by Rick Graham
The mercenary pilot fought at his controls to keep his WarMech upright as he realized he was in real trouble.
“I see you Red 2, I am sending backup” Commander Horo said over the pilot’s comm.
Doing his best to fight for survival, the merc angled his cannon to be point blank with the Hunter. At this range the blast would damage not only his attacker but himself. Probably also cause his only remaining weapon to be destroyed, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
War laughed to himself as he swatted away the Sierra’s cannon arm with his WarMech’s left hand. He sliced at the Sierra’s elbow which immediately snapped off from the damage. It remained connected by some cables, but sparks shot out from the exposed internals.
The first Sierra pilot had struggled but was successful in getting his machine back up. He activated his left arm’s combat knife. The retractable blade shot forth from its protective housing and locked in place.
With his WarMech’s hand he shoved the chest of the Sierra in front of him backward into a bank. Again, the Keeper fired a barrage of lasers from his four chest lasers that dug deep into the Sierra. The pilot died from one of the blue bolts as it penetrated the torso armor. Interestingly, the Sierra remained propped upright from the building instead of falling to the ground.
An alarm sounded in his ear and War saw the other Sierra charge at him with its knife coming to impale him in the back. He spun his Hunter around in a maneuver that displayed his mastery at the controls of his WarMech.
The mercenary could not slow his charge and he stabbed his WarMech’s knife into his deceased comrade’s WarMech. More debris fell from the damaged structure of the building from the force of the collision.
With both Sierra’s currently stuck together, War aimed his shoulder laser cannons at critical locations of back of the living pilot’s WarMech and fired. Both green beams burned into the Sierra destroying the engine within.
Now without power, the mercenary machine crumpled to the right. With the combat knife still stuck within the other WarMech, as the defeated Sierra fell it pulled its compatriot’s machine over top of it.
War had no time to soak in his victory as the ground near his Hunter’s feet erupted scattering pieces of road and soil high into the air. He turned his attention to another Sierra approaching him from the South while his sensors detected an Enforcer moving in from the North.
During the previous entanglement between the Keeper and the dual Sierra pilots, Horo had been coordinating his forces to begin to converge to the center of the town on top of War. The new Sierra and Enforcer were the first wave to reach their target.
Blocks away Horo throttled his massive Juggernaut WarMech up to a walking speed. “Haha, I got you now you bastard. Even if it takes half my men, I’m gonna bring you back to Mr. Acteon and collect that sweet, sweet payday!”
Not wanting to get caught in a crossfire, War stomped on the middle pedal in his cockpit which launched his Hunter into the sky. Two bright red beams from the Enforcer’s dual focus beam weapons trail just behind the Keeper’s WarMech. It landed with a resounding thud and violently shook the windows of the nearby buildings.
As the Sierra changed direction and closed in, War picks up and chucks a hovercar at the mercenary. The impact disorients the mercenary pilot giving the Keeper time to move up and fire a barrage of blue bolts from his chest lasers.
The enemy pilot checked her damage display to see that there was mild to serious damage across her whole machine. She clenched her jaw as she aimed the crosshairs for her cannon but was unable to get the shot off as War’s shoulder mounted laser cannons expertly cut the Sierra’s arm off at the shoulder.
Again, the mercenary pilot had to fight to remain standing. Not wasting a moment, War plowed his Hunter’s own shoulder into the Sierra in a ram attack sending the smaller WarMech sliding across the pavement and into a small repair shop. The roof of the building collapsed on top of the Sierra concealing most of the machine under rubble.
Horo slammed the arm of his chair as yet another one of his WarMechs was defeated. “Damn you. Damn you War!”
On his mini map the merc commander saw the six other remaining members of his team converging on the location of the last signal of the latest fatality. Not being able to achieve a lock on his opponent made Horo angrier than he cared to admit to himself.
“Does anyone have contact with the target?” he asked over the team’s open frequency. Several negatives came back.
“This is Blue Two. Gail is down, but I have a confirmed sighting of the target on…” the Enforcer’s pilot was cut off.
Horo frantically looked back at the mini map and saw Blue Two’s icon change from a green triangle to a red “X”.
“Slag!” he shouted. “All forces, kick it into gear and converge on Blue Two. We have to end this now! Captain Theid.”
“Theid here.”
“I want you and your team to meet up with me. I got a surprise for our violent little friend.”
War’s Hunter ripped its clawed hand free of the downed Enforcer’s chest. He checked his own displays briefly to survey the situation.
“Seven WarMechs to go” the Keeper said to himself.
His seismic monitor picked up vibrations a few blocks away. Automatically the database scrolled through potential WarMech designs it could be and confirmed it was likely two Goblins.
War smirked. While the Goblin was a decent mobile design made by the Union of Stars armed with deadly plasma slingers as weapons, he enjoyed fighting WarMechs from other nations.
After he confirmed the direction of the incoming threats he slammed down on the middle pedal and launched his WarMech into the air. It arced up and over, crossing the distance very rapidly.
Sure enough, two Goblins were running towards their killed teammate. They looked up in surprise to see the Keeper’s Hunter falling back to the planet below. Both pilots fought to slow their giant machines down but were unable to do so before War took a shot from his shoulder laser cannons. One of the green beams missed terribly while the other scorched a horrendous wound to the front Goblin’s torso.
The Hunter landed relatively gently on the road below and instantly went into a sprint. He triggered his chest lasers. Undeterred from fighting, the front Goblin opened fire with both of its plasma slingers. Green globules of plasma flew down the road. Some went wide while others were successful impacts to the Hunter. With no serious damage War continued his run and again fired his shoulder weapons scoring two hits. The first lanced up the left arm from the wrist to the elbow exposing the internal skeletal structure beneath. The second burned deep into the right shoulder and cut right through the other side disabling the entire arm.
In an attempt to backup his partner the second Goblin rushed forward to engage the Keeper. It fired a slew of plasma from its slingers.
War thrust his WarMech to the left dodging most of the shots, but his right arm did suffer severe damage. Another hit would surely cripple the arm if not destroy it altogether.
Having fought Goblins before he knew that moving in close was not the best option. Plasma weapons were extremely deadly up close and the Goblins both had hands for physical combat. Instead, War hopped his Hunter back down the long stretch of road hoping to use distance as his ally.
He locked on and fired his shoulder laser cannons again at the more injured Goblin. Unable to survive two major attacks to its torso, the mercenary WarMech went up in smoke as it fell. The remaining Goblin realized War’s strategy and dove for cover behind a large building to its left.
An alarm beeped loudly for War’s attention as his system detected the remaining four other Death Dealers WarMechs close in on him.
“One Goblin, one Enforcer, two Sierras and one Juggernaut…” War said to himself. His eyes scanned his displays and readouts for damage on his Hunter.
Horo blasted his voice on his external speakers. “This is it War. We have you surrounded. You are outnumbered five to one. Surrender.”
> The Keeper of War had fought in more conflicts than he could remember. Rulers had risen and fallen countless times since he had joined the Keepers as they protected the Corre Republic from threats both internal and external. He long ago stopped fearing death. It would come for him, but it wasn’t going to be today. War tightened his grip on his control sticks and decided who he would kill first.
He dodged to the side as a laser narrowly missed his injured arm. “You’re first” War said as he throttled the Hunter up and ran straight for the Enforcer.
To aid his fellow merc, the Goblin stepped back out into the road as War charged forward and fired away. The Hunter jumped into the air above the stream of green plasma fire. Thinking the Hunter was going to land behind him, the mercenary pilot swung his Goblin around. Instead, the Keeper brought his deadly WarMech down on top of the mercenary.
There was a high-pitched crunch sound followed by armor grinding on armor as the smaller WarMech’s left knee snapped and it the torso was crushed into the road. The Hunter lumbered off the ruined pile of limbs and armor that was the mercenary machine and continued on down the road. War brought the Hunter’s arms in front of its chest and activated its arm mounted energy shields. Two red glowing ovals protected the Hunter’s chest while War aimed his shoulder cannons.
The Enforcer fired another shot from its focus beams. Both of the streams of light hit the Hunter’s shields and nearly overpowered them from the sheer strength of the weapons. War fired shot after shot from his shoulder weapons scoring wounds on the Enforcer’s chest, arms and left leg.
Not wanting to die in the street, the Enforcer navigated down a side road. Its large shoulders grinded against the buildings as it escaped War’s line of sight.
To the Keeper’s right a Sierra jumped onto a large building. It got a target lock on the Hunter and fired. War tried to angle his WarMech’s right shield to protect his flank, but it didn’t save his right arm as it blew clear off from the hit to its bicep.
War ground his teeth in anger. The Hunter dug its feet into the road tearing it up as the large machine stopped its forward movement. It twisted to the right and fired its cannons at the Sierra. One shot hit the left shoulder, the next missed, while two shots hit the right leg.
The Sierra responded by firing another two shots at the Hunter. It also had been equipped with a missile launcher on its shoulder that fired a volley of four small missiles at its enemy. The first shot from the cannon destroyed the lower level of a bakery behind War, while the second hit his right leg below the knee. Each of the missiles though made impact on their target. None did serious damage but added to the overall removal of armor from the Hunter’s body.
War cursed as he saw on his mini map that the Enforcer was coming back to the fight. He didn’t have more time to waste. He fired his cannons again at the Sierra’s right leg. Both shots severed the leg and sent the Sierra tumbling off the building to the ground below.
He dashed forward to dodge the Enforcer’s incredibly deadly focus beams. The lasers barely missed and sliced right through a building down the road in an upward motion.
The last Sierra entered the fray as it shot the Hunter’s rear armor. War spun his machine around and backed up to remain out of the Enforcer’s sight. He shot a stream of lasers from his chest lasers into the Sierra, but it did little more than pepper it with damage. Again, the Sierra fired and struck the Hunter in the chest disabling two of its lasers. The Keeper’s machine rocked backwards from the impact.
With a grin on his face the mercenary pilot of the Sierra thought he had War on the ropes of defeat. The merc moved his WarMech up. Over its external speakers the pilot said, “I got you now you piece of…” but the pilot didn’t finish as War boosted forward and shifted his Hunter around in a brilliant display of precision to get behind his enemy. He jabbed with his WarMech’s left hand into the side of the Sierra’s torso destroying its pilot instantly. Before the WarMech fell to its knees, War was already turning back to the Enforcer just as another shot from the focus beams cut through the spot War was just in. The twin beams easily cut into the Sierra damaging the machine even further.
War fired two shots from his shoulder cannons which destroyed the Enforcer’s right arm and laser weapons. His sensors alerted him to the presence of the Juggernaut being two blocks away.
The Enforcer pilot knew that help was near and charged forward so that it could bring its cluster gun into range. As it rushed forward War made the decision to deal with the last lowly merc before turning his attention to their leader. He too charged forward and fired his chest lasers as he went. The blue bolts seemed to fill the space in between the two towering machines as they closed the distance to one another.
Disregarding the damage beginning to build up on his WarMech, the Enforcer pilot squeezed his trigger firing a shot from his last remaining weapon. A cluster of anti-WarMech sized pellets burst from the barrel of the cluster gun and sprayed the Hunter. An alarm sounded in War’s cockpit warning him of serious damage to the torso and engine housing of his Hunter. He leaned his machine to the right and boosted once more. The WarMech dashed into a building to avoid another shot from the cluster gun but didn’t go too deep into the structure because War had used the right foot to stop.
He fired every weapon that remained operational. Laser beams and bolts cut into the Enforcer as it continued its run until its left leg finally froze up from damage and caused the machine to fall on its face. As if on cue the massive Juggernaut WarMech burst through the wall of a five-story building. Rubble and debris spread about the road as the mercenary leader brought up his WarMech’s tremendously oversized chain-gun.
War again activated his remaining energy shield and blocked what he could as he attempted to move out of the line of fire of the monstrous behemoth. The stream of large caliber bullets tore through the building War had been up against and destroyed more of the town as he swung it to keep up with the Hunter.
“Hahaha. I got you now!” Horo cackled loudly as his WarMech laid waste to Gainesville.
War ran down a side road and checked his displays. His Hunter couldn’t take much more of this. A full health Juggernaut is not an enemy you should take lightly. He learned that long ago in various campaigns he had been part of to take worlds back from the invading Faust Union forces.
The merc commander turned his WarMech and fired a burst from his main weapon. War boosted forward to dodge the stream of incoming armor piercing rounds as many of them burst through a two-story’s thin structure.
“Only hope is to get in close” the Keeper said in his mind. While the Faust Union was not the most technologically advanced nation in the ‘verse, they made up for it with incredibly durable equipment. Their designers would pile on thicker and thicker armor to keep their forces in the fight longer, but they unfortunately were not the most agile on the battlefield. This wouldn’t matter much in an open arena, but here in a town full of various buildings it would make things difficult for the Juggernaut to be able to keep up with a much more agile WarMech design like the Hunter.
While War ran up the road to flank his powerful opponent he failed to notice Captain Theid and his team of Hopper power armor infantry that piled out onto the roof of a nearby apartment. They sailed into the air and grabbed hold on various spots of the WarMech’s armor. They began to attack sensitive locations on the Hunter with their powerful lasers in an attempt to down the large machine.
War used his Hunter’s left hand to scrape across much of the front of his hull to remove the Hoppers as he continued to approach the Juggernaut. Two members of the team were crunched to death.
Horo spotted the Keeper’s persistence and fired his chain-gun disregarding the lives of his men on the outside of the Hunter. War boosted above the bullets. One of the Hoppers wasn’t lucky as he lost his grip from the unexpected jump and fell into the stream of bullets and was shred apart. The Hunter arced over the mercenary commander and hit the ground very hard. From the damage of one of the Hoppers to the l
eft ankle the WarMech stumbled slightly from the impact. The ankle was trashed however and froze up tight.
Now having to limp, War twisted his torso so he could bring the Juggernaut into view as Horo moved to do the same. Three Hoppers including Captain Theid continued to chip away at the Keeper’s WarMech while he opened fire and scorched the larger WarMech. The damage was all superficial however. One of the hoppers was able to disable the right shoulder cannon with its laser.
In a desperate attempt to immobilize his opponent, War limped up to the Juggernaut and used its powerful claw to strike the right knee two times successfully removing chunks of armor and exposing the skeleton beneath. Just before the massive monster of a machine returned the favor and swatted the Hunter careening down the road the remaining Hoppers jumped to safety.
The Keeper’s WarMech was further damaged by its harsh landing and crushed its left hand when trying to brace itself. War shook his head to clear his vision.
“Now you are mine!” Horo boasted as he brought his chain-gun to bare.
War’s only functioning weapon was his left shoulder laser cannon which he used to fire a shot into the Juggernaut’s damaged knee. Dark green coolant bled out as the knee broke off at the severed joint and the machine gracelessly fell.
Captain Theid and his two other Hoppers jumped onto War to try and buy their commander time.
Warning alarms sounded as the Hunter told the Keeper that it was in danger. One of the Hoppers positioned itself on the front of the torso looking for a way to cut into the cockpit. War released his control sticks and the armored gauntlets returned in a shroud of particles around his forearms. He slammed a large red button to his left which immediately shot the cockpit door off and sent the Hopper flying with it. The two slammed into a distant building and splattered the infantrymen on the wall.