So after the training run, we all got together to discuss the after action reports and the evaluations, but that night, nah, not that night. See, the Sergeant was shaking and sweating, and he was armed, and we'd never seen that before. And, he ordered that defense perimeters were to be mounted and manned until morning. That, well, that threw us. So, we were wondering, all, what the hell, Sarge? We all sat down by the really big and not usual fire, and he told us a story, and I'll never forget it, ever.
"Alright boys," he started, "Y'all done real good today, and the Major will be just as happy as can be when I report this training op. I see that y'all is wondering 'What's up with the Sarge?' Well boys, I'll tell ya. See, there's always been some weird shit mixed up with these here mechs, and some minds just can't deal real good with it. That's fine, and that's what this training is for like, to weed out the weak from the strong. But sometime, and we don't know why, but some of y'all mechs get to thinking for themselves, and if you act all stupid and start letting them take over, then they can."
We quietly reflected on that for bit. We'd heard, you know, stories about that, but we never thought it was real. You know, like a "you be careful and stay focused" story. But here was Sarge, telling us it was a thing, and it was real. That sunk in real deep. "So, anyway," he continued, "On this here planet, there's a mech running around. The mech's name is Pazuzu, and it's an Anzu. Y'all think you can take a tiny little chicken mech like an Anzu?"
We all laughed, because that's like nothing. Just an Anzu? "SHUT THE F@#* UP!" Sarge screamed. "This ain't like no Anzu you fools ever seen, and it's 10 times more fierce than you bunch of assholes." The Sarge got himself together and calmed down. "Sorry boys. I hate that we're here, and this has got me more nervous than a long tailed snavurm in room full of rocking chairs. See, I'm here to tell ya that near about 10 years ago, yeah, that's about right, see there was this other training squad doing near about the same as y'all. In that squad, was this real uppity cadet. 3rd year in the Academy, daddy was some Mr. Biggity Badass Division commander, and that little cadet thought he was a hot cannon in the cryo-chamber of Freon mech.
"See, but Pazuza, the Anzu, was a custom rig. Made for special deep recon ops, and the factory wanted it field tested. They'd put in all these fancy neural interfaces, and these deep brain crainium devices, and they wanted to see how it would do. Of course, Mr. My Daddy is your Boss cadet volunteers. The techs put him in, strapped him in, and hooked his little mind into a way overpowered mech. It was fine til near about the third or fourth day when Pazuzu was tasked to do covert insertion ops. Then, boys, then shit got real.
"What happened was that Pazuzu had a digitronic binary function brain. It could use a human brain to process and understand information and input, and then use it's CPU to determine the best way to proceed. So, this stupid cadet who knew entirely too much was being used by a mech that knew entirely too well how to deal with that, and boys, all Hell broke loose."
We got real quiet then. A rogue mech, just running around, knowing what we know, and being about to think about, and having some poor bastard strapped in like that? Damn. "So, when y'all toss to tonight, y'all be thinking real hard about how Pazuzu, the ancient spirit Demon of wind and lightning, the killer of women and children, was trained just like you boys. Oh, yeah, and just one more thing. Y'all recollect those weapons that you sometimes drop? Well, we don't pick them up, but you seen how they're never there? That ain't us getting those weapons. Sleep good, boys." In the end, my lazpistol still has my fingerprints embedded on it, and I've never like Anzu mechs since. And tomorrow, I'm taking a training squad to Tree World and no one's ever killed Pazuzu....
Submitted by Lee Sarde #775296