My new comms headset was clasped tightly over my left ear as I fell from the sky. It crackled as I adjusted the frequency until I began to hear voices from my team clearly.
Since I'd escaped the first explosion my right ear had been ringing, but now it was completely silent.
I tapped the microphone that hung in front of me with my hand and spoke out loud.
"One two, one two, anybody getting this?"
My voice sounded muted behind the earpiece, but the others got it loud and clear. Several sighs of relief echoed across the airwaves.
"You're lucky Lucas was there to grab you," Taewi chuckled, "or you'd be a pancake right now!"
"Lucas?" I intoned. "I got picked up by some mystery woman! She gave me back the Prowler!"
Silence for a few moments, punctuated only by the jerking sensation of my mech touching down.
"Jax, did you hit your head?" Kedrick sounded genuinely concerned.
"He's not kidding," Alyx gasped, "the Prowler just landed. Is that...a new paint job?"
"Honestly," I replied, "I'm as confused as you are."
My HUD blinked into existence and I took in the warzone that Stalnoy had become.
Several Apollo still remained and, despite their disorganized methods, were still desperately holding their own.
Most of my squad was holed up around a loading dock at the western edge of the mining district, using the large structures nearby as cover.
"Alright Jax," Taewi began, "here's an update."
As he spoke I took off running toward the sounds of weapon fire in the distance.
"I think we can handle the remaining Apollo mechs, but that Legion on the dam is giving us trouble," Taewi informed me. "Could you take care of it for us?"
I grinned and changed course.
"On it."
To the distant east, I could just make out the Legion standing vanguard on the lower retaining wall of the dam. The imposing concrete structure dominated the grey horizon, impossible to miss. It had to be almost one hundred storeys tall!
Fortunately for me, the Legion stood not at the top, but at the bottom of the dam, atop a fifty-meter high sluice gate that spanned the diameter of the dam's base. Inaccessible from the mining district to the north, the top of the sluice gate was only reachable from the farmland that occupied the south side of the river.
My path wasn't an easy one. While the mining district was a jumble of buildings perfect for cover, the old riverside farm was scarcely more than an overgrown field dotted with grain silos and a single four-storey warehouse.
While each silo and the barn were large enough for me to hide behind, I was doubtful that they would provide adequate protection from more than two or three shells.
I had about seven seconds of stealth to keep the Legion's howitzer cannons off my back, but after that I was vulnerable. My only advantage for the moment was that the Legion was focused on Alyx' Grendel and not me.
A shot whizzed over my head and I sighed. So much for not being noticed. I supposed that my new crimson paint job didn't exactly make me harder to see.
"Okay, I have his attention," I declared, "but you guys need to keep those Apollo mechs occupied."
"Oh, don't worry," Alyx grunted. An explosion from somewhere in the mining district caused a bit of feedback over the comms. "We can handle them."
That left me and the Legion. If I played my cards right I would be able to make it up the riverbed without being blown away by the metal slugs it fired.
The Prowler's legs pistoned as I ran to the closest cover, a cylindrical grain silo. A second shell vaporized the ground beside me, spraying me with dirt.
If my estimation was correct, I had about four seconds before the howitzer cannons reloaded.
As predicted, a third shot rang out seconds later, tearing the top off the grain silo above me. Seed bounced off my hull, sounding like raindrops. Time to move.
I had another four seconds. I sprinted to reach my next cover, my Prowler's massive weight crushing an abandoned combine harvester underfoot.
I was approaching the farm's warehouse, its red-painted exterior blackened by the earlier battle between Axion and Russia's forces. A few mech metal corpses littered the ground nearby.
I had cover here, for the time being, but there was no way the Legion hadn't seen me move.
As if to prove that theory, the exterior wall of the warehouse rocked as a metal slug impacted it. The shot had blown through the wall farthest from me but hadn't had enough force to pierce the other side, where I remained temporarily protected.
I was preparing to duck out from behind the warehouse when I heard a gasp over the comms.
"Crap! An Apollo got away!" Kedrick shouted. "Jax, it's tracking you!"
The rogue Apollo had broken from the pack and now rushed toward me across the one remaining bridge. If it reached me I would have to leave cover to escape it, risking fire from the Legion. If I stayed and fought I would be destroyed.
I didn't have to make the choice.
"I've got it covered!"
Across the river, Alyx's cannon flashed, and the front of the Apollo exploded into sparks as a shell punched through it. I caught a glimpse of the other side of the river via the fresh hole through the mech's cockpit. The mech's yellow feet left the ground for a brief moment before it plowed forward into the soil, command capsule sailing into the sky.
"Great work, Alyx!" I grinned.
I stepped out from behind the fuel silos and nearly had my head taken off by a barrage of shells from the Legion. I swore and swung around the other side of the warehouse, leaving my last available cover behind.
There were no grain silos beyond this point, only an empty field between me and the base of the dam. I knew I had about four seconds until the Legion reloaded, then seven seconds of stealth after that. Beyond those eleven seconds my luck ended.
I could see the Legion's head tracking me as I ran, ready to open fire as soon as possible. With the four-second reload time almost up, I slammed my hand down on the activation for my stealth and felt that now-familiar buzz at the back of my jaw. I had bought myself seven more seconds.
My heart pounded. I hated timed deadlines.
I was growing closer now. The Legion took a few tentative steps backwards, making its way towards the middle of the dry sluice gate.
I was going to make it.
The flat field gave way to a slight incline, a gentle hill that led upwards towards the unforgiving shape of the sluice gate. My Prowler's feet touched solid concrete, reaching the dam's access bridge.
How many seconds did I have left?
I growled and pushed the Prowler's speed to its max, skirting the edge of the dam.
I wasn't going to make it.
My HUD blinked. I was in range.
I pulled the trigger.
From a distance, my brand-new shotguns did nothing but scratch up the Legion's hull, but with every step closer the damage intensified exponentially. The Legion was fleeing as fast as it could at this point, trying to back up enough to get a bead on me, but the slow-moving artillery platform could only delay my advance so much.
The hull of the mech cracked like a struck eggshell, fissures spreading across its face. The Legion desperately fired its cannons, but the shots missed me by miles. Its auto-aim program was only designed to target distant enemies.
I laughed in delight as my shotguns split the Legion wide open, shards of metal spraying my cockpit. The Legion, besieged, stumbled back before toppling off the top of the sluice gate, its command capsule soaring away.
"Legion down," I shouted, "I repeat, Legion down!"
Cheers echoed my declaration.
"Alright," Taewi called, "now we'll deal with the last of the Apollo mechs and we can call it a day!"
The remaining Axion forces were in shambles, and most of the remaining Apollo mechs destroyed. Victory was ours.
Then to my horror, the ground around exploded into a cloud of dust. Impacts at the base of the dam shook me in my seat.
More mechs. We had taken too long, so Axion had brought reinforcements of their own. Worst of all, because I was standing on the sluice gate above their drop zone, I was only a mere hundred meters away from all of them.
Regiments. Goliaths. Legions. I counted thirty new mechs, dropped just in time to ensure that Stalnoy stayed in Axion's hands for good.
If the enemy noticed me standing above them there was no amount of fancy piloting I could do to avoid being obliterated. Slowly but surely, one of the Regiments turned its head, gazing up at the top of the dam where I stood, frozen.
Something flashed in the air about a kilometre away. The sky glittered, lights twinkling like falling stars. However, the stars weren't what were falling.
At long last, we had reinforcements of our own.
armour plating glinted in the sunlight as the Chinese-Canadian Alliance arrived in full force.
My comms crackled.
"Hey, guys! Miss me?"
It was the voice of Commander Martin Telbus.
"Sorry I took so long," Martin laughed, "I had to stop back at the Firmament to pick up a couple of new mechs and an old friend."
I grinned.
If Axion's reinforcements were strong, ours were even stronger.
Modified Goliaths, customized Valkyries and even a Canadian Barricade or two made up the biggest show of force our insurgency had ever deployed. I counted over forty Alliance mechs.
At their head stood none other than our mysterious ally the Exodus, crimson armour gleaming in the sunlight.
The Chinese-Canadian Alliance's mechs surged forwards, closing the gap between the two squadrons.
The Barricade was a favourite design of Dan Stonewood, inspired by the German Valkyrie and built to be tough as nails.
Resembling the horn of a rhino in shape, a piston lifted the mech's frontal armour plating to create a shield, protecting the mech's cockpit while turning it into an imposing battering ram.
It was the first time the mech had been deployed in the history of the Iron War.
Two of these tan coloured Barricades rushed forward at the head of the pack, their plantigrade legs pistoning into the soft soil of the riverbed. Both mechs began to overcharge their reactors, building up a frightening amount of momentum.
The first unfortunate mech in their path was none other than a Regiment. The rustbucket's frame was nearly split in two as Alliance and Axion forces collided in the center of the riverbed like opposing tides, missiles screaming, mechs showering each other with plasma and bullets and flame.
My position, exposed on the top of the dam's sluice gate, had just become a front-row seat to watch the defeat of Axion for Stalnoy.
However, I couldn't just watch. I had to get into battle and help.
"What do we do, Jax?" Kedrick asked.
"Well, those are some pretty heavy-duty mechs down there," I mused. "We aren't equipped to deal with anything that big."
I glanced around.
"But I don't see any more of those blasted Apollo lurking around and I don't fancy just sitting here and watching. How about we go chip in a little?"
"That's more like it!" Alyx shouted.
I grinned. "Let's send Axion home with a message for that Director Fisk of theirs—they can't have Stalnoy!"
Cheers sounded over the comms, marking my squad's agreement.
"I guess it's settled, then," I nodded. "Shall we?"
I took two steps forward and fell off the dam. The drop was short and the Prowler's hydraulics compensated, throwing up a cloud of dust as I landed on my feet.
A hundred meters away, the rest of my squad piled down the nearest boat launch and out onto the dusty riverbed.
From our position on the battlefield, we were directly behind Axion forces, separated from our allies and behind enemy lines. A good place to cause havoc if we played our cards right.
Ahead of us, the Exodus charged forward and into the fray, weapons firing. This time around, the mech was equipped with three heavy shotguns, the massive weapons that Dan had once made for Axion.
Why had nobody told me that the Exodus had been our ally all along?
Then, without warning, the Exodus jumped high into the air, rocket engines firing.
However, this time it wasn't the jump that took my breath away—it was the fact that when it jumped, the Exodus disappeared.
That's not to say that I couldn't see it anymore, but I couldn't target it.
The Exodus now had a stealth ability. My stealth ability.
The mech landed a few hundred feet away from me, having leapt clean across the American forces. It now joined us behind enemy lines, effectively sandwiching our foes. I swallowed my disbelief. It was as good a time as any to join the fight.
"Move in!" I shouted and sprinted forward.
I easily passed by the slow-moving Exodus, ducking into the fray. A Regiment lunged for my side, railguns blazing. Bullets ricocheted off my hull. I swung around and let off two blasts from my shotguns at extremely close range. The miniaturized shotguns decimated Axion mech's hull, lifting it off its feet and smashing it into the side of a Goliath, who turned toward me.
The Goliath stumbled as one leg was almost blown out from under it, a well-timed shot from Alyx's Grendel mech. As the Goliath righted itself one of our Barricade mechs tore through the space behind it, rocket launchers stuttering out a staccato burst of missiles.
The Goliath was torn apart by the impact, blown off its feet and trampled into the soil by the heavier Barricade.
A shadow passed over my head. Kedrick, doing his best to help in his tiny Veles mech. Though he couldn't do much damage, he tried his hardest to be a nuisance to the enemy.
A burst of plasma cut down a Regiment as it ran past me, its railguns falling silent. The little mech melted as Taewi charged through. Nearby the Exodus barreled along, cutting a swath through the enemy forces. Its shotguns decimated Regiments and Legions alike, leaving no mech standing within its field of fire.
A Goliath rushed me head-on, plasma cannons sending a beam of bright orange in my direction. A shot hit my hull, melting off a camera and darkening a section of my HUD. I growled and punched the trigger on my freshly-recharged stealth mechanism, ignoring the buzzing in my teeth as the radiation assaulted me.
I couldn't help but feel betrayed at the thought that the Exodus had the same ability as mine. Why had nobody told me?
I dispatched the Goliath quickly, my feelings of frustration fueling me.
The Axion mechs managed to fend off our attacks with increasing viciousness, but it was all for naught. Sandwiched between two groups of enemies and having no tactical advantage on their side, the enemy forces crumbled. Soon it was only a small group of remaining Axion mechs fighting, cornered against the raised concrete walls of the Stalnoy mining district.
Our Barricade mechs circled in for the kill, forming a barrier of shields. The rest of us stepped in just behind them, filling in the gaps and protecting the Barricades with covering fire. Trapped between a rock and a powerful group of enemies they had never fought before, the remaining Axion mechs fell swiftly.
At last, the final mech, a heavily damaged Goliath, took a final step forward before falling flat. Its command capsule shot away a second later.
We waited.
No new mechs fell from the sky.
No Apollo ambushed us from the mining district.
My comms crackled and Martin Telbus' triumphant voice called out.
"Command reports no traces of enemy dropships in the area! Axion has withdrawn from Stalnoy!"
Cheers erupted, loud and staticky, over the comms.
We'd won!
I turned to face my squad, beaming. Without us, the Chinese-Canadian Alliance would never have kept the territory out of the hands of Axion. What they had wanted to do with it, however, was a mystery, something to be examined later.
Now was a time for the dropships to pick us up.
But the battle wasn't quite over.
A blur of yellow. A plume of flame. A screaming, damaged mech raced at me from behind the emergency channel.
One final Apollo mech still lived.
The mech charged me now, ready for its final mission. I imagined the pilot inside, desperate, afraid, willing to die for his company.
Scarcely thinking, I slammed the button to activate my radio deadener. Of course, the Apollo didn't react, as it was tracking my IRON chip, not the Prowler itself. Oh well. Fortunately for me, I had a simple plan B.
As the Apollo drew within the twenty-meter range I pulled the triggers, my shotguns spitting lead. Two simultaneous point-blank shots practically ripped the mech's reactor core out, tearing off a chunk of the exposed silver engine and tossing it away from the Apollo.
The mech crumpled across me, falling on top of my Prowler as the mech's cockpit was blown inwards like a shattered plate. I closed my eyes, waiting for the blinding, deafening explosion, but it never came. The mech simply rolled off my hull and flopped to the ground, smouldering.
I stood there for a moment in dead silence.
"Blast it, are you ok, Jax?" Kedrick's Veles stormed over to me. "Those damn Apollo mechs nearly got you again!"
"I'm fine, Kitt," I replied, shaken, "let's just get back to the Firmament."
As the dropships zipped down from above like flies, I watched the Exodus carefully. Who was the woman in the cockpit? What connection did she have to the Chinese-Canadian Alliance? Why had she attacked me during the Lighthouse Infiltration?
I hated being left in the dark, but I was certain that Mallet knew the answers. She'd always known. This had to be the secret she'd tried to protect. But why? That was the question that plagued me.
Why all this secrecy?
Didn't anyone trust me?