Seyfe guided Henzel with a firm grip on his arm, weaving through the shattered remains of the street. The mayoral candidate stumbled beside him, breath ragged, trying to keep pace despite the chaos erupting behind them.
Ferez fell in beside them, limping but alert, blood streaking down his temple. He glanced at Henzel, then at Seyfe.
"He holding up?"
"Barely," Seyfe muttered. "But alive. That's what matters."
A rumble echoed behind them.
The three of them turned just as a squad of Fusioners tore around the corner—grotesque silhouettes of man and machine, sprinting with unnatural speed. Their augmented limbs sparked against the pavement. Six in total. Maybe more behind them.
"Move!" Seyfe barked, pushing Henzel forward as Ferez turned to fire a burst of suppressive shots. The bolts barely staggered the nearest one.
The comm line flared to life.
"Seyfe, Ferez—this is Aki. I've reviewed the last feed. Get out of there. A full Fusioner squad is converging on your position."
"Yeah, we noticed!" Ferez shouted over the roar of collapsing debris.
"You're cadets," Aki snapped back. "Your Weaver Cores aren't at full capacity yet. You're not equipped for a head-on fight. Evade and retreat. Now."
"Evade to where, Aki?" Seyfe growled. "The local government's finally moving in—they've deployed drones along the eastern corridors. We're boxed."
"Jannet Dwight is nearby," Aki responded quickly. "Spearhead Squadron has been on silent standby in your sector. I'm activating her now. Signal her beacon."
Seyfe didn't hesitate—he pressed the signal glyph embedded into his glove. A shimmer of red light pulsed into the clouds above.
Another howl rang out. One of the Fusioners leapt across a flipped car, landing hard on all fours, jaws splitting open to reveal serrated synthetic fangs.
Ferez raised his arm to fire again—but the abomination was too fast.
Then—
The sky cracked.
A sonic boom shattered the street's tension.
A figure dropped from above like a hammer.
Jannet Dwight landed between them and the oncoming Fusioners, her glaive already spinning with centrifugal fury.
The impact sent a shockwave through the ground, forcing the Fusioners back.
She didn't say a word.
Her blade lashed outward in a wide arc—cutting down two of them instantly. Sparks and blood sprayed the air. Her expression remained calm, surgical, and cold.
Behind her, three members of Spearhead Squadron dropped in formation, fanning out like predators. One launched a spear of burning light that skewered a Fusioner mid-dash. Another sent out a ripple-field that slammed two others into a collapsed wall.
Jannet stepped forward once, twice—then vanished, reappearing behind the last Fusioner.
Her blade slid back into position as the creature fell in pieces.
Silence returned.
Henzel stood frozen behind Seyfe, eyes wide in disbelief. Ferez let out a low whistle.
"That's Spearhead for you…" he muttered. "Glad she's on our side."
Jannet turned to face them, unfazed.
"Extraction point's clear. Follow me, and stay behind the line. Don't fall out of step."
Seyfe nodded once, tightening his hold on Henzel's shoulder.
They moved. Quickly. And in that brief moment, as the smoke began to thin, Seyfe felt it settle deep in his bones—
The line between survival and annihilation was thinner than he ever wanted to admit.
The street was littered with debris and fractured pavement, the scent of ozone and scorched metal still hanging in the air. Jannet led the group without turning, glaive sheathed across her back, moving like she hadn't just cleaved through six enemies without pause.
Seyfe and Ferez kept Henzel between them, one on each side. The mayoral candidate had finally caught his breath but hadn't said a word—his mind still catching up to what his eyes had just seen.
Spearhead operatives fanned out in a defensive V-formation, sweeping corners, scanning rooftops. Their discipline was razor-sharp, mechanical even. They didn't ask questions. They just executed.
"Where are we heading?" Seyfe asked under his breath.
"Underground," Ferez replied. "Has to be."
Jannet confirmed it a second later. "Extraction tunnel. Three blocks north. Covered hatch. Keep close."
A siren howled somewhere to the west. The government drones were getting nearer now, but they were too late for the fight—and Jannet clearly didn't want to let them in on anything.
"What about the drones?" Ferez asked, tilting his head upward.
"We'll be gone before they get a fix," Jannet said. "Spearhead cleans up fast."
As they moved, one of her operatives paused to toss a flickering device into the wreckage. Seconds later, a wave of light and static surged outward—scrambling all nearby surveillance feeds, corrupting any real-time recordings.
The squad halted beside what looked like a collapsed metro entrance. Jannet knelt, placed her hand on the ground, and activated a glyph. The debris shimmered—and peeled away, revealing a stairwell lit by dull, red emergency lights.
"Down." She looked back at Seyfe and Ferez. "Fast."
They descended with Henzel in tow, the tunnel sealing behind them seconds later.
The noise of the city vanished.
What remained was the pulse of running boots and the low hum of atmospheric shielding deeper below. Pipes hissed along the walls, and soft blue lights began to replace the emergency red as they entered the extraction corridor.
"You're lucky we were on standby," Jannet said finally, her tone even, but with the faintest edge. "Had we come two minutes later, you'd have been torn apart."
Seyfe didn't respond. He glanced down at Henzel, whose face was pale but steady.
"He's the reason we're still here," Seyfe said. "We couldn't leave him."
Jannet gave him a long look, unreadable.
Then: "Good. That's what makes a Veiler different from a killer."
They reached a security door. It slid open after Jannet pressed her ID glyph to the panel.
Beyond it lay a compact safe zone—sterile, shielded, and silent. Medical equipment and black-case briefings lined the walls. A single Overseer agent waited at the far end, seated at a table, datapad in hand.
Jannet nodded toward them. "You're safe. Debrief starts in ten."
She turned and walked back toward her team without another word.
Ferez dropped into one of the chairs with a sigh.
Seyfe helped Henzel sit, then finally allowed himself to feel the ache in his body.
And for a moment—just a moment—there was stillness.
The safe zone was dim, lit only by sterile ceiling panels that buzzed faintly—like the place itself was holding its breath. After everything, silence felt foreign.
Seyfe sat on a supply crate, fingers still twitching from the earlier strain. His coat was torn in three places, revealing light armor scorched along the seams. Across from him, Ferez rested against a med-station frame, his left pauldron cracked from a direct hit. The tension hadn't left either of their shoulders.
"Henzel passed out?" Ferez asked, nodding to the cot where the ex-mayor lay unconscious, an IV drip humming beside him.
"Yeah. Nerve crash. Can't blame him," Seyfe muttered. "Wasn't built to watch monsters fight."
Ferez didn't laugh, but his mouth twitched.
The moment settled into a silence that wasn't quite peace.
"I had to engage four of them," Seyfe finally said, voice low. "No real choice. We were boxed in, they were moving too fast. One had gauntlets—dense ones. Another with twin daggers, kept bouncing off the walls. Then a spear-user—he was coordinated, real discipline. The last one had a baton. Didn't look like much, but every strike sent shock pulses."
He exhaled sharply, shaking his head. "They weren't as menacing as the one Jannet handled, but they weren't slouches either. Still—disorganized. Like they'd never fought together."
Ferez slowly unstrapped his damaged pauldron, setting it down with a dull clack.
"My side was worse in some ways. I went after the sniper first. Roof position, high-ground. Had to keep low and avoid exposure. Then I tracked a group of armed men, moving in on you." He shook his head. "Scavver-grade, but enough Fusion influence to be a problem. They were using the sniper as cover—moving on instinct but methodical. They didn't take long to adjust."
"They had a machete-wielder," Ferez added, wiping the sweat from his brow, clearly irritated. "Not just gunmen. One of them was using a machete, and he was quick. Too close for comfort."
Seyfe gave him a nod. "You think they were protecting someone?"
"Could've been a decoy op. They wanted me to break off, baiting me to leave you and Henzel exposed. I had to follow them to prevent them from closing in on your position."
The door hissed open before Seyfe could respond.
Aki Varess entered, posture sharp, datapad already active. No greetings. No sympathy. Just mission first.
"Sitrep."
Seyfe stood up, straightened himself.
"We were in hiding. Pursuit teams were narrowing in. I broke off to divert attention—engaged four Fusioners. They weren't working together. Strong individually, but lacked rhythm. Still… the way they moved, like they were being piloted by instinct more than training. Something's off."
Aki's stylus tapped her pad.
"Descriptions?"
"Gauntlets. Twin daggers. Spear-user—structured. Baton-user—shockwaves on contact. The baton one tried to delay me instead of kill. Tactical interference."
She looked at Ferez.
"Sniper—tech fusion, long-barrel setup. Suppression rounds. Flushed me into alley lines where a unit of modified gunmen boxed me in. Could've been ex-Paramils. They worked like a unit, but lacked a real command voice. They were guarding the sniper, I think."
Aki's eyes narrowed.
"None of them went for Henzel?"
"No," Seyfe said. "That's what bugs me. It was all pressure—nothing surgical. No kill order. Not even a capture attempt."
Aki looked down at the datapad, lips pressed into a thin line.
"We've got reports coming in—multiple cadet teams compromised. Same pattern. Swarm tactics. Fusioners used like tools, not soldiers. Something's orchestrating this, but not with precision. More like a stress test."
She finally looked them both in the eye.
"And you're both lucky Jannet arrived when she did. That Fusioner she neutralized? Veiler-grade core fusion. Fully stabilized. If you'd stayed longer…"
She let the thought hang.
"You both made the right call. But next time, don't wait for things to get that close. You're cadets. I don't need you dying before your cores even stabilize."
Seyfe's voice was quiet but firm. "I didn't wait. I calculated. If I hadn't acted, they would've found us anyway."
Aki considered that for a moment. Then nodded once.
"We'll go over your suit data and reconstruct the zone paths. Debrief again in four hours. Until then—med, rest. Dismissed."
She turned and walked out, coat flaring behind her.
Seyfe sank back onto the crate, staring at the floor.
"That wasn't just a mission."
Ferez didn't answer. He just looked up at the ceiling.
"No," he finally said. "It wasn't."