Chapter 23: Dead Weight

The metal hatch groaned, protesting decades of disuse, before finally giving way.

Gio pushed it open with both hands, his muscles screaming in protest. Cold, misty air rushed down the stairwell, carrying the scent of damp earth and rotting vegetation. It was a stark, welcome contrast to the sterile, ozone-heavy air of the vault.

He climbed out, his boots hitting solid ground, and blinked against the pale, bruised light of the wasteland sky.

They were in a shallow, rocky ravine, hidden from the main road by a ridge of jagged, blackened stone. And waiting for them in the center of the clearing were the three armored trucks. Their engines were idling, a low, reassuring rumble that vibrated through the soles of Gio’s boots.

The drivers and the remaining ten soldiers clustered around the vehicles looked up as the squad emerged from the hidden hatch. Their faces were pale, their grips tight on their plasma rifles. They had been waiting in the dark, listening to the muffled thuds of the E-Rank serpent battering the vault door from deep underground.

"Commander!" the lead driver called out, relief washing over his features. "We thought you were—"

"Headcount." Darwin’s voice cut through the crisp air. He stepped out of the hatch last, his bionic arm whirring softly as he adjusted his stance. His mechanical pupil whirred, scanning the recruits with cold, digital precision.

"Thirty-two recruits. Ten soldiers. Myself," Darwin stated flatly. "Board the vehicles. We’re behind schedule."

No one cheered. No one asked about the thirteen who had walked back into the tunnels. The silence that followed was heavy, suffocating, broken only by the rumble of the engines and Kojiro’s wet, rattling cough.

Gio watched Kojiro lean heavily against the rear tire of the second truck. The older man looked like hell. His skin was the color of old ash, the purple veins on his neck standing out in stark, bruised relief. He was alive, but barely.

The recruits began to file toward the trucks, moving with the sluggish, traumatized rhythm of survivors. Melody fell into step beside Gio, her tail lashing in tight, angry circles. Lloyd walked on his other side, his jaw clenched so hard Gio thought his teeth might crack.

"Get in," a soldier ordered, opening the rear doors.

"Hold."

Darwin’s voice wasn’t loud, but it froze everyone in their tracks.

The Commander walked past the recruits, heading straight for the lead truck’s dashboard. He pulled a diagnostic datapad from his coat, plugging it into the console. The screen flickered, casting a pale blue light over his scarred face. His expression didn’t change, but his jaw tightened.

"Underground detour and acid damage to the secondary chassis have drained the fuel cells," Darwin announced, turning to face the convoy. "We’re at sixty percent capacity. Next leg crosses the King’s Road. Terrain’s dense, and the atmospheric toxicity gets worse."

He paused, his mechanical pupil locking onto the group.

"We’re over the weight limit for optimal fuel efficiency."

A cold dread pooled in Gio’s stomach. He knew that tone. He had heard it from the gang bosses in District Maria right before they decided someone owed a debt they couldn’t pay.

"So," Darwin continued, his voice completely devoid of empathy, "we lighten the load. The injured and non-combatants stay at this waypoint."

"What?" Blaze snarled, stepping forward, his hands sparking with heat. "You can’t just leave people out here!"

"I can, and I am." Darwin pointed a metallic finger. "The boy with the smoke mutation. The three civilians with broken ribs. The recruit with the acid burns on his legs. Step forward."

Kojiro pushed himself off the truck, swaying slightly. He offered a weak, bloody grin. "Well. Guess this is my stop, kid."

"Shut up, Kojiro," Gio snapped.

He stepped forward, placing himself between Darwin and the injured recruits. His head was pounding, a blinding, white-hot spike of pain driving through his temples. His Bioenergy was at twenty-five percent, and his mind felt like bruised fruit. But he didn’t care.

"No."

The word hung in the air, sharp and defiant.

The soldiers raised their rifles. Darwin didn’t flinch. He just stared at Gio, his mechanical pupil dilating and contracting as it focused.

"Recruit Gio." Darwin’s voice dropped to a dangerous, quiet register. "You’re experiencing combat fatigue. Step aside. This isn’t cruelty—it’s logistics. We carry dead weight, we all die. We travel light, the core squad survives to finish the mission."

"The mission’s a lie," Gio said, his voice steady despite the tremor in his hands. "You let thirteen people walk into a serpent’s nest because they were inconvenient. Now you wanna leave our squad to die because they’re hurt. I’m not letting you."

"You don’t have the authority to countermand a direct order."

"And you don’t have the authority to execute your own people."

Gio raised his right hand.

He didn’t have the energy for the bear. The mental feedback of summoning it right now would likely cause him to pass out. But he had enough for one.

’Come.’

White light erupted from his palm. A single Mutagenic Wasp materialized, its wings humming with a high, aggressive pitch. It hovered directly between Gio and Commander Darwin, its glowing stinger pointed at the Commander’s throat.

The soldiers cocked their weapons. Ten plasma rifles aimed squarely at Gio’s chest.

"Gio, don’t," Melody whispered, her claws extending.

"Stand down, Gio," Lloyd said, his voice tight. But he didn’t step back. He moved to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Gio, his hands glowing with a faint, azure light.

Then Blaze stepped up. Then Reuben. Then Tabitha, flickering into visibility, her electric whip crackling.

One by one, the remaining recruits formed a wall behind Gio. Thirty-two people who had bled together, starved together, and survived together. They weren’t civilians, nobles, and prisoners anymore. They were a squad.

Darwin looked at the wasp. He looked at the glowing shield forming around Lloyd’s hands. He looked at the thirty-two recruits standing in unified defiance.

For a long, agonizing moment, the only sound was the idling of the trucks and the hum of the wasp’s wings.

Then, the perimeter guard shouted.

"Commander! Movement in the fog!"

Darwin’s head snapped toward the ridge.

The mist at the edge of the ravine was churning. It wasn’t the wind. Something was moving through it. Something massive. And it wasn’t alone. The bracelet scanners on every wrist began to scream, flashing a blinding, continuous red.

ERROR: MULTIPLE SIGNATURES. RANK: UNKNOWN.

The King’s Road wasn’t just a warning. It was a hunting ground. And the hounds had found them.

Darwin lowered his hand. The soldiers didn’t lower their rifles, but they shifted their aim toward the fog.

"Board the trucks," Darwin ordered, his voice suddenly sharp, all traces of cold calculation replaced by urgent command. "Now. All of them."

He turned his mechanical eye back to Gio, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper.

"Dismiss that construct. Get in the truck. This isn’t over, recruit. Not by a long shot."

Gio held his gaze for one second longer. Then, with a thought, the wasp dissolved into white light. The mental backlash hit him like a physical blow, driving him to his knees for a brief, agonizing second before he forced himself up.

"Move!" Darwin roared.

The squad scrambled into the trucks. Gio pulled himself into the rear of the second vehicle, his vision swimming, his head screaming in protest.

As the heavy doors slammed shut and the engines roared to life, Gio looked at Kojiro, who was slumped in the corner, breathing heavily.

"You’re an idiot," Gio wheezed, echoing the words he’d heard so many times.

Kojiro managed a weak, bloody smile. "Takes one... to know one, kid."

The trucks lurched forward, tearing out of the ravine just as the fog broke.

Through the slitted window, Gio caught a glimpse of what had been waiting for them in the mist.

Dozens of massive, hairless shapes, their skin pale and scarred, their eyes glowing with a sickly, artificial yellow light.

Bioengineered hounds.

And standing behind them, watching the convoy flee with terrifying, calm stillness, was a figure cloaked in shadows.

The convoy sped onto the King’s Road, leaving the clearing behind. But the image of the cloaked figure burned into Gio’s mind.