To leave the Hive city, Cleo split her army into three parts. She took the middle road, while the defense forces moved to her left and right. The units left behind were a necessary sacrifice so the main army could retreat safely and without losses.

Through her holoscreen, Cleo watched the void creatures scavenge power cells from the destroyed Aegis units and carry them deep into their own lines. She said nothing. She simply added this to her data bank. Any information about the Void could help her win later.

The head of the imperial maid bots broke the silence. "My lady, the other two armies report that enemy creatures labeled as ’spine stalkers’ are following them at a distance. They are not attacking, just shadowing them."

Cleo already knew they were being followed too. Before retreating, she had sent bird-like drones ahead. These showed her a huge number of enemies closing in from behind, somehow slipping past the Aegis units she had left as a rear guard. It was a clear sign of the enemy’s sheer numbers.

Then something happened that Cleo could not have predicted since she still lacked enough data about the Void. Less than two kilometers from the Hive city wall, a massive rift tore open right in the middle of her retreating army, cutting her line in two.

"GAHHHHHH!"

One of the Maw brothers she had fought before stepped out of the rift first. Another followed, then another, all attacking the side where Cleo was. At the same time, the spine stalkers that had been shadowing them now struck at the lower half of her army.

Cleo summoned several holoscreens and began issuing commands, the two Mauler Juggernauts near her turned and fired their long-range artillery into the rift, trying to kill anything else trying to come through. Their plasma cannons blasted at the Maw Brutes already outside, while her Aegis units attacked the Brutes and spine stalkers on both fronts.

"My lady, the Aegis units on the other side of the rift are taking heavy losses at a steady rate. We lost twenty of them as soon as the ambush began." One of the imperial maid bots reported while firing her plasma sniper rifle. Her shot hit a Maw Brute square in the shoulder, but the creature only shuddered for a second before attacking again.

"Order the other armies to keep moving toward the wall," Cleo said. "Once there, their mission is to destroy the wall and break out. Do not send reinforcements here. We will buy them time."

She spread her wings, and her flying short swords materialized around her. They formed from nanomachines flowing out of her wings. At the same time, two large gauntlets appeared on her hands.

She shot into the sky and then dived, crashing hard onto one of the Maw Brutes. The impact slammed him to the ground and cracked the reinforced steel of the lower Hive. Without pause, she began punching him over and over with her metal gauntlets. Each strike sent a powerful shockwave rippling outward.

As she moved, another Maw Brute split an Aegis unit clean in half, then lunged at Cleo with a speed that felt wrong for something so huge. She saw him coming, but her body couldn’t keep up. His mass slammed into her, hurling her sideways through the air. Still, she twisted mid-flight, caught her balance, and landed steady on one foot.

"So we meet again, sparkly female," the brute rumbled, gripping his maul with both hands. Thick black fluid oozed from the gaping mouth on his chest.

Cleo rose to her full height and flapped her wings, shaking off the dust. "Parasitic life form?" she said, circling slowly. The brute mirrored her move, each of them searching for a crack in the other’s guard.

"GHA GHA GHA! parasite, you say?" His chest-mouth unhinged, and a massive tongue slithered out, lapping the black liquid from his own lips before snapping back inside. "Aren’t you just like me? Riding another body while your real mind hides somewhere else?"

"Don’t compare the Kaelzar conscience to something as ugly and barbaric as you."

The words barely left her mouth before they charged. The Maw Brute swung his maul toward her right side, but she used the weapon’s own momentum to kick off, veering left. Her floating sword shot forward, piercing his leg, ribs, and one arm in a single flashing arc.

The brute didn’t flinch. He didn’t slow. He just kept swinging faster, as if every wound fed his fury. In one brutal exchange, Cleo slammed her armored gauntlet into his face, but he twisted his torso back, and the chest maw gaped wide, biting down and ripping her arm clean off.

She vaulted backward, putting distance between them. Her gaze dropped to where her arm was supposed to be, but nothing remained but torn cables, crushed alloys, and tiny red holoscreens flickering with error messages.

"My lady!" The imperial bot maid transformed her sniper plasma rifle into a minigun and unleashed a storm of fire, pinning the brute down.

"GHAAA! is that all you’ve got, little sparkle girl!?" He roared, shielding his face behind his massive arm as rounds hammered against him.

Then four Tyrant units dropped from the sky, their great swords crashing down on him in unison. Wound after wound piled up, faster than his flesh could mend.

But he didn’t fall quietly. He knew he was done for, so he threw away all defense; his mauled fists and brute body became living weapons against the Tyrants. It took eight minutes of six against one to finally put him down.

Cleo paused and studied the Maw Brute’s corpse. Plasma fire had pockmarked it with thousands of smoking holes, and the Tyrant’s unit’s swords had carved countless gashes across its flesh. But none of the cuts went deep enough. It was clear at simple sight that the brute had bled to death instead of receiving a lethal injury.

She turned to the Tyrant units. Every single one bore dented hulls; one had half its face torn away. These were Tier 3 warriors, yet they had been reduced to this state by a single Maw Brute, and they’d even had covering fire from nearby Aegis units and the imperial bot maid with her advanced weaponry.

Then she scanned the battlefield. Her side of the rift was hemorrhaging ground, slowly giving way to the remaining nineteen Maw Brutes. Worse, she couldn’t see past the rift at all. Every scout drone she’d sent had been shot down the moment it crossed over.

Her main body carried Tier 5 power, but this was only a secondary shell. Now, wounded and missing an arm, she ranked at best as a Tier 3 mid-warrior, not nearly enough to turn the tide. Even her air support was out of reach since they were in the lower hive, basically underground.

Cleo exhaled slowly and closed her eyes for a few heartbeats. "Head maid, what’s the status on the other two retreating lines?" 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

The head maid opened a holographic screen. "Reports indicate they are advancing without issue. At this pace, they will reach the exterior wall in one hour. Do you have new orders, my lady?" The imperial head maid android’s face remained impassive as always, but for a fraction of a second, something flickered beneath the surface and vanished.

"Negative. Maintain current orders. We hold this ground and keep the main enemy force focused on us. That way, at least one of the two lines can make it outside." Cleo tried to repair her missing arm with nanomachines, but every time the tiny bots approached the wound, they dissolved. A strange energy clung to the injury, devouring anything that touched it.

"My lady, I fail to understand your logic," said one of the imperial bot maids. "Why not use our troops from outside the wall to break through and reinforce us?"

Cleo didn’t even turn around. "We can’t alert the Void fleet. Right now, the army is hidden under a heavy cloaking device that makes them invisible to radar, sight, and thermal scans. But the moment they move, the cloak fails."

She walked back toward the three Mauler Juggernauts as she spoke. "If a massive army suddenly appears in disputed territory, the enemy will bomb us from above. They’re here to consume life and energy alike." She stopped and faced the maid squarely. "To the Void, we’re nothing but food."

"Understood," the maid replied, resuming her guard position.

They started walking again, but Cleo halted abruptly. Her gaze snapped to her left, toward where the third retreating group should have been.

"My lady?" the head maid asked.

Cleo didn’t answer. She spread her wings, gave one powerful beat, and launched into the sky. She flew straight toward the third group’s position, and what she found there was not even a massacre.

After all, for it to be a massacre, at least the bodies would still be there. But there was nothing. She landed in the middle of what should have been a battlefield. The only things left were the defense force’s tanks or what remained of them.

Not a single one was intact. Every vehicle had been crushed from all sides, as if something enormous had slammed down on them from above.

The imperial bot maids arrived moments later and fanned out around her, each covering a different blind spot. While they took up their positions, Cleo released a swarm of tiny nanomachines. They scattered across the ground, scanning every inch of the area, hunting for anything her own sensors might have missed.