The sounds of clashing steel and rolling thunder vibrated Crusader’s cockpit, as Logan engaged his quarry. From the moment he’d landed, he’d been set upon by the heavily armored Warden. It was certainly an imposing unit, with a tall and wide bodied chassis, fitted with curved, shaped armor and painted in an emerald and ash palette that seemed to help it meld in and out of the chlorine gas as it circled Logan’s Crusader, waiting for the perfect moment to reach out and strike with its long thin blade.

“Logan, you there?” Cameron’s voice crackled into Logan’s comm piece “…People are dead now.”

Logan wanted to reply, but the Warden was making it hard for him to multitask, taking the lead of their deadly little waltz by slowly walking Logan back, using a series of quick flourishing slashes to force him to give up ground until he felt the unmoving wall that was the train itself pressing against his back. A swift thrust came almost too late for Logan to react, causing him to drop his shield and bring his palm up to push into his opponent's shoulder joint, clamping down hard and causing the attack to stop short as he and the Warden entered a stalemate.

“Little busy here kid!” He managed to get out, gritting his teeth as he did so, “Seems that one of those Wardens was closer than we thought.”

“Who… the hell… are you…” A gruff, gravely voice said, coming from the speaker of the Warden, “This… is… our territory..”

Logan didn’t reply, there was no point. Instead, he ignored the question, as well as the screaming hydraulic sensor on his HUD that was threatening to break from the strain and dropped his center of gravity. In one swift motion he shoulder checked the enemy pilot directly in the cockpit while working his palm down the main sword arm of the Warden, pushing it up hard and forcing the mech off balance, allowing him to slip away from the wall and back onto open ground, just in time for Cameron to radio over again.

“I’m en route, try to keep him off you and we can take him together!”

Logan was quick to respond then. If one Warden was here, then that could only mean the other A.R.M.S. were playing commander behind the Squires. He yelled into the mic, hoping the urgency was enough to get through,

“NO! Don’t worry about me! You need to focus on the other A.R.M.S! I’ll be fine!”

In response he was greeted with nothing but static, just in time for his opponent to reorient himself and press the attack once again, twin boosters on it’s back firing on full blast as it leaped towards him in a sweeping lunge, aiming for his midsection. Logan was prepared this time however, bringing his mace up with two hands, one on the handle and one on the tungsten haft, and turning it sideways.

The steel sword met the tungsten haft with an ear piercing clang as somewhere off in the distance an explosion sent shockwaves reverberating even to where Logan was standing, causing his eyes to go wide as he pushed off the attack and tried to hail Cameron.

“Kid? You good over there?!” He called, his voice sounding more concerned by the second, “Kid, Can you hear me?! Cameron?!”

Again, he was met with silent static, causing him to curse as he went on the offensive, sensing a countdown had just started until that static became permanent. He twisted the haft and pushed the sword away and down from him, bringing a foot up high to stomp on the crossguard and deliver a downward blow aimed at the dominant elbow joint. He smirked as he felt the familiar crunch of the mace crunching through metal, but the smirk quickly faded when he pulled back and saw there was barely an inch worth of penetration.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Fucking heavies,” He cursed, mentally dyling his comm channel over to the train security officer from their free-fall.

“Grizzy One to Honeypot, mayday mayday, I need fire for effect out here. I know you’re targeting softwares scrapped but you can still aim manually right?” He said, sounding a bit more desperate than he expected to.

“Can confirm Grizzly One,” The voice said, after a few moments. “Give us the grid coordinates and fifteen seconds and we can lay some hate downrange where it’s needed.”

“Roger that,” Logan said, switching off the comm channel and turning away from Warden, dashing off into the smoke.

“Vic,” Logan said, looking over his shoulder to confirm that the pirate was indeed giving chase, “Give me a ten digit grid coordinate for three hundred meters in front of me.”

“Certainly Sir,” Victor’s posh accent responded, taking a second to do some advanced calculations before displaying a series of numbers and letters appeared at the bottom of his HUD. Satisfied with the result he switched back over to the comm channel, making sure to speak clearly.

“Honeypot be advised, fire on my mark at the following grid zone; Thirteen tango, break… four six two seven niner, break… eight niner five four three, over.”

“Received Grizzly One,” Honeypot responded, “Dialing in now.”

It took a tad longer than Logan would have liked, and he had to slow down, risking a couple of wide slashes from the still chasing Warden, but as he neared the coordinates he’d given, he heard over the channel some of the most beautiful words in the spoken language, “All guns dialed in Grizzly One, on your call.”

Logan grinned wide, speeding up slightly as he hit the coordinates, then passed them, quickly turning around to see the heavily armored Warden, lagging behind, but still harrying him, eager for the kill.

‘To bad he’d never get his wish.’ Logan thought, mentally counting the travel distance of a rail cannon shot. He waited until just before the Warden had crossed into the grid zone, before giving the order with a toothy grin.

“Send it.”

There was a split second of silence, where the Warden crossed into the zone unmolested, and Logan worried he’d given the wrong coordinates. But that worry quickly dissolved when four large blue balls of plasma hit the heavily armored Warden like the fist of god. They didn’t so much pierce the mech, as much as they vaporized any physical matter that they came into contact with, stopping the Warden directly in its tracks, as massive holes punched through it effortlessly, transforming Logan’s relentless pursuer into a smoldering pile of iron in an instant.

Logan could hardly contain his excitement at watching such an awesome display of firepower. His grin could be heard over the radio as he offered his thanks.

“Way to reach out and touch somebody, Honeypot. Ceasefire for now.”

“Roger that Grizzly One. I certainly don’t mind laying back and letting y’all take care of all the heavy lifting.”

“Preciate it Honeypot. Now… If you’ll excuse me… I think someone’s fucking with my cub.”