by Jake Bible
6.
The two mech pilots stared down at the smoking probe, their shared machine looming tall behind them, providing shade from the rapidly rising sun.
“That’s from the Jethro, right?” Shock asked.
“Has to be,” Chomps replied.
“And…why?”
“No clue,” Chomps said. “This is a nebula probe. No reason it should be on the planet.”
“You don’t think the Jethro was destroyed, do you?” Shock asked. “Is this debris?”
Chomps squinted up at the sky then looked around the landscape. She shook her head and planted her hands on her hips.
“No. We would be seeing a lot more debris than this,” Chomps replied. “A lot more.”
“So…what the hell is it?” Shock asked.
“Let’s see,” Chomps said.
She knelt next to the probe and shoved her hands underneath it. It was about a meter and a half in diameter, which wasn’t huge, but it was heavy.
“A little help,” Chomps grunted.
Shock got down with her and they managed to roll the probe up and out of the huge divot it rested in. One of the panels on its side came loose and a couple of cables began to spark. Shock moved in for a closer look.
“Careful,” Chomps said.
“No, it’s cool,” Shock replied. “Look at this. That’s not supposed to be there.”
“How do you know?” Chomps asked, bending over to get a better view.
“See that?” Shock said, pointing to a set of cables that weren’t sparking. “The junction point has been welded in.”
“Okay…?”
“There shouldn’t be welds inside a probe,” Shock said. He looked up at Chomps and she had both eyebrows raised. “What? Sometimes I listen when Stony talks. Not often, but a guy gets bored and you can only watch the same old vids so many times.”
“Then you think Stony made that weld?” Chomps asked. “Why?”
“Maybe not Stony personally, but someone on the Jethro did,” Shock said and reached inside the panel. “Only one way to find out.”
He grabbed two of the loose cables and plugged them into their junction points. They sparked then calmed down and the probe came to life as a large antenna shot straight up out of the side, nearly taking Shock’s left eye with it.
“Son of a butch!” he cried as he fell back on his ass, his hand going to a deep gouge in his forehead. “That really isn’t supposed to be there!”
A burst of static erupted from the cockpit of the mech and Chomps spun on her heels. She quickly climbed up the leg and grabbed onto the edge of the cockpit hatch, flipping herself up inside as the static got louder.
“Holy shit!” she yelled with excitement. “I think we have comms!”
Shock looked about for his battle armor helmet, but realized it was up in the cockpit.
“Toss me my helmet!” he yelled as he stood up and turned to face the mech. The helmet came down at him fast, but he easily caught it. “Thanks.”
He put it on and winced as a squelch of static thundered through the comms.
“Hello?” Chomps called. “Jethro? This is Chomps, can you read me?”
“Chomps?” Morisaki answered. “Well, I’ll be dipped in every type of shit known to man! Good to know you’re alive!”
“Morisaki? Good to hear your voice!” Chomps cried. “What’s the status of the LZ?”
“About the same as my asshole after an all-night binge on cheap beer,” Morisaki said.
“Well, that ain’t good,” Shock said.
“Who’s that? Shock?” Morisaki asked.
“That’d be me,” Shock replied. “What are you looking at there?”
“A shit ton of xenos,” Morisaki said. “Which is why I’m gonna hand you off to one of yours. I need to focus on getting this LZ prepped for evac pronto!”
The static returned then, “What the hell? Why am I being patched into this convo? Morisaki! Deal with this your–!”
“Gore! Shut up!” Chomps yelled. “It’s me!”
“Chomps? Holy shit! You’re alive!” Gore responded.
“No shit! Can you lock onto my coordinates and come get us?” Chomps asked.
“Us? What us?” Gore said.
“Shock is with me, but he lost his mech,” Chomps said. “It’s down in the tunnels. Hey, listen, Gore, you have to tell the Jethro that there are millions more xenos down there! Let Parveet know that Shock thinks they’re coming up to wipe out the LZ!”
“Oh, we know, babe,” Gore said. “Trust me. That’s why we’re evacuating the LZ right now. If we can keep the xenos back long enough first. It’s not looking good. The Jethro did what it could, but the bastards are regrouping fast.”
“Yeah, they do that,” Shock said.
“Hey, Shock,” Gore said. “Ping me and I’ll send your coordinates to Schroeder. If anyone can wrestle a drop ship from Morisaki, it’s Schroeder. Sit tight and we’ll see what we can do.”
“See what you can do?” Chomps snapped. “Gore, you better not leave us down here!”
“Leave you? Not a goddamn chance in hell, babe!” Gore replied. “You in immediate danger?”
“Not at the moment, but we’re exposed as shit,” Chomps said.
“Okay, okay. Hunker down and wait for our call,” Gore said. “We’ll figure something out.”
The comms went silent and Chomps leaned over the edge of cockpit. Shock gave her a thumbs up.
“Don’t get too happy,” Chomps said. “They aren’t on the way yet.”
“You just gotta kill the mood,” Shock said and plopped down into grass, taking his helmet off so he could wipe blood from his brow.
***
“Fence is a go!” Hawker yelled.
“You heard her!” Gore shouted over the comms. “Get back inside the perimeter now!”
The mechs each turned and ran their metal asses off towards the LZ and the glowing energy fence. As soon as they reached the defenses, a portion of the fence was dropped and they hurried inside before the energy was restored again.
Just in time as two dozen xenos slammed themselves into the fence, burning up instantly.
“Schroeder!” Gore shouted as he carefully maneuvered through the ordered chaos of Morisaki’s evacuation. “Schroeder!”
“What?” Schroeder barked as she came out of one of the drop ships, a bench seat in her hands. She threw it aside and walked over to Gore. “Why are you yelling at me? I’m trying to clear space to fit as many people inside as possible!”
“We need a drop ship,” Gore said. “Chomps and Shock are stranded out there and we have to go get them.”
A bleep sounded in his cockpit and he grinned.
“Sending you their coordinates now,” Gore said.
Schroeder pulled her tablet from her belt and frowned down at the info.
“That’s thirty-five kilometers away, Gore,” Schroeder said. “That’s a lot of space to cover when we need to use the drop ships to get people back to the Jethro.”
“Schroeder,” Gore growled.
“I ain’t saying I won’t do it,” Schroeder replied. “Just telling it like it is.”
“Then we’re going?” Gore asked.
“Of course we are,” Schroeder said then looked over her shoulder at where Morisaki was barking orders to six different people at once. “But, how about we don’t tell the captain about it. It’ll only waste time.”
“I like your thinking,” Gore said. “I’m coming with.”
“Expected you might,” Schroeder said.
“Me too,” Giga said as she clomped up next to Gore.
“Now, hold on,” Schroeder said.
“It’s Shock!” Giga shouted.
“And two mechs on one drop ship is a lot of weight,” Schroeder said. “Plus we have to bring another mech back with us.”
“We leave the mech and only bring back the pilots,” Giga said. “Mechs can be built, pilots can’t.”
Schroeder held up her hands. �
�I’ll leave that logic between you and Stony when you see him next.”
She looked at Morisaki again then nodded at the drop ship.
“Get on,” she said. “I’ll tell Bardesh what’s up. He loves playing the rebel drop ship pilot.”
“Don’t need to hear your weird role-playing games,” Gore said.
“What? Oh cram it up your ass, Gore,” Schroeder said. “Get on the damn drop ship!”
***
Shock couldn’t stop fidgeting as the mech hiked across the landscape to the rendezvous point Gore had sent them.
“Gotta get off this damn planet,” Shock said. “Not a fan of Hrouska, let me tell you.”
“Me neither, but I’m not acting like a tweaked-out stim junkie,” Chomps snapped. “Stop twitching!”
“Sorry, sorry,” Shock said. “I’m exhausted and amped at the same time and it’s making me wonky.”
“I know,” Chomps said. “I’m feeling the same way. But I have to pilot a mech and your twitching is not helping things.”
“I know, I know,” Shock said. “It’s been a long day.”
“Days,” Chomps said. “We’ve been down here for three days.”
“Oh,” Shock replied. “That explains a lot.”
Chomps couldn’t help but laugh. The mirth was cut short as a strange reading came up on her scanners.
“What the hell…?”
“What is it?” Shock asked.
“I’m picking up a mech,” Chomps said. “Hold on. No, yeah, that’s a mech. It’s one of ours.”
“Well, crap,” Shock said. “Chomps? Run.”
“From a mech? It’s one of ours,” Chomps said. “Maybe they found a tunnel and–”
The earth about a quarter kilometer ahead of them exploded and the mech Chomps detected came bursting up out of the ground.
“That’s not one of ours,” Shock said. “It’s my mech, but that isn’t one of our pilots.”
The mech raced at Chomps and Shock. It was obvious the machine had been heavily modified. Thick strands of metal came off it from each side and waved about in the air as the mech charged them.
“Are those goddamn tentacles?” Chomps asked. “Those are goddamn tentacles!”
“Yep,” Shock said. “Run!”
“Run?” Chomps snarled. “Hell no. I’m not running from a mech. I don’t care what’s piloting it. This goddamn planet and its xenos can take our carbines, can fly our drop ships, but it cannot take our mechs. You know why?”
Shock sighed and found emergency straps. He secured himself to the wall of the cockpit. “No, Chomps, why?”
“Because not even humans get to just be mech pilots because they goddamn want to!” Chomps said and started to run. But not away from the oncoming mech, towards it. “Because you have to earn the right to sit in one of these cockpits and that goddamn xeno did not earn that right!”
“This is gonna hurt,” Shock said and slipped his helmet back on, slapping the faceplate back into place. “Isn’t it?”
“Oh, it’s gonna hurt a lot!” Chomps shouted as she closed the distance between the mechs. “A LOT!”
The xeno mech was twenty meters, ten, then right on Chomps. Without slowing, she went low and ducked under the swipe of two metal tentacles, coming back up and twisting around as she came up off her feet. One of those feet she planted in the ass of the xeno mech, knocking it down onto its knees.
Chomps flattened out and let her mech fall onto its back. Alarms blared in the cockpit until she cut them short.
“I know, I know, everything is broken,” Chomps said. “So goddamn what? I’ve been broken before and I’ll be broken again.”
Shock didn’t say a word about the fact he didn’t want to be broken. Chomps was in the fight zone and it was best to stay quiet.
Chomps flipped her legs up and out, popping the mech upright onto its feet. A klaxon blared and she killed the entire warning system, taking it completely offline.
“No more distractions,” she said.
She tested what worked and what didn’t, then adapted.
The mech’s left arm was basically useless as an appendage, dead weight. But dead weight could be wielded as a cudgel and that was exactly what she did as the xeno mech got up and turned to attack. Chomps sent her useless left arm in a wide arc, cracking the xeno mech across the cockpit and knocking it back to the ground.
Two tentacles shot out and grabbed Chomps by the ankles. They pulled hard and her legs went out from under her, but not before she managed to push down with her feet and arch her back. The tentacles tore free from the momentum and Chomps flipped over backwards.
It was not a graceful flip. She landed face first into the ground. Dirt and grass filled the cockpit. She didn’t hesitate and pushed up with her right arm, rolling herself to her side as two more tentacles attacked, slamming into the ground right where she’d been.
Chomps whirled her legs out and spun herself about until she was back on her feet and throwing a hard right into the left hip of the xeno mech. The hip coupling shattered, sending a shower of sparks falling to the ground. Chomps kicked straight out with her left leg, planting her foot dead center on the xeno mech’s cockpit, sending it flying a dozen meters backwards.
The xeno mech landed hard, tumbled end over end, then came to rest in a pile of dirt and grass, half the machine buried in earth.
“That all you got?” Chomps shouted.
“Oh, come on. Don’t taunt the thing,” Shock said.
Chomps started for the xeno mech, but Shock reached up and shoved his arm through the cradle, grabbing her by the elbow.
“Stop,” he hissed. “We have to get to the drop ship so the LZ can finish its evac. Fighting that thing is not the priority.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Chomps said after a couple of seconds.
She turned the mech around and started running to the rendezvous point. Or hobbling as fast as she could. It was good thing she’d turned off the alarms because her mech was falling apart fast.
7.
“There!” Gore yelled.
“Yes, Gore, we see the huge mech standing by those trees,” Schroeder said. “Kind of hard to miss.”
Standing was an overstatement. The mech was leaning back against a cluster of trees, using the trunks to keep it upright.
The drop ship landed and Gore and Giga hopped off, KYAGs up and covering the area as Chomps and Shock slowly climbed their way out of the cockpit.
“Gonna leave this here,” Chomps shouted. “Both knees froze up a kilometer back and we’ve been stiff-legging it the whole way.”
Gore gave her a thumbs up and smiled down at her as she and Shock made their way up the rear ramp and into the drop ship.
“They are secure,” Schroeder said. “Get back on, you giant morons.”
“No need to get personal,” Giga said.
“You’re the one that got personal about this back at the LZ,” Schroeder replied. “So feel free to cram it sideways with walnuts, Giga.”
“Cram it sideways with walnuts? That’s almost as good as son of a butch,” Shock said, hopping onto the comms. He laughed then stopped. “What’s a walnut?”
“Shock!” Giga cried. “Good to have you back, you stupid asshole!”
“Good to be back, you dumb twat!” Shock replied.
“True friendship,” Gore said. “Chomps? You good, babe?”
“I’ll let you know once we’re back on the Jethro,” Chomps said.
“You hurt? Are you wounded?” Gore asked, alarmed.
“No, I’m not hurt,” Chomps said. “Just ready to be done with this planet.”
“We all are,” Schroeder said as the drop ship lifted off and raced back to the LZ. “Let’s hope Wall and Roar were able to keep things under control while we were gone.”
“You don’t think your SpecCom people can handle the situation?” Gore asked.
“What? I told them to get on a drop ship as soon as support personnel were loaded and lifted,” Schroede
r said. “If they listened to me, then my SpecCom soldiers are on their way up to the Jethro.”
“Leaving the mechs to clean up what’s left,” Giga said. “Ain’t that always how it is.”
“Yep,” Schroeder said and laughed. “You poor babies!”
***
“Get in the drop ship, Morisaki!” Roar shouted down at the captain who was busy reloading a rifle with a new power magazine. “Have you lost your mind?”
“I am not leaving my LZ until I know it is clear!” Morisaki shouted back, powering up the rifle and taking aim at the fence line. “You are still here so the LZ is not clear! I stay!”
“You are certifiable!” Roar said and fired her KYAG at the thick waves of xenos that were about to take the energy fence down. “The MPT can’t be sent down until all other personnel are gone! That ship is going to pulverize this LZ and anyone, that means you, that is stupid enough to be standing out in the open!”
“What she said!” Wall yelled. ‘“Get in the drop ship!
“Wex? This is Morisaki! I order you to take off now!” Morisaki shouted over the comms. “Get those people off this planet!”
“You fool!” Roar yelled.
The drop ship took off without a word just as the energy fence began to flicker. But another drop ship quickly appeared over the trees and landed in the same spot. Gore and Giga jumped off as the rear ramp opened.
“Morisaki, you crazy bastard, get your ass in here!” Schroeder yelled from the ramp. “What in blue blazes were you even thinking?”
“My LZ, my choice!” Morisaki yelled back as he stomped his way to the ramp and up past Schroeder.
“That man needs his head checked,” Schroeder said as she leaned out of the drop ship and looked up at the mechs. “You got this?”
“We can hold until the MPT arrives,” Gore said. “Go. Get Chomps and Shock up there and checked out by Hella. Neither of them looked so good.”
“I can hear you, Gore,” Chomps said.
“Good,” Gore replied. “Then you know I’m serious. No fighting Hella. You let her check you over, babe.”