Chapter 75: The Final Gambit, Iron’s Fall
The air in the extraction chamber was thick with tension. It was a standoff. On one side, Ryan’s exhausted team stood guard over their two precious artifacts.
On the other, Ilsa Varkov and her last few Iron Wolves stood ready to charge, their leader clutching the final, glowing red prize. And in the middle, the Apex War Golem lumbered forward, its giant red eye swiveling back and forth, trying to process the impossible situation.
Its programming had one simple command: secure the artifacts. But the artifacts were in two different places.
Ryan knew this was their only chance. A straight fight was suicide. They were injured and outnumbered. The Golem would crush them, and the Iron Wolves would pick up the pieces. He had to do something completely unpredictable. He had to change the rules of the game.
He looked at the Golem. He looked at Ilsa. He looked at his Weaver’s Interface Gauntlet, its Stormheart crystal glowing with soft, golden light. His crazy, impossible plan crystalized in his mind.
"Emma, what’s the one thing a security robot is programmed to do above all else?" he asked, his voice calm and steady in their private comms channel.
Emma, huddled behind a pillar, didn’t hesitate. "Protect the objective. In this case, the artifacts."
"Exactly," Ryan said, a wild grin spreading across his face. "So let’s give it a new objective."
He stepped forward, away from the protection of his team, and raised his gauntlet, pointing it directly at the thirty-foot-tall Apex War Golem.
Ilsa saw the move and laughed, a harsh, grating sound. "What are you doing, you little snake? Are you trying to scare it? You can’t stop that thing! You can’t stop us! CHARGE!"
With a final, desperate roar, she and her Iron Wolves surged forward. This was it. The final, bloody clash.