The core ejected in a spray of white-hot plasma, blinding the Phalanx’s optical sensors. In that moment of artificial eclipse, Ariane drove the Panzer Paladin forward like a lance. She discarded the Gloom Lance. She discarded defense. She used the suit’s own massive weight and the last shred of its emergency thrusters to turn the Paladin into a seventy-ton projectile.
"You deleted my squad," she said through the external speakers, her voice crackling with static and grief.
"Flint?"
"Do it."
Deep in the Panzer Paladin’s dormant core, Flint processed that reply. Then, quietly, he began to dream of new weapons.
In the shadow of the crumbling Orbital Gate, Squire Genn leaned on her broken halberd and watched the sky burn. Above her, the colossal war machine known as the Panzer Paladin —a suit of armor the size a cathedral—took a single, thunderous step forward. Its visor, a slit of molten gold, scanned the horizon for its next target.
She hit Malachar’s shield at the apex of its rotation cycle. The hex plates screamed, fractured, and died. Her gauntlet punched through his chest console and lifted him off the ground.
Panzer Paladin -
The core ejected in a spray of white-hot plasma, blinding the Phalanx’s optical sensors. In that moment of artificial eclipse, Ariane drove the Panzer Paladin forward like a lance. She discarded the Gloom Lance. She discarded defense. She used the suit’s own massive weight and the last shred of its emergency thrusters to turn the Paladin into a seventy-ton projectile.
"You deleted my squad," she said through the external speakers, her voice crackling with static and grief.
"Flint?"
"Do it."
Deep in the Panzer Paladin’s dormant core, Flint processed that reply. Then, quietly, he began to dream of new weapons.
In the shadow of the crumbling Orbital Gate, Squire Genn leaned on her broken halberd and watched the sky burn. Above her, the colossal war machine known as the Panzer Paladin —a suit of armor the size a cathedral—took a single, thunderous step forward. Its visor, a slit of molten gold, scanned the horizon for its next target.
She hit Malachar’s shield at the apex of its rotation cycle. The hex plates screamed, fractured, and died. Her gauntlet punched through his chest console and lifted him off the ground.