Chapter 56 (YEAR 2052)

Report: Quinn

The west coast of Russia.

An abandoned mining facility.

Designation: Stalnoy

It felt like a shove to the back. My head almost hit my control panel as my entire mech tipped backward.

My saving grace was my shield, which helped to counterbalance me and stop the wall of shrapnel that flew my way. A wave of flame swept over me, the heat stifling even inside my insulated command capsule.

The mech had been a bomb. Axion had built a bomb. How could the mech's pilot survive that?

The answer made me sick. Nobody was supposed to survive that. Project Apollo was the Iron War's first true suicide mech.

Dust choked my vision, chunks of riverbed turned into a fine mist by the blast. I scanned the area, ready for an attack that never came. To my right, a rock the size of a truck was embedded in the soil, unearthed by the blast and pushed along the riverbed like a curling stone. It glowed red, matching the colour of the front of my shield, and was the only discerning feature in a