The sound of gunfire woke me. It was not unusual to hear gunfire on the base, whether from scavengers shooting at each other, or just from the soldiers practicing their aim. At first I assumed it was only the latter given the proximity, and almost rolled back to sleep, until I heard an explosion. That was an extremely unusual noise to hear.

As I jumped out of bed, I heard the door creak open. Quickly grabbing the pistol I kept on my desk, I spun around to find my platoon sergeant, Andrey.

“Sir, the base is under attack!” he said, as I lowered my gun.

“I can hear that Andrey!” I said “I want to know what scav group was dumb enough to attack a Dynasty installation!”

“Sir, it’s not them, the Theocracy has declared war and invaded”.

That really gave me a shock, and I stood stiff as a board for a moment, before regaining my composure. As my mind raced with the news, I realized something.

“Where is Commander Hart?” Even as I asked, I reached the conclusion that since Andrey hadn’t already relayed orders from him, the commander was likely dead.

Shaking off the fact I was the most senior officer in base, I relayed my orders.

“Make sure that everyone is awake and ready to fight. Also, the alarm should have started by now, go see what’s wrong” I told him “Once you’ve done that, contact command, they need to know we are under attack and to send reinforcements. Finally, get in your mech and kill every zealot you see, understood?”

“Yes sir!” Was Andrey’s response. As he ran to complete my orders, I sprinted in the opposite direction, toward the mech hangars.

Once I arrived Andrey had figured out the problem with the siren and it was going at 100%. The hangar was a hub of activity, with soldiers running every which-way toward their specific suit. Everyone started with the same base model, but it was hardly the best. Fortunately, my rank afforded me access to upgrades, and I had sunk most of my salary on my mech making it one of the better ones present.

Despite the chaotic situation, I still felt a sense of awe every time I looked at my weapon. It was fairly short for a battle mech, only about as tall as a two story house. Most suits resembled humans quite heavily, due to the difficulty getting accustomed to a different number of limbs, but I had paid out top credit for specialized training and implants so I could pilot my spider like design.

By far the most expensive mod I had installed was a couple of rockets on the sides that allowed me to have a quick boost of speed in one direction. It wouldn’t be so expensive, if not for the fact I had to install a second fusion reactor just to power it.

Climbing into my robot, I realized that this would be the first time in actual combat. I’d played war games and simulators, and all of my teachers agreed I was a natural, but since the world had been at peace for so long, most everyone here had yet to see actual combat. I guess that was about to change.

As my mech skittered out of the hangar, it was immediately obvious that Andrey had been correct about who was attacking us. The Theocracy of America had their banners flying on full spread, clearly visible despite the ever present dim light of Antarctica in the spring. This was obviously not meant to be a stealth mission.

I was also able to see that only three mechs were here. That was good, it meant that this was likely not a vital location to take, and that reinforcements would not be sent to an assault of such little consequence. Unfortunately, that meant we would also likely not have much in the way of reinforcements because of the lesser force. I hoped that would not turn out to be vital. The enemy did appear to have more ground troops, but even with the commander dead we had one more mech than them.

Two of the enemy mechs were the standard four story tall treaded design favored by the Theocracy, but one of them, likely the commanding officer of the assault had a slightly taller design, still treaded, but with added armor around the head, probably the location of the driver.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

On the other hand, all of the mechs on our side except mine were identical. Three stories high, armor around the chest and head, and legs instead of treads. Most others didn’t prioritize their mech and instead spent money on things like alcohol, drugs, and other vices.

As I was about to begin firing at the invaders with my primary weapons, a voice began to emanate from the lead robot of the theocracy forces. It was likely a message demanding our surrender and conversion to the true way or something of the kind, but unfortunately for them, I didn’t speak much English.

Seeing that the “negotiations” were going nowhere, the three enemy mechs began to power up their weapons to attack. It only took them a couple seconds, however I, the paranoid man I was, had had the foresight to install a quick firing feature on my primary rail guns. This, at the cost of some power from the bot, dramatically reduced the charging time.

Quickly scuttling to the side, I took advantage of that very useful mod and fired well before the enemies could. I had four primary rail guns mounted on the main ball of my mech. The aiming was operated by the dome rotating around inside the legs, which allowed me to fire in one direction and move in a completely opposite one. The hardest part of that was controlling it, which was where the implants were absolutely vital.

Not waiting to see if I’d hit, I began using my machine guns and grenades to attack the enemy infantry troops and their vehicles. After insuring that my men weren’t being overrun in at least one section, I returned to the mech fight. We were not doing as well there as on the infantry front.

One of the enemies had been almost entirely destroyed, and another had a weapon damaged to the point of being unusable, however the leader was all but undamaged, the only sign he was in a fight was my initial round suck in of his waist joint.

On our side, things were significantly worse. Two mechs had been turned into heaps of scrap, and Andrey was barely moving, with both of his legs heavily damaged.

I knew that unless we beat these guys, it was highly likely that they would kill the rest of our troops here and establish a foothold In the Dynasty. That was not how I wanted children to learn about me in school, as the man who allowed our enemies into our land.

Fortunately, the way I had moved back into the fight placed me to the side and slightly behind both enemy mechs, and as my robot was quite small, I was able to creep right up to them, well within range of my best weapon.

Most battles took place at a distance, however, when the chance to get close up came, I wanted to be able to perfectly take advantage of that, which is why my past self had purchased and installed a deployable drill type weapon, specifically designed to punch through armor, on to the bottom of my mech.

When an enemy got close, I could grab them with the mech’s extra legs, and drill straight into the cockpit, thus instantly killing them.

This was the strategy I employed now, targeting the closer mech, the one with the damaged weapon, I activated the rockets on my robot's left side, which shoved my right on top of it. Before the other pilot could think to use his mechs hands I used my implants and activated the drill.

The designer had known that during combat, being stuck in one place for long was incredibly dangerous, so the drill was into the enemy mech’s cockpit almost as soon as I’d activated it, which was fortunate because I crawled off the wreck just as the one remaining enemy fired at me.

As a cost for all of the bells and whistles I got, my mech had to sacrifice much of its armor, which meant what might merely scratch the paint on most, was incredibly dangerous for myself. As it was, my fleeing only did so much. What had been aimed directly at my seat had instead taken out the left rail gun and two of my legs.

Luckily enough, that was just what Andrey had hoped for, and as I scurried for cover, he opened fire. Andrey had put some money into his mech, not as much as I had, but enough that he and I had something to talk about whenever Commander Hart called us up and then left us waiting outside his office.

He had gone for a slightly different approach than I had, with more armor, and replacing the standard rail guns with machine guns, but his were a much higher caliber than what I had for dealing with infantry units.

The first of his shots hit nearby where my opening rail had, and it seemed to increase the damage there, making it hard for the enemy to turn. His next shots were higher, right in the joint between the head and body. Unfortunately, that was where the armor was heaviest, and his shots just made a couple dents, but he stalled just long enough for me to get my rail guns ready.

All three rails landed perfectly head on with the command center, piercing into it and almost all of the way out. Immediately, the enemy mech froze as its control wiring was cut, although the reactor fortunately kept going so energy signs were still present.

As I looked around, we had all but won the battle. The men I’d freed up had helped by giving needed support elsewhere, and the Theocracy’s plan of overwhelming us had failed.

As I scanned the base, ensuring no other enemies approached unnoticed, the gravity of the situation finally struck me. The Theocracy of America, one of the five major factions, had just launched an attack on another of the five. This wouldn't be a swift conflict; it was an opportunity for me to challenge the Dynasty's unjust system. With the world at the brink of war, I saw a chance to rise above the chaos and make a difference.

Owen Vance could become more than a footnote in future children's books—he could make his mark on the history of the solar system.