CHAPTER 18: FIRELINES
The Beacon pulsed behind them like a beating heart.
But the world in front of it was about to go to war.
Anthony stood at the base of the awakened node, his boots planted in the cracked soil. Dust swirled, stirred by the Beacon's energy field now stabilized in perfect pulses. The lines of power in the air were no longer invisible — they shimmered like heatwaves.
Across the horizon, incoming E.E.A. dropships carved across the sky like knives, flanked by deadly hover-drones.
From the south, Riftborn sigils crackled across the skyline, like ghosts clawing into reality.
Two factions.
One Beacon.
One Ghost Squad.
Chi-Chi stepped up beside Anthony, checking the coils on her gauntlets. "If we're not dead in five minutes, remind me to argue about mission strategy later."
He gave her a sideways look. "You'd still argue while dodging missiles."
She didn't smile — but her eyes glinted. "Only when the missiles are late."
Anthony tried not to show it, but he felt her presence differently now.
Same drive. Same fire.
But after the Beacon resonance, he felt her energy like it was linked to his own.
And somehow… it didn't feel wrong.
---
Behind them, Confidence and Ken were locking down the perimeter with stabilizer spikes and kinetic mines.
"Two squads west side!" Confidence called. "E.E.A. uniforms, signature rifles. But the heat maps are glowing—these aren't normals. They're Augments."
"Elite hybrids," Ken spat. "Great."
Chi-Chi glanced at Anthony. "We hold this line?"
Anthony nodded. "We hold it. Until they break."
---
The first drone came in fast — a black oval with four spike-mounted plasma cannons.
Chi-Chi moved first.
She didn't just shoot it — she redirected it. A flick of her hand bent its flight path mid-air, slamming it into the ground like a dropped toy.
The explosion threw dust and smoke into the air.
The war had started.
---
More drones followed — zigzagging with deadly precision.
Confidence took three out with EMP slingers. Ken held the right flank, pulse rifle heating up.
But the real storm came with the Augment squad.
Twelve armored soldiers in E.E.A. enhanced suits. Faces hidden behind Vanta-visors. Bodies enhanced with artificial Pulse cores. Faster, stronger, meaner.
They moved like a machine.
Anthony stepped forward, his hand shimmering with energy.
Chi-Chi blocked him.
"Let me."
He hesitated — but then nodded.
Chi-Chi charged.
---
She was a blur.
Sliding under gunfire, flipping over kinetic shots, using her gauntlets to catch a plasma blast and fling it back. Her control was surgical — she never wasted a move.
One soldier tried to flank her.
She sidestepped, twisted mid-air, and slammed her elbow into his helmet.
The helmet cracked. The soldier fell.
Another lunged with an energy blade.
She caught his wrist, yanked him into a spin, and tossed him into two of his own allies.
Anthony watched her move — not just fight, but control the space around her like it belonged to her.
Then one of the Augments raised a disruptor grenade — a Beacon jammer.
Too fast. Too close.
Anthony reacted without thinking.
He blinked across space.
One second, he stood still.
The next, he was in front of Chi-Chi, shielding her with his body as the jammer exploded.
The force knocked them both backward.
They hit the ground hard — Anthony first, Chi-Chi on top of him.
Time slowed.
The ringing in their ears.
The flicker of glitching air.
Her hand braced on his chest.
His breath caught.
"Ghost," she said softly, eyes locked on his. "You good?"
"Fine," he said, trying to act like his heart wasn't thundering.
But she didn't move yet.
And he didn't want her to.
---
Then Chi-Chi blinked — like catching herself — and quickly rolled off him.
"Next time, warn me before pulling that stunt."
He sat up, grinning through bruised ribs. "You don't take backup well."
"I don't need backup."
"Right. You just accept it without dying."
She looked at him again.
Longer this time.
"Thanks," she muttered, then added, "...idiot."
---
More enemies were coming.
Confidence's voice crackled over comms. "We've got Riftborn in the north trees. Energy types. Some distorters."
Ken shouted, "I see one phasing through solid rock!"
Chi-Chi stood and cracked her knuckles. "You take west. I'll go north."
Anthony stepped beside her. "Together."
She gave him a quick glance. "You sure you're not going to glitch us into a pocket dimension again?"
He smirked. "No promises."
---
The battlefield shifted.
The Beacon pulsed brighter now — each wave shaking the enemy's footing. It was responding to Anthony's presence like a drum echoing its master's beat.
Then something new arrived.
From the Riftborn side — a figure emerged.
Tall.
Elegant.
Face covered in a porcelain-like mask etched with Pulse lines.
It didn't walk. It glided.
Chi-Chi stepped close to Anthony. "That's not a normal Variant."
He nodded. "That's a Riftborn herald."
The masked figure raised its hand, and the ground peeled away like paper — space twisting, revealing a swirling Rift.
From within it… emerged something huge.
A bipedal creature — four meters tall, plated in black Pulse-armor, arms like living blades.
Its growl wasn't vocal.
It came through their minds.
> "You lit the Beacon," it snarled.
"Now you burn."
---
Anthony turned to Chi-Chi.
"I'll take the big one."
She held up her gauntlets, crackling with violet light.
"Together," she said again — this time not as a command, but a promise.
Then they launched into the fire.