Where man meets machine, legends are forged.
The Iron War has been raging for ten years. In a world ravaged by nuclear fire, an unstoppable army sweeps across the globe, conquering the world in Mechanized Embarkable Combat Hardware.
The year is 2052...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Report: Park The airspace above Mount Yamantau. Russia. The interior of a command capsule.
Five minutes before the arrival of Korean forces at Yamantau.
My capsule soared through the air, punching through clouds heavy with snow on its way up to Dropship 13. The heavy rattle of its nuclear-powered engine was only scarcely audible above the howling wind.
I had to force myself to breathe normally, gripping the armrests of my seat and fighting back the panic that surged in the base of my gut.
Being hunted inside your mech was bad, but at least you had mobility. Inside my command capsule, there was nothing I could do. If Axion's weapon hit its mark I was almost certainly a dead man.
A strange interference filled my comms headset, drowning out the voices of pilots in battle.
I watched my altimeter climb in silence.
There was almost no warning.
I heard the sudden shriek of an alarm and an instant later the roar of the capsule's engines became unbearable.
A flash of light stunned me, and then someone punched me in the face. I was alone in the pod and they kept punching, striking my head and my arms and my shoulders. Something in my chest gave away and my breath left me. The capsule crumpled like a can, closing in around me. I felt my ascent begin to slow.
Suddenly I was truly falling, back to earth, back to the war.
I looked around at my surroundings, fighting to remain conscious. My chest was on fire, and my breath came quickly and painfully. The capsule's HUD was dark, shattered by the crushing pressure that had damaged my capsule. There was a small jagged hole in the floor near my feet, exactly where the capsule's rocket engine should've been. Through it I could see the dark sky, the white ground, and then the sky again as I tumbled from the heavens.
I fought back a tide of vertigo.
I couldn't stay here.
I looked around, searching for the capsule's emergency stash. Sure enough, embedded in the wall just below the IRON chip drawer was a small hatch containing an emergency kit. I reached over, ignoring the burning pain in my chest, and pulled the hatch open.
Inside was a small box filled with flares, thermal gear, a radio, and a parachute. I threw the box full of other gear out of the way, holding tight to the parachute.
The capsule's door refused to open, only giving about an inch when I pushed.
I braced myself against the wall and kicked savagely at the door's handle, hoping to break through it. It didn't budge.
Timing my next kick with the capsule's rotation was difficult but possible. The metal gave way, buckling.
Taking great, heaving breaths I aimed one final kick at the door. The moment my foot connected the bent metal gave way, the motion pulling me out into the open sky.
