We were talking about its new upgraded weapon systems when a proximity alarm went off. Crossfire notified me of the direction the breech was in and we headed out. “Brother pilot, second checkpoint reached no sign of intruders.” Crossfire informed me.
“I’m not taking chances or getting caught with our pants down give me full power to all weapons.” Was my reply.
I watched as multiple power readings booted up to one hundred percent in no time at all. I have to say I was pleased with my choices on outfitting the Mecha. Multiple Blue Dragons, double Blossoming Beams, a couple Kaos Beams , even a Kanabo. I figured it was a big machine it needed big toys.
Crossfire hummed with the power up and gave me targeting systems feeds directly into my optical receptors. “Nothing in the immediate area is reading hostile or even showing up on sensors Brother”.
“Keep your sensors on a look out, full sweeps; I want every inch of this sector covered.”
A deep almost annoyed sounding rumble was my only answer from the machine. As we were sweeping the area we did notice minor fluctuations in the electromagnetic spectrum which suggested that some form of drop ship had been here, and recently.
Suddenly alerts started going off all over the place. I wheeled Crossfire around to get a better look at closest reading. I watched in fascination as three Regis , a Ammonite, and a Dilophos just seemed to come out of nowhere all marked with a modernized Jolly Roger marking them as pirate clan mecha..
“They can cloak?!” I yelled.
“It would seem so Brother pilot, may I suggest working on that target acquisition?"
I didn’t bother answering I just aimed at the nearest Mecha which was one of the Regis and opened fire almost point blank range with a Blue Dragon. It blew apart on the first hit. It’s two sister Mecha started to circle me. I grinned and had Crossfire stick its “arms” out to the sides pointing one gun arm to each Regis head, and pulled the trigger. Inbuilt damage accelerators made for two quick and easy crit - kills right there. I just smiled to myself as their heads exploded satisfyingly.
This was answered by fire from the Ammonite who struck our left flank with a Ferrite Storm and Steel Shower. The Fext grumbled in what almost sounded like pain when the shots hit.
“This one has annoyed me Brother let me make him go away.”
“Sure why the hell not go nuts and enjoy”, I answered him.
It turned to the left and faced our Ammonite opponent, then before I knew what was happening we got blasted from behind by the Dilophos. The shot connected just as Crossfire was opening up on the Ammonite, which caused our blasts to go wide but made a damned impressive hole in the canyon bluffs.
“Alright then together?” Crossfire asked me.
“Oh please do you can lead this time,” I smiled as I mentally disengaged the safety on the Fexts built in weapons. As I was doing this Crossfire brought all Kaos Beams around to the Ammonite and chewed him to pieces in a solid volley of light.
Immediately on the cease fire of those guns I turned Crossfire towards our last attacker in the Dilophos.
“You have two choices here, “I addressed the other Mecha,”You can power down and surrender or you can be blown away right here right now. Your choice.” I sat back waiting on the comm channel to squeak out anything but the static it had been this entire time.
Crossfire was becoming impatient as I noticed his power levels kept ramping up until about red line and then coming down again.
“Is this really necessary Brother? After all they are on our clan property, this makes them trespassers and they opened fire first which makes them the aggressors.”
I wasn’t able to answer him and tell him that no actually we had fired first they were just cloaked; also a prisoner is more valuable alive, because that is when the Dilophos decided to answer us. It had been biding its time and powering up its Kaos beams. I should have recognized the tactic I do it myself when piloting my Regis Jabberwocky, she packs the same weapons. Hell to be honest I love Kaos Beams and will put them on any beam thrower mecha.
It took us full on in the chest as well as forking itself to hit us from behind at the same time. My ears were ringing loudly from the multiple explosions that just hit us.
Pain shot through the neural bio fibers that allowed me to pilot. Crossfire roared at its opponent in a rage. That is when the enemy decided to turn tail and run.
“Tell me you do not want this waste of flesh and machinery for questioning any longer Brother please.”
I could have sworn that the Fext sounded like it had a case of wounded pride at the moment but I told him to go ahead and waste the thing, we didn’t need to take another hit like that again.
Crossfire opened up his arm ports which then started to glow a deep dark red, the power levels all dropped to center in on one weapon the Kanabo. I felt the Fext shudder and heard an enormous explosion, as the weapons fired multiple high velocity rounds with plasma charge explosive cores, and managed to piggy back all the shots in what would be the back of the Dilophos head, which was the cockpit.
It looked like a whole munitions dump went off as the Dilophos was literally ripped apart and shredded by the blasts. I laughed and hollered inside the Fext, it in turn seemed deeply satisfied that it had proved itself superior to what it considered to be inferior opponents.
I booted up the base comm channel reported in, gave our location and the location of the Mecha remains for scrap or salvage, and headed for home.
"Brother, next time perhaps we should call such things in before they happen or even while they are happening?, my Fext asked.
"Well I suppose we could, I mean if you feel you aren't up to it or maybe they are stronger than you," I chided him in a sarcastic but friendly tone.
Another deep rumble from inside the 100 ton machine was my only reply as we made the rest of our way back to base in silence. I swear damned Mechas need a sense of humor.
Submitted by Pat Willis#224534