The first warning wasn’t a sound — it was the way the dust shifted.
Ruin Station’s outer ring was quiet that night, the kind of quiet that only Pyro could make feel hostile. The Forsaken crew had gathered for what should’ve been a simple meet‑and‑trade with a local runner named Vex. Nothing special. Nothing dangerous. Just credits for intel.
Then the ash started falling.
Not real ash — Pyro’s version of it. Burnt particulate drifting off the station’s broken hull, swirling in slow motion like the system itself was holding its breath. Every veteran in The Forsaken knew what that meant.
Something big had just fired thrusters nearby.
Rook was the first to spot it. “Contacts. Three. No transponders.”
The shapes emerged through the haze — scavenger cutters, old hulls patched with scrap metal and bad decisions. Their engines burned dirty, casting long shadows across the station’s fractured plating.
Vex cursed under his breath. “Those aren’t mine.”
The Forsaken didn’t need more explanation. The scavengers weren’t here to negotiate. They were here because someone had leaked the meeting. Someone wanted the intel Vex was carrying — the location of a drifting executive hangar rumored to still have functioning systems.
The cutters opened fire.
The station lit up in a storm of ricochets and sparks. Rook dove behind a collapsed bulkhead, returning fire with short, controlled bursts. Nyx sprinted across the open platform, dragging Vex by the collar as plasma bolts carved glowing scars into the metal behind them.
“Forsaken, collapse to fallback point Bravo!” Command barked over comms.
But Bravo was already compromised — a cutter had latched onto the hull, its boarding clamps screeching like metal on bone.
The Forsaken didn’t retreat.
They surged forward.
Rook vaulted the railing, landing on the cutter’s hull as it tried to peel away. He drove his magboots down, anchoring himself as he fired point‑blank into the cockpit glass. Nyx flanked the second ship, disabling its engines with a well‑placed EMP charge that sent it spinning into the debris field.
The third scavenger hesitated.
That was its mistake.
A Forsaken gunship dropped out of the clouds of ash, engines roaring like a beast waking up. Its cannons fired once — a single, precise shot — and the last cutter disintegrated into a cloud of molten fragments.
Silence returned.
The ash drifted again.
Vex stared at the Forsaken, wide‑eyed. “You people are insane.”
Nyx wiped dust off her visor. “We walk where others won’t.”
Rook stepped forward. “Now hand over the intel. Someone clearly wants it more than you do.”
Vex swallowed hard and passed him the encrypted slate.
The Forsaken didn’t celebrate. They didn’t linger. They simply regrouped, boarded their ship, and vanished into Pyro’s darkness — leaving only drifting ash and the echo of their engines behind.
Another night. Another fight survived. Another secret earned.