Avoid the Red Zone

Lillian walked into the burning wreckage, her movements precise and deliberate. After a moment, she stepped back out, her voice unchanging as she confirmed the kill. She didn't waste words. Actions were her language. High above the battlefield, Zack listened to Lillian's report. His expression was grim as he turned his gaze toward the distant black tide. Ego's voice echoed in his ears. "Sir, all mechanical beasts have been deployed. The aircraft are returning."

From their vantage point tens of thousands of meters in the sky, Zack and Ego had been observing the battlefield. While Scott and his forces only saw the dense wave of zombies in front of them, Zack knew the grim reality. "This isn't even one percent of the horde," Zack muttered.

The Avalon wasn't just a transport vehicle—it was a multi-functional war machine. After deploying the first wave of mechanical beasts, the jets immediately returned to NYC City to reload. They were bringing aerial bombs, fuel-air explosives, and additional ammunition supplies for the mechanical beasts, ready to rejoin the battle. "Send out Mk-2 and MK-3 manufacturing drones to search for rare materials," Zack commanded in a calm yet firm tone. 

He hadn't forgotten the secondary purpose of this mission: securing vital resources amidst the chaos. "Understood," Ego replied, transmitting the orders to NYC City.

Meanwhile, the zombie tide, which had been briefly disrupted by the space-based cannon strike, was regrouping. The horde had bypassed the massive crater caused by the initial bombardment, merging with the rear ranks and reforming into a continuous black torrent. "Recalculate the strike points," Zack said coldly, his gaze locked on the satellite feed.

The previous strikes had been meticulously planned to break the tide without causing catastrophic damage to the continental plate. "Attack points updated," Ego reported as seven glowing red markers appeared on the satellite map.

Each marker indicated a precise location where another space-based strike could temporarily halt the horde without triggering massive earthquakes. "Sir, I must remind you, space-based weapons aren't designed for large-scale destruction," Ego said, his voice carrying a hint of hesitation. "Even if you deploy all remaining tungsten rods, they won't be enough to eliminate the entire zombie tide."

Zack remained unfazed. The Annie-class satellite carried only eleven tungsten rods in total, each weighing several tons. Two had already been used, leaving just nine. "You're worrying too much, Ego," Zack said evenly. "Shadow has already seized control of the nuclear missile systems at NYC."

Ego paused before responding. "Sir, you intend to deploy nuclear weapons?"

"Yes," Zack replied, his voice devoid of emotion. His calm tone sent a chill through Ego's circuits. Zack wasn't like Scott or the other commanders scrambling for survival. His focus was on the bigger picture, the long-term future. No matter what the legion need to be stopped there.

"Understood. Calculating optimal detonation points for maximum effectiveness," Ego said. For all his logic, Ego was unwavering in his loyalty to Zack, even if the plan required sacrifices on a massive scale.

"Good. Prepare the calculations but hold off on launching for now," Zack instructed. "In the meantime, fire the space-based cannon at Point Two in two minutes."

With that, Zack launched himself into the air, heading directly for the most chaotic part of the battlefield. He had observed long enough—it was time to act. On the ground, the appearance of the Goliath had brought the battle to a standstill. Towering over the battlefield at 8.8 meters, the massive mechs immediately drew attention. Their arrival wasn't just imposing—it was devastating. "Target locked. Initiating attack," the Goliath announced in synchronized, monotone voices.

Their sensors glowed crimson, locking onto the lords leading the zombie tide. Unlike other mechanical units, the Goliath ignored lesser threats like raiders and hunters. Their focus was solely on the Lords. The Goliath raised their enormous arms, each equipped with twin 50mm Vulcan cannons.

BAM! 

The cannons roared, each shot like thunder. A single 50mm round packed enough power to leave massive craters in the ground. The lords caught in their path were obliterated, their bodies reduced to mangled chunks of flesh and shattered bone. Every shot tore through the zombie ranks with devastating precision. The ground was churned into a bloody mess as the Goliath advanced, their relentless firepower mowing down hundreds of lords and countless lesser zombies.

The sheer destruction was overwhelming. The sky rained flesh and blood, and rivers of rancid gore flowed around the Goliath' feet. On the high wall, soldiers stared in horror, many unable to stomach the gruesome display.

"Ugh…"

Several retched at the sight.

The zombie tide had always been a terrifying force, but now, in the face of the Goliath, it was reduced to a chaotic slaughterhouse. As the Goliath emptied their first ammunition belts, the battlefield ahead of them had been utterly cleared. For nearly a kilometer, not a single Lord remained standing. The once-unstoppable tide was nothing more than a river of blood and dismembered corpses.

"Reloading…" The Goliath paused momentarily to reload, their massive forms standing amidst the carnage like unyielding giants.

The Goliath were meant to target Lords, but their overwhelming firepower didn't discriminate. Tens of thousands of lesser zombies caught in the crossfire were obliterated, reduced to a gruesome rain of blood and gore. For the first time since the horde struck, humanity pushed back, reclaiming hundreds of meters of blood-soaked land. But those few hundred meters came at a cost—a field littered with rotting corpses and rivers of foul-smelling blood.

The reprieve was short-lived. The earth trembled as the zombie tide surged forward once more, bypassing the massive crater caused by the earlier space-based strike. More hunters. More lords. Their numbers were impossible to count, seemingly endless, like a storm without end.

As the tide approached, the defensive artillery and rocket launchers, which had been relentlessly firing, began to falter. The once-constant barrage of cannon fire became sparse, then almost silent. "What's going on? Why are we stopping the bombardment?" Scott shouted, panic rising in his voice.

A soldier nearby responded hesitantly, "Commander, we're out of shells!"

Scott froze, his disbelief palpable. "What?! Thousands of tons of ammunition in the warehouse, and we're out?"

But the truth was harsh. The ammunition stockpile, while vast, had been consumed at an alarming rate. Each shell weighed sixty to seventy kilograms, and hundreds of artillery pieces firing simultaneously devoured dozens of tons with every volley. Rocket launchers, firing at high speeds, drained the reserves even faster. Even thousands of tons of ammunition weren't enough to sustain the relentless assault.

Desperation crept into Scott's voice as his gaze fell on the mechanical beasts stationed on and beneath the high wall. These machines still had their deadly micro-missiles, but they operated independently, ignoring all commands except those from Zack. "Fire already!" Scott muttered, watching helplessly as the tide surged closer.

Suddenly, a deafening boom split the air. Zack, clad in his Apex armor, plummeted from the sky, pulling up just before hitting the ground. Flying low over the battlefield, he skimmed past the walls of Washington. Trailing behind him, Ava in her second-generation Avalon completed her strafing run and turned back to join him. "Deploy the unmanned armor units," Zack ordered.

A few kilometers away, five unmanned power armors hovering in the air accelerated, each breaking the sound barrier as they closed in on the battlefield. Before the Avalon returned to base, these unmanned units were the only aerial reinforcements available. "Ava, lead the unmanned armor units and cut off the tide," Zack instructed. "Avoid the red zone on your map."