Gap Stories #25

[When Dragons Fight]

Log Date: 12/30/12768

Data Sources: Sunthorn Bastion Archived Records

Event Log: 12/30/12768

Halcyon: Genista Titan Yard

7:20am LPT

“Go, go, go! This is the big one, all pilots are go!”

Klaxons rip through the dawn over Genista, the entire outpost lit up with pulsating emergency lights. Glowing channels flow through the streets, marking the paths to the shelters; with how early it is in the morning, there aren’t many people following those lines of light, though the number is starting to rise as more people are wrenched from sleep by the sirens. Up on the wall, the autocannons are spinning up, pivoting to unseen targets not yet visible from the outpost; the heavy thunder of explosive rounds punctuates the cycling cadence of the klaxons, and Genista comes awake in the worst way possible.

The Titan yard is at the height of this frenzy, with hangar crew up and swarming across the vast expanse of the yard. Activity is concentrated around the alcoves that contain the Genista and Valiant Titans, with hangar crews rushing to begin the startup sequences for each one, and performing last-minute checks on the colossal machines. Among the klaxons and the thunder of autocannons, crew leads can be heard shouting orders to their teams — hoses are dragged around and locked into place for refueling, forklifts are revved up so they can transfer munitions onto the scaffolding rings, which in turn begin clanking up to the height where the maintenance arms can load them into the Titans. Underneath it all is the hum of fusion cores igniting, and steadily multiplying as more and more Titans come online.

“Rack it up, rack it up, rack it up!” Jaree bellows as she strides across the base of the Firefly II’s alcove, snapping orders to the hangar crew as they scramble to get the war machine ready to deploy. “Get those mortar rounds loaded, I want at least two spare mags in place by the time she gets here; she’s gonna need ‘em. Talk to me, Brant; where are we at on fueling up the Torikago’s reserve tanks?”

“They just got the seals locked in, they’re beginning the transfer now.” Brant calls back from the management console sitting at the divider between the Torikago and Firefly alcoves. “I don’t know if we’re going to have enough to fill the Torikago’s reserve tanks; we can get the main tank to full, but with everyone else topping off at the same time, we might only have enough to get a partial fill on the Torikago’s reserve.”

“Do what you can. Torikago’s the only mech without a munitions loadout, and it needs all the juice it can get for the Siegebreaker cannon.” Jaree orders, guiding one of the hangar crew out of her way as closes in on the management console. “Payton, Jill, how are we looking on overall health?”

“Not as good as we should be for something like this.” Jill says, pushing away from the console to shout up to the crew manning the maintenance ring around the Torikago. “Make sure the hydraulics are topped off! We can’t afford another busted piston on this op!” Moving back to the console, she starts clawing marked-up schematics across her portion of the console screen. “Torikago’s been taking the brunt of hits on the all the recent missions, trying to cut down on the damage to the rest of the squad. It’s always at the center of the action, since it’s primarily melee. There’s some areas of internal degradation that we haven’t had the time to address. It’s functional, but one bad hit at the wrong time could have major consequences.”

“Exterior armoring isn’t looking too hot either. The foundry here in Genista hasn’t had time to recast most of the damaged exterior plates.” Payton says, bringing up the recent work logs to review them. “There’s going to be some places where our Titans have external weak points. Same goes for the Genista Titans.”

“We’ll have do the best we can with what we’ve got.” Jaree says, her ears flicking backwards as she hears something revving across the floor of the Titan yard, and turns to see a set of cargo carts fanning out towards the Titan alcoves. Hanging onto the sides and clinging to the backs are the pilots, fresh from their prep chambers, suited up and ready to go. “Step it up everyone, we’ll be deploying in five minutes!”

“We’re getting a call in from the SHOC, boss!” Brant calls over his shoulder. “You wanna get on the line?”

“Hold it for now, tell them I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Jaree says as the cargo cart carrying Songbird, Kiwi, and Renchiko arrives. The trio drop off the cart as it skids to a halt, with Jaree clapping Renchiko on the back and pointing her to the Firefly II. “Startup sequence is already underway. Get up there, kiddo.”

Renchiko nods and starts running towards her Titan, while Songbird nods to Kiwi to go ahead of him and get settled into the Torikago. As she heads in that direction, he turns to Jaree. “Is it as bad as it looks?” he asks.

“Seems that way from what I’ve heard so far. Everything and the kitchen sink. Details are still a little fuzzy, but SHOC will probably bring everything into focus in the next fifteen minutes.” Jaree says, glancing towards the autocannons on the outpost walls. “That should probably tell you all you need to know, though.”

Songbird likewise glances towards the thundering guns. “I thought they only had Leviathans deployed on this world.”

“They did, until a hiveship turned up in orbit and start droppin’ turnips.” Jaree says, lifting her gaze to the still-dawning sky. “Cricket wolves, gravug beetles, the usual. They’re massing outside the outpost, sending in the crickets one by one.”

Songbird furrows his brow at that. “Wouldn’t swarming be more effective?”

“It would. And they will. But explosive rounds are effective against tightly-packed groups.” Jaree says, patting around in her work vest before she comes up with her vape. “The outpost, however, only has so many of them stockpiled.”

“They’re trying to drain the munitions. Get them to waste high-value rounds on single targets.” Songbird murmurs as the realization clicks. “Why are they still firing? They need to conserve ammunition…”

Jaree snorts. “You know how Marshies are. Those guns are on auto-target; they’d rather write a program to handle it than hire someone to monitor that shit. The Collective knows it too; that’s why they’re feeding their crickets into the meatgrinder one by one. They know how to fight Marshies.”

Songbird blows out a long breath. “Too smart for their own good sometimes… alright then. Looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us.” As Kiwi calls to him, he starts backing away towards the Torikago’s alcove. “We’ll do our best to keep them out, but if they start swarming when the Leviathans arrive…”

“I know. We’ll set up defenses and arrange evacuations. But right now, our job is to get y’all deployed.” Jaree says, taking a drag from her vape before motioning him towards his mech. “So get up there. Sooner you all get out there, the sooner we can start prepping.”

Songbird doesn’t waste any further time, turning and running to the elevator where Kiwi is waiting for him. “You were supposed to go ahead of me.” he says as he arrives and steps onto the platform with her, pulling the grate closed behind him.

Kiwi gives him a look as she hits the up button. “It’s not like I can start the thing up without you. We go together, Blueberry.”

For a moment it looks like he’ll say something, then seems to think better of it as the elevator starts gliding upwards. It’s not clear what goes through his mind, but one might hazard a guess with what he does choose to say. “Are you ready for this?”

“Don’t have much of a choice, do we?” Kiwi says, more of the surrounding outpost coming into view the higher the elevator rises. “Not seeing any other alternatives.”

“Yeah. Fair.” he says as the elevator starts to slow as it approaches the walkway rimming the alcoves. “It’s gonna be ugly.”

“Yeah, that’s what war is like. You should be telling this to the kids, not me.” Kiwi points out as the elevator comes to a halt. “We both already know this is gonna be a shitshow. Do the kids know it?”

“I think they can tell.” Songbird says, pulling open the grate and stepping out with Kiwi following him. “They’re smart and they can read the room. They know what’s happening.”

“And what about you?” Kiwi asks as they make their way to the bridge that links the walkway to the scaffolding ring around the neck of the Torikago. “Are you ready for this, Feroce?”

Songbird pauses before stepping onto the bridge, then turns to look at Kiwi. After a moment, he leans in and kisses her; not a short kiss, but a just-in-case-we-die kiss. And even after he pulls his lips from hers, one of his plugsuited hands remains on her cheek. “Let’s save as many as we can.” he says softly.

Kiwi gives a cynical little smile, reaching up to fold a hand around the one on her face. “That’s my hopeless hero.” she says as he grips her hand in return, pulling her along as he steps onto the bridge, crosses the scaffolding, and leads the way down into the Torikago’s pilot chamber.

Once inside, the hatch closes behind the pair, the lights coming on as the deadbolts spiral into place and the atmospheric seal engages. Pulling on their glass helms, they open the covers of their respective pods and slip inside, thick blue gel cushioning their limbs as they sink into it, and the covers close and lock into place behind them. Cables snake through the gel and link up to the plugs on their suit, magnetic rings helping the interlocks snap into place; startup data begins to filter across the interior of their helms, feeding them information on the Torikago’s current status. Neither of them pay it much attention, because it’s information that each of them will soon be feeling intuitively once they’ve synchronized with the Torikao. Songbird closes his eyes almost immediately, and Kiwi follows suit soon after, a blue haze closing over her as their pods fill with impact gel.

See you under the tree? Songbird inquires as he feels his runemarks glow to life in response to Kiwi activating hers.

I’ll see you there, she replies across their link. She’d found early on that it was easier for them to sync if she already had their wristmarks active; stabilizing an artificial mindlink was one of the many benefits of being tangled with your copilot. Tilting her head back, she took a deep breath, and let herself sink into the connection as the synchronizer hummed to life between them.

It was time to blur the lines a little, and lose track of who she was for a little bit. No Kiwi, no Songbird, no I or me.

Just we, the Torikago.

Event Log: 12/30/12768

Sunthorn Bastion: Southern Hemisphere Operations Center (SHOC)

11:24pm SGT

When the doors of the SHOC open and Drill steps in, it’s to a frenzy of activity and sound.

“Sync rate just crossed startup threshold, main battle systems and pilot control are coming online—”

“K1 is three miles and closing; K7 and 8 have split off with Tantrum and are flanking to the north—”

“Firefly is deployed and awaiting orders—”

“Collective ground forces are starting to reach critical mass outside of the outpost—”

Stumping to the central console where Kori is presiding over the chaos, Drill pulls his shades off. “Kori. Don’t suppose now’s a good time, is it?”

“Now’s an awful time, please hold.” Kori says without taking his eyes off the many screens before him. “Firefly, as soon as G3, 4, and 5 are deployed, you will be taking them with you outside the wall. Your standing orders are to attack and eliminate any Leviathans assaulting the outpost wall. Torikago, G1, and G2 will remain within and bottleneck the breach. Acknowledge.”

“Acknowledged, Command.”

“Good.” Kori says before turning his attention to the rest of his operations team. “Recon, as soon as the drone wing is in the air, I want tagalongs on every contact on the map. I want eyes on every Leviathan out there at all times, and callouts whenever there’s a possible flank forming. Systems, I want munition counts for each Titan up on the main display, and critical damage callouts. Health, same for you — paracapacity and sync rates up on the main display, and callouts for anyone dropping close to operational threshold.”

“They just had to go and pull something like this on New Year’s Eve.” Drill grunts. “Moldy bastards probably thought we’d all be drunk off our asses.”

“I mean, they weren’ completely wrong…” Sierra says as she staggers into the SHOC with Luci helping keep her upright. “So uuuhhhhhh… howzit lookin’?”

“Keep her back there, Luci, we need her to stay out of the way for now.” Kori calls over his shoulder before turning his attention to Legaci’s hologram near his console. “We need air support, Legaci. The squad’s going to be too busy dealing with the Leviathans to be crushing bugs.”

“Yeah, I know. We’re scrambling the air wing now, but it’s going to take a while for them to get through atmosphere.” Legaci answers as her eyes dart around to screens unseen. “I’m getting hot drops ready as well. We’re gonna send down Jackrabbit and a couple teams of Agents to help with the ground defense. Genista won’t be able to keep the Collective out of the outpost.”

“If we already know they’re going to breach the outpost, shouldn’t we be arranging evacuations instead?” Luci asks from where he’s trying to get Sierra to sit down.

“We got the ships for that, but not the time or the crew, kid.” Drill says. “Genista’s got less than five minutes before the Leviathans reach the walls. It’d take us at least an hour to get a shuttle group prepped and down there for evac, and there’s at least ten thousand people in that outpost, if not more.”

“Is there any more activity from the hiveship?” Kori asks Legaci.

“Nothing after that last volley of drop pods. Holding position, no aggressive movements.” Legaci says as a squad of strike fighters screams past the SHOC on their way down to Halcyon, followed by a couple formations of drone fighters. “It looks like they only plan to reinforce their ground presence. Doesn’t look like they’re interested in picking a fight with us up here.”

“Cuz they know they’d get their asses handed to them.” Sierra mutters from where Luci’s gotten her seated.

“Jaree’s on the line, she said she can talk now.” one of the comms officers calls.

“Put her through.” Kori orders, making room among his screens. A channel window shows up to fill the gap he just made, with Jaree standing at the management console for the Valiant Titans. In the background, the legs of the Torikago can be seen moving away as it leaves its alcove, the screen shaking slightly with every step. “Jaree. How are things looking down there?”

“Deployment is underway. Last two Genista Titans will be moving out in the next couple of minutes, and then I’ll be retasking our hangar crew for ground defense.” Jaree answers, taking her vape out of her mouth. “How are things looking from orbit?”

“Well…” Kori says, glancing at the video feeds from the recon drones in the air around Genista.

“Don’t sugarcoat it, Kori. I need to know what we’re dealing with so we can prepare accordingly.”

Kori nods. “Okay. Nine Leviathans. One Koiyash-class and the rest scattered on the scale. At least a few thousand cricket wolves; a hundred or so gravug beetles. The majority seem to be massing outside the breach in the outpost wall.”

“So they’re going to make it inside the outpost.”

“It seems that way, yes. The bulk look like they’re waiting for the Leviathans to arrive, so they can draw the fire of the autocannons while the smaller elements are flooding the breach.” Kori says heavily. “Titans will probably be too busy fighting the Leviathans clean them up, so they will probably make it into the outpost and fan out once they’re inside.”

“We can’t defend the entire outpost. Too much ground to cover.” Jaree says, exhaling a stream of vapor through her nostrils. “We’ll start fortifying the Titan yard. Set up kill boxes and chokepoints. If we see any nearby civvies that haven’t made it to the shelters in time, we’ll see if we can pull them in and get them behind the yard walls.”

“We’ve sent a wing of strike fighters down to the planet.” Legaci adds. “They’ve been told to drop their payloads on any of the smaller ground elements outside of the outpost. Once they’ve finished their bombing run, we’ll have them on strafing runs or fire support for the Titans.”

“Good to know. Hopefully it’ll trim their numbers a little.” Jaree says, taking a last drag from her vape before tucking it back in her pocket. “Keep us in the loop if there’s any more developments. I’ve gotta go now. This yard isn’t gonna fortify itself.”

“One last thing, Jaree — we’ll be dropping down Jackrabbit and a couple teams of Agents into the outpost to help with ground defense.” Kori adds quickly. “If things go poorly, we’ll tell them to retreat to the Titan yard and bunker down there with the rest of you.”

“Noted. We’ll keep an eye out for them.” Jaree says before closing the call. The window closes, leaving a gap in Kori’s wall of screens, though it’s quickly filled in by another window carrying data on the operational health of each Titan.

“Does the outpost have a standing militia?” Drill grunts, directing his question towards Legaci.

“It doesn’t. Closest thing they have to it is the local police force.” Legaci answers, flicking her fingers over an unseen screen. “The outpost was staffed with the assumption that the only threats they’d be facing were Leviathans, so the only real defenses they have are the Titan squad and the guns on the wall. There’s no trained soldiers garrisoned in the outpost, and from what I could find, there’s no heavy armor elements stationed in the outpost. No tanks, APCs, scout vehicles, mobile artillery emplacements… it’s literally just the Titan squad. That’s all they’ve got for outpost defense.”

Drill sighs, massaging his forehead. “Leave it to the Marshies to prepare for every scenario except the most likely one. What are we looking at in terms of casualties?”

“I can’t predict that with accuracy. I’m not in charge of Genista’s crisis management, so I don’t know how well they’re gonna handle that.” Legaci answers. “However, given what we know about what’s in the outpost and what the Collective are probably after, I think it’s likely that the Collective forces will focus on the command complex and critical infrastructure, and ignore everything else. They’re not here to assimilate people; they’re here to get the Cherriki clones. The Genista civilians will probably be safe so long as they go to the shelters and stay away from the command complex, starport, Titan yard, and the outpost reactor.”

“Casualties will depend on how many people make it to the shelters and how long it takes the Leviathans to get in the outpost.” Kori answers without looking around. “The moment the Leviathans get in the outpost, buildings are going to start coming down. That’s when people will start dying.”

“Then they’ve gotta keep ‘em from getting inside the outpost, then.” Drill rumbles.

“Not gonna happen. Our squad’s outnumbered nine to seven, and some of those Leviathans are six to ten times as large are they are.” Kori says, nodding to the screen that holds a running feed of the Koiyash-class Leviathan. It’s a true behemoth, the cricket wolves swarming around its feet like ants. “Those Leviathans are going to make it into the outpost, one way or another. What we get to decide is how many of them make it in.”

“That’s a load o’ hockey. We didn’t get settled into this flying palace just to sit up here and watch while things go to shit.” Drill says brusquely, turning to Legaci. “Legaci, don’t we have a beam or somethin’? Called a sky spear or some shit like that, kind of like a mini version of the Purifire cannon that Viralix starcities have?”

Legaci’s eyes flick to Kori, as if to get his temperature on it. “The Sunthorn, yes. If we deploy it, though, it might provoke the Collective hiveship to escalate further.”

Drill motions to the screens showing the Leviathans closing in on the outpost. “Escalate how? They’ve already thrown the kitchen sink and the silverware drawer at the outpost. The damage it’ll sustain in this attack is probably already catastrophic; the only way it could get worse is if the hiveship falls out of the sky and lands on the outpost. I don’t see how turning on the skybeam and zappin’ a couple of those giant bugs will make things any worse than they already are.”

Kori presses his lips together, checking a couple more screens, then looks to Legaci. “I think he has a point.”

Legaci puts her transparent hands up. “Alright, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Just for the record, using orbital superweapons against ground forces is technically against Colloquium laws.”

“Y’know what’s also against Colloquium laws? Throwing Leviathans at a preserve world that hasn’t done anything to harm anyone.” Drill retorts, waving to the screens before them. “If the Collective didn’t want us to fry their beasties from high orbit, then they shouldn’t have deployed them on a peaceful world to begin with. Fire up the Sunthorn and let’s even the playing field a bit.”

“Commencing power cycling. It’ll need time to warm up.” Legaci says as she starts working on another screen. “There will be limits to where I can deploy this. Firing on targets inside the outpost will risk collateral damage, and the same goes for any target that’s engaged with our Titans.”

A series of white blurs go streaking past the windows of the SHOC, and Kori looks up only briefly. “Drop pods are away. Jackrabbit and her teams will be arriving to the outpost in less than five minutes.” he announces.

“Let’s hope we didn’t just send them flying to their deaths.” Drill says, turning and snapping his fingers at Luci. “Hey, shrimp thief. Go tell the kitchens to send some of the New Year’s snacks down here. It’s gonna be a long night and this is a new year’s party we won’t be forgetting anytime soon…”

Event Log: 12/30/12768

Halcyon: Genista Fourth Quarter

7:37am LPT

In the world of Titans, urban combat is the most dreaded of situations a pilot can find themselves in.

The emphasis is on avoiding it at all costs, whether you are the defender or the aggressor. If given the choice, pilots would rather engage an enemy nearly anywhere else. This aversion is born of the frailty of cities and towns; the inevitable collateral that is produced in a clash of giants. Nowhere is this more neatly summarized than in the saying that the Titan community has borrowed from the Ranter colonies:

When dragons fight, it is the forest that burns.

It was a saying that was very much on Songbird’s mind, and by extension, on Kiwi’s mind as well. It was clear to both of them that this would likely be the last Genista operation; even if they managed to kill all the Leviathans and keep the Genistan Titans alive, the damage to the outpost would constitute a defeat on all other fronts. They would’ve very much liked to prevent that.

But with the swarm that had descended on the outpost, it simply was not going to be possible.

“Tempest, we need that thing handled!” Both Songbird and Kiwi’s voices came through the Torikago’s comms and onto the open channel, synced up. “It’s causing too much damage!”

“Working on it!” Gale grunts as the G1 Titan, codenamed Tempest, struggles to get a handle on a Leviathan that resembles a massive, armored snake. It had slithered through the breach in the wall during the first wave, taking all of them off guard with how fast it was, and had almost entirely passed them before Tempest had jumped on it. It had made it even further down the main street leading to the center of the outpost before Tempest had impaled it with its spear, pinning it in place. But now the Leviathan is thrashing around as it tries to get free, smashing buildings on either side of the street, up and down its mile-long length.

“If it’s anything like a snake, it’ll keep squirming after it’s dead!” Torikago observes as another Leviathan snapped at it, trying to bite and rip off an arm. The Hybriddyr mech, currently in bipedal configuration, catches the Leviathan’s head and jerks it to the side so the bite snaps shut on empty air, then immediately follows up by punching one of its plasma-lined armblades into the beast’s exposed neck. “Pixel, get back there and help Tempest chop it up into smaller pieces! The shorter it is, the less damage it’ll do when it thrashes around!”

“But you’ll have to fight both Leviathans!” Picazo points out as the G2 Titan, codenamed Pixel, tried to keep another Leviathan to the center of the road to save the buildings on either side. “And the big one’s closing in on the wall!”

“One problem at a time. I can handle two Leviathans; go help Tempest deal with the snake.” the Torikago orders, keeping a grip on the Leviathan it had shanked in the neck. The colossal beast was screeching and thrashing, trying to twist and yank free as cerulean ichor seeped and boiled around the plasma-coated blade in its neck; the Torikago was trying to contain its thrashing, but the kicking hindlegs and lashing tail were still demolishing and damaging nearby buildings as it struggled through its death throes. “We’ll deal with the big one once we’ve got the little ones sorted.”

Given the order, Pixel uses its arclance to give its Leviathan a shove that forces it back some distance. The movement-assist jets flare to life as the Titan turns and charges down the street to help Tempest, while the Torikago yanks its blade out of its current enemy with an eviscerating slash that leaves the massive beast flailing and bleeding out on the street. There is no reprieve, though; the Torikago turns and immediately finds itself beset by the Leviathan that Pixel had shoved away seconds ago.

“Is anyone going to do something about all those bugs coming through the breach?” Archer grunts through the comms as the Tempest manages to bisect the snake Leviathan with Pixel’s help. “The outpost is gonna be infested at this rate!”

“Keep your focus on the Leviathans, Tempest.” Kori’s voice comes over the command line. “Cricket wolves and gravug beetles are dangerous, but they can’t destroy buildings with a single twitch. There won’t be an outpost left to save if we don’t deal with the Leviathans. The air wing is coming around for another bombing run; they’ll try to trim the parts of the swarm that are still trying to squeeze into the breach.”

The point is articulated by a set of strike fighters shrieking over the outpost, bomb bays opening to release portions of their payloads as they rush past the wall. Outside the outpost, there’s muffled explosions and blooms of fire visible through the breach, and a temporary disruption to the stream of cricket wolves cramming through it. But as the explosions billow into black smoke, a massive limb moves through it as the Koiyash-class Leviathan closes in on the wall.

“Field Command, this is Firefly. Tantrum’s scaling the wall on the other side of the outpost, along with K7. I can’t get over there to stop them.” Renchiko grunts through the squad channel.

“Is there anyone else available?” the Torikago answers, the audio flickering as it shoulder-checks a headbutt from the Leviathan it’s fighting, then gets an arm around the monster’s neck. Yanking on the monster, the Torikago fires its frontal movement jets, lifting into the air a few meters before switching to the jets on the back and bodyslamming the Leviathan into the street with a deafening crash.

“Everyone else is locked down. Rumor and Vision are dealing with other Leviathans and I’m trying to keep this crab Leviathan from snapping Lustre in half.” Renchiko replies, her voice fuzzed by the sound of her mortal pistol firing at point-blank range. “This thing’s like a walking bunker; the shell just won’t give!”

“The claws on this thing are crazy!” Lustra shouts over the channel. “If you don’t get us out of here soon then it’s literally gonna pinch us in half!”

“Ignore the main body. That’s where crabs are most heavily armored. If you can reach the eyes or mouth parts, go for those. Barring that, focus on the legs and joints; they’re also armored, but the joints break more easily under pressure.” the Torikago says as it pounds its plasma-edged armblade into the Leviathan it’s got in a headlock, twisting and sawing the blade to try and maximize damage and put the beast out of commission quickly. “Tempest, Pixel, head to the command complex. Figure out where Tantrum and K7 are coming over the wall and plan your intercepts accordingly.”

“But this Leviathan, it’s still moving—” Pix begins.

“Snakes do that. How many pieces have you cut it into?” the Torikago interrupts, tightening its headlock around the Leviathan that’s shrieking and thrashing on the ground beside it. Damage warnings are starting to pile up on both Songbird and Kiwi’s helms, yet the pair don’t let up, driving the forearm blade deeper into the monster until it breaches through the back.

“Four pieces, they’re not thrashing around as much anymore.” Gale answers from the Tempest as it finishes yanking its plasma knife through another section of the snake Leviathan. “Make that five.”

“That’ll have to be good enough. Go.” the Torikago answers, yanking its armblade out of the Leviathan and leaving it to its dying throes. The Torikago starts to get to its feet, only for cracking and groaning to echo through the outpost; all three Titans look up to see the Koiyash-class Leviathan has reached the outpost wall. Even among giant weapons, this one is a behemoth, being taller on all fours than the outpost wall, and with arms as thick around as the base of a skyscraper. By mass alone, it looks like it could take up a tenth of the outpost’s internal space. The wall easily crumbles like a cracker beneath the muscled digits gripping it, and it begins to force its way into the outpost, with the wall crumbling on either side of it like dried dirt.

“Holy shit.” Picazo gasps from the Pixel as it staggers back a couple paces, staring up at the gargantuan Leviathan. “I didn’t know they got that big! How are we supposed to kill something like that?!”

“We’ll handle it; now stop gawping and go!” the Torikago orders, its blades retracting back into the forearm sheaths as it braces its hands against the ground, beginning a configuration shift. “Command complex, now! Tantrum and K7 are coming over the wall; we are running out of time!”

The other two Titans turn and start running towards the center of the outpost, leaving the Torikago to complete its configuration shift into its Jeger form. As soon as that’s done, it braces its forelegs in the street as it opens its maw wide, a blue glow beginning to grow at the back of the throat as the fusion core’s fuel burn starts to spike. The Koiyash Leviathan sees this, and seems to lurch forward, barreling through the wall and sending chunks of it crumbling around it as it begins to charge towards the Torikago, slowed only by ramming through the buildings lining either side of the street.

“Torikago, cancel out! It knows what you’re doing!” Kori’s order came through the comms; it was clear that the SHOC could see what was happening, even from orbit. “You’re not going to have enough time to ramp up to a full discharge!”

“It’s too late; we’re already committed.” the Torikago’s pilots answer as the fuel burn continues to rise, the fusion core’s blue glow shining through the gaps in the external armor. “We’ll do a running burn; a longer discharge will slow it down. Firing now.”

With that, a bluish flare blazes out of the Torikago’s maw, although it’s only half as bright as the blast it discharged four months ago. The beam lances down the street, hammering into the Leviathan’s chest; the thick, chitinous plating immediately starts to heat, cindering at the edges of the beam while the continuous pulse starts to erode anything under the beam itself. But it doesn’t stop the Leviathan; it staggers at the impact, slows, and after a couple of seconds to adjust to it, begins pushing forward even as the pulsar beam starts to bore through its chestplate.

“Torikago, you need to punch out! The beam isn’t going to stop it!” Kori orders. “Begin the ejection process; you only have a few seconds before it reaches you!”

It’s very much not what the pilots of the Torikago want to do, but they recognize that Kori isn’t wrong. Even if their pulsar cannon does drill through the Leviathan’s chestplate and into flesh below, it will still reach them; injured and wounded, perhaps, but still very much able to attack them. And with the size of the beast, even a glancing blow could be crippling. Both pilots initiate the ejection sequence at the same time; the ports on their pods immediately disconnect as quadranium shells snap shut around them, and miniature jet thrusters fire both containers down their ejection tracks. Both pods come rocketing out of the back of the Torikago, just behind the shoulderblades, hurtling on a curving arc towards the center of the outpost. Impact cushions explode around both containers just before they slam into the street, rolling to a halt as the cushions deflate and the protective shell splits open around each pilot pod.

Kiwi is the first one out, mostly as a matter of panic. The sudden separation from Songbird and the senses of the Torikago were already jarring; it was even more jarring to feel her pod go rocketing in one direction, landing hard, then rolling around in all directions before settling to a halt, opening her eyes to being trapped in a thick blue morass. It was frightening to feel her movements so slow, as if she was moving through tree sap, and furthermore to have the cables tangling around her limbs. Claustrophobia was starting to close around her by the time she caught hold of the hatch and twisted it open, and the relief of emerging from the pod, clawing free of the impact gel and into the morning light, was incomparable. Once she had a good grip on the edge of the hatch and managed to get her torso out of the pod, she twisted her helm off and dropped it, gasping a breath of fresh air before she started twisting the cables connected to her plugsuit, disengaging them from the ports so they were no longer at risk of pulling her back down into the impact gel.

A tremor traveling down the street and through the outpost brings her attention around, and as she staggers out of her pod and into the asphalt, she sees the Koiyash Leviathan still making its way down the main street leading to the center of the outpost. Lying in the rubble of what used to be buildings is the Torikago, carelessly batted aside and crushing most of a city block as it was thrown flat. Ichor is leaking from a deep, blackened hole in the Leviathan’s chest where the pulsar beam drilled into it; but the wound, while debilitating, doesn’t appear immediately fatal, since the colossus is resuming its march towards the command complex.

And Kiwi realizes with, with a bolt of adrenaline, that puts them directly in its path.

Twisting back around, she searches for Songbird’s pod and quickly finds it a little further down the street from hers; wobbling a little, she runs towards it, climbing up on the side and opening the hatch as soon as she finds it. It opens up much easier from the outside than it does from the inside, and within is Songbird, working his way up through the impact gel and the many cables within. Shoving her arm down into the morass, she grabs him and helps pull him up until he breaks the surface, getting his hands on either side of the hatch to help leverage himself out. Once he’s halfway there, she starts working on unplugging the cables from his suit, while he struggles to get his glass helm twisted off.

“Are you okay?” he demands as soon as he’s got his helm off, throwing it down into the half of the quadranium shell that’s lying in the street.

“Not really, my head hurts and I think I got whiplash from that ejection sequence.” Kiwi grunts as she disengages another plug and pulls the cable away from him. “But we’ve got other stuff to worry about right now. Let’s get you out of there.”

“We need to figure out how to stop that thing.” Songbird says as he starts working on detaching the cables still plugged to him. “I think— maybe if Tempest or Pixel can fire into the hole in its chest—”

“Worry about that later!” Kiwi says as she pulls another plug free. “We need to get out of the street—”

A flare of brilliant yellow light draws their attention, both of them turning their heads as a low bass resonance sets the air thrumming. Beyond the outpost’s wall, a golden lance is blazing down from the sky, setting the air around it on fire with the level of heat it’s giving off. Whatever the target is, it must be beyond the outpost wall — possibly one of the Leviathans that Renchiko and the others were fighting out on the plains. After a few seconds, the massive beam peters out, leaving a decaying line of smoke, reaching all the way up into the upper layers of the atmosphere.

“The hell was that?!” Kiwi demands, her voice cracking.

“The Sunthorn. Particle accelerator built into the spine of the Bastion, it’s where Sunthorn gets its name from.” Songbird says, pulling another plug out and reaching for the next. “Things must be bad if they’re deploying it this close to the outpost.”

“Couldn’t they have fired that thing sooner?” Kiwi says, going back to unplugging her boyfriend. She’s working on the last of the spinal cords when a shadow falls over them, and they both look up to see the Koiyash Leviathan bearing down on them.

“Ah shit. That thing’s got a long stride.” Songbird mutters, rushing through twisting the last of the cables out of the plug sockets. The moment he’s freed, Kiwi yanks him out of the pod and down into the street, where both of them turn and starting running as fast as they can. 

“Is it coming after us?” Kiwi demands, glancing over her shoulder as she runs. “It looks like it’s looking right at us!”

“Yeah, Leviathans are about as intelligent as people. It knows what we are, that’s why it’s coming after us.” Songbird replies, not bothering to look back. “You just don’t usually see it because they’re following hivemind commands and usually don’t have the freedom to act on it!”

“Well, what do we do? We can’t just run down the middle of the street, it’s gonna catch up to us!” Kiwi points out, glancing to the buildings on either side. “We should duck down one of these alleys—”

“Nope nope nope that’s gonna get us killed.” Songbird says, shutting down the idea. “If it sees us ducking into an alley, it’ll just push the nearest building over on us.”

“Well what are we supposed to do, then?!” Kiwi pants. “It sounds like our two options are getting killed by a building or getting killed out in the open!”

“Look, give me a few seconds to think, I’m still disoriented from being desynchronized—”

“Well we’re gonna be roadkill in about ten seconds, so you need to think of something fast!”

Both of them find themselves cut off by the growing shriek of strike fighters, a pair of which have commenced a strafing run over the outpost. Twin streams of plasma bolts hammer into the Leviathan’s hide, but where those bolts would normally rip buildings and armored vehicles to shreds, they do little more than leave a line of small craters across the Leviathan’s chitinous hide. The second strike fighter directs its strafing run at the beast’s head, likely hoping to distract it; in this it succeeds, with one of the bolts striking one of the Leviathan’s many eyes. A deafening roar rips over the outpost, the Leviathan whipping its head before grabbing a building on the side of the street. The structure crumbles in its massive digits, but it doesn’t matter; the beast follows through with slinging it into the air in the direction of the second fighter. The attack is not particularly accurate, but it doesn’t need to be — an unavoidable spray of rubble being flung directly into the fighter’s path is more than enough to bring it down, especially as it collides with bent girders and large chunks of concrete.

“Okay, I think that bought us like, fifteen seconds, what’s the plan?” Kiwi gasps as the strike fighter corkscrews downwards, trailing smoke before exploding on impact somewhere in the outpost. Neither of them have stopped running, knowing that it’s only a matter of time before the Leviathan fixates on them again.

“Uhm… well… we don’t have comms… I don’t have my earbuds… I can try Sparking off, but I can’t really control whether it activates…” Songbird pants, looking around as he runs. “Maybe if we could find a manhole we can drop into the sewers while it’s not looking, but then we might get crushed to death if it the sewers collapse while it’s walking over us…”

“Feroce!” Kiwi snaps.

“Look, I’m trying, it’s not that easy when the problem is bigger than a city block and twice as tall!” Songbird retorts as the street quakes beneath them, the Leviathan resuming its march with increased irritation. “I don’t have any of my usual equipment, so I’m a little starved for options here!”

“Well, we have to do something!”

“You’re the one with magic tattooed into your skin, don’t you have any bright ideas?!”

“Like what? You want me to throw a displacement ripple at it? Stub its toe with one of my weapon constructs? There ain’t shit in my runes that can do anything against that!”

“I don’t expect you to fight it, but don’t you have, like, a stealth rune in there, or an illusion rune, or someth—”

There’s a grinding, crunching rasp of a building being crushed and ripped apart; both of them look back to see that the Leviathan has seized one of the buildings on the size of the road, and is slinging it down the street towards them like a massive handful of dirt. Kiwi twists around on reflex, skidding to a halt as she throws her hands up, viridian runes blazing to life around her wrists and shoulders. A dome of green hardlight materializes around them, blocking chunks of concrete and rubble as it rains down the street around them; but it isn’t without strain. Some of the chunks are several hundred pounds heavy, and leave cracks when they bounce off the dome; Kiwi grits her teeth as the runemarks around Songbird’s wrist flare to life in a burst of tropical blue light, and she starts pulling on his reserves of energy to fill the cracks in the dome, seaming it through with a blue glow.

“Feroce, this isn’t gonna work; we need to do something.” Kiwi grunts as the Leviathan swats a couple of cars down the street, one of them hitting the dome and bouncing off, leaving behind a new set of cracks. The irritation in her voice has morphed in stoic desperation, as if recognizing that arguing wouldn’t get them anywhere.

Songbird exhales, raising a gloved hand to his throat, then turns towards the Leviathan. When he opens his eyes, the sclera have gone black, the irises glowing a solar-blue. “I’ll see what I can do without my music.” he answers, and though his voice is quiet, there is an unsettling resonance to it. In the moment it takes for him to gather himself, the Leviathan has closed within contact distance, looming above them as Songbird speaks.

“Stop.”

The Leviathan, which had been moving a foreleg to flatten the pair, jerks to a halt as the word passes through it. It carries a physical impact, a pressure wave that feels like being slammed with a hardened wall of air, a paralyzing force that seems to grip like a fist closing tight around you. More than that, it’s indiscriminate, rippling outwards in all directions; even though it’s not directed at her, Kiwi can still feel it wrap its fingers around her, tightening like a vice around her mind, constricting around her chest like chains that make it hard to breathe. It is a voice of command, but one that is untrained and unfocused, seizing upon everything within a block-wide radius; even the wind stops dead, water from broken hydrants and pipes seizing in place, falling rubble freezing midair. In this little region, the world comes to a complete halt at the antecedent command. 

It lasts only for a moment; Songbird can feel the Leviathan resisting, yet unable to break away. But something more seems to be aware of what is happening; behind the beast’s many eyes, Songbird can feel another consciousness behind the Leviathan turning its attention on him. And then another, and a few more, and then thousands, as if a great, unseen crowd were slowly turning their heads to all fixate on him. Within the eyes of the Leviathan, there are the eyes of thousands more, like a massive nesting doll of minds all turning to look at him. A shudder runs up his back as he fully grasps the true nature of the Collective: a single entity, composed of innumerable individuals, acting with a single unified will.

And that will is brought to bear as thousands of minds press in against the grip that Songbird has over the Leviathan. There is no aggression in it; only the sheer weight of the looming multitude, growing like an ominous shadow until Songbird’s hold begins to slip, and the Leviathan slowly begins to move again, its titanic hand moving forward to crush the two like a pair of bugs. And nothing — not Songbird’s attempts to push back, nor Kiwi’s attempts to bolster his strength through their tangled link — is enough to fight back against the monolithic will of the Collective.

“I can’t hold them—” Songbird gasps as he collapses to one knee, his hold over the area finally breaking as wind, water, and time begin moving again. His black sclera and blue irises fade away, revealing one eye clouding with blood from where a vessel burst from the strain of pushing back against so many minds. “—there’s too many—”

“No, we can’t—” Kiwi shouts, her hands still up and gritting her teeth as the Leviathan’s clawed hand comes down on her dome. Cracks instantly race through it, the dome itself starting to flex and bend underneath the pressure even as Kiwi pulls more energy from Songbird to shore it up. “…not like this!”

Songbird grabs his arm and winces as lines of light start to creep away from his blazing wristmarks, making their way up his arm, visible even beneath the fabric of his plugsuit. “Kiwi, stop pushing yourself; you can’t—” he pants as blood starts to drip from her nose.

“No!” she snaps, her breathing ragged and feral as her wildfire eyes glow in the shadow cast by the Leviathan’s crushing hand. Runes are printing themselves into the ground around her and rising off her skin, forming rings as they feed off of Songbird. “I did not… come all this way… I did not die… and come back again… just to die again… in the middle of an empty street on a planet nobody cares about!”

Songbird realizes too late that Kiwi is operating entirely on instinct and rage; the spell being formed by runes around her is not under her control, and it is ravenously eating away at him as it feeds the spinning rings of runes around her. Staggering over to Kiwi, he gets an arm around her, trying to pull her out of it, but she doesn’t budge, almost like her feet are fixed to the ground. She does notice it, though, and lowers an arm to put it around him and pull him close.

“Do you trust me?” The question is breathed, a ragged exhale carrying a whisper of madness and a heaping dose of manic exhilaration as the dome starts to shatter and crumble under the immense pressure above them.

Songbird hesitates, because it is in his nature to be cautious; but he also recognizes there is no other option at the moment. “Don’t have much of a choice, do I.”

“Let me be the hero this time.” she says as the spinning rings around them start to blur into a shell of green light, while he closes his eyes and tilts his head down to rest it against hers. “Let me be the one that saves you.”

The dome gives out a couple of seconds later, the Leviathan’s hand pressing flat against the street. But it does not stay there; a growing pressure is building beneath it, eventually forcing it upwards as shapes start to materialize out of the hardlight burgeoning through its fingers. It begins as a scaffolding that cradles the green sphere in the center, with more and layers of arcane energy hardening into black metal that forms the skeleton of what is becoming a hulking beast several stories tall.

The Leviathan is forced a couple strides backwards as limbs build themselves outwards from the torso, while plates corporealize out of the light and into the shell of external armor. Cushioned by muscle groups composed of raw arcane energy, their viridian glow peeks through narrows gaps in the armor as another B.E.A.S.T. surfaces within Genista’s walls. But unlike Vakalahi’s manifestation, this dragon is broadshouldered and deepchested, sporting muscled limbs rather than a snakelike profile. Its wings are just as large, composed of sheets of jade light stretched tight between the metal bones, and it does not hesitate to flare them wide as it rears up on its hindlegs in what seems like effort of make itself larger, and intimidate the Leviathan facing it. Resting its forelegs on a pair of taller buildings on either side of the street, it opens its powerful jaws and lets out a roar that sounds like a furnace blast, the air crackling and rasping with blistering heat.

These measures do seem to have some effect; the Leviathan appears caught off guard by the sudden emergence of a new contender, this one much closer to its weight class than any of the Titans are. Its eyes can be seen swiveling, as if mapping out the city around them and measuring possible routes that would taking it around the B.E.A.S.T. But whenever it moves in a direction that might take it around the obstacle, the B.E.A.S.T. roars and turns in the same direction, making it clear that any route to the command complex will have to go through it. When that becomes clear to the Leviathan, it abandons any pretense of disengagement, moving directly towards the dragon and picking up speed as it goes.

The B.E.A.S.T. doesn’t hesitate to meet it head on, in the literal sense — once the intimidation attempt has failed, the black dragon drops back down on all fours, timing its descent so that it can slam its crested head directly into Leviathan’s. That impact echos across Genista, slowing the Leviathan to a near halt as the shock fades; but the colossus continues forcing its way forward, bearing its armored head against the B.E.A.S.T.’s skull. In response, the B.E.A.S.T. digs its claws in, straining forward as it responds with equal force. It still finds itself being forced back, its metal claws tearing furrows through the asphalt as the Leviathan pushes forward, but its progress has been slowed to a crawl, and it will not be reaching the command complex any time soon.

Elsewhere in the outpost, the Firefly II can be seen cresting the wall with the aid of its movement jets, with the Rumor and Vision following behind it and carrying the top half of the Lustre between them. Gripping the edge of the wall, the Firefly pulls itself over the edge, firing its boosters to slow its fall as it drop into the rubble where Tantrum and K7 originally came over the wall. Once she’s landed, she turns and takes in the state of the outpost; a trail of collapsed and destroyed buildings mark where Tantrum and K7 cut across the outpost straight for the command complex, where they’re currently fighting Pixel and Tempest. Past that is the Koiyash-class Leviathan, which is now fighting with a massive blackstone dragon, green light peeking through the gaps in its external armoring as the two colossi fight each other to a standstill.

“Command, what is that thing?” Renchiko demands as the Firefly turns back to the wall, holding its arms out for the top half of the Lustre. Vision carefully lowers the inert torso down to where the Firefly and grab it and set it down against the wall, while the Rumor kneels on the wall’s edge with its pulse rifle out, firing at the remaining Leviathans trying to scramble up the wall behind them. “I won’t complain if it’s on our side, but…”

“We think it’s Songbird and Kiwi; we’re not entirely sure.” Kori answers. “The Koiyash tried to crush them after they ejected from the Torikago, and that big dragon-lookin’ thing popped out from underneath its foot. For now we’re just strategizing around it. Pixel and Tempest need backup, though.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” Renchiko replies as the Pixel is slammed with a tail, hard enough to knock it back against one of the buildings bordering the command complex, crushing it in the process. “I’ll see what I can do. The outpost is crawling with cricket wolves, too; they’re running loose in the streets, and it looks like a bunch of them are swarming the command complex while the Leviathans keep Pixel and Tempest busy. Vision, can you start working on cleanup inside the outpost while Rumor keeps the other Leviathans off the walls?”

“I’m not sure, there’s still three of them trying to scale the wall and pulse rifles don’t recharge that fast.” Visi says as the Vision yanks its arclance off its back and jabs it down at one of the Leviathans trying to claw its way up the curved dome.

“That number will shortly be down to two. The Sunthorn is almost recharged and ready to fire again.” Kori states. “Try to put some distance between yourself and the Leviathans. We only targeted K3 because Lustre had suffered terminal damage.”

“Once the number outside the wall is manageable, drop into the outpost and help with stamping out the crickets, Vision.” Renchiko orders as the Firefly pulls its tonfa lances off its back and locks them into place in its forearm grooves. “I’m going to go help Tempest and Pixel defend the command complex.”

With that, the Firefly begins moving towards the center of the outpost, carefully navigating the trail of devastation left behind by Tantrum and K7. It’s not an easy matter; she finds herself doing her best to avoid the sections of rubble where it looks like people are milling about or crawling out of the debris. Not everyone was able to make it to the reinforced shelters beneath the outpost; with how early in the morning the attack was, and the shortness of the warning period, and that fact that it had landed on a two-day holiday, the evacuation response just wasn’t ideal. And with cricket wolves and gravug beetles flooding the outpost’s streets, it might actually be safer to bar the doors and shelter in place, hoping a Leviathan or Titan didn’t get thrown at whatever building you were in.

In the center of the outpost, Tempest and Pixel are finding themselves outmatched, mostly on account of Tantrum. This long-lived Leviathan, having survived several battles by this point, has evolved beyond the standard of other Leviathans; though it has not gotten much larger, it has developed a range of unique features that set it apart. Some of those features are physical, but intelligence and experience are arguably the most important ones; the creature’s decisions and reactions are quite simply a step above other Leviathans.

It’s something that Renchiko notices as the Firefly closes the remaining distance to the command complex; the Tempest is trying to keep Tantrum occupied, only to find itself forced onto the defensive. Gripping its arclance with both hands, the Tempest lifts it up, keeping Tantrum’s jaws from snapping shut around its head; when Tantrum finds that it can’t bite through the lance’s shaft, it instead whips its head to one side, jerking the entire lance and the Tempest along with it. As the Titan is trying to regain its balance, Tantrum lets go of the lance and swings its head to the other side, bashing the Tempest’s head unit with its horn, and continues turning in that direction as it slams its tail into the overbalanced Titan. The Tempest is knocked flat by the blow, crushing buildings beneath it as it’s laid out, and the Tantrum goes right back to ripping chunks out of the command complex as it digs deeper into the building, occasionally slapping its tail down on the Tempest whenever it tries to get back up.

“Tempest, are you alright?” Renchiko asks as the Firefly arrives, putting away one of its tonfa lances and freeing up a hand so it can help pull the Tempest out of tail-whacking range.

“That headbash from the horn did a number on the head unit. We’re intact, but our sensor array is damaged.” Archer answers. “We can still see, but it’s patching out in random spots. We’ll have to lean on supplemental sensors to try and fill in the gaps.”

“Do what you can. I’ll take lead; you follow up on my attacks.” Renchiko says as the Tempest gets to standing again. Reaching down, the Firefly unholsters its mortar pistol, lifting and firing two rounds directly into Tantrum’s back; the explosions echo across the outpost and blow out the windows in nearby buildings as each blast takes a chunk out of its chitinous armor. The Leviathan twists around, snarling at the two Titans; but it doesn’t abandon its excavation of the command complex. Instead, it releases a screech that tears across the outpost — and the other Leviathans within hearing range instantly respond. The one that Pixel is fighting shoves away from that Titan, turning and making a beeline for the Firefly and Tempest. In the meantime the Koiyash Leviathan redoubles its efforts, smashing its head and shoulders against the black dragon and continuing to drive it backwards, towards the command complex.

“Firefly, K4 and K5 are coming over the wall!” Rumo shouts over the comms. “We took a chunk out of both of them, but they’re not stopping!”

“Yeah I know, Tantrum’s throwing a tantrum and calling all of his friends.” Renchiko grunts as she uses her tonfa lance to block K7’s charge, bringing her mortar pistol around to fire a round into the side of the Leviathan’s head. As it staggers from the explosion, the Tempest maneuvers around the Firefly, looking for an exposed spot to drive its arclance into. “Come off the wall and try to stop them before we get to the command complex, we’re dealing with a lot right now!”

“What are we gonna do about the big one?” Picazo asks as the Pixel comes around the corner of the command complex, drawing its long knife as it charges for Tantrum’s rear haunches, which are the only thing visible from how deeply it’s dug into the complex. “If it makes it to the complex, we won’t be able to keep it from destroying the command center!”

“I’m gonna leave that to Command, we’re dealing with too much right now.” Renchiko answers, firing another heavy mortar round into K7 before twisting around and using her tonfa lance to knock K5 to the side as it lunges at her. K4 is behind it, with Vision clinging to its back half with one arm, trying to find a good spot to drive its plasma knife through the Leviathan’s armor. “This is a goddamn mess; we’re losing buildings left and right. Lock down the Leviathans if you can; keep them to the parts of the outpost that have already been damaged. If this keeps up, there won’t be anything left to save by the time it’s over.”

“Doing our best.” Latti mutters as the Rumor lines up another shot from its position on the wall. “Vision, slow down K4 if you can, we’ve got a shot lined up and ready to go.”

“Easier said than done.” Visi grunts back, but the Vision nonetheless abandons its attempts to shank the Leviathan, wrapping both arms around it and digging its feet into the rubble to slow it down further. A couple seconds later, a particle pulse slams into the monster’s head, blowing off a chunk of its skull and knocking it flat, giving Vision an opening to scramble up its body and start stabbing its plasma-edged knife into the breach in its cranial armor.

“All units, we’ve received permission to target the Sunthorn within the outpost. Clear the area around K1; focus on all other Leviathans.” Kori’s order comes over the comms. “Firing will commence in ten seconds.”

“Shouldn’t be an issue; we don’t have anyone over on that side of the complex.” Renchiko says, using her tonfa lance to block K5’s snapping jaws, while getting the mortar pistol up against its ribs and firing a point-blank shot. She quickly realizes it was a mistake; the round, designed to explode on impact, does shred the armor on the Leviathan’s underside, but also explodes within the pistol’s barrel. With the massive sidearm now rendered useless, she brings it around to clock the Leviathan in the head with it, knocking it on its side so she can drive her tonfa lance into the exposed hole on its underside.

“Commencing firing.” Legaci announces through the comms, and a second later, a golden column blazes down from the heavens. It hammers down on the back of the massive Leviathan fighting the B.E.A.S.T., instantly beginning to burn through its thick hide as the air around it catches on fire, and the intense heat searing the buildings on either side of street. The B.E.A.S.T. initially recoils in alarm, but when the Koiyash Leviathan roars and tries to twist out of the way of the beam, the B.E.A.S.T. lurches back in to grab the monster. Trying to hold it in place and keep it from escaping, even as some of the golden light spills off the Leviathan and begins to erode the B.E.A.S.T.’s armor.

The beam lasts only for a few more seconds before shutting off, and in the aftermath, the Koiyash Leviathan has been stripped of much of its external protection — but it is still alive, and quite aggravated. Its arms come up to grip the B.E.A.S.T., and in a single mighty heave, it flips the black dragon off the street, throwing it on its back in the neighboring block, several buildings being crushed beneath it. As the B.E.A.S.T. struggles to roll over and get back upright, the Koiyash Leviathan turns, and with a single sweep of one of its massive arms, obliterates an entire row of buildings on the other side of the street, and then takes aim at the row of buildings behind it.

“Shit, it’s destroying buildings on purpose now!” Rumo shouts through the comms as the Rumor shifts its aim from the smaller Leviathans to the Koiyash Leviathan. “Guys, we need to stop it or it’s going to turn the entire outpost to rubble!”

“I’m coming.” Renchiko replies as the Firefly jams its tonfa lance into K5’s underside again, then turns to head towards the Koiyash Leviathan — only to find her knocked flat when Pixel slams into her, kicked away by one of Tantrum’s hind legs. As the two Titans scramble to get back up, Renchiko catches sight of the Tantrum extracting itself from the hole that it dug into the command complex, with something that looks like chunk of a laboratory being pulled along with it. Spindly appendages are hooked in the chunk of the building, which looks like it houses glass cylinders and a few cold storage tanks; and the entire assemblage is being reeled up into a cavity within Tantrum’s chest. Just before it disappears into the Leviathan, she catches sight of a Symbiote standing among the tanks and cylinders — a man with a living overcoat, throbbing with emerald fungus and speckled with dozens of twitching eyes. 

And then the portion of the building disappears into Tantrum’s chest cavity, which seals up behind it. The Leviathan pushes off the command complex, turning and immediately slinking around the building in the direction of the breached wall. In its wake, stray cricket wolves begin scrambling up the hill of rubble it left behind, trying to get into the hole left in the side of the complex.

“It’s got the clones, it’s trying to get away!” Renchiko shouts, piloting the Firefly back to its feet, jet boosters flaring as she rushes after it. “Pixel, Tempest, on me, we need to stop it before it gets away!”

“We’ll get on that as soon as K7’s dealt with!” Gale grunts as the Tempest struggles to keep K7 flat against the ground in a headlock, trying to find a good place to dig its plasma knife into the monster.

Coming around the corner of command complex, the Firefly draws up short as she finds the Koiyash Leviathan bearing down on the command complex. Even stripped of its armor, spilling a waterworks-worth of bright blue ichor onto ground, the colossus has bulldozed its way down the street, crushing buildings on either side of the road as it went. Further down the street, the black dragon is still trying to get off its back and onto its feet without doing more damage than it’s already done to the surrounding structures. And Tantrum is slipping away between larger Leviathan’s legs, making a beeline back down the street towards the breach in the outpost wall. 

“Firefly, we can’t get a clean shot on Tantrum; K1 is blocking line of sight.” Latti calls over the comms. “With our current position on the wall, we’ll have to wait until Tantrum’s down the street before we can take the shot.”

Renchiko’s breath catches in her throat; she can see Tantrum getting away, but she cannot ignore the devastation before her eyes. Buildings slumping and folding like sandcastles; a debris haze hanging in the air with each new structure collapsed or crushed, and tons of rubble cascading into streets, burying residents and cricket wolves alike. The destruction is indiscriminate, clearly designed to maximize damage in the Leviathan’s dying throes. Somewhere in the destruction, she can see Jackrabbit zipping through the streets with her acceleration harness active, moving as many people to safety as she can — but she can only be in so many places at once.

Renchiko’s eyes go back down to the Tantrum, now loping towards the breach in the wall. Despite the appearance of chaos, this was all planned, deliberate, calculated, as all such things involving the Collective were. This destruction was not arbitrary; it was meant to force a choice.

“Change of plans, target down the big one. Force it to focus on us instead of destroying the outpost.” Renchiko orders, her jet thrusters firing again as she skates through the plaza towards the colossus. “Try to keep your distance; if it hits you, you might not get back up. We need to buy enough time for the dragon to get back into the fight.”

“Target the head, then?” Rumo asks.

“Whatever will keep it distracted or damage it the most.” Renchiko says as the plates on one of the Firefly’s forearms slide back, revealing a sequential plasma repeater. Diving forward, the Firefly raises that arm, strafing the underside of the Koiyash Leviathan as it jets down the street beneath it. Drawn by the plasma bolts peppering it from below, the Leviathan halts its advance to grope around blindly beneath itself, then reels as a particle pulse slams into its head, sending blood and flesh splattering outwards as it staggers in place, releasing an infuriated roar.

In the meantime, the B.E.A.S.T. has managed to roll onto its side; yet even in the act of getting back to its feet, it still damages the buildings around it, no matter its efforts to mitigate that damage. Carefully turning in place, it finds its great enemy being stymied just outside of the outpost’s central plaza; the Firefly is trying to scale its rear haunches with its serrated short knife out and seeking vulnerable spots to dig in, while the Pixel stands between the Leviathan and the command complex, its rib panels flicking open to reveal high-yield missile racks. The Titan unloads the entirety of its stock on the Leviathan, releasing around a dozen missiles in sequence, each one hammering into the towering colossus with explosions that blow out the windows in the nearest buildings.

With the Koiyash Leviathan so occupied, the B.E.A.S.T. flares its viridian wings, bunching up its rear legs and launching itself into the air at the same time those wings flaps downwards. A massive rush of wind is blasted through the local area, immediately shunting the debris haze to the edges of the outpost. The black dragon isn’t so much flying as it is going into an assisted pounce, the wing-boosted leap carrying it over intact buildings that it would’ve otherwise crushed on its way to the Koiyash Leviathan. And when it comes down, it comes down on the back of the Leviathan, forelegs gripping the monster’s shoulders while its jade claws dig into its exposed, bleeding back.

The weight of a similarly-sized giant landing on it is enough for the Leviathan to buckle, being flattened against the ground by the falling mass. The Firefly is shaken loose by the impact, with the Pixel likewise knocked backwards as the Tempest limps around the corner of the complex, having dealt with K7. The Koiyash Leviathan, despite being pinned down, does not cease struggling; but the B.E.A.S.T. is not letting up or slowing down. Grabbing the Leviathan’s head and pinning it against the ground, the black dragon opens its jagged maw, bright emerald light coalescing out of the air and gathering between its wicked teeth. It doesn’t take long for a razing beam to explode out of the B.E.A.S.T.’s mouth, coring through the Leviathan’s neck and into the ground below, drilling through the creature’s trunk until the black dragon is able to tear the head off the weakened neck.

As the beam peters out and a fountain of cerulean ichor pours into the plaza’s entrance, the Vision comes around the other side of the command complex, stopping when it sees the B.E.A.S.T. throw down the Leviathan’s head. The head, nearly as tall as a Titan itself, rolls to a halt in the plaza, crushing a fountain and a few streetlights as it settles; and atop the Leviathan’s corpse, the B.E.A.S.T. is starting to sway and fold. It clambers off the corpse as its external armoring starts to become transparent and fade away; it wades through the lake of Leviathan blood as its underlying musculature and structure begin evaporating, rapidly losing much of the mass that made it such a behemoth. By the time it has neared the complex, the skeletal structure has disintegrated, leaving a rolling ball of green light that soon melts away to reveal the pilots of the Torikago, collapsing to the rubble-strewn pavement as their strength runs out. Kiwi is left clinging to Songbird, whose left arm appears scorched and withered most of the way to the shoulder.

Though it is not silent as such, the outpost has become much quieter, no longer riven with the roaring of giant monsters, the screeching of metal, or the explosions that accompany the discharge of titanic weapons. There is still the occasional shriek of strike fighters making passes over and around the outposts; the long rising and falling of klaxon alarms, at least in the parts of the city where the loudspeakers haven’t been crushed or destroyed by battle. Distantly, one can hear the discharge of small arms as available defenders clash with the surviving cricket wolves that the Collective loosed into the outpost. Innumerable plumes of smoke rise from where fires have broken out in demolished or damaged regions of the outpost, and with the sun starting to crest low in the sky, those plumes are painted red and orange once they have risen above the height of wall.

“What do we do now?” Gale asks over the comms as the Firefly climbs over the dead Koiyash Leviathan, and jumps down into the pond of blue blood spilling into the plaza.

Renchiko lets out a breath as she locates Kiwi and Songbird, and once she’s certain they’re alive, turns to look out across the outpost. With all the Leviathans dead, it seems like their part in the battle is over; they could help with stamping out the remaining Collective ground forces, but it would be difficult to do so without doing further damage to the outpost, of which there was already a considerable amount. Nearly a third of Genista’s structures have either been completely demolished, or damaged in some form; rubble scars litter the outpost where the clashes between Leviathans and Titans had spilled from the streets and onto property. The outpost’s emergency services were turned out, but being hampered by the level of destruction and the lingering presence of the Collective’s warbeasts.

In sum total, it was a picture of why Titan combat philosophy went to such lengths to keep Titan combat far away from urban and metropolitan settings.

“Firefly?” Picazo asks when Renchiko doesn’t respond to Gale’s question. “What do we do now?”

Renchiko’s hands tighten around the grips within her pilot sheaths as she takes in the devastation of Genista. They had been trained for a lot, but they had never been trained for this: the aftermath of a battle within the city setting. They had never been told what to do in a situation like this; maybe because there was nothing for them to do in a situation like this. These towering war machines, so proficient in the decimation of enemies and infrastructure alike, were almost useless when it came to triage and rescue work. They were tools of destruction, and when the destruction was over, they were left with nothing to do but gaze over the inevitable product of their purpose.

“I don’t know.” Renchiko quietly admits to the rest of the squad. “I don’t know.”