Pain tore through your mind, sweeping you off your feet and into a deep abyss as the concrete of the building crumbled.

The impact was so hard you thought you could feel bones breaking. A scream escaped your lips. Along with a few drops of blood. Gasping and blind, you lay on the slab of concrete you had landed on.

Steel rods had missed your limbs by millimetres. As you raised your hands to your eyes, they trembled with adrenaline like they had never done before.

Dust filled your lungs with every breath, making you cough and splutter. Your eyes darted hastily around the room.

You had fallen through the third floor to the ground floor, everything had been bombed to rubble by the impact of the missile.

Pain mingled with dizziness in your head as you made it back to your feet and moved away from the hole, deeper into the stadium where thick walls obscured your position.

Kurt.

Where was Kurt?

Panting, you pressed a hand to your side to numb the pain. But it didn't help. Something wet wetted your fingers. Blood. You were bleeding. Something that hadn't happened for a long time.

"Shit!", laughing hoarsely, you let yourself fall against a wall. A trace of red remained.

If the missile had managed to surprise you like that, it couldn't mean anything good for the colonel. His body was made of far more flesh than yours.

Shit, how had you missed it?

How the hell had this huge threat slipped under your radar?

Anger boiled up in your stomach, chasing away the pain and making you laugh. It had been a long time since you had been hurt, let alone felt pain.

The smell of your own blood mingled with dust and heat in your nose. All your senses were screaming, vibrating with excitement.

But when you tried to connect to the dogs, there was no answer. So someone had actually managed to sabotage you. Unfavourable, but by no means a death blow.

Crunching your nose, you sucked in air and spat out the taste of iron on your tongue. Blood splattered across the floor.

"Then so be it...", you carefully felt your chest, where grenades and ammunition were lined up close together.

It wasn't much. But it would be enough to fulfil its purpose. Pushing the pain to the back of your mind, you quickly got to your feet again.

Like an arrow, you shot out of the cloud of dust onto the large field. Every step you took left a red imprint of the boots you wore. Flesh burned like fire as sweat mingled in the wounds.

Chuckling, you jumped behind one of the broken containers. The ground trembled. And all at once the smoke split.

The sharp outline of a tank emerged from the fire. Flames licked across the black steel. Red lights licked over the surroundings, searching for body temperature and movement.

You froze like a stone, holding your breath. The beat of your heart slowed down just as you had trained it to.

The armour was emblazoned with a combination of numbers and letters, latest model in the Militech range, never before used on the battlefield.

So the Mega Corporation had decided to use this war for their own selfish purposes. They wanted to test their new range of weapons on the soldiers in this war. Complete escalation.

What a circus.

What a mess.

And yet.

What would you be able to do with this tank?

Set cities on fire. Destroy men. Governing. It would be a shame to destroy this beautiful piece just like that.

You wanted to steal it. Simply because you could. At least that's what you thought.

The tank finished its scan and moved out of the burning wreckage with surprising speed. The movements of the steel joints were still tough, but it was faster and more agile than any armour Militech had built before.

Just to try, you ran a scan over the thing. The firewall didn't even allow you to recognise vulnerabilities. And without the support of your dogs, it was almost impossible to hack into this thing. So you had to go in and override it manually.

What fun.

The warmth of your own blood crawled up your leg as you rose from the safety of your hiding place. Immediately the armour's attention was on you.

A noise of warning rang out. It rattled in your ears, burned into your brain and made the connections to your cyberware sing. Adrenaline coursed through your veins. The armour changed the portion.

Apparently the systems were still analysing the threat level. So Militech had morals after all and programmed their weapons not to attack without a second thought.

Something twitched in the back of your head. You squinted your eyes in surprise. Someone had hacked into your internal system unnoticed. Your cyberware had been switched off.

You immediately try to boot them up again. Precious seconds were lost. Maybe for a minute or two.

Alert, you pranced across the pitch, dust swirling up and enveloping you. Red light flashed up in the tanks lenses.

And immediately a rocket was fired.

Your eyes caught it. With one hand on the belt full of grenades, you jumped back, pulled one out and threw it at the threat.

The explosion was only small, but had enough force to detach the explosives in your head. Heat struck your face, knocking you off your feet as a cloud of dust and explosives engulfed the square.

Taking advantage of the cover, you jumped behind another container. One half of your cyberware was active again.

Without hesitation, you stuck your head out of the shelter and set your sights on the top tower of the tank. Numbers and letters follow past your inner eye. Sparks sprayed out of the steel and part of the tank was paralysed.

You were wondering how much time this had bought you when suddenly a second missile approached.

This was not as precise as the first and instead hit the container directly. Gripped by the force, you slid across the floor, bent your legs and pushed off from a second container to sail through the air.

Dust and debris burnt your vision. The second tower fell victim to your hack.