The ice spears were a double edged sword. They blocked the lightning from freezing Kiera’s mecha entirely, but they sliced the left arm off. The lower left leg of the mech had been transformed into ice and shattered under the weight of the mech, toppling it. The shattered leg prevented the rest of the mecha from being frozen by ice creep. An entire leg being frozen instantaneous was horrifying.
The Vulcan landed over her, pristine and only damaged where her sword had struck him. <<”I admire your tenacity, Princess, but that alone won’t bridge the gap between us. You’ve utterly ruined my Avalanche and have earned a slow demise. You’ll get to learn first hand that I’m not compensating for anything, and when I’ve grown bored of you, my men will have you, and when they grow bored then we’ll come back here where we will watch you try to survive, we’ll provide just enough that you’ll linger for weeks, if not months.”>>
Kiera shot herself up with her gravity jets and grabbed onto the Vulcan’s arm, activating the magnetic pulse, reversing the polarity so the two mechs clamped together. <<”You’re still fighting? Haven’t you learned that nothing you can do will stop me, let alone slow me down?”
The micro missiles in her right leg fired, striking the gravity thrusters on the Vulcan’s chest, right leg and right arm. The pilot laughed again, <<”Extraordinary. I can’t wait to see that tenacity and defiance in my bed. Why don’t I properly introduce myself, so you know who your new master is and understand how futile your efforts are. High Captain of the Red Moon Mercenaries, Duncan Trosk.”>>
Kiera needed to delay him. The self-destruct on the Avalanche wouldn’t activate for another minute and she had to time her ejection perfectly or her plan to make Duncan Trosk experience a second death throes would include her. The mecha’s fission reactor should be enough to disable his mech if not outright destroy it. She just hoped that the ejection pod would clear her of the blast zone. On the other hand, if her friends did go down fighting then the least she could do was join them. One way or another she wanted to be done with this planet.
<<”Who?”>> Kiera replied.
<<”What do you mean, who?”>> Trosk demanded, <<”It seems your education has been lacking. You’ll learn who I am soon enough. Now, power down the Avalanche and surrender.”>>
<<”Have you checked the ambient nitrogen levels around here? If I came out of this mecha I would suffocate immediately if not instantly freeze thanks to the two headed lizard. By Astria your intelligence is the complete inverse of your piloting skill! I hate that I have to acknowledge that your piloting ability isn’t as garbage as your personality!”>> Thirty seconds. The adrenaline from the fight was quickly fading. Maybe she wouldn’t eject, maybe she would just stay here. The lightning strikes began to slow down, and she wasn’t quite sure how he avoided the burst of lightning without even a small amount of frost.
Then she saw it, being right up close to him she saw the missile bank had been frozen solid and frost was slowly creeping over his shoulder and spreading to the rest of the mecha. Even if he defeated her, kept her alive he’d be out a mecha, and Kiera had to admit Trosk had good taste in mecha.
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Trosk didn’t respond. Kiera assumed that he was analyzing the atmosphere, trying to determine if she was bluffing or not. She didn’t know herself, her sensors hadn’t worked since she got into the mecha. <<”How do you know?”>> He asked.
Ten seconds. Kiera pressed the ejection button, <<”I don’t. I would like to point out, again, that all the damage on this mecha was done by you. Well, most of it at least. If you really didn’t want it destroyed or wrecked then you shouldn’t have attacked me. Gravity mines, magnetic grapplers, there’s lots of ways to disable the mecha. Magnetic pulse cannons. But let me show you how to actually get it done, Private Tom.”>>
The pod closed around her, the capsule opened and the thruster under her seat ignited sending her flying over the plateau. The resulting explosion pushed her pod even faster from the site and sent her spinning out of control. It crashed against a large mass of fang shaped rocks jutting from the hills. Kiera groaned; the polymer seal on the pod was cracked, her head and back ached. She couldn’t decide if she was happy or not that she had survived.
A smoking, scorched mech crashed in front of her a minute later, shaking the ground so much that her pod bounced. The ion cannon was gone, and missile banks were gone the right arm looked barely functional and the left arm and leg were completely gone. Pieces of armor fell off the torso. <<”Sorlaka venom is a slow and painful way to go. You feel every single nerve send their individual signals to your brain, following every path one by one, unable to pass out. Blisters the size of skitic eggs then form on your skin and pop one by one sending excruciating pain through your body. When the last one pops you begin to suffer withdrawal from the pain and one by one each nerve dies stealing your ability to feel pain until you die unable to feel anything at all.”>>
”You’re awfully pissy about something you stole when you have an obviously better model. Let me guess. You originally stole the Vulcan but realized that you couldn’t pilot it at all and rely on an autopilot. The avalanche was supposed to be your training wheels, but your boyfriend liked it, so you decided to give it to him. Then you tried to lose your virginity to him, but your dick was too small and he couldn’t feel anything.”
Trosk drew a scimitar in his left hand and ignited it. The insult was juvenile and dick jokes should have been beneath her, but she’d heard enough of them at the academy and she was out of anything truly clever to say. Trosk seemed to be a drama queen, but using a mecha weapon to kill her was just overkill. For the first time since she came to this planet she could see a cloudless sky.
Another mech flew towards them painted in Red Moon Mercenary colors. Just what she needed, the man to have backup. The newly arriving mech slammed its energy sword into Trosk mecha’s back. Pushing him slightly forward from the impact. The running lights of his mecha powered off, its weapon followed it. Was it a power play? A mutiny?
<<”Hey, beautiful,”>> Kinsley’s voice came from the mecha who just finished off Trosk. It was missing both legs and its left arm, frost was crawling across the torso.
“Get out of that piece of garbage before you get frozen in there,” Kiera said.
She watched Kinsley eject out of the jaguar. For a moment she thought she was two people, but decided it had to be a trick of the light. Kiera wasn't going to get out of the pod; the drop would kill her and being killed by being impatient would be a lousy way to go. Something descended from the sky. Mecha. Just how many of those things did the Red Moon have? Then she realized that they were in Mechanized Combat Corps colors: Red, Silver, and Purple. It could only be Paragon Squad.
They were finally being rescued. Kiera closed her eyes and laid her head back. She wondered how many of her friends that she lost, how many had died in that last battle. She was relieved to see friendly mecha, but it was bittersweet. The Squad was simply too late.