The rounded capsule enters the atmosphere with a firefly glint. Shooting down before splitting itself apart when it got close to the ground, the only thing left was a ball-shaped capsule containing a mech.
Bam! It hit the ground and formed a crater. The impact is not big enough to cause any real damage to the planet, not when it is already this ruined. The ball opens up revealing Sally inside.
“landin' confirm, you successfully land on the laza zone.”
“At least they did not fuck me up”
Sally half expected them to welcome her with a sea of robots. but in a way, silence is much more terrifying. The environment around her is a black rock that covers the whole space with some Lava flowing in between.
“Be careful with your step, some of the lava has not solidified.”
“I will look out”
The mech weighs tons even if it’s a medium-weight mech. Stepping on what is normally safe lava rock for humans might just sink your legs into a hot bath that could melt your mech. Sally looked around and saw that no one was near her.
“I don’t see anyone around”
“Me neither, let move to a spot where a satellite camera can’t pick you up.”
“Roger that”
Jay and other mech designers have been assigned the job of supporting the pilot with the satellite. The original workshop has also transformed into a spaceship with a variety of scan functions. However. The camera could not capture the whole planet and the scan was not that big, so he had to choose where to look to best support Sally.
The mech hums to life and uses its thruster to traverse the land. Looking from the Satellite Jay could tell that this land had been swallowed whole by lava. Its’ temperature is as high as 100 degrees Celsius. The mech has to expend some energy for extra cooling. Jay could tell why some people might choose the acid swamp rather than here.
The hot air makes it so that they need to expend more energy to maintain the mech and fighting her would be quite hard. The terrain plus the temperature could detour many mechs. Luckily The [Dual dangers] could handle this much heat.
“I have found a natural form cliff, I could hide under that.”
“Good job, I’ll survey the area.”
Jay changes the camera to look around the place, Sally mech is on the slight left side of the Lava zone but not much distance from the center. There Jay finds a missive hole that could easily fit like 100 medium mech inside. At the bottom of it was a pit of magma bubbling heat. Jay turns off infrared mode and discovers that the heat also masks the mech battery heat.
A the lucky choice for them to pick the Lava zone to hide. Jay moved the camera more and saw someone already fighting in the lava zone. Two mechs crashing it out with each other. It’s quite far away So Jay couldn’t care less. He moves on to find more and more people, usually fighting or traversing the land. There are probably more people but Jay couldn’t find them. Preferably hiding like Sally.
“Jay I heard something”
He immediately switches back to Sally and runs a scan near her area. his motion sensor picks out the thing Sally is talking about. The plane was covered in black rocks everywhere with lava flowing through it but on a cliff, a shining glint of a silver mech stuck out like a shore thumb.
“Medium mech, tetrapod build right above your cliff. Ready your weapon.”
“Ready to engage.”
“He’s going down, fire on sight.”
The tetrapod build slowly look like it’s finding a place to hide too. It slowly descends the cliff, right into Sally's charge-up rifle.
Bam!
A blue light flies forward, hitting the tetrapod with good accuracy. Two of its legs got blown off removing the balance that they used to hover above ground. They quickly realize what’s going on and activate their main thruster hoping to get back over the cliff. Sally also activated her thruster and gave chase.
The tetrapod successfully flies back over the cliff and it continue to fly. Sally pops out right behind him with another charged shot. but this time the tetrapod is ready for it. They sweep to the side narrowly avoiding Sally's riffle. The sound of a missile echoes through the space preventing a dodge from the tetrapod. but that’s not what came their way, Sally pushed up when it dodged her sound-mimicking. She shot two of the remaining legs off with a normal shot and went for the chainsaw across the mech.
Spark flew as the metal grind against each other making a buzzing sound. And before long, the tetrapod was cut in half earning Sally her first kill.
“Nice work”
“I’m a genius after all”
Jay could see Sally puff up her chest in the pilot seat.
“Return under the cliff before someone sees you. We already got the mech in our inventory.”
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“Roger that”
The [Dual dangers] return under the cliff. Jay got a notification from the competition that he got the mech parts. It’s a tetrapod build that excels at long hovering. The lava field is good for that but it sadly got ambushed by Sally.
Jay returned to surveying the area. he could always return to Sally when she needed him. However, after some time he reaches the limit of his survey system. He could move his spaceship to monitor different places but it would take time and if Sally needed support he would have to fly back. So Jay didn’t do it and waited.
—-------
“This is soo boring”
Sally complains over the coms.
“Bear with it if you want to win.”
Hours pass with nothing happening except the number of people, from 2823 to only 1640. 1183 people die within the first hours. Some from their own mistake, some from the environment, and some from other people's hands. One of them is Sally’s work. And that’s about to change.
“We’ve got company”
“Finally”
“Moving to you from the front, 2 mechs, look like they were chasing each other. I advise you not to engage.”
“I’m going”
Jay expected that reaction from Sally and moved his camera to the two. His scan shows their rough information.
“One is a light mech with two shotguns and the other is a medium mech with an assault rifle. The latter is running with only one arm and the former is chasing with full force. The light will catch up to him soon. If you want to take advantage just wait for the light to down the medium”
Sally heeded his word and waited a bit longer, she was not stupid enough to rush into a fight that could turn into a 2v1. The fight plays out a bit before the light mech deals the finishing blow.
“Now.”
Sally needs no more words. her main thruster flies blue and pushes her mech forward, out of its hiding position. her view rapidly changed and a missive G force hit her. She shrugs it off and heads straight for the mechs.
“You should see the target now”
“Clear as day”
She arrives at the destination, the light has just finished the medium mech but he suffers a major blow, likely from carelessness. The light also notices her coming, from the satellite. It turns its body and quickly jumps to gain momentum.
The sound of an imaginary bullet starts off the battle. The light mech gets moving immediately. He realized that he could not win this battle. The quick disengage is a wise decision but Sally caught him when he was not at max speed.
Bam!
A charge shot sniped out the light mehc sholder leaving only one arm left for the chunk of metal. Another round of imaginary missiles fired off but this time the light mech realized that it was fake. Sally charged up another shot aiming to down her opponent. but the light is too slippery. It reached its maximum speed and Sally could not catch up.
“Jay it’s getting away!” Sally cried out, her only entertainment in the last hour was slipping away.
“You could give chase, the light mostly likely uses all the fuel to chase that medium down. But… well you won’t listen either way”
“You know it!”
Sally dashed through the land of lava and black rocks. She remained right behind the light as much as she could manage. The hunt goes on for 20 minutes before the light mech turnaround.
“He’s running out of energy”
“I not dumb!!”
Sally charges up another shot, this one is likely gonna hit. The light mech already loses one arm and its grip on the shotgun is worsened. Sally almost pull the trigger when…
“Sally I detect another mech! Must have seen your fight. Quickly end it”
“Shit”
Her mech is already in range of the shotgun, that moment of hesitation cost her a shot to the chest. She counters with a charged shot, the blue light puncturing through the light mech pilot seat. Ending the fight right there, but she had no time to celebrate.
“Quickly get out of there!”
“Roger that!”
Jay said in a panic, he had picked up another motion for mech. Sally fired up her main thruster to get the hell out of that place. The place is clear with nothing to obstruct her from her chaser. Jay frantically looks around for something to break the line of sight for Sally.
“Go south, best we could find another mech to fight it.”
“Or we could get sandwich.”
“I’ll look for a way.”
The mech is fast approaching. Most mechs here are mediums and so does the one chasing Sally. But her mech was on the heavier side. Sooner or later it’s gonna lose this speed race.
“Sally we have two options, run into another mech or lead the one into the Lava pit.”
“Are you telling me to die!?”
“Listen we are going to down either way if you run into another mech. But if we get them over the Lava pit, we could use the moke to mass ourself and overheat the other emch to turn this around.”
Sally grits his teeth and follows Jay's option, a marker appears on Sally's camera and she follows it. She couldn’t think of a better solution so this had to make do. The change in direction doesn’t go unnoticed, The medium mech doesn’t seem too keen on following her. It halts for a second then continues to chase.
“Look like he’s taking a gamble.”
“So are we!”
Sally grits her teeth and hopes that this is not a bad play. She knew their mech could tolerate the heat but the shotgun hit dash her confident. The internal scan tells her that it’s OK and the front armor just got a bit fuck up but she’s still worried.
The mech flew for 10 minutes and they arrived at the Lava pts. Its staggering size dwarfs even a mech that is as tall as a building. Jay couldn’t help but wonder what happened to this place to invoke such devastation.
Imeatiatly Sally's mech notified her that this place was too hot for her mech. But with no other choice, this had to make do. The medium follows close behind her, a quick scan reveals that its name [Copper poster]
True to its name the color shines copper, but a bit more orange when they were right above the lava. This medium mech has one Laser rifle and an assault rifle. Look like he wants Sally mech to complete the dual laser rifle build.
“Sally”
“What!?”
Her nervousness is getting to her, the mech hasn’t received much damage but if they right another one it would draw out another one. She needs to end this fight here right at the lava pit.
“Another company follow you in the smoke pit”
“Fuck”