Fortunately, it doesn’t make me wait long. Its roars begin to register on the transmitter, along with that familiar thunder of ships being crushed. It’s coming.

  At last, the golden meteor appears among the debris. It looks identical to last time, but no less terrifying for it. The golden armor does not shine. Its hue is dull, dead, as if the gold itself were rotten. Around it float golden particles—ashes suspended in the void—that spark like dying embers, giving the impression that the creature exists in a perpetual state of decay.

  It seems surprised for an instant to see me standing in front of it, waiting. Did it recognize me in my new armor? Judging by the terrifying smile it shows me, it seems it did.

  I take a deep breath before opening the channel and speaking.

  “This is Rob Sabringer, pilot of Cadejos. If any member of the Lynx team can hear me, I ask you to fight against whatever is controlling you. Together, we can defeat it.”

  I watch it for a few moments, trying to catch any sign that the pilot is still there, somewhere. The unit remains floating, completely motionless. I feel a flicker of hope… until the golden armor smiles, and in the blink of an eye vanishes, only to reappear right in front of me with its claws extended, aimed straight at my head at an impossible speed.

  I manage to see its expression: madness and mockery, as if it were laughing at my attempt to bring them back.

  Its talons are about to tear me apart… but at that precise instant, they are knocked back by a sword strike that appears out of nowhere and deflects them.

  The golden unit freezes, unable to comprehend how I managed to stop it.

  “It seems no one can hear me…” I sigh. “I guess I’ll have to open you up piece by piece until I rip the cockpit out of your body to find out.”

  With that, the last doubt leaves my mind.

  “Welcome to the operating room. Let me take you to the dissection table.” I punch its horrendous face with all of Cadejos’s power. The monster reels back. Without giving it time to react, I grab its wrist, yank it toward me, and greet it with a knee strike that bends its arm joint in the opposite direction.

  The creature roars in fury, finally reacting. It slashes at me with its free hand. I let go and quickly retreat to avoid it.

  “It hurts, doesn’t it? I get it… it’s happened to me too,” I say, looking at its twisted limb.

  It glares at me with rage as the mechanisms in its elbow snap back into place with a dry click. It lets out a hideous roar, begins to glow intensely, and charges at me like a golden comet.

  “Show me what you’ve got!” I shout as Cadejos’s thrusters erupt in a burst of blue light and I launch myself straight at it.

  We close in at breakneck speed. A round, medium-sized shield appears in Cadejos’s hand. Seeing it, the golden armor increases its speed and cocks its fist for the impact.

  Our collision unleashes a small shockwave that makes the wreckage around us tremble.

  The result? My shield, angled like a blade, slams into its head and rips it clean off thanks to inertia and the force of the impact.

  A larger shield in my other hand takes its claws head-on, shattering them and bending them in the process.

  “Did you really think I’d crash into you head-on?” I say as a cannon appears in my hand, beginning to glow while the golden unit is still regenerating. “That’s why you’re a stupid monster!”

  I pull the trigger. A massive beam of light pierces the creature, driving it through several pieces of wreckage in a straight line.

  [Red, you said you were only going to test Cadejos a little. Hurry up and take it to the table. You know that no matter how much damage you deal, it will just regenerate] the princess appears on my displays, visibly annoyed.

  “Sorry. I might’ve gotten a bit carried away… that bastard owed me a few.”

  [Just take it.]

  “Okay, okay, I will. Ah, and look, just in time,” I say as I watch a blinding golden light erupt in the distance, along with a howl, utterly consumed by rage, that rings out clearly.

  Ships begin to explode wherever it passes, until the golden armor bursts out from within one, tearing it apart, its head still dangling, half-regenerated, and a massive hole in its side.

  “Yeah… now it looks ready.”

  I push my engines to maximum output. Time to run.

  “Come after me, you bastard,” I say, accelerating toward the floating wreckage of the gigantic Dominion-class.

  The enemy roars in fury and lunges at me at an absurd speed, an unleashed force intent on tearing me apart.

  I move like a blue spark through the debris, following the planned route. It, as always, charges straight ahead, smashing everything in its path.

  After a few tense seconds, I clear the wreckage and emerge on the other side, stopping at the designated position. I shut down the engines and simply stay there… waiting for my patient.

  It doesn’t take long. A large section explodes, and from it emerges the maddened armor, covered in fragments of the ship and twisted cables. Seeing me within reach, it launches itself at me, leaving a golden trail.

  I don’t move. I just watch it come.

  Its claw heads straight for my cockpit. My enhanced mind tracks its trajectory. It’s about to reach me…

  “Your calculations had better be right, White.”

  [They always are.]

  And then the claw stops… just a few centimeters from Cadejos’s chest. A little more and it would have scratched the paint.

  Why? An invisible shield? Did it stop of its own will? A dramatic pause before impact?

  No. The answer is right in front of me.

  I look up and see it: the armor twists, ignites its thrusters, accelerating at full power… but it doesn’t move an inch. Numerous metallic cables are wrapped around its body, holding it in place.

  “What’s wrong, stupid monster? Get tangled in something?” I say with a grin.

  The golden armor roars in rage, tries to free itself… but like any large animal with more muscle than brain, it just pushes harder, causing itself to become even more entangled instead of breaking free.

  “You know, the princess came up with dozens of brilliant, complex plans to deal with something as fast and strong as you. ‘How do we turn its strengths into weaknesses?’ she asked herself. The answer was simpler than expected: use them against you,” I say as I materialize a gun with a metal tip and a spool of cable on the back. “Do you like those cables? They’re made from some of the toughest alloys in the galaxy. Before gravitational traction existed, harpoons like these were used to stop ships. They can withstand thousands of tons and tow entire cruisers. It took me a lot of work to find them… and several days to install them.”

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  The monster keeps trying to cut them, pushing brutally and even trying to bite them.

  “Sorry for the long explanation. An old habit from my hobby.”

  I move in front of it and kick it hard, slamming it into the wreckage. Before it can even roar, I appear in front of it again and fire several new harpoons that pin it to the structure and immobilize it.

  I bring my unit close to its face.

  “Now you’re on the table.”

  Next, I sever one of its arms with a gray hand axe pulled from storage and fling it away.

  “I suppose you can regenerate it… but it’ll take longer than simply reattaching it,” I say as I swing the weapon again and hack off its leg. “Remember what I told you at the beginning? If there’s no one in there… I’ll have to tear you apart piece by piece until I reach the cockpit.”

  The beast roars, refusing to give in. Its body begins to glow intensely gold, and the cables start disintegrating into particles of the same color.

  [Red, the golden degradation is faster than calculated.]

  “So I see, White. Time for plan B. Blow it.”

  [Roger, Red. Good luck… and I hope you stick the landing.]

  At that moment, numerous explosions erupt around the structure we’re on, severing it from the main body and hurling it straight into the storm.

  We float for a few moments, until slowly the section—still with the golden armor pinned to it—begins to be dragged by an invisible force.

  “Wondering what’s happening, you stupid monster? Well, we’re heading to your lair,” I say as I watch the abyss drawing closer.

  Before us unfolds a spectacle so colossal it defies all logic. As majestic as the first time I beheld it.

  A planet stretches out before my eyes. Yes… a damn planet, hidden in the very core of the Storm. A titan of reddish hues, wrapped in fire and shadow, upon whose surface rises an inconceivably massive mountain, so tall it seems to look down on the rest of the world with lofty disdain. At its summit, like an infernal crown, the storm coils in violent spirals, spinning with almost divine fury, as if that colossus were its source. From there, the crimson mantle rises toward the sky, twisting through the void like a celestial serpent. Without a doubt, that is the eye of the storm.

  The monster struggles fiercely, glowing even brighter. The cables begin to disintegrate faster as the planet’s gravity drags us toward its atmosphere.

  “And where do you think you’re going?” I growl as I drive new stakes into its body, securing it to the meteor we’re descending on.

  The fight turns brutal. The heat rises. The metals glow red under the friction of atmospheric entry. The environment is cooking us alive.

  Suddenly, the monster surprises me with a swipe from its freshly regenerated arm, tearing the harpoon from my hand.

  “You bastard!” I snarl, grabbing it with Cadejos.

  In the middle of the struggle, I manage to pull a knife from the hypercube and stab it into its arm, enough to immobilize it. With my free hand, I draw another weapon from storage. I need to finish this quickly. The temperatures are becoming unbearable.

  “White told me you handle heat well… let’s see how you do with cold.” I aim the weapon at its chest and begin firing bursts of freezing ammunition, chilling its body… only for the heat of reentry to reheat it instantly. But I don’t stop; I keep firing again and again.”

  The beast roars, confused, unable to understand my plan.

  Just a little more…

  At last, I hear the sound I was waiting for: a crack.

  The armor on its chest begins to fracture.

  “Careful with temperature changes… and metal fatigue,” I whisper as I thrust my hand into the fissure and force it open until I reach a golden cube: the cockpit.

  The monster thrashes as I dissect it alive. It frees its head and bites down on Cadejos’s shoulder.

  “Just die already!” I shout as I grab its head with one hand and slam it against the meteor. At the same time, with the other, I rip off the cockpit’s front, exposing the pilot.

  I’m startled to see a humanoid figure, completely golden, bound by thick organic golden filaments that pulse like veins.

  Without hesitating, I reach in and tear it free from its prison of flesh and metal.

  “Operation complete. Now die.”

  I deliver one final punch and blast away from that ball of flames, now dangerously close to the surface.

  I look back one last time.

  The “patient” roars one final time in fury, arms torn, torso shattered. Yet it still struggles. It still shines moments before slamming into a mountain range.

  The explosion is apocalyptic.

  The energy released carves out a massive crater as a mushroom-shaped cloud rises, wiping away the clouds and devastating everything in the path of the shockwave. It catches me in free fall, hurling me through the air until I crash into a nearby forest, leaving another small crater.

  I’m aching all over. But I can’t give up yet.

  I quickly eject the armor’s part from my shoulder, which had already begun to turn golden, and watch it break apart into particles before my eyes.

  I don’t care.

  The only thing that matters is in my right hand. I open it carefully. A golden figure rests there.

  I sigh in relief… only to see that, in the very next instant, it begins to disintegrate with a gentle breeze. I watch helplessly as its particles are carried off by the wind… until they vanish completely.

  I remain there, staring at the empty palm of my armor.

  My vision blurs as tears spill from my eyes.

  I’m left in shock as memories of Alex run through my mind: silly conversations, jokes, the two of us working side by side for hours on his armor. And finally, I see myself facing horrors… fighting tooth and nail to bring him back.

  All of it… for that dream to crumble in my hands with a simple breeze.

  “Well… I already knew… this could happen,” I say, covering my eyes with my forearm. “I knew it, and yet… damn it!!” I scream into the solitude of my cockpit.

  ***

  Cadejos slowly sinks into a small lagoon in the middle of the forest.

  “Stay here, partner. I’ll come back for you once things calm down a bit.”

  I linger for a moment, watching until it disappears completely beneath the water. I check that it can’t be seen from any direction. Once I’m sure everything is in order, I adjust the pack on my MechaFrame and head into this alien forest.

  I was greatly surprised when I learned that there was a planet inside the Storm, and even more so when analyses showed that conditions were suitable for habitability. It seemed to have abundant water and oxygen, along with extraterrestrial flora and fauna. How was that possible without a sun? According to the princess, the temperature inside the Storm is warmer than the vacuum of space, and combined with a warm core it maintains a balance that allows this miracle to exist.

  It’s curious, because if this planet were outside the Storm, not orbiting a star, it would probably wither and die.

  My steps are steady. I still can’t accept this outcome, but I don’t have time to stand still. My fall was violent, leaving a crater several meters wide and exposing my location to any enemies still roaming around. So I force myself to move, following the princess’s plan: hide the armor and keep a low profile until I can assess the situation.

  “A conversation would really help right now,” I murmur, sighing as I look up at the crimson sky.

  The instructions are clear: maintain radio silence until further notice, in case communications give away my position.

  I continue toward some nearby mountains, searching for a cave where I can spend a few days. Luckily, the frame makes movement easier… though the terrain is the real problem. This forest is practically a jungle. The trees are gigantic—some larger than Cadejos—making progress extremely difficult. It wouldn’t be much of an issue if I could use the armor at full capacity, but since I’m trying not to be discovered, I have to keep the output to a minimum.

  Near dusk, I finally reach the mountains. Exhausted, I let myself drop beside a large rock to rest for a while.

  “Ahhh, I’m completely beat… At least I didn’t get eaten.”

  I recall a few encounters with the local fauna. Nothing as extreme as a dinosaur, but there were some fairly large and hungry mammals. Of course, nothing a few shots of stun ammunition couldn’t handle… though each encounter slowed me down and drained me even more.

  “I could really use some fresh air,” I mutter as I take off my helmet.

  Fortunately, the atmosphere is almost ideal for humans. According to the analyses, though, the oxygen level is a bit lower, which means the body tires more quickly… similar to being at very high altitude.

  “Haaa… It feels wild, but pleasant. Though yeah, the air feels heavy… it’s like I get tired just breathing while sitting here,” I comment as I take a few deep breaths.

  Just as I’m about to put the helmet back on, I feel a sharp object press against my throat from behind.

  “Don’t move. Kick the weapon away from you.” I hear a voice at my frame’s back. Damn it. I let my guard down. I had to take the helmet off right now of all times…

  With few options, I push the rifle away with my foot, sending it out of reach.

  “Good. Now deactivate the frame.”

  Damn it. I’d wanted to surprise him with the frame’s power, but he’s clearly no idiot. I hesitate for a few seconds, but when I feel the blade press harder against my neck, I have no choice but to obey. I deactivate the frame and step out of it.

  Even so… I’ve got one trick left.

  The moment the frame opens, one of the plates knocks into the blade, pushing it back just a few centimeters. I seize that instant, grab it, and start wrestling with my attacker, who refuses to let go.

  We end up rolling across the ground. In the struggle, I smash the knife against a rock, sending it flying away. It all comes down to raw strength. And unfortunately, in my current state, I don’t have many chances.

  My opponent manages to pin me down and straddles me, lifting a rock with the intent to smash me with it.

  I close my eyes, bracing for the blow…

  “Stay still! Wait, are you… Rob?”

  …but instead, I hear my name.

  Huh?