All Chapters of Games of Invictus: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

It felt like a piece of heaven had fallen to Earth, so thunderous was the impact. My feet were thrown out from under me and the wind blinded me with snow. I struggled to stand up against the wind that now whipped across the mountaintop. Wiping snow off my face, I stared up at the source of the impact. The mech was massive, easily three storeys high. Snow sloughed off its flat armour in miniature avalanches. This bastion of power was unlike any other mech I had seen before, and it owed its uniqueness to Dan Stonewood. It was a Barricade, deployed in battle for only the second time in history. Draco Fisk, who had somehow avoided the impact when his soldiers had not, stood up, brushing snow off his jacket with one good arm. The Barricade, much like the many others that were now dropping across the mountain, activated its frontal shield and charged towards the Frostpoint facility, intent on ramming as many enemies as it could. I was a safe distance away, but someone wasn't. Oblivious

"Stonewood's design was the easiest clue-you delivered it onto the battlefield yourself. The moment I knew Dan was involved, I began to suspect he'd recruited you, as well-who better to pilot his designs than the son of his oldest friend?" Draco spoke so rapidly that I had barely processed his words when the shock hit me. My blood ran cold. I'd known Dan for nearly four years, and not once had he mentioned my father to me. I fought back a rising tide of anger, maintaining my composure. Dan was still my friend. I had to trust that he had his reasons for not telling me. "Although I had my theories," Draco continued, "I had no proof as to your involvement. That's why I laid a trap for you in Stalnoy." Draco pulled the blueprints from his pocket, dangling them tantalizingly in front of me. "This paper never contained Project Terminus," he admitted. "Axion recovered your father's stolen plans years ago under the cover of the First Battle of Stalnoy. I sent Harlow to clean out the Russian

Taewi's command capsule detonated in a concussion I could feel kilometres away. The shockwave to my chest felt like I'd been shot. Not Taewi. Not energetic, fearless Taewi. The remains of the capsule streaked upwards through the air as flames consumed its shattered shape. Its ascent slowed, gravity taking its toll. Finally, it reached its unintended apex and began to fall, fire trailing behind it like a falling star. The pod fell beyond the edge of the plateau and was gone. Taewi Park was dead. As I stood in shock, Draco was silent for only an instant. With a grunt, Draco removed his hand from his shoulder and held up his radio, seemingly unbothered by the dark blood that coated his hands. "Killswitch is... a highly efficient deterrent to command capsules," he declared. "It seems the same frequency affects their functions. Reactor detonation was unexpected, but... effective." I could barely understand what he was saying. My breath came shallowly and suddenly, like it refused to

A brief time later I realized how cold I was. It was the first thought I had as I awoke lying face down in a snowbank. I'd fallen at least eighty meters after my parachute was torn. It splayed out behind me, half-buried in the snow. I was fortunate I had not fallen on any buried rocks. Everything felt numb. Fatigue licked at the edges of my vision, weighing down my eyelids and slowing my thoughts. The sound of a distant explosion snapped me back to reality. I had to move now or I never would again. I tried to stand but was held back by the weight of my snow-covered parachute. I shrugged off the harness with a grunt and wandered away, wincing as the snow curled around the upper lips of my boots. Mech jumpsuits were good for heat protection but offered little in the way of help against the biting Yamantau wind. I turned to view the wreckage of my capsule and my stomach turned. I was glad I hadn't been inside the pod when it hit. The bottom engine of the pod was nowhere to be found,

Report: Quinn Just off the coast of Nova Scotia. Canada. Alliance home base. Designation: "The Firmament" We'd returned to the Firmament in near-complete silence, unable to talk about what had happened. The final tally, as I'd last heard, was fifteen pilots shot down in cold blood. Fifteen men and women who had just wanted the war to end. That meant around seventy-five mechs didn't have pilots. We'd also abandoned seventeen mechs during our retreat, meaning Axion would soon be able to reproduce our Barricades and Predators. To add insult to injury, I still wasn't sure what Project Terminus was. Killswitch had been a powerful weapon and I was sure we hadn't seen the last of it, but something told me that Terminus was something entirely different. The debrief had been short, with Commander Telbus doing most of the talking. Martin had commended the surviving pilots, myself included, for undaunting courage in the face of death. There was talk of medals. Nobody wanted them. Nobody