The convoy engines roared, a mechanical growl that struggled to compete with the oppressive silence of the Fungal Forest.
Varian sat on the roof of the second rover, his legs dangling over the edge. To any observer, he looked like a bored mercenary watching the treeline. In reality, every muscle in his body was coiled tight as a spring.
He tapped his headset. "Rix. Status."
"I am under," Rix's voice crackled, barely audible over the grinding of the axles. The Rat-Boy was clinging to the undercarriage of the lead rover, scanning the drive shaft. "Big turning stick is exposed. If I jam, car stops. But Rix might go splat."
"Don't jam it yet. Wait for the signal."
Varian shifted his gaze to the third rover—the rear guard. Gorgon was standing on the roof, his massive silhouette cutting through the purple fog. The giant wasn't looking at the trees. He was staring at the lead rover, where Vara sat in her command cabin.
The seed had been planted. Now, Varian just had to wait for the roots to break the concrete.
"Convoy Leader to all units," Vara's voice barked over the comms, cold and distorted. "We are approaching the Hollow Ridge. Terrain is unstable. Tighten formation. No chatter."
Hollow Ridge. A narrow pass flanked by cliffs of petrified mushroom stalks. If a fight broke out there, there would be nowhere to run.
Perfect, Varian thought.
He flashed a hand signal to Gorgon. Two fingers. Now.
Gorgon didn't hesitate.
The giant roared—a sound that drowned out the engines—and leaped.
He didn't jump to the ground. He jumped from the third rover to the second rover, landing with a metallic BOOM that shook the entire vehicle. The suspension groaned under his weight.
"What is that idiot doing?" Vara screamed over the radio. "Gorgon! Get back in formation!"
Gorgon ignored her. He marched across the roof of Varian's rover, stepping over Varian without even looking at him, and launched himself again.
He landed on the roof of the Lead Rover.
THUD.
He ripped the hatch of the command cabin open with one hand, the steel hinges shrieking as they snapped.
"Vara!" Gorgon bellowed, staring down into the cab.
"Are you insane?" Vara shouted, one hand on the steering wheel, the other reaching for her sidearm. "Get off my roof!"
"The cargo," Gorgon growled, his voice vibrating through the chassis. "Open it. Now."
"We are mid-transport! Sit down or I dock your entire pay!"
"I don't want your credits," Gorgon grabbed the edge of the hatch opening and squeezed. The metal buckled like wet cardboard. "The Scavenger says you're hauling kids. Hybrids. Like us."
Silence fell over the radio channel. Every mercenary in the three rovers was listening.
Vara's eyes narrowed behind her gas mask. She flicked a switch on her console.
"Kill him," she ordered.
On the roof of the lead rover, the Spore-Crow perched on Vara's shoulder shrieked. It opened its beak, spewing a cloud of black, toxic dust directly into Gorgon's face.
[Analysis: Neuro-Toxin (Paralytic).]
But Gorgon had learned. He held his breath and swung his massive stone arm blindly.
SWISH.
The Crow took flight, cawing mocking laughter.
"Mercenaries!" Vara shouted. "Gorgon has gone rogue! Class A Mutiny! Whoever brings me his head gets a triple bonus! 15,000 Credits!"
15,000.
On the second and third rovers, heads turned. Greed lit up eyes. Weapons were cocked.
"Sorry, Rock-Head," a mercenary with a cybernetic eye shouted from Varian's rover. He aimed a heavy rifle at Gorgon's back. "That's a retirement fund."
Varian stood up.
"X. Whip."
His left arm liquefied, shooting out faster than the mercenary could pull the trigger. The black tendril wrapped around the rifle barrel.
"Pull."
Varian yanked. The rifle flew out of the mercenary's hands, spinning off into the fog.
"What the—?" The mercenary turned, pulling a combat knife.
Varian didn't back down. He flared his Solar Core. His veins glowed gold.
"Listen up!" Varian's voice was amplified by the Symbiote, projecting a metallic rasp over the wind. "Gorgon isn't lying! They're selling mutant kids to the Union for spare parts! How many of you are mutants? How many of you were 'experiments'?"
About half the mercenaries hesitated. In the Dregs, almost everyone had a mutation. The Union was the boogeyman. The Devil.
"He's right!" a lizard-skinned gunman on the third rover shouted. "I saw the crates breathing!"
"Shut up and shoot them!" a loyalist shouted back.
BANG.
The first shot was fired. The lizard-man took a bullet to the shoulder.
Chaos erupted.
The convoy didn't stop moving, but it became a rolling warzone.
"Rix! Jam it!" Varian screamed into his headset.
Underneath the lead rover, Rix jammed a steel crowbar into the drive shaft coupling.
CLANG-GRIND-SNAP.
The drive shaft sheared.
The lead rover lurched violently, losing power to its wheels. It swerved, crashing into a massive fungal stalk.
CRASH.
The impact threw everyone off balance.
Varian rolled, dodging a knife thrust from the cyber-eye mercenary.
"You little traitor!" the merc spat.
Varian blocked the knife with his plated forearm. Sparks flew.
"Traitor?" Varian grunted, pushing back. "I'm just renegotiating."
[Combat Logic Active.][Enemy: Cyber-Merc.][Weakness: Exposed wiring on the ocular implant.]
Varian didn't strike the body. He struck the head. He extended a finger, sharpening the Symbiote into a needle.
Thwip.
He stabbed the cybernetic eye.
The merc screamed as his optic nerve overloaded. He fell off the moving rover, tumbling into the mud.
"Elian!" Varian shouted, jumping down into the cargo bay of his rover. "Stay down!"
Elian was huddled between the crates, his hands over his ears. "Varian! Everyone is screaming!"
"I know. We're getting off. Now."
Varian grabbed Elian. He kicked the rear door release.
The rover was slowing down, skidding sideways as the lead vehicle dragged it.
Outside, the battle was raging.
Gorgon was a force of nature. He had jumped down from the roof and was tearing the door off the lead rover.
"Open it!" Gorgon roared, smashing his hammer against the reinforced plating.
Vara emerged from the broken hatch. She wasn't fighting with a gun. She was controlling the Spore-Crow.
"Feast, my pet!"
The crow dove, its talons glowing with green energy. It raked Gorgon's back, leaving deep, sizzling gashes in his stone skin.
"Argh!" Gorgon stumbled.
"Cover fire!" Varian ordered.
He raised his left arm. He couldn't reach the crow—it was too fast.
"Rix! The bird!"
From the undercarriage of the wrecked rover, a blur of gray fur shot out. Rix leaped, bouncing off Gorgon's shoulder, and launched himself into the air.
The Crow didn't expect a rat to fly.
Rix latched onto the Crow's back, sinking his teeth into the bird's wing-joint.
SQUAAAAWK!
The bird spiraled down, crashing into the mud. Rix and the bird became a ball of feathers and fur, rolling and biting.
With the bird grounded, Vara was vulnerable.
Gorgon grabbed the edge of the command cabin and ripped the entire roof off.
Vara stared up at him, her gas mask cracked. She held up a detonator.
"Back off!" she screamed. "Or I blow the cargo! The crates are rigged!"
Gorgon froze. The other mercenaries—the mutants who had joined the rebellion—stopped firing.
"You wouldn't," Varian stepped forward, his arm glowing with heat. "That's millions of credits."
"I'd rather lose the money than let trash like you win," Vara hissed. Her thumb hovered over the button.
The standoff was absolute. The convoy had come to a halt in the middle of the Hollow Ridge. To the left, a sheer cliff of black rock. To the right, the endless forest.
"Put the detonator down," Varian said, walking slowly toward her.
"One more step, Scavenger, and—"
BOOOOM.
The ground didn't just shake. It heaved.
It wasn't Vara's bomb.
It came from the forest.
A shadow fell over the convoy. A shadow so large it blocked out the bioluminescent canopy.
The fighting stopped. Vara looked up. Gorgon looked up.
From the fog, a leg descended. It was thick as a redwood tree, covered in chitinous plates that looked like ancient, mossy stone. Then another leg. Then a body.
It was an insect. A beetle the size of a battleship.
But it wasn't alive. Not really.
Fungus grew from every joint. Its eyes were gone, replaced by massive, glowing orange blooms.
[Legendary Encounter.][Subject: The Titan-Stag (Cordyceps Variant).][Rank: Monarch (Low-Tier).][Status: Infected / Wandering Disaster.]
The beast didn't care about the rovers. It didn't care about the gunfight. It was just walking.
But its path was directly through the convoy.
"Move!" Varian screamed.
The Titan-Stag's leg slammed down.
CRUNCH.
The third rover—the rear guard—was flattened instantly. The mercenaries inside didn't even have time to scream. The metal pancake was pressed two meters deep into the mud.
The shockwave knocked everyone off their feet.
Vara dropped the detonator. It skittered across the roof of the lead rover and fell into the mud.
"My money!" Vara shrieked, diving after it.
"Forget the money!" Gorgon grabbed Varian and Elian. "Run!"
The Titan-Stag took another step. Its massive mandible swept low, shearing the top off a mushroom tree like a scythe.
"Rix!" Varian yelled.
Rix scrambled out of the bushes, limping. He had killed the crow, but his ear was torn. "Big bug! Too big!"
"To the ruins!" Varian pointed to the black cliff. There was a crack in the rock face—a cave entrance that looked too small for the Titan to fit.
The surviving mercenaries scattered. The loyalists ran into the forest. The mutants followed Gorgon.
Vara grabbed the detonator. She looked at the Titan, then at the cargo crates in the lead rover. She couldn't save them.
"If I can't have them..." she screamed, pressing the button.
CLICK.
Nothing happened.
Vara blinked. She pressed it again. CLICK.
She looked at the detonator. The battery pack was missing.
She looked up. Rix was standing ten meters away, holding the battery in his mouth, grinning.
"Rat trick," Rix squeaked.
The Titan-Stag's leg came down again.
Vara screamed as the shadow engulfed her. The lead rover was crushed.
"NO!" Varian yelled, watching the cargo bay—where the children were—crumple under the weight.
But the Titan hadn't stepped on the cargo bay. It had stepped on the cab. The trailer was tipped over, skidding toward the cliff edge.
"Gorgon! Catch it!"
Gorgon roared. He sprinted, his stone feet cracking the ground. He grabbed the bumper of the sliding trailer just as it tipped over the edge of a ravine.
His muscles bulged. Veins popped in his neck.
"Too... heavy!" Gorgon groaned.
Varian ran to him. He grabbed the bumper too.
"Pull!"
The Symbiote surged. Varian poured every ounce of caloric energy he had into strength.
[Caloric Burn: Maximum.][Muscle Fiber Reinforcement: Active.]
Together, the giant and the boy hauled the trailer back from the brink. It slammed onto the mud, safe.
The Titan-Stag continued its walk, disappearing into the fog as if they were nothing more than ants beneath its notice.
Silence returned to the Hollow Ridge.
Varian collapsed against the trailer, his chest heaving. His vision was graying out.
[Caloric Debt: 6,000.][Warning: Host entering Starvation Shock.]
"We... we saved them," Elian whispered, crawling over to Varian.
Gorgon sat on the ground, his stone skin cracked and bleeding. He looked at the crushed cab where Vara had been.
"She's dead," Gorgon grunted. "And we're stuck in the middle of the Dead Zone with a truck full of kids."
Varian reached into his pocket and pulled out a nutrient bar. He tried to open it, but his hands were shaking too hard.
Rix scurried over and ripped it open for him.
Varian took a bite, forcing his body to accept the fuel.
He looked at the surviving mercenaries. There were five of them. The Lizard-man, a woman with porcupine quills, and three others. They looked at Varian and Gorgon with awe.
"What now, Boss?" the Lizard-man asked. He wasn't asking Gorgon. He was asking Varian.
Varian swallowed the food. He looked at the trailer. He walked over and ripped the door open.
Inside, twenty crates sat in the dark. Twenty heartbeats.
"Now," Varian said, his voice gaining strength. "We wake them up. And then... we build an army."
He turned to the cave entrance in the cliff.
"We can't go back to the city. The Union will hunt us. The Church will hunt us. So we disappear."
He pointed to the ruins.
"We make that our base. Welcome to the Iron Legion."