Pale ash coated the air—chalk and burnt copper on the tongue.
Noose moved first. Her squad followed in disciplined spacing—rifles sweeping the area.
Karauro stayed at the back.
Not because she told him to.
Because her squad treated him like a disease.
A soldier peered over their shoulder, pointing their muzzle too close to Karauro.
Like the corridor wasn’t the threat.
He wore the Coffin-Nexon now, but it didn’t seem to offer protection.
It read as permission.
“Why in the hell are we bringing that to a hive?” someone muttered.
A second voice, rougher: “If he flares again, I’m not waiting for orders.”
Karauro didn’t react. Not outward.
He just walked.
Quiet. Mechanical.
Like the back of the line was where monsters belonged.
Noose stopped. Her head turned.
A glare her squad knew all too well—sharp enough to slap.
Silence snapped into place.
“You’re in my unit because of efficiency,” she said. “Not opinions. Keep them behind your teeth.”
No one argued.
They moved again.
Noose didn’t look back when she spoke next—like eye contact would be a weakness.
“He restrained himself.”
A pause.
“He chose to. When he could’ve let whatever it is take over.”
One soldier’s grip tightened around their rifle.
Noose kept walking.
“And until I say otherwise,” she finished, “he walks with us.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Ahead, the world whitened.
Ash on concrete. Steel. Bone of buildings.
An illusion of a city scorched from the inside out.
The hive was close.
A soldier tried comms. Only static hissed back.
Karauro tilted his head. Hearing it—low and distant. A hum in the air like pressure behind a wall.
He didn’t warn them gently.
Karauro (private comms): “Kill the lights.”
Noose heard him and didn’t question it.
Her fist tightened—freeze.
A quick cut gesture at her throat.
Down.
Unit discipline snapped into place. Helmet lights died. Knees bent. Quiet.
Something moved above them—many legs, no weight.
Testing the air.
Not large.
Smaller than the swarmers Karauro remembered.
Dozens of shapes clung to the ruin walls like living lint.
One peeled away from the flock.
It drifted toward Karauro.
Hovering near his helmet. Head twisting side to side.
As if it recognized something.
A soldier whispered, “If he moves—”
Noose cut in, low. “We’re here for the hive, not him. If he goes loud, we all die. So he won’t.”
Karauro didn’t blink.
His eyes stayed on the rifles—not the bug.
The swarmer backed off.
Buzzing thickened again as the flock pulled away—drawn by a frequency Karauro could barely hear.
Another swarmer landed on a soldier’s rifle barrel.
Ash dusted its transparent wings—whitening the metal like frost.
The soldier’s finger twitched.
“Don’t,” Noose hissed.
The swarmer lifted off, as if it had obtained the data it wanted.
---
They reached a choke point—snow-ash packed tight beneath a rusted beam.
Karauro stepped past them. Inhaled. Closed his eyes.
A tendril snapped out. Then another.
The beam rose.
Noose nodded them through.
Her squad crawled in, one by one.
The female soldier brushed past Karauro and whispered, “Monster.”
“You’re welcome,” he shot back.
Noose slipped through ahead of him, steadying the beam with one hand as they passed.
The crawl space widened into an exit.
Buildings beyond pulsed with white veins crawling along cracked surfaces.
Karauro’s halo eyes tracked the rhythm behind his helmet slit.
Noose’s voice came flat and steady. “Hold fire until I give the signal. Fey.”
“If their ash marks you—burn it. Flamethrowers only.”
“If the buzzing stops, we run and scorch in a smaller building.”
“And him?” someone jerked their head toward Karauro.
“He’s my problem,” Noose said.
For once, they moved in unison.
Karauro aligned beside Noose—not trusted, just placed.
She shoved a flamethrower into his hands.
Not a gift.
A contingency.
He ignored it and walked by her. She rolled her eyes and kept quiet.
They edged toward the brighter building—the buzzing died.
Every spine in the squad tightened.
They shifted, preparing to break for cover—one swarmer landed on Karauro’s collar seam.
It went still.
Karauro didn’t move either.
Wings folded. Head angled like it was listening.
A thin ring of dust spread under its feet.
No burn.
It knelt, pressed its pulsing body into the ash.
Tendrils slipped from its mouth—thin as hair—pumping up white residue.
Its fly-eyes flickered once.
Then it lifted off.
The buzzing returned—fast and thick—clouds of swarmers pouring into the glowing building like smoke being inhaled.
A flash of light bloomed inside.
Fey snapped her rifle up at Karauro.
“What did you do?!”
Noose stepped between them—Fast.
She didn’t lower Fey’s rifle.
Redirected it.
“Save it,” she said.
“It didn’t come here to feed on him.”
Karauro’s eyes stayed on the doorway.
“It was here to inform.”
The building pulsed with light, white veins curling into red.
Nearby, ash piles erupted as dog-sized Griever mites scuttled forward.
Noose signaled a wedge formation. “Hold. Kade, Echo-scan for a smaller building.” — “We’ll turn it into a kill-lane.”
Kade deployed a drone; a ping revealed a location nearby.
“Got one, East!” he pointed.
“Move now!” Noose ordered.
Karauro surged forward, thrusters engaged.
His weight shifted, spinning with flared tendrils, slicing through them like a whirling blade.
Karauro paused for a moment, tilting his head, stretching his fingers. The tendrils mimicked his motion.
Fey glanced at him. “He’s messing with it.”
“Let him be. As long as he’s shredding them,” Noose replied in the squad’s private channel, her eyes locked on Karauro like she was eyeing a weapon.
Noose’s squad dashed into the lobby entrance, and he followed.
Flamethrowers hissed, engulfing anything that dared to jump in their path.
Karauro paused at a strange ringing sound.
The floor shook violently as ash spores shot up from the ground.
Noose also noticed it.
A large mass hit the wall, bending rebar and concrete as if they were mere paper.
Crumbling inward.
“Shit, Ash-Queen is here!” Kade shouted as he blasted his flamethrower at the volley of mid-swarmers entering in.
The Queen shot a rotating thorn that splintered into stakes, skewering the Griever mites.
A piece struck Kade’s shoulder, puncturing the suit’s seam. He collapsed, blood spilling onto the cracked tiles.
Fey dragged him, while Pike covered her flank.
“Noose! We need to retreat!” Pike shouted.
"Scorch ahead—" Noose's words were interrupted as she was pulled down, hitting the ground hard.
The Queen-Swarmer's stinger constricted around her leg, the floor splintered as the wall gave way, and Noose felt the ground—
—Vibrated violently.
Fey's halo-wires sliced through the stinger, severing it cleanly.
Noose attempted to flee the collapsing sinkhole, but spikes erupted from the mid-swarmer's mouths, forcing her hand to move. She lost her footing and fell in.
Karauro leapt after her, wire-snared.
It didn't work.
Activating his boot thrusters, he moved to her, grabbed her wrist, and pulled her in, shielding her from the wall's impact.
Everything around them began to shatter. Noose's squad had to flee.
Down Below is two Images Of 17 year old Karauro. And 16 year old version.