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Everest

Machines were keeping watch on an area, it was the site of a crashed ship, a particularly large ship. The ship crashed in the woods of this part of the planet, debris spread about the area that broke off from the ship, trees all around breaking apart from all the force the ship crashed with.

There were six of these machines, one of which was scavenging the ship for valuable cargo. The machines all share a look, large, humanoid, a head with one lens, and the rest of their body made of metal that is unpainted. Each and every one of them equipped with an assault rifle proportionally sized to them. These were mechanized chassis, mechs, that were piloted by people.

One of the mechs seems to notice something among the trees, something that is moving, something large and… metallic.

It was another mech.

It was not one of theirs.

The mech began opening fire in the general direction of where it saw the movement, the other mechs began looking at where their friend was shooting, noticing the movement of the enemy mech as well, aiming towards that direction and opening fire. Even the mech that was looting the ship itself got out and began opening fire.

The enemy mech went out of the cover of the woods and into the open, firing back with an assault rifle towards the scavengers, trading bullets with them.

The mech looks unassuming, almost looking like the scavenger's mechs with a different head. Besides the assault rifle in its hands, it has three more weapons, two pistols holstered by the thigh parts of the mech, and a bigger weapon, a heavy machine gun, mounted on the right shoulder, by its chest was what seems to be grenades. Differentiating this mech with the ones that were scavenging the ship was that this one was cleaner, sleeker, and a bulk that looked sturdier. That bulk seems to not inhibit its mobility however, as the mech's thrusters burst out blue and orange flame, boosting the mech towards the metal debris of the ship and using those as more solid cover.

The mech squad stopped firing, preserving ammo, their enemy is behind a harder to penetrate piece of cover, so shooting won't do much. One mech at the front approached the debris, AR aimed at where they assumed the enemy would reveal themselves. A sound caught their attention, a crackling sound, they tried to look around for the source, but the source was not external, it came from their own machinery, the pilot inside the mech might have felt like the cockpit was getting a little warmer. They focused back at where the enemy was.

Out comes the enemy mech, its heavy machine gun in hand. The front scavenger aimed and fired, but something was wrong, their mech wasn't moving itself correctly, their aim was way off and the targeting system was not working either! Their bullets were flying and hitting nothing but air. The enemy mech began firing back before the scavenger could readjust their aim, the bullets of the heavy machine gun landed on the enemy, the energy of the greater caliber was more than enough to penetrate the scavenger's external body, holes bigger than the bullets themselves forming. The rounds kept on being fired, holes kept being made on the scavenger mech, not only that, important parts are also being damaged by this barrage of high caliber rounds, circuitry, joints, the head of the mech, and parts of the power source were all being severely damaged.

When the storm of bullets ended, the front scavenger mech fell, unable to make itself do anything as everything it needed to work was destroyed. Before the rest of the squad could shoot back at their enemy, it was already keeping itself behind cover.

The rest of the squad of scavengers looked at their fallen brother-in-arms, before walking back and using the other piece of debris in the area to keep cover.

The scavengers would hear the enemy's thrusters once more, staring out of their cover they would see the mech boost to another piece of cover, one that lets it get a better angle for shooting at atleast one of them, but it also lets them have an angle to shoot back at the enemy. A scavenger began shooting at the mech, but they missed, as the cover the enemy had made it hard enough to hit them that the bullets hit nothing but the debris.

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The mech shot back with its assault rifle, and despite the angle making the shot difficult to hit, some bullets still managed to hit the body of their mech, embedding themselves into the metal. The pilot of the scavenger mech assessed the damage done to itself, negligible, but it felt like it wasn't right, they felt like those bullets shouldn't have hit, it felt like the bullets corrected their trajectory to hit their chassis.

The sound of thrusters once more can be heard. Looking out from their cover, nobody sees anything along the ground as to where the enemy mech is, but one did notice a shadow. Up from above, the enemy was raining down assault rifle bullets onto the mech that it shot, more bullets hitting them this time. The AR then stopped firing as their magazine ran out of ammo to shoot, but it wasn't over, the mech raised their hand to put down the AR on its left shoulder mount and then pulled out its HMG out of the right shoulder, and began firing it towards them.

Just like their comrade before, the rain of bullets was beyond what their mechanized chassis was able to handle leading to the thing collapsing into multiple parts, a worse condition than their friend as it had to take more bullets.

The mech landed on the ground, but it wasn't safe. The mech was not in cover, the four other squad members made use of that. Getting out of cover and released upon the mech with a storm of bullets. The mech wasn't fast enough to get into cover this time, it was shot on multiple angles, even moving out the way wasn't going to save them.

The mech had a compartment open up from its "abdomen", pulling out two devices out of them and throwing them down on the ground. The devices then extends out and spreads out, making cover for the mech from at least two angles. The mech then crouched down by the cover to not get shot at.

The mech was more damaged than before. The mount that held its AR collapsed, making the rifle fall to the ground, severely damaged and unable to be used properly.

The mech looked out of the cover for a second, the shooting has stopped. They assessed the situation, and came up with a plan. Pulling out the grenade that was on its chest, it throws them out in the air, then landing on the ground. Smoke came out of the grenade, covering a decently sized area. After a second after all the smoke has covered the area, thrusters can be heard, and the mech boosted itself into the smoke.

This time, the boost was faster than before as the thrusters burned a bright green.

The scavengers tried shooting at the mech while it was in the smoke, but it was difficult, despite the green fires that shot out the thrusters allowed the pilots to know which general direction they should shoot at, the targeting system was not working correctly due to the smoke.

The mech was out of the smoke, ramming itself to one of the scavenger mechs, causing them to fall over prone, the mech began shooting its downed opponent with its pistols, making sure it shoots where it knows it will count. The scavenger mech couldn't raise itself back up.

The mech boosted back into the smoke, the scavengers kept shooting, it was barely hitting, but some sparks showed through the smoke, meaning at least some was connecting.

The mech was out of the smoke again, thrusters was still burning green, as the mech got close to another scavenger, knocking their rifle away, and began shooting them on the important parts, but it seems this time it wasn't just making normal bullet holes, they were also melting through the chassis.

The smoke was dissipating, but the mech was already using the debris again to cover itself before the scavengers could attack the mech. Thrusters are still boosting the mech around.

The two scavengers that were left, debated running away, but they didn't decide fast enough as a fwoosh sound was heard and up in the sky, the mech was raining down bullets from their heavy machine gun once more, the bullets hitting on one of them, every bullet hitting their mark and hitting hard, the externals and internals of the scavenger's chassis was soundly damaged. The mech didn't stop, changing sights onto the scavenger's friend and opening fire, each bullet not missing a mark, none just scratching their chassis, all of them hitting directly. Both of the scavengers' chassis collapsed, damage too much to keep them standing.

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"Great job, Michael." A radio call was sent to the sleek mech's communication systems.

"Thanks." The pilot of the mech answered simply.

"How does it feel to be in an Everest again?" The man on the radio asked.

"It's like it was like I never piloted another frame." Michael responded, he raised his hand and lowered his head, the mech mimicked his movements, the camera looking down and its arms raised, letting Michael look at the damage the frame has sustained. Bullet holes, scratched paint, and his broken AR mount.

"That's how GMS makes them, good at everything, even someone who has gone their whole career in a different frame can get used to the Everest in an instant."

"Yeah."

"Now, back to the objective, the ship's blackbox." The man on the radio said assertively.

"Aye!" Michael boosted toward the main body of the crashed ship, and began searching for the ship's blackbox.

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