a heavy fog drapes above Genoas harbor like a burial shroud. Ships, lost and half sunken jut from the black water through the fog like tombstones. Rusted cranes stand against the first rays of morning sun like gallows. In the distance floodlights flicker, indicating the bloodfarm. Rows of corrugated warehouses, walls scorched black and heavy with the tang of blood. Inside pale figures move, feeding, working, dragging bodies, dead ones and those that still wait to die.

  dozens of network operatives, supported by baseline soldiers move slow and silent through the fog. Powers ready beneath camouflaged cloaks, auras retracted and weapons at the ready. Melissa moves among them, quieter, her presence almost spectral. Alexander beside her carries his massive cleaver over his shoulder, grinning like a man walking in to a brawl, not a war.

  Ability: Blood Armaments (Blood)

  (Blood, defense & offense, active ability)

  Base cost: Moderate mana/stamina

  Current rank: Bronze

  Cooldown: Medium

  Iron, Crimson Edge: Forms basic blood weapons (swords, axes, blunt instruments) and a thin protective coating. Weapons deal slightly increased damage scaling with missing health. Armor absorbs minor damage.

  Bronze, Sanguine Armory: Weapons grow heavier, deal more damage. Armor thickens, reducing damage and slightly resisting stagger or knockback. Life force can surpass the normal maximum while this power is active

  Through the com they hear the voice of the DTO Bernardi “Phase one staring now, move in, neutralize guards and clear their nests. Confirm civilian presence before cleansing” Alexander chuckles quietly “sounds simple enough” she shakes her head “that's what they all say before the screaming starts”

  Teams fan out. Melissa, Alexander and Romy follow one of the silver rank command squads. From a pouch on her belt Melissa gets a hand full of hard metal balls, small like dice but heavy. Alexander follows, holding the giant cleaver with both hands as blood coalesces to a thick dark red metal plating more akin to a fantasy Viking than a modern soldier. Sound-suppression runes hum and gunfire flashes as the first outer sentries collapse. One of Melissa's metal balls shoots out like a bullet as she uses one of her newer tricks. The network feeling generous before the offensive stocking her up with a few awakening stones

  Ability: Telekinetic Barrage (Force)

  (telekinesis, force, environmental manipulation)

  Base cost: Moderate mana; rises with object size, number, or complexity of manipulation.

  Current rank: Iron

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  Cooldown: short.

  Iron, Kinetic Burst: I can make the world answer my whisper. Lift and hurl small objects like stones, bones, weapons with deadly precision. If nothing is loose, the power becomes dense pressure bolts, not strong enough to harm but enough to disrupt. Just a tremor, a whisper, and the world moves for me.

  Her Perception power guiding them to the sounds of civilians. Alexander taking point, no hesitation as his cleaver builds momentum and Virelle strikes out to finish what he started.

  A warehouse door bursts inward under there assault

  “Remember your end” Melissa whispers an incantation as necrotic energy pulses into the metal ball she then launches with Telekinetic Barrage. The ball shoots like a bullet and shatters the jaw of a iron rank vampire, necrosis spreading from the wound and rotting the rest of his head.

  Ability: Reverberating Decay (death)

  (necrotic infusion, debilitation, temporal distortion)

  “Remember your end”

  Base cost: Low

  Current rank: Iron

  Cooldown: short, increases with repeated uses.

  Iron, Withering Touch: I can remind flesh its own mortality. The next attack or spell I release carries additional necrotic damage. Flesh rots, bones creak, breath shortens.

  Romys conjured gun makes soft pop pop pop sounds as its sound is suppressed but the effect of the high caliber special attack turns another Vampire to bloody mist. Other operatives move in, chained civilians are cut free, as Virelle detaches completely from Alexander and feeds them life-force. But not all of them get up. Some are already gone.

  The com cracks and Bernardi's voice cuts through the interference “Outer perimeter secured, holding areas cleared. Hostile resistance minimal. All sections proceed to central facility” Alexander grins “Minimal. I like minimal” she shakes her head. An uneasy feeling spreading “Yeah. That's what scares me”

  They push deeper in to the facility, eliminating guards and free civilians chained in pens like animals. The heart of the Bloodfarm opens up before them. A massive open yard surrounded by storage tanks and administrative buildings. The wet ground glistens red and black under the floodlights. Cages line the walls, stacked high. They are empty now. Doors swinging in the morning breeze

  Bernardi signals forward “Clear. No movement” the Sections move in as a coordinated force, baseline soldiers follow to support. Alexander lifts his cleaver over his shoulder and looks around “No bodies.” he observes as Melissa closes her eyes, sound ripples like disturbed water as she feeling out with her perception power. ”They felt us coming” the realization comes to late. The floodgates flicker, once, twice and go dark

  For a long moment only the tap tap tap of dripping blood and water remain. Then they hear it, a soft laugh, smooth, layered, ancient. They are already encircled...