Warmth spread to Nera's cheeks as she slowly blinked her eyes open.
The scent of his body wash lingered nearby.
She felt a hint of annoyance until he snored, but a faint smile emerged.
A soft cover clung to their bodies, left by someone in the outpost.
Nera felt sore from their awkward sleeping position, she chose not wake him.
Karauro looked youthful in slumber, free from his burdens.
Last night's embers lay in a pile of ash.
Just as Nera's cybernetic hand hesitated to touch his face.
Sirens blared at a distance.
Karauro's eyes snapped open, his orange halo flickering.
He looked at Nera, who paused with her hand close to his face.
Their comms buzzed through their earpiece.
“Hey lovebirds, we’ve got an emergency! Get to the hangar. Noose is already there waiting!” Liam urged over the comms.
“Copy,” Nera replied.
Karauro stood and hoisted Nera up.
Both walked in the direction of the hangar.
---
Hauler engines roared as Noose stood with the Ruined Jackals, locking eyes with Nera.
Nera briefly looked back at Karauro.
“Ciro, did Viper let you rest?” Noose asked with a sly grin.
“Yeah, she kept me warm,” he said evenly.
Noose nudged his arm.
“Good. Get ready, you two. We move now.”
Nera stepped out, fastening the last piece of her armor.
Karauro was already outside in his Scarlet-carbon Nexon suit.
He flexed his arms, and pulse claws sprang from his forearms.
“Haven’t used these in a while,” he murmured.
“Your spine again,” Nera nudged him.
He flinched, not startled, but by the softness in her voice.
“We’ll protect them, even if I need to,” his words cut short as her gloved hands pulled him toward her lips.
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Nera leaned in.
“Don’t shoulder it all alone,” she whispered between their lips.
For the first time, he remained silent.
She walked ahead and entered the hauler.
Karauro sighed and straightened the dampener collar he wore.
---
Karauro clutched a handle inside the hauler.
Spine rose over the road’s curvature ahead.
A jolt ran through him, making his halo eyes shimmer.
Dark figures swarmed over the walls.
Noose noticed the flicker.
“Ciro, avoid using Fumed-Beast unless necessary,” she said softly, eyes dropping to her bracelet.
He nodded.
The hauler swerved through the creatures and slammed to a stop within the Spine/Onyx frontlines.
Two wires shot in opposite directions, yanking figures toward the creatures climbing the building.
Aaron lowered his rifle.
“Hmp. Finally.”
Nera’s violet thermal arm blade carved through a crowd of deformed Hollow-Shades.
Karauro tore into them, orange pulse claws flashing.
Noose and her squad flared their boots, tightening wires around the grotesque monsters before hacking off their limbs.
Then she saw movement in the spore fog.
Purple orbs tilted on a figure’s head.
“Ciro, move back! Something’s in the fog!” Noose shouted.
Multiple purple tendrils lashed from the mist, coiled around Karauro’s arms and torso, and reeled him in.
---
Karauro felt spores brush past him as he was dragged toward the figure.
He thrust out an arm and fired a kinetic burst just before reaching it.
It shrieked and hurled him into a pillar, but he released another charge and rebounded away in time.
Karauro landed on his feet and rose.
Noose crackled over comms. “Ci-ro. Possible static pings. Pike and I are moving.”
“Figures,” Karauro muttered.
A shadow stepped closer, purple tendrils retracting into it.
“If you wanted my attention, could’ve just asked.” Karauro flicked his pulse blade out.
His halo eye lit with a grin beneath his helmet.
Hollow-Shade smiled, a tendril spitting ichor that crystallized into jagged edges.
Karauro kicked his boot jets and dodged as Hollow scaled a tall building.
Bullets ripped through the fog behind him.
Crimson tendrils slithered from his armor seams, expanding over him.
“ShEeps In WOlvEs ClotHing!” Erenesh hissed.
“I had it under control,” Karauro growled.
“SILENCE. FocUS ON RIDDING THESE FLESH PUPPETS,” the voice chuckled.
Karauro charged the black-armored soldiers reloading their rifles.
One barely looked up before Karauro’s orange halo glare met him through the visor.
Tendrils coiled around the soldier as Karauro’s pulse claws slashed through his legs.
-CRUNCH-
The scream cut short when Karauro’s tendrils pierced the soldier’s helmet.
The others broke for cover.
Then a blue laser settled on him.
Noose sprinted in and tackled him down as the projectile fired.
“What the—” he muttered.
She landed on top of him, using the building’s angle as cover.
“You narrow too hard when you flare,” she snapped, pushing herself up.
She pointed to a shell casing with a shattered vial.
“They’re trying to disrupt it. Make you easier for Hollow to break.”
“My bad,” he said.
Her hand rested on his chest.
Her gaze pierced his, then shifted to Pike.
She gave him a nod, and Pike opened fire on the black soldiers.
“I was pulled in, technically,” Karauro muttered.
“Yeah, and you still could’ve waited for us,” Noose hissed. “You’re one of the Ruined Jackals.”
“Alright, handler. I’ll cooperate,” Karauro said, trying to rise.
Noose remained straddled over him, irritation burning in her gaze.
“I’ll cooperate… Noose,” he sighed.
Only then did she move.
More comms hissed with static.
Noose gripped her rifle.
Karauro retracted his tendrils, letting the ghost sling lift his rifle into the air.
Pike came over comms. “HUDs are revealing rig IDs. Covert Monarch soldiers.”
Noose nodded. “Good work, Pike. We hit them from both sides of the alley.”
Karauro signaled Noose and crossed to the other side.
Noose moved low and quiet, protected by the rig jammer Pike had installed onto their Nexon suits.
She leaned around the wall just enough to draw fire.
“Alright, Ciro. Move.”
She heard his breath over comms.
Bullets whizzed around.
A scream echoed, followed by wet crunches.
The soldiers barked into their helmets.
“Aim high, K-19 is attacking with his Ichor factor—”
Noose broke cover, aimed, inhaled, and fired.
Pike mirrored her from the neighboring alley.
“We’re being flanked, get to—”
Noose spotted Karauro leap out of a window.
He extended his claws while landing on a soldier, impaling him through the helmet.
Then he hauled the corpse up and used it as a shield against the incoming bullets.
“Just to be clear, I’m not using Ichor. I’m using the environment.” He grinned.
His hand reached for a grenade, latched it to the corpse, then fired a pulse burst.
The body launched toward a soldier near a pillar and detonated.
Noose looked up just in time to see Hollow-Shade plummeting toward Karauro.
She fired Halo wires at it.
Hollow seized one and yanked her into a wall.
“Noose!” Pike yelled.
Karauro dashed toward her, but purple tendrils shot down from above and pinned him to the ground.
Hollow’s body crashed into Karauro, fists pounding his torso.
Concrete shattered beneath him.
Pike slid to Noose’s side, helping her as she coughed for breath.
Her bracelet beeped.
“K-19 levels have peaked.”
Several tendrils pulled Hollow from the cracked ground.
Crimson tendrils gripped the edges.
Dozens of orange orbs flickered as something slithered and growled below.
Hollow finally spoke in a raspy layered voice. “You were unworthy of my words before; now you are, mongrel.”
Noose spotted something shift in the crater.
It rose.
Arms thicker, wreathed in dark fumes.
Tendrils lowered its massive form as a serpent-like creature hovered nearby, clasping the beast’s shoulder.
Rows of orange eyes blinked beside elongated jaws lined with sharp teeth.
The serpent inhaled, savoring the spores.
The Fumed-Beast towered over Hollow-Shade.
Rows of orange eyes blinked across its hulking form, mirroring the smaller creature.
Soldiers raised their weapons.
Noose watched the smaller creature lunge and bite into one soldier.
Ichor erupted from its flesh, piercing through multiple heads.
Its mouth twisted unnaturally.
It smiled.
