Goliath Combat Robot

Leading his squad forward, Augustus was still the first to charge at the very front.

As he advanced, Augustus counted the shops he passed to estimate the distance. After his HUD pedometer indicated he had run about seven hundred yards, he stepped into a fashion boutique on his left, walking straight through the counter and collapsed clothing racks to reach the storefront facing A-220 Commercial Street.

Looking back at A-220 Commercial Street from the direction he had come, Augustus could see behind the barricade where over a dozen Kel-Morian soldiers were huddled, focused intently on firing toward the front.

"Harnack, stay close to me. Zander, prepare grenades. Second fire team, switch to grenades; use them to take out the Kel-Morian Rippers," Augustus ordered. "Rick, take out the one giving the orders. Laird, you and your men start the charge the moment I give the command."

"Understood?"

"Understood," came the response over the comms.

"You just watch, boss."

"Yes, sir."

"Follow me!" Within a few breaths, Augustus was the first to step out of the shop and onto A-220 Commercial Street, with eighteen fully armed marines following close behind.

At this moment, Augustus was only a hundred yards from the Kel-Morian barricade. The sound of his power boots hitting the brick pavement was distinct amidst the staccato rhythm of the Gauss Rifles, immediately drawing the enemy's attention.

In a panic, these men turned to fire at Augustus's unit, but it was too late.

"Zander!" Augustus shouted.

Bolstered by the strength of his power armor's servo system, Zander tossed two C-54 Electromagnetic Grenades in succession onto the barricade eighty yards away. The glowing blue pulse from the detonation instantly sent several Kel-Morian Labor Auxiliary soldiers flying, their shredded flesh and blood raining down upon their comrades.

In the first volley from Augustus and his men's Gauss Rifles, the Labor Auxiliary soldiers—lacking power armor—all fell, leaving only two Rippers in pitch-black power armor still returning fire. Bullets clattered against Augustus's armor, adding only more superficial scars that required no repair.

With a loud boom, a grenade fired by Raynor struck the chest plate of one of the Rippers. The grenade, exploding against the plating, instantly tore through the hardened steel, the searing, twisted metal burning and mangling the Ripper's midsection.

The sniper Rick fired almost simultaneously. A white mark appeared on the last Ripper's helmet, but the impact of the bullet still made him stagger. The second shot from the Boatswain Sniper Rifle punched through the helmet, ending his suffering in an instant.

A Labor Auxiliary soldier, his legs blown off by a grenade, lay on the ground screaming and wailing. Blood flowed ceaselessly from his wounds; blood loss would claim his life in a matter of minutes.

Augustus walked up to him, frowning at the heart-wrenching wails and the look of hatred in the man's eyes. Then, he fired a shot through the Kel-Morian soldier's chest, leaving a massive, gruesome wound, and the whimpering ceased abruptly.

The battle ended in a very short time, and many of the preparations Augustus had made went unused.

Shortly after, Corporal Hopey arrived with his soldiers to rendezvous with Augustus.

"Let's keep moving," Augustus said to him.

"I'm with you," the corporal replied.

And so, gradually, the force led by Augustus grew to over forty men, nearly catching up to the size of a recruit platoon from his boot camp days.

Augustus led this mixed unit further north along A-220 Commercial Street. He estimated that a large number of Kel-Morian troops were hiding in this commercial district, as they ran headlong into another Ripper unit just two minutes later.

A Kel-Morian Ripper squad, also sprinting down the street, appeared almost out of nowhere. This Ripper squad was roughly the size of a full Confederate marine squad, all clad in black-painted CMC Power Armor.

At a distance of about two hundred yards, the Rippers and the Confederate troops met in the narrow street and began trading fire. Neither side sought cover nor ducked to avoid bullets, much like 17th-century line infantry on Earth using muskets to fire at one another.

When two squads of soldiers, both clad in power armor, stand in the street and fire at each other, marksmanship and tactics become irrelevant. The only thing that matters is whose armor is tougher and who can remain standing before the other side falls.

Bullets ricocheted off Augustus's chest plate; the clanging impacts and the looming threat of death sent his adrenaline levels soaring.

The ammunition count on the HUD of Augustus's helmet visor dropped from its starting 360 to zero in a matter of seconds. By the time he reloaded, two of his own men had fallen, while five or six Kel-Morian Rippers lay on the ground.

The Rippers did not retreat. The survivors continued to reload at the same frequency as Augustus, fired, and then fell silently. Augustus could not imagine what kind of faces lay behind those black visors; thus far, he had never seen a single Kel-Morian retreat or surrender.

"Report casualties," Augustus said, naturally assuming command of this mixed force, as the other two squads seemed more than happy to follow his orders.

"One man down in both the fourth and fifth squads of the third platoon, Fifth Company," Corporal Hopey sighed.

Augustus scanned the area to ensure no wounded had been left behind.

"Go see if any of those Kel-Morians are still alive," Augustus told them.

Almost none of the Kel-Morian Rippers on the ground had died because their armor was directly penetrated by bullets. Most of the lethal spikes had ricocheted off the armor and entered through the joints, and a ricocheting bullet was enough to kill a man if the angle was right.

After counting heads, Augustus stepped over the corpses of the Rippers and continued forward.

According to the satellite map, Augustus's unit was now only five hundred yards from the exit of A-220 Commercial Street. Once they cleared this street, they would be able to return to an east-west thoroughfare and rendezvous with the other units.

But as Augustus and his men drew closer to the exit and could already see the light at the end of the street, a massive shadow suddenly rose from their left.

To Augustus's left was a forty-story building. Beneath it was a private parking garage connected to the street by a steep, sloped ramp, and the entrance to this garage had clearly been widened with explosives.

At first, it was just a black speck, but soon, two rows of rising missile launchers appeared before Augustus, followed by a T-shaped cockpit resembling a Kel-Morian tractor head.

It was a Kel-Morian Goliath Combat Robot, a bipedal walker made of steel.

"Left! Goliath!"

At the same time, the marines reacted, immediately turning their rifles to fire, but the Goliath opened fire first.

Before it had even emerged from the parking garage onto the street, the Goliath's two 35mm autocannons swept across the entire street, the barrels rotating at a terrifying speed. Tongues of fire a meter long erupted from the muzzles, and the bullets kicked up two rows of craters that raced forward across the ground.

At least three men in Augustus's unit were mowed down, and he didn't have time to think about whether any of them were from his own squad.

Thanks to commandllche and Agent Rongrong for the tips. Thanks to Star Ring 1, "Naming is Hard so I'm Doing Homework," Agent Rongrong, "Self-important Clown," "Knight of Light and Shadow," Commandllche, and Book Drought No. 01 for the monthly tickets. Thank you for your support!