That night, rain poured down as if to wash away the ashes of the Hoa Lac battle. Yet the rain could not erase the stench of burning metal, rubber, and blood. The streets still glowed red from the cannons that had only just fallen silent.
Many residential blocks lost power. Apartments flickered only with candlelight or the glow of phone screens. In the cold, cramped field hospital, doctors stitched wounds while soldiers lay still beneath silver rescue blankets.
01:23 a.m
The temporary command post was set inside an abandoned mechanical factory. Generators roared. The electronic map pulsed with flashing red points. Colonel Trần Đức Hạo had not yet changed out of his scorched armor. Rain seeped through his collar, but he remained at the command table. The steel door clattered open. A young officer rushed in, pale faced:
"Report! A giant creature has appeared in the Eastern industrial zone! Nearly nine meters tall! Moves on four mechanical legs! Red energy core! Drone signal cut after ten seconds!"
The command room froze.
General Lê Quang Dự gripped the console tightly.
"Assign it a code."
"B…237, sir. It's a Beta prototype from Van Sinh's classified files, believed destroyed six months ago."
Silence. Only rain on the tin roof.
"Summon all mechanized units. Prepare for emergency combat."
"Yes, sir!"
Eastern Industrial Zone, 01:45.
Rain hammered down. Containers lay toppled. Smoke from half burned warehouses mingled with rain into ghostly white mist. Then the ground shook.
From afar, a colossal shadow slithered out of the yard. Streetlights flickered against its rain soaked armor, dark gray, its back bristling with red energy conduits like artificial veins.
B237. A hybrid of serpent and lion, broad headed, steel-jawed, teeth like sawblades. Four massive mechanical legs each step bent steel beneath, cracking the earth.
Its chest core throbbed like an artificial heart: thump… thump… red light pulsing through the rain. Thermal cameras of the special forces trembled:
"Core temperature exceeds 2000 degrees! This thing… is no longer biological!"
On the upper floor of a half-burned building, Trung stood in the rain, armor scorched, one shoulder still smoking. His blue eyes glowed, reflecting the monster's red.
"Professor An, are the civilians evacuated?"
"Almost! But the police unit at the southern warehouses is trapped!"
"I'll buy time."
"You're insane! That thing… can't be killed with ordinary weapons!"
"I'm not ordinary anymore."
Without waiting, Trung stepped onto the wall and leapt. Metal slammed against concrete like a hammer.
B237 turned. Its sensor eyes blazed red, locking onto Trung.
The battle between man and steel hell began. Rain poured. Thunder roared. In the black industrial zone, only the red glow of B237's chest and the faint blue radiance from Trung's body lit the night.
CRASH!!!
B237 roared, its body like a colossal mobile factory awakening. Four mechanical legs drove deep into concrete, cracks spreading like webs. Energy cannons on its back flared crimson.
"All units! Scatter! Shield the civilians!"
Military radios crackled through the rain.
Far away, armored convoys carried civilians out. Riot police and commandos in raincoats, shields in hand, guided the elderly, carried children, shouting:
"Quickly! Stay in line! Don't look back!"
A lost boy sobbed. A soldier scooped him up, sprinting through the storm of fire.
CLANG!
Trung tore scorched armor from his shoulder, blue eyes cold as ice. B237 fired plasma! Red light slashed the sky, slicing a building, steel melting like tar. Trung rolled aside. The ground exploded behind him.
"Activate full combat mode."
Inside him, the blue core blazed. Mechanical joints unfolded like jet wings. He lunged, leaving cracked footprints in cement. A plasma blade of azure extended from his arm.
Trung swung! The blue arc struck the monster's belly armor. Sparks flew, but no breach. B237 retaliated.
A colossal leg slammed down BOOM! Shockwaves hurled Trung back, smashing him against a ruined cold storage wall. He spat blood, metallic taste sharp.
"Outer armor too thick… must reach the core."
At the command post, the giant screen showed Trung alone blocking B237.
Colonel Hạo rose, voice trembling:
"Is… is that one of ours?! His body… glowing? Moving like a machine?"
General Dự's eyes never blinked. His voice was firm:
"If he protects the people, he is ours."
"But sir, is he truly… human?"
"In war, it doesn't matter who he is. Only which side he stands on."
He turned to the communications officer:
"Maintain contact. Do not fire in his direction."
Battlefield, 02:11.
Mechanized artillery rolled out. 105mm cannons thundered, shells exploding before B237, blocking its advance toward civilians.
"Fire second volley!"
"UAV 3, lock target from above!"
"Evacuation trucks, clear the southern axis now!"
Smoke, fire, rain, children crying, soldiers shouting as they guided civilians through the chaos. Trung rose again. Half his armor shredded. One arm sparking blue. But his eyes still burned.
He vaulted a broken power pole, leaping close to B237's head! Plasma blade stabbed CLANG! No breach. B237 roared, throat charging a plasma cannon. Trung gritted his teeth.
"Fine then."
He pressed his chest, activating the auxiliary core. Blue energy erupted. His mechanical spine flared into radiant wings. He dove like a lightning bolt.
SLASH!
The plasma spear pierced B237's first armor layer. It howled, slamming him down. Trung's arm bent, sparks flying. The monster crushed him, steel grinding the road beneath.
Warning signals screamed in his mind:
"Danger. Danger. Main core overload. If detonated… survival chance under 5%."
Rain lashed his face, mingled with blood.
"If I let go now… civilians will die." He snarled: "For the People… For the Fatherland!"
BOOM! He detonated the auxiliary core in his chest. Blue and red light collided. An explosion tore the sky, silencing all else. Smoke cleared.
B237 lay half destroyed. Its auxiliary core pierced, red energy leaking like blood.
Trung collapsed in the wreckage. Flesh on his right side burned away, exposing mechanical frame and artificial nerves beneath.
Professor An rushed through the smoke:
"Trung! Where are you?!"
A charred blue hand slowly reached from the rubble
"You're insane…" An fell to his knees, rain mixing with tears.
"Not yet…" Trung smiled weakly. "B237 is only the beginning… Others are preparing to awaken from Van Sinh."*
Above, a strange light pierced the storm clouds. Van Sinh's satellites began linking directly to Earth. The war was not over. It had only just begun.