The tremors grew louder.
Elias Thorne stood in the center of the resistance camp, his blade drawn. Grimm and Ash flanked him, their bodies tense, ears back.
Chambers, Isaac, Sara, Vance, and the free clones formed a defensive circle around the command tent. Searchlights cut the dark, but the ground itself betrayed the enemy's approach.
They were coming from below.
---
THE ATTACK BEGINS
The earth ruptured.
Suppressants surged upward—modified, leaner, faster.
Chambers fired first, her rifle spitting flame. Isaac launched grenades into the breach. Vance picked targets with clinical precision.
The clones joined the defense, fighting beside the veterans for the first time.
Grimm lunged, tearing into a suppressant's leg. Ash flanked, forcing enemies into crossfire.
But the suppressants had a new tactic.
They didn't just attack.
They captured.
---
THE ABDUCTION ATTEMPT
Two suppressants snatched a young engineer from the rear line.
Elias moved.
Steel sang. Blood sprayed.
The engineer collapsed into Isaac's arms, sobbing.
Elias stared into the enemy's eyes—cold, calculating.
Not mindless.
Not berserk.
Directed.
They weren't here to destroy.
They were here to take.
---
DEFENSIVE STRATEGY
Chambers shouted over the comms. "Hold the inner perimeter! Sara, reroute power to the turrets!"
Sara's fingers danced across the control board.
Auto-turrets ignited, sweeping the flanks.
Suppressants fell, but more took their place.
Isaac directed clone squads to fallback positions, maintaining firing lines.
Grimm and Ash moved constantly—scouts, defenders, attackers.
---
THE SYMBOLS
Vance crouched beside a fallen suppressant.
— "Elias. Look at this."
Branded into the creature's chest:
A black triangle surrounded by rings of thorns.
Sara's breath caught.
— "That's not Aurora's mark."
Chambers nodded grimly.
— "The Council Sombrio."
Elias's jaw tightened.
The shadows had stepped into the light.
---
THE TIDE TURNS
The suppressants pressed harder.
Isaac's squad held the west. Chambers's team the east. The clones covered the southern breach.
Elias led the north wall—where the enemy surged thickest.
Grimm and Ash struck like living shadows.
But then—
A new enemy emerged.
Phase V Suppressants.
Taller. Armored. Faster.
They moved like predators.
---
THE PHASE V CONFRONTATION
Two charged the north gate.
Elias met the first head-on.
Steel rang. Sparks flew. Grimm flanked. Ash severed hydraulic tendons at the knee.
Chambers took down the second with concentrated fire.
But these suppressants were probes. Testing defenses.
Not the real assault.
---
STRATEGIC WITHDRAWAL
Sara's voice came over the comms. "Heavy signals detected. Thirty more suppressants inbound!"
Elias assessed the battlefield.
They couldn't hold open ground.
— "Fall back to the inner ring!"
Barricades detonated, collapsing tunnels behind them.
The team regrouped inside the main compound, a former mining shelter.
---
MORALE AND UNITY
Elias gathered the survivors.
— "We've bled for this ground. And we'll keep bleeding if we stay static."
Chambers wiped sweat from her brow. "We need to find the source. Hit them before they gather strength."
Vance nodded. "Or they'll keep sending waves until we're dust."
Isaac pointed at the branded suppressant. "We have a lead."
Sara added, "And an informant waiting in the Ashen Wastes."
Elias agreed.
— "We prepare to move."
---
A RARE RESPITE
For two hours, the enemy pulled back.
Sara upgraded the camp's early warning systems.
Vance trained clone squads in guerrilla tactics.
Chambers and Isaac coordinated supply lines.
Elias inspected every team personally.
Grimm and Ash rested but remained alert, ears flicking at every sound.
---
THE INFORMANT'S MESSAGE
At dusk, a new transmission crackled through encrypted channels.
The same synthetic voice as before.
— "You survived the Council's first strike.
Your time grows short.
The Assembly gathers.
Come to the coordinates. Bring none. Or be hunted."
Sara frowned. "They insist you go alone."
Chambers shook her head. "Not happening."
Isaac grunted. "Council's playing games."
Vance shrugged. "Could be real intel. Could be a trap."
Elias looked to Grimm and Ash.
Their eyes met his.
They understood.
It was a risk worth taking.
---
PREPARATIONS
Elias assembled a stealth team despite the warning.
Elias.
Grimm.
Ash.
Chambers.
Vance.
Sara.
Isaac.
The rest would guard the camp and prepare for evacuation if necessary.
---
THE REVELATION
Before departure, Sara examined another fallen Phase V suppressant.
Her scanners detected:
Bio-signature modification.
Remote-control implants.
And—embedded transmitters linked to someone inside the resistance camp.
Chambers cursed. "A traitor."
Isaac's face darkened. "One of ours called them in."
Elias nodded grimly.
The battle had shifted.
It wasn't just external.
The enemy was within.
---
THE DEPARTURE
As night deepened, the stealth team set out toward the Ashen Wastes.
Wind howled across barren plains.
In the distance, fires still smoldered where the suppressants had died.
Chambers walked beside Elias.
— "You're not alone in this."
Elias nodded silently.
Grimm and Ash led the way, noses low, every sense alert.
---
CLIFFHANGER: THE WATCHERS
As the team crossed the first ridge into the Ashen Wastes, Vance froze.
Through night-vision optics, he spotted shapes.
Dozens.
Not suppressants.
Humans. Watching. Silent. Armed.
Chambers whispered, "Resistance? Or Council agents?"
Elias's eyes narrowed.
— "We'll find out soon enough."
As the team advanced, the watchers melted into the darkness.
The shadows had teeth.
And the next battle had already begun.