Web of Ruin

Tera's skull rang as sonic shrieks split the industrial zone, the private lab's alarm a relentless wail echoing through the ruins. Her thoughts frayed, Luna's voice blurring in her mind. She clutched the metal container, the quantum relay's weight her anchor to the Pit's hope.

Omega braced against a twisted girder, her pulse-rifle's scavenged circuits flaring with unstable light. Rivera knelt, rewiring a synaptic jammer, her young hands steady despite the chaos. Five spider-like drones skittered across shattered concrete, their neural webs pulsing, the light weaving predictive patterns, mapping every flinch of Tera's team.

The lab's elite owners, not Luminex, had forged these hunters, and they closed in with surgical precision.

Tera's goggles stuttered, scanning the drones. Their shrieks shattered balance, memories splintering. Her synaptic jammer, a pre-Luminex implant hacked for war, whined faintly, its signal barely disrupting the webs. Sweat seared her eyes.

The flooded alley loomed, its water pulsing with rogue currents from snapped cables, a deadly maze. A crane rig teetered above, its cables groaning, ready to collapse. Fumes from ruptured pipes clawed her lungs, vertigo creeping in.

Omega snarled, raising her rifle. Its volatile core, ripped from old neural rigs, could burn a web if she struck true. The zone's decay was a trap, thecranes swayed, walls buckled, electrified water sparked. Their small team, a calculated risk, stood naked against the drones' precision.

Rivera's jammer sparked, her voice sharp. "It's live. Might break their webs." Twenty, a month in, her focus burned like Luna's old defiance. Tera nodded, grim, unholstering a plasma cutter. Its beam, pre-Luminex and unstable, could slice drones but risked overload.

Rivera's jammer flared, tangling a drone's web. The filaments flickered, and Tera lunged, cutter igniting. She carved through its core, sparks spraying as it collapsed, shrieking metal.

A crane lurched, cables snapping, debris crashing. Two drones skittered through the dust, their webs splitting into fractal knots, adapting. One pinned Rivera, its shriek staggering her. Tera swung her cutter, but the web predicted her arc, yanking the drone clear. Omega's rifle roared, its beam searing a drone's emitter. It spun, crashing into electrified water, circuits frying.

Rivera stumbled, her jammer smoking. "Tera, relay!" she shouted, voice raw.

She sprinted toward a drone, jamming its web with a burst that burned out her device. The drone locked on, its shriek peaking, filaments coiling. Rivera screamed, collapsing, blood streaming from her ears as neural circuits charred. Her eyes dulled. Twenty, gone.

Tera's chest burned, Rivera's sacrifice a blade. She'd make it mean something. Three drones remained, webs tightening. The alley's electrified water was their shot, but the crane rig's collapse blocked the path. Omega tossed a plasma grenade, its unstable core scavenged from old wars. Tera caught it, lobbing it at a drone. The burst shredded its web, the machine plummeting, sparking.

Fumes thickened, vertigo spiking. Tera's jammer died, useless. A drone's web snared her, predicting her dodge. She dove behind a girder, the shriek splitting her skull. Omega fired, her rifle's beam missing as the drone adapted, its fractal web curling. The crane rig groaned, a final cable snapping. Tera slashed her cutter through its base, the structure buckling. It crashed, crushing one drone, water surging with deadly arcs.

The last drone skittered, its web relentless. Tera and Omega sprinted for the alley, leaping onto the crane's fallen rig, slippery as it was covered in an unknown substance. Electrified water roiled below, cables spitting. The drone pursued, its shriek shaking Tera's bones. She ignited her cutter, its beam wavering, and carved the rig's supports. The platform tilted, plunging the drone into the flood. It thrashed, frying, and sank.

Tera's lungs burned, the container steady. Rivera's loss cut deep, but the relay was theirs. The lab's breach would hit Li's board, their AIs sniffing blood. Li's purges were fierce, but this would crank their alert higher, locking server channels by dawn. Tera's resolve flared, connecting with the limited server had to happen ASAP. They had to reach Eliot, activate the relay, and catch the signal before Li's net tightened.

Omega's breath rasped, rifle slung. "Lisven, fast."

They scrambled through the zone's ruins, fumes choking, water sparking. Tera's legs burned, the container's weight a vow—Luna, the left-behind, the relay's promise. Li's world was waking, its eyes sharpening, and every passing minute hurt their chances.