Ash drifted in spirals as engines screamed overhead.
The pirate ships broke through the black clouds, thrusters blazing crimson.
Below, the wasteland waited, silent, poisoned, and endless.
They descended through a haze of dust and storms, their hulls wrapped in a faint blue shimmer. The dome shields flared against the toxic wind, scattering ash like burning snow.
Inside the barrier, the raiders moved quickly.
Makeshift walls rose from scraps of steel and scorched plating.
Generators hummed. Floodlights burned against the gloom.
"Captain!" shouted one of the crew. "Perimeter's stable. We can camp here until the patrols pass."
Captain Vorn's grin gleamed in the light. His half-metal face reflected the fire like molten glass.
"Perfect," he said. "Call the boys. Bring the prisoners. Tonight… we celebrate."
The camp roared to life.
Flames rose in oil barrels, the air thick with laughter and smoke. Crates of stolen rations cracked open. Rusted speakers blared half-dead music. Around the fire, The women were dragged into the circle of firelight.
Their eyes hollow, wrists bruised, gowns torn from struggle.
The pirates surrounded them, wolfish, their laughter scraping against the silence outside the dome.
Their eyes were empty, their hope thinner than air.
In the center, one of them awoke.
"My lady… you're awake," whispered Lira.
Lady Aurelia Valen blinked, disoriented. Her throat ached from the shock, her body weak from the electric burn.
She saw faces, trembling, afraid, surrounded by monsters with laughter sharper than knives.
Her lips trembled. "Thorne… his—"
"Please, my lady," Lira said softly, clutching her hand. "Before they boarded, I ordered Elis to send a distress signal. Someone will come. I know it."
"Lira…" Aurelia whispered, her voice breaking.
A shadow fell over them.
A pirate had noticed.
"Captain!" he called, yanking Lira by the arm. "Can I take this one?"
Lira struggled. Aurelia reached out, desperate, "Stop! Let her go—!"
"Fuck off brat!" he said, kicking the noble lady, as she tumbled on the ground.
Captain Vorn turned, boots crunching on ash as he approached. He crouched low, his grin wide and cruel.
"Easy, easy," he said. "We wouldn't want to damage our prize now would we." His gaze fell on Aurelia. "A noble, huh? And one of high status too."
His voice rasped like rust. "Don't worry, princess. We won't do anything to harm you… though it wouldn't hurt to have a lil taste first right."
The pirates laughed, low, ugly sounds echoing beneath the dome.
Aurelia turned her face away, shaking. The fear in her chest was thick, suffocating.
She closed her eyes.
Then.
the ground shuddered.
A ripple of dust spread through the camp.
The laughter stopped.
"What was that?" one pirate muttered.
A shadow moved beyond the lights.
From the ash, something walked.
A figure of metal and silence. Cloaked, cracked, and ancient.
Its visor glowed faintly through the haze.
"The hell…?" said a pirate. "You said this planet was dead!"
"Probably just some old mining droid," another spat. "Just ignore it."
But the Construct kept walking.
Step by step, the cloak dragging across the dirt, it passed through the storm of light and fire, until its reflection shimmered faintly in the oily ground.
"Screw off!" Vorn shouted. "Before I turn you into scrap, you piece of junk.."
The machine didn't answer.
Aurelia saw it. Her heart leapt before she could think.
"Help us!" she cried, voice raw and trembling. "Please!"
The Construct turned its head slightly.
The sound of its servos hissed against the wind.
Vorn's expression darkened. "Tch. Great. Now it's recording."
He snapped his fingers. "Destroy it."
A pirate rushed forward with a jagged scimitar, his boots kicking up ash, as he swung.
A flash.
A single metallic sound.
The pirate froze mid-stride, eyes wide, before his head fell cleanly from his neck.
The body crumpled.
The Construct stood unmoving, the scimitar now in its hand.
"What—" a voice choked.
The machine shifted its grip, scanning the weapon. Data flickered through its visor.
"Shit... a combat droid," Vorn snarled.
"surround it!"
Then it moved.
Steel sang. Ash burst upward.
The Construct advanced through the camp like a storm given form. Every motion was precise, effortless, each swing calculated from battles long buried in its code.
Gunfire erupted.
Bolts of plasma tore through the air, but the Construct zigzagged, slipping through the fire like a ghost.
One by one, the pirates fell.
Every weapon taken became another tool of death, rifle, blade, spear, used for mere seconds before being discarded.
When one broke, the machine took another.
Its butcher was merciless, clean and perfected.
"Damn it!" Vorn shouted, his voice cracking through static.
"Focus fire!"
They did.
Explosions tore through the barricades, lighting the night in red and blue.
But the Construct moved faster.
It leapt. Rolled. Struck.
Bodies hit the ground like rain.
Five pirates remained, one sniper, four melee, and the captain.
"Circle it!" Vorn barked.
They rushed as one.
Steel and plasma clashed. The Construct twisted between the blows, its visor flashing patterns of impossible calculation. It saw their paths before they struck.
The sniper aimed from the far edge, finger tightening on the trigger—
A single shot cracked the air.
But it was not the pirate's.
The sniper fell.
Aurelia stood behind a broken crate, trembling, pistol in hand. Smoke trailed from the barrel.
Her hands shook. Her breathing ragged. "Take that!" she shouted.
Vorn's eyes blazed crimson. "You damn—!"
He charged, cybernetic arm unfolding into a glowing blade.
But something stood in his path.
The Construct.
It caught his strike, sparks bursting between metal and fury.
Behind it, Aurelia fell to her knees beside Lira and the prisoners, they pull her close as they backed away from the ongoing fight. "Hold on," lira whispered. "Just hold on…"
Vorn's remaining men were already gone, silent in the dirt, scattered like trash.
The Construct straightened, gripping a half-broken sword. Its cloak was torn, metal scorched, but it stood unmoving.
"You have to be joking." Vorn laughed, his voice cracking. "my men lost? To a rusty fuck of a combat droid?!" he growled.
Vorn glared, his aura flaring crimson, raw energy bleeding from his body.
Energy surged through his cybernetic arm, brimming with power, distorting the air around it.
"You piece of metal!" he spat. "I'll tear you apart!"
The captain swung, the air splitting with the surge of plasma.
The Construct met him, sword drawn high, the impact lighting the dome like dawn.
Ash danced in the air.
The firelight dimmed.
Both combatants froze for a heartbeat.
The wind howled through the camp as firelight flickered between them.
The sword held by Construct was nearing its end.
Yet, despite it all, the machine raised its sword.