Outer Rim: The All-Points Assault

The skies over Myrren-3 were boiling gold, the twin suns shrouded by spirals that turned slowly, hypnotically, before tearing open like wounds. From the rifts burst the Mawborn — a crimson titan bristling with molten spines, and a hulking green war-beast, its armored limbs pumping as it descended toward the shores of Lake Talin. The terraforming air machine stood at the lake’s edge, humming like a heart. It had just finished the first stage of Myrren-3’s atmosphere conversion. It wouldn’t finish the second. Colonel Vance Korr crouched behind an outcrop, pistol in hand. His comm-link was alive with chaos — voices screaming from every corner of the Outer Rim. “—repeat, we’ve lost contact with Site Gamma—” “—acid spray’s breached the tower’s main core—” “—Mawborn inbound, two minutes—” Every call ended the same way — static, or the low, rattling roar of those alien throats. The green Mawborn hit the lake with a splash like a detonated charge, claws digging into the shoreline as it surged toward the air machine. The red one circled above, mouth yawning wide, shadows of its teeth cutting across the desert floor. Korr tightened his grip on the pistol. Against creatures this size, it was a joke. But standing down wasn’t in his blood. Somewhere deep inside Earth Command’s control hub, dozens of blinking distress beacons now pulsed in unison. From Kalos IV to Veyra-7 to Myrren-3, the same nightmare was playing out. The Mawborn weren’t just attacking. They were erasing the Outer Rim.

(Hand drawn in Procreate) 2024