The Arachnid had turned on us. The only thing more terrifying than its weaponry was the complete and total knowledge it possessed of our military strengths and weaknesses. Weak spots in our mobilized tanks were targeted and exploited. It shot hard caliber rounds, which it froze mid-flight, into our mobile suits in order to penetrate their shielding.

I watched battalions being decimated in a matter of minutes with precision and mercy. No soldier piloting these vehicles suffered a prolonged death. It was calculating in real time the most efficient way of ending us and our war as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, for the rest of us that it had betrayed, we had only a trigger and a perhaps a few minutes left to live. In stark contrast to the millions of calculations a second being performed by the arachnid, we could simply pull back the trigger and not let go until the gun was empty. And then what? Run, hide?

I knew my commander was standing beside me from the sound of her modified rifle, blasting rounds into the brilliant hard metal of the killing machine. “How did this happen?” I yelled over the din of explosions and bullet fire. No response. Understandable, philosophizing on our current predicament was a waste of time and energy.

The diamond pointed appendages of the arachnid punctured the earth 50 feet deep as it moved closer and closer to our line. We were supposed to be going into battle behind it. Going into battle is a strong phrase, there was normally very little to do after the arachnid had entered the battlefield. We were there to escort survivors, the arachnid computed threats and non-threats in a matter of milliseconds and we merely packed them into escorts.

The pulsing cannon on the front of the huge metallic spider was now turned on us. The cannon was designed to eliminate entire fortified positions of the enemy. Now, it had nothing but threats in front of it and one glowing red solution to its problem. I saw the telltale blinking red light flash, I felt the warmth sucked out of the surrounding air rushing toward the gaping deadly hole in its head. It would bring that heat to bear on us all. My gun still firing, I looked over to the commander. Looking at another person was the closest I could come to finding some comfort in the moment. I couldn’t actually see her face through the visor, but my brain filled in the details. A face showing no strain, lips shut tight with focus, and shadowy brown eyes that betrayed no fear.