Little did he know that it wasn?t in vain. The DAX suit he inhabited stretched out its arms and caught the fist of the impeding enemy, a sound of clashing metal filled his ears.
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Chapter 3

Xin opened an eye, his mouth was slightly open. "Oh?" His arms were crossed over his face, but he could still see past them. He noticed that a one way screen was open, actually, there was two of them. They were both shaped like rubies, and he could see through them. It was the DAX suit's eyes.

He tried to get up, but he was knocked back down right away. The whole DAX shook as he gripped the metal armrest, not willing to let go. Sparks flew once again from the tinted wires, some even stung Xin's skin.

Outside of the cockpit, the enemy DAX was pushing back Xin's suit with its own fist! The sound of grinding metal was heard as the fist scraped against the palm, pushing Xin's DAX into the ground.

As the cockpit shuddered, Xin began to panic in his seat. "What did I do earlier to make it stop? Can I do it again?" He racked his brain on the thing he did last. Falling onto a metal chair hardly seemed like it would help in any way. ?All I did was ask it to stop, maybe if I ask again.."

Xin scrambled to his feet and leaned over to see through the DAX suit's eyes. He noticed that the other DAX was having a hard time penetrating his defense, so he had a little bit of time before an actual hit could be delivered. "Hey you! Leave me alone already, will you?!" He shouted in his deep and blatant voice.

The enemy DAX didn?t falter for one moment. Instead, it continued with it?s heavy attack. "What?" Xin asked in a soft and quiet voice, his eyes were now blazing like the eyes of a desperate quarry. "Maybe the problem wasn't with the enemy, it?s with my own robot. Of course! I control this thing, I just have to fight off the enemy then maybe I can escape. But how?" Xin was thinking out loud.

Maybe the suit only responded when he was desperate, but that didn't make sense. Why would someone make a machine that only works when the user was in trouble? That wasn?t very war-like at all.

Xin scanned the cockpit once again. He moved around through the web of wires, doing his best to avoid the faulty ones. As he moved, he was quick to notice that the cockpit of the suit beared several buttons. Amazingly, they were all on the wall, at least 3 feet away from the seat. How was a pilot supposed to reach those?

It was apparent now to him, that he had no choice but to flee. If he couldn?t save himself from inside the suit, then maybe he could just run away secretly while the enemy was still assaulting the suit. Yeah, it was the best option at the moment.

Xin dashed to entrance, or exit in this case, of the cockpit in a hurry. He hoped the enemy couldn't sense him or something from their own suit. His prayers were denied when the suit began to shake violently.

It shook as much as it had done earlier when the punch was delivered, this time, it was a lot worse. It turns out the enemy had finally delivered the punch to his own suit, driving it into the ground.

Xin tripped over nothing in particular, fell, and was sprawled across the floor. He felt like he couldn't get up again, but he knew he should. He pulled himself up slowly from the hard floor using the armrest of the metal chair to pull himself up.

He felt his hands on something cold. Xin's fingers ran over it, feeling the hard texture as it did so. Finally, after a moment of the touching, he pressed his whole hand against the thing. It was a button.

There was a loud humming sound which continued for a bit. Xin didn't know what was going on until something started to press against him from the back. He spun around and saw the whole place closing in on him. "What the-?" He asked as he moved away from the walls, but they just didn't stop.

As he was backing up, he tripped over the metal seat and fell onto it. Finally, just when it seemed that the walls were going to squish him and the chair with it, the walls stopped.

Xin had a cool look on his face, almost as if he knew the walls were going to stop. This of course, was false. He was scared stiff, and at the moment he was still shaking. This day just kept getting worse by the second. On more than once occasion he had seen his life flash before his eyes. At times he felt like the he was being messed with, and in a sarcastic way he would just wish he was dead already.

Now, the buttons were easily accessible to Xin, only about one foot away at each side. To add to the surprises, the wires suddenly fell from the ceiling, connecting themselves to several parts of Xin. He didn't struggle in fear of getting electrocuted, so he sat still while the wires stuck themselves to the important points of his body such as the temples, throat, heart, and diaphragm.

Xin was ready to roll now, except he still didn't know how what all the wires were for. He stretched his arms and cracked his fingers in front of him, wondering how to use the thing now. Xin pressed some buttons and the DAX's extremities began to flail around. The buttons were just a distraction.

The huge bot was caught off guard when the enemy continued it's assault. It launched a huge fist which smashed Xin's suit right in the chest. The suit skid across the rubble like some kind of rocket, spinning as it dived.

Xin screamed as his DAX grinded against the ground, clearing the rubble from underneath it. It swerved one last time before it stopped spinning and just lay there on it's back. Xin just looked up, feeling like he couldn?t do anything anymore.

He began to move, but he couldn?t. He was too tired and sore to even think about moving, much less actually perform the impossible act. "Move... damn it." He muttered.

Amazingly, he really felt like he did move. And he actually did in a way. The DAX suit rose up and planted it's feet on the ground. Xin was wide-eyed, thinking of what he just did to make it move. "Wait, I see now. It responds to my orders? Ah." He said as things finally started to make sense.

Xin looked away, flinching at the though of death. He used his arms to shield his face from the impact of the blast. "Stop it!" He shouted in vain.

The memory played itself once in his mind. He had just realized how this beast of mechanical beauty had worked. "So, this robot responds to my commands, huh? I see now, that this is a battle of the quickest minds!" He said with a certain way of exhilaration and proudness. "Now, mighty robot, let's beat this thing!" He visualized the robot throwing multiple punches at the enemy who was charging at them.

Almost instantly the DAX suit responded. It kicked into gear and began to charge at the opponent. The enemy DAX flung itself at Xin's, but the attack was stopped when Xin's bot threw a punch at the enemies chest, and then another, and later some more.

The punches landed successfully, throwing the DAX suit back into the air. Xin again visualized his suit throwing some more punches and shouted, "Now! Finish it off!" The DAX sprinted and caught up with the falling enemy, striking it with a backhanded strike. This resulted in the enemy spinning out of control in the air and landing in a pile of rubble, totaled.

Xin sighed, he was out of danger now, at least he thought he was. His DAX turned to his orders and saw that the battle between Constellus and the other DAX suits had stopped. They were all facing Xin's DAX, wondering what was going on.

Xin stared back at them through the DAX's eyes, his mouth slightly ajar and his eyes paralyzed in fear. This was bad, one of the opposing sides were to be his enemy. He knew right away it was the DAX's suits who he couldn't trust, being attacked by one of them earlier proved this to a greater point. The other side hadn't one anything to harm him, they were fighting the DAX's. His enemy was clear now, the DAXs. Unfortunately, the choice to strike first wasn't given to him, since the DAX suits were already shooting at him.

Xin scrambled to dodge the bullets, but the onslaught was too much. Instead, the bullets struck in various places of the DAX, mostly around the body area. Luckily enough, it hadn't done much damage because the DAX had significant armor, or maybe just because the DAX suits had weak guns. He didn't know at the time.

Inside the DAX, Xin was struggling to maintain his composure. Red lights flashed and he heard various beeps signaling to the place that had been weakened. "Robot, move to the um... duck and cover!" He shouted as a second barrage of bullets came toward them.

The DAX followed it's orders and kneeled to the ground, it's arms raised over it's face and torso. The barrage of bullets was short lived, since the Constellus troops had began to fire at the once again distracted DAX suits. Many of them fell down in heaps, but there were still at least a dozen left.

Meanwhile, Xin was completely dazed as he watched the horrific battle scene through the DAX's eyes. His eyes reflected the image of a tank getting totaled by a DAX suit and one of the tanks inhabitants crawling out of the destroyed top right before dying.

He shook the image out of his head, he knew what he had to do, so there was no time for thinking of the deceased. Xin looked at the scene once again, this time so he could see if where he could attack, not to find more people dying.

As he watched, he noticed that the enemy was getting cornered by the army machines who's force was twice as large as the DAX's. He nodded confidently and spoke loudly to nothing but the DAX, "Robot! Attack the one to the far right, it seems to be oblivious to bullets, maybe we can break it down with out fists!"

The DAX suit kicked into gear and charged into the thick of battle. It jumped over a sprawled DAX and other carnage which was left behind by the battle. It took one last step before it sprung in the air, landing right behind the DAX Xin had mentioned.

"Attack now!" The DAX seized the enemy by wrapping it's hands around it's waist and picking it up into the air before bending backwards and plowing the DAX's head into the ground. The force almost flattened Xin against the roof of his own DAX as he slid down the metallic chair upside down.

"This thing has everything but seatbelts." He thought as he slid back down his seat. The wires were still connected to him in the places they had been originally attached, though some of them had become loose. "Alright now robot, finish off the-"


All the artillery around him clicked, and it was aiming at his suit. Xin saw through the DAX's eyes that all around the rest of the DAX suits had fallen and the Constellus artillery was facing at him.

A voice broke through a speaker somewhere, "Do not move or we will shoot you. I repeat do not move or we will shoot you down!"

(((Ending)))