Iron Empire

Fourteen: For The People

Report: Quinn
The irradiated remains of Moscow.
Russia.
A radioactive "exclusion zone".
Neutral territory, until now.

God, did my hands ever hurt. The duct tape pulled at the burns on my palms as I swerved like a madman to avoid enemy fire. I closed the distance fast, long-range missiles pockmarking the ground behind me.

If the pilots of the artillery mechs had been truly good at their jobs they would've led their shots, but the violent beginnings of the Iron War had chewed up most of the veterans. Now it was inexperienced pilots like us left to end it.

The long-range missiles kept missing and I kept swerving, closing the distance until I blew past Taewi Park's Predator and—was that a Xiezhi?

"Hey, Taewi!" I called. "How goes the battle?"

"That's as good a distraction as any!" Martin shouted. "Push now!"

I continued forward, my one remaining plasma launcher and brand new railgun firing continuously.

I heard a loud hum above my head. I snuck a glance upward as I ran and the sight of a helios laser had barely registered when I heard Taewi call out.

"Jackson!" he shouted. "Stealth! Now!"

I mashed the activation button and felt the familiar teeth-shaking hum as the signal deadener powered up. The target lock broke. I only realized my mistake when Taewi swore aloud. The laser was targeting him!

In the next second, the silver Xiezhi leapt almost impossibly into the shot, moving in the blink of an eye to intercept the laser before it could fire. As the Xiezhi's silver armour shattered like glass and the mech buckled, I reached my first target, one of the Legions with a lightning weapon.

"More of those lightning things?" I snapped. "Those things hurt!"

"They're called static cannons," Alyx offered. Her Lynx had taken a beating but was still operational, peppering the heavy armour of a distant Legion with shell after shell.

"Move fast and they can't hit you!" Kedrick added. "They're lousy at tracking targets!" Kitt's Valkyrie was largely undamaged and ran near the front of the pack, just behind Martin.

"Moving fast," I grinned, "is my specialty."

The Legion's armour was strong, but in stealth I had time to hit without being hit back. I chipped away at his shell with both bullets and plasma, rending armour and melting electronics. The rest of squadron seven followed, swarming our enemies.

The first Legion, overwhelmed by the assault, stumbled and then toppled sideways, static cannon shattering and command capsule ejecting into the air with a hiss.

The second Legion had no time to react before the rest of our squad opened fire on it, reducing it to an empty husk in mere seconds.

Seconds later, the battlefield was silent and still.

The Legion with the helios laser rotated its body once, twice, three times as it realized its situation.

The only mechs left on the battlefield were the two long-range Legions who couldn't shoot us without damaging themselves. The Legion atop the overpass was still reloading for a third shot it would never get to take.

None of them could hit us, and I highly doubted that they had replacement mechs that could reach us in time. Without the heavy weaponry their Legions possessed, Axion stood no chance at taking the exclusion zone from Russia's inbound forces.

Checkmate. Game set match.

All three remaining Legions detonated quite spectacularly as their pilots abandoned them, capsules rocketing to safety.