Kade barely had time to register the consoles and scattered war maps before a heavy impact echoed behind them.

  Magnus stepped through the control room doorway like a summoned executioner, its frame too large for subtlety, its optics locking onto the crew with merciless precision.

  "Intruders detected. Termination protocol engaged."

  Gunfire lit up the control room like a flare in a war zone. Screams, ricochets, and the mechanical howl of Magnus’s systems crashed together in a brutal overture.

  A pirate barely two steps inside the control room never even had time to scream. A burst of gunfire ripped through his chest, splintering ribs and flesh, his body jerking violently before crumpling to the floor. Another dove behind a metal console, but the next barrage of bullets chewed through the cover like paper, sending a shower of sparks and shredded circuitry into the air.

  That was all it took.

  The gunfire, the blood, the sheer mechanical coldness of the slaughter. Without Naomi barking orders and promising glory, the pirates lost what little courage had held them together. Kade saw the shift happen like a chain reaction across their faces. First confusion, then fear, and finally the realization that they weren’t soldiers. They were meat in a grinder built by a dead world.

  Some froze in place, weapons slack in their hands, as if sheer disbelief could shield them. Others tried to retreat, but with the hallway still a kill box and Magnus advancing from the rear, they had nowhere to go. Trapped and leaderless, the only thing left to shatter was their will to fight.

  One man dropped his weapon and collapsed behind a console, curling into himself like the bullets might forget he existed. Another screamed, not at anyone in particular, and fired his post reboot pistol wildly into the smoke, his aim shaking with panic.

  "They’re breaking," Kade muttered. She wasn’t sure if it was meant for herself, or to warn the Marines, or just to acknowledge what they were all seeing.

  Naomi had dragged them into this. But she wasn’t here anymore. And Magnus didn’t care who had volunteered and who had simply followed.

  "Combat pattern anomaly detected. Hostile cohesion degraded. Suppression protocols re-evaluated."

  With a cold mechanical hum, Magnus retracted its primary weapon. A new compartment slid open beneath its arm, exposing a stubby barrel encased in scorched plating.

  For a half-second, the room itself seemed to hold its breath. Even the smoke floating around the room appeared to pause midair, curling unnaturally as if the Simulation itself was bracing for impact. Kade felt it in her spine, a pressure that made her skin crawl.

  She dropped behind cover without thinking, her body reacting before her mind could catch up.

  The first shell landed with a thunderous thump, tearing through a bank of old-world consoles and detonating in a blast of smoke, flame, and shredded circuitry. The shockwave rolled through the control room like a wave of pressure, hurling debris across the space and setting half the war maps ablaze.

  One pirate had curled behind a desk, eyes wide, hands trembling. He hadn’t moved an inch since the barrage began. He wasn’t a threat. He wasn’t even holding his weapon anymore.

  It didn’t matter.

  The next shell landed half a meter from him. The console he hid behind ceased to exist, and so did he.

  "Escalation authorized," Magnus declared. "Area denial mode engaged."

  The room staggered under the concussive blasts. Smoke coiled upward like something alive, wrapping around the exposed light fixtures and casting long, flickering shadows across shattered consoles and blood-slicked walls. A haze of scorched metal and cordite hung in the air.

  But not everyone had broken.

  Through the dust and static, a few pirates remained standing. They weren’t frozen, and they weren’t fleeing. They were waiting.

  One of them, older, with a flight jacket so battered it looked fused to his skin, tossed aside a pistol and drew a cutlass with practiced ease. The blade was clean, the grip wrapped in worn leather, and the way he held it told Kade everything she needed to know.

  Not a scavenger. Not a glory-hungry idiot chasing Naomi’s promises. A soldier.

  Another stepped up beside him, younger but steady, a faded Marine Corps tattoo peeking from beneath a scorched sleeve. His stance was tight and controlled, knife reversed in his hand.

  Kade caught the older man’s eye across the smoke filled control room. He gave a single sharp nod. It wasn’t deference, and it wasn’t command. It was recognition.

  Survival came before loyalty. She just wasn't confident that uneasy understanding would last if the tide of battled turned in their favor.

  Behind them, others were adjusting as well. Some ducked behind cover. Others reloaded and regrouped. The line between pirate and Marine was still there, but it was thinner now, blurred by necessity.

  Webb crouched to her left, cradling his axe in his hands, lips pressed into a hard line. Holt was just behind him, pike poke at the ready. Tension had replaced his usual swagger.

  "Give the word, boss. " He said while never taking his eyes off Magnus.

  Mercer had taken up a position against a half-melted bulkhead, one knee down, crossbow drawn, eyes already trying to look for Magnus’ weak points. Her breathing was tight and sharp, completely focused.

  On the other side of the room, Stone knelt beside Voss, whom someone had propped up against a ruined support column. She didn’t look up or speak. She just kept pressure on his wounds. Her medkit splayed out around her like a battlefield altar.

  Kade took them all in. Her people. No orders needed. They knew what came next.

  Also across the room, she spotted Lawson’s unit through the haze of smoke and shattered light. They were already repositioning. Briggs was flanking the left. Myers crouched low behind a console with his usual grin replaced by dead focus.

  Lawson stood at the ready near a cracked support pillar, his uniform dark with blood at the side where a blade had caught him. His movements were slower now, a little off-center, but his eyes stayed sharp. He met Kade’s gaze across the chamber and gave the smallest of nods.

  Message received. This was it.

  Magnus stepped forward into the center of the room, servos whining as it rotated for an optimal firing angle.

  "Flesh and bone will crumble before steel and fire."

  Kade clenched her jaw. If they didn’t fight now, none of them were walking out of this room.

  And to their credit, the pirates who were still standing seemed to realize that too.

  "Spread out!" Kade shouted, her voice cutting through the whirling noise of the construct like a blade.

  The control room was massive, a frozen war room left to rot. Old-world consoles and rusting workstations lined the perimeter, offering cover that was far too flimsy to rely on. War maps, faded tactical readouts, and brittle mission logs from before the Simulation Reboot remained pinned to a corkboard high on the central dais, where command staff had once made their last stand or, more accurately, where they had died.

  Their remains still slumped across shattered consoles, uniforms tattered, bones visible through flesh. Some had been burned. An uncaring hand had dismantled others, tearing their corpses apart as if dissected.

  The air stank of oil and scorched circuitry, but underneath it all lingered something worse. The sweet, metallic rot of death.

  Kade barely spared it a glance. If they didn’t move now, they'd join the officers who had never made it out.

  "Witness the perfection of destruction." Magnus called as it opened fire again.

  Kade vaulted over a workstation, feeling the heat of super heated rounds slicing through the air inches behind her. A pirate tried to scramble between consoles, but Magnus swiveled with unnatural speed, tracking the movement.

  Then the auto-cannon roared. The pirate never stood a chance. Bullets ripped through his torso, the force lifting him off the ground before he crashed down into several pieces.

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  Kade gritted her teeth. Damn thing moves too fast. Too efficient.

  She glanced across the battlefield and caught sight of Lawson on the far side of the room, his section of Marines holding defensive positions.

  He shouted something to his men, then locked eyes with Kade through the smoke and fire. Without saying a word, they both knew what the other was thinking. They couldn't win this with brute force.

  "Mercer! Find me a weakness in that thing," Kade barked.

  The scout was already moving, crossbow loaded, eyes tracking. She knew the plan before Kade even said it.

  The Marines repositioned, keeping their movements unpredictable, staying mobile to avoid getting pinned down. The ex-pirates followed suit, relying on military instincts rather than raw survival.

  Kade clenched her jaw. Time to see if we can punch above our weight one more time.

  She pivoted, cutlass in hand, and prepared to attack.

  Voss's voice cut through the chaos like a gunshot. "Finish it, Kade. Burn that thing to the ground."

  Something in Kade locked tight. It wasn’t fear, and it wasn’t the pressure. She had already accepted all of that. What hit her was the way Voss said it, his voice strained and raw.

  She barely had time to glance his way, but in that half-second, she saw the damage Naomi had done. His uniform was torn, blood crusted around his temple, and his normally steady hands trembled under Stone’s grip as she fought to keep him conscious. He was still upright, still aware, but fading.

  "Alright, you heard the Captain!" Kade shouted. "New plan. New target. Lock it in or die trying."

  Magnus’ autocannon roared, shredding through another metal console where Kade had stood seconds before. She hit the ground in a roll, coming up behind cover just as an explosive shell slammed into a cluster of old-world equipment, sending sparks and jagged debris flying. One of the ex-pirates barely dodged the shrapnel.

  "Lawson! We need a shift… it's cutting us off too fast!" Kade shouted.

  "Ma'am! The autocannon’s got a cooldown window," Mercer reported. "Small one. Maybe a three and a half seconds. But it’s there."

  "Alright, listen up!" Kade snapped, pulling everyone’s attention back. "We bait out the burst, force him to commit, and then we strike. Hit-and-run. Never stay in one place long enough for him to predict."

  "Got it," Lawson confirmed. "Briggs, you take left! Myers, you’re with me. Keep it erratic."

  "Erratic is my specialty," Myers muttered, cracking a grin despite the carnage.

  The plan snapped into action.

  Briggs led his squad left, drawing Magnus’ fire. The instant the autocannon started chewing through their cover, Kade sprinted to the right with Holt and Webb, sliding behind a console just as the barrage ended.

  Magnus hesitated. Just for a moment, but Kade saw it. It had to reset his targeting lock when shifting between groups. That was the delay Mercer had seen. Kade’s blood surged with adrenaline. That was their opening.

  "Boss, I think I see a weak point in the back of the shoulder. But I’m gonna need a clear shot."

  Kade exhaled sharply, gripping her cutlass. "Then we make one."

  Magnus adjusted, the cold whir of servos echoing through the war room. "Hostile adaptation detected. Increasing engagement protocols."

  The battlefield groaned. Somewhere behind them, an old-world relay station overloaded, bursting apart in a plume of acrid smoke. Loose wires snapped like live serpents, arcing electricity through the air. A rusted-out console flickered weakly before dying altogether, its ancient circuits finally giving out.

  "Alright," Kade said, her voice steady despite the fire raging in her chest. "Time to see if we can punch above our weight one more time."

  She broke from cover and sprinted wide across the battlefield with Webb and Holt close behind, her path deliberate and loud. Magnus’s optics locked onto her instantly.

  "Target priority updated. Command unit engaged."

  Gunfire erupted as the machine pivoted, its massive frame slamming across the floor with each precise step. The trio ducked and wove between scorched consoles and burning debris. Kade’s heart hammered as she counted the seconds. They didn’t need to strike. They just had to survive long enough to force the angle.

  As Magnus tracked her movement, its shoulder rotated into view, exposing the joint Mercer had flagged.

  A pistol cracked from somewhere near the forward bank of consoles. One pirate, one of the few who hadn’t tried to hide, took the shot. The round slammed into the lower chassis and staggered the machine just enough to tilt its aim.

  Mercer followed instantly. Her crossbow bolt struck clean into the exposed plating beneath the joint, and a burst of sparks flared from the impact. Magnus staggered as its servos ground against the torque.

  "Joint’s weakening," Mercer shouted, already drawing another bolt. "We can crack it. Keep pressure on!"

  Pirates nearby took the cue, lifting salvaged pistols and battered bows, each of them focusing fire on the damaged shoulder. The air filled with the sharp report of gunfire and the hiss of arrows as projectiles slammed into Magnus’s frame. Crude or not, under the Simulation's strange rules, even the old-world weapons found purchase.

  Mercer reloaded with practiced efficiency and fired again, her bolt striking near the last and deepening the fracture. Sparks burst from the joint. One more hit might sever it entirely.

  Kade felt the moment shift. The balance was no longer one-sided.

  Briggs charged from the flank, his Marines fanning out in disciplined formation. Lawson followed with his own fireteam, slightly hunched but still deadly. Myers came in low and fast on the other side, a blur of momentum. They struck with measured brutality, their blades and blunt weapons hammering at Magnus’s limbs and joints. The machine swiveled in frustration, its targeting systems faltering.

  It could not fire without hitting its own feet. For the first time since the fight began, the giant hesitated. It had no good angles.

  Kade locked onto the opening at the shoulder joint. It wasn’t much, but it would do.

  She activated her Boots of the Gale Rider, and the world seemed to blur around her. The air itself propelled her forward, a force not quite wind, not quite magic, but something else entirely. Something raw, unshackled, like the call of the open sea given form beneath her feet. Kade shot across the battlefield, closing the distance between her and Magnus in a heartbeat.

  She twisted at the last second, throwing her weight behind a full-force cutlass strike aimed directly at the compromised joint. The blade bit deep, slicing through weakened plating and lodging itself into the exposed servos beneath. Magnus jerked violently, its massive frame recoiling from the impact as a shower of sparks erupted from the wound.

  But Kade wasn’t foolish enough to stay in range. With another burst of speed, she propelled herself back to cover, rolling behind a ruined console as Magnus reeled from the hit.

  The crew pressed the attack, confidence surging through them like wildfire. Pirates and Marines alike shouted battle cries as they launched a fresh volley of crossbow bolts, striking with renewed intensity. Webb charged in low, axe cutting through the air in feral arcs, while Holt moved beside him with sharp thrusts of his pike pole, driving Magnus back step by step. Magnus staggered, its once-unstoppable momentum faltering as the damage accumulated.

  The tide was turning. Magnus reeled under concentrated fire, its shoulder joint sparking violently with every fresh impact. The coordination between pirates and Marines was finally paying off, and for one breathless moment, Kade felt they had the advantage.

  Then Magnus stopped moving. Its optics narrowed. "Command threat level exceeded. Adjusting tactics."

  The next barrage came instantly, and this time there was no rhythm to read. The sweeping suppressive arcs were gone, replaced by short, brutal bursts fired with clinical accuracy. Kade barely ducked behind a slagged console as it exploded above her, shrapnel raining down in a hot spray. Across the room, a pirate took several rounds to the chest, the impact lifting him off his feet before he crumpled in a twitching heap. Sparks showered the room, casting flickering shadows across scorched walls and broken tech.

  Lawson moved to reposition just as a nearby control station detonated. The blast tore through his cover, and shrapnel slashed across his torso and ribs. He went down hard, armor cracked and uniform rapidly darkening with blood. Kade turned in time to see him hit the deck, arm curled tight around his side, legs scrabbling to drag himself back behind the ruined bulkhead.

  "Lawson!"

  Stone didn’t hesitate. She slid across the deck to reach him, grabbing the back of his armor and hauling him toward partial cover just as the next volley tore through the space they’d left behind. She dropped to one knee beside him, one hand already pressed to his chest as a soft glow pulsed from her palm. The healing spell took hold instantly, sealing the worst of the damage and slowing the bleeding. Her medkit snapped open a moment later, and she worked quickly, reinforcing the wound with gauze and stabilizer foam. Her face was steady, composed, but her movements were urgent, controlled.

  Kade could see the truth from across the room. Lawson wasn’t dead. But he was out.

  Magnus remained at the center of the control room, its torso rotating slowly as it tracked targets across every angle. "Resistance degrades. Morale collapse imminent."

  The words had the weight of doctrine behind them, as if the Simulation itself believed the fight was over. And for a second, Kade felt it happening. The way battle heat turned to cold dread when enough teammates fell, when the odds stacked too high.

  She pushed up from cover, cutlass high, her voice a sharpened edge slicing through the noise as she triggered Command Presence. "Stand your ground!"

  The order cracked through the battlefield with commanding force. "We are not breaking. We hold this line, or we fall. And we are not falling today."

  Marines rose back into position without a word. Pirates squared up behind burned-out consoles, reloading with grim determination. Even the wounded leaned harder into their makeshift defenses, refusing to let the tide take them. They forced the fear back under control, beating it into something useful.

  Kade drew a steady breath and lowered into a stance that matched its stillness. Her knuckles whitened around the cutlass hilt. "Let’s show this bastard what real fighters look like."

  Magnus staggered as another volley of crossbow bolts and pistol rounds tore into its already-damaged plating. Sparks cascaded down its frame, and a deep mechanical groan echoed through the war room as something inside its chassis shuddered under the strain.

  She snapped her head up as the overhead lights flickered and a series of long-dormant industrial cranes jolted to life, their support arms groaning as they extended from the ceiling. Chains rattled. Old servos shrieked. Spotlights flared, sweeping over the battlefield in hard, angular arcs.

  "Look to the skies and despair," Magnus announced. "Phase shift initiated."

  The lights in the control room flickered, then stabilized with a colder, harsher hue. A pulse radiated outward from Magnus’s chassis, followed a heartbeat later by a concussive shockwave.

  Kade felt it before she saw it. A pressure in her chest, a whisper of warning in her bones. Then the floor bucked beneath her. The force threw her backward, crashing into a half-melted console. Magnus's wide-radius repulsion strike flung Marines and pirates alike from cover around Kade. The tide had turned again, and this time not in their favor.

  The war machine stood its ground at the center of the room, hunched slightly now. Its outer plating folded back to reveal new weapon ports and exposed vents glowing with heat. Its optics dimmed, flickered once, then reignited.

  From above, the activated cranes descended. Thick metal claws locked into anchor points on Magnus’s upper chassis with a series of echoing clunks. With a grinding whine, the entire upper body rose. Hydraulic pistons strained as the machine lifted free of its lower limbs, suspending its torso in midair. Cables snaked into its back. The lower half of its frame remained upright but inert, abandoned like a discarded shell. Overhead, Magnus rotated on a moving rail system, now free to traverse the battlefield from above.

  "Engaging total war protocol," the machine declared. Its voice came fractured now, as if overlapping frequencies. "You will not survive this encounter."

  Kade pushed herself to one knee, ears ringing and ribs aching. Around her, the squad regrouped. They were slower now, bloodied and reeling, but still alive.

  No way it went down that easily. It was never going to. Kade sighed internally as braced herself. The actual fight was just beginning.

  four chapters left in Tides of Ruin Book One!

  If you have been enjoying the story so far, I want to take a moment to say thank you. Your comments, follows, and ratings mean the world to me. They are what keep the sails full and the keyboards clacking.

  If you would like to keep sailing ahead, the entire first book is already complete over on Patreon. We are already four chapters deep into Book Two and making great progress.