Rush woke the minute his sleeping shift was over, checked on his armor, and then crawled out of his sleeping tube to start his day. He walked around the empty haulers and passed through the shadow of the titan on their way. The day after starting the forced march, their new guest/slave driver had introduced himself as Rakon, and had not spoken since except to bark reminders that they should move faster. The junkers were used to nonstop movement, but not quite at Rakon’s forced pace. A few days of travel had worn them all down.

A few people turned exhausted glares towards Rush as he moved across the caravan, but Rush paid them no mind. Even Giza had not pressured him (much) to attack the mecha yet. Their initial hope had been that Rush could find a way to attack the mecha while the pilot slept, but Rakon had showed no signs of stopping, for rest or any other reason. Either he was somehow sleepless, or his mech had an autopilot function of some kind. Either way, a nighttime ambush was out of the picture. Over the past few days, Rush had formulated a different plan, and he went looking for second opinions.

While there was no central structure to the caravan in motion, a cluster of people always formed at the center, for purposes of conversation and planning. Though that cluster was smaller than usual due to the exhaustion of the forced march, it was still present, and Rush wormed his way into the center.

“Giza, are you-”

Rush stopped. Giza, as usual, was close to the center, talking to the caravan leader. Today, however, that leader was not Hartwell. Giza turned away from a squat man who looked as if he’d been muscular once, but was now shriveled by the malnutrition of Scrapworld.

“Rush, what’s up?”

She got no response, as Rush continued to stare at the stranger at the center of the caravan. Eventually, Giza caught on to the reasons for his stare.

“Oh, right, Rush, this is Liam,” Giza said. “He’s the second shift lead. You haven’t met because, well, you’ve been asleep every time he’s awake.”

“I’m basically the backup Hartwell, for when the real Hartwell’s busy or asleep,” Liam said. “He’s been working too hard, what with this march, so I’m staying up a bit later to give him time to rest. Good to meet you, Rush.”

Now that the new arrangement and the stranger in their midst had a proper explanation, Rush visibly relaxed. He still didn’t do anything when Liam offered his hand, however.

“Rush, handshake,” Giza mumbled.

“Oh, right, sorry,” Rush said. He shook Liam’s hand.

“No worries, mate,” Liam said. “Just glad to finally have a face to the name. Now, what can I do for you?”

“I’ve been thinking of a way to kill the mecha,” Rush said. Liam cringed immediately.

“Ey, ey, maybe keep your voice down,” Liam said. He looked nervously up at Rakon’s mecha, which showed no signs it had overheard Rush’s bold proclamation.

“Elvis said the mech’s audio sensors can’t filter out noise well enough to discern individual voices over the background noise of the haulers,” Rush said, quoting the machine exactly. “We’re fine. But we need a way to distract it, and I think I know how. The pilot believes we’re heading for a treasure trove, right?”

Giza and Liam looked at each other and nodded.

“I think you and I are on the same page,” Liam said.

“Liam and I were actually just talking about that,” Giza said. “He thinks he might have something that could be good bait.”

Rush started staring at Liam again, but in a slightly different way this time. Liam figured that was his cue to elaborate on the plan.

***

“Step one,” Liam said under his breath. “Find the Duck Slagmount.”

The mountain of melted scrap metal, so named due to its vague resemblance to a duck, was a familiar landmark in the eastern wastes. It had been drilled into multiple times over the years by those hoping to find intact structures below the molten metal. Every attempt had found only more metal, but the rumors of a treasure trove somewhere beneath the mountain persisted.

“Next, get Rakon focused on the mountain,” Liam said. After begrudgingly signing off on the plan, Hartwell had taken this part into his own hands. He’d spun a story about massive slabs of metal covering troves of valuable scrap, and Rakon appeared to be buying it. He even grabbed a chunk of the mountain and tried to rip it loose to look for treasures below. “So that leaves…”

A speck of gray started climbing up the heel of Rakon’s mecha. Liam waved his hand towards the nearby junkers to signal a rapid retreat. If Rush’s sneak attack didn’t work, and a fight broke out, they’d want some distance between themselves and the mecha.

Now working his way up the back of the knee, Rush looked over his shoulder and nodded approvingly at the rapid retreat of the Caelum clan.

“Mr. Hartwell is still retreating, but given our rate of ascent, he should be joining the rest of your clan at a safe distance by the time we reach the head,” Elvis explained. Rush nodded silently and continued climbing. “So long as our distraction holds up, everything should go according to plan.”

Rush said nothing, and continued to climb. He made it to the mecha’s hip when Rakon started to shift in place and turn to the side. Thankfully he was only moving to a better angle, and the mecha went back to working on the mountain as Rush climbed across its back and up to the shoulder.

“Alright, the first hatch should be on the back of the head, roughly seven meters up. From there it will be a short crawl into the secondary hatch in the interior,” Elvis said. “However, our initial strike will likely attract attention. I would advise activating our magnetic grips in advance.”

“I’ll need them to climb anyway,” Rush said.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Oh, right,” Elvis said. “I’m simply trying to feel useful, Mr. Rush, it’s very hard for me to contribute in these fights as a simple computer.”

“That’s true,” Rush said. It would have been a brutal insult coming from anyone but him.

Moments after Rush’s failure to sympathize, the entire mecha lurched, and a cracking sound as loud as a thousand cannons echoed through the air. Rush dropped to his knees and latched on with the magnets in his gauntlets for more stability as the mecha trembled and shook beneath him. The thunderous crack shifted to a bone-shaking rumble as the mecha continued to pull on the mountainside.

“I do believe Rakon has succeeded in dislodging the mountainside,” Elvis said.

“We’d better hurry before he realizes nothing’s there,” Rush said. He readjusted his position and started clambering across the mecha’s shoulder as Rakon continued to shift and dig his way through the rubble of the mountainside. Rush crawled up the back of the neck and found the entrance hatch on the back of the head just as Rakon’s erratic movement started to stabilize.

“Is the cannon good to go, Elvis?”

“Thanks to the easy climb, yes, we are fully prepared with two shots,” Elvis said. The magnetic climbing grips barely consumed energy, but since their overall capacity was so low, every bit of power counted. “Concussive Cannon ready on your mark.”

Rush lined up the cannon and aimed it directly at the hinges of the armored hatch. He steadied his hand and started a countdown in his head. Three, two, o-

“There it is!”

The mecha ducked just as Rush fired, creating a subtle shift that threw his aim off by mere centimeters. Even that small difference was enough, and though the hatch buckled under the impact, and one of the hinges shattered, the other remained mostly intact.

“What the hell was that?”

The mecha whipped around to seek out the source of the loud noise, nearly throwing Rush off as it spun. His magnetic gauntlets held, and when the spinning stopped, Rush grabbed on to the warped frame of the hatch and tried as hard as he could to rip it off its sole remaining hinge. Even the enhanced strength of the Scrapper suit wasn’t enough to tear apart the secure armored hatch, and Rush’s hand eventually slipped free as the hatch stubbornly refused to move. Rush spun around to check for any incoming mecha hands before he made his next move.

While there were no fists threatening to crush him, Rush did get a good look at what had made Rakon so excited in the first place. Beneath what had once been the misshapen metal slopes of the slagmount, there was the sleek, armored shell of a large structure.

“There actually was something under there,” Elvis said, shock evident in his digital voice. If Rush shared in the AI’s surprise, he did not show it, and he turned right back towards the hatch. He slammed an armored gauntlet into the remaining intact hinge, to no effect. As a last resort, he deployed the power saw and held the cutting edge against the hinge for a second, but did not make any significant progress. It would take him minutes to saw through the hatch with that, time he did not have.

“Elvis, could I use the cannon again on a lower power setting?”

“I suppose it is possible, but that would still leave us without enough charge for the secondary hatch,” Elvis said. Rush tried to punch his way through the hatch again, to no effect.

“How long would it take to get back to a full charge?”

“Roughly five minutes,” Elvis said. “And that is assuming our half-powered strike would be effective.”

Rush froze in place and thought over his options for a few seconds. Rakon was still twisting and turning, examining his surroundings for any sign of what had made the cannon’s noise. He hadn’t yet realized the source was on the back of his own mecha, but that was not necessarily a good thing. The longer his search went on, the more likely Rakon was to blame the Junkers, and attack them. Bandits tended to blindly attack whatever they believed to be the source of their problems.

With that thought, Rush started pounding on the dented metal hatch. His blows hit dead center, beating the hatch like a drum and sending echoing thuds through the entire access hatch.

“Mr. Rush, I don’t believe brute force will get us through,” Elvis said.

“Not our brute force,” Rush said. Elvis was only just beginning to contemplate the meaning of that when a shadow fell over them.

“Ah.”

Rush planted his feet and leaped out of the way as Rakon’s massive fist crashed down on the back of his own head. The noise had attracted attention, and therefore retaliation. The punch was blind and reckless, and Rush dodged it easily, then examined the impact site. The attempted swat had not been strong enough to damage the surrounding armor, but the already-damaged hatch had been nearly torn off its hinges. Rush unlatched the magnets and slid down the mecha’s head back to the hatch, then tore it off its hinges with a single pull.

“Excellent work, Mr. Rush,” Elvis said. “I would appreciate it, however, if your next clever plan did not involve us almost getting crushed.”

Twice now their victory had hinged on narrowly avoiding a giant fist, and twice now Rush had shown no signs of being worried about getting crushed. Elvis was beginning to worry it would become a pattern, and the fact that Rush did not acknowledge his concerns made them even worse. He simply dropped down the entrance hatch, braced himself, and fired the concussive cannon at the second hatch. This time there was no last-minute twitch to divert the shot, and the hatch was blown off its hinges effortlessly.

The broken hatch landed on the cockpit’s floor with a thud, and Rush followed close behind. Even though it was now effectively useless, Rush aimed the cannon at Rakon, who was scrambling out of his seat in confusion. The cockpit was a mess of soiled clothing and discarded ration bar wrappers, and Rakon stumbled as he moved his way through the detritus surrounding his station.

“Who the fuck are you?”

“No one,” Rush said. Giza had advised him never to use his name when wearing the suit, to avoid anyone making any connections to their Junker band. She also thought the idea of a nameless hero was cool, but had left that part out when convincing Rush to do it.

“How the fuck did you get in here?”

Rush thought the answer to that was obvious, so he ignored the question. He instead focused on looking around for a way to disable the mecha from within. They didn’t exactly have off switches, but they did have large exposed bits of circuitry. Rush walked over, grabbed something that looked important, and started ripping it out.

“Hey!”

A few sparks shot out of the wall as Rush continued to rip out vital components.

“Stop fucking tearing my shit apart,” Rakon shouted. He tried to grab Rush from behind, but received a swift elbow to the ribs in return. He fell backwards, and Rush kept on tearing pieces out of the mecha. He didn’t stop until the control panel flickered one last time and then went dark. Just as before, the mecha started to list to the side, swaying before it inevitably fell.

“Okay, now let’s get out of-”

Rush turned to find Rakon and drag him out of the dying mech. He found his adversary lying in a pile of garbage, with an elbow-shaped crater in his torso. The Scrapper suit’s enhanced strength had turned a casual shove into a lethal blow, striking the bandit with enough force to pulverize Rakon’s ribcage and crush his chest so thoroughly the pulped remains of his organs were leaking out of his mouth.

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Rush, all of our systems were still in combat mode,” Elvis said. He usually deactivated the strength enhancements when Rush was wearing the suit outside of a fight, to avoid injuring bystanders like Giza or Hartwell. He had not been able to do so before Rush threw an elbow at his ambusher.

“It was an accident,” Rush said flatly. “It happens.”

He paid the corpse no mind and jumped out of the cockpit to crawl back down the mecha’s hide, to the surface. He put some distance between himself and the collapsing titan before it hit the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust so thick it blotted out the sun. Rush enjoyed a few brief moments of respite from the perpetually blazing sun before the dust settled and he could see his surroundings again. One of the first things he saw was the odd structure inside the mountain.

“Wonder what’s in there…”

“Hopefully a shielding unit,” Elvis said. “I’m getting very tired of dodging those giant fists.”