The coastal defenses had become a symphony of carnage. A tide of X-Soldiers and massive X-Juggernauts slammed against the GDA lines, the air thick with the stinging scent of ozone and salt. One X-Juggernaut let out a guttural roar, seizing two Abrams tanks like toys and hurling them into the churning ocean with terrifying ease. Amidst the thunder of artillery, General Juan gripped his radio until his knuckles turned white. "Where is the backup, Advisor?!" he bellowed. The response was a crackle of cold, calm static: "They are coming. Just wait."
Suddenly, the scream of engines tore through the clouds. A heavy transport aircraft banked hard, its bay doors groaning open to reveal Slammer and John. They hit the ground running into a hail of fire. "Slammer, duck down!" John yelled, his rifle spitting lead. She hit the dirt just as the severed, jagged head of an X-Juggernaut whistled over her. With a fierce war cry, Slammer lunged back into the fray, swinging her massive hammer into the earth. The impact triggered a shockwave that sent a dozen X-Soldiers tumbling through the air like ragdolls.
The momentum shifted violently as a GDA drop-pod plummeted from the atmosphere, slamming into the sand with a bone-shaking thud. Out stepped the Golden Juggernaut. It hoisted twin, oversized golden miniguns, the barrels spinning into a blur of death that shredded the X-force. As the enemy shrieked and fell, the machine's left optic flared a predatory crimson. A concentrated laser beam erupted from its helmet, lancing through the remaining X-Juggernauts in a chain of fire.
The machine let out a weary mechanical sigh, its head pivoting back toward the GDA lines. "Turn back. I sense something big and powerful," it rumbled in a deep, metallic tone. "General Juan, leave—including all of you!"
As if on cue, an unnatural gale kicked up a wall of choking dust. From the haze emerged a nightmare made of steel: The Eradicator. Clad in midnight-black armor etched with grim white tally marks, its pointed helmet featured jagged red teeth and a cold, black visor. In its right hand, it gripped a serrated gray sword that thrummed with neon orange energy. With a deafening roar, the Eradicator blurred into motion. It lashed out with its energy sword, the blade grinding against the Golden Juggernaut's reinforced plating in a shower of sparks.
The two giants locked in a brutal struggle. The Eradicator caught the Juggernaut's punch with crushing force, only to be thrown back by a point-blank laser blast to the chest. The black titan roared in fury, but then went deathly still. As a repair rocket whistled down from the sky and struck its shattered chest, the armor knitted back together in seconds, pristine and gleaming. With a chilling mechanical chuckle, the Eradicator seized the Golden Juggernaut by the legs, spun him like a toy, and hurled him into an Abrams tank. A massive explosion veiled the beach in fire.
Indifferent to the screams of soldiers on both sides, the Eradicator fired its back-mounted rockets indiscriminately, laughing as the battlefield burned. But the smoke parted. The Golden Juggernaut walked out of the flames, its red eye glowing brighter than ever as its internal engines began to soar with a deafening whine. The Eradicator raised its energy sword high, the blade radiating shockwaves that made the very air tremble. The Golden Juggernaut's frame began to shiver, his core overheating under the immense strain.
Refusing to fall, the golden giant began slamming his fist against his own chest—a brutal, rhythmic beat to force his systems back online. Thud. Thud. Thud. With a violent, squelching mechanical grunt, a massive golden shockwave erupted from his core. He had rebooted.
To be continued.
As the silence settled over the burning coast, a chilling female voice drifted through the wind. "Eradicator cannot be destroyed... unless targeted in the core," she whispered, followed by a low, menacing laugh that echoed into the dark.