The drop ships cut through the thick atmosphere as they made their turbulent approach to the surface. Aetherveil surveyed the war-torn planet from the ship's display.

  It looked like a graveyard.

  Cities crumbled into piles of rock—visible only through the flashes of artillery fire that lit up the planet. The craters that scarred the landscape of concrete and steel made Kalvos Prime a monument to the seemingly ceaseless conflict.

  There were towering factories throughout the surface of the planet with massive stacks that released plumes of dark smoke and soot that blurred out the horizon. Patrolling drones circled the area like vultures searching for a carcass.

  What was once a planet thriving from the wealth of its production was now a penal colony for its enslaved populace. The coalition and the Nexus had been playing tug-of-war with this planet since the beginning of the war. They had once again lost it to Nexus forces and had been unable to reclaim it.

  This time, they turned to Aetherveil.

  The ships touched down on the outskirts of the fortified capital. It used to be a bustling industrial city. Now, it was just a pile of concrete and rebar.

  Aetherveil and her Sentinels disembarked from their ships, sounds of debris crunching under their feet.

  “Kalvos Prime fuels the Nexus’s war machine,” Lilyon said as she joined Aetherveil’s side.

  “If we take it, we will have the weapons we need. If we don't—"

  Aetherveil’s jaw tightened. The whispers returned, growing louder with every step.

  "You can't win here."

  "They will break."

  Psionus broke through the voices.

  "The Nexus has corrupted nearly every system on the planet. We’re not just up against soldiers. They've seized control of the automated defenses."

  "We’ll need stealth," Lilyon murmured.

  "Our mission is clear," Aetherveil announced, looking between them.

  "Psionus, sever their nodes. Lilyon, take the command hub. I’ll lead the assault."

  Psionus closed his eyes. "They’re hidden, but I can sense them. I’ll lead my team."

  Aetherveil glanced toward her Sentinels.

  "Move out."

  The battle unfolded beneath a shroud of darkness.

  >>>>>***********************<<<<<

  The Sentinels moved as one. They slipped through the ruins like shadows. Nexus machines patrolled the area, diligently searching for intruders.

  Using the city's rubble as concealment, Lilyon led her team toward the command hub. The path was a narrow winding maze of factories and alleys with overlapping Revenant patrol routes.

  "We are going in circles," A Sentinel muttered.

  "That's impossible," Lilyon replied. "The nav unit shows us heading toward the hub."

  "We passed this building three times now," the Sentinel raised his voice, glaring at her. "Where are you taking us?"

  "Stand down," Lilyon snapped.

  "No! You stand down," the Sentinel shouted, pointing his rifle at Lilyon. The others in her unit followed his lead.

  Lilyon's chest heaved.

  "What are you doing? This is mutiny," she said with a shaky voice. "We've fought together for years. You don't trust me?"

  "Trust?" The Sentinel asked, shoving his rifle forward. "This isn't about trust. It's about survival."

  Lilyon looked at her nav unit, her hands shaking uncontrollably. The map changed.

  "I don't—I don't understand," she stammered.

  She looked back up at the Sentinel, panting.

  She closed her eyes as the Sentinels opened fire.

  "Ma'am," a Sentinel rested his hand on Lilyon's shoulder. "Are you ok?"

  Lilyon opened her eyes, confused. The barrels were replaced with the concerned looks of her team.

  "I'm ok," She lied. "Let's keep moving."

  As they continued on their route, a Revenant patrol nearly detected them. Lilyon motioned for her team to take cover.

  The patrol passed. One of the Revenants stopped—looking right at her. Its glowing eyes stared right into hers. It turned around and moved on.

  Lilyon gave a nod to continue, her hands shaking. One of the Sentinels stayed frozen—staring at a corner.

  "Sergeant?" Lilyon asked, quietly trying to get his attention.

  The other Sentinels looked at each other.

  Lilyon slowly approached him. He was tilting his head. It twitched as if he was listening to something. She could see a glow coming from under his visor.

  "Sergeant?" She tried again, softly.

  She slowly flipped it up and his green eyes locked onto her. He attacked her without warning, his hands wrapping around her throat.

  Another Sentinel stabbed him through a gap in his armor. Lilyon rolled over gasping for air while the others helped her up.

  "What the hell is going on?" She asked hoarsely.

  She knelt next to his body.

  “This doesn't make sense,” she whispered. “Was this the Nexus?“

  “The patrols are picking up, ma'am,” a Sentinel said. “We should stay on mission.“

  She nodded and stood up. “You're right. We'll come back for him.“

  She continued to navigate her team to the objective. The towering structure was just beyond an alley with pipes and machinery obscuring their view. It was heavily fortified with Nexus forces stationed around the perimeter.

  Lilyon and her team slowly moved in on the building.

  "Why bother, Lilyon? Do you enjoy being the strategist of your army's fate?"

  She closed her eyes tight and took a deep breath. They continued moving.

  When they finally reached the outer defenses, they managed to slip past the patrolling Revenants and enter the hub—moving swiftly through the halls. It was illuminated by flashing red emergency lights.

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  Lilyon glanced at the rusty walls, the shadows looking back at her with glowing eyes.

  She blinked hard, but they didn't disappear.

  "The Nexus is watching," she whispered to herself.

  A Sentinel looked in her direction. "Ma'am?"

  She shook her head. "It's nothing. Let's keep moving.“

  “We’re inside the hub’s perimeter. We’re getting close to the power systems," Lilyon reported over comms.

  Once they reached the central chamber of the command hub they could see the glowing of the power cores—surrounded by Nexus Enforcers.

  “This is beyond us," one of the engineers said.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Lilyon said, focused on the objective. “Those cores power the defenses. We need to disable them so Aetherveil can advance.”

  When she turned her head to look back at the power cores, the Enforcers were looking directly at her. She began to hear the overwhelming sound of white noise.

  "This is beyond you."

  She issued her commands and her team moved into formation. They immediately engaged each other.

  The Enforcers erased every obstacle they tried to hide behind with their powerful cannons. Each projectile created a molten crater. The Sentinels needed to keep moving or be vaporized.

  Lilyon and the engineers made their way to the control panel. In the background, the cacophony of weapons fire continued.

  "They made this easy. Nothing to hack," the engineer said with a hint of disappointment.

  The Enforcers' sensors pivoted, locking on to Lilyon's team. She narrowed her eyes, catching a brief delay in an Enforcer’s pivot as it swung its cannons around.

  "Engineers, report!" Lilyon shouted.

  When she didn't hear their response, she looked toward the control panel. They were gone. She looked back toward the Enforcers—they were towering over her.

  "Join us, Lilyon," they intoned.

  A loud explosion caught her attention. The Sentinels had destroyed one of the Enforcers—still engaged by the cores. She noticed a Sentinel stop for a moment.

  He shook his head, then reengaged.

  "Status?" Lilyon asked.

  "Almost there!” yelled one engineer.

  His fingers were quickly navigating through the control panel, bypassing one failsafe after the other. He continued disabling cooling systems, ignoring the warnings.

  Lilyon watched as the power cores changed from red to orange. Suddenly, a burst of sparks shot out, filling the room with a blinding flash—the blast wave knocking her down.

  She heard whispers as she slipped out of consciousness.

  "Join my side. Together, we can correct humanity.“

  She came to and pulled herself up, her legs wobbling. Her ears were ringing. She looked around, everything was still hazy. Stumbling toward the main corridor, the walls around her were glowing the sickly green light of the Nexus.

  One of the engineers ran up to her, grabbing her by the shoulders, yelling. He started pulling her toward the corridor.

  She slipped on a puddle of blood.

  Her head swung in every direction trying to get a clear picture of what was going on. The Sentinels were firing at each other, no longer aware of friend or foe.

  "I'm surrounded! Where is everyone at?" A Sentinel asked, crying out. He turned toward Lilyon.

  "It's you! Help—”

  His blood sprayed on Lilyon as his helmet was pierced by another Sentinels gunfire.

  "What—" she began to say as the engineer pulled her into the corridor.

  "It's not them!" He said. "The Nexus has them!"

  Lilyon and the engineer ran through the blood-streaked corridor. As they made their way to the exit, she looked back one last time, staring at the gunfire through a glassy haze—the screams of her Sentinels echoing through the hall.

  >>>>>***********************<<<<<

  Psionus dug deeper into the city’s systems. His psychic abilities allowed him to feel the nodes—they were embedded like roots in the planet’s infrastructure and buried under encryption and code. The Nexus tried to keep them concealed, but they were unsuccessful in their attempt.

  He led his team through the tight alleys of the city. Psionus started to take notice of the lack of patrols in this quadrant as they closed in on their objective.

  "Strange," Psionus muttered. "They wouldn't leave a node exposed. They're how their units stay connected."

  "Real-time processing, right?" a Sentinel asked.

  Psionus nodded, still focused on his link with the node.

  "Without the link, they would go into a forced shutdown. Their computers can only make task-based decisions,” he said.

  The Sentinel glanced over at Psionus, his smile concealed underneath his helmet.

  "Even the Nexus finds ways to cut corners," the Sentinel said.

  Psinous smirked. "No, not cost. It's more energy efficient. It also keeps us from stealing them."

  He gestured to his team to proceed with caution.

  “We’re close," he said.

  They tightened their grip on their weapons, ready to fight. As they rounded the corner, they found themselves facing a Nexus Enforcer. It attacked without warning, as if its presence wasn't warning enough.

  “Fall back!” Psionus shouted.

  They couldn’t retreat, not with the node in reach. Psionus decided to confront it.

  Psionus's powers were not limited to the neural networks of the brain. Decades of training gave him the ability to trace and understand binary logic pathways and the artificial neural networks of these machines.

  He reached into the Enforcer's programming to locate a flaw.

  An icy landscape materialized around him. He stood, alone, in a freezing blizzard.

  "I knew that if I couldn't come to you, you would find your way to me."

  "Who are you?" he asked, trying to sense the presence.

  The entity howled with laughter.

  "Don't waste your energy. I need it for my new commander."

  Psionus clenched his fists. "I will never be yours, Tyrant."

  The entity emerged from the white walls of the blizzard. Its massive form shadowed over Psionus. Its green eyes numbed his psychic powers.

  "You cling to free will like a child clutches a broken toy. You are already mine. Every breath you take—mine."

  The blizzard opened up, revealing the faces of Lilyon's Sentinels.

  "You were never meant to be their leader, Psionus. They fear you. They are waiting for you to fail. They know you will fail."

  The Sentinels looked toward Psionus.

  "Why didn't you save us?"

  His eyes widened. He released a massive discharge of psychic power that swept through the construct, gasping as he snapped back into reality, sweat beading on his forehead under the frigid walls of his suit.

  The Enforcer was still moving, its cannons unleashing volleys of plasma fire. Psionus latched his mind to its self-diagnostics subroutine, tricking it into reporting critical damage.

  The machine froze, entering a forced shutdown.

  His team rushed to sever the node’s connection to the Nexus.

  “First node down,” Psionus reported.

  They proceeded to locate the other nodes.

  "Is he right?" He thought. "Are they afraid of me?"

  "Of course I'm right."

  >>>>>***********************<<<<<

  On the opposite side of the city, Aetherveil was heavily engaged with the Nexus. She was slicing through the machines faster than they could replace them.

  She looked over at the Sentinels. The Revenants were smashing through their lines.

  “We’re being overrun!” a Sentinel shouted.

  Reinforcements poured in, flanking their positions. She watched as an explosion threw several Sentinels back, armor plating spinning into the air. Mocking laughter overlapped screams from the battlefield.

  "Keep watching, Aetherveil."

  A Revenant charged toward her. She cut it down, its torso rolling across the ground. Confirmed her kill, it was a Sentinel. Her eyes widened as she looked away.

  "What have I done?" she whispered.

  When she forced herself to look back—the corpse was nothing but a ruined machine. The glow of its optical sensors slowly faded out as it looked at her. It chirped as if laughing at her.

  Every Sentinel was doing their part to endure the Nexus assault. They were carrying their wounded out, another warrior taking their place in the formation.

  Another large explosion washed over one of their positions.

  A leg careened through the air, slamming into Aetherveil's chest. She was thrown down to the ground, the breath knocked out of her.

  Struggling to sit up, she watched as the two sides traded fire, her soldiers screaming orders and changing positions. Dark tendrils crept out of the shadows of a nearby collapsed building, wriggling their way toward her.

  "You can't save them."

  "You'll lead them to ruin, just like before. We just want what's best for you."

  She looked at them. Her glazed eyes transformed into rage.

  Standing up, she tightened her grip around her sword. She slammed it into the ground, unleashing a fiery shockwave that burned through the shadows.

  Aetherveil joined a Sentinel formation, tearing through the Tyrant's machines. She paused to assess the field.

  “We’re running out of time,” she whispered, her eyes fixed on the command hub in the distance.

  "Look!" A Sentinel called out. "They're bunching up over there!"

  Aetherveil reached out to the Veilbreaker over comms, "Veilbreaker, grid seven. Give it a hellstrike."

  Moments later Aetherveil observed a missile strike the target. All of the buildings surrounding it collapsed and the area was engulfed in flames. Seemingly out of nowhere, the defenses went down. The turrets stopped firing.

  “Defenses down,” Lilyon reported. “Aetherveil, it’s open.”

  “Advance!” she called out, leading her Sentinels to the command hub.

  Lilyon and Aetherveil rallied outside of its entrance. Psionus rejoined them soon after.

  “The nodes are down, but they’re barricading the hub,” he reported. “We’ll need speed.“

  “We end this," Aetherveil said. "Together."

  With Psionus and Lilyon at her side, she led the final assault.

  Nexus forces inside fought with everything they had, but the Sentinels relentlessly pressed forward. They stepped over the scrap that was once the Tyrant's killing machines.

  Aetherveil cut through the ranks of defenders until they reached the command node itself, a giant mass of energy and metal.

  Psionus stepped forward, reaching into and severing the node from the Nexus. The core shuddered and began to lose power. The link between the Nexus and Kalvos Prime cut off.

  “It’s done,” Psionus said. “The Nexus’s grip on Kalvos Prime is severed.”

  Aetherveil exhaled, a weight lifting from her shoulders as she surveyed the battlefield. The Revenants’ glows flickered and dimmed—some collapsed as they were disconnected from the Nexus.

  As she looked across the smoldering wreckage of Kalvos Prime, the victory felt pyrrhic. The hellish landscape of the city became the final resting place for tens of thousands of Sentinels. Every single one of them fought as hard as they could for Aetherveil.

  She stepped toward Psionus and Lilyon, who were rallying the remaining Sentinels.

  “Kalvos is ours again,” Lilyon quietly declared.

  She couldn't bring herself to look at Aetherveil, feeling the shame that she couldn't bring any of her team back.

  Aetherveil gently raised Lilyons head, making eye contact—silently letting Lilyon know that she was still her friend.