“The important thing to know is that these explosives aren’t ideal for disabling an intact target,” Caedril explained as the team charged into the corridors of Bad Penny Station. “If you can create a vulnerability and follow it up with a charge, you’ll do fine. The charges can adhere to most unshielded and we haven’t seen any energy shields from human mechs yet so getting your bomb in place shouldn’t be a big deal,” he added confidently. “Your armor will control detonation with a range of up to a kilometer. Questions?”
“Do I need to worry about these going off if I get hit?” Zayd asked, tapping the canisters attached to hardpoints on his thighs. Each one held ten egg-sized explosive charges along with one substantially larger explosive the size of a softball.
“Against these humans, unlikely,” Caedril said. “If you were dealing with Dark Energy empowered attacks, then maybe, but you’ve seen how primitive these humans are,” he continued, as though Zayd wasn’t one of those same primitive humans.
“Incoming from the left corridor twenty meters ahead,” Fist Leader Sioban said, interrupting the conversation as she processed information from one of her scouting drones. “Three Enforcers, two Subjugators. I’ve got the Enforcers with drones, Saeyd and Broll, suppressive fire on the Subjugators, Caedril and Zayd bombs away, Haelith on rearguard.”
As a string of acknowledgements came over the com channel, Sioban’s drones rounded the corner unleashing a storm of energy blasts toward the lightly armored Enforcers. Panicked blasts from the shoulder cannons of the converted artillery mechs, flooding the corridor with crackling energy. Two of Sioban’s drones exploded in a shower of sparks and twisted metal but not before delivering crippling blows on the mechs that took them down. Moments later, concentrated fire from the remaining two drones disabled the cannons of all three Enforcers before mounting damage sent them tumbling to the deck.
Saeyd sprinted across the intersection to the far side, using the wall as cover while unleashing a steady stream of energy blasts from his tri-barreled carbine. Broll set up on the side of the corridor opposite him adding precision shots aimed at the cockpits of the two Subjugators.
The Subjugators instantly charged forward, covering their cockpits with their small shields and leaping over the fallen Enforcers as they closed on the Fae attackers.
[DARK ENERGY EMPOWERMENT]
[SPEED: 4 -> 5 (TEMPORARY)]
[TIME REMAINING: 10 MINUTES]
Zayd charged directly at the advancing mechs, forgoing any enhancements beyond strength to preserve his dwindling reserves of Dark Energy. The burst of speed propelled him forward, rapidly drawing even with the advancing Subjugator. No sooner had he come within a few meters of the mech, however, than the enemy pilot stopped his advance, pivoting on one slender leg to kick out at Zayd with the other!
Zayd dove for the deck, tucking his body into a roll away from the massive foot of the mech. The roll almost got him out of the way. Alarms screamed and the automated systems of his combat armor triggered the flight system to minimize the impact force but nothing would stop several tons of armored mech foot from crashing into Zayd. Alarms screamed in his ears, and brilliant warning lights flared as half of the schematic displaying his armor’s condition shifted from green to blue with a few modules flashing an alarming shade of azure. The next instant, pain exploded across much of his body when he slammed into the bulkheads of the corridor, crumpling the strong alloys of the station.
Zayd’s modified heart pounded in his chest and his augmented eyes blinked away moisture as he fought to clear the fog from his vision. Suddenly, the massive head of a mace loomed in his vision as the pilot of the Subjugator followed up his kick with a powerful attack!
Functioning more on reflex than deliberate intention, Zayd triggered his flight system and shot up out of the way of the mace, evading the mass of metal by less than a meter! Pressing his feet against the bulkhead, Zayd kicked off the crumpled metal wall and dove toward the Subjugator’s shield arm, swinging his maul in a powerful overhand strike. “Broll,” he gasped into the com channel. “Cockpit!”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Zayd’s strike was entirely insufficient to do any real damage to the mech’s thick shield but Zayd exploited the pilot’s ignorance and fear of superior Fae technology to draw the shield out of position, creating an opening for Broll to fire several blasts directly at the cockpit. Armorplast cracked and shattered under the sniper’s assault before the pilot pulled his shield back into position to block the deadly energy blasts from the sniper. Seizing the opportunity Broll had provided him, Zayd’s hand flicked out, tossing an explosive charge into the hole the sniper’s attack had made in the cockpit. A moment later, the entire mech shuddered and came to a stop as smoke poured from the cockpit.
[ACTIVATION MISSION: DESTROY 5 ENEMY MECHS AND KILL THEIR PILOTS]
[PROGRESS: 3/5]
Zayd had no time to celebrate his victory. As soon as he leaped clear of the disabled mech, a proximity alarm flared and Zayd was once again struck by several hundred kilograms of metal, this time from the grapple of a downed Enforcer mech! Electricity surged along the cable connecting the grapple to the mech even as a powerful winch began to reel Zayd in like a fish caught on a line. Pain danced across Zayd’s nerves as his combat armor failed to prevent all of the surging energy from reaching his body.
Fury boiled in Zayd’s heart as the feeling of helplessness surged within him. For a moment, his mind flashed back to the one time he’d made the mistake of defying the instructors in the Zed-Alpha program. He couldn’t even remember what started the argument but he vividly remembered the sensation of the instructor’s stun baton pressing into his neck and robbing his body of control, leaving him spasming on the floor as he became an object lesson to his siblings about the price of disobeying orders.
“SCREW. YOU!” Zayd shouted, passing several commands to his armor. With the Saighdear combat armor, he didn’t need to be able to move his muscles for the armor to move, as long as he could visualize his desires, the armor would function as his muscles! Gritting his teeth through the pain, Zayd let the armor completely take control of his body. The flight system flared accelerating him toward the downed mech faster than the winch was reeling him in. Zayd’s maul rose above his head moments before he brought it crashing down on the vulnerable cockpit of the enemy mech. The thin armorplast of the cockpit shattered instantly, sparks flew and blood splattered throughout the cockpit as Zayd’s maul claimed the life of the pilot. Still, Zayd didn’t stop moving, slamming his maul into the cockpit again and again until the control systems completely failed and the grapple holding him hostage disengaged.
[ACTIVATION MISSION: DESTROY 5 ENEMY MECHS AND KILL THEIR PILOTS]
[PROGRESS: 4/5]
Movement in the corner of his eye drew Zayd’s attention through the red haze clouding his vision. A few meters away, the pilot of another downed Enforcer struggled to free himself from the wreckage of his cockpit. Without a second thought, Zayd kicked off of the bloody wreckage of the Enforcer that had captured him and slammed his maul down onto the pilot of the other mech. Over the com channel, Zayd dimly heard the voice of Sioban but the words didn’t make any sense until three hammer blows later.
“Champion! Can you hear me?” Sioban shouted into a private channel that only Zayd could hear. Unlike the rest of the team, her command suite of software told her exactly how alarming Zayd’s physical state was as well as how badly damaged his armor was after the combination of the mech’s kick and the electrical shock grapple. Thus far, she’d only lost a few drones and Caedril’s superior experience had been sufficient to get him through the engagement with only minimal damage but Zayd’s armor still smoked from the amount of electricity that had poured into it and his vital signs were more than alarming though they seemed to be returning to normal, as though he was recovering from some kind of berserk state. It was a cold reminder to the Fist Leader of the fact that her new team member wasn’t Fae no matter how much they wanted to treat him like one of their own and she had no idea what kind of conditioning he might have been subjected to in his previous training program to produce such a berserk outburst. “Zayd, are you there?”
“Sorry Fist Leader,” Zayd finally managed to say. “Give me a moment.”
[ACTIVATION MISSION: DESTROY 5 ENEMY MECHS AND KILL THEIR PILOTS]
[PROGRESS: 5/5]
[ACTIVATION MISSION COMPLETE. BONUS MISSION AVAILABLE: DESTROY ADDITIONAL ENEMY MECHS AND KILL THEIR PILOTS. FOR EACH ADDITIONAL MECH DESTROYED, BONUS POINTS WILL BE AWARDED. BONUS LIMIT: 5]
[ACCEPTING THE BONUS MISSION WILL DELAY ACTIVATION UNTIL CANDIDATE REACHES THE LIMIT OR CHOOSES TO COMPLETE THE ACTIVATION]
[ACCEPT BONUS MISSION: YES/NO]