Story 1284: Burnt Offering

Juno sprinted straight into the storm of limbs, smoke, and fire.

The Zombie Shepherd moved like a prophet of death—its arms raised, issuing no commands but every infected swarm reacting to its silent will. The battlefield pulsed with madness, Rustborn fighting tooth and nail as synthetic abominations flooded the Rustfront.

Juno wasn’t just running toward the Shepherd.

She was running toward the Signal Pit—the crater at the edge of the fields, still glowing faint blue, humming with the buried technology of VIREX’s last failed attempt to reboot the world.

Behind her, Axen’s voice crackled in her earpiece.

“What are you doing?!”

“Ending this,” she breathed.

She reached the pit’s edge just as a shrieker lunged. Shade’s bullet took it down mid-air. H-13 limped behind her, sparking and struggling, arm half-melted from a glancing hit.