FIRESTORM

"The mud lands don't forgive mistakes. Each morning our clan rises to the same choice—which direction might yield salvage instead of death. We've lost three sisters this season already. But still we rise with the toxic dawn, checking each other's seals, counting our shared bullets. Out here, survival isn't just living—it's defiance against a world that wants your bones as decoration. The clan is all that stands between us and the mud's hunger for our flesh. We scavenge together, or we die together." 

• Unknown scavenger from a nameless clan, deceased

A tribe of scavengers exits of the contaminated zones of the European mud lans. These contaminated areas are dangerous, but full of valuable leftovers from the great civilisations of the past.

Having spent a long time in the contaminated zone, they are low on supplies and are now desperately looking for food and clean water.

At last, the clan finds a fresh water creek and surrounding plant life. They make camp and begin to forage for food. After what seems like an eternity of exploring the contaminated zone, they are letting their guard down for the first time in days.

All around the campsite, huge hulking creatures suddenly begin to rise out of the mud, decades old bio-warmachines from the wars of the Great Collapse. By the time the scavengers notice them, it is too late...

The bio soldiers unleash a firestorm of death on the tribal warriors. Most of the scavengers never even manage to reach for their weapons, and what little return fire there is, bounces harmlessly off the super soldier's armour.

The killing only stops when the bio soldiers' malfunctioning command algorithm suddenly makes them stop firing and turn away. Most of the scavengers lie dead and dying. The clan is all but wiped out after a single moment of letting their guard down, a cruel lecture in the ways of the Desolation...