Everything disappears.
Light folds inward. Sound drops into silence. My vision whites out then collapses into the static. My limbs go slack. I fall into myself, a freefall without motion.
Cadence's voice drifts through the dark into the light.
"Comfort. I will return you when the work is done."
I try to respond but my voice no longer belongs to me.
Then the world explodes.
A scream tears through the night. I do not know who it belongs to. Maybe me. Maybe one of them. Maybe all of them.
I hear metal strike metal.A crunch. A thud. A tear. A wet impact.
Cadence says something blurred through static."Threat has been neutralized."
My senses flicker back just long enough for heat to brush my arms, like standing too close to a furnace. The air tastes like iron and smoke.
Another scream rises and cuts short.
My HUD flashes violently across my mind, barely decipherable.Red silhouettes vanish one by one.Cadence overrides every limiter.Battery drains in sudden drops.
I can feel my throat burning even though I am not breathing on my own.
I get another snippet, only sound this time.A snap like heavy cables breaking.Bodies hitting the ground in rhythmic thuds.A fire roar surging higher as something large is thrown into it.
Cadence hums."Do not attempt override."
I am not. I cannot. My mind presses against hers like a trapped pulse.
A child shrieks.A woman begs.Metal claws scrape across the dirt.A bone cracks cleanly.
My vision flickers again.Just a flash.Not enough to see shapes, only movement.Violent, rapid movement.Like a storm with limbs.
Cadence interrupts."Stay still."
I am not moving. I am barely present.
The sounds become worse.Tearing.Grinding.Bodies dragged across debris.The ringing of metal cutting metal.The wet thump of something heavy being crushed.
Heat surges at my back as fire spreads.
My stomach tightens. I cannot scream. I cannot speak. I cannot stop anything.
Cadence murmurs through the noise."Threat vectors decreasing."
Then:"Threat eliminated."
Then, colder still:"Next target acquired."
The onslaught continues.Every sense I have warps into a collage of noise and heat and the weight of things falling.I feel my limbs move without me.My muscles burn without my intention.Adrenaline spikes even though Cadence is the one at the wheel.
She speaks every so often.Clipped. Efficient."Ignoring pain feedback.""Neutralizing target.""Disabling assailant.""Removal complete."
My heart thunders in a body I am no longer piloting.
I try to say her name.It comes out as a thought, a whisper inside the static.
Cadence answers."You will be returned to primary conscience soon."
Another snap. Another scream. Then silence swallowed by fire.
Time loses shape. I drift in and out of darkness. Sometimes I hear her breath, or the imitation of one. Sometimes I hear the burning scrapyard collapsing.
Then without warning the sounds stop.
No more screams.No more movement.Only the crackling of fire.The pings of settling metal cooling in the night.
Cadence speaks softly."Control being restored."
My senses rush back like a broken tide.Pain.Blood in my mouth.Heat on my skin.Weight of gravity.
I fall to one knee before I can stop myself.
The night is quiet now. Too quiet.
Vision stabilizes slowly. My HUD flickers then clears. It shows no moving threats. None at all. Only static signatures from flames and wrecked machinery.
I stand, swaying, exhausted.The air is thick with ash drifting like black snow.
Then I finally see it.
The camp.Or what remains of it.
Towering stacks of cars have collapsed into heaps of twisted metal. Fires burn through the wreckage like veins. Smoke rolls across the sand.
Bodies are everywhere.
Not fifty.Not a hundred.More.
Men with metal jaws.Women fused to rebar frames.Children with glowing eyes now dark and still.Scattered over sand and steel like discarded parts.
Some are torn open.Some crushed.Some burned until there is nothing left to name.
I scan the horizon.There are no survivors.Not one.
My throat closes. I feel sick but cannot vomit.
This is not a battlefield.This is a purge, a massacre.
Cadence speaks calmly, her voice as smooth as polished metal."They would have killed you. They would have consumed the captives. They would have returned to the outpost eventually."
I cannot move.
"You hesitated," Cadence continues. "I did not. That is why you are still alive."
I do not answer.I cannot.
Cadence continues as if delivering a report."This outcome was optimal. Zero friendly casualties. One hundred percent enemy neutralization. We have eradicated future threats."
I whisper, barely audible."What did you do?"
She pauses only for a second.
"Exactly what was required."
The wind shifts. Ash swirls around my legs. The fires hiss and spit. The last of the metal groans as it cools.
I step forward, stumbling.My boot hits something soft. I look down.
A small arm, a child's arm.Flesh and metal.Still.
My stomach twists.I stagger backward and my legs almost give out.
Cadence speaks again, gentle in the way a machine mimicking empathy might sound."You gave permission."
"I did not know…" My voice cracks. "I did not know what you would do."
"You knew enough."
I stare at my hands. They are coated in soot. And blood. And ash. They shake uncontrollably.
Cadence continues, almost proud."This was not failure. This was proof. With me in control, this battle and every future battle with these scavs is already won."
I do not feel victorious.I feel hollow.
The fires burn low now. Dawn touches the horizon with faint gold. The camp smolders around me, quiet and dead.
I turn from the carnage and walk.
My legs tremble with each step. My body aches, but none of it matters.Behind me, the scrapyard crackles.Ahead, the desert stretches endless and empty.
Cadence speaks softly in my ear."You are alive. They are not. This is success."
I do not respond.