The air was thick.
Not with dust, but with something more primal — a quiet dread that seeped into bones, heavier than any radiation warning or incoming signal could ever explain. The sun—or whatever passed for sunlight on R22—bled across the sky like a festering wound, its rays fractured through dense clouds infused with strange violet hues.
Kael scanned the terrain ahead as Ravager marched in silence. The usual scorched wasteland had transformed — now overgrown with unnatural growths—twisted metallic vines and jagged obsidian-like thorns that crackled softly with static energy.
"This place used to breathe death," Tyren muttered from Brawler's cockpit, "but now it reeks of something worse. Mutation."
Ryssa's voice filtered in through the comm. "I've got drone footage ahead… I think I've spotted a Kaiju… no—multiple."
Kael stepped toward her. "Visual?"
The hologram shimmered to life.
And the moment they saw it, their hearts sank.
Across a vast canyon, shrouded by smog and towering fissures, they saw the shape of a Kaiju.
But not just any.
A colossus.
Easily over a hundred meters tall, it moved like the planet's heartbeat—slow, deliberate, and crushingly heavy. Its scales shimmered, reflecting corrupted hues, and around its spine were jagged, obsidian-coral-like protrusions, each leaking a gaseous vapor that hissed with every step. It had no visible eyes, but its face pulsed with a rhythmic glow — as if sensing rather than seeing.
And then the worst realization dawned on them.
There were two more just like it, curled between the spires in slumber.
Tyren's voice was barely a whisper. "...What the hell are we looking at?"
Kael's throat was dry. "Something that doesn't belong in this timeline. Something that's not supposed to exist."
Ryssa's voice shook. "They're mutated… and not just stronger. They're smarter. They've adapted to the radiation… it's evolved them."
"Three of them," Ziya said from the Lugger, watching the feeds. "And if those are just what we can see..."
Tyren responded grimly, "Then there are more."
Kael lowered the drone, eyes flickering. "We can't take them. Not like this."
"Wait—" Ziya gasped through the comms. "Kael—watch your right!"
Kael whirled Ravager's sensors—too late.
From behind a cracked ridge, something had already noticed them.
A fourth Kaiju.
Sleeker. Long-limbed. A cross between a centipede and a wolf, its entire body shimmered like molten glass, every movement creating a blur as it surged toward them — and it was fast.
"Move!" Kael shouted.
The ground exploded under its lunge. A barrage of claws and molten teeth lashed forward, striking where Ravager had stood a second earlier. Kael activated thrusters, barely dodging as Tyren fired a scatter-blast from Brawler's shoulder cannon.
"No good!" Tyren shouted. "It's reflecting heat signatures! Damn thing's phasing!"
"Try EMP!" Ryssa ordered, launching two pulses from her gauntlet-mounted drone. One hit — the beast twitched, stumbled, and let out a screech like tearing metal.
But it wasn't retreating.
It was signaling.
Ziya screamed into comms, "Energy spikes all around you! They're waking up!"
The slumbering giants stirred.
One opened its eyes.
Not eyes — sensors. Rings of red pulsating orbs scattered across its chest and sides began glowing as it stood to its full height, casting a shadow that engulfed the canyon.
Kael didn't hesitate.
"Retreat. Now."
Tyren was already pulling back, Brawler's jets igniting. "You don't need to tell me twice!"
Ryssa activated her grav-boosters and jumped onto Ravager's shoulder.
Kael took point, the team moving through a gauntlet of unstable terrain, sensors blaring as radiation levels surged to dangerous levels.
But the mutated centipede-wolf wasn't giving up.
It chased, crawling vertically along the cliff walls, faster than their mechas could run, breaking stone with every limb it landed upon. The cries of the waking giants behind them echoed like war drums. Earth cracked. Air warped.
Lugger hovered low to intercept. Ziya's voice rang, "OPENING HATCH! GET IN!"
Kael made the call. "Tyren, break left and draw its attention. Ryssa, brace!"
With a twist, Kael baited the creature, Ravager sliding beneath an arching rock formation. The Kaiju lunged after them, its limbs crushing through the stone like paper.
Tyren fired a missile barrage, striking one of its side-limbs, finally staggering it just long enough.
Kael launched a grappling line, dragging both himself and Ryssa into the Lugger's drop bay. Seconds later, Tyren barely made the jump before the entire cliff behind them collapsed, crushing the pursuing Kaiju beneath rubble and dust.
Silence followed.
Then...
BANG.
The rubble shifted.
It was alive.
Barely injured.
But now, it didn't chase.
It watched.
And vanished into the smoke.
Inside the Lugger
Everyone was panting.
Tyren slammed his fist into the wall. "We're not hunting Kaiju anymore. These things are hunting us."
Ryssa dropped her helmet and looked at Kael. Her voice was soft. "You saw it too, didn't you?"
Kael stared ahead, voice cold. "Those things… they're coordinating."
Ziya added from the cockpit, her voice trembling, "We need to leave. Not just because of them... but because the squads we were warned about? They're either dead, or..."
She paused.
Tyren finished grimly. "They've joined the dirt."
Kael's jaw clenched.
"This place… it's changing. And if we don't stop it, it won't just be R22 anymore."
The Lugger began rising.
Behind them, the Kaiju stood still — watching. Waiting.
Not beast-like.
But like guardians.
And something deep within the planet stirred.