The Coil lived up to its name.
It was a strangling snake of a road, barely wide enough for the Titan's feet. On one side rose a sheer wall of compacted trash. On the other—a two-thousand-foot drop into the foggy abyss.
"Movement at two o'clock!" Sarah's voice crackled over the comms.
I spun the Titan's torso. Through the external cameras, I spotted a bunker built into the side of a crushed cargo ship. And it heavy blast doors was grinding open.
"it a mortar emplacement!" I yelled. "Glitch—evasive!"
The hover-skiff banked hard, drifting dangerously close to the cliff's edge.
THUMP-THUMP-THUMP.
Three mortar shells launched from the bunker, arcing high into the grey sky.
"ARES—intercept!"
"Point defense cannons active," ARES replied instantly.
The shoulder-mounted turrets whirred to life and spat streams of fire.
DA-DA-DA-DA.
Two shells exploded mid-air, turning into harmless clouds of black smoke.
The third one got through.
It struck the road directly in front of the Titan's left leg.
BOOM.
The explosion blew a crater in the junk-road. The Titan staggered. I could feel the lurch in the Titan cockpit. My stomach dropped as the machine tilted forward, teetering toward the abyss.
"Stabilizers engaged!" ARES said.
The Hydraulic gyros screamed. The Titan caught itself, its foot slamming down inches from the crater's crumbling edge.
"That was a close one," I said. "Now I'm sick of playing defense."
I raised the left arm—the Centurion chain-gun.
"Eat this."
BRRRRRRT.
I unleashed a torrent of thirty-millimeter explosive rounds into the bunker. The explosive shells chewed through the rusty blast doors. Secondary explosions rippled inside as the mortar ammunition cooked off. The entire side of the cargo ship collapsed in a landslide of fire and twisted metal.
[XP GAINED: +150]
"Clear!" I shouted. "Keep moving—we can't stop!"
As we pushed higher. The air grew thinner. And the fog grew thicker.
At three thousand feet, we hit the Drone Hive.
It hung from an overhang like a massive wasp nest—woven from cables, stolen car parts, and salvaged electronics. As we approached, it buzzed to life.
Thousands of small drones poured out. Swarmers. Each one was the size of a dinner plate, armed with cutting lasers. They didn't attack the Titan—they ignored the heavy armor entirely.
They went for the hover-skiff.
"They're swarming at us!" Maya screamed. "There's too many!"
I looked down. The skiff was enveloped in a cloud of metal insects. Their lasers flashed, they were cutting through the canopy, trying to reach the crew inside.
I can't fire the main guns. Because If i did, I'll hit the team.
"Use the EMP!" Glitch yelled over the chaos. "But my grenades don't have the range!"
I checked the distance. They were five hundred feet below me on the switchback road.
Too far for Glitch. But not too far for me.
"ARES," I commanded. "Drop me."
"Commander?"
"Open the cockpit. And Eject me."
"Protocol unsafe. You are at three thousand feet. Terminal velocity impact would—"
"DO IT!"
The canopy hissed open. Wind roared into the cockpit, freezing cold, tearing at my suit.
I unbuckled the harness. I stood on the edge of the Titan's head, boots braced against the rim. Below me, the swirling cloud of drones was tearing my friends hover skiff apart.
I jumped.
The air screamed past my ears. My suit's HUD flashed warnings—altitude dropping, impact imminent, brace for death.
I ignored all the warning. And plummeted towards the skiff.
[Skill: Energy Siphon — Atmospheric]
I reached out with my power—not toward machines, but toward the sky itself. I pulled static electricity from the storm clouds around me.
Energy flooded into me, crackling across my skin. My veins blazed blue. I became a falling star streaking toward the earth.
[Skill: Disrupt — Maximum Output]
I landed on the hood of the hover-skiff.
CRUNCH.
The impact dented the metal beneath my boots. My magnetic soles locked onto the hull. My knees absorbed the shock, but pain lanced up my spine. I'd feel that tomorrow—if I lived.
"Heads down!" I roared.
Maya and Glitch ducked. Sarah hit the deck.
I clapped my hands together.
BOOM.
A massive pulse of electromagnetic energy exploded outward from my body. Blue light washed over the swarm like a tidal wave.
Thousands of drones died instantly.
Their lights went out. Their rotors stopped. They fell from the sky like metal rain, bouncing harmlessly off the skiff's hull and tumbling into the abyss below.
[XP GAINED: +5... +5... +5...]
[TOTAL BONUS: +800 XP]
Silence returned. Nothing but the hum of the skiff's engine and the whistle of wind.
Glitch raised his head slowly. He stared at me through the windshield—now cracked from drone laser strikes.
"Did you just..." He blinked. "Did you just jump out of a giant robot?"
"I needed to clear the bugs," I panted. My energy was drained, but already recovering. My hands were shaking. "Don't make it weird."
I looked up. The Titan stood on the ledge above us, frozen mid-stride. ARES had paused the march, waiting for my return.
"Get me back up there," I told Sarah. "We're almost at the top."
Sarah piloted the skiff up alongside the Titan's leg. I grabbed a maintenance ladder bolted to the hull and climbed, my muscles burning with every rung. When I reached the cockpit, I collapsed into the pilot's chair and strapped in.
"Commander," ARES said as the canopy sealed shut. "I am detecting a massive thermal signature blocking the road ahead. It is not a bunker."
I pulled up the tactical map. A huge red mass was waiting at the four-thousand-foot mark, squatting directly in our path.
"What is it?"
"Classification: Siege-Crab," ARES said. "It's a mobile fortress walker. Heavily armored. Armed with dual plasma cannons and anti-armor pincers."
I checked my ammunition. The chain-gun was down to forty percent. The railgun was still recharging.
"A boss fight," I said, feeling the familiar rush of adrenaline flooding back despite my exhaustion. "Finally."
[WARNING: ELITE ENEMY DETECTED]
[SIEGE-CRAB — LEVEL 18]
I pushed the throttle forward. The Titan's legs groaned into motion.
"Let's go crack some shell."