding off its body.

It raised its arm summoning thin strands of white light extended silently from its fingers.

The titan unit split apart, like paper sliced by invisible blades.

The upper half of the mech slid sideways before crashing into the street below.

Silence hit the comms.

Control continued to bark orders bit nobody dared to move,

Nobody breathed.

Then screaming erupted again.

K pushed himself upright inside the ruined building, blood dripping from his mouth.

His vision flickered violently.

The voices were back.

Not from comms.

From somewhere deeper.

Whispers layered beneath the battlefield noise.

Kha’shi...

Vae’ren...

Thaev...

He heard the Vashki speak again, his ears rung and his head throbbed.

"Control," Finch shouted, breathless. "We need orbital support NOW!"

"Denied."

"What?!"

"Orbital command cannot fire while civilians remain in the district."

"There won’t BE civilians left!"

Static answered him.

A child cried nearby.

K’s head snapped toward the sound.

Half-buried beneath rubble at the end of the store, a little girl stared at him through tears. Maybe eight years old.

Alive.

Outside, the Vashki were getting closer.

K swore quietly.

"K," Finch barked through comms. "Status report!"

"There’s a survivor."

"Leave them. We’re pulling back."

K stared at the child.

Then at the approaching shadows outside.

The girl looked terrified.

Not of the aliens.

Of him.

Because mechanized soldiers barely looked human anymore.

K closed his eyes briefly.

Then sighed.

"Yeah," he muttered. "Story of my life."

He moved.

Fast.

Crossing the room in seconds before lifting the rubble away with enhanced strength. The girl cried out as he pulled her free.

"It’s okay," he said quietly.

The words sounded strange coming from his damaged voice modulator.

Another explosion rocked the district.

Dust fell from the ceiling.

"K!" Finch shouted. "MOVE!"

K grabbed the child and sprinted.

The building collapsed behind him as he burst back into the ruined street.

Hell greeted him immediately.

Bodies.

Fire.

Collapsed transports.

Mechanized corpses scattered across the roadway.

The Vashki stood among the destruction in absolute silence.

One turned toward him.

Its faceless head tilted slowly.

The halo around its neck pulsed once.

The child buried her face against K’s shoulder, sobbing.

K tightened his grip on his rifle.

The Vashki spoke again.

"Va’ren..."

Child.

K’s heartbeat stopped.

"Why..." he whispered.

Then the creature moved.

K reacted instantly, boosting sideways with mechanized propulsion as white energy obliterated the ground beneath him. The shockwave shattered nearby windows.

"THIS WAY!" Finch waved from an evacuation line further down the street.

UDF soldiers covered the retreat desperately while civilians poured toward armored transports.

K sprinted.

The Vashki followed.

Walking down the obliterated street as if chasing K wasn’t worth it, advancing with horrifying certainty.

The second Vashki raised its arm toward the evacuation convoy.

K’s eyes widened. "No!"

His neural systems overloaded instantly.

SYNC RATE: 98%

Pain ripped through his nervous system as mechanized components along his spine expanded violently. Blue-white energy surged beneath the plating across his arms.

Finch dashed away from the evacuation line. To where he had dropped the girl.

"K...? Come back here!"

K launched forward.

The world blurred.

One second he stood fifty meters away, the next, he slammed directly into the Vashki before it could land its attack.

The impact shattered the pavement.

Even the alien seemed caught off guard.

K drove his combat blade through its neck with a roar. The porcelain like armor cracking and its blood spilling.

Silver light exploded outward. The rings around its body spun violently before bursting into tiny fragments.

The Vashki’s face split open violently, insectoid structures unfolding inches from K’s own face as layered voices shrieked through the air.

The alien collapsed.

Dead silence spread across the battlefield.

The Vashki that had been following K, stood, watching its comrade fall.

The rings around their neck and fingers pulsed together.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

K slowly pulled his blade free, breathing hard.

Behind him, the ships had successfully evacuated civilians and were taking off.

That was good.

"Thae’kel... Sol’veth. (Weak...Pathetic.)"

Its rings extended not only around its neck, but along its wrists and fingers, rotating with soft harmonic clicks.

Then it spoke.

The layered voices echoed across the burning city.

"Child born of Vae’thira"

K’s blood turned cold.

Because this time.

It spoke in perfect human language.