The two hours of the Barracks upgrade were a silent, vibrating pressure in the Bastion's bones. Isaac used the time to finalize his plan, drilling his newly designated fireteams on their specific roles with a cold, meticulous focus. They didn't need morale; they needed perfect recall.
Fireteam Alpha (Mortar/Demo) practiced setting up the Thumper—the newly built Mark-1 mortar, with its improved accuracy—and simulating fire missions on imagined coordinates. Fireteam Bravo (Assault) rehearsed the advance-under-cover, breach, and secure drill they would use on the Gloom feeder vein. The specifics of the target were unknown, but the motions were the same: suppress, move, destroy.
As the upgrade timer hit zero, a new, deeper harmonic joined the Bastion's chorus. The Barracks lights stabilized into a sharper, cleaner white. The production basin was larger, with additional ports and holographic displays showing schematics of two new humanoid forms.
Isaac was there the moment the doors unlocked.
Barracks (Level 1) – UPGRADE COMPLETE.
New Unit Types Unlocked:
· Grenadier: Cost: 5 Essence, 3 Salvage (S/M), 1 Crystal. Armed with a breech-loading grenade launcher (6 rounds) and a sidearm. Specialized in area denial and anti-fortification.
· Scout: Cost: 4 Essence, 2 Salvage (S/M), 1 Crystal. Lightly armored, enhanced sensor suite, equipped with a marksman's carbine and cloaking field (short-duration, high power drain).
Production Queue Expanded to 6 units. Unit Veterancy Protocols: Available.
This was it. The force multiplier. But he had almost no resources left. The graveyard components and the last of the Nexus crystals were gone, consumed by the upgrade and his earlier fabrications. He had a trickle of Essence from the Nexus, and the volatile crystal harvest was ongoing but slow.
He needed to fund his new army with the enemy's blood. Operation Scalpel had to work.
He allocated the absolute dregs of his reserves. "Barracks, produce one Grenadier and one Scout. Priority production."
The basins hummed to life, constructing the new forms. The Grenadier emerged bulkier, with a padded vest for grenades and a short, thick-barreled launcher. The Scout was sleeker, its armor matte and non-reflective, a long-barreled carbine in its hands. Their faces were the same bland templates, but their equipment spoke of specialization.
Units Produced: G-001, S-001.
Two units. That was all he could afford. They would have to be enough.
He integrated them immediately. G-001 joined Fireteam Alpha, providing them with direct, heavy firepower. S-001 joined Isaac's personal command element. The Scout's cloaking field and enhanced sensors made it the perfect forward observer for the Longstrike.
Three hours later, under the eternal gloom, the operation launched.
Phase 1: The Bait. Fireteam Alpha, led by M-002 and including G-001, moved with the Portable Field Generator and one of the new Skitter drones (SD-004) to the decoy site—a jagged basalt tooth two kilometers west of the Convergence. They set up the generator in a crevice, activated it. A dome of shimmering, pale blue energy flickered to life, a blatant beacon. SD-004 began its loop, broadcasting fragmented System ID codes. To any Gloom sense, it would smell like a wounded Bastion limb twitching.
Isaac watched from a hidden overwatch position three kilometers away, S-001 cloaked beside him, the Longstrike resting on a bipod. Through the Scout's enhanced scope feed on his interface, he saw the Convergence react. The red blotch on the map stirred. Patrolling dots shifted direction. A cluster of larger signatures—likely Tier-2s—detached from the main mass and began moving westward, toward the decoy. The bait was taken.
Phase 2: The Incision. Isaac, S-001, and Fireteam Bravo (M-001, M-004, M-005, M-013) began their flanking march. They moved fast and low, using a deep, ancient runoff channel that curved north-east toward the identified feeder vein. S-001, cloaked, flitted ahead, a ghost marking safe paths and enemy positions.
They reached the target zone. The "feeder vein" was visible to the enhanced sensors: a ravine where the vitrified earth was split by a pulsating, subcutaneous line of violet corruption, like a poisoned artery leading toward the distant Convergence heart. Where it surfaced, it nurtured ugly, stalk-like growths that pulsed with energy. A pair of Stalkers and a single, hulking Corrupted Amalgam patrolled the area.
This was the moment for the scalpel.
Isaac settled behind the Longstrike. The scope's reticule was a thing of beauty. He breathed out, his world narrowing to the crosshairs, the gentle hum of the rifle, and the slow, shambling gait of the Corrupted Amalgam as it turned its back. He aimed not for its core, but for the corrupted crystalline growth on its shoulder—a nexus of the foul energy.
He exhaled fully. Held.
Squeezed.
The rifle didn't roar. It thrummed, a deep, resonant ZOT that kicked against his shoulder. A hypersonic tungsten dart, sheathed in energy, crossed the distance in a blink.
It struck the crystalline growth.
It didn't explode.It disintegrated in a pinpoint blast of focused kinetic energy. The Amalgam stumbled as if poleaxed, black ichor fountaining from the sudden, clean hole in its anatomy. It wasn't dead, but it was crippled, confused.
"Fireteam Bravo, advance. Clean up. S-001, mark the Stalkers."
The assault team moved in. The wounded Amalgam was easy prey for concentrated musket fire. S-001, decloaking briefly, painted the two Stalkers with laser markers. M-001 and M-013 fired, their shots true, dropping one. The other skittered for cover, but M-004 flanked it, bayonet ready.
In ninety seconds, the patrol was eliminated. The feeder vein lay exposed, pulsing vulnerably.
"Phase 3. Deploy the Beacon."
M-005 rushed forward, placing the Purification Beacon directly over the main surface rupture of the vein. He activated it in "Syphon Mode." Instead of purging, the Beacon stabbed a crystal probe into the corruption and began drawing the violent energy out, forcing it through a violent conversion process. The Beacon glowed a dangerous, feverish orange. Essence began flooding Isaac's reserves, but the System flashed warnings.
Warning: Essence Syphon at 400% safe capacity. Beacon integrity failing in 4 minutes, 30 seconds.
They had to harvest fast, then run.
But the Convergence felt the wound. The distant red mass on the map convulsed. The larger signatures that had gone toward the decoy halted, then reversed course, moving back with alarming speed. The decoy had worked, but not for long. They had minutes.
"Alpha Team, detonate the generator and fall back to Rally Point Beta. Bravo, prepare to displace. We pull the Beacon at the three-minute mark."
At the decoy site, M-002 triggered the remote detonation. The Field Generator overloaded in a spectacular silent flash of blue-white light that momentarily washed out the grey landscape, followed by a rolling thunderclap. It wouldn't kill much, but it would confuse and delay the returning force.
Essence poured in: +5… +10… +15… It was raw, unstable, tainted, but the System stabilized it at a 3:1 conversion ratio. For every three units of corrupted energy, he gained one pure Essence. It was wasteful, desperate, and incredibly fast.
Beacon Integrity: 62%... 41%...
"Pull it!"
M-005 grabbed the now-scorching Beacon and yanked its probe free. The vein, severed and bled, spasmed, leaking sluggish energy. The team didn't wait. They ran, following S-001's pre-mapped retreat path back toward the Bastion, leaving the wounded landscape behind.
They met Fireteam Alpha at the rally point. No one spoke. They simply merged and ran, a single organism fleeing the coming storm.
Behind them, a wave of Gloomspawn reached the severed vein. Their shrieks of rage were a physical tremor in the air, but they did not pursue far. They converged on the wounded site, trying to stem the flow, to repair the damage.
Back in the Core Chamber, dripping with sweat and adrenal fatigue, Isaac checked the tally.
Operation Scalpel: Complete.
Enemy Patrols Eliminated: 4.
Strategic Infrastructure Damaged: Gloom Feeder Vein (Severed).
Resources Acquired: 48 Essence (from Syphon).
Losses: Portable Field Generator (Destroyed). Skitter Drone SD-004 (Destroyed in detonation).
Forty-eight Essence. A windfall. A direct transfusion from the enemy's heart. He looked at his two new specialized units, G-001 and S-001, standing silently among the familiar Militia.
He had poked the beast. It was wounded, angry, and now acutely aware of him. The war of attrition had begun, but on his terms. He had taken its energy to build the tools to take more.
The Convergence was no longer a distant storm. It was a bleeding giant. And Isaac Travis had just shown it he knew exactly where to cut.