The jungle was so thick it’s canopy cut off almost all the
sunlight even though it was high noon on this god forsaken planet. I struggled
to keep my dry, salt crusted eyes open to pick my way carefully through the
less dense areas of vegetation with my battered mech. I have been awake now for
52 hours and my fatigue fogged brain was not responding much to stims any more.
For the thousandth time, I wiped my view screen with my soaked sleeve in the
vain effort to better see what was in front of me. The humidity on this rock
was oppressive and my air con had packed it in 7 hours ago making the air in my
cockpit so thick with water vapor you could just about swim in it.
This was supposed to be a fast bounty collection on a pirate
band that has been raiding some crystal farms for the last few weeks. The
farmers pooled the cash they had left and posted a bounty on the pirates in the
hopes someone would help deal with the scum. The pirates were only supposed to
be using medium tonnage mechs. A few Oggs and Holms only. I was given the
mission because I am good at thinking on my feet and used to running solo
operations so the rest of the clan could take on a larger mission. You always
count on the fact that your intel is never as good as you would like but this
time things hit a new low. The farmers fudged the information on what mechs the
pirates were using. I guess they figured if they told the truth no one would
show up to help them with what they could afford to pay. When I first made
contact with the enemy and learned the truth I was so glad I had selected my
trusty Dilo “Ace in the Hole” for this mission. I was up against 3 Infernos and
a Fext!
The pirates tried to use their flame weapons to box me in so
the slow Fext could have an easy time hitting me with its massive laser
weapons. My Dilo was kitted out special servos to greatly increase my agility
and response time. This will help keep me alive while I wait for my upgraded
targeting scanners to find the weaker spots on the pirates so I could land the
crit hits I would need to survive this encounter. I fired my Galaxy Eye lasers
as fast as they would cycle on the Infernos disrupting their efforts to pin me
down. Dodging the laser fire from the Fext my targeting scanners picked the
Infernos off one at a time until it was just me and the monster left. My Dilo
had suffered damage from too many close calls dodging the massive laser fire
from the Fext. My com unit, tactical map display and air con were out of operation.
I turned and faced the Fext and charged towards it trying to quickly close the
distance between us while running what I hoped was random enough zig-zag
evasive pattern. I held my fire to keep the guns fully charged and cool while
the targeting scanners did their job. Running under the Fexts legs while
avoiding getting stepped on I finally heard that joyful buzzing tone that meant
I had a solid lock on a vulnerable area. My scanners had found an exposed fuel
line on the back-left shoulder area and I mashed my trigger and fired
everything I had. The Fext’s chest erupted with tongues of flame as the fuel
cells burned killing the pirate who piloted it. It shuddered as it came to a
halt but it did not fall over. I figured I would leave it standing there as a
warning to any other pirates who might think about hurting these crystal farms
in the future.
Now I just had to stay awake long enough to triangulate the
radio signal on the landing beacon so I could find the landing zone so I could
get out of here. Finally, after 56 hours on this hell hole of a planet I burst
into the clearing with the landing beacon. It did not take me long to climb
down from my mech and change the signal on the beacon to let the drop ship know
I was here. Time for some well earned rest.