On an abandoned toxic refinery basin on Kordane-9, a crashed infantry transport needs its stolen heat-regulator core back before it can lift off. The unit was scraped off the shuttle by one of the planet’s apex predators.

The Skycutters own the towers above them, striking from the sun, tearing open armor seams, and packing the ship’s engine core into a rookery of bones, eggs, helmets, and machine scrap.

Every step across open ground draws them lower.

This is “Skycutters Own the Air” by Sascha Schmidt.