The exoskeleton of the suit hurtled Rush forward with surprising speed. It took him a few steps to get used to the vaulting stride of the enhanced muscles, but once he got his balance, he began to close the distance on the two mechs rapidly. He was at their heels before they were even halfway to the unsuspecting junkers.
He used the short sprint to formulate a plan. The mechs moved surprisingly quickly, but they did so thanks to a very long stride, not rapid movement. Once they put a foot on the ground, it remained there for several seconds, giving Rush plenty of time to hop on without getting stomped. Then it was just a matter of climbing a towering mecha from foot to shoulder. Right shoulder, specifically. Rush started chanting it in his head to ensure he did not forget. Right shoulder, right shoulder, right shoulder…
“Repetition does help memorization, Mister Rush,” Elvis said. The synthetic voice in his ear had to increase its volume to compete with the pounding footsteps of the mecha. “But it is unnecessary! I can automatically track your objective and remind you at set intervals.”
“Oh, so you can read my mind,” Rush said. The fact that it already knew his name was a vital clue.
“Of course I can read your thoughts! Complete user synchronicity is one of the benefits of Kellarin Tech’s patented Neurolink computational systems,” Elvis explained. “But don’t worry! Our neural synchronization only extends to your surface level thoughts, and can never be used to store or archive any personal data or memories.”
Rush had not been worried about that, so he did not address it. The heel of the Rampager mecha slammed down to the ground only meters away, kicking up a cloud of scrap and dust. Rush lunged for the heel and focused on magnets, and right on cue, the suit activated the powerful magnets in the gauntlets and clung to the mech’s metallic shell. Seconds later, a set of magnets in the boots activated, giving him a firmer hold. He tried to raise one hand, and the magnets deactivated instantly, only reactivating when he wanted to hold on again. Step by step, Rush climbed the leg of the mecha until he was nearly on its knee.
“You are doing very well, Mister Rush,” Elvis said. “We have established a firm synchronicity.”
“Good. Once I’m inside, what do I do?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know, Mister Rush,” Elvis said, simulating a dejected sigh. “Kellarin Miltech schematics are incredibly secure, and their external shielding is resistant to this unlicensed third-party exosuit’s current scanning implements. Once the armor has been breached, I will surely be able to provide more useful information!”
One of the useful tidbits Elvis might have been able to provide was that mecha had three-hundred and sixty degree scanners. That was usually not a problem, as the scanners weren’t really designed to detect something crawling up the mechs leg, but this mech had a partner. The Artillery-class mech accompanying the Rampager came to a sudden halt.
“Eh? Hold on, Cass, you’ve got something on your leg.”
“Better not be stuck with a piece of rubble from you blowing up that stupid mount- what the fuck is that?”
The leg shifted violently under Rush’s grip as the mecha paused and stuck its leg out. He looked up, to see the titanic cockpits of both mecha staring down at him.
“Elvis?”
“Yes Mister Rush?”
“Any tools for this?”
“The exoskeletal enhancements will make you very good at running, Mister Rush.”
Thus, he ran. The first metal fist pounded down just behind him, as did the second and third.
“Little fucker’s fast!”
“Stop punching, Chira,” Cass scolded. “You’re going to crack my armor again.”
The crack in the armor Rush was currently targeting was thanks to a “playful” blow from Chira. Now was not the time to be making another breach.
“There’s a guy crawling on you,” Chira snapped. “We have bigger problems!”
The problems were actually quite small, and annoyingly fast. Rush had circled round to the interior of the mech’s legs, making him slightly harder to reach. By the time the two mecha had adjusted their position, Rush was already on Cass’s torso.
“Hold still!”
Chira went for another punch, and Rush leaped ahead just in time. Even so, the shockwave of the impact nearly shook Rush loose. He grabbed on to a ledge in the armor, manually, not just with his magnets, and held on for dear life.
“Mister Rush, I have taken the liberty of adding ‘acquire stronger magnets’ to your to-do list,” Elvis said. “If you like me to continue making automatic updates, please confirm by-”
Another punch shut Elvis up mid-sentence. His customer service protocols were automatically disabled during life or death incidents, for about fifteen seconds each time. Rush used the window of quiet to crawl further up the torso as Cass tried to slap him down. The much broader, flat expanse of the torso gave the two pilots much more room to strike, and Rush still had a ways to go to reach the weak point in the armor. Going much further would be pushing his luck, unless he changed his strategy.
“Elvis, any ideas?”
“You’re doing a very good job, Mr. Rush,” Elvis said. “If you feel yourself losing determination, I can play some motivating music for you!”
Elvis proceeded to loop about half a second of music seven times before chiming back in.
“Apologies, Mr. Rush, I have lost my playlists due to the memory leak,” Elvis said.
“It’s fine. Do you have more tools?”
“I’m afraid not, Mr. Rush,” Elvis said. “But I allow for infinite modification, please let me know if you have any tools you’d like to integrate in the future!”
“Thank you. Quiet please.”
Rush looked over his shoulder at a fist coming his way. He only had about two seconds to calculate what to do next. For starters, he dodged the fist -moving down, instead of up, this time. True to expectations, the blow missed, as the mecha’s pilot had been expecting him to try and climb further. The fist drew back, hand hovering over its partners torso with metal fingers still clenched, and Rush spotted his opening -a literal opening.
“Stop moving!”
“Okay.”
Rush didn’t know if the Artillery-style mech had heard him, but it punched again anyway. This time, Rush only moved about half a yard to the right. The giant fist crashed down with a booming crack of metal on metal, and when it drew back again, Rush was nowhere to be seen.
“Did you get him?”
“I got him,” Chira boasted. “Wiped the fucker out of existence.”
Rush, who was very much not wiped out of existence, clung to the fingers of Chira’s mech. As an Artillery-class mech, it was designed for firepower, not blunt force. While it still had fingers to grasp with, those fingers were heavily spaced, giving something as small as Rush plenty of room to fit into the gaps. Rush stayed hidden in the mech’s clenched fist as it rose up again, soaring over the torso of Cass’s mech, and right over a rusty spot with a visible rift in the armor.
“Oh, that would be our entry point, Mr. Rush, as soon as we are within a safe distance, I would recommend-”
Elvis’s life-or-death silence protocol took effect again, but this time because of something Rush did. The AI might have shut up even if it had not been programmed to, out of sheer shock, as Rush deactivated his magnets and kicked off from the mech’s hand, rocketing towards the weak point in the other’s armor. It would’ve been a daring move even if they hadn’t been around sixty stories off the ground.
As he dove through the air between the two mechs, he focused on his sawblade, and the cutter saw deployed from the armor’s gauntlet. The serrated blade started to rev just before Rush made impact.
The roaring blade ripped through the cracked and rusted armor on impact, ruining what little structural integrity it had left. The rest of Rush’s armored form impacted shortly afterward, cannonballing through the fractured armor. He bounced off an interior pillar and rebounded once before Elvis automatically activated the magnets, latching the armor onto the next pillar they impacted.
The interior of the mecha’s armored shell was mostly empty space, with thick, sturdy support pillars between two layers of armor. The empty space acted as a crumple zone for the armor, protecting the complex mechanisms within from impacts without weighing it down. Now that Rush was through the armor, those interior mechanisms were his next concern.
“Elvis, where do I go now?”
“Why did you jump like that?”
“It worked,” Rush said flatly. “Where do I go now?”
“I- This way,” Elvis said. An arrow appeared on the screen inside Rush’s helmet. “Through the arm, into the chest cavity.”
Rush followed the directions Elvis provided, using magnetics to crawl through the armor’s interior. The ancient war machines had been designed with some interior pathways for maintenance purposes, but those paths had never been used while the mecha was in motion. Were it not for the magnets, Rush would’ve been getting tossed around the walkway and bouncing around the walls.
“Right through there,” Elvis indicated, highlighting a region of the mecha’s interior. Though there was still empty space, it got much narrower around the arm joint. Rush pressed close to the nearest armored plate and crawled on his belly, squeezing through the narrow gap while the arm moved. Once into the chest cavity, Rush was back in spacious terrain, and in familiar territory.
“Power cell should be…”
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Rush released the magnetic grip and slid down the interior of the chest cavity. He had dug through derelict mecha looking for power cells before, and knew that the hatch was generally located in the center of the chest and slightly left, exactly where a human heart would be. He found the sealed hatch right where he expected.
“Does this suit have a screwdriver and a clipping tool with a rubb- wait.”
Halfway through recalling his usual method to open sealed doors, Rush remembered he was wearing a suit of power armor. He grabbed the handle of the hatch and pulled with all his might, ripping the door right off its hinges.
“Efficient,” Rush said, before peering inside the chest cavity and frowning. “Not efficient.”
“Oh dear,” Elvis said.
The interior of the power chamber was overrun by strange crystalline growths. Rush had, unfortunately, seen this several times. Improperly stored Kell Cell’s always accumulated an odd mineral shell, which Junkers commonly referred to as Kellcite. The mysterious mineral was corrosive, highly toxic, and worst of all, rendered the Kell Cell it grew on unusable once removed from its socket, reducing the usually valuable prize to less than worthless scrap.
“That’s a shame. Do the voltaic charges in this suit generate a current greater than fifty milliamps?”
“Yes, Mr. Rush.”
“Good.”
Rush placed a hand on either side of the Kell Cell and activated the voltaic charges. The wiring and circuitry connected to the Cell overloaded, sending a power surge through the entire system. Rush jumped up and latched on to the exterior of the mecha’s armor as it began to fall backwards.
“Cass!”
The other mech bandit, who had spent the last few seconds thinking she’d squashed Rush like a bug, was shocked as her companion suddenly fell, her mech deactivated and inert.
“You son of a bitch,” Chira thundered. “You killed her!”
Cass, who was still very much alive in an inert cockpit, stopped punching at her dead controls long enough to look up at a cannon being aimed in her direction.
“Chira, wait, wait! I’m not dead, you idiot, he just-”
Cass’s blood run cold as she stared down at her inert speaker button.
“-cut the power.”
That thought was the last thing to go through Cass’s head. A second later, her head, her body, and the entire cockpit surrounding her were all obliterated in a single burst of directed energy. The chest cavity Rush clung to rattled with the impact, and he dropped down to stand on the mecha’s dead power core.
“Excellent work, Mr. Rush,” Elvis said. “That is one mecha dealt with. Please wait one moment.”
As Elvis spoke, that strange silvery goo that had engulfed Rush’s arms at the start of all this emerged again, this time flowing out of the armor’s legs. The mercurian flow washed over the fried circuitry of the mecha and then retracted into the armor again.
“Good news, Mr. Rush,” Elvis chimed. “I have identified a means for us to damage the other mecha.”
The entire machine rattled again as Chira took another shot at Cass’s dead mech.
“I have also identified an ongoing threat to our survival. Please proceed to the fallen mech’s left wrist with haste.”
Rush didn’t question the order, and broke into a dead sprint down the fallen mech’s arm. Now that it was inert, running through the mech was easy, and Rush had made it to the elbow in a matter of moments. The mecha’s left shoulder exploded not long after Rush ran through it, as Chira continued trying to “avenge” the fallen friend who had fallen at her hand.
“Stop here,” Elvis commanded, as Rush reached the Rampager mech’s ruined hand. Here, the mech’s armored shell was filled with poorly-maintained components and exposed wiring, as the interior mechanisms extended towards exterior weaponry. “Please approach the red power coupling and place your arm against the components.”
Rush did so, once again without question. Elvis had actually been kind of hoping he would ask.
“I’m sure you’re curious, Mr. Rush,” Elvis said. “As a Rampager-class Titan unit, this machine contains a short-range concussive pulse generator to add strength to its punches.”
“Okay.”
As Rush pressed his arm against the mechanism, the silver goo emerged from his armor once again, washing over the components of the concussive cannon and drowning them in a several tide. As the shining wave pulled back, many of the cannon’s components were stripped away and carried off by the goop, which dragged them back towards the armor. Rush watched curiously as the apparently prehensile goo rearranged the components and started to reassemble the disparate pieces on the suit Rush wore.
“Are you doing that?”
“Of course, Mr. Rush,” Evlis said. “As the latest Kellarin Technologies modular technology platform, I am able to restructure all Kell Tech implements for maximum user convenience.”
The assembled components took their final shape, and the silver goo retracted back into the armor. Rush examined the jury-rigged weapon that was now strapped to his forearm as Elvis forwarded a helpful update to the helmet’s HUD.
New Weapon Online:
Concussion Cannon: Energy pulse tech generates a destructive shockwave without firing a projectile. Destroy fragile structures at short range.
Elvis also helpfully included a cartoon animation of the suit standing in front of a cracked wall and a pane of glass, and destroying both with a quick punch and a burst of energy.
“If my analysis of the mech schematics is correct, this weapon should be sufficient to destroy the other bandit,” Elvis said. “However, the weapon is not sufficiently powerful to penetrate armor. It must be applied directly to the cockpit hatch, where the casing will be weakest.”
“Okay.”
Rush had already climbed one mech today. He had no qualms about climbing another. He ran up the fallen mech’s arm and jumped out of the hole Chira had blasted in its torso. As he made a dead sprint for the heel of Chira’s mech, Elvis presented a more pressing issue.
“The suit’s power supply is sufficient for only one blast,” Elvis said. “After firing, you will have to wait—calculating—thirteen minutes for another chance. I would recommend not missing.”
That had never been the plan anyway. Rush made one massive leap, jumping from the blasted heel of Cass’s fallen mech onto the stomping foot of Chira’s. The corroded bandit mecha stomped a few times to try and shake Rush loose, but the magnets held firm as he started to climb. As Rush made it to the knees, the mech started swatting at its own legs, slamming colossal hands down hard enough to dent the armored shell, but Rush stayed one jump ahead every time.
After trying and failing to swat Rush for the fifth time, Chira gave up on swift strikes. She slammed the open palm of her mechs’ hand down onto its stomach and started to sweep up. Rush heard the grinding scrape of metal against metal and looked down to see a wall of metal racing towards him.
“That’s problematic,” Elvis said.
“That’s perfect.”
Rush let go, and latched on to the sweeping arm instead. He rode it all the way up the torso, and leaped off just as it crossed the face of the massive Artillery mech. Chira looked at her view screens and saw a blur of mismatched armor sailing overhead, towards the cockpit access.
“Shit.”
As an Artillery mech, Chira’s rusting hulk was not prepared for a close quarters assault. The burst of force cracked open the cockpit hatch and sent the reinforced metal door plummeting down the entry chute. Rush jumped down after it, landing atop the broken hatch and stumbling forward on the uneven terrain. He regained his footing and slammed through an interior door into the cockpit proper. Chira looked over her shoulder and had to do a double-take at the armored figure that had just burst into the room.
“What the fuck are you?”
“That’s a bad word,” Rush said, pointing an accusing finger at Chira.
“Wh-”
The choice of priorities baffled Chira almost as much as the amalgam of armor plates and machinery stomping through her cockpits. The confusion ended when Rush ripped a panel off of a wall and exposed bare wire and circuitry underneath.
“Hey, stop!”
“No,” Rush said flatly. Then he ripped out exactly three wires and smashed a circuitboard, and the entire room went dark. With the primary power supply cut, the gyroscopic systems that kept the mech stable started to fail, and the titan began to lean forward.
Rush latched on to the wall and held on tight as the mecha started to tilt downwards. In the center of the room, Chira lashed out at her controls and started pounding on every button in reach, to no effect. When she finally realized her angry outburst at the controls would have no effect, she turned to Rush and started to unbuckle herself.
“You bastard, what’d you do to my mech?”
“You should stay in your seat,” Rush advised.
Rush could see the ground approaching fast through the viewscreens in the cockpit. Chira paid them no heed and climbed over the back of her seat, which was now tilted at a slight angle, to try and reach Rush. The cockpit’s internal suspension system was good enough to make it only slightly askew as the mech plummeted, but not good enough to negate the sudden stop at the end of the fall. That was what the cockpit chair was for -but Chira wasn’t in her chair. Rush watched her legs buckle on impact, and then closed his eyes. He didn’t see what happened next, but judging from the numerous crunching sounds, it wasn’t good. Rush briefly contemplated opening his eyes, and decided against it. After feeling his way back to the exit hatch, Rush climbed up and left the presumably gruesome scene behind.
The exit hatch took Rush to what was now the top of the fallen mech, and he strolled across the crumpled head and took a seat on the edge. He looked out at fallen skyscraper, and the band of junkers he had been trying to save from the two bandits. They were much closer than he would have expected -a few more steps and the mech would’ve been in range to start killing.
“Well done once again, Mr. Rush,” Elvis chimed in. “Given the limited capabilities of this unlicensed third-party exoplatform, this triumph is quite exceptional!”
“Thanks.”
“You and this equipment would be an asset to the Sol Imperial Military,” Elvis said.
“That doesn’t exist anymore.”
A short burst of static echoed in Rush’s ear.
“What?”
“It doesn’t exist,” Rush said. “Look-”
He pointed out towards the fallen skyscraper, a wreck of the same ruined world that had died alongside the Sol Imperium, and noticed for the first time a small human figure dashing towards him, along with three other humans trailing them at a distance.
“Hold on.”
Rush hopped down and took a few steps forward to meet the Junker running at him. She looked to be about Rush’s age, but slightly taller, and with close cropped auburn hair. She had a scrutinizing glare in her gleaming eyes that Rush did not understand, but he didn’t understand most things about people, so that was nothing new. She kept looking at him silently, and Rush went through a quick loop in his head, then assumed she was probably appraising whether he was a threat or not. He tried to act friendly. People were usually nicer to him if he was nice to them first.
“Hello,” Rush said in a neutral, non-threatening tone, and he gave a quick wave to impart extra friendliness into the greeting. That usually worked.
“Hi,” the stranger said. She looked over Rush’s shoulder at the two fallen mecha. Probably appraising them for scrap value. “Did you just destroy two mecha?”
Rush looked over his shoulder. Since she was asking as if it were a question, he had to be sure he’d actually destroyed both of them. Neither was moving. He wondered why she’d bother asking if the mechs were destroyed, if she could see the answer so obviously.
“Yeah,” he said, nodding.
“Could you...do it again?”
“Probably?”
Rush wasn’t ready to say anything with confidence. These two mechs had been rusted and, by all appearances, very poorly piloted. A different fight would have much different odds. The noncommittal answer apparently amused the strange woman, because she started to smile. She stepped up and held her hand out.
“My name’s Giza.”
Rush looked at her extended hand for a second. When people held their hand out at him, they were usually either asking him to shake it, or expecting him to give them something. She had just confirmed he’d destroyed the two mechs, so she might have been hoping Rush would hand her a valuable component. Then again, she had also said her name, so maybe she wanted him to greet her with a handshake. But considering the people trying to catch up with her, maybe she wanted to get her hands on valuable mech scrap first. But she had her hand sideways, not palm up, so it was more likely she wanted a handshake.
After coming to the conclusion she wanted a handshake, Rush far more quickly came to the conclusion he’d been thinking about it too long, when Giza pulled her hand back. He tried to salvage the flubbed introduction to the best of his ability.
“Rushmore. Rush, sometimes.”
“Rushmore. Sometimes. Are you, like, a person, or…”
Rush had almost forgotten he was wearing the suit of armor. He reached up to remove the helmet, letting cramped dreadlocks bounce free. He took a breath of the Scrapworld’s perpetually warm air and found it bitter.
“Person, yeah,” he said, just in case Giza still had doubts.
“Cool. Would you like some food?”
“I would, yeah.”
Rushmore usually wanted food. Most people he knew wanted it, in general. Giza was apparently done asking questions, judging by the fact she turned around and started walking away from Rush. She only made it a few steps before turning around again, though.
“If, uh, you follow me,” Giza said. “I will give you some food.”
“Oh! Okay,” Rush said. People very rarely shared food. She should’ve been more specific. “Th- wait, am I supposed to say ‘thank you’ now or afterwards?”
Dr. Kaz had been the last person to give him food, and when Rush had tried to say thank you, Kaz had said “don’t thank me yet”. That had left Rush wondering when the right time to say “thanks” was.
“Whenever you want, I suppose.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
Giza walked away, and Rush followed behind, glad that things were starting to make sense.