Four kilometers south of White Line Sector E-7, three RFs waited beyond the ash haze crawling over the ground, holding for the launch signal.

  A thin layer of ash had settled over their armor. Their joints answered the wait with minute idle movements. Thirteen meters tall, all three head cameras were turned toward the horizon sunk in ash.

  Inside the cockpits, a small tremor ran through the frames as the startup sequence layered one check tone over another.

  Main power was above ninety percent. Cooling reserves were sufficient.

  Akihito wrapped his hand around the control stick, checked the routing of the cable running to the LSL port at the back of his neck, and fixed his gaze on the front monitor.

  〈Norn〉 “Six kilometers ahead. Multiple heat sources. Estimated count: approximately eight hundred.”

  The old tactical AI spoke without emotion. It was slow, but it still left room for human judgment in the field.

  That was enough, Akihito had decided long ago.

  〈Norn〉 “Pilot status confirmed. Heart rate ninety-two. Response time normal. Report physical condition.”

  “No problems.”

  〈Norn〉 “Self-assessment of mood.”

  “The same as always. The job is the same.”

  The connector locked into the LSL port. A short electronic tone followed, and his field of vision overlapped with the machine’s sense of body.

  The shift of balance he made in thought passed directly into the RF-17SC Stray Custom.

  On the monitor lay the pale gray surface of the earth. Beyond it, the White Line ran in a narrow band. In a reduced window at the corner of the display, the evacuation column was visible. Adults held the outer edge. The silhouettes of children clustered in the center. Stake lights marking the evacuation route blinked at regular intervals, casting light only over the line of people.

  Akihito checked the image once, then returned his eyes to the front.

  He had seen what needed protecting. The rest was simple. Stop them before they got close enough to endanger it.

  〈Norn〉 “VOLK unit deployment complete. VOLK-1: vanguard and command. VOLK-3: sniper support from the right-side high ground. VOLK-2: central front, artillery role.”

  VOLK-1—Akihito—would move forward. VOLK-3—Ryu—held the high ground to the right. VOLK-2—Ghosh—stood at the center front with a handheld 140mm cannon braced in both arms.

  Inside the White Line, Line Guard RFs stood at regular intervals. The Line Guard held the edge of the white corridor. VOLK thinned the swarm outside it. In E-7 today, only these three machines had been assigned the outer perimeter.

  Akihito checked the ammunition display at the edge of his HUD. His close-range assault rifle was fully loaded, with three spare magazines. Ghosh carried twelve 140mm shells. Ryu had twenty sniper rounds. Whether they could cut the swarm down enough would depend on how much the minefield could take with it first.

  〈Line Guard〉 “This is 6th Line Guard Company. The enemy formation is advancing toward the minefield in front of White Line E-7. VOLK unit, concentrate on thinning them at the outer edge. We will take over interception directly in front of the White Line.”

  Thin them outside. Reduce their mass before they could cling to the line.

  Akihito pressed lightly on the pedal, lowering the center of gravity of the Stray Custom. Then he advanced, slowly, toward the black shapes writhing beyond the ash.

  〈Norn〉 “Spider-type Keytela ahead. Approximately eight hundred. Course set toward the White Line.”

  The contrast sharpened. Long, narrow legs emerged from the ash-shadow. The hard scrape of chitin grinding against itself began to mix into the comms.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Then, without warning, the landscape slipped out of alignment.

  The ash haze crawling over the ground stopped, then in the next instant was pulled back toward their feet. It was not a change in wind direction. Only the flow itself had reversed, as though layers of air had traded places.

  The outline of the distant terrain shifted into a faint double image. The blinking of the stake lights seemed to lag by half a beat.

  〈Norn〉 “Environmental anomaly. Ashflow inversion confirmed. Visual layer displacement detected.”

  Numbers on the HUD jumped. Distance readings lurched back and forth in increments of 0.2 kilometers. Bearing lines shivered in fine vibrations. Heat-source markers slid sideways once.

  〈Norn〉 “Rangefinding unstable. Repeating correction.”

  〈Noise〉 [zzzt]

  A short burst of noise cut in. It did not feel like ordinary radio interference. It was the kind of sound that snagged against the senses. Akihito flicked a glance at the LSL connection and confirmed only one thing: there was no fault warning.

  〈Line Guard Observer〉 “Reflow confirmed. All units, do not overtrust either instruments or vision. Fire in short bursts.”

  Reflow. Ash flowing in reverse, the landscape warped out of true. No one knew the cause. But the moment it began, both targeting and ranging lost reliability.

  Troublesome.

  〈Line Guard Observer〉 “Target formation is ten kilometers from the White Line. Counting down to minefield contact in ten—”

  The voice cut once.

  〈Line Guard Observer〉 “Nine. Eight.”

  On the tactical display, circles and lines overlapped and blinked. The first minefield traced an arc well outside the White Line. The three VOLK units were waiting inside that arc, closer to the White Line.

  At the end of the countdown, the ground along the minefield flashed white all at once.

  The sand burst upward in a continuous chain. Pale flashes ran in bands across the field. Blasts hurled up ash and grit, sending low pillars of fire up one after another. But the falling ash did not descend evenly. The heatflow folded back on itself. The paths of the fragments were hard to read.

  Shapes were still moving behind the flame.

  〈Line Guard Observer〉 “Minefield activation confirmed. Approximately twenty percent of the front ranks destroyed. Estimated remainder: approximately six hundred forty.”

  As the smoke thinned, the shapes that had kept their form pressed forward again. With the leading edge gone, the mass behind it simply compressed and pushed onward.

  Twenty percent. Fewer than expected.

  〈Norn〉 “Enemy speed exceeds projections. Updating arrival estimate.”

  A new predictive line was drawn across the HUD. At this rate, too many would remain by the time the swarm reached the White Line.

  Akihito shifted his aim—not to hit, but to assume drift. Short bursts. Shave them down. Cut their numbers before they closed the distance.

  〈Akihito〉 “VOLK-3, take down command units earlier than planned. VOLK-2, move the opening barrage forward by one kilometer. Start thinning them before they eat the distance.”

  〈Ryu〉 “Roger. I’ll pick off the heads from above.”

  〈Ghosh〉 “Roger. I’ll blow the front apart in clusters.”

  The markers of all three machines moved forward.

  Then the display skipped again. At the edge of his vision, the ashflow reversed once more.

  〈Akihito〉 “LSL, SYNC-2. Match initial movement only.”

  Two electronic tones answered.

  〈HUD〉 [Sync established: LSL / SYNC-2 = active]

  For a moment the edges of the HUD doubled, then settled. If they were going to sync in the middle of Reflow, they had to build the drift into the margin from the start.

  All three machines lowered their centers of gravity at the same instant. Ryu set the timing for his shot. Ghosh built the stance to absorb recoil. Akihito matched the first step of his advance.

  Then the reaction force underfoot came half a beat late.

  Stride spacing shifted by a fraction. The shooting interval slipped. The cannon barrel wavered by millimeters.

  〈Norn〉 “Sync drift. Correcting.”

  Akihito adjusted the way his machine moved, nudging the spacing back into alignment. If it would not settle, then they would have to keep adjusting until it did.

  Ryu opened fire first from the high ground.

  A thin flash crossed the haze and bent slightly midway through. Not the bullet’s path—the Reflow was distorting how it was seen. Ryu corrected at once and sent a second shot into the same target.

  It was the command unit moving heavily behind the front line—the one opening and closing the venting pores along its abdomen. The light drove straight into the center. The rim of the vent shattered, and the creature folded its legs and sank.

  The movement of the swarm faltered for an instant. Their advance lost uniformity. Part of the rear ranks lagged behind.

  〈Ryu〉 “Command unit neutralized. I’ll keep crushing them through the abdominal vents. Eighteen rounds remaining.”

  At the center, Ghosh raised the 140mm cannon.

  He hugged the barrel in both arms, dropped his hips, and fixed his aim on the densest part of the black mass.

  The shell flew and struck. Fire erupted, and the impact came chasing after it half a beat later. The front ranks were blown apart in a clump. The following swarm trampled shattered shells underfoot and kept advancing.

  The detonation had landed slightly to the right.

  A few meters. Small, but not small enough to ignore.

  〈Ghosh〉 “That took out ten. Eleven shells left.”

  〈Akihito〉 “Cut another row. Shift two meters left on the next shot. Reflow’s pulling you off.”

  〈Ghosh〉 “Roger. I’ll send you the bill for the ammo later.”

  The distance closed even as he joked.

  〈Norn〉 “Recalculating arrival time. At the current reduction rate, approximately four hundred units will remain directly in front of the White Line.”

  Four hundred. Too many.

  The gray earth shook hard. The spider-type Keytela spread their legs wide and drove straight toward the White Line. Along their path, the ash was still flowing backward. Reflow had not ended. Only the numbers kept coming.

  Akihito ran his eyes over his own ammunition status. The assault rifle was full. Three spare magazines.

  At long range, Reflow cut accuracy too badly. That left only one answer.

  Close the distance.

  Enter the Reflow, assume the drift, and fire in short pulls at point-blank range.

  The decision was finished.

  All that remained was to move.