Boom! Boom!
The railgun rounds hit with unerring accuracy, blasting holes through the changers' bodies or reducing them to lifeless heaps of fur. Despite their ferocity, the changers couldn't withstand the relentless assault.
As the giant bears were wiped out one by one, the mechanical army shifted its fire to the wolves and foxes. The once-fast predators found themselves corralled, their movements restricted by collapsing buildings and relentless firepower. Armor-piercing rounds tore through their agile frames, leaving broken bodies in their wake. Even the foxes, with their supernatural speed, couldn't escape the systematic destruction.
The battlefield was left in ruins, soaked with blood and littered with the remains of changers who had dared to challenge the machines of war. The gray wolves howled in agony as dense armor-piercing rounds tore through their bodies, reducing them to lifeless, bloodied heaps. The red foxes fared no better, their swift movements unable to save them from the relentless onslaught.
In just a few dozen seconds, what began as a fierce charge by the shapeshifters turned into a brutal, one-sided massacre. Under the crushing strength of the Fearless Warriors and the overwhelming firepower of the mechanical legion, the dozens of changers were swiftly reduced to single digits. The few remaining gray wolves and red foxes broke ranks, retreating in desperation.
In the command room of the Nunavut base, the atmosphere was suffocating. Despair weighed heavily on the soldiers' faces. Even though they had been brainwashed into unwavering loyalty by the Vanguard Organization, their primal fear of death began to take hold. "Sir, there's nothing more we can do! Please head to the backup chamber!" one of Victor's men urged. "We'll fight to the last breath and ensure your consciousness is returned to headquarters so Lord Immortal Fox can resurrect you!"
Victor's face darkened, his expression as cold and grim as death itself. "If I retreat like this…" He clenched his fists and growled through gritted teeth, "how can I face Lady Immortal Fox?" His bloodshot eyes remained fixed on the battle feed displayed on the screen, as though desperately hoping for a miracle. But the footage offered no reprieve—just changers falling one after another under the mechanical legion's relentless assault.
"Useless trash!" Victor snarled, his voice trembling with rage.
"Sir! You must leave now!"
"No! I refuse to retreat!" Victor bellowed. "We still have one trump card left!"
His men froze. "Sir! Master Immortal Fox strictly forbids—"
"I don't care!" Victor cut him off, waving his hand dismissively.
"Send the order," he said, his tone low and deliberate. His bloodshot eyes burned with defiance as he spoke, "Release… Unit 01."
Deep underground, in the bio-laboratory of the Nunavut base, alarms blared as a red alert was triggered. A corridor leading to the surface was hastily cleared, and scientists scrambled to pack their materials and evacuate as quickly as possible. At the end of the corridor, a massive alloy gate slowly slid open, revealing a second gate behind it.
As the second gate opened, it revealed a pitch-black chamber. Lights flickered on, illuminating the room to reveal a towering stasis pod—large enough to hold two Fearless Warriors with room to spare. Pipes and cables snaked across the pod, connected to every corner. Dark liquid, similar to the mysterious fluid found in Vanguard technology, pulsed through the pipes like veins.
Hissss—
A soft sound of depressurization echoed as the seals on the stasis pod loosened. Inside, a rhythmic breathing sound emerged, low and steady at first, then growing louder.
Boom!
Suddenly, the pod's lid exploded outward with a violent force, crashing into the ceiling and leaving sparks showering down from damaged wiring. The lights in the room flickered erratically, casting eerie shadows across the space. Under the flickering light, a massive figure emerged from the pod. Over five meters tall, the hulking form seemed more beast than man, its silhouette both grotesque and terrifying.
Roar!
A feral roar erupted as the figure moved, its heavy steps echoing through the corridor. Wherever it went, the lights failed, plunging the path behind it into darkness. Just as it neared the exit to the surface, the creature stopped abruptly. Under the faint glow of a remaining light, its face was revealed—neither fully bear nor fully human. Interlocking fangs ground against each other, and viscous saliva dripped from its snarling jaws. Its flared nostrils sniffed the air, detecting the scent of flesh and blood.
Roar!
With a deafening bellow, the creature turned and rushed in another direction, veering toward the lab. Screams erupted moments later. The sound of skulls being crushed and bones splintering filled the laboratory as chaos descended.
Meanwhile, in the residential area, the battle was nearing its conclusion. The last gray wolf, attempting to flee, was struck by an electromagnetic railgun fired from a Terror Spider. The tungsten round blasted a hole in its body so large that a person could have crawled through it. The wolf collapsed in a lifeless heap. The stench of blood filled the air. Limbs and gore from both the changers and the mechanical legions littered the area. Not all the changers were killed. Two red foxes, realizing the battle was lost, released their transformations and slipped into the crowd of terrified survivors, reverting to their human forms.
The two young peoples hoped to blend in, but their gamble failed. Terrified survivors, driven by fear and self-preservation, dragged the pair toward the mechanical army.
"We surrender! We won't resist anymore!" one of the girls cried.
"Please! We're giving up!" the other pleaded, her knees hitting the ground as she raised her hands in surrender.
The mechanical legion showed no response, their weapons still aimed at the two. As machines, they operated purely on logic, incapable of making decisions without orders. "Hold them for now," Zack said indifferently, watching the scene from Aegis's control room.
The display showed the aftermath of the battle: bodies strewn across the battlefield, the mechanical legion standing victorious amidst the carnage. The strength of the Fearless Warriors and mechanical units had been proven. But this battle wasn't about them. The true star of this operation was Aegis itself. From the moment it identified its target to loading troops, flying thousands of kilometers, and executing a surgical strike, the aircraft had performed flawlessly.
It wasn't until Zack deliberately disabled Aegis's stealth mode that the residents of the Nunavut base became aware of the behemoth looming above them. "Wait a second… based on this efficiency…" Zack muttered, running some mental calculations. "Doesn't that mean Aegis could take off from NYC and hit any bases on the other side of the world in less than ten hours?"
He stared at the massive aircraft in awe. Speed aside, the true terror of Aegis lay in its ghost-like stealth capabilities. Existing air defense systems couldn't detect it at all. When it descended with its mechanical beasts and unleashed its wrath, no base or force could react in time. The Nunavut base was living proof of that.
"Sir, high-energy biological reaction detected," Ego's voice suddenly rang in his ears.