[System Ledger: Day 6]
Origin Points:660
Source: Previous Balance (210) + Mimic Wave Defense (450).
Population: 205 (Refugees + Vassal).
Status: Mobilization.
Atlas stood on the highest peak of his muddy island, overlooking the Shipyard. It wasn't a dock. It was a pit. Two hundred refugees—Elves, Dwarves, and Humans—swarmed over a skeleton of massive steel beams and bleached monster bones (harvested from Khan's ruined fortress). Sparks flew from welding torches. Steam hissed from hydraulic presses. The noise was deafening. It was the music of industry.
"It's too heavy," Cavedweller shouted, running up to Atlas with a clipboard. The Kobold was now wearing a full engineer's jumpsuit made of leather. "The suspension can't hold the armor! The tracks will sink into the flesh of the Hive!"
"Then widen the tracks," Atlas ordered, not looking away from the beast. "Double the surface area. Use the Anti-Gravity Stones we salvaged from Khan's ships to reduce the effective weight by 30%." "But Master... the fuel consumption..." "We have the entire sugar harvest of Sector 7. Burn it all. If we win, we take the Hive's resources. If we lose, we don't need fuel anymore."
Atlas walked down into the pit. He approached the front of the machine. It was a Land Dreadnought. A tank the size of an apartment block.
[Project: The 'World-Eater' (Mark I)][Class: Super-Heavy Siege Engine.][Tech Base: Diesel-Electric Hybrid + Steam Hydraulics.]** [Armor: Composite (Ceramic/Steel/Bone).]** [Weaponry:
Primary: The Grinder (Rotary Excavator Wheel).
Secondary: 4x Sentry Gun Turrets.
Support: Drone Launch Bay.]**
It was ugly. It was asymmetrical. It looked like a cathedral made of guns and smoke stacks. But it lacked a Brain. The control systems were too complex for a simple vacuum tube array. There were thousands of moving parts—track tension, engine timing, hydraulic balance. No human could pilot this alone.
Atlas walked to the center of the chassis, where an empty docking bay sat. "Unit 01," Atlas whispered into his comms. "Front and center."
The Steam-Ceramic Centurion clanked forward. It was battered. Its white armor was scorched black from the Napalm wars. Its hydraulic claw was dented. It stopped before the Dreadnought. The red light in its chest pulsed. Query?
"Promotion," Atlas said. He opened the chassis docking clamps. "You aren't infantry anymore, Unit 01. You are the Core."
The Centurion stepped backward into the Dreadnought's interface frame. Clang. Magnetic locks engaged. Copper cables snaked out of the Dreadnought's walls, plugging into the Centurion's spine, bypassing its limbs and connecting directly to the Soul Core inside its chest.
ZZZRT. The Centurion went limp. Then, the Dreadnought shuddered. The massive diesel engines roared to life without anyone touching the starter. The lights on the command deck flickered red—the same red as the Centurion's eye.
[System Alert: Unit Integration Complete.][New Unit Designation: Titan Class - 'The Iron City'.][Machine Spirit: Online.]
Atlas climbed the ladder to the bridge, located on top of the beast. He took the captain's wheel. "Zhuge! Khan! Get on board! We depart in five minutes!"
Sector 8A - The Hive Mind
Deep in the purple void, the Mimic Hive pulsed. It wasn't an island of rock. It was a tumor of grey flesh, ten miles wide, floating in space. Veins of bioluminescent green pumped nutrients through the mass. The surface was covered in millions of writhing Mimics—Grey Gnolls, Grey Birds, Grey Spiders.
In the center of the Hive, a massive sack of flesh tore open. Slime spilled out. A figure stood up. It wasn't a shapeless blob. It had form. Elegance. It looked like a High Elf—likely copied from a captured player. But its skin was grey porcelain, and its eyes were solid black voids. It wore a dress made of living muscle tissue.
[Entity: The Mimic Queen (Alpha).][Intelligence: High.][Status: Awake.]
The Queen walked to a pile of debris—loot collected by her drones. She picked up a Radio Receiver (scavenged from a dead player's inventory). She held it to her ear. Static. Then... voices.
"...load the Napalm. Check the tracks..." (Atlas) "...spirits guide us..." (Zhuge) "...smash them all..." (Khan)
The Queen tilted her head. Her mouth opened. She didn't have vocal cords, so she grew them. She shifted her larynx, molding it until it matched the frequency of the radio waves.
"At... las..." She tested the name. It tasted like metal. "Tech... nolo... gy."
She looked at her children. Millions of mindless drones. "Evolution," she whispered into the radio, her voice broadcasting on an open frequency. "Requires... Conflict."
The Launch
The radio on the bridge of the Dreadnought screeched. Atlas, Zhuge, and Khan froze. A voice—distorted, wet, and feminine—cut through the static.
"Come... Father of Machines. Come and feed me."
Khan gripped his axe. "What is that? Is that a player?" Zhuge's face was pale. "No. The mana signature... it's the Hive. It learned to speak."
Atlas grabbed the radio mic. "I'm not your father," Atlas said coldly. "I'm your extinction event."
He slammed the throttle forward. "Unit 01! Full Power!"
The floor vibrated. Deep in the hull, the Centurion's soul flared. The diesel engines screamed. The massive tracks, studded with steel spikes, began to turn. CRUNCH. The Dreadnought lurched forward.
They reached the edge of the island. There was no bridge. "Atlas!" Zhuge screamed. "There's no bridge! We'll fall!"
"Where we're going," Atlas yelled over the engine roar, "we bring our own road!"
He hit a switch. [Gravity Anchor: Invert]. The Anti-Gravity stones in the hull flared. The Dreadnought didn't float, but it became light enough to jump. The massive machine launched off the cliff edge. It sailed through the void for three terrifying seconds. Two thousand tons of steel defying gravity.
BOOM.
It landed on the outer rim of the Hive Island. The tracks bit into the grey flesh ground. SQUELCH. The ground wasn't dirt. It was meat. Blood sprayed as the tracks churned the surface.
"Deploy the World-Eater!" Atlas commanded.
On the front of the Dreadnought, the massive Rotary Excavator Wheel—lined with diamond-tipped sawblades—began to spin. Whirrrrrr.
The Dreadnought drove forward. The wheel hit a wall of Mimic flesh. SHRED.
It wasn't a battle. It was industrial butchery. The grinder chewed through the biological walls, turning Mimic drones into grey mist. The Dreadnought plowed a road of gore toward the center of the Hive.
[Global Announcement][Raid Event Started: The Fall of the Grey Queen.][Party Leader: Atlas.]
The Counter-Attack
The Hive screamed. The ground shook as the organism reacted to the intruder. "Insects!" Khan roared from the side deck. "They are climbing the hull!"
Thousands of Grey Mimics swarmed up the tracks, trying to find gaps in the armor. "Sentry Guns! Auto-Fire!" Atlas toggled the defense grid.
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT. Four steam-powered gatling guns on the corners of the Dreadnought spun up. They fired standard lead rounds, but at close range, the kinetic impact was enough to knock the Mimics off the hull. They fell into the grinding tracks and were crushed.
"Zhuge! The skies!"
"I see them!" Zhuge stood on the top observation deck, channeling a storm. Above them, the Mimic Gargoyles—flying variants—dived, spitting acid. "Wind Wall!" A dome of air covered the tank, deflecting the acid spit. But there were too many.
"Launch the Buzz Bombs!" Atlas ordered. The rear hatch opened. Ten V-1 Drones shot out, their pulsejets screaming. They didn't fly far. They looped around and air-burst directly above the tank, acting as a close-in defense system. BOOM. Fire rained down, burning the flying Mimics out of the sky.
The Dreadnought kept moving. Unstoppable. It carved a path five miles deep into the Hive.
Then, they saw Her. The Queen. She stood on a tower of bone in the center of the island, surrounded by four massive Royal Guards—Mimics that had copied the shape of... Tanks. They were biological tanks. Massive quadrupedal beasts with chitin armor and bio-cannons on their backs.
"You bring metal," The Queen's voice echoed through the radio, and through their minds. "I bring life. Which is stronger?"
The four Bio-Tanks charged. They were faster than the Dreadnought. One of them slammed into the side of the Iron City. CRUNCH. The steel plates buckled. The Dreadnought tilted. Inside the hull, alarms blared. [Hull Integrity: 75%][Track 2: Jammed.]
Khan stumbled. "They are too strong! They are ramming us!"
Atlas gripped the wheel, fighting the feedback. "Unit 01! Divert all power to the Grinder! We aren't stopping!"
"Zhuge! Khan! Get to the deck!" Atlas shouted. "I can't shoot them off—they are too close! You have to board them!" "Board them?!" Khan grinned, his tusks showing. "Now you're speaking my language!"
"Zhuge, fly him over! Khan, crack open their shells! I'll feed them a missile!"
The battle for the Hive had turned into a brawl. Steel vs. Flesh. Machine Spirit vs. Hive Mind.