Victory was a fuel. The ruins, stripped of their guardian and pacified, became a daily chore. The Bulkhauler and the Mule worked in shifts under the Legionnaire's watchful gun, harvesting the last of the Gloom-Forged Alloy with the dull efficiency of a mining operation. The Bastion's resource counters swelled. Advanced Salvage climbed past 200. Essence, fed by the Nexus and the deaths of major creatures, pooled into a small ocean of potential.
Isaac stood in the Vehicle Bay, now home to two giants. V-002, Legionnaire, rested in its berth, its hull bearing the fresh, clean scars of its maiden fight. And beside it, taking shape in the second assembly jig, was V-003, its twin. Two Land Ironclads. A lance.
But his eyes were not on them. They were fixed on the holographic schematic floating above the Engineering Bay's primary console: the Lascutter schematic, now fully reconstructed from the fragments retrieved from the Armory door. It depicted a heavy, rifle-like weapon with a focusing barrel and a bulky backpack power cell. A squad-level tool for melting through fortifications and heavy armor. It was the next evolutionary step for his infantry, the answer to the Shredderlings' bladed swarms and the thick hides of Amalgams.
Its cost was reasonable: 5 Advanced Salvage, 10 Essence per unit. He could equip every Militia with one. But to do that, he needed to retool the Manufactorum, dedicate production lines. It was a diversion of resources from the vehicle pipeline.
He also had the Vehicle Bay buzzing with the next-level schematic: the SPG-1 'Catapult' Self-Propelled Gun. Long-range, indirect artillery. The tool to shell Omicron-22 from beyond the reach of its Colossi. It required the Vehicle Bay Level 2 upgrade, which itself required a Stable Leyline Trifecta—three linked, purified Nexuses.
He had one. He needed two more. Omicron-22 was one, horribly corrupted. The other pinged on his map to the south-southwest, weaker, labeled Nexus Sigma-5. Securing them meant expanding his fragile network across the Blasted Plain, projecting power he didn't quite have, and fighting battles on multiple fronts.
The Sergeant, its cognition now constantly integrated with the Bastion's strategic net, presented the analysis without being asked. "Two operational paths are viable. Path A: Infantry Modernization. Retool for Lascutters, solidify local control, continue gradual resource extraction. Low risk, incremental gain. Path B: Strategic Expansion. Prioritize the Catapult and a second Legionnaire. Use combined arms to assault Sigma-5, then leverage the Trifecta's power to assault Omicron-22. High risk, potential for decisive breakthrough."
Isaac stared at the twin paths. Path A was the safe play of a garrison commander. Path B was the gamble of a conqueror. The Adamantite Alloy in the carrier wreck was the key to everything after this—to heavier vehicles, to orbital-scale power, to maybe even understanding what the Gloom truly was. He could taste it.
"Path B," he said, the words final. "We go for the throat. But we do it smart. We don't just build another tank. We build a system."
He gave the orders.
1. Vehicle Bay: Complete V-003, the second Legionnaire.
2. Engineering Bay: Begin design and fabrication of a 'Pioneer' Field Engineering Unit—a modified Grenadier chassis with deployable cover, repair tools, and mine-clearing charges. Its job would be to secure and fortify the new Nexus once taken.
3. Barracks: Produce two more Grenadiers to act as dedicated bodyguards for the Pioneers.
4. Manufactorum: Continue ammunition production, but add a new line: 'Smoke' and 'Illumination' mortar rounds for the Thumper (which was now repaired). Battlefield control would be critical.
It was a week of furious industry. The Bastion rang with the sounds of creation. The second Legionnaire, V-003 'Vanguard', rolled off the line, identical to its sibling. The Pioneer unit, E-001, was a walking toolbox on two legs.
As the new force mustered, Isaac sent S-001 and S-002 on a prolonged, dangerous reconnaissance to Sigma-5. They returned with sobering data. The Nexus was smaller than Gamma-7, nestled in a canyon. It was guarded not by a Beast or Colossi, but by a Gloom-Infested Bastion Defense Turret—one of his own sentry turrets, corrupted and turned against him, surrounded by a maze of razor-wire like Barb-Weed and patrolled by agile, cloaking Phase-Stalkers.
It was a different kind of problem. Not a brute-force brawl, but a tactical puzzle of stealth, disruption, and precise engineering.
The operation plan, dubbed 'Surgical Strike,' took shape.
Phase 1: Distraction and Disruption. The two Legionnaires (V-002 and V-003) would approach the canyon mouth from the east, drawing the attention of any mobile Phase-Stalker patrols and presenting a massive, threatening target. They would not enter the kill zone of the corrupted turret.
Phase 2: Infiltration. S-001 and S-002, using their cloaks, would infiltrate the canyon under cover of the distraction. Their mission: plant Disruptor Charges on the Barb-Weed clusters to clear paths, and mark the corrupted turret's power conduit for the Pioneers.
Phase 3: Sabotage and Securing. The Pioneer unit, E-001, escorted by the two new Grenadiers, would move in along the cleared paths. Using its specialized tools, it would sever the turret's power link and place a Purification Beacon on the Nexus itself.
Phase 4: Withdrawal and Fortification. Once the Nexus was purifying, the entire force would pull back to a defensible position at the canyon mouth and fortify it, establishing a new Forward Operating Base (FOB).
D-Day arrived. The twin Legionnaires moved out at dawn, a spectacle of raw power. As predicted, Phase-Stalkers coalesced from the shadows, skittering around the tanks, probing. The tanks' coaxial repeaters spat disciplined bursts, keeping them at bay but not annihilating them—the goal was attention, not extermination.
In their shadow, the two Scouts became ghosts, slipping into the canyon. Isaac watched through a spliced feed from S-001's optics. The canyon was a nightmare of shadows and slowly waving, metallic-thorned weeds. The corrupted turret sat on a ledge, its barrel a sickly green, swiveling to track the distant Legionnaires.
The Scouts placed their charges. Silent flashes of disruptive energy erupted, withering patches of Barb-Weed into brittle dust. They laser-painted the turret's base, where a thick, pulsing cable of corrupted energy snaked into the ground.
"Phase 3, go."
The Pioneer unit moved with surprising speed for its bulky frame. Its two Grenadier escorts melted Phase-Stalkers that got too close with precise Lascutter blasts—the weapons' first field test, slicing through chitin with searing orange beams. E-001 reached the turret base. It extended a cutting saw from its arm, its whine lost in the canyon's echoes. Sparks flew as it severed the power conduit. The turret's green light died. It slumped, inert.
E-001 then lumbered to the Nexus—a smaller, less violent fracture than Gamma-7. It planted the Beacon. The now-familiar pulse of clean, white energy began to spread.
Nexus Sigma-5 – Purification Initiated.
Leyline Trifecta Progress: 2/3.
"All units, fall back to rally point. Prepare for counter-attack."
They had taken the objective. But as they pulled back, forming a perimeter at the canyon mouth, the canyon itself seemed to writhe. The Phase-Stalkers didn't attack en masse. Instead, they retreated deeper into the shadows. From the darkness where the Nexus had been, a new sound emerged—a wet, bubbling, synthesizing sound.
The Gloom wasn't sending a counter-attack. It was growing a new one. Right in front of them. The purification had triggered a rapid, aggressive spawning cycle. The very ground around the new Nexus was beginning to bulge.
Isaac's gambit had secured the second point of the Trifecta. But in doing so, he had not won a piece of the board. He had activated a whole new section of the enemy's production queue. The Surgical Strike was a success. But the patient was having a violent, unforeseen allergic reaction. The real battle for Sigma-5 was just beginning.