On Vargas-9, the streets around Canal 7 have been digested after six months of siege, and the last starport is nearly inside the growth zone. A three-man sapper detail enters the ruined city to plant seismic charges beneath a Siren-Pillar and buy the evacuation another forty-eight hours.

The Siren-Pillars do not hunt like animals. They digest roads and buildings, vent spore-mist that gums armor and filters, and keep missing soldiers alive inside honeycomb pockets so their heat, transponders, and distress calls lure rescue teams deeper into the city.

The team moves through breathing mist with seismic mauls and a low-yield plasma cutter, scraping growth from their suits as the streets close behind them. When a secondary pillar blocks exfil and the target’s root chamber reveals the missing Third Battalion still warm above the charges, th ...