Inside and Out

In the southwestern part of Haiya Province, beneath the silent ruins of a city, grotesque heads bobbed and stirred. Under the cover of the pitch-black night, shirtless mutants grunted as they pushed wheelbarrows laden with broken chunks of concrete and other construction debris, hauling them toward active construction lines. On the worksite, even more mutant laborers and squat goblins toiled relentlessly under the stinging crack of overseers' whips. Using rudimentary construction tools, they shoveled the debris into woven bags and piled them around warped rebars, fashioning rough, makeshift bunkers that were barely passable in strength. These reinforced-concrete ruins were among the few places untouched by Heaven's grace. No matter how pervasive the mycelium of the Na fruit was, it could not take root in concrete. Beyond that, Torch's most crucial research installation was nearby, and quite a few of the researchers were still living flesh-and-blood humans. The church naturally held different attitudes and afforded distinct treatment to those with value compared to those without. Recently, however, the situation had shifted. As the frontline deteriorated by the day, the church had less and less leeway to indulge the sentiments of personnel within the facility. Researchers working inside Vault 20 had once enjoyed daily opportunities for outdoor exercise, but ever since the mutants retreated into the area, their chances of stepping outside had dwindled almost to nothing. The mutant force stationed here was the Flame Cave Clan, which had previously operated in the Ten Peaks Mountain. Led by their chieftain, Bordo Flame Cave, they numbered roughly five thousand. Following the Beastmaster's defeat, Bordo had led his clan here under the New King's orders to recuperate. The Church of the Torch supplied them with ample rations, supplies, and human livestock for breeding, but fortifying their positions fell entirely on their own shoulders. Fortunately, this was hardly difficult for them. Mutants possessed a natural knack for imitation, gifted with the uncanny ability to turn trash into treasure through sheer "tinker logic." With just a distant glimpse at the coalition's defensive lines, they could mimic the layout and build something similar, even adapting and improving it to fit their own needs. The fortress they were currently erecting was practically a monstrous beast fashioned out of scrap. Its surface bristled with crisscrossing pillboxes and gun towers, while underground, a labyrinth of interconnected tunnels stretched to varying depths. Yet even so, their current outlook could hardly be called optimistic. The Alliance forces had already landed along the coast, and those "human things" would march on this position sooner or later. Time was running out. They had to finish both their aboveground and subterranean shelters before the battle commenced. At the edge of the perimeter, a few goblins crouched beneath the husk of a shattered concrete building. One goblin twirled a stick between its palms, trying to spark a fire with collected dry leaves to roast a freshly killed rat. Just as thin wisps of smoke began to curl from the pile, a broad palm cracked against the back of its skull, sending it tumbling through the air. The goblin screeched incoherently, its cries dripping with grievance and sheer terror. "The Apostle said no fires! The Alliance is in the sky! They can see light on the ground!" the mutant thousand-man commander bellowed, stepping forward to teach the goblin an unforgettable lesson. Before he could strike, a hand reached out from the side and gripped his shoulder. "I told them to light it." The commander turned his head. The one holding his shoulder was a cybernetically modified Warrior. The mutant's muscles bulged like coiled ropes, half of his head covered in mottled green flesh and the other half encased in dull silver metal. Within the Flame Cave Clan, mutants bearing the title of Warrior were formidable fighters in their own right, holding status on par with centurions and even thousand-man commanders. The commander narrowed his eyes. Unintimidated, he warned in a harsh growl, "You dare defy the chieftain's order?" The Warrior glared back without backing down, grinding out his words one by one. "...Why should we listen to them? They're human things too!" The commander snarled in a low rumble, "They're different! They'll help us!" "Help us? You call this help? We bleed and die for them, trusting they'll lead us to victory, and what did we get? We've been losing all the way from the Ten Peaks Mountain to this godforsaken place! We haven't won a damn thing! Now we're back to tearing raw flesh with our teeth like wild beasts, not even allowed to cook our meat!" The Warrior stepped in until his snout was nearly touching the commander's face, his tone vicious. "Why did we have to provoke so many human things all at once? Before Torch kicked up this massive mess, those humans didn't even have time to bother with us!" The commander sneered provocatively. "You scared?" Refusing to be baited, the Warrior held his ground. "I'm not scared of those human things. I just don't see the point—" Before he could finish, an ominous shriek ripped through the air overhead. It happened in a fraction of a heartbeat. Before he could react, an explosive blast wave hurled him backward, slamming him hard against a cracked concrete wall. Where the commander had stood, nothing remained but severed limbs and spattered gore. The Warrior struggled upright and shook his buzzing head, staring around in stunned terror. Panic and shrill screams echoed across the entire encampment. The realization dawned quickly. A fiery streak flashed in the night sky, followed instantly by a piercing whistle and a deafening blast tearing through the defenses. This explosion struck a hundred meters to his left. The laborers hauling building materials were blown straight into the air. "Roaaar!" Buried under rubble, the mutant Warrior let out a furious bellow, trying to banish the dread clawing at his chest and intimidate whatever was raining fire from above. It made no difference. The thunderous shelling rolled on relentlessly. What bewildered him most was that the goblin's fire hadn't even caught—how had the Alliance pinpointed them in the dark? *** At that exact moment, a kilometer up in the sky, an Overlord transport aircraft circled in wide arcs, propelled by four glowing plumes of plasma exhaust, its side cargo door locked wide open. Extending from that open hatch was a long, thick artillery barrel. Three players in exoskeletons stood behind the gun—one adjusting the sights, one loading, and the third tracking the impacts through a pair of binoculars. "Direct hit! Fuck yeah, that shell took out at least ten of 'em!" "Hahaha! God damn, slapping a 155mm on a plane is fucking glorious!" "Tag me in for a couple rounds in a bit—" "Loaded!" "Fire!" With a booming crash, a thick tongue of flame vented from the side of the fuselage. The massive recoil sent a gentle shudder through the heavy airframe. A heartbeat later, a blossoming fireball erupted across the terrain below. Flames and churning dust swallowed more than a dozen mutants alongside their scurrying goblin runts. In truth, their attempts at a blackout were utterly pointless. Under thermal imaging optics, the heat signatures of the mutants glowed as brightly as neon signs against the cold ground. A few clever ones dropped flat to play dead, while the dumber ones swarmed en masse toward a nearby concrete building. "Load a bunker buster! Hurry!" With his eye glued to the scope, Bing Yu Huo Zi Ge shouted to the loader behind him, cranking the traversal wheel to bring the crosshairs onto a squat concrete pillbox. At least thirty or forty mutants had just scrambled into that structure, and several were still wedged in the entrance, trying to shove their way inside. Clearly, they had no idea how fatal their mistake was. After calculating the lead, he yanked the firing cord without hesitation. Gunsmoke drifted out into the clouds whipping past the fuselage. The shell slammed squarely into the roof of the bunker. The primary warhead detonated first, shattering the reinforced ceiling, followed immediately by the secondary charge blowing inward, shaking the entire structure to its foundation. Then, an astonishing scene unfolded. Though the round had only two warhead stages, a violent third blast ripped through the bunker. This final detonation was immense. A crackling roar like a string of firecrackers tore through the air, and a blinding fireball obliterated the concrete structure entirely, flinging chunks of debris a hundred meters into the sky. Not only were the green-skins inside and around the doorway blown to bits, but mutants and goblins forty to fifty meters away were also bowled over by the shockwave and flying shrapnel. Lowering his binoculars, Jiewei Yatou's eyes bulged in shock. "Holy shit... did we just ignite an ammo dump?!" "Most likely," Bing Yu Huo Zi Ge replied casually, signaling the Strength-type brute behind him to prep another round as he swept for the next target. "Those bastards probably squeezed inside to grab rifles... Talk about straightforward." Mounting casualties eventually provoked a response from the ground. Anti-aircraft guns hidden among the ruins began spitting tongues of flame, sending streams of tracers drifting up into the night sky like glowing embers, trying to drive off the Overlord circling above. Noticing the rising ground fire, Brother Steamed Bun in the cockpit pushed the throttle forward, boosting output from the four plasma engines as their glowing tails lengthened. "Hold on tight!" Hearing the warning over the comms, the three players by the open cargo door scrambled back to their seats and clicked their harnesses securely into place. Just as the modified 155mm Overlord accelerated into an evasive arc, four P-2 Lightning attack aircraft screamed into the battlespace from the south! Each aircraft locked onto two anti-aircraft positions, opening fire in near unison and raining down a hail of 37mm armor-piercing incendiary shells! *Thump-thump-thump—!* The mutants manning the AA guns had been focused entirely on the flying gunship above. Before they even caught the roar of autocannons, they and their sandbagged emplacements were ripped to shreds by the descending firestorm. The air across the perimeter grew thick with the charred stench of cooked flesh. Countless mutants and goblins, felled by shrapnel, writhed and wailed in the shattered dirt, completely blind to where the strikes were coming from. The P-2 Lightnings swept low across the drifting smoke and dust. "Beautiful work!" Brother Steamed Bun laughed over the comms as he surveyed the wreckage below. Easing back on the throttle, he used the rudder pedals to bring the aircraft back onto its designated firing orbit. The rail-mounted 155mm gun rolled back into position at the hatch, sliding its barrel out to resume fire. With their air defenses paralyzed, the mutants had lost all means of fighting back. They began retreating into their bunkers, trying to pull back their lines and endure the air raid. What they failed to realize was that the Alliance had no intention of settling for a few easy kills tonight. Four Overlords packed with Burning Corps paratroopers were already trailing directly behind the P-2 Lightnings, plunging into the fray! Seeing the airborne force close in, Brother Steamed Bun checked the ground situation and switched channels. "Enemy air defenses neutralized! Ground targets are withdrawing into their bunkers! Burning Corps, you're up!" A burst of static hissed over the line, followed by a resolute reply. "Copy that!" Parachutes blossomed across the dark sky, and exoskeleton-clad soldiers dropped toward the battlefield on the swirling night wind. The mutants hunkering deep in their bunkers had no idea that an entire mechanized infantry battalion had slipped right over their heads. These were the Alliance's elite! While they might not specialize in slaughtering mutants quite like the Jungle Corps, their combat prowess was unquestionable. They stood ready to burn away the rot eroding order with the fire in their chests, and to deliver death to the Alliance's foes with the blades in their hands! "All units, listen up! Mission codename: Quicksand! Objective: eliminate all hostile personnel!" "No retreat plan! Fight to the last breath, until every last one of them or us is down!" "Weapons free!" A chorus of spirited roars resonated through the comms. Beneath every visor, eyes burned with excitement. "Sir!" The first to breach the concrete bunker was 1st Platoon, 2nd Company, 1st Battalion. Thirty players in exoskeletons split into three squads of three fireteams, driving into the bunker from nine different vectors like razor-sharp daggers toward the entrenched mutants. Never expecting an Alliance ground assault so fast, the green-skins were caught completely off guard. They scrambled frantically to bring their weapons up, but were overwhelmed in seconds. Gunfire rattled continuously down the narrow tunnels. Under concentrated bursts, mutant after mutant collapsed, leaving the entrance to the first defensive line choked with bodies in moments. "Forward! Block them!" roared a mutant tasked with replacing the fallen thousand-man commander, shoving his underlings ahead. Amid shouting and snarling, a hastily assembled hundred-strong detachment rushed into the front hall with weapons raised, slamming directly into the Alliance troops breaching through the main entrance! A storm of bullets whipped through the confined corridor, locking both sides in a vicious stalemate. Pressing his shoulder firmly against cover, Yin Chai Yang Cuo signaled his squadmate, who quickly pulled out a flare pistol, loaded a round, and fired it down the hall. The canister struck the opposite wall with a hard clatter and tumbled to the floor, resting as quietly as an ordinary stone. Yet the frantic high-frequency radio pulses it emitted were already beaming targeting coordinates up into the night sky! "Artillery incoming! Take cover!" Yin Chai Yang Cuo yelled, ceasing fire first. "Understood!" The players ducked their heads against their cover, resting their helmets against the barriers and activating their shock-absorption dampeners in preparation for the blast wave. Seeing the enemy's fire suddenly taper off, the mutant centurion directing the defense grinned. Just as it thought its firepower had pinned the intruders down, an earth-shattering detonation erupted from above. In a blur, its peripheral vision caught a dark streak slamming through the concrete ceiling, plunging straight down just behind where it crouched. *Boom!* A rolling cloud of dust kicked up. Before the centurion could turn to see what had happened, the secondary explosion ripped outward, tearing it bodily from behind its cover and smashing it violently into the ceiling! "Graaagh—!!" Amid furious bellows, the bunker's first defensive line crumpled. The floor was strewn with mangled flesh and severed green limbs. "First line secured! Pushing toward the second!" "Casualties?" "None so far!" "Outstanding!" Hearing the report from two hundred meters out, Killing Dagger, whose boots had only just touched down, couldn't help but let out an excited cheer. Intel indicated only about a thousand mutants were stationed in this sector. At this rate, his 1st Battalion of over four hundred men might carve right through the position, driving this diversionary bayonet straight into the Church of the Torch's heart! With that thought, he bellowed into the channel, "Keep pushing! Don't give them room to breathe!" Yin Chai Yang Cuo barked back, "Roger that!" The breach teams pushed deeper into the complex, clashing violently with mutant reinforcements surging up from the rear. The real meat grinder had begun. Even Yin Chai Yang Cuo, who had been tearing through the defenses with ease, began to feel the friction mount. Once the airborne gunship exhausted its supply of bunker busters, more mutant brutes, Warriors, and even Champions flooded into the tunnels, rapidly turning the fight into a grueling slog. These mutants were distinctly different from the rabble on the Ten Peaks Mountain. During Zhalas's reign, North Island Heavy Industries had outfitted them with more advanced infantry gear. This included dedicated mutant assault rifles designed specifically to punch through polyethylene armor plates, alongside portable anti-armor systems such as shaped-charge grenade launchers and RPGs. Weapons engineered by human hands leveraged their raw physical strength to deadly effect. Furthermore, as more players pushed into the bunker, the defending mutants finally realized tonight was no hit-and-run airstrike. The Alliance had deployed paratroopers. They hadn't come just to score a few kills; they were here to seize the position outright. The survival of the Flame Cave Clan hung in the balance. "Hold them off! At all costs!" Deep inside the bunker, Bordo Flame Cave roared. Tossing aside the half-eaten roasted human in his hand, he rose to his full four-meter height, clad in massive, heavy armor. He stood like a living colossus. Spurred on by his thunderous command, the green-skins at the front fought with rabid frenzy, bellowing "Waaagh!!!" as they charged. "Damn it... why are there more and more of these green-skins?!" A Strength-type player cursed under his breath, hacking off a mutant's head with a battleaxe. Wiping gore from his visor, a machine gunner cradling a light machine gun muttered, "How many of these bastards are there?! I'm burning through my last drums!" Another player panted heavily. "Our company's killed at least a thousand! There's no way it's just a thousand-man regiment here—feels like a damn division!" "Not that many... don't exaggerate!" Listening to the frantic chatter over the comms, Killing Dagger felt his scalp prickle. "...That fucking Fang Chang!" He had no idea how this was Fang Chang's fault, but he cursed the bastard anyway. Switching frequencies, Killing Dagger shouted into his radio, "1st Battalion here! Hostile numbers at the front far exceed estimates! We need ammo—drop us another supply crate!" After a brief pause, a voice came back through the radio. "Supplies are en route. Estimated arrival in ten minutes, escorting the Overlord gunship back on station." Relieved to hear the Goblin Corps' gunship was returning, Killing Dagger's face brightened. He quickly switched back to his unit's channel. "Hold the line, boys! Air support will be back online in ten minutes!" "Awoo!" At the news that support was on the way, the players erupted into savage battle cries—so wild that the mutants opposite them froze for an instant, momentarily confused about who the real monsters were... *** The raging battle eventually drew the attention of Torch's subterranean complex. Whether out of a desire to preserve the Flame Cave Clan's remaining utility, or out of concern over what might happen if Alliance paratroopers secured the surface, the Torch commander finally lost his patience and dispatched the guard unit stationed at the entrance of Vault 20: the Order of the Holy Light. Unlike the Judgment Squads tasked with special operations, Torch's knightly orders were structured much like the Alpha Mobile Task Force, built specifically for conventional front-line combat. Soldiers clad in heavy exoskeletons and power armor formed into neat ranks, advancing along the winding trenches toward the mutant positions. At that moment, Killing Dagger remained unaware that danger was creeping up on his flank. Not that it would have changed anything. His 1st Battalion was running a feint to begin with. Even if they couldn't cut their way to the entrance of Vault 20 to link up with the main assault force, it would merely be a minor regret. While fighting in the ruined urban zone reached a fever pitch, the main force of the Burning Corps had already slipped aboard Viper transports and deployed near the entrance to Vault 20. Their target was a pre-war pharmaceutical company building. Its heavily damaged facade made it impossible to identify which firm had originally owned it, but the primary structure remained intact. Torch had mounted fixed surveillance cameras along the neighboring streets. Beyond that, patrol drones buzzed through the airspace, maintaining tight surveillance. Suspecting that the Alliance possessed abundant thermal imaging gear, Torch hadn't posted guards out in the open; most of their sentry posts were concealed in the shadows. What they hadn't anticipated was that this heavily fortified redoubt had already begun to rot from within. The ruined street lay eerily silent, save for the hum of drone propellers. Suddenly, one of the drones quietly deviated from its patrol route. It slipped past the display window of an abandoned shop, darted down a narrow alley behind the building, and settled smoothly beside the boot of a suit of power armor. It had flown fast, almost erratically, as if agitated, nearly clipping a rusted dumpster along the way. "...Help me." Lao Bai tapped his forefinger twice against his helmet, and a digitized voice crackled into his ear through the radio fuzz. Hearing the desperate plea, Lao Bai gave a concise answer. "That's what we're here for. Lead the way in." The drone bobbed gently upward and downward, as if nodding. "Surveillance has been looped. Only the Tribunal's Judgment Squad remains inside the building—twenty-seven individuals in total... Follow me. I'll guide you inside." Lao Bai glanced back, raised his right fist, and swept it forward in a clean, decisive motion. One hundred Type 6 heavy exoskeletons and twenty suits of Xiaguang power armor stepped silently out from the shadows of the ruins. The armor gleamed with a cold, menacing sheen under the night sky, rifle barrels dark and poised. Though only a single company stood assembled, these battle-hardened veterans possessed the confidence to match any standard regiment in combat effectiveness. For that very reason, they harbored no fear of a trap. Even if it were one, it made no difference. They would simply level the place to the ground. *** Inside the abandoned building, Hunter, who commanded the Judgment Squad stationed there, remained entirely oblivious to the imminent threat, unaware that the exterior cameras and patrol drones had already been compromised by an insider within the vault. The night wind was particularly gusty, sending a faint chill down the back of his neck. His thoughts lingered on what the Holy Son had told him earlier: *"The Kingdom of Heaven in Haiya Province cannot be saved, but that does not mean we have lost... In other words, we've been abandoned."* It was hard to interpret those words as having any cards left to play. If they had possessed a trump card, they wouldn't have waited until the Alliance landed on the Death Coast to use it. A bitter smile touched Hunter's lips. Though he knew the Harbingers intended to depart, he felt no sense of betrayal—only deep helplessness. The poison left behind by the Post-War Reconstruction Committee ran too deep. Facing encirclement by the old powers, they stood utterly isolated, without a shred of hope for victory. Perhaps the descent of the Kingdom of Heaven had been rushed. If only they had prepared more thoroughly— Perhaps waiting until the Legion, the Academy, and the Enterprise tore each other apart, or until they were dragged into some vaster catastrophe... Just then, footfalls echoed behind him. Hunter froze, then spun around sharply to find a suit of power armor standing right there. It was a pre-war model—a Dragoon, if memory served. Whatever it was called, the wearer clearly wasn't one of his own. With no time to ponder how a hostile power armor had materialized inside the building, Hunter whipped the Gauss rifle from his back, clicked off the safety, and braced for battle. Yet the intruder acted as though he hadn't noticed—or simply didn't care. Instead, he unhooked an unassuming axe from his frame. It looked like an ordinary fire axe. The sheer disdain in that gesture stung Hunter's pride. Suppressing his irritation, Hunter fixed his gaze on his opponent, eyes scanning every inch of the armor for an opening. "Judgment Squad, right? I heard our recruits had a rough time with you guys." Watching the figure before him—likewise clad in power armor and bracing as if facing a mortal foe—Lao Bai gave a hearty chuckle. "Let's see what you've got."