Gavin glanced down at the display for the pilot seat and was surprised that he could actually understand the words now. When did that happen? For some reason he had the sense that he understood what the controls did also. “There, finished.” The girl said, putting the cover back on the panel and returning to her seat. “Wait, I can understand you now.” Gavin said feeling even more surprised. “Good, it seems to have worked by your expression. I don’t know who you are or how you got into the cockpit but now you need to help me pilot.” The girl said, working the controls.
“What did you do to me?” Gavin asked, pressing his hand to his neck again. “I won’t be able to understand you yet so just listen for now. I injected a simple AI into you using nanites. I don’t have time to discuss it now but it basically acts as a translator and gives you the knowledge to handle Talon 3. We can talk about it more later but first we have to deal with that.” She said pointing out the cockpit window. Gavin gulped as he saw a group approaching them. Initially he thought a portion of each army was trying to get to the mech first but now it looked like one was being chased and fleeing toward the mech.
“Ok, what do we do?” Gavin asked nervously, then remembered that she couldn’t understand him for some reason. “That’s fine, keep talking and my AI will be able to translate soon enough. We are on auxiliary power for now, which doesn’t leave us with many offensive options.” She said, still working with the controls. “So no lasers then.” Gavin said studying the controls frowning. “The flight system is off line and the right leg has sustained damage as well. I don’t think we can outrun them. The auto repair systems are functional but it will take time.” She continued. It wasn’t sounding very good to Gavin, but the mention of an auto repair system was intriguing. From what he saw of the battle, the magic attacks could probably damage the mech and the golems were large enough that they could pose a problem. He just hoped the airship didn’t come over and start shooting at them. As he was lost in thought, the dragon rider had beat back the griffins and turned its flames on the mech. He flinched as the flames licked the cockpit but the girl didn’t seem concerned. “Don’t worry, that’s not near hot enough to damage a Talon.” She said.
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”Try moving us forward, I want to test the systems while we still have time and you need to get used to the controls.” She said, studying her display. “Ok, I’ll try.” Gavin said, grabbing the control stick. The AI or whatever it was the girl gave him made him understand how to move the mech but actually doing it was another matter. He slowly eased the control stick forward and the mech lumbered ahead with a distinct limp. The dragon made another pass at them and got a little too close.
It must have annoyed the girl because she used the mechs clawed arm and swatted it out of the sky. The dragon tumbled to the ground and the rider was thrown free, landing a distance away from the dragon. Neither of them got up. Gavin didn’t feel too bad since the dragon rider had attacked them first. He experimented by twisting the mech’s torso left and right and then backed up. It looked like his time to practice was about up as the group being chased neared their position.
Two soldiers riding giant wolves reached them first. One circled the mech, while the other stopped in front of them and yelled something. The girl flipped a switch and they could suddenly hear what the soldier was saying. Gavin couldn’t understand the language however. He was about to say something when the girl spoke, anticipating his question. “It will take some time for the AI to figure out this world’s language as well.”
The soldier continued yelling at the mech and gesturing back the way they had come. “What do you think they want?” Gavin asked, forgetting again that she couldn’t understand him. “Oops, I guess you did say I’m supposed to keep talking though.” The girl ignored him and made a projection appear on the cockpit glass in front of them. It was a view of the approaching threats which she then zoomed in on. It looked like some kind of armored wagon being pulled by two large bear like beasts. More of the wolf riders were protecting it. The wagon had pennants flying off it that made Gavin think someone important must be inside. This could only lead to more trouble he thought.