Li staggered into the open—above him yawned a massive shaft, the one bored by the Drill Team. The Guardians were waiting. One waved him over. A quick click, something latched to his suit, and he shot upward.
The ground cracked behind him.
He clung to the wounded Guardian beside him as they rocketed skyward. The Guardians below shrank to ants—and then, the ground split wide. Metal teeth burst out, shrieking. A colossal drill, exact in diameter to the shaft, clawed its way into the open air.
The Guardians scattered.
Too slow.
Debris swallowed them whole.
Li stared in horror. That was the Drill Team? He had always assumed just like A0 that the "Drill Team" was some single entity but unless this machine was sentient, that must mean a large crew was inside.
The colossal machine roared closer, its jagged drills spinning, teeth gnashing through the depth of the city. Li swayed with each bone-rattling vibration. Emerging from the tunnel, the vehicle was a wreck—smoking, cracked, its paint faded and metal torn. The shriek of its engines pierced the chaos.
On Li's shoulder, the Guardian jerked violently. In the storm of noise and motion, the creature twisted again, caught in the downdraft of the rising machine. Li clung tight but the Guardian slipped. Desperation surged as he lunged, fingers brushing the damaged suit one last time.
The bloodstained drill was almost touching him now and he screamed, letting the Guardian fall.
"NOOO!!"
No one heard his scream as he tumbled over the edge, missing the crushing tracks by inches. The vehicle settled with a thunderous groan, its weight carving deep creases into the earth where Li lay sprawled.
Silence followed.
The rumbling faded, but the weight in Li's chest did not. He lay still—bloodied, breathless, and soaked in guilt on the cracked, dark-stained ground.
…
The Drill Team's vehicle towered in the distance, its silhouette now a jagged part of the city skyline. Smoke billowed from its battered frame, cloaking the nearby buildings in a haze. Inside one of them, Li lay motionless on a medical pad, rage creeping back through the numbness.
He trembled, silent sobs shaking his body. A Medical Guardian crouched nearby, checking vitals. Beside him, Naryssa sat cross-legged, calm but firm.
"Li… It's not your fault."
"Naryssa, I don't want to hear it—"
"He would've died from blood loss anyway. His species is too fragile for this planet."
"Naryssa—"
"You can't punish yourself for something you couldn't control."
Li exhaled shakily, tears hidden behind his helmet's visor. He was grateful she couldn't see. Eyes closing, the pain dulled for a moment and he drifted into an uneasy rest.
…
Last night's crew meeting was the most unbearable Li had ever sat through—and it would be his last. Held on the third floor of a scorched building, the surviving members from every crew gathered in tense silence. Li, dazed and hollow, struggled to push tasteless rations through his helmet's mouthpiece as the commanders spoke.
"We've lost three team leaders. All veterans are gone. And dozens of Guardians. The Drill Team will remain with us for the next few cycles," a voice declared.
Then, a distorted, bone-chilling transmission echoed through his helmet, translated into mechanical English:
"We've found a major vital-point.."
A hush followed.
"That was the final message from one of the vets. We don't know if that message is real or if it's the S-tier playing games from below. But if it is real, we can't ignore it. We need a large joint descent—across all crews. We're going down there. With the Drill Team. To find the leaders. And whatever that 'vital' is. We will go through volunteers first, then we will choose arbitrarily."
A couple of hands went up in front of Li and Naryssa whispered in his helmet,
"Li, are you going?"
Li didn't reply. He stared at the space on the ground between his feet, then raised his hand.
He could hear Naryssa gasp quietly in his helmet.
Naryssa raised her hand but the window to volunteer had closed.
"If any of you wish to drop out, now is the chance. This mission will be far more dangerous than the previous one. You will all be in dangerous, uncharted territory and half the time, you will be outside of the Drill Team's vehicle. I would like all of you to take one more moment to think this through while the Drill Team speaks."
A few fuzzy and round little mole-creatures hopped into the center. Each wore a yellow construction helmet, Earth-style. For a moment, only high-pitched squeaks and heart-melting chatter filled the air. Then the translator kicked in.
"S-tier forced us from tunnels. We… sorry, for any harmed. Our vehicle was close to ruin. That exit—only one safe. We chose it to not kill more. We want to fix. Next mission… we will fight to end this."
More squeaks followed,agreeing.
Li looked at the little ones. They had to be the pilots. Each barely half his size. To control such a machine with precision… and to do it as S-tiers? The teamwork must have been extreme.
The other leader cut in again,
"Tomorrow, you will board at 3:15 Standard and from then on, we only wish you the best. Repairs shall be done by then."
Silence engulfed them all. Then Li stood; the first to move, his body numb as he walked out of the room.
"Thank you, sir."
The others stared, equally numbed by the day's events, slowly followed. Naryssa shook her head and hurried after him.
Li moved through the hallways and up the stairs. It was empty now; everyone was inside the building, and the stairs to the rooftop weren't blocked. He climbed slowly. The steps were large—fitting for an alien society. He scanned the area, looking for the most logical way to the roof, then slipped through a decorated door and up a narrow opening.
The darkness here was no different, but this spot let in a sliver of outside light. A chill swept over him as the familiar blackness wrapped around his body. Only the silhouettes of nearby towers stood visible through the gloom.
He took a deep breath. There was too much to process. If he stopped to think, he might have figured out more—but there was no time for that.
Wearily, he looked up—just as the sky exploded in the brightest burst of purple he had ever seen, like a lightning strike back on Earth. For a second, it lit up the entire city, imprinting its scale across his vision—hundreds of thousands of details stamped into his mind. And in the sky, like an enormous violet eye, the core of the burst, its pitch-black iris fixed on him.
Then, darkness again. And Li stood frozen.
He was the only one to see it.
"Li."
It was Naryssa. She looked worn out, and walked over.
"Li… I…"
"Don't worry, it was my choice, no one forced me."
"Li. Please,"
"Naryssa, I'll be fine."
Li could feel her desperation, but he stood. He wanted to move, but he remained still, gazing into the distance. The invisible city around him. The rumble of the hundreds of feet beneath him as the rest of the Guardians in the region dispersed.
…
Li's sense of time had long been distorted.
It had been a while, but eventually, Naryssa persuaded him to return to their subteam's quarters.
Li lay on the damp ground, refusing to use his COG-issued bed.
Naryssa was up too, along with two others who had also volunteered. The soft lights from their helmets glowed comfortingly in the dim space.
It felt like he was a child again—surrounded by calm darkness, with only the faint glow of a night light by his bedside. He had settled into a near sleep, warmth slowly spreading through his body... but he never lost consciousness.
He couldn't.
It was like his fifth-grade insomnia all over again. And yet, there was an odd comfort in it. A strange sense of nostalgia. Like walking to the bathroom at night, when the world was silent and still—small lights glowing here and there, making everything seem … prettier.
…
It felt like hours in a very light sleep but when Li opened his eyes again, he saw Naryssa standing with the other two Guardians who were going with him.
A gentle voiced broke the silence,
"Li, it's time to go."
It didn't take much effort to get up, yet the haze of guilt still hung over Li like a storm cloud. A few of the spots where other Guardians once lay were now empty. The cycle had already started.
A new voice spoke,
"We'll get food in the machine, it's time to go. There's a last minute briefing downstairs, I think we're already late."
"Alright, let's go then."
Li shuffled down the stairs with the others, Naryssa by his side, in silence.
The after-image of the flash last night had still stained Li's eyes and whenever he tried, he could see a really dim outline.
A few blocks down, a large group had gathered around the small hard-hat creatures of the Drill Team, their vehicle looming behind them. As he got closer, he realized the sheer size of the machine. It was like a dozen school-busses. No. Hundreds.
Someone barked into their helmets.
"You're late, you three!"
"Sorry sir."
"I'll see that you are all on heavy duty! Move!"
The Guardians hurried to the rest of the group. Naryssa stayed back, and before she tried to give Li a hug, the annoying leader began shouting at her to head back.
Li frowned, but waved back, and began walking.