The storm lasted over a week, the entire time the mecha super either complained or stayed in his apartment-office. Kiera was rotated between the mecha department and the maintenance department; the promise of not having to work doubles was held up. The mecha super had taken a liking to her, especially with the sakoosa and alcohol she’d bring him. Supers didn’t cross into each other’s areas, they were fairly territorial and afraid of sabotage. He included her in their daily rakallan poker game. It wasn’t hard to pick up; The cards depicted the Dalimaran royal family, which none of the supers had any kind words for. Kiera used her down time to keep up with her sword training, working out and familiarizing herself with the hunting mecha, which was the only one she had access to. The super didn’t care that she took the key whenever she liked and discovered that the arena was shielded by the storm.
The chair was made of some kind of dark soft leather that seemed to mold itself to Kiera’s fame. Instead of a helmet there was a visor; she had to take her hat off in order to wear it. Once she powered the mecha on, the visor adjusted over her eyes and ears and displayed the worst HUD she had ever seen. There was no radar, no status indicators other than “Kill Streak” and “Kill Count” It showed how much charge the pulse rifle had but nothing about its armor, movement capabilities or anything else. The console had buttons whose descriptions appeared on the HUD when Kiera looked at them, the console overlay should have been in her vision the entire time. Without her PUC she had to physically adjust her HUD by using buttons that were on the visor. The capabilities of the mecha were not promising.
The Huntmaster ZX-4000 had virtually no armor other than its base plating, racing mecha were more armored and reinforced. It had no flight capabilities but it did have jump jets that allowed it to leap about one hundred yards vertically or horizontally. It had an active camouflage that was broken when she moved or attacked. Tracksuit’s weapon of choice was a pulse rifle. The advantage of a pulse rifle over a standard plasma rifle was its capability to be charged for a more devastating attack. Doing so overheated the rifle and it had to cool down before it could be used again. Attempting to use an overheated pulse rifle could cause the plasma cell to rupture and explode. To her dismay, the mecha’s pulse rifle was modified to only shoot a charged shot, with a minimum charge of fifty percent power. She would only be able to fire once every five minutes and knew nothing about mecha weapons to change it. Only trained engineers worked on weapons to prevent anyone from being stupid.
The hunting arena was actually fairly impressive. It had a half mile diameter with green grassy plains, woodlands, small mountains made from the peaks of the surrounding area and a lake fed by a stream. and warmed by an overhead light. There were obvious trap doors throughout the various terrain likely used to release the prey. There turrets circling the arena on the walls and on towers through the various terrains. An analysis revealed they were equipped with long ranged beam weapons, shock cannons, and suppression cannons. The walls were twenty-five feet tall, and a forcefield generated dome enclosed the arena keeping the storm out. Snow immediately melted when striking the dome. As much as Kiera wanted to leave the first time that she stepped into the arena the mecha’s insulation was terrible and trying to navigate the mountains being unable to see both visually and with her radar was suicidal. If Kiera had training in using powered armor she might have risked it.
The blizzard lasted a week. The snow continued to fall, but at a much slower rate and the turbulent winds were reduced enough that Kiera thought she’d be able to handle them. She decided to wait another day before leaving. It would be Reflection and that meant there would be less guards patrolling the grounds, at least that’s what she hoped. It was an Imperial decree that everyone got one of the two days free from work, but it was a possibility that the guard rotations took that into account.
The morning of her escape she dressed in warm clothing under her jumpsuit and went to find Alphonse. As usual he was in the cafeteria; the storm had prevented them from receiving any shipments so the receiving and warehouse departments had nothing to do, which also created a lull in the maintenance department with fewer equipment to repair.
“Happy Reflection, Alphonse,” Kiera said, sitting down across from him and putting down a small package.
“What’s this?” he asked, looking at the package.
“A gift, open it,” Kiera said.
He opened the package and found a datapad inside. Turning it on he skimmed the contents and then looked at Kiera in astonishment, “Princess…”
“You like your whisky and Jinxing Xho is the best in the galaxy. When you get settled choose which one that you want and I’ll arrange to have the bottle delivered to you. I know it’s not much…”
“It’s perfect. You really think we’ll get freed?”
“I promise that you will. I’m leaving today and I’m tenacious enough that I will reach a city even if I have to walk two hundred miles in the snow.”
“That alone would be enough, I didn’t get you anything. It’s been so long since I celebrated Reflection I’d almost forgotten all about it,” Alphonse murmured.
“You did,” Kiera said, holding up the silver access band. “You could have turned me in instead of helping me. It’s only because of your kindness that I even have the opportunity to escape.” She stood up and gave him a hug, “Thank you.”
Alphsone returned it, “You’ve given me something even more important, Princess. You’ve given this old man hope.”
“Call me Kiera.”
-[]-
Kiera walked into the mecha supervisor’s office and retrieved the key to the Hunter. The man was lounging on the couch drinking sakoosa and smoking something that smelled foul and burned with faint blue smoke.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he slurred, “Prepping the mecha for asshat’s hunt?”
“I thought I’d run to town and bring back some whores,” Kiera said, making sure not to look at him. She had forgone her usual makeup and grease so she would be recognizable once she reached Planetary Security.
The man chortled, “Just be back before the asshole comes out of his stupor to hunt!”
Kiera took a breath as she powered up the mecha. This was it, she could do this. Just a trip down the mountain and a two hundred trek to the nearest city. Just like in the dreadnought scenario. She opened the arena door and stepped into it. She would contact the super once she made it to an outside wall to have him lower the field. It was the only way for her to escape.
<<”Hang on a moment, Your Grace, they didn’t tell us that you were going out today. Releasing the monster.”
“Wait, what? No, no, no monster. I’m not the spoiled brat! I’m just going on a booty run to bring back some whores! Don’t release it and drop a barrier section instead!” Kiera ran as fast as the mecha allowed, which wasn’t terribly fast, towards the outer wall of the arena.
“Well, it’s already been released. It’ll take a few minutes for it to reach the arena so you’ll have that long. If I drop a section you’ll bring one back for me, right? Some fried charka, too.”
“Sure,” Kiera answered, “Just open the one nearest to my position.”
The dome flickered and vanished, allowing snow to blow in. She activated the jump jets and made it to the top of the arena and then activated them again to propel herself off of it. That was her second mistake. Her first was underestimating how much it was snowing and the intensity of the wind. The storm had passed, but mountain snow and winds were an entirely different kind of weather than she was used to. The fierce wind caught her mech and sent it crashing into the mountain. Alarms blared on her HUD, taking up her entire vision. She pushed herself back up to her feet and all of the warnings vanished. There was damage on the mecha’s arms, legs and torso. Nothing critical, but this thing couldn’t take much of a punishment.
“Okay, that was a mistake. We’re not jumping again, I can still see and the radar is still showing…what in the Void is that?” She pushed herself to her feet and started walking forward. The wind and snow made her move slower than before but she could make progress. Something large was on her radar and moving quickly. The operator said it would be a few minutes for whatever beast they unleashed to reach the arena! Has that much time already passed? With luck it won’t be able to escape, the Operator had closed the dome back, right?
A massive white furred gorilla leapt onto the wall; the forcefield was still down.The HUD showed him as a Placedonian Giant Frost Mountain Gorilla - highly dangerous. The targeting computer set it as the focus automatically and initiated the charge on the rifle. Of course the computer did all the work! Kiera didn’t know why she didn’t expect this.
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The camouflage would be useless, her footprints marked an easy trail. The gorilla’s hair immediately froze giving it ice armor, while its teeth and fingernails turned into deadly weapons. Horns of ice grew on its head. It roared and leapt down towards Kiera clasping its hands together and raising them over its head. Kiera activated the jump jets and leapt to the side, only narrowly avoiding being crushed by the massive gorilla that looked to be taller than the mech she was in.
The maneuver sent her flying off the path, and without flight she was now at the mercy of gravity and the mountain. It exchanged one almost guaranteed death for another. Kiera kicked out the legs to orient them towards the ground and hit the jump jets again, slowing her descent. The gorilla had another idea. He propelled itself towards her and brought a two handed blow onto the mech, not wanting her to get away.
Kiera shouted as her mecha crashed, and bounced down the mountain. Warnings again flooded her HUD as she felt every hit the mech took. After what seemed like hours, but was really only a minute, she came to a stop. The warnings showed that she no longer had a right arm, the jump jets were unavailable and a reprimand had been sent to his bodyguards for failing to keep him safe. The plasma rifle showed a thirty percent charge even though the weapon had been lost with the fight arm.
“Great job, Kiera. Ignore the giant green flag this mech was waving and jump head long into a storm. Are you that desperate to get out of this place?” She had been “walk through a canyon of deadly monsters” desperate, “feed a sex doll to an alien beast and fake your death” desperate. “Use the only mech available and take a chance the storm was still going” desperate seemed to be on those levels. Maybe even more desperate.
An impact against the mecha accompanied by a howl snapped her out of her self depreciation and reminded her that there was a massive gorilla who was perfectly adapted to this weather trying to kill her. It causally ripped the left arm off the mecha and tossed it away. This mecha really was an absolute piece of trash. It did not have the Kiera stamp of approval.
“Okay, think, there is a giant angry gorilla void bent on killing you.” She released her Radiance. Learning how to focus on a single target was something she had taught herself, collateral charming could be a major issue. This wasn’t to charm him but to soothe away his rage. If it wasn’t angry, then maybe it would leave her alone. The snow on the window of the mech disappeared, replaced by an icy fist. The glass shattered, letting in the air outside. The hand was replaced by an angry yellow eye. The gorilla’s eye opened wide as if in surprise, accented with an “ook.”
“Yeah, not the asshole planning on killing you,” Kiera said, “I don’t suppose you would help me out of here?”
The eye vanished and long ice claws entered the cockpit through the now absent window. They clenched around the mecha’s head and ripped it off. Kiera heard the buzzing sound of torn wires and the gorilla roared in pain and threw the capsule down the mountain. It was a typical animal reaction to get rid of the thing that hurt it. The capsule spun, causing Kiera to close her eyes in an attempt to avoid getting dizzy and braced herself for a crash, tightening the harness and pushing herself into the seat.The impact jolted her and snapped the harness restraint holding her to the leather chair. Moments later there was another impact that sent Kiera flying out of the mech and into the snow. Pain lanced through her chest and shoulder and it hurt to breathe. In the snow nearby was a white and blue mecha. It was humanoid shaped with the head of a with claws covering its hands, pauldrons that were shaped to resemble fur holding a plasma rifle with missile banks on its shoulders. The customizations made it difficult to identify. It was likely a Jaeger or an Orion.
Kiera dragged herself through the snow to the capsule of her decapitated mecha, every movement brought pain but she needed to get that datapad. She managed to get to it, her entire body in pain. She didn’t want to move anymore, and as soon as the adrenaline wore off she probably wouldn’t be able to. The risk of turning into a Kierasicle increased.. The data pad was still attached to the controls where she put it. “Thank Astria!” she said, grabbing the datapad from its magnetic clamp and pushing it down her jumpsuit. Her foresight to dress warmly was paying off, if only she hadn’t lost the beanie. Ear muffs wouldn’t have let her use the visor. The mecha pilot likely saw the head of the Huntsmaster crash into the snow, whether he saw her or not was unknown. The blue jumpsuit wasn’t exactly camouflage.
<<”Leo-4116 to unknown maintenance tech. What the absolute fark is going on!”>> a voice came from her access band.
”Farking super got high on sakoosa and told me to do a full systems check in the arena!. Then the dumbass operator opened the dome and let out a farking Frost Gorilla! Damned thing threw me out of the Arena and down the mountain! Kiera shouted back, ”I think I broke something in that impact, can you help me out!?”
<<”You have two minutes and then I’m leaving your ass!”>>
“Astria’s tail,” Kiera swore, pushing herself to her feet. “That won’t be enough time! Come to me!”
She grit her teeth through the pain and trudged through the snow towards the mecha. She checked her tool belt and found she was missing most of them. The energy sword was miraculously still on her hip. The mecha pilot walked towards her, reaching her in less than a minute. A ladder that would lead to the capsule descended.
Kiera grabbed onto the ladder with her good arm and started to slowly climb it. Her socks were soaked; the sneakers didn’t do anything to keep out the snow, and she was glad that she had put on gloves and layered tights with warm sweatpants, and a long sleeve shirt with a sweatshirt. She was desperate, not stupid. The visor was hard to see out of, but at least it was keeping her ears warm. The pilot got impatient and retracted the ladder. She almost fell off at the unexpected movement.
“You got lucky,” the pilot snarked, “Going to stay down there, or are you coming up here?”
“Give me a minute. I’ve got a dislocated shoulder, a broken rib, maybe two and I think I sprained something. Everything hurts.” Kiera replied through grit teeth, each word accompanied by heaving breathing.
The pilot’s helmet looked over the ladder deployment, “You’re a girl,” he said dumbly, “Wait a second…are you the girl that his majesty bought?”
“No, I’m the super’s whore,” Kiera said.
The helmet didn’t let her see the man’s expression. He climbed partway down the ladder and grabbed her arm, and started pulling her up into the capsule forcing her to move up the ladder faster, pain accompanying every step.
“Fark, you’re impatient,” Kiera growled as he flung her out of the ladder chute.
“I can’t pilot with the deploy chute open,” He growled, closing the chute but failing to latch it. He looked at her and took off his helmet. “Damn, didn’t think squinty had this good of taste. Take off your clothes, you’re my whore now.” There wasn’t much room in the capsule and Kiera was leaning against the pilot’s chair.
“Yeah?” Kiera asked, “Kinda of hard to get undressed with a dislocated shoulder. You want me naked, you'll have to help.” She unclipped the energy sword, silently thanking Astria she was ambidextrous.
The pilot stepped forward and she struck. The blow wasn’t enough to knock him out, but it smacked his head and forced him to take a step back onto the deployment chute.. “You’ll pay for that you bitch!”
“Yeah, yeah, bill me asshole.” Kiera then pressed the ladder deployment. She briefly heard his scream as the ladder chute opened its bottom and dumped him sixty feet into the snow. She hit the button again to retrieve the ladder and sat down, retrieving the helmet. It gave a much better display than the visor.
The mecha was an Orion, a medium class mecha with mid-weight armor and equipped with a heavy pulse plasma rifle and scatter missiles. The only unique thing about it was the body modifications. Unlike the Huntmaster the Orion could fly.
<<”What the fark are you doing Dalmut! Shoot the damn thing already!”>> a desperate voice came over the comms. The Frost Gorilla was decimating a mecha ninety feet away.. Her instinct was to raise the photon weapon that the mech was equipped with and fire at the giant gorilla but shoved that thought away.
These assholes deserved every beating they received. She buckled into the harness. Already the other pilot was sending out an SOS, while he could content with one or two mecha, he probably couldn’t contend with the other ten that would be heading his way. She pressed the intercom.
“Hey big guy, you need to finish with that guy and then get out of here, there are more on the way.”
The Frost gorilla paused mid punch and looked her way. It snorted and then threw his opponent down the mountain. It didn’t stop to wait to see the results of the attack and leapt back up the mountain. The distance that it could jump and the ease it ascended was astonishing. They weren’t at the base of the mountain just yet, closer to the second level of the palace. The pilot was able to right himself after only one tumble.
<<”Who the void are you! Where’s Dalmut!”>>
Kiera ignored both questions, raised the rifle and fired. She struck the other mech dead center and sent him to the ground. But she didn’t have time to stick around for a fight. Imperial Mecha, which the Planetary Mecha were still considered, had a failsafe in case their pilot was removed from the capsule. Her access band wouldn’t let her commandeer it. In another thirty seconds the mech would shut down. She switched to the Imperial Emergency Channel, broadcast her location and then said, <<”Attention all Imperial Communication Officers, this is Cadet Kiera Sol! I am broadcasting my location from Leo-4116! Again, Kiera Sol to anyone who can hear me, I am broadcasting my location!”
The view display on the viewscreen faded and the mech powered down. She could only hope that someone that wasn’t in Tracksuit’s pocket would hear her distress beacon. The mech that she shot stood up and raised its weapon towards her. She was hoping that between the damage the Frost Gorilla caused and her attack that it would be disabled. Her luck had finally run out. A streak of green flew from the mountain and struck the mecha, tearing a hole through its center. It took another step forward and collapsed. Kiera turned her head in the direction of the blast and saw the Frost Gorilla holding the slow charge pulse rifle.
“By Astria that thing’s overkill,” she commented. The gorilla dropped the weapon and leaped over the mountain and out of site.