The wind over the Silent Plains didn't howl; it shrieked, thick with the stench of oxidized copper, burning flesh, and ruptured soil. Below the descending Phoenix transport shuttle, Forward Outpost Delta was a bleeding wound on the earth.
Through the shuttle’s tactical viewport, Leo Shaw observed the s*******r with cold, detached precision. The reinforced concrete barricades of the outpost were crumbling under a relentless, writhing tide of Mutant Beasts. Tier-4 and Tier-5 aberrations—plated arachnids, towering dire-wolves with serrated bone-spurs, and acidic crawlers—surged against the defensive perimeter like a living, gnashing sea. The regular military defenders and a handful of senior academy elites were being pushed back step by bloody step, their Spirit Energy attacks swallowed by t
