The drop pod hit the surface of R22 with a guttural boom, sending shockwaves into the cracked soil. Trees bent from the airburst. Acidic fog parted briefly, then folded back in like a living tide.
The Special Recovery Squad spilled out, weapons raised, helmets scanning the toxic atmosphere, each of them sweating inside their suits despite the planet's unnatural chill.
The first few hours were a blur of chaos.
Kaiju attacks came in bursts — ambushes, screeches, brief shadows followed by blurs of motion. The squad responded like a machine: Kieran's railgun snapped spines, Harper's drone-guided daggers struck under armored hides, Vireya led the charge with brutal blade-and-blast precision.
And still… they lost time.
Only when the dense signal map matched what Trask had given them did they reach the hidden entrance to the Unit 404 cave.
The survivors greeted them — five in total. Kael was missing.
---
"He went alone?" Vireya's voice was tight.
Oris nodded, arms crossed. "Left last night. Said there was movement beyond the gorge. Told us not to follow."
"We thought he'd be back by now," Tyren added quietly.
The rescue team shared a look. They'd seen Kaiju worlds break veteran squads.
No one walked alone here.
---
They tracked him for nearly four hours — following ripped foliage, crushed ground, claw trails, and finally blood… Kaiju blood.
The tremor hit first.
A ripple through the ground. Then another. Like breathing.
Then came the sound.
Not a roar. Not a growl.
A wet, slapping echo — like limbs dragging across stone, accompanied by a deep gurgle.
They emerged from the tree line and froze.
In the basin below stood Kael in Ravager Mk III, battered and bloodied — surrounded by the massive tentacled Kaiju.
---
It looked part octopus, part centipede, a body stretched long and wide like a monstrous serpent. Its skin shimmered obsidian black, covered in bioluminescent veins. Eight muscular tentacles slithered and whipped through the air, barbed and dripping with acidic slime. Its head split vertically, jaws opening like a fleshflower lined with jagged teeth and an inner ring of twitching feelers.
Two tentacles had wrapped around Ravager's midsection.
Another had coiled around its right leg, pinning it down.
Kael's left arm was already crumpled metal.
Sparks rained as Ravager was lifted and slammed into a jagged rock wall.
Inside, Kael's HUD was fractured. Warning beacons flashed crimson.
> WARNING: Hydraulic System Failure
Left Servo Offline
Armor Integrity: 37%
He gritted his teeth and triggered his last thermal reserve.
The booster flared from his mech's back, searing two of the tentacles. They recoiled — but not before another one caught Ravager's side and punctured the outer plate, digging into its wiring.
Kael screamed as pain surged through the neural interface.
He bit down. Hard.
---
From the cliffs above, the rescue squad engaged.
Harper launched electro-darts that stuck to the Kaiju's surface and detonated in chain reaction. Kieran's sniper bolt pierced one of its side-eyes, causing it to shriek and fling Ravager away like a discarded toy.
Vireya's twin sabers ignited as she leapt into the basin, dragging blades along one tentacle, severing it in a fountain of acid that steamed against her armor.
Oris fired a magnetic pulse that temporarily jammed the Kaiju's inner sonar — disorienting it.
Ravager clanked as it tried to rise.
Inside, Kael's head lolled — blood ran down his temple, eyes unfocused.
But his fingers twitched.
And then gripped the manual override.
> RAVAGER CORE UNLOCKED — OVERDRIVE READY
He growled.
"Not yet… Not today…"
---
The mech lunged forward, stabbing its broken left arm forward — not as a limb, but a spear of twisted scrap — into the Kaiju's maw.
It roared and reared back — just in time for Kael to activate the back-mounted spike launcher.
Six alloy spears fired point-blank into the Kaiju's lower jaw, some piercing through and exploding mid-tissue.
Two tentacles slammed down, cracking the basin floor, nearly crushing Kira and Freya, who had joined the fight.
Lisette, in Lugger's back turret, opened suppressive fire, sending shockwaves into the Kaiju's flank.
The monster tried to flee — but Kael tackled it from behind, Ravager running on one functioning arm and one half-powered leg.
He dug a blade from its thigh.
And plunged it into the Kaiju's throat.
Over.
And over.
And over.
Until the light faded from its eyes.
And it stopped moving.
---
Steam hissed from Ravager's vents.
Kael stayed motionless inside, slumped over the controls.
"Get him!" Vireya yelled, dashing across the battlefield as smoke curled around them.
Tyren climbed Ravager's side and cracked open the manual latch.
Kael's body was limp, but alive.
Breathing. Just barely.
---
They carried him back, silent.
Even the fog seemed quiet.
No one dared speak.
Not even Vireya.
Because this was not the boy she once loved.
This was something far more dangerous.
Something the system tried to erase… and failed.
---