Iron Empire

Sixty-One: Iron Tide

Blue fire burned the air, waves of plasma emanating from the lines of Aegis.

I swerved my Spartan to one side, ducking behind the brunt of a Barricade and joining the rushing tide of mechs.

"Those cannons are going to tear my shield apart before I can reach them!" Sojwa shouted. Her Xiezhi was near the front of the charge, using its damaged silver shield to deflect the tide of plasma.

"We have to get closer, fast!" Kitt exclaimed. Even over the comms I could hear the impact of plasma striking his Barricade.

"I've got a bead on one of the Legions at the back," Alyx declared. Her Valkyrie hung near the far left edge of the pack, distancing herself from other mechs to make shooting easier.

"Keep your sight on Draco instead!" I shouted. "If he stops hiding behind his soldiers, take the shot!"

By now we had closed the distance to around one-hundred meters, but the torrent of plasma showed no signs of slowing. The shouting in my ear became increasingly desperate as shields were chipped away, bit by bit. My Spartan was powerful, but my weapons just didn't have the range to compete with our enemy.

It was maddening being unable to fight back.

"Jackson," Kedrick called, "what's the plan here?"

"We do exactly what they did to us at Yamantau," I replied. "Run right through them, split them down the middle, then surround the survivors."

"I like the concept," Martin responded. The Exodus kept pace with me, ready to leap into battle as soon as we were in range. "But what do we do about the Titans?"

"I think we're about to find out!" Sojwa shouted.

Sure enough, the remaining Titans leaped high into the air, having stayed hidden behind the iridescent shields of the Aegis mechs until that very moment. If I hadn't been the one staring down the wave of descending mechs, I would have been impressed with the maneuver.

"Open fire!" I shouted. I thumbed the switch that I had discovered in Vietnam and felt myself pushed down into my seat, propelled into the air by the Spartan's powerful jet engines. As I soared forward into the fray, two armies collided beneath me like a crushing tide of iron.

We had reached Axion's forces. Now the fun began.

The Titans fell like hammer blows, clawed feet impacting the sand at random around the raging tide of mechs. Their weapons, ammunition varying between missiles, bullets and plasma, beat against our rear flanks, ignoring the Barricade's shields entirely. They had leapt over our entire army in one move, encircling us instantly.

I felt Axion's noose beginning to tighten. This was bad.

"All mechs at the edges of the group, defend those in the center!" I shouted.

My Spartan was high in the air before my HUD flashed. Targeting lock.

I can't imagine what I must've looked like, descending on that first Titan like a falling guillotine. My plasma cannons fired directly downward, beating into the mech's armoured shell. Two rockets took out its legs in one powerful blast, sending the body hurtling forward into the sand and a command capsule rocketing away.

An instant kill, thanks to the element of surprise. I wouldn't be so lucky now.

I was in the thick of it, rocket launchers firing. No more stealth, no chance to jump, just shooting and running. Bullets scratched at my hull. I traced a blazing line of explosions in circles around me, emptying salvo after salvo of rockets into the leaping mechs.

My plasma cannons were things of beauty, searing light impacting fleeing foes. I dimly remember seeing the shadow of Martin's Exodus here, a flash of the Xiezhi there. A Barricade, Kitt's, smashed through an approaching Titan, grinding it into the sand. The world became a blur of fire and metal, a dance with the enemy.