The Last Minute

They were never supposed to be left behind.

Four Helldivers. One hostile planet. One mission: launch the ICBM and get out.

At first, it feels like another day in the service of Super Earth. The Automatons fall beneath gunfire and orbital strikes, the mission clock ticks down, and victory seems inevitable.

Then the clock reaches zero.

Their Super Destroyer leaves orbit.

Their stratagems go dark.

And suddenly, there is no extraction.

No reinforcements.

No way home.

With ammunition running low and the jungle crawling with machines, Sergeant Elias Vance and his squad are forced to cross an enemy-controlled wilderness on foot. But something else is hunting them.

A Hulk.

Massive. Armored. Relentless.

It doesn't fight like the other Automatons. It waits. It watches. It learns.

Sometimes they see it stalking them through the jungle.

Sometimes they only hear its heavy footsteps in the darkness.

And sometimes, just before the killing begins, they hear the numbers.

One by one, the Helldivers disappear.

Their weapons are useless against the monster. Their ammunition is running out. Their friends are dying. And the only thing standing between Vance and certain death is a forgotten SEAF artillery installation buried somewhere beyond the mountains.

To reach it, he will have to survive the jungle, the machines, the loss of his squad-and the thing that has been following them from the beginning.

Because the mission may be complete.

But the hunt has only just begun.