21:29, February 1, 2295

  200 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60601, Terra Alliance territory

  For her entire life, she had grown up contending with monsters. Escaping them. Sying them. Bedding them. Beasts. Men. Anything in between. Her feelings didn't matter; surviving them was all that did.

  Lorna Weiss stood atop a decrepit skyscraper, her blonde hair streaming in the winter wind. Below, Chicago hummed with activity, most of its citizens still blissfully unaware of humanity's decades-long war against horrors from beyond Earth. Under Osram's silver light, she could see them – twisted shapes skulking between buildings, drawn to something.

  "Target's definitely dumping Helionite down there," Thomas Mendoza's voice carried across the rooftop. His short wheat-colored hair and massive frame catching her attention, bionic arms gleaming dull silver. At six-foot-two, the Vanguard marine moved with surprising grace. "Illegal transport schedule. Someone's feeding these things deliberately."

  "Ready for a dramatic entrance?" she asked, the gaze of her sapphire irises catching the appreciative gnce he tried to hide. That had been happening more tely - not that she minded. As a Psi Lynx agent in the Alliance, there were worse things than having a handsome partner watching one’s back.

  “Heh.” Thomas grinned, metal fingers flexing. "Ladies first."

  Stepping over the lifeless body of a massive mutated octopus, its dark brown skin blending into the rooftop, Lorna took a deep breath and leaped off the edge. Head first and feet up, she fell freely through the ndscape below, fluttering her eyes shut and feeling the wind whip against her signature beige trench coat lined with ballistic-weave that fluttered behind her like a comet bzing through the sky.

  In that moment, amidst an imminent Radi-Mon incursion, nothing else mattered. There was only destiny pulling her downward, the exhiration of freefall, and the promise of a hefty bonus for taking out whatever was drawing these creatures here.

  "Corpus meum leve ut pluma." Eyes open wide, a soft azure aura surrounded Lorna as she plummeted. The air grew thick with her psionic energy, slowing her descent just meters above the ground. She somersaulted, nding softly on her bck boots.

  Then Thomas jumped down, flexing his cybernetic arms to stabilize himself and nding a few meters behind her.

  "The way you show off is always beautiful. Been working out?" he said, his voice coming through clear in the quantum-encrypted earpiece nestled in her right ear canal. The device was barely visible - just a bck crystalline bead that could have been mistaken for a beauty mark.

  "Always. My twenty-ninth birthday is soon, and age won’t get the better of me,” Regaining her composure, Lorna stood striaight. She wore a form-fitting blue combat suit that hugged her athletic figure while her coat draped over it. Golden locks, styled in an unyielding sweep back from her face, caught the dying light and shone like a warrior angel's halo. Her skin was fair and unmarred as polished ivory.

  "Another lovely night in the field, eh?" Diego Rodriguez's voice crackled through the comm channel, tinged with the Mexican accent that was common among Novians like him. "And speaking of showing off - we've got company. Multiple Radi-Mon signatures converging on your position."

  “Roger,” Lorna moved, every step deliberate.

  The creatures came into view - Bone Fiends, two of them. Like wolves twisted by nuclear nightmare, they stalked forward on legs of exposed bone and muscle. Spine-like protrusions jutted from their backs, and their hollow eyes gleamed with unnatural hunger.

  Behind them scuttled Maurs, mutated ants the size of German shepherds, their jointed legs clicking against concrete as they hauled crystallized chunks of green nuclear waste.

  "Just another night," Lorna said as her fingers found Baldr's sleek silver hilt in her coat pocket, the metal cool against her skin. The weapon was a polished cylinder, its surface having glowing interface running along its length. As she drew it, a soft blue light pulsed from within, matching her heartbeat and the flow of her psionic energy.

  Lorna reguted her breathing, watching puffs of white smoke dissipate in the freezing air as her body heated. The interface scanned her vitals, confirming she was in optimal condition to wield the bde.

  "Baldr, activate!" she decred.

  With a flick of her wrist, quantum energy erupted from the cylinder - a dazzling beam of blue light that cut through the darkness brighter than any star, humming with barely contained power.

  "There she goes!" Thomas observed, drawing his own weapons - retractable titanium bdes extending from his cybernetic forearms.

  The Maurs, sensing the sudden surge of energy, quickened their frantic pace. The Bone Fiends tensed, preparing to spring.

  Chicago's neon-lit towers loomed above them.

  "Ready, Thomas?" Lorna raised Baldr, its azure light reflecting in her eyes. The bde hummed.

  "Hell yeah!" Thomas said with a grim smile as the monsters charged.

  The first Bone Fiend leaped, aiming at Lorna's throat. Baldr sang through the air, quantum energy leaving trails of blue light as she sidestepped and struck. The beast's flesh sizzled where the bde connected, howling as it dissolved into ash.

  "Above you!" Thomas suddenly called out. The second Bone Fiend unched itself from a nearby dumpster. His cybernetic arms whirred as his fist bdes went through the mutated hound’s skull.

  The monster thrashed once before going limp.

  "Getting sloppy, aren't we?" Lorna teased, her eyes tracking the Maurs.

  The mutated ants had scattered, abandoning their crystallized Helionite cargo. Their compound eyes gleamed with an unsettling intelligence.

  "They're not this coordinated usually," Thomas noted, shaking dead flesh from his bdes. "Is there a nearby Kraken? Nest, even?"

  "Gcies Lunae Fulgur!" Lorna's mezzo-soprano voice rang out as she channeled psionic energy through her left palm. Blue ethereal streams crackled between her fingers before unching toward the nearest Maur. The creature's chitinous armor cracked as it fell on the ground.

  "Oi, conserve your Aether, amiga!" Diego reminded over the comm. "This is really just a warm-up."

  Thomas moved to guard Lorna's fnk. "Diego, we're seeing evolved behavior patterns here. You getting this?"

  "Scanning now," Diego's voice could be heard with the sounds of fingers clicking rapidly across his keyboard. "Yep, readings all networked somehow. They're receiving orders from – "

  "Incoming!" Lorna spun as a rger shape came into sight. A Skuggr - like a mutated stink bug the size of a hoverbike, with a canine-like head growing from its sickly brown torso. Green saliva dripped from its maw.

  "Fulmen Argentum!" Silver lightning erupted from Lorna's fingertips, buying her space as she brought Baldr to bear. The Skuggr reeled back, its armored carapace smoking, but three more Maurs used the opening to surge forward.

  Lorna moved among them, her sword emitting a hum as it met each target. One by one, the creatures fell, their glowing eyes fading into darkness.

  “Really in the mood for spell casting tonight, eh, Lorna?” Diego's voice came through their comms.

  “Got a bottle of Indra-Sprite on me, so, no biggie.” Lorna drove Baldr through the Skuggr's skull, the quantum bde piercing through to show on the other side as the creature fell. "If I ever run out, I’ll use it."

  "Right. Just make sure you have enough for the big bad ter," Diego replied. "Also, these aren't random strays. They're all converging on Michigan Avenue. Someone's coordinating them."

  Thomas's bdes fshed as he slowed down. "And if the Maurs are here, there's a nearby nest."

  "Something like that,” Lorna grinned, voice calm despite the sweating of her body.

  They soldiered on, passing by a massive voluptuous holographic figure illuminated the side of a nearby building. The hologram was clothed in little more than a gossamer slip.

  "Hmm. Leased Lily ad." Lorna commented as she looked at it.

  The holographic woman slid her slip down her thighs, her legs parting to reveal the folds of her bare, glistening vagina. Programmed, she seductively started to rub an iridescent credit chip across her exposed flesh, trembling erotically. The ad's flowing neon script pulsed, synchronized with the woman's hips bucking, ‘Leased Lily Services, where desire meets discretion.’

  Thomas caught Lorna staring at the ad. "Something caught your eye?"

  "Just remembering a different life," she replied with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

  For a fleeting moment, she was back in Oslo again—a nervous girl named Sigrún Fjeld with dreams of singing, sitting across from her father as monsters tore through the city. The memory faded as quickly as it came.

  Another tremor shook the street. Somewhere ahead, gss shattered and people screamed.

  "Diego," Lorna called out, already moving. "What exactly are we dealing with here?"

  "Multiple threats," came Diego's reply on the voice comm, accompanied by what sounded like rapid keyboard clicks. "Got a Css-2 Diabolisk heading toward Triumph Tower, a nest in Grant Park east of Michigan Avenue, and..." He paused. "Something else. The Armed Forces just picked up unusual psionic signatures near Wacker Drive."

  "Of course. There’s always someone psionic behind these," Lorna said with a sigh.

  "Remember that cult leader we've been tracking?" Diego continued. "Mac Watrous. Intel suggests he's there, and he might be behind all this."

  Thomas pressed his silver fingers to his earpiece. "I can handle the Nest. Request Armed Forces Vanguard support. Should be enough firepower to clear it out."

  "Approved. Dispatching a squad now!" Diego confirmed. "And Lorna - the Diabolisk can wait. If Watrous is really behind this, he's a priority. Only Psi Lynxes like you can deal with him."

  Lorna's grip tightened on Baldr's hilt. A psionic cult leader feeding Radi-Mons in his own country - it was exactly the kind of escation she'd feared since Scandinavia fell. Her homend had been consumed by these monsters, leaving nothing but frozen ruins.

  "Meet me at Triumph Tower when you're done?" she asked Thomas, who stepped closer, his cybernetic arms encircling her waist, his silver gray eyes meeting her oceanic blue.

  "Sure thing. Be careful out there..."

  He leaned in for a kiss, but Lorna turned her head slightly, letting his lips brush her cheek instead.

  "Save that energy, Tom," she whispered, her hand sliding down to give his rear a pyful squeeze. "We can have fun after this mission."

  "That kind of fun, Miss Psi Lynx?" Thomas asked with a sly grin.

  "Depends," Lorna replied, biting her lip, "I might give you some if you behave?"

  He chuckled as he released her from the embrace. "Promise?"

  As Thomas headed east, Lorna paused beside the remnants of their earlier battle.

  The Maurs' abandoned cargo y scattered across the pavement — sacs of Helionite, their translucent membranes woven from the creatures' saliva, each containing a thick green slurry. The nuclear waste from cold fusion reactors glowed like demonic blood.

  Another tremor shook the ground. In the distance, screams echoed off steel and gss as civilians fled the chaos. Lorna watched them run, families clutching each other, workers abandoning their offices.

  "We'll win. The Terra Alliance always wins." she muttered, activating Baldr's quantum bde. The familiar blue light cast shadows across her features.

  The Alliance might pay her well for hunting these creatures, but money wasn't everything. Every Radi-Mon she killed, every person she protected was another step toward ensuring no one else would lose their home, their family, their entire world to these monsters.

  She began to run toward Wacker Drive. Behind her, the Leased Lily ad continued its dance, a reminder of paths taken and left behind.

  Ahead y monsters, both human and otherwise. But that was fine - contending with monsters was what she did best.

  velwoven