[Adrian’s PoV]

  “We need reinforcements, now!” Adrian shouted into his comm, his voice raw from hours of shouting over the chaos.

  The situation was collapsing faster than he could react.

  Even with his squad, seasoned Rangers of the New Earth Army, the city was falling.

  And not just any city.

  Chicago.

  It wasn’t the seat of power it had been centuries ago, but it still stood as one of Earth’s largest population centers. Its towers, its history, its people, millions of them, were what Adrian had sworn to protect.

  Now, those same towers were falling.

  Through the thick haze, he could see them. Two of the city’s largest skyscrapers, crumbling as Ork dropships slammed into them like meteors. The explosions rippled outward, sending shockwaves through the streets below. The ground trembled beneath his boots, and the sky was painted in streaks of red and green from the plasma fire raining down.

  He gritted his teeth, forcing himself to focus. “Command, this is Captain Adrian Meridius of the 3rd NEA Division. We’re losing ground! The Orks are breaching the central district!”

  He ducked behind the remains of an armored transport as a barrage of rounds tore through the air above him, melting through steel and concrete.

  “They’re using skirmish craft,” he continued, his voice strained as he fired a burst from his rifle into the advancing horde. “Single-pilot ships! They’re landing troops directly in the city! We can’t hold this much longer!”

  The comm sputtered with static before a voice finally came through.

  “We have no one left to send. Multiple cities are under attack. Not just on Earth, every Great House is overwhelmed.”

  Adrian froze, his mind refusing to process the words.

  “What the hell is happening?” he muttered.

  But he already knew.

  It was like a tsunami.

  For months, there had been nothing. Radio silence from the Orks. No skirmishes, no raids, no signs of movement. The quiet had been unnatural.

  Until the last week. The Orks had surged forward like a wave.

  They came through the void in thousands of ships, they pierced through the defense grid. They didn’t care how many fell. They didn’t care about casualties. They just kept coming, a tide of rage and metal and blood.

  They advanced into human territory with reckless abandon, their vessels colliding with the NEA’s armada in suicidal bursts of light. Whole fleets were lost, holding back the first wave. Entire cities, even planets, were wiped clean, erased in hours.

  And still, the Orks didn’t stop.

  Adrian’s fists clenched as he turned off comms. The walls around him trembled as another explosion rattled the building.

  “With me!” he barked.

  His soldiers looked up from their posts, startled but ready.

  “Sir?” one of the officers asked, eyes wide behind the cracked visor of his helmet. “What are you planning?”

  Adrian dropped the rifle and headed into the street. He knew that his way of fighting didn’t suit that kind of weapon. He would face the battle up close, face to face.

  “If reinforcements aren’t coming,” he said grimly, “then we hold the line ourselves.”

  Before the officer could respond, a deafening boom shook everything.

  Adrian turned just in time to see one of the nearby skyscrapers, a glass-and-steel monolith that had stood for centuries, collapse.

  A burning Ork dropship had slammed through its upper levels, tearing through the structure like a meteor.

  A moment later, the guttural roar of something inhuman echoed through the streets.

  “Contact!” someone shouted over the squad channel.

  From the wreckage of the crashed vessel, a massive figure emerged. Its skin was a deep crimson, its muscles bulging beneath crude armor of steel plating. Its eyes glowed with savage light, and in its hands, it carried a weapon that looked like it had been forged from the wreckage itself.

  “Red Ork!” a soldier screamed from below. “We’ve got a Red Ork!”

  Human soldiers had taken up positions at the major crossroads, their weapons overloading from constant fire. Plasma rifles, railguns, even old kinetic launchers, it didn’t matter. Against the Red Orks, none of it was enough.

  The crimson giants tore through their lines like beasts, their massive forms shrugging off explosions that would have vaporized a tank. Their roars echoed through the ruined skyscrapers.

  “Keep the evacuation moving!” Adrian shouted to the soldiers moving around him.

  Officers barked orders, waving civilians toward the outer districts. The streets were a flood of terrified humanity. Men, women, children, running pale faced through the smoke-choked air.

  The screams never stopped.

  Those who had any kind of Boon that aided movement were already using it. Whether to increase speed or even perform short teleports. Others scaled the sides of buildings, leaping from balcony to balcony with inhuman agility. It was chaos.

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  Adrian clenched his fist aroung his gauntlet. Two Crystals embedded in its core hummed with power.

  'Let’s start light,' he thought. 'No need to burn everything at once.'

  He sprinted down one of the avenues.

  Ahead, he could see the front line. His Rangers were holding the line against a cluster of Red Orks, their blades clashing against the Orks’ crude, jagged weapons. Sparks and bursts of energy lit up the street.

  Adrian slowed his pace, scanning the area.

  The Reds were the worst. Towering brutes, their skin a deep, metallic crimson, their horns tall and proud. They were faster, stronger, and far more intelligent than the standard Ork breed.

  But they weren’t alone.

  From the shattered windows above, Gray Orks lurked in the shadows, their dull, stone-colored skin blending into the wreckage. They moved with precision, slipping through the ruins like predators.

  And then there were the Yellows. Leaner, sharper, their skin streaked with black veins. They didn’t fight on the front lines. They hunted.

  Adrian spotted them moving through the buildings, tearing through walls and ceilings as they searched for civilians.

  It wasn’t a battle, it was a massacre.

  Adrian’s jaw tightened, rage burning through him as he watched the chaos ahead. The battlefield stretched across what had once been a quiet downtown square, now reduced to a warzone. The teleportation hub loomed a few blocks away, its gates half broken, trapping the civilians that tried to flee through it.

  The Orks knew exactly what they were doing.

  'They aren't attacking at random, they're cutting off the evacuation routes, flooding the choke points.' Adrian recognized their viciousness.

  His hands clenched into fists. He could feel the Energy humming inside his skin, begging to be unleashed. He took a deep breath, and the world around him seemed to slow to a crawl.

  “Enough.”

  He activated his Red Armor.

  The transformation was instant. Energy surged through his veins, igniting the suit’s. Red light flared across his skin, glowing brighter and brighter until his entire body was engulfed in red armor.

  Then came the Boon.

  The ground beneath his boots exploded. Shards of concrete and steel scattered in all directions as he launched himself across the battlefield.

  He flew low, a crimson streak cutting through the smoke-filled streets. The wind roared in his ears as he shot past his soldiers, before slamming into the front line of the Ork assault.

  The impact was seismic.

  The first Red Ork didn’t even have time to react before Adrian’s fist connected with its chest, the blow detonating with a thunderous crack. The creature was lifted off the ground, its massive frame folding under the force before crashing into the side of a truck.

  Adrian didn’t stop.

  He moved like a storm, each step leaving a crater, each strike a blur of red and shattered bone.

  An Ork swung a jagged blade at him. Adrian caught it mid-swing, twisting until the metal snapped like glass. He drove his elbow into the creature’s jaw, sending teeth and blood flying.

  Another charged from behind, roaring. Adrian spun, his hand glowing as he slammed it into the ground. The earth responded to his will and a chunk of the street rose beneath him, launching him upward. He came down with a roar of his own, his fist crashing into the Ork’s skull and driving it deep into the pavement.

  Around him, the battlefield was chaos incarnate.

  He could hear the roars of the Orks, guttural and furious. He could hear his soldiers' shouts, their voices a mix of fear and determination. And beneath it all, the constant, haunting cries for help, civilians trapped, wounded, dying.

  He couldn’t save them all.

  He knew that.

  But he could still fight.

  So he did.

  Every punch, every blast of Energy, every ounce of strength he had, he poured it into the fight. Blood sprayed across his armor, thick and dark.

  “Go back to the hell you crawled out of, you fuckers!” Adrian roared.

  He raised his hands, summoning his strength. The ground trembled beneath him, cracks spiderwebbing outward as his Boon responded. Shards of stone and steel erupted from the street.

  With a furious shout, he hurled them forward.

  The makeshift projectiles tore through the air like artillery shells, slamming into the Orks ahead. The explosions lit up the street, throwing bodies and debris in every direction.

  Adrian could hold the center, barely, channeling every drop of Energy from his reserves to keep the line from breaking. But even with his Red Armor blazing at full capacity, it wasn’t enough.

  A single Red Ork could still overpower a common Ranger in close quarters. Their sheer mass, their unnatural strength, their hide that shrugged off laser and steel. It all turned the fight into a slow, grinding war of attrition.

  The humans couldn’t advance. The Orks couldn’t push through.

  So they just bled each other.

  Adrian gritted his teeth, his breath fogging the inside of his visor. Bolts streaked overhead, cutting through the air. The ground trembled with every impact.

  'If we had reinforcements,' he thought bitterly, watching another Ranger fall under the crushing blow of an Ork’s hammer. 'If we had even a single squad more, we could push them back. Save the civilians still trapped in those buildings.'

  He still had one last option.

  He glanced down at his gauntlet.

  One last card to play.

  Inside the gauntlet’s secondary chamber was something his father had given him. Something he had sworn never to use.

  It was the kind of Crystal that could turn the tide of an entire battle.

  Yet he refused to use. Out of anger. Out of pride. Pride for what the Empire should have been.

  But as he watched the city burn, as he saw soldiers die screaming in the streets, civilians crushed beneath falling buildings, he felt that maybe it would be worth it.

  Maybe saving a single person was worth more than his pride, more than the message he wanted to send. Maybe he should bow to the powers of the gods.

  Maybe he was being selfish.

  Maybe he was letting people die because of his own bitterness.

  His hands trembled as he reached for his gauntlet—

  However, he was interrupted as his comms crackled to life.

  “All units, fall back!” a voice barked through the static. “This is Central Command. Repeat, total withdrawal! Chicago is lost.”

  Adrian froze. “Say again, Command? We’re holding the line! We just need reinforcements!”

  “Negative. Full retreat. That’s an order. Three—”

  The transmission cut off with a boom that shook the ground.

  Adrian threw up his arm, shielding his visor as a wave of heat and debris washed over him. The explosion came from just ahead.

  Through the rising smoke and swirling dust, he saw them.

  Three silhouettes.

  Massive.

  Moving through the haze like predators.

  As the dust cleared, the shapes resolved into forms that made his blood run cold.

  Orks.

  But not like the others.

  Each of them wore armor.

  The first was a hulking brute wearing black armor. The second was wrapped in crimson. The third, slimmer, but no less terrifying, was draped in orange armor.

  Adrian’s stomach dropped.

  He had heard rumors. Yet seeing them now, walking through the smoke with weapons drawn, he knew the truth.

  “Ork Rangers,” he breathed.

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