As dusk settled over the barren surface of Paleon, the first Nexus artillery shells exploded across the battlefield. They sent shockwaves through the abandoned mining facility, pulverizing buildings into clouds of debris. Shards of metal and rock hurdled through the air, slicing through anyone unlucky enough to be nearby. These explosive packed steel projectiles carried no prejudices with them—only death.

  A company of Arros's marines, led by Captain Laksana, stumbled back into the surface complex under a choking veil of smoke. The once serene silence of Paleon was now shattered by the violence of war—a cacophony of explosions and agonized screams.

  The air stunk with scorched flesh.

  Through the haze, Laksana caught sight of the first wave of Nexus dropships descending.

  “Light 'em up!“ he shouted. “Don’t let them touch down!“

  Rockets streaked through the air, detonating against the hulls in a cascade of fireballs. Revenant machines charged out of burning wreckages, their massive frames a silhouette against the inferno.

  The ground shook as more dropships crashed, their holds spewing out hordes of machines. Laksana barked orders over the din, his rifle trembling in his hands as he fired into the encroaching Revenants.

  He heard a booming double crack—the first boom sharp, the second echoing close behind. Laksana looked up, observing a missile hurdling toward a coalition position at their flank. It was followed by a bright flash and raging inferno.

  He took cover behind a crumbling wall as the blast wave swept over them. The shock front smashed into the barriers, reducing them to rubble under it's unfathomable force.

  The blast left him momentarily deaf, his ears ringing as he stared at the crater. The scattered bodies of the coalition unit were blackened shapes against the smoldering earth.

  “No movement,” a marine called out.

  “Incoming,” shouted another.

  Laksana coughed through the dust and peered over the edge. Lines of Revenants stretched across the landscape, firing on the marines ceaselessly.

  “Engage!” Laksana shouted, raising his rifle.

  The weapon trembled in his grip as he fired into the advancing Revenants. Each shot sparked harmlessly against the machines’ thick plating, failing to slow their advance.

  One of the hulking machines barreled toward them. It swung its retractable blade through a marine’s abdomen, its arc flinging the limp body into the air before turning its green optics on Laksana’s position.

  “Fall back!” Laksana shouted, but it was already too late.

  >>>>>***********************<<<<<

  From their position deep within the tunnels, Arros and coalition general Soko coordinated the surface defenses. They watched the tactical displays. Their eyes scanned every movement of the Nexus forces.

  As the artillery carved into the fortifications on the surface, their forces were now comfortably out of the target zone.

  “They think they can bomb us into submission,” Arros said. “They have no idea what’s waiting for them down here.”

  Soko, his face illuminated by the glow of the display, nodded.

  “We’ve set the traps. Now we just need them to walk into them,” he replied.

  Big D and Locke had been preparing for days. Fortifying the mining tunnels and setting up ambush points throughout the labyrinthine network.

  Narrow, dark, and winding—the perfect battleground.

  Locke’s forces were waiting. The sound of the artillery had grown distant, replaced by the roar of overworked generators. Standing at the heart of the command center, he listened intently as reports from the surface filtered in.

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  “It’s time to deploy the first strike teams,” Arros ordered. "Hit fast. Hit hard. Fall back.“

  Locke led the first wave of coalition strike teams. They slipped through hidden passages and ventilation shafts that the Nexus troops would never see coming.

  As the Nexus forces advanced deeper into the tunnels, the first strike hit them with everything. Coalition fighters filled the stone passages with projectiles, high velocity rounds ripping through metal plating and flesh. The cyborgs crumpled on the ground into sparking, bloody heaps.

  As the cyborgs continued to advance, they set off a trap. They were sent careening back through the passages as high explosives detonated, burying them beneath the collapsing tunnel.

  They struggled to adapt to the hit and run tactics of Locke's forces.

  Another ambush. Another grenade. Nexus troops fell in waves. The cyborgs fired blindly into the darkness.

  Limbs and shrapnel ricocheted off the blood slicked walls. The echoes of explosions blew through the tunnels, drowning out the gurgling cries of those unlucky enough to survive.

  A cyborg stumbled out of a thick cloud of smoke, half its face burned away, exposing sparking wires and a dislocated jaw. Raising its weapon, its head was split open by the point blank shot of a coalition soldier.

  “Keep up the pressure,“ Arros said over comms.

  Locke's strike teams continued their assault, hitting the Nexus forces from all sides. Every corner held the potential for a run in with the honey badgers. Nexus troops were forced to advance cautiously, their confidence eroding with each casualty.

  As the battle raged on, Locke moved through the tunnels. His armor blended seamlessly with his surroundings.

  “They’re sending reinforcements,” Arros reported through comms.

  As the night grew darker, the echoes of the battle on the surface bled through underground. Each side tested the other’s limits, pushing the fight in the tunnels toward a breaking point. The Nexus forces were regrouping, their movements becoming more coordinated despite the constant ambushes.

  More Nexus units entered into the fray, tightening the noose around the mining complex. The coalition wasn’t ready to retreat. Their overwhelming numbers and superior technology were meaningless as they could not adapt to Paleon’s environment as easily as the coalition could.

  Locke knew that there would soon be no room left for maneuvering. He moved swiftly toward the surface. As he reached the top, the distant sound of artillery fire echoed through the night.

  He climbed up to a vantage point overlooking the battlefield, his sharp eyes taking in the chaotic scene below. Their artillery had created gaping craters in the ground. Smoke billowed toward the sky, mixing with the haze of sand from the bombardment.

  The Nexus forces were advancing again, pushing closer to the entrances of the main tunnels. Their war machines were cutting through the defenses as Arros's marines and coalition troops fought ferociously to keep the main body on the surface. The ground was littered with mangled bodies, unrecognizable in the haze of ash and fire.

  The once golden sands had darkened into a mixture of red and black.

  Flamethrowers roared, the heat distorting the air into rippling waves of suffering. Streams of molten alloy hissed as they pooled over the ground—broken down Revenant machines stood as tombstones, their joints fused together by the slag.

  A marine screamed as a Revenant tore through his armor with its blade, carving deep into his chest. It discarded his body like trash and moved on.

  As Locke watched the battle unfold, his comms crackled to life.

  "Locke, this is Soko. We’ve got Nexus getting through the lower tunnels. They’ve bypassed our first traps. We need reinforcements down here."

  "Hold them as long as you can. Reinforcements are on the way," Locke replied.

  He turned to Big D, who had joined him at the vantage point. "We need to get down there. They’re getting clever.“

  Big D nodded.

  As he hurried off to gather the mercenaries, Locke lingered for a moment longer. He began to remember the last time he saw a battlefield like this one.

  “We have to leave,” Locke said as he gathered weapons and supplies. “Now.”

  His wife’s eyes were wide with fear, but she didn’t argue. She had seen the look on his face before—the look that meant there was no time for questions.

  They packed quickly.

  As they fled toward the outskirts of the settlement, the Nexus forces descended. Drones swarmed the skies, raining down destruction.

  Locke fought with everything he had, but the drones overwhelmed him. There were too many.

  In a flash of heat and light, his world came crashing down. It was a roar that consumed everything.

  Locke’s skin burned as he was thrown backward, his arms reaching out instinctively to where his family had been.

  There was only fire, smoke, and silence.

  He took a deep breath.

  With one last glance at the battlefield, he turned and descended into the tunnels. In the distance, the faint glow of the Nexus fleet hung in the sky like a dark omen. The time for strategy was over.

  Now, it was a battle of wills.

  The air in the tunnels was dense with dust, clinging to sweat and burning lungs. Every sound seemed amplified in the darkness—the distant echoes of boots on stone and the occasional soft murmur of coalition warriors preparing for the inevitable clash with another wave.

  Around him, the mercenaries worked in silence. They set more traps and reinforced barricades, positioning themselves for the ambush that would soon spring. They were seasoned fighters, each one handpicked by Locke himself.

  They understood this battle would be harder than any other they faced—that it may be their last.

  "We’re in position," Big D reported over comms. "Nexus is probing the lower tunnels, testing our defenses. They haven’t committed yet.“

  “Arcturus is too smart to be played by guerrilla tactics,“ Locke replied. “They’re looking for a way in, but they won’t find it. Not yet."

  Locke was not afraid. He had faced darkness before.

  This time would be no different.