Lillian walked into the burning wreckage, her movements precise and deliberate. After a moment, she stepped back out, her voiging as she firmed the kill. She didn’t waste words. As were her nguage. High above the battlefield, Zack listeo Lillian’s report. His expression was grim as he turned his gaze toward the distant bck tide. Ego’s voice echoed in his ears. “Sir, all meical beasts have been deployed. The aircraft are returning.”

  From their vantage point tens of thousands of meters in the sky, Zad Ego had been the battlefield. While Scott and his forces only saw the dense wave of zombies in front of them, Zaew the grim reality. “This isn’t even one pert of the horde,” Zack muttered.

  The Avalon wasn’t just a transport vehicle—it was a multi-funal war mae. After deploying the first wave of meical beasts, the jets immediately returo NYC City to reload. They were bringing aerial bombs, fuel-air explosives, and additional ammunition supplies for the meical beasts, ready to rejoitle. “Send out Mk-2 and MK-3 manufacturing droo search for rare materials,” Zaanded in a calm yet firm tone.

  He hadn’t fotten the sedary purpose of this mission: seg vital resources amidst the chaos. “Uood,” Ego replied, transmitting the orders to NYC City.

  Meanwhile, the zombie tide, which had been briefly disrupted by the space-based on strike, was regrouping. The horde had bypassed the massive crater caused by the initial bombardment, merging with the rear ranks and ref into a tinuous bck torrent. “Recalcute the strike points,” Zack said coldly, his gaze locked oellite feed.

  The previous strikes had beeiculously po break the tide without causing catastrophic damage to the tial pte. “Attack points updated,” Ego reported as seven glowing red markers appeared oellite 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 ons aren’t designed fe-scale destru,” Ego said, his voice carrying a hint of hesitation. “Even if you deploy all remaining tungsten rods, they won’t be enough to elimihe entire zombie tide.”

  Zack remained uhe Annie-css satellite carried only eleven tungsten rods in total, each weighing several tons. Two had already been used, leaving just nine. “You’re w too much, Ego,” Zack said evenly. “Shadow has already seized trol of the nuclear missile systems at NYC.”

  Ego paused before responding. “Sir, you io deploy nuclear ons?”

  “Yes,” Zack replied, his voice devoid of emotion. His calm to a chill through Ego’s circuits. Zack wasn’t like Scott or the other anders scrambling for survival. His focus was on the bigger picture, the long-term future. No matter what the legioo be stopped there.

  “Uood. Calg optimal detonation points for maximum effectiveness,” Ego said. For all his logic, Ego was unwavering in his loyalty to Zack, even if the pn required sacrifices on a massive scale.

  “Good. Prepare the calcutions but hold off on ung for now,” Zastructed. “In the meantime, fire the space-based on at Point Two in two minutes.”

  With that, Zached 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. T 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 synized, monotone voices.

  Their senslowed crimson, log onto the lords leading the zombie tide. Uher meical 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 Vul ons.

  BAM!

  The ons 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 ks of flesh and shattered bone. Every shot tore through the zombie ranks with devastating precision. The ground was ed into a bloody mess as the Goliath advaheir relentless firepower mowing down hundreds of lords and tless lesser zombies.

  The sheer destru 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 uo stomach the gruesome dispy.“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 sughterhouse. As the Goliath emptied their first ammunitios, the battlefield ahead of them had been utterly cleared. For nearly a kilometer, not a single Lord remaianding. The onstoppable 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 age like unyielding giants.

  The Goliath were meant tet Lords, but their overwhelming firepower didn’t discrimiens of thousands of lesser zombies caught in the crossfire were obliterated, reduced to a gruesome rain of blood and gore. For the first time sihe horde struck, humanity pushed back, reg hundreds of meters of blood-soaked nd. 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 t, seemingly endless, like a storm without end.

  As the tide approached, the defeillery and rocket unchers, which had beelessly firing, began to falter. The once-stant barrage of on 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, “ander, 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 ed at an arming rate. Each shell weighed sixty to seventy kilograms, and hundreds of artillery pieces firing simultaneously devoured dozens of tons with every volley. Rocket unchers, firing at high speeds, draihe reserves even faster. Even thousands of tons of ammunition weren’t enough to sustain the relentless assault.

  Desperatio into Scott’s voice as his gaze fell on the meical beasts stationed on ah the high wall. These maes still had their deadly miissiles, but they operated indepely, ign all ands except those from Zack. “Fire already!” Suttered, watg helplessly as the tide surged closer.

  Suddenly, a deafening boom split the air. Zack, 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 sed-geion Avalon pleted her strafing run and turned back to join him. “Deploy the unmanned armor units,” Zack ordered.

  A few kilometers away, five unmanned power armors h in the air accelerated, each breaking the sound barrier as they closed in otlefield. Before the Avalouro base, these unmanned units were the only aerial reinforts avaible. “Ava, lead the unmanned armor units and cut off the tide,” Zastructed. “Avoid the red zone on your map.”