Scavenger Protocol

Cutter's Crew

Gunfire and heavy pounding jolted Jax awake in the middle of the night.

The reinforced bunker’s blast door rattled violently as someone slammed against it from the outside. Muffled shouts cut through the metal:

“Open the f**k up! We know you dragged a partial out of Black Rock! Hand over the fresh meat and we’ll let you keep your hide, and a few of your upgrades. Make us come in and we take everything — including your lives!”

Jax was on his feet in an instant, Marine instincts kicking in. His heart hammered as he grabbed his rifle from beside the cot. The sympathetic link with Riley pulsed hot in his chest, a constant reminder that his brother was still fighting.

“Reyes! Tank!” he barked.

Reyes was already moving, revolver in hand, eyes sharp despite being yanked from sleep. Tank rolled off his makeshift bed, the heavy machine gun he always slept with, clutched in his massive hands. Milo scrambled toward Riley’s cot, a stabilizer serum in hand.

“It’s Cutter’s crew,” Reyes hissed, checking the firing slit. “At least twelve. They’re just raiders who want Riley for the bounty.

The pounding intensified. Bullets sparked off the reinforced door.

Jax moved to the slit, claws already extending with a wet rip of skin from his fingertips. His reinforced tendons hummed with power. “Hold the door. I’ll take point when it gives. Reyes, pistol only — no jack on these ones. Tank, suppress. Milo, keep Riley stable no matter what.”

The door buckled under another heavy impact, reinforced by the armour upgrades of the human battering ram. Jax took a deep breath and positioned himself.

When the first attacker — a burly man with a sawed-off shotgun — kicked the door open and charged in, Jax met him head-on.

.The burly man fired from the hip. A system notification popped up

[New Skill Unlocked! :Chronostasis]

[Effect: Perception of time slowed by 90% for 3 seconds.]

[Warning: High mental fatigue cost. Use now? [YES/NO]

Jax chose yes

Time slowed to a snail's pace, and Jax saw the bullet coming at him. He twisted to the side just in time, the shot grazing his shoulder and ricocheting off the armor plating there. Momentum drove him forward. He slammed his clawed hand into the man’s chest. The claws sank deep into flesh with a wet rip, tearing through muscle and scraping bone. Blood — bright red, sprayed across Jax’s arm and face.

The man screamed, a raw, guttural sound, and swung the shotgun like a club. Jax caught the barrel with his left forearm. The impact should have shattered bone, but his upgraded tendons absorbed it like steel cables. He twisted hard and yanked the man off balance, then drove a knee into his ribs. Bone cracked audibly. The attacker crumpled, coughing blood.

Behind him, two more raiders pushed through the breach, steel blades on their hips, and pistols in their hands.

Reyes fired twice from cover. The first shot took one raider in the thigh, dropping him. His

blood pumped onto the concrete. The second shot punched through the other man’s shoulder, spinning him around and spraying red across the doorframe.

Tank opened up with the heavy machine gun, the roar deafening in the confined space. Bullets tore into the next wave of attackers, shattering kneecaps and punching through chests, their, bodies jerking and collapsing in the doorway.

One raider got close enough to lunge at Jax with a long knife. Jax couldn't use his new chronostasis ability, due to its side effect. But the system intervened.

[SYSTEM ALERT]

NEW MODULE INTEGRATED: [Kinetic Aegis] (Level 1)

Description: Generates a high-density energy barrier.

Integrity: 120 seconds

Status: Deploying to intercept incoming projectile.]

[Yes/No?]

Jax triggered it. A kinetic barrier flared invisible around his torso for a split second. The blade struck the shield and rebounded with violent force, the impact sending the attacker flying backwards as if hit by a truck. He slammed into the wall with a sickening crunch of breaking bones and slid down, coughing blood.

Jax pressed the advantage. He grabbed the fallen man by the collar and drove a clawed fist into his face. The reinforced tendons gave the punch crushing power. The man’s nose exploded in a spray of blood and cartilage. Jax followed with two more savage blows, each one landing with a wet, meaty thud. Blood poured down the raider’s face as he went limp.

Another attacker fired a pistol at point-blank range. The bullet bounced off the shield harmlessly. Jax roared and charged, tackling the shooter to the ground. They grappled in the slick pool of blood already spreading across the floor. The man’s knife slashed wildly, opening a shallow cut along Jax’s forearm. The shield had reached its maximum countdown, and no longer protected him.

Jax headbutted him. Then he drove his claws into the man’s stomach, twisting viciously. The raider screamed — a high, desperate sound — as hot blood gushed over Jax’s hand.

When the last attacker broke and fled into the night, the bunker looked like a slaughterhouse. Broken bodies lay tangled in the doorway, limbs twisted at unnatural angles, faces smashed and bleeding. The air reeked of gunpowder, copper, and s**t from ruptured bowels.

Jax dropped to one knee inside the doorway, chest heaving. Reyes helped him up.

Tank slung his gun and started binding a deep cut on his own thigh. “They’ll be back. Or worse — they’ll tell Phantom Ridge we have a bloodline partial. Word travels fast.”

Milo was already checking Riley again, his hands shaking as he wiped blood from his own face. “The link pulled on him too during the fight, but he’s stable. Barely. We can’t wait any longer. If we stay here, more crews will come. We need to reach Iron Gulch — there are rumors of a high-level Medic-class player there with real XP. Someone who’s been grinding this system long enough to actually have the abilities to cure Riley.”

Jax looked at his bloodied hands, the claws slowly retracting with a slick, wet sound.

He wiped blood from his face and met the crew’s eyes.

“We leave at first light,” Jax said, voice low and hard. “We get Riley to that Medic. And we make damn sure no one else tries to take him.”

The bunker fell silent except for the drip of blood and the distant howl of the warped desert wind.

Somewhere out there, Phantom Ridge was already listening.

And the BioForge was always watching.