The Reclaimer Beast wasn't just a guardian; it was a reflection. A perverse mirror of Isaac's own logistical drive. It sought to consolidate resources, to reclaim lost mass and energy for the hive. That instinct was a vulnerability. A lever.
In the Core Chamber, Isaac stood before a holographic reconstruction of the Convergence ruins and the Beast's behavior patterns. The Sergeant stood beside him, its upgraded cognition processing the data stream.
"The Beast prioritizes the reclamation of high-mass, high-energy materials," the Sergeant stated. "Our withdrawal with a full load triggered its pursuit. The act of discarding the load successfully distracted it. Conclusion: The Beast's target selection is driven more by the movement of concentrated resources than by the resources themselves in a static state."
Isaac nodded. "It's a shepherd. It doesn't guard the grass; it herds the sheep. We weren't stealing from its pile. We were making its pile run away. That's what provoked it."
This changed everything. They didn't need to fight the Beast to get the salvage. They needed to make the salvage run, and then steal it from under the Beast's nose while it was chasing the decoy.
It was a shell game. With a monster.
"New operation designation: Cuckoo," Isaac said. "We need two assets. First, a decoy load—something that mimics the energy and mass signature of the Gloom-Forged Alloy, but is worthless. Second, a fast, stealthy transport that can swoop in, grab the real salvage while the Beast is distracted, and get out."
The decoy was the easier problem. The volatile crystal fragments from the Nexus were rich in energy, but unstable. If they were packed into a casing of dense, worthless stone and laced with trace amounts of the real alloy for scent, they might fool the Beast's senses. A False Motherlode.
The transport was harder. The Mule was tough but slow. The Skitter drone was fast but couldn't carry weight. He needed something in between.
"Sergeant, design a transport drone based on the Skitter chassis, but enlarged. Sacrifice some speed for a lightweight cargo sled and enhanced stealth systems. Designate it the 'Wisp.'"
While the Sergeant worked, Isaac coordinated the fabrication of the decoy. The Manufactorum packed volatile crystals into crude, alloy-smeared stone shells, creating four Decoy Cores. They hummed with a convincing, dangerous energy.
The Wisp design finalized: a larger, six-legged drone with a flattened body onto which a sled could be magnetically locked. It had a basic cloaking field, not for true invisibility, but for heat and energy signature suppression.
Design: 'Wisp' Stealth Transport Drone. Cost: 15 Essence, 10 Advanced Salvage.
Decoy Cores (x4) Fabricated.
Another massive expenditure. His resource counters, still recovering, winced again. But the potential payoff was an order of magnitude greater.
Two days later, under a cloak of unnatural fog that had rolled in from the disturbed Convergence, Operation Cuckoo began.
Team Deception: The Mule, loaded with the four Decoy Cores, would approach the ruin from the north, mimicking the previous raid. Its escort was minimal: just the Sergeant and M-002.
Team Harvest: The new Wisp drone (SD-005), guided remotely by S-001 from a hidden vantage, would wait to the south-east, near a cluster of the richest, untouched alloy spires S-001 had identified during the chaos of the first raid.
Overwatch: Isaac, again at Firebase Spearpoint with the Longstrike, would monitor the Beast and provide fire if absolutely necessary.
The Mule crunched across the plain, its heavy footsteps deliberate. It entered the ruin's periphery. As planned, a few stray Gloomspawn skittered toward it. The Mule's forward barrier flared, deflecting attacks. The Sergeant and M-002 picked off the creatures with precise carbine fire.
The activity was the dinner bell.
From the depths of the wounded Convergence, the ground shuddered. The Reclaimer Beast emerged, its grinding maw already spinning, a low, industrial growl vibrating the air. It saw the Mule, saw the familiar cargo bed full of glowing, "valuable" material, and charged.
"Deception team, execute Phase Two," Isaac said calmly. "Drop one decoy and retreat. Slow. Let it see the prize."
The Mule dumped one of the Decoy Cores. The stone shell cracked on impact, spilling volatile crystals that pulsed with a bright, enticing violet light. The Mule then turned and began a lumbering retreat, its barrier facing the Beast.
The Reclaimer slowed, its maw dipping to the decoy. It ingested the crystals and stone in a single, crunching bite. It shuddered, the volatile energy likely disagreeing with it, but the taste of "alloy" and energy confirmed the theft. It abandoned the decoy site and resumed pursuit, now enraged.
"Drop decoy two. Increase retreat speed to ninety percent."
The Mule dropped another core. The Beast paused again, consumed it. The pattern was set. The Beast was locked onto the moving feast, a predator following a trail of bleeding bait.
Meanwhile, S-001 gave the signal. "Beast is engaged. Harvest team, go."
The Wisp drone, a ghost in the fog, shot forward from its hiding place. Its cloaking field shimmered as it moved, but its speed was its best camouflage. It reached the pre-identified alloy spire—a curved rib of black metal as long as a man is tall. Its magnetic clamps engaged with a soft thunk. It strained, its motors whining, and pulled the massive strut free from the rubble. It loaded the strut onto its sled, locked it down, and turned.
It was done in forty-five seconds.
"Harvest team away," S-001 reported. The Wisp, now carrying a fortune in raw material, sped back toward the Bastion on a different, pre-cleared route, a shadow with a priceless shadow.
"Deception team, final stage. Drop remaining decoys in a cluster and break for home at maximum speed. Don't look back."
The Mule dumped its last two Decoy Cores together in a glittering pile, then turned and ran, its heavy legs pumping. The Sergeant and M-002 sprinted ahead, laying down suppressive fire not at the Beast, but at the ground near it, kicking up dust and stone to further obscure its vision.
The Reclaimer Beast reached the pile of decoys. It began to feed, its massive body blocking the path. By the time it realized the "alloy" was just spicy rock and the main carrier was gone, the Mule was already halfway to the Bastion, and the Wisp was vanishing into a drainage culvert.
Back in the Core Chamber, the Wisp delivered its payload. The single alloy strut was deposited on the Manufactorum intake platform.
Resource Acquired: Gloom-Forged Alloy (Primary Grade). Mass: 850kg. Convertible Yield: 34 Advanced Salvage.
Thirty-four. From a single piece. More than the entire cost of the Wisp drone and the decoys combined.
Isaac watched as the Manufactorum's crushers and energy saws went to work on the dark metal, breaking it down into neat, usable ingots of Bastion-standard advanced material. The resource counter jumped.
He had done it. He had tricked a Tier-3 creature, a literal force of nature's reclamation, and stolen the foundation of its own fortress to feed his.
The Sergeant processed the outcome. "Operation Cuckoo successful. The predator's instinct was used against it. This tactic has a high probability of success for one additional cycle before adaptive behavior is expected."
"One more cycle is all we need," Isaac said, looking at the soaring resource tally. "Next time, we take two Wisps. Then we won't need to trick the Beast. We'll have enough to build something that can tell it to get off our lawn."
The quarry was open for business. And he had just hired the foreman.