Venus Time: 15:50, March 25, 2295

  Sulfur Valley, 2.2 km away from Camp Yusuf, Northern Venus

  Xin watched the Genbu's occupants. Dilinur's spine straightened. Marcus opened his eyes fully, hands already on Justice. Jabari's fingers stopped on Oya's bolt channel. Sigrun—freshly changed from her hanfu into her standard navy turtleneck, tactical trousers and combat boots—leaned forward, and the cloth-wrapped spear beside her resonated loud enough for Xin to catch it from the opposite bench.

  In his lap, H?kon stirred. Scales cycling from sleeping silver to anxious brown. "Pappa...loud voice..."

  Diego's transmission kept coming, broken by static and the crackle of weapons fire bleeding through the channel. "Multiple breach points. Western perimeter's collapsed, eastern flank getting hit. Dios mío—"

  Dilinur pressed two fingers to her red Nucleus Watch. Her voice came out level and controlled. "Diego. Force composition."

  "Fenris Radi-Mons—Bone Fiends, at least forty. Skuggrs flanking from the south. And...hold on..." The line went thick with static. Then Diego came back, voice pitched higher. "Draugs on the western ridge! Two confirmed."

  Xin's stomach dropped. "Draugs mean lieutenants. Lieutenants mean this is something planned—"

  "Haylen," Dilinur said.

  From the cockpit, Haylen's response was already solemn. The Genbu's engine whined higher, the tank's tracks biting harder into Venus's volcanic soil. "Pushing to maximum, Prefect. Four minutes."

  Four minutes. Xin pulled up his Nucleus Watch, fingers moving on reflex. Camp Yusuf's tactical overlay populated in green wireframe above his wrist.

  [Camp Yusuf Defense System Connected]

  [Defensive Perimeter: 38% compromised]

  [Friendly Forces Remaining: Estimating...]

  "Thomas." Dilinur's voice again, sharp. "Man the turret the second we're in range."

  "On it." Thomas was moving, bionic arms pulling him up through the turret hatch. The Pulse Laser rifle stayed folded on his back.

  "Marcus. I've had your Titanium Shield stored in the cabinet." Dilinur ordered next.

  "Appreciate the planning." Marcus stood and checked Justice in its scabbard, then reached into the cabinet nearby to pull out and put Bulwark's straps on his left arm. His lips moved and Xin recognized the rhythm of Ordovox devotional cadence. "Zori sancte, duc gladium meum et animam meam."

  "Jabari, you're with Sigrun on the perimeter," Dilinur said, eying the holographic rendering of Camp Yusuf's tactical map above her Nucleus Watch's dial. "Marcus, western flank. That's where the breach is worst."

  "Will do!" Jabari said. He slotted a bolt into Oya and stood. The Kinetic Crossbow's teal-bronze frame felt reassuring.

  "How can I help?" Xin asked. His voice came out steadier than he felt. His pulse was already climbing, that familiar pre-combat spike.

  Dilinur looked at him. Then at H?kon, who had climbed from Xin's lap to his left shoulder, tiny claws gripping the fabric of his dark green shirt. Scales dark brown. Eyes wide and blue.

  "Support fire from the Genbu until we establish a defensive line. Then move to wherever Diego needs technical support on the Polaris."

  "I can do that." Xin affirmed.

  Sigrun caught his eye from across the aisle. She didn't say anything. Just looked at him like she was memorizing his face in case she had to remember it later.

  He pushed his glasses up his nose and gave her a small nod.

  The Genbu crested a rise, and Camp Yusuf appeared below them.

  It was burning.

  The fire was everywhere. Prefab shelters folded inward, support beams glowing cherry-red. One perimeter wall, little more than stacked volcanic stone and reinforced plasteel, had been torn open in three places. Through the gaps, pale shapes moved with that distinctive jerking gait Xin had learned to recognize. Bone Fiends, dozens of them, streaming through the breaches like polluted water through cracks in a dam.

  And on the ridge above the western approach, silhouetted against Venus's deep ochre sky, figures stood.

  Even at this distance, Haylen identified them aloud: "Target Identified: Ysolde H?ggsson—" A pause, then she said bitterly. "Batu. Fenris Lieutenants. Major Draugs that assaulted Xing Hong. Extreme threats."

  Ysolde towered. Two hundred and fifty-two centimeters of alabaster skin and platinum hair, horns curving from her forehead, long ears bending upward like antennae reading the air. Her ample body was bare, muscles moving under white skin like a predator in season.

  The other figure was chitinous, dark brown and muscular. Batu. Insectoid mandibles framing a face that had abandoned humanity entirely. The curved blade in his hand, shaped like a long katana infested with some alien creep, pulsed crimson along its dark silver blade.

  Those enemies against a camp of miners, Constables and Vanguards.

  "Haylen, approach from the south," Dilinur ordered. "Avoid the western ridge line."

  "Copy. Adjusting. Two minutes."

  The Genbu banked, tracks churning sulfurous dirt. Xin braced against the bench with one hand, the other cradling H?kon against his chest. Through the rear viewport, Camp Yusuf grew larger. He could hear the fighting now, even through the armored hull. The sharp crack of Pulse Lasers and Shock Katanas. The wet shriek of dying Bone Fiends, Skuggrs, and humans.

  He looked at the bench beside him. The fabric-wrapped spear sat where Sigrun had left it, leaning against the weapon rack. Even through the silk wrapping, he could feel its warmth. That patient hum, waiting.

  "I should move that to a yurt. Secure it before—" he thought out loud.

  Something hit the Genbu from the left side. The impact wasn't an explosion or a projectile strike. It was soft. Wet. Like a massive water balloon bursting against the hull. A thick, white substance splattered across the viewport and the left armor plate. Rivulets of it found the seams in the hull. The gaps around the turret hatch.

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  And then the smell hit.

  It came through the ventilation first, sharp and chemical, swimming with an undercurrent of something biological, something that made Xin's hindbrain light up before his conscious mind could categorize it. Bleach. Chlorine. Ammonia. And underneath those harsh top notes, something else. Something sweet and musky, the scent of a woman's arousal amplified a hundredfold.

  "Turret firing!" Thomas shouted from the gunner's seat as he pressed down on the control hard.

  Xin's Nucleus Watch screamed:

  [WARNING: Psionic-Pheromonic Agent Detected — Classification: Web of Seeds]

  [CRITICAL: Libido-to-Physical Ratio EXCEEDED — L:8 Subject at EXTREME RISK]

  [IMMEDIATE ACTION: Evacuate enclosed space. Minimize inhalation. Seek medical—]

  He couldn't read the rest. His vision was already swimming.

  The Web of Seeds filled the Genbu's cabin like fog rolling through a valley, thick and cloying. Every breath pulled more of it in. Xin's skin flushed hot, blood rushing to his face and neck and groin with a speed that made his head spin. His heart rate doubled. Sweat broke across his forehead, his chest, the backs of his hands.

  He'd experienced arousal before. With Sigrun in the gym, her scent triggering something deep in him. With Sigrun in their quarters, her body pressed against his, the taste of her mouth. Those had been warm. Welcome. Consensual.

  This was bordering on violation, like a crowbar through a locked door.

  His cock hardened so fast it hurt. A full, throbbing erection that pressed against his pants. His balls ached. His skin felt like every nerve ending had been stripped raw and rubbed with silk. The seams of his clothing became unbearable stimulation, fabric dragging across sensitized flesh with every breath.

  "Out!" Dilinur's voice, distant, muffled. "Everyone out! Now!"

  Xin tried to stand. His legs didn't cooperate. They felt like they belonged to someone else, someone whose body had decided its priority was sex and reproduction, not survival. He gripped the bench and pulled himself upright, and the motion shifted his pants against his erection and a moan tore out of him before he could clamp his jaw shut. "Nngh—"

  Shame flooded through him, hotter than the arousal. Marcus was two meters away. Jabari was right there. Sigrun was—

  Sigrun.

  She was moving. Already on her feet, one hand pressed over her nose and mouth, the other grabbing his arm. Her grip was iron. She hauled him toward the rear hatch, and he stumbled after her, each step a torment of fabric friction against skin that was screaming for contact, for pressure, for—

  Stop thinking about sex. You're an Intellect: 8 guy. You're better than your body. You're better than this.

  H?kon clung to his chest, scales shifting wild and panicked, cycling from brown to black to brown again. The little Diabolisk pressed his snout into Xin's shirt and keened, a high thin sound like metal under stress. "Pappa! Smell bad! Smell bad!"

  "I know, buddy," Xin gasped. "I know. Just hold on."

  The rear hatch blew open as Marcus kicked it. The Stalwart's face was flushed, jaw clenched, but he was moving, Bulwark already on his arm, Justice drawn. "Ysolde's doing. No doubt about it!"

  Behind him, Jabari stumbled out into Venus's sulfurous air, Oya in one hand, the other pressing his forearm across his face. "I've been to better singles mixers, that's for sure!"

  Even Dilinur's composure had cracked, her dark eyes watering, one hand steadying herself against the hatch frame.

  Xin half-fell out of the Genbu. His knees hit dirt. The air outside was hot and thick with sulfur, but it was much more bearable compared to what was inside, and he sucked it desperately.

  It didn't help. The pheromonic compound had already bonded. His body didn't care about clean air anymore. The erection wouldn't go down. Every heartbeat sent another pulse of heat through his groin, his pelvis, his lower back. His skin felt like it was running a fever. His Nucleus Watch kept scrolling warnings he couldn't focus on long enough to read.

  The spear that Sigrun had picked up in Jin Syue.

  The thought surfaced through the haze like a bubble through tar. The Karma Spear. Still in the Genbu. Still on the bench, right where Sigrun had left it. He could see it through the open hatch, the fabric wrapping getting damp with the white residue that coated the cabin interior. The spear's hum had changed. Higher. Almost agitated.

  Xin turned back toward the Genbu. Reached for the hatch frame. His fingers closed on metal.

  A Bone Fiend launched itself over the Genbu's hull.

  It came from the left, pale flesh airborne, jaw opened wide, and the Genbu's turret—manned by Thomas—tracked it a half-second too late. The cannon seared past its hind legs as it crashed into the dirt three meters from Xin. Then two more behind it, scrambling over volcanic rock, and then the perimeter erupted with Fenris shapes pouring through a new breach, and suddenly the Genbu was surrounded.

  "Xin! Move!" Sigrun's voice cut through. She had Járn in her right hand, thermal core already lit, the blue glow painting her face in cold light. Skuld hung on its sling. She grabbed his collar and physically dragged him behind the Genbu's front track assembly as a Bone Fiend's claws sparked off the armor plate where he'd been standing.

  The Karma Spear stayed on the bench, its hum fading behind the sounds of gunfire and dying.

  "I'll keep them busy. Go do what you hero types do!" Thomas's voice boomed from the Genbu's broadcast system.

  The battlefield split apart, and Xin could only see the fragments.

  Marcus charged alone. Xin heard it more than saw it. The Stalwart's boots pounding volcanic dirt, the heavy thud of Bulwark deflecting something, then Marcus's voice rising in an Ordovox incantation that turned the air briefly golden. "Lux Caecans!"

  Solar fire erupted from his silver armor. Something shrieked.

  Through the smoke, Xin caught a flash of movement. Batu, the muscular Draug with insectoid face, meeting Marcus at the breach point. The curved bone-metal blade against Justice's Zephyrium steel, and the sound was high and harmonic, two metals singing against each other. Batu moved agilely, back and forth attacking from angles. "We meet again, Covenant man. My blade remembers your taste."

  "Aye, and I've put down worse than you." Marcus planted Bulwark and held his ground the way he always did.

  Haylen's voice, shouting something. She was out of the cockpit, Shock Katana in hand, moving to Marcus's side. The katana's electric discharge lit the smoke in blue-white flashes.

  Then Xin lost sight of them. More Bone Fiends, flooding the breach, and the Genbu's turret was tracking targets fast. The cannon boomed again and again, dropping Fiends mid-stride.

  "Jabari! Slay that Skuggr!" Dilinur's voice through their Nucleus Watches, her shouting over the din audible through the synced channel.

  "On it!" A teal flash as one of Jabari's Lunar-enchanted bolt took a Skuggr through its ugly head. The creature's skull dissolved in silver-blue light.

  Xin crouched behind the Genbu's track assembly, H?kon pressed flat against his chest. His fingers found Jade and checked its chamber, muttering to himself. "Focus. You can still shoot. Intellect: 8, even if everything else is—"

  His erection throbbed, his green shirt clinging to his chest and back, and every shift of fabric sent sparks of unwanted sensation through him. His hands shook from the effort of keeping himself sane while his Nucleus Watch pinged:

  [Aether Reserve: 81%]

  [Physical Status: COMPROMISED — Pheromonic Agent Active]

  [Combat Effectiveness: DEGRADED]

  He raised Jade and fired at a Bone Fiend. No time for casting spells. The shot went wide, striking rock. His hands were shaking too badly to compensate.

  Again.

  Second shot. Closer. The Fiend flinched from the impact on the wall beside it.

  Again.

  Third shot caught it in the shoulder. It stumbled. Thomas's turret found it a second later, and the Genbu's following shot turned its skull into shreds.

  Xin slumped, breathing hard. Three shots for one kill with an assist from Xing Hong's premium siege tank. Pathetic.

  Across the camp, something massive cracked. Metal on bone. A scream that was cut short. Then Haylen's voice, high and tight: "My arm! He's got my—"

  The sound that followed was wet.

  Xin's stomach lurched. He knew that sound.

  "Pappa! Shiny Lady—" H?kon's tiny voice came, the Diabolisk pointing with a claw.

  Xin turned to look.

  Batu had Haylen.

  "Gods damn you!" Marcus roared. The golden flash of Solar psionic light erupted from him, bright enough to throw shadows across the entire camp. Justice was swung through air. Batu released Haylen, retreating, and Marcus was there, shield forward, covering her.

  Then a new voice. Female. Carrying across the battlefield with clarity.

  Xin knew she was coming before he saw her.

  The air changed. The sulfur thinned and something else replaced it, sweeter, heavier, pulling at the same pathways the Web had already pried open. His erection, which had softened slightly during the firefight's adrenaline, surged back with a vengeance that made him double over. His vision blurred at the edges.

  H?kon went rigid on his chest. Scales deep brown. The little Diabolisk's claws dug through the shirt.

  "Pappa. Demon Lady here!"