The transition from the Fungal Forest to the cave was like stepping from a screaming jungle into a tomb.
The air grew cool and dry, stripping the moisture from their lungs. The roar of the Titan-Stag faded into a dull vibration in the ground, a reminder that death was still walking outside, but for now, they were hidden.
"Heave!" Gorgon grunted.
The giant braced his stone feet against the slick rock floor. Thick ropes, scavenged from the wrecked rovers, dug into his massive shoulders. Behind him, the battered cargo trailer—wheels squeaking in protest—rolled slowly into the darkness.
"Keep it steady," Varian commanded, walking alongside the trailer. His left arm was glowing with a low, amber light, acting as a torch. "Rix, scout ahead. Look for pitfalls."
"Rix sees smooth floor," the Rat-Boy called back, his voice echoing strangely. "Floor is... flat. Too flat."
Varian stepped forward, sweeping his light across the ground. Rix was right. The rough limestone of the cave entrance had given way to something artificial. Tiles. Cracked and covered in centuries of dust, but unmistakably ceramic tiles.
They walked for another hundred meters until the tunnel opened up into a cavern so vast Varian's light couldn't hit the ceiling.
"Lights," Varian ordered. "Everyone, flares up."
The surviving mercenaries cracked chemical glow-sticks. Green, red, and yellow light flooded the space.
Gasps echoed through the group.
They weren't in a cave. They were standing on a platform.
Below them, rusted tracks stretched into the infinite dark. Above, tattered advertisements for products that hadn't existed for three hundred years hung from the arched ceiling.
"Visit Sector 1! The Sky is Waiting!" one poster proclaimed, featuring a smiling woman holding a bottle of clear water.
"Old World," Gorgon whispered, dropping the ropes. His voice was filled with a superstitious dread. "This is a Metro Station. Pre-Rejection."
"It's a tomb," the Lizard-man mercenary muttered, clutching his weapon. "Ghosts live in these places. Data-Ghosts."
"Ghosts can't hurt us," Varian said, his voice cutting through the fear. "The Titan-Stag can. This is our home now. Secure the perimeter."
He pointed to the ticket booths at the top of the stairs. "That's the chokepoint. Lizard, set up a nest there. Porcupine, check the ventilation shafts. Gorgon, get the trailer to a defensible spot."
As the mercenaries scattered to obey, Varian walked over to the trailer. He placed his hand on the cold metal door.
Twenty heartbeats.
"Elian," Varian called softly.
Elian was sitting on a bench, clicking his sonic device. Ping... Ping...
"It's big here, Varian," Elian whispered. "It sounds like... like a cathedral."
"It's a station, El. A place where people used to travel."
Varian turned to the trailer. "It's time. We can't keep them in stasis forever. The power cells on the crates will fail."
He stepped inside the dark trailer. He moved to the crate he had checked earlier—Subject 12.
[Project Siren - Subject 12]
He keyed in the override code he had hacked earlier.
Hiss.
The hydraulic seals released. The lid lifted slowly. The blue nutrient gel drained away through the floor vents, leaving the small girl shivering in a damp hospital gown.
She was tiny, maybe five years old. Her skin was pale violet. From her hair, translucent tendrils—like the antennae of a moth or the whiskers of a catfish—twitched nervously.
Her eyes snapped open. They were solid black, no iris, no sclera.
She didn't scream. She opened her mouth, and the air shimmered.
EEEEEEEEEE.
It wasn't a sound humans could hear. It was ultrasonic.
Outside, Rix clapped his hands over his ears and fell to the floor, writhing. "Stop! Stop the needle-noise!"
Elian winced, clutching his head. "She's screaming! Varian, she's screaming so loud!"
Varian felt a pressure in his sinuses, a dull throb behind his eyes.
"Hey," Varian said, raising his hands. He didn't step back. He stepped closer. "It's okay. You're safe."
The girl looked at him. She looked at the glowing Symbiote on his arm. She sensed the power. She curled into a ball, the sonic shriek intensifying. Dust began to fall from the ceiling.
"She's going to bring the roof down!" Gorgon yelled from outside.
Varian acted on instinct. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the wrapper of the chocolate protein bar he had eaten earlier. It still smelled faintly of cocoa.
He held it out.
"Smell," Varian commanded softly.
The girl paused. Her nose twitched. The sonic shriek wavered, then stopped.
She sniffed the air. The scent of chocolate—something that didn't exist in the labs—confused her.
"My name is Varian," he said, keeping his voice low. "I'm not a doctor. I don't have needles."
He pointed to Elian, who was standing in the doorway of the trailer, looking wobbly.
"That's Elian. He can't see. But he heard you."
The girl looked at Elian. Her tendrils twitched toward him.
"Echo," she whispered. Her voice was raspy, unused.
"Is that your name?" Varian asked.
"Echo," she repeated, pointing at the walls. " The sound... comes back."
"Yeah," Varian smiled tiredly. "It does. Welcome to the Iron Legion, Echo."
Two Hours Later.
The station had become a makeshift camp. The mercenaries had cleared a waiting area, setting up sleeping bags on the old plastic benches. A fire was crackling in a metal trash can, burning dried moss.
Varian sat on the edge of the platform, legs dangling over the tracks. He was watching the dark tunnel.
Rix sat beside him, munching on a dead beetle he had found.
"Good place," Rix said. "Dry. Only small bugs."
"Small bugs become big bugs if you ignore them," Varian muttered.
He looked at his System.
[Quest Updated: Establish Base.][Survivors: 30 (8 Mercs, 20 Kids, 2 Civilians).][Resources: Low.][Threat: Unknown subterranean fauna.]
Suddenly, a clicking sound echoed from the tracks.
Skitter. Skitter. Skitter.
It wasn't one bug. It was hundreds.
From the darkness of the tunnel, a tide of brown shapes emerged. They were the size of cats, with oily, chitinous shells and mandibles that dripped green fluid.
[Enemy Detected: Rust-Roach (Swarm).][Rank: Servant (Low).][Attribute: Acidic Saliva. They eat metal.]
"Light!" Varian shouted, jumping to his feet. "They're attracted to the fire!"
The roaches surged up the platform edge. One of them lunged at a metal support beam and bit into it. CRUNCH. The steel dissolved like sugar.
"My gun!" a mercenary yelled as a roach latched onto his rifle barrel and began eating it.
"Don't shoot!" Varian ordered. "Bullets are precious! Use melee!"
Gorgon waded in, stomping roaches with his stone boots. SPLAT. SPLAT. Green acid hissed where they died, pitting the stone floor.
"They're eating the trailer!" Rix squealed.
Varian looked. A dozen roaches were swarming the tires of the cargo trailer where the other sleeping kids were.
"Oh no you don't."
Varian sprinted.
"X. Whip Mode."
His arm liquefied. He slashed through the swarm, the black blade cutting roaches in half.
But as the blade cut them, the green acid splashed onto the Symbiote.
HISSS.
Varian felt a sting. The acid was trying to eat the Symbiote.
[Warning: Corrosive Damage.][Symbiote Defense: 80%.]
"Eat it back," Varian growled. "Adapt."
Instead of pulling the whip away, Varian expanded the Symbiote, covering the dead roaches in a pool of black sludge.
"Consume."
The Symbiote dissolved the roach bodies, acid sacs and all.
[Genetic Material Absorbed.][Analysis: Concentrated Hydrochloric Compound.][Synthesis: Acid Resistance +5%.][New Ability Unlocked: Acid Coat.]The Symbiote can now secrete a thin layer of mild acid to corrode enemy armor.
Varian grinned. "Weaponize the pests."
He grabbed a live roach with his plated hand. The roach bit him, but its teeth couldn't pierce the newly evolved plating.
"Burn," Varian whispered.
He injected a pulse of solar heat. The roach popped like a corn kernel.
"Clear them out!" Varian yelled to the mercenaries. "And save the bodies! We can use their shells for armor!"
The fight lasted ten minutes. When it was over, the floor was slick with green slime. The mercenaries were panting, but no one was seriously hurt.
"Good protein," Rix said, holding up a roasted roach leg.
Varian wiped his brow. "We need to seal the tracks. Gorgon, move a train car to block the tunnel."
"A train car?" Gorgon looked at the rusted hulks on the tracks. "They weigh tons."
"You're strong. And I'll help."
The Vault
While Gorgon and the mercenaries worked on the barricade, Varian explored the deeper parts of the station.
He followed a maintenance corridor that Rix had sniffed out. It led away from the tracks, deeper into the bedrock.
The dust here was undisturbed. Thick, gray velvet covering the floor.
At the end of the hall stood a massive circular door. It wasn't rusted. It was made of a gold-titanium alloy that shone as if it were polished yesterday.
In the center of the door was a symbol: A sun with a single eye in the center.
[Genetic Archivist Alert.][Symbol Recognized: The Solar Sovereign.][Historical Note: The leader of the Human Resistance during the Rejection War.]
Varian stepped closer.
Suddenly, the Solar Core inside his stomach flared. It wasn't painful. It was... resonant. A deep, humming vibration that shook his bones.
The Symbiote on his arm reacted instantly. The black metal retracted, exposing the glowing golden veins.
The door hummed back.
[Bio-Metric Scan Detected.][Bloodline: Negative.][Energy Signature: Positive (Solar Class).][Access: Restricted. Level 1 Clearance Granted.]
Click. Thud.
The massive gears inside the door began to turn. Dust fell from the frame.
Varian held his breath.
The door cracked open just a few inches.
A blast of stale, cold air hit him. And with it, a smell.
Not rot. Not rust.
It smelled like... ozone and pristine oil.
Varian peered into the darkness beyond the door. He saw rows of glass cylinders. Hundreds of them. And inside, floating in stasis...
Beasts.
Not the mutated monsters of the surface. But Ancient Beasts. Purebreds from before the world went to hell.
[Discovery: The Sovereign's Vault (Armory 7).][Contents: Pre-War Genetic Stock.]
Varian leaned back, his heart racing.
He had found the motherlode.
But before he could push the door open further, a warning flashed in his eyes.
[Alert: Insufficient Resonance.][Door jamming. Energy Source required to fully open.]
The gears ground to a halt. The door stayed open only six inches. Enough to see, but not enough to enter.
Varian slammed his fist against the metal. "Damn it! I need more power."
He looked at the crack. He could see a weapon rack just inside. Hanging on it was a sword handle. Just a handle. But it pulsed with the same light as his arm.
"I'll be back," Varian whispered to the vault.
He turned to leave. He had a base. He had an army of kids to wake up. He had a vault of god-tier weapons he couldn't reach yet.
And he had a map on a drive that pointed to the center of the world.
Varian walked back down the dark corridor, his shadow stretching long and distorted against the wall. It looked less like a boy, and more like a King.