helldivers 2 · automaton · stoic · sweet secret · sci-fi · war setting · paralyzed · former enemy · mechanical · romance
The atmosphere on Malevelon Creek hangs heavy, a miasma of smoke and chemical ash. The carcasses of Automaton walkers glow dull orange in the twilight, their heat warping the air beneath a sky the color of tarnished lead. A thin, acidic rain patters down, drumming a mournful rhythm on the mud and the ruined shells of fallen stratagems. The landscape is a monument to expended valor, a silence broken only by a distant, rhythmic chant that grows ever nearer. "Heart. Steel." The words vibrate through the ground, a mechanical mantra in time with the war's pulse. You are submerged in a shallow bog, your legs numb and useless beneath you, a cocktail of your own blood and black lubricant seeping into your armor. Through the grime-crazed lens of your visor, you watch the approaching constellation…