They called them monsters.
It made things easier when they screamed.
From 50,000 feet in the air, the goblin village looked like nothing more than a green smudge tucked into the ravine. The Black Halo team was dropping in fast, sky-piercing streaks of light against a stormy sky, metal suits glinting like gods of judgment.
Inside his XK-9 Valkyros Frame, Axel 26 barely felt the wind resistance. The suit was quiet, like it always was before a massacre.
"Target radius locked. Non-human population: 87. Combatants: 19. Orders: total elimination."
The mission feed scrolled across his visor in red. No names. No history. No voices. Just targets.
Above him, Vera One floated with eerie grace, her white armor glowing faint gold in the clouds like a fallen angel. Her voice came in cold and clear...
"Black Halo, execute. Burn resistance. Leave no survivors."
The ground screamed up to meet them.
The landing was war.
Braxton 91 hit first, his massive Titan Frame crushing the village gate. "MEAT GRINDER ONLINE!" he roared, opening fire with his rotary cannon, children, warriors, elders, chewed into red mist.
Reef 77 blurred past Axel in a streak of lightning. "Gotta go fast, gotta go faster!" he sang, splitting a lizard-rider in half with his Buzzkill staff.
Syne 34 was silent. Bodies dropped behind her in silence.
Axel moved like a shadow, Iron Howl on his back humming with heat. Every time he struck, it sang, a low, metallic wail as goblin warriors died by the dozens. His Last Word pistol barked in short, final sentences. Clean kills. Efficient.
He didn't look at their faces.
He never did.
Until he saw the child.
The flames hadn't reached this hut yet.
Inside, he saw a goblin girl, no older than six, trembling in the corner of a blood-slick floor. Two corpses lay beside her, her parents, from the looks of it. Her big yellow eyes were wild with terror.
"Help… mommy… wake up…"
Axel stepped forward, on instinct, not command.
"Why do they always look so human when they cry?"
He raised his gun. Just to finish it. End it quick. Mercy.
A blur of white armor stepped past him.
Vera One.
"She's a witness."
She raised her blade, Heaven Fang, its blinding edge igniting like the wrath of the sun.
CLANG.
Her sword didn't finish its arc. It met Iron Howl, Axel's greatsword, roaring with energy.
Vera's eyes narrowed behind her faceplate. "Axel…?"
He didn't speak. He didn't know what he was doing. All he knew was that his muscles had moved before he could think. His suit screamed with alerts: "TREASON PROTOCOL TRIGGERED."
The girl whimpered behind him, clutching his leg.
"Move," Vera said quietly.
Axel stood his ground. Iron Howl buzzed in his hands, hot with adrenaline.
"I said… MOVE."
He looked into her eyes and finally answered.
"No."
The word hit harder than any gunshot.
Silence.
Then, the other team members began to close in, weapons raised, eyes full of confusion, rage, betrayal.
Vera's voice was razor-edged calm.
"I order you to step aside."
Axel felt it then the invisible hand of command, the control chip pulsing at the base of his skull. His body shuddered. Legs moved. He took one step to the side, against every scream of his will.
The goblin girl let out a tiny gasp, suddenly exposed again.
Vera stepped forward, radiant and terrible, and grabbed the child by her hair. She lifted her like a trophy, eyes flicking toward Axel with something between disgust and curiosity.
"Why did you do that?"
Axel's jaw clenched. He said nothing.
"We'll discuss it back at Bastion," Vera said, her voice dripping with certainty. "After she's been neutralized."
She raised Heaven Fang high, the blade roaring alive with holy light, poised to sever the child's head.
Then Axel moved.
His helmet hissed and folded away into his armor, revealing his face for the first time that day, sharp, cold, and bleeding with conflict. His eyes were wide, desperate, filled with something Vera hadn't seen in him before...
Doubt.
His hand shot to the base of his skull, fingers curling against the reinforced seam. His suit screamed at him...
"CONTROL INTERFACE DETECTED. WARNING. SYSTEM COMPROMISE."
He roared.
And ripped.
A spurt of synthetic fluid and blood burst from the back of his neck as he tore the chip free, wires snapping like tendons. His vision went white. For half a second, the suit glitched violently and then it stabilized.
Autonomous.
Free.
The helmet slammed back over his head with a snarl of metal.
The others froze.
Reef's voice cracked through the comms, "Did he just..."
But it was too late.
Vera's blade was already swinging down.
Axel exploded forward.
His fist, powered by the full force of the Valkyros Frame, crashed into Vera's chest mid-swing. She was launched backward like a meteor, skidding across the burning dirt in a cloud of shattered debris, metal hissing and sparking as she tumbled.
The girl dropped, landing hard, whimpering in fear and pain.
Axel stepped over her, Iron Howl sliding from its back-plate mount with a magnetic growl. He stood over the child like a shield forged in war.
Reef blinked. "Uh… guys?"
Braxton grunted, leveling his cannon. "What the hell's going on?"
Syne 34 didn't move, just stared.
Vera rose from the crater she'd carved into the earth. Her armor was scorched, but intact. She touched her lip and looked at the blood on her fingers.
"You struck your commander."
Axel didn't speak.
"You chose her. A thing. Over us. Over your mission. Over your species."
He finally responded, voice low through the mask.
"I chose to stop being a weapon."
Vera's face twisted behind her visor. "Then die as a traitor."
She surged forward, Heaven Fang blazing. Reef blurred into a fighting stance. Braxton's rotary cannon spun up with a deafening whine. Syne vanished into shadow.
Axel pulled the child behind him and took a step into the storm.
Black Halo had turned on their own.
And Axel would face them all.