The Blasted Plain had changed in Isaac's perception. It was no longer a featureless wasteland; it was a tactical map etched in glass and shadow. Every rock spire was potential cover. Every depression a firing position. The dead forest where the Nexus lay was now a target complex, its features memorized.
His force deployed under the stagnant grey-green light. They moved not as a single unit, but as three distinct elements, spreading out like the tines of a fork.
Element Hammer: M-009 and M-010, the mortar team. They carried the ungainly Launch Tube and a satchel of three Projected Charges. Isaac guided them to a low ridge three hundred meters south-west of the Nexus, just within the weapon's maximum range. The position gave them a line of sight over the intervening terrain to the fracture's general area. Pinpoint accuracy was a dream; area saturation was the goal.
Element Anvil: M-007 and M-008, the feint squad. They looped wide to the east, armed with standard muskets. Their job was to be seen, to be noisy, and to be a threat just credible enough to pull mobile defenders away from the main thrust.
Element Sword: Isaac, with M-001 through M-006, the main assault force. They carried the remaining three Projected Charges and the heavy Purification Beacon. Their approach vector was from the north, using a shallow gully that ran to within a hundred meters of the forest edge.
Isaac crouched beside M-009 at the mortar position. The two Militia had the tube set up, its baseplate dug into the ashy soil for stability. M-010 held the first finned projectile, its pin ready.
"Remember," Isaac whispered, though the Gloomspawn were too far to hear. "Target the crystal clusters on the rim. Chain reaction is the priority. Fire your three rounds as quickly as you can manage with safe procedure, then displace to the secondary position. Do not wait for orders. Do not engage in direct combat. Your job ends when the shells are gone."
"Understood, Commander."
Isaac checked the chrono on his interface. "Feint squad moves in five. Bombardment commences on their contact. Good luck."
He left them and jogged low through the gloom to rejoin Element Sword in the gully. His six primary units were silent statues, their grey eyes fixed on the distant, pulsing violet glow of the corrupted Nexus. The beacon lay at their feet like a sleeping god.
"Status," he murmured to M-001.
"All units optimal. Element Anvil reports in position. Element Hammer reports ready."
"Stand by."
Seconds ticked by, measured in heartbeats. Then, from the east, the sharp, distant CRACK of a musket shot.
The reaction from the Nexus was immediate. Shrieks echoed. Isaac, using his zoom, saw the two Corrupted Amalgams turn their lumpen heads toward the sound. Three of the four Stalkers broke from their patrol and skittered with terrifying speed toward the gunfire. The feint was working.
"Hammer, execute! Now!" he hissed into the command channel.
A moment later, a new sound cut the dead air—a deep, resonant THUMP-WHOOSH, like a giant striking a wet log. It was the mortar firing.
Isaac tracked the projectile's arc, a dark speck against the haze. It sailed high, tumbling slightly, and came down not on the Nexus rim, but twenty meters short, amid a cluster of brittle dead trees.
BOOM!
The explosion was deeper, heavier than a grenade. Shattered petrified wood and chunks of vitrified earth flew into the air. It was off-target, but it was spectacular.
The remaining Gloomspawn at the Nexus—the last Stalker, the Amalgams, the swarmlings, and the central Parasite—jerked in confusion, their attention split between the eastern gunfire and the new explosion from the south-west.
THUMP-WHOOSH... A second mortar round was already in the air.
This one was closer. It landed on the edge of the vitrified plain just outside the forest, the shockwave shaking the ground under Isaac's feet.
The Gloomspawn were now fully alerted, but disoriented. The stationary Parasite thrashed, its tendrils lashing the air.
THUMP-WHOOSH... The third and final round.
Isaac held his breath. This one had the arc. It soared, reached its apex, and plunged down directly into the Nexus clearing.
It struck one of the larger dark crystals on the rim.
The resulting detonation was not a simple explosion. It was a cataclysm.
The corrupted crystal didn't just shatter; it unleashed the pent-up Gloom-energy within. A vortex of black and violet fire erupted, swallowing two swarmlings whole. The shockwave rippled outwards, detonating two adjacent smaller crystals in a chain reaction of concussive force and shrapnel. One of the Corrupted Amalgams was caught in the blast, its stony form cracking, ichor spraying from fresh fissures.
The Nexus site was engulfed in smoke, energy discharge, and chaos.
"Now! Sword, advance! Fast and quiet!"
Isaac led the charge out of the gully. They ran, not in a line, but in a loose spread, using the noise and dust as cover. The surviving Gloomspawn were blind and panicked. The last Stalker was frantically scanning the southern approach, facing the wrong way.
They reached the shattered edge of the dead forest. Isaac signaled a halt behind the trunk of a giant, carbonized tree. He peered around.
The clearing was a scene of devastation. One Amalgam was down, its core glittering amidst dissolving rock. The other was wounded, stumbling. The Parasite was screeching, half its glowing nodes dark, several tendrils severed and twitching on the ground. The explosive crystals were gone, leaving smoldering craters. Swarmlings milled in confusion.
But they weren't defeated. The wounded Amalgam saw them. It roared, a sound of grinding stone and rage, and began to lumber toward their position. The remaining swarmlings coalesced into a skittering wave behind it.
"Deploy charges!" Isaac ordered. "On the Amalgam's path! M-002, M-003, with me—covering fire on the swarmlings. The rest, prepare to advance on the Parasite the moment the charge detonates!"
M-004 and M-005 dashed forward, not toward the enemy, but laterally, placing two of the heavy Projected Charges on the ground in the Amalgam's line of advance. They pulled the pins and sprinted back.
The Amalgam, fixated on Isaac's group, stomped right over them.
BOOM-BOOM!
Two simultaneous, ground-shaking explosions erupted directly beneath it. The creature's legs vanished in a cloud of black ichor and shattered stone. Its torso crashed to the ground, thrashing impotently.
"Forward! To the fracture! M-002, M-003, supress the swarm!"
Isaac, M-001, M-004, M-005, and M-006 broke from cover, bayonets fixed, and charged the final fifty meters toward the seeping Leyline fracture. The Parasite sensed them. It lashed out with its remaining tendrils, not to strike, but to defend. Whip-like appendages tipped with stinging barbs shot toward them.
M-001 took a barb through the thigh but didn't break stride, simply snapping the tendril off and continuing. M-004 was caught across the chest, the corrosive touch sizzling through its jerkin; it stumbled but kept firing its musket point-blank into the writhing mass of the Parasite's base.
They reached the jagged edge of the fracture. The corrupted energy mist felt cold and greasy, sapping warmth and will. Isaac ignored it. He shoved the heavy Purification Beacon into M-005's arms.
"Deploy it! There, at the edge! We'll cover you!"
M-005 knelt at the very lip of the fracture, placing the beacon. A soft hum began as it initiated its link with the corrupted Leyline energy. A countdown appeared in Isaac's vision: 30 seconds.
The Parasite went berserk. It knew what was happening. It thrashed wildly, sacrificing defense for a desperate, all-out assault. Its remaining tendrils became a storm of stinging, lashing blows. Swarmlings, no longer suppressed, broke through and scrambled toward the beacon.
It became a brutal, close-quarters melee. Isaac fired his plasma pistol, severing a tendril aiming for M-005's head. M-006 was dragged down by three swarmlings, stabbing frantically with its bayonet. M-004, its chest smoking, clubbed a swarmling away from the beacon with its musket stock.
15 seconds.
A tendril wrapped around M-001's neck. Another stabbed into M-005's side as it held the beacon steady. The unit shuddered but didn't let go, its hands locked on the device.
5 seconds.
The surviving wounded Amalgam managed to drag its torso forward, one massive stone arm reaching for the beacon.
Isaac threw himself in front of it. He had no weapon left but his body. The stone fist slammed into his ribs. He felt something crack, white-hot pain exploding through his side. The force threw him backward, but he'd disrupted the grab.
0.
The Purification Beacon flashed with a light that was neither violet nor blue, but a piercing, clean white. A wave of silent energy pulsed out from it. The corrupted mist recoiled as if scalded. The Parasite let out a final, ultrasonic shriek of agony and began to dissolve, its form unraveling into inert ash. The remaining swarmlings froze and crumbled. The energy in the fracture stilled, the violent violet fading to a calm, deep blue.
Silence, ringing and absolute, fell over the clearing.
Isaac lay on his back, gasping, each breath a knife in his side. The System scrolled with notifications.
Leyline Parasite (Tier-2) Eliminated. Essence Core (Greater) Acquired: +60 Units.
Multiple Hostiles Eliminated. Total Essence Acquired: +112 Units.
Minor Leyline Nexus Gamma-7 – Purification Initiated. Gloom-Corruption Level: 47% and falling. Bastion System Synergy Established.
Primary Strategic Objective Updated: Secure and Maintain Nexus Gamma-7.
Commander Status: Moderate Trauma (Fractured Ribs). Internal Bleeding Detected.
He tried to sit up, cried out, and fell back. His militia moved around him. M-005 was critically damaged, a hole in its side weeping silvery fluid, but still functional. M-001 had a deep gash in its thigh. M-004's chest was a ruin. M-006 was helping its fellow unit up from the ground.
But they had done it. The Nexus was theirs. The link was established.
A new, golden line of energy—visible only on his tactical map—now connected the Bastion to the Nexus, a thread of System control in the blighted plain.
"Report… casualties," Isaac managed through gritted teeth.
"Unit M-004, combat ineffective. Unit M-005, severely damaged. All other units sustaining damage but operational. No units destroyed."
No units destroyed. But the medical cost would be high. And he was badly hurt.
"Collect all cores… and the beacon. Prepare to withdraw. Element Anvil, Element Hammer, report status and fall back to the Bastion."
The responses came in. The feint squad had lost no one, having drawn the Stalkers into an ambush in the rocks and eliminated them with focused fire. The mortar team was already displacing.
They had won. A textbook combined-arms operation. He should feel triumph.
All he felt was the cold of the ground and the fire in his side. As his units began the slow, painful process of hauling him and their wounded back toward the distant Bastion, Isaac looked at the now-calm blue glow of the Nexus. It was a foothold. A source of power.
The price of progress was etched in broken synthetic flesh and his own shattered bone. But the machine had worked. The Bastion had taken its first true breath of energy from the world.
The war had finally, truly, begun.