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Painted the Same, Built Apart

Three brick-built armored soldiers walk through a narrow rocky ravine on an alien world, moments before an unseen ambush.

They were identical when they stepped off the transport.

Same armor. Same markings. Same precise spacing between boots as they formed up on the landing pad. Even the scuffs along their greaves looked rehearsed, as if wear itself had been standardized.

That was the point.

Unit Aurex stood at attention beneath a sky the color of burnished steel. The world beneath them was quiet—too quiet for a place the briefings described as “contested.” Wind moved dust across the pad in thin, deliberate lines, as if the ground itself was measuring them.

Rook kept his eyes forward and his thoughts narrow. That was how he’d been taught. See what’s in front of you. Do what you’re told. Don’t imagine consequences you weren’t assigned to calculate.

It worked. Most days.

To Rook’s left, Fen shifted his weight a fraction too much. To anyone else, it would have been invisible. To Rook, it was as loud as a shout.

Nerves.

To his right, Jex stood perfectly still, chin lifted, posture flawless. Jex always looked like he was being watched, even when he wasn’t.

They all were, of course.

The commander stood at the edge of the pad, cloak unmoving despite the wind. The stories about them had circulated through training halls and transport holds long before Unit Aurex had earned its designation. Victories. Impossible odds. A strategist who saw the battlefield whole instead of piece by piece.

A legend.

Legends didn’t usually look this quiet.


FIRST ORDERS

The briefing was short.

Too short.

“This sector resists order,” the commander said, voice calm, unforced. “You will move in, secure the relay hub, and withdraw. No pursuit. No improvisation.”

Fen frowned behind his visor. Rook felt it more than saw it.

Jex didn’t react at all.

“Yes, Commander,” the unit replied in perfect unison.

The commander’s gaze lingered on them for a moment longer than necessary. Not judging. Measuring.

“Remember,” the commander added, “discipline is not hesitation. It is restraint.”

Then they turned and walked away.

Fen exhaled sharply once the distance was safe. “That’s it?”

Rook kept his voice low. “Orders were clear.”

“Clear isn’t the same as complete,” Fen muttered.

Jex cut in, tone precise. “Completion isn’t our concern. Execution is.”

Fen glanced at him. “You ever wonder why we’re trained to think just enough to fight, but not enough to ask questions?”

Rook felt something tighten in his chest.

“Because questions slow reaction time,” Rook said, automatically.

Fen smiled, thin. “That’s the answer they give.”


CONTACT

The relay hub sat half-buried in a shallow ravine, its structure old but functional. Too intact for a place supposedly abandoned.

Rook took point, weapon raised, sensors sweeping. Everything read clean.

That was when the first shot came.

Not aimed at them—at the ground behind Fen. A warning, sharp and deliberate.

Figures moved along the ravine walls, armored but mismatched. Not soldiers. Something looser. Hungrier.

“Hostiles,” Rook snapped.

“Hold fire,” Jex said immediately. “Orders say no pursuit.”

“They haven’t pursued us yet,” Fen replied, already shifting position. “They’re herding.”

Rook saw it then—the angles, the way the ravine narrowed behind them. A trap, simple but effective.

“Fall back,” Rook ordered.

Another shot cracked past them, closer this time.

Fen returned fire without waiting.

The first hostile dropped.

Silence followed, brittle and short-lived.

Then the ravine erupted.


FRACTURE

The firefight was chaos compressed into seconds. Fen moved fast, aggressive, firing from angles that weren’t in the manual. Jex stayed disciplined, shots clean and measured, calling out positions with perfect clarity.

Rook did both.

That was the problem.

“Relay hub secured,” Jex said over comms, voice steady even as debris fell around them. “We withdraw now.”

Fen stared down the ravine where the hostiles were regrouping. “If we leave, they’ll retake it.”

“That’s not our concern,” Jex replied. “We were told—”

Rook raised a hand. “Enough.”

They all looked at him.

That didn’t happen often.

Rook felt the weight of it immediately—the unspoken question of why he was the one speaking.

“The commander said no pursuit,” Rook said slowly. “But they didn’t say we couldn’t hold.”

Fen’s eyes sharpened. “That’s… thinking.”

Jex hesitated. Just a fraction. “Thinking outside orders is not discipline.”

Rook looked at the relay hub, then at the narrowing exits. “Neither is dying because the situation changed.”

The hostiles advanced again, bolder now.

Fen grinned. “I vote we stay.”

Jex exhaled, something human slipping through his precision. “If we stay, we’re choosing.”

“Yes,” Rook said. “We are.”

The decision settled between them—not unanimous, but shared.

They held.


CONSEQUENCES

Reinforcements arrived late.

The commander returned to the ravine in silence, surveying the scene: the secured hub, the scattered hostiles retreating into the wastes, Unit Aurex standing amid scorched stone and spent power cells.

No casualties.

Barely.

“You exceeded your orders,” the commander said.

Rook stepped forward. “Yes, Commander.”

Fen held his breath. Jex went rigid.

The commander studied Rook for a long moment. “Why?”

Rook answered honestly. “Because following them exactly would have failed the mission.”

The commander’s gaze flicked to Fen, then Jex. “And the unit agreed?”

Fen nodded. Jex hesitated, then did the same.

Silence stretched.

Finally, the commander spoke. “Discipline without judgment is obedience. Judgment without discipline is chaos.”

They turned away.

“You will not be punished,” the commander added. “But you will remember this.”

Rook watched them leave, unsure whether he felt relief or something heavier.


AFTER

Later, as they cleaned their armor, Fen broke the silence. “So. We disobeyed.”

Jex corrected him quietly. “We interpreted.”

Rook looked at the scuffs on his chest plate—new marks, already indistinguishable from the others. “We’re still painted the same,” he said.

Fen nodded. “But not built.”

Jex considered that. “Do you think the commander planned for this?”

Rook shook his head. “I think they expected it.”

Fen smiled, slower this time. “Then maybe that’s the lesson.”

Outside, the wind moved dust across the ravine again, erasing footprints without favor.

Unit Aurex stood together, identical in armor, bound by something quieter and more dangerous than orders.

Choice.

This is an original work of fiction created by Brick Crossing, inspired by the design themes of LEGO® set 75359.
LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor, authorize, or endorse Brick Crossing.

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What Remains When the Order Is Gone

A small red and gray brick-built starship descends onto an alien world beside ancient stone ruins, with distant planets visible in the star-filled sky.

The ship moved the way a thought does—quiet, deliberate, almost reluctant to disturb the space around it.

Its hull cut a narrow path through the starfield, wings locked in a configuration meant less for speed than for balance. The engines emitted a steady, disciplined hum, tuned low enough that Rysa could hear her own breathing over it if she chose to listen.

She usually did.

Inside the cockpit, Rysa sat alone, hands resting lightly on the controls, posture straight without stiffness. Her movements were economical, practiced to the point of invisibility. No wasted gestures. No nervous checks. The ship responded before she asked it to.

That, too, was dangerous.

The nav display glowed with a long arc of plotted waypoints—worlds skirted but not entered, systems passed without comment. None of them were destinations. Only pauses between them.

Rysa had learned long ago not to linger.

Beyond the forward viewport, a planet rotated slowly into view. Its surface was fractured—vast deserts broken by old city scars, oceans reflecting starlight like polished stone. Once, it had been a center of learning. Or power. Or belief.

Once, many things had been gathered there.

Now, it was quiet.

The ship adjusted course automatically, dropping from transit into orbit with a softness that suggested respect.

Rysa exhaled.

THE WEIGHT OF SKILL

Rysa’s name no longer mattered in most places.

That had been true for a long time.

She had been trained by someone who believed discipline was a gift, and strength a responsibility. Someone who had taught her to listen before acting, to weigh intention against consequence, to move through conflict without becoming it.

That person had failed.

Or perhaps had succeeded too well.

Rysa did not dwell on the details. Dwelling was how grief turned into hesitation, and hesitation got people killed.

Her hands moved across the controls, initiating descent protocols. The ship’s wings adjusted, panels rotating with smooth, mechanical patience. Outside, the planet’s atmosphere caught the hull in bands of color—orange, then pale blue, then gray.

The ship did not shake.

It trusted her.

That trust pressed heavier than any accusation.

She touched down near the ruins of what sensors identified as an old complex—stone structures half-buried by time and sand, their geometry unmistakably deliberate. Not defensive. Not industrial.

Purposeful.

Rysa powered down the engines and sat in the silence that followed.

For a moment, she considered staying aboard.

She often did.

THE PLACE THAT REMEMBERED

The air outside was thin but breathable, carrying the scent of dust and old heat. The ruins rose in tiers, their surfaces etched with patterns worn smooth by centuries of wind. No banners. No markers. Nothing that claimed ownership.

That was how Rysa knew she was in the right place.

She moved through the complex slowly, boots crunching against fragments of fallen stone. The layout was familiar in a way that had nothing to do with memory and everything to do with intention—spaces designed for reflection, not command. For learning, not ruling.

Once, Rysa might have been greeted here.

Once, there would have been voices.

Now, there was only echo.

She stopped in a central chamber, its ceiling collapsed enough to let sunlight spill across the floor in uneven bands. At the center lay a circular platform, cracked but intact.

Rysa knelt beside it.

Her gloved hand hovered just above the stone, fingers twitching slightly—not in anticipation, but restraint.

She had been taught that power did not require proof.

So Rysa did not summon anything. Did not test the air. Did not reach.

She simply closed her eyes.

THE QUESTION THAT NEVER LEFT

Rysa had asked herself the same question on dozens of worlds, in different forms:

What does an order become when it no longer exists?

The answer was never simple.

Some believed the answer was revenge. Others chose erasure. Many tried to rebuild, copying rituals without understanding the reason behind them.

Rysa had chosen movement.

Movement kept her from turning bitter. Kept her from becoming the thing her teacher had.

But movement was also a kind of avoidance.

Her mentor had once told her that solitude sharpened purpose.

They had neglected to mention how heavy it became over time.

A gust of wind moved through the broken chamber, stirring dust into soft spirals. For a moment, the light shifted, and Rysa could almost imagine figures standing where the stone now lay empty—students listening, arguing, laughing.

She opened her eyes.

The vision faded.

Good.

Rysa rose to her feet, decision settling with quiet certainty. She did not belong to this place anymore. If she ever had.

Orders were not stone.

They were people.

And people needed help.

INTERRUPTION

The ship’s proximity alarm chimed—soft, insistent.

Rysa turned immediately, hand already moving toward the hilt at her side, senses sharpening not with panic but focus.

A small transport crested the horizon, engines sputtering unevenly. Its approach was careless, desperate. Damage scorched along its flank. No attempt at concealment.

Not a hunter.

A runner.

Rysa did not hide.

The transport landed hard near her ship, its ramp lowering with a hiss of strained hydraulics. Two figures stumbled out—one supporting the other, both clearly injured. They froze when they saw her, hands rising instinctively.

Rysa did not raise her weapon.

“Easy,” she said, voice calm, unadorned. “You’re safe. For now.”

They exchanged a glance—fear tempered by exhaustion.

“They’re coming,” one of them said. “We didn’t mean to—this place, we thought it was abandoned.”

“It is,” Rysa replied. “That’s why you’re here.”

The distant whine of engines confirmed it.

Rysa turned back toward her ship.

CHOICE WITHOUT AN ORDER

Rysa could leave.

That would be easy. Clean. Logical.

No one had told her to intervene. No council had assigned her to protect this place or these people. There was no doctrine that demanded her involvement.

But there had never been doctrine for this moment.

Only choice.

Rysa guided them aboard her ship with brisk efficiency, sealing the hatch as the first pursuer broke atmosphere—a gunship, angular and aggressive, weapons already charging.

The ship’s systems came alive under Rysa’s hands. Shields up. Engines primed. Wings adjusting.

The gunship fired.

Rysa did not return fire.

Instead, she rolled the ship into a tight arc, skimming low over the ruins. The gunship followed, confident in its superior armament.

Rysa smiled faintly.

Confidence was a familiar weakness.

She cut power abruptly, letting the ship drop behind a stone ridge. The gunship overshot, its targeting recalibrating too slowly.

Rysa surged upward, engines flaring, slipping past its blind spot and accelerating toward the upper atmosphere.

The gunship pursued—but not fast enough.

Within moments, she was gone, stars stretching into lines as the ship vanished into transit.

AFTER

The rescued figures sat quietly in the hold, wrapped in emergency blankets, staring at Rysa with a mixture of awe and confusion.

“You’re alone,” one of them said eventually. Not a question.

Rysa nodded.

“Why?” the other asked.

Rysa considered the answer.

“Because the order I belonged to is gone,” she said. “And because I haven’t decided what replaces it.”

They absorbed that in silence.

After a while, the first spoke again. “You didn’t have to help us.”

“No,” Rysa agreed. “I chose to.”

The ship hummed around them, steady and sure.

As the stars shifted outside the viewport, Rysa felt the familiar pull of the next place, the next need.

She did not know if she would ever stop moving.

But for now, movement was enough.

This is an original work of fiction created by Brick Crossing, inspired by the design themes of LEGO® set 75362.
LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor, authorize, or endorse Brick Crossing.

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Where the Ground Finally Failed

A towering brick-built mech confronts two smaller, battle-worn mechs on a frozen battlefield, steam rising as the ground fractures beneath overwhelming force.

The ground didn’t warn them this time.

That was the first sign something was wrong.

No tremor. No subtle shift in pressure. No sympathetic creak through the basalt shelf beneath Cairn Station. The ice lay still under the moon’s pale light, steam rising in its usual slow breaths, fissures glowing faintly like veins beneath skin.

Too calm.

Sergeant Lio stood at the observation slit, helmet tucked under one arm, eyes narrowed. After enough nights on this rock, stillness felt louder than motion.

“Anything?” Mira asked from behind him.

Lio shook his head. “That’s the problem.”

The outpost was quieter than it should’ve been after a fight. Repairs were underway, but even the clatter of tools seemed subdued, as if the station itself was listening.

Or waiting.

Below them, the fissure field bore fresh scars — collapsed ice plates, blackened steam vents, frozen wreckage half-swallowed by refreezing cracks. Proof that the ground had fought for them.

But the ground had limits.

The warning came not from below, but from above.

Kett’s voice cut through the comms, tight. “Contact. Single mass. High altitude descent.”

“One?” Mira frowned. “After what we did to them?”

Lio leaned closer to the slit. The stars above the ridge shifted — not clouds, not steam. A shadow moved against the sky, angular and deliberate.

Too deliberate.

“Bring up optics,” Lio said.

The image resolved slowly, reluctantly, like the sensors didn’t want to believe what they were seeing.

A mech.

Not a formation. Not a squad.

One.

It descended through the thin atmosphere on controlled thrusters, not burning, not rushing. Its silhouette was compact and brutal, armor layered thick and uninterrupted by the exposed compromises that defined every machine they owned.

No wasted lines. No patched seams.

It landed beyond the fissure field with a sound that wasn’t an impact, but a claim.

The ice did not crack.

The ground did not answer.

Mira swore under her breath. “That thing doesn’t care where it steps.”

Oren’s voice came in from the bay, strained. “Armor readings are… obscene. Power core’s stable. No venting. No hesitation.”

“They sent a message,” Kett said quietly.

Lio nodded. “They sent a solution.”

The mech took its first step forward.

Ice shattered — not unpredictably, not with the familiar spiderweb fractures — but cleanly, deliberately, as if the weight was calculated to break only what it chose.

Steam vented uselessly against its legs, dispersing without effect.

It wasn’t fighting the ground.

It was overruling it.

Mira watched the display, jaw tight. “We can’t bait that. We can’t fold ice under it.”

“No,” Lio said. “We can’t.”

The mech stopped at the edge of the fissure field. Its head unit angled slightly, scanning.

Considering.

Then it stepped forward again.

The ground failed.

Not catastrophically — worse. It complied. Plates fractured, but not enough. Vents burst, but too shallow. The mech adjusted in real time, compensators absorbing what should have thrown it off balance.

Every trick they’d learned… already accounted for.

Oren’s voice dropped. “It learned.”

Lio felt the weight of it settle in his chest. “No. It was built knowing.”

Behind them, another sound joined the wind — the slow activation hum of older machines being powered up out of habit more than hope.

Mira turned toward the bay doors. “We still fight.”

Lio didn’t answer immediately.

The mech in the distance raised one arm.

Not to fire.

To point.

At Cairn Station.

A targeting lock bloomed across their displays — clean, narrow, absolute.

Kett’s voice wavered. “It’s not advancing. It’s… measuring.”

Mira slammed her helmet on. “Then let’s give it something it can’t calculate.”

They moved anyway.

Old steel against new certainty.

The bay doors opened, spilling cold wind and steam across the floor. Mira’s mech limped out first, scars still fresh, joints complaining. Lio followed, heavier, slower, armor patched with the history of nights survived.

The fissure field lay between them and the enemy like a memory.

The mech watched them approach.

It did not move.

Mira fired first — not at the mech, but at the ice beneath it. Steam erupted. The ground convulsed.

The mech stepped sideways.

Perfectly.

Lio charged, driving his machine forward, slamming a heavy strike into a weak seam they’d used a dozen times before.

The ice collapsed.

The mech sank… half a meter.

Then stabilized.

It reached out and caught Lio’s mech mid-motion, fingers locking around armor that had held through wars.

Metal screamed.

Mira shouted his name.

The enemy mech didn’t crush him.

It lifted him.

Held him there.

A demonstration.

Then it released.

Lio’s mech hit the ice hard, systems flaring, armor caving in along the shoulder. He didn’t move.

Mira fired again, again, again — everything she had. Bolts splashed uselessly against layered plating that didn’t even glow.

The mech turned its head toward her.

And stepped forward.

For the first time since they’d arrived on this moon, the ground had nothing left to offer.

Inside his cockpit, Lio forced his systems back online, alarms screaming. He looked at the fissures, the steam, the ice they’d trusted.

Not betrayed — just outmatched.

“Fall back,” he said quietly.

Mira hesitated.

“That’s an order.”

She did, reluctantly, dragging her damaged mech back toward the outpost as the enemy machine advanced at a measured pace, never rushing, never panicking.

Behind them, the fissure field froze solid again — erased.

The mech stopped at the ridge line and stood there, watching the outpost lights flicker.

Not destroyed.

Warned.

When it finally turned away and ascended back into the sky, the ground remained silent.

Later, in the bay, Lio sat with his helmet in his hands. Oren worked wordlessly on crushed armor. Mira leaned against a crate, eyes distant.

Kett broke the silence. “So… what now?”

Lio looked at the scarred floor, the patched machines, the ground that had taught them everything it could.

“Now,” he said, “we stop pretending the ground will save us.”

Mira met his gaze. “Then what will?”

Lio stood slowly. “Each other.”

Outside, the moon breathed on.

But it no longer listened.

See Other Mech Related Stories:

Where the Ground Finally Failed is the 3rd story related to Mech’s. See below for the stories that came first.

This is an original work of fiction created by Brick Crossing, inspired by the design themes of LEGO® set 75368.
LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor, authorize, or endorse Brick Crossing.

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What the City Still Demanded

Brick-built armored figures stand face-to-face in a ruined city after a battle, smoke rising behind them as they confront the cost of survival.

The city was dead, but it had not finished asking for things.

Stone towers lay broken across one another like fallen giants, their edges snapped clean where old weapons had done their work with surgical indifference. Streets that once carried processions now carried dust, ash, and the occasional echo—sound that lingered too long because there was nowhere left to absorb it.

The squad moved low through the ruins, armor scraping softly against brick and shattered tile. They did not speak. Voices were liabilities here.

Rhen Tal led, visor angled downward, reading the ground the way some read stars. Footprints told stories. Scorch marks remembered arguments. The city kept records whether anyone asked it to or not.

Rhen raised a fist.

The line halted.

Above them, a fractured balcony sagged, its supports cracked but holding. To the left, an alley narrowed into a choke point between collapsed walls. To the right, an open plaza—too open, too honest.

Rhen tapped two fingers against his chest, then pointed left.

Ambush ground.

Behind him, Kala Vos shifted her weight, weapon cradled but not aimed. She didn’t like ambushes. Too close to traps. Too close to luck. But the city had already decided where the fight would happen.

Further back, Jarek Pell paused near a fallen statue, one hand brushing the engraved stone. The figure’s face was gone, shattered into anonymity. Jarek lingered a half-second longer than necessary before moving on.

Honor remembered. Survival moved.

They took positions without instruction.

Rhen climbed the broken stairwell, settling into shadow above the alley mouth. His armor blended with the ruin, colors dulled by dust and time. From here, he could see movement patterns, predict lines of advance.

Kala slipped behind a half-collapsed wall, sightline covering the plaza edge. She adjusted her grip, checked her power cell. Everything worked. That made her nervous.

Jarek crouched near the statue base, back to stone, eyes scanning the upper windows. “Too quiet,” he muttered, barely audible over the whisper of wind through rubble.

Kala didn’t look at him. “Cities don’t go quiet by accident.”

Rhen’s voice came through the squad channel, low and steady. “Contact incoming. Multiple. Not rushing.”

Figures emerged at the far end of the plaza—armored silhouettes moving with confidence that hadn’t been earned here. Their gear was newer. Cleaner. Their steps heavier, louder against broken stone.

“They think the city belongs to them,” Kala said.

“They think wrong,” Jarek replied.

The lead enemy raised a hand. The group slowed, spacing out. Professional. Careful.

Rhen felt a familiar tightening in his chest—not fear, not excitement, but something older. The pull between what he’d been taught and what the city required.

He marked targets silently. Left flank. Center mass. Rear guard.

“Wait,” Rhen said.

Kala exhaled through her nose. “If we wait much longer—”

“I know,” Rhen replied. “Wait.”

Below, the enemy squad advanced another ten meters. One of them kicked debris aside with casual disrespect.

Jarek’s fingers tightened on his trigger. He glanced again at the faceless statue beside him.

Honor had once lived here.

“Now,” Rhen said.

THE AMBUSH

The city answered first.

Rhen fired downward, his shot precise, controlled—no flourish, no waste. The lead enemy went down hard, armor ringing against stone. Kala’s fire followed an instant later, stitching the plaza edge with disciplined bursts that forced the rest into cover.

Jarek moved last, not because he was slow, but because he was choosing.

He rose from behind the statue and fired at the second rank, shots angled to herd rather than kill. The city’s broken geometry did the rest—ricochets, falling debris, panic.

The enemy scattered, formation breaking under pressure they hadn’t anticipated.

“Push,” Rhen ordered.

Kala vaulted the wall, landing light despite her armor. She advanced with purpose, weapon steady, eyes sharp. This was where survival lived—forward, aggressive, denying the enemy time to think.

A return shot clipped her shoulder plate, spinning her half a step. She grunted but stayed upright.

“Still breathing,” she said. “Barely offended.”

Jarek moved to cover her, firing from the hip, forcing the enemy back into the alley choke. His shots were fast, angry.

Too angry.

“Jarek,” Rhen snapped. “Control.”

Jarek didn’t answer.

Instead, he advanced into the alley, boots crunching over rubble, breathing hard. An enemy rose in front of him, weapon shaking.

For a heartbeat, they stared at each other.

The enemy was young. Scared. Alive.

Jarek hesitated.

The city did not.

A shot rang out from above—enemy fire from a window they’d missed. It struck the wall inches from Jarek’s head, spraying stone shards.

Kala fired upward instantly, silencing the threat.

Rhen dropped from his perch, landing between Jarek and the enemy without ceremony. He fired once.

The enemy fell.

Silence followed—not peaceful, just empty.

THE COST

They regrouped among the ruins, weapons lowered but not slung. Dust drifted through sunlight like ash remembering fire.

Kala checked Jarek’s faceplate. “You froze.”

Jarek looked away. “I remembered.”

Rhen removed his helmet, breathing the city’s stale air. “Memory gets you killed.”

Jarek met his eyes. “So does forgetting.”

The city creaked around them, old structures settling, making room for the dead.

Kala broke the tension first. “We won. That’s what matters.”

Rhen shook his head. “We survived. That’s not the same thing.”

He looked out over the plaza—new scorch marks layered over old ones, history repeating itself with different armor.

“This place doesn’t care why we fight,” Rhen said. “Only how.”

Jarek knelt by the fallen statue again, brushing dust from the broken engraving. “It used to.”

Kala softened, just slightly. “Maybe. But it doesn’t anymore.”

Rhen replaced his helmet. “Then we adapt.”

They moved on, deeper into the ruins, leaving the city to tally its losses.

Honor followed them like a shadow.

Survival walked ahead.

This is an original work of fiction created by Brick Crossing, inspired by the design themes of LEGO® set 75373.
LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor, authorize, or endorse Brick Crossing.