The sun never rose, yet the fog thinned like dawn was trying to exist.
Unit 404 stood at the mouth of their cave, their mechas armored, weapons primed, and minds sharp.
For the first time since crashing onto this unknown, godless world, they weren't running. They were hunting.
Nox-4, though still incomplete, now had its lower limbs operational. Its armor was skeletal and exposed, but the core's glow pulsed softly — like a newborn heartbeat struggling to find rhythm.
Kael sat inside Ravager, both hands gripping the command joysticks. His HUD displayed every environmental readout Oris could patch together. Energy pings. Tremor signatures. Radiation flows. Fog density.
The world was alive — not in a beautiful way, but in a crawling, watching way.
A jungle that stared back.
---
"Coordinates confirmed," Oris said through the link. "Target spotted last night by the edge of Rad Hollow. Roughly four meters tall. Bipedal. Spike-back lizard form. Should be manageable."
"Should be," Tyren muttered, cracking his knuckles inside Pulse Fang. "That's the magic word."
Kael exhaled slowly. "This is a blood run. We go in, take it down, drain what we can, and get out. Eyes open. Formation tight. No glory kills."
The trio moved out.
Specter took the lead, with enhanced sensory arrays sweeping wide in five directions. Pulse Fang flanked left, Ravager right — covering blind spots and checking for movement in the mist.
Every hundred meters, the fog pulsed strangely — like wind, but denser. Trees twitched even without visible breeze. Something about this planet always felt off. Not chaotic… but orchestrated.
And then they found it.
---
The Kaiju was crouched over a broken ore cluster — its hunched frame moving rhythmically as it gnawed on the metallic bark.
Four meters tall. Reptilian structure. Scaled plates covered in rust-toned spikes. Its claws scraped the dirt like it was tilling the ground for metal worms.
It was alone.
Perfect.
Kael raised one gauntlet and signaled the strike.
Ravager surged forward with a burst of thrusters, dropping low to pin the creature from the front. Specter veered right to flank and distract. Pulse Fang activated its upgraded blade vibrators — humming with the promise of slicing through scaled hide.
For a moment, the world stilled.
Then it exploded.
---
The Kaiju screamed — not in fear, but rage. It spun faster than expected, claws out, slicing deep into Specter's left arm plating.
Oris hissed but kept moving, scoring a solid plasma hit across its side. The creature staggered.
Pulse Fang lunged next, its claws flashing as Tyren slammed into the beast's chest — sparks and blood spraying in equal measure.
Kael moved in to deliver the final blow—
But then the ground trembled.
"Above you!" Oris screamed.
A shadow passed over them.
No sound.
No warning.
Just impact.
Something huge — no, massive — crashed through the canopy above, sending entire trees crashing down.
The air was torn apart as a second Kaiju landed.
And this one wasn't small.
---
It towered at least ten meters high — a bulkier, gorilla-shaped creature covered in stone-like muscle and green, glowing veins. Its eyes blazed with ember-red rage, and when it roared, the sound didn't echo.
It flattened the air.
The smaller Kaiju shrieked in panic and ran — but the gorilla beast didn't let it flee.
It grabbed the lizard Kaiju like a toy, slammed it to the ground with enough force to dent the soil, and drove a jagged elbow into its neck.
Blood sprayed like an oil geyser.
Kael stared, frozen.
"That… that wasn't territorial," Oris whispered.
Tyren gritted his teeth. "It stole our kill."
"No," Kael muttered. "It reminded us who owns this planet."
The creature turned.
Spotted them.
And charged.
---
"MOVE!" Kael roared.
All three mechas broke into retreat instantly — thrusters igniting, hydraulic legs pumping.
The Kaiju barreled after them, smashing through trees like wet paper, each footstep a seismic event. It hurled part of the lizard Kaiju's corpse at them — the remains slammed into Specter, knocking Oris back twenty meters into a cliffside.
Kael slid Ravager sideways and activated smoke burst — covering their retreat. Tyren doubled back to grab Oris's mech and haul it upright.
"Go go go! Full boost!" Tyren shouted.
The Kaiju gained ground fast. Too fast.
Kael turned and fired Ravager's shoulder cannon. A plasma bolt struck the beast's midsection — the glow flared, but the creature barely slowed.
It just looked angrier.
---
It took every drop of power and desperation in their tanks to reach the fog-line near their cave.
The Kaiju stopped — not because it lost interest, but because it couldn't follow. The mist thickened too rapidly. The terrain shifted subtly.
It growled low, almost like a warning.
Then it vanished into the haze.
---
Unit 404 stumbled into their cave like broken warriors.
Specter's left side was damaged. Ravager's cannon mount overheated and cracked. Pulse Fang had two gashes across its legs that sparked with every step.
Nox-4 stared from its resting platform, still glowing softly — like it had watched the whole thing.
They had returned with nothing.
No blood.
No salvage.
No victory.
---
They sat in silence for a long time.
Then Tyren spat into the dirt. "This is bullsh*t."
Oris didn't respond. He stared at his fuel converter, empty. Dead.
Kael finally stood.
"No more playing smart. No more precision strikes. No more pick fights and pray. We're not going to survive like this."
"We need power," Tyren said.
"No," Kael replied. "We need war. If we want to live, we need to out-monster the monsters."
Oris finally looked up. "You mean…"
Kael turned to the others, eyes steeled with something new — not fear. Not anger.
Resolve.
"We start building weapons," he said. "Real ones. Bigger than what we brought. We build traps. Terrain locks. Sonic lures. And we bleed this planet dry if we have to."
"We adapt," Tyren said slowly. "Or we die."
"No," Kael corrected. "We adapt, dominate, and take the skies back."
And for the first time, all three of them agreed.
---