Blood on the Gates

POV AMARA

“Squeezing the trigger on a zombie is pure survival instinct. Squeezing it on the fool who tried to steal your future? That is poetic justice at its finest.”

The barrel of my plasma pistol does not tremble by even a millimetre as it rests steady beneath Marcus Vance’s chin.

The captain’s skin glistens with cold sweat. His pupils are blown so wide with terror that his irises are barely visible. The weapon hums with contained energy, the ozone and searing heat rising from it singeing the fine hairs along his jawline before I even begin to tighten my finger.

“Wait… hold on, Amara…” he stammers, lifting both hands into the air, his fingers visibly trembling. “We can… we can work something out. This base has enough supplies to last for years. There is more than enough for everyone. Nikolai and I were brothers in arms in the Third Brigade…”

“You were the cur who signed my confinement order while you looted my stockpiles for yourself, Marcus,” Nikolai’s voice cuts through the air behind me, heavy and final as a death sentence.

Vance swallows hard, his Adam’s apple grazing the warm metal pressed against his throat.

“Have mercy…” he whispers, looking deep into my eyes with a pathetic, desperate plea.

“Mercy is a luxury reserved for the living, Captain,” I tell him, my voice calm and unyielding. “And you died the moment you called me a whore.”

I squeeze the trigger.

A blinding flash of vivid blue plasma lights up the entire plaza in a heartbeat. There is no violent recoil, no messy spray of blood — just one clean, precise shot that disintegrates Vance’s head in a burst of glowing ash before his body crumples forward onto the cracked asphalt, collapsing face-first into the dust.

The silence that settles over the fortress entrance is so heavy the only sound left is the sharp, cold wind whistling down the rocky mountainside.

The remaining guards stand frozen in place. Twenty-one men, all armed with automatic rifles, all veterans of the Federation, stare at their commander’s smoking remains and then turn their wide eyes toward me, sheer panic etched into every line of their faces.

Nikolai steps forward with two heavy, deliberate strides, coming to stand firmly at my right side. The dark titanium plating on his forearms hums with a deep, resonant vibration, thin wisp of crimson steam rising faintly from the seams where the metal meets his skin.

“Drop your weapons!” Nikolai’s roar booms out, echoing off the concrete walls carved into the mountain like rolling thunder. “Or so help me, I will bury every last one of you beside your captain before the sun dips below the horizon!”

The sharp clatter of the first rifle hitting the pavement breaks the spell.

One by one, rifles, pistols, tactical vests and ammunition belts clatter to the ground. They take three slow steps backward, hands clasped behind their heads. Not a single man among them is foolish enough to draw down against a walking nightmare and the woman who erased their leader in the blink of an eye.

[Tactical Mission Complete: Main Entrance Secured]

[Reward Granted: 500 Warfare Dominance Points]

[Status: Perimeter Control — Fully Secured]

I lower my weapon slowly, looking over the survivors with complete, unemotional indifference.

“What do we do with them?” Nikolai asks quietly, never taking his eyes off the disarmed troops. “One word from you and I clear this entire ramp right now.”

“Killing them wastes ammunition and energy we cannot afford to burn,” I answer, walking forward until I stand directly before the first row of prisoners. “We need hands to carry supplies, reinforce barricades and clear the road ahead.”

I stop in front of the oldest-looking soldier, a broad-shouldered man with a jagged shrapnel scar running along the side of his neck. He drops his gaze the moment I meet his eyes, unable to hold my stare.

“What is your name, soldier?” I ask, my tone firm and commanding.

“Sergeant Cole, Ma’am,” he answers promptly, voice steady but thick with caution. “We were the engineering detachment of the Third Brigade. Captain Vance seized command by force shortly before the collapse. None of us wanted any part of this.”

“Good. Listen closely, Cole — here are the rules of the new order. The military Federation is dead. The orders of your old generals are worth less than the gunpowder in your empty cartridges. As of this moment, Black Raven Fortress has one supreme ruler, and that is me. Commander Lanston oversees all defence. I decide who eats, who works, and who gets thrown outside for the infected to tear apart. Is that absolutely clear?”

“Loud and clear, Ma’am!” several voices shout in unison, hope flickering alive in their eyes — the simple, desperate hope that they might actually survive this day.

“Collect your sidearms and leave the heavy crates where they lie. Secure the outer perimeter and post sentries along the lower barricade. If anyone attempts anything foolish, there will be no second warning.”

“Yes, Ma’am!”

Nikolai glances sideways at me with a crooked, impressed smile as we walk toward the colossal hydraulic gate.

“You command like you were born wearing a uniform, Amara,” he remarks quietly.

“I lead like someone who never intends to be at anyone’s mercy ever again,” I reply, sliding my pistol securely into its thigh holster.

Set into the wall beside the main entrance sits a biometric control terminal protected by thick bulletproof glass. Nikolai brushes dust and debris from the scanner surface with the back of his heavy glove and presses his open palm against the panel.

A crisp green laser sweeps across his hand.

«DNA Profile Confirmed: Commander Nikolai Lanston. Status: Commanding Officer, Third Division.»

“Place your hand flat against the console beside mine,” he tells me, stepping aside and meeting my gaze with complete seriousness. “The command system requires dual-authority registration to activate full sovereignty protocols.”

I do not hesitate for even a heartbeat. I rest my right hand over the glowing sensor.

A faint, warm tingle travels up my fingertips as my internal system interfaces directly with the base’s mainframe. A high-pitched hum rises from the terminal, syncing perfectly with my own vision overlay.

[SSS-Rank Synchronization Protocol Initiated]

[Overwriting Secondary Command Authorization… Complete]

[User Amara Wilson Registered As: Supreme Sovereign — Black Raven Fortress]

Four-inch thick alloy deadbolts slide home with a series of heavy, mechanical thuds. Hydraulic valves hiss open, releasing a billowing cloud of white pressurised steam, and the massive three-metre gate begins to glide slowly sideways, revealing the dim, shadowed hangar bay beyond.

A cool, filtered breeze washes over us, carrying the sharp, clean scent of well-oiled machinery and fresh wiring.

But that moment of peace lasts barely three seconds.

The moment we step across the threshold into the main hangar, the bright overhead white lights cut out completely.

In their place, a ring of flashing red emergency beacons begins to spin violently, bathing the entire steel chamber in an eerie, pulsating blood-red glow.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

From high above on arched ceiling rails, four heavy internal defence turrets descend silently into position, their twin large-calibre barrels locking straight onto our position.

A flat, synthetic voice — cold, precise and utterly devoid of human emotion — blares from speakers mounted all around us:

«Level Four Biological Contamination Alert. Viral anomaly detected within subjects. Quarantine Protocol Active: Automated Purge commencing in five seconds.»

Nikolai tenses instantly, stepping protectively in front of me, his armoured limbs raising instinctively.

“Damn it!” he hisses through clenched teeth. “The base artificial intelligence is still running under pandemic defence protocols. It does not recognise genetic authorization when it detects active mutation signatures!”

I glance upward at the heavy barrels rotating toward us, ready to tear us apart at point-blank range.

Instead of stepping back, I take one calm step forward and fix my gaze directly upon the central mainframe terminal glowing at the far end of the bay.

“They built this machine brain to hunt monsters down. They simply forgot one crucial thing — my system was built to rule over everything, even their creations.”