3 Chapter 3: Death (3)

What appeared after the pair shifted were two large ACEs that stood 21 meters tall and 25 meters tall respectively. But both of their figures were very different one from another.

Sunia's ACE would have been both elegant and sleek. It looked like the ACE had been modeled after a female because the humanoid design even had lumps in its chest that resembled breasts. She named her ACE, Corsair.

In its hands was a large rifle that Corsair used for sniping or mid range combat to take out her enemies. This rifle was very powerful and fired concentrated blasts of multi-energy bolts. With the wings on it, it could snipe from a variety of locations.

This ACE would have looked amazing if not for its injuries. It had countless small wounds all over its body and several severe injuries along its torso, left leg, and head. One of its wings was also completely ripped off or destroyed while the other looked like it was in the middle of being melted.

Even with these wounds though, the ACE still looked proud and powerful. Like a female warrior who had just emerged from a hard-fought battle and was ready to take on the next wave of enemies.

Jalim's ACE was different from Sunia's. He had named his ACE Berus. Instead of the elegant female form of a woman with wings, Berus was a mighty and majestic mechanical dragon that gave off a fierce impression to anyone who saw it.

Its body was covered in powerful and tough scales that protected it from most weapons while it closed the gap in order to tear its enemies to shreds. With its tail, claws, and teeth, it could rip through even other ACE's armor with ease if they allowed it to get too close.

Berus usually looked like a mighty and untouchable dragon when it was at its peak. But after its last battle, it did not look the same. Although it still gave off a mighty aura, it no longer said 'untouchable' but instead 'for every injury you give me, I will give you death.'

Many areas were devoid of scales and only showed the 'muscle' underneath. It had several deep injuries along its arms and legs. And its tail only had half the length of what was originally there.

In short, both ACEs were in a much more weakened state than they had ever been in. If they had a week or 2 to recover, they would have been fine. But due to the quick progress of the battle, they had only fought with the enemy Espers 2 days prior and were still exhausted.

The pair did not seem to mind thought and immediately began their assault. Corsair, even with missing/destroyed wings, flew as high as it could into the sky and began opening fire against the enemy vehicles. The pair had discussed before and decided that Corsair would take on the vehicles while Berus would focus on the enemy mechs. They would kill off any infantry nearby but it would not be their focus unless they were doing extreme damage to the escaping forces.

Berus jumped into the fray and was hit by attacks from all sides but Jalim ignored them. His goal was to take out as many enemies as possible and to distract them, and the fastest way to reach them while becoming the most obvious target was by going airborne.

Almost immediately all the mechs and many vehicles turned their fire to Berus when he charged toward them. The remaining vehicles and artillery would focus their fire on Corsair and the Republic forces.

Berus arrived in front of 3 mechs after its first jump. With all 3 in front of it, it tore 2 of them apart with a sweep on its front paw before firing a bolt of energy at the third at point-blank range.

The destruction of the mechs caused a large explosion. Berus would usually be able to ignore it, but with its injuries and damage, the explosion did some slight damage. But Jalim and Berus ignored it. They charged toward the next group while being supported by Corsair and Sunia.

The next 20 minutes of evacuation were terrible for both sides. It was obvious that these two were dangerous and didn't fear death. No matter who shot at them or how damaged they mechs became, they continued to fight as if nothing was wrong. The alliance of forces decided to focus their fire on the Republic's escaping forces.

So while most of the Republic forces were able to board escape transports, many had died under the hail of enemy fire. But with the two Espers and their ACEs providing cover, it was much less and even possible for those soldiers to escape in the first place.

As the transport ship began to take off, both ACEs were still in the middle of battling the enemy forces and did not notice that their allies were escaping. By the time they did, the transport was too high and not providing any covering fire for the pair of ACEs but instead leaving them to their fates.

"Seems like we are in danger," Jalim heard an indifferent, feminine voice say through his headset. And he agreed.

"Not just in danger, we are doomed. If it was just the pirates of the natives, we had a chance of being prisoners. But with the Federation here, they won't allow us to survive. Especially after they remind the others about how we killed their Espers," he responded and let out a grunt as several blasts of heavy fire hit Berus and shook it to its very core.

"Then if we are to die, let us die while killing as many as we can," Sunia said before cutting off communications. Jalim already had an idea of what she wanted to do and was prepared to do the same.

"Apologies, Berus. It seems this is the end of the line for us," Jalim whispered to his ACE before he started gathering all the energy it was producing into its core before starting a meltdown.

Corsair flew in from above and went after the army on the east side of the city since Berus was on the west. Each ACE detonated at the same time and produced a blast of pure energy that covered over 30 km each. The entire enemy forces were wiped out while the planet itself was left in ruin.

All that remained of the intense battle that took place there was the large double sphere-shaped craters that occurred due to the blasts. As for the bodies of any leftover materials of the people that were there, there was nothing.