"Are you crazy?!" Leah exclaimed. "What do you think?" Nathan asked as he assumed control of the Crawler. "You realize that…"
"That there is a high chance of us dying?... Yeah, I already figured that much out." Nathan said as he began to pilot the Crawler. "And yet… you still want to go ahead with this suicide mission?"
"We don't have a choice, Leah. The enemy Crawler is planning on using up all its resources to bring us down. If our enemy isn't sparing anything to finish us off, why should we?"
"But this… This is crazy." "You can get off now, Leah. This isn't real life, it's a game. I'm willing to take this risk since that is the case." He glanced over at her and their eyes met for a brief moment.
"…Fine then. We'll carry out your plan." Nathan smirked. "Alright then. Things would move better with you helping out." Leah harrumphed as she strutted back to her position.
"Yet, you made it look like you didn't need my help." She seemed to be offended but that was not the case, on the contrary, she felt better knowing that her presence was needed.
As she laid back on the table and placed the helmet on her head, her lips curved into a smile.
***
"Are we going to let them do this?... They already messed up once. Do we want to see that happen again?" Jeremiah felt skeptical about the whole arrangement. Elena shot him a cold glare just after she had down a Drone.
"… I am just making my opinion clear." He immediately switched tones, becoming mellow in an instant. Elena looked him over and rolled her eyes as if to say, "Typical."
She did not bother to respond as she leaped back into the action. The area they were in looked a lot like a mech graveyard as several robotic parts were scattered all around.
It was in complete chaos and within such, they attempted to increase it up a notch. Even though they knew that the Machines were evolving, it was still a given that they would give importance to more dangerous threats.
Thus, they took on the assignment of drawing their ire as much as possible, to force the Machines to send out more units in their direction. This would make things easier for Nathan and Leah… Hopefully, that is.
***
Leah gathered the Flying Saucers that were still operational while Nathan did the same for the Humpbacks. They were about to go on a suicide mission, they needed as much protection as they could muster.
While at it, he had activated the production chamber of the Crawler to create more units to aid them. Due to the Humpback's much longer production time, he opted to produce more Flying Saucers. They took as little as forty-five seconds to construct.
By the time they had reached the area where Nathan had first engaged the enemy, over forty Saucers were moving around the Crawler. Just in front of it, seven Humpbacks acted as the vanguard.
"I'm sending a Saucer to scout ahead." Leah sent the command out. It hasn't gotten forty meters away from the Crawler when it got shot down.
"Ugh…" "What is it?"
"There seem to be enemy units headed our way." Leah could never get used to the feeling of losing a Saucer.
Due to the connection, she shared with them, every time one of them got shot down, it would translate to her in the form of sharp pain similar to if one were to smash her head into a concrete wall.
"We should prepare to greet them." Nathan quickly switched the production item from Flying Saucers to Humpbacks, after which he sent the seven Humpbacks acting as vanguards to intercept the enemy.
"Are we facing them head-on?" Leah asked as she controlled the Saucers to follow the Humpbacks. "Yes and no… They would delay us if we decided to fight it out so we will make use of another route. Right now, we are going to stretch their forces as thin as possible."
He piloted the Crawler to change direction. His destination was the enemy Crawler and he would make sure that he got there, no matter what.
***
Ruben was safely inside the shield, his breath heavy. He was exhausted. Anyone would be if they had done what he had done. He had fought till his tachyon core gauge was left at twenty percent. Any lower and there would be complications.
He was thankful, though. He had reliable teammates to rely on. It was an early sign of the bond that would exist within the Squadron.
He glanced over to the Mammoth. At the top, Reyes and Celeste were busy. "I can leave the rest to them." He sighed in relief as he dragged himself back to the Mammoth to recuperate his low vitality.
"Thankfully, he made it through," Reyes remarked as he reloaded his Sniper. "There are twenty more units to take care of. Let's smoke these.."
She suddenly felt a sharp pain in her gut as she attempted to take a shot. [Warning, tachyon core gauge is at 19.5%. Player is advised to cease combat.] Thunder gave the warning at that moment.
"Shit…" "You should fall back. I'll handle the rest." Reyes remarked. "Tch, fine then." She clicked her tongue in disappointment but ultimately did as she was told.
"So I'm the only one left. Thunder, what's my tachyon core gauge at?" [35%] was the response.
"Eh… That's lower than I thought. We'll just have to make do." He aimed and then took the shot.
***Boom***
[30%] For each shot taken, five percent of Reyes tachyon core gauge was used up. It went to show just how much energy was put into each bullet.
"I can only take out two more…" He trailed off as he realized something was wrong. The Scorpion units were no longer being cautious as they charged toward the Sand Turrets.
This meant that they quickly entered the attack range of the Sand Turrets. Within seconds, heavy fire rained down on them.
He should have felt good seeing this but for some reason, he felt a sense of foreboding creep up his spine. "Something is not right." He muttered as he kept his eyes on the phenomenon taking place.
He frowned as he realized that three Scorpion units had made it past the bombardment. This was unexpected, what was even more unexpected was the fact that instead of firing back, they kept up the charge.
Before they could be destroyed, they charged into the Turrets and collided with them. Three got destroyed in exchange for getting rid of the last Scorpion units.
The threat was finally over… or was it?
Reyes quickly realized that a part of the shield created by the Sand Turrets to protect the Mammoth had been compromised. "This… What game are these guys playing?"
Reyes wondered as he felt the need to inform Nathan about the situation. Unfortunately, he would not have the chance to do so.
It sounded like an aircraft flying through the air. The sound it produced was low at first but it soon began to increase in frequency. It was approaching fast.
He turned in the direction that the sound was coming from and instantly felt the blood drain from his face as his skin turned pale.
It was a nuke. A freaking nuke and it was heading straight for them. "Oh shit!!!... Incoming!!!"
[Warning!!… Warning!!... Incoming projectile. Take cover]
Ruben was confused and Celeste was at a loss as to what to do. Before they could recover, it hit them.
***Boom***
A smoke cloud rose high into the sky, it assumed the shape of a mushroom as it obscured the clouds and caused the surrounding area to darken considerably.
The fate of the Mammoth and those that guarded it was unknown.
***
[I regret to inform you that the Mammoth had received a tremendous amount of damage and it is close to falling apart.]
"What!!!" Nathan exclaimed in shock as Thunder made the report. "How did this happen?" [It would be best you see for yourself… Extracting the last few seconds of footage gotten from Squad Member Goldman's wristwatch.]
A blue screen appeared before Nathan. The video of what happened played on it. Nathan gulped saliva as the screen darkened signaling the end of the footage.
"They sent an ICBM to destroy the Mammoth. How many resources did they put into building something like that?" Nathan trembled as he realized that the difficulty of this test had just been taken up more notches than he could have ever imagined.