Bulletfoot One

by Marshall Rust

  "I have to say, you have more fight in you than most bunker rats," he said and laughed derisively. "That's not saying much, mind. Most of you pathetic excuses for breathers tend to lay down and die. It doesn't really matter since it'll end the same way for you. It'll only last a little longer.”

  Jessica13 paid no attention and continued to drag herself up to the Minato.

  "Feel like dying in your mech?" the leader asked. He walked over to her and made the ground shake with every step of the heavy mech. "I can respect that, I suppose. We can take it apart with you still alive inside. It doesn't really matter. I think my boys actually prefer to have a squishy inside the mechs they pull apart."

  She still made no reply. There was no way she would give the asshole the satisfaction of thinking he had rattled her. The horrible truth was indisputable. She had lost and there was no way to get around that. But they wouldn’t break her spirit. She would believe they could get out of this until her very last breath.

  Something caught her eye in the distance, and she narrowed her eyes to focus on it. A gleam of green light moved and definitely look like a mech, but it was too far away for her to be sure. It made little difference if it signaled the approach of reinforcements, so she ignored it in the same way she ignored the jeers and laughter from those assembled.

  Fuck them. Fuck the pirates.

  She stretched up, caught the jagged edges of the Minato, and winced when the steel cut into her fingers. Blood seeped from beneath her fingers but she ignored the pain, hauled herself into the cockpit, and settled in with a soft sob.

  "I'm so sorry," Mini said and the speakers crackled with interference as more alarms now blared inside despite the fact that there was no HUD to tell her what the problems were. "I failed you. I was supposed to get you clear of the danger and help you in your quest to save the people in the bunker and contact the Knights Mechanica, and…I failed you. I'm so sorry."

  "You don't owe me any apologies," Jessica13 said. She tried to fight back a cough that constricted her lungs and moved the radio to where she could fiddle with it and maybe send one last emergency message. "You did everything you could and more. You got me farther than any other AI could have done. For that, I can only thank you. It was my recklessness that got us in this mess in the first place. I thought I could help on my own like I was some kind of hero. There's not much else to say."

  She continued to fiddle with the radio while Mini processed her words. There was still the chance she could get the message out. The Knights were out there somewhere, and even if they couldn't save her, they could still save the people in the bunker.

  "Your compliment is appreciated," he replied after the pause. "Your appreciation for a compliment from me is an unknown factor but know that I consider you a hero. You saved me. And tried to save others, to whom you owed nothing."

  That teased a small smile from her and she patted the side of the mech. "Your compliment is appreciated."

  Jessica13 activated the radio again, coughed, and cleared her throat before she focused on the Balthazar that now moved in to finish her off once and for all.

  Fuck them. She stared at the barrel of the assault rifle that was aimed at her and keyed the broadcast button as her mind went back to the five words that had stuck with her for some reason.

  "Live free or die hard, motherfuckers!" she shouted as loudly as her lungs could make it, closed her eyes, and waited for the inevitable end. She wouldn’t die cowering but she didn't need to watch.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Her mind had already accepted the finality of it. She hadn't really expected to go out like this. It wasn’t like she intended to end up there, waiting for death from the barrel of a powerful assault rifle aimed at her head, but in all honesty, there were worse ways to die. At least this way, it would be quick. Almost instantaneous, she reassured herself.

  Jessica13 took a deep breath and waited, and her body flinched instinctively.

  The earth shuddered violently and a thunderous boom assaulted her ears. She was knocked deeper into the mech and sucked in a deep breath she immediately regretted. A mouthful of dust triggered a fit of violent coughing.

  Which beat being dead, she supposed.

  One eye opened and then the other when she realized she wasn't quite dead and from the looks of it, something had happened to stay her execution for the moment. The barrel of the assault rifle was still visible but it now pointed away from her and aimed upward, which made it look like the arm that held it was pressed into the ground.

  The dust began to clear, and after a few more coughs, she tried to wave some of the dust away from her face to see more clearly.

  A mech stood at the base of the pile of rubble and she gaped at the sight of it. Painted bright green, it was the same one she'd seen earlier and thought it had been one of the pirate reinforcements. It seemed impossible that it had reached her so quickly.

  There were scores of carvings cut directly into the green paint. She was too far away to see what they actually were but the silver beneath was clearly visible. Vents hissed steam from both the rocket behind the hammer as well as the hips of the massive mech as it straightened to compensate for the impossible weight of something that large. Even more improbable were a couple of banners hung from the shoulder pauldrons in the same green as the mech but a little brighter somehow. These displayed a group of lettering she couldn’t understand painted in red and silver.

  Flames still surrounded the rocket pack it carried on its back, powerful enough to launch it into space if what she’d seen about mechs that size was true. They framed it in what looked like wings of flame and smoke as it adjusted its position.

  The dust continued to clear and the pirate Lancers came into focus. They still stood nearby and had apparently been joined by a considerable number of others, and she realized that the newcomer must have jumped from one of the nearby buildings. It had no doubt used the power of its landing as well as the rocket behind the massive hammer it held to completely flatten the Balthazar and the man inside it. Only most of the arm and the assault rifle next to it seemed unscathed.

  "Impossible," she whispered and pushed herself out of the mech to confirm what she was looking at.

  Jessica13 had read about Excalibur-class mechs before but only a handful had ever made it out of the manu plants before the war began and destroyed the factories. At least, that was what she had read.

  But, large as fucking life, one now stood in front of her and damned if she didn’t believe it was the most powerful mech ever built. The pirate Lancers that had dwarfed her Minato were in turn dwarfed by the massive form that towered over them and lifted its heavy hammer from where it had flattened the Balthazar like a fucking pancake.

  The weapon all but confirmed to her mind who piloted the mech. It could only be Hammerhand of the Knights Mechanica.

  The mech took a step that made the ground shudder and looked at her.

  "Good thinking!" The thick voice boomed through the massive outside speakers loudly enough to burst her eardrums. Dust was shaken from the buildings surrounding them and a group of birds took flight, probably thinking their homes were about to collapse.

  Her ears were still ringing but she raised her thumb at the gigantor.

  "Thank you!" she shouted in response, unsure if the pilot had heard her.

  Still, it wasn't like he really needed any input from her. He had his own problems to deal with as the Lancers came out of the stupor they had been thrust into when a mech the size of smaller buildings descended from the sky and crushed their leader into paste. It was the kind of thing that required a moment to think about.

  They now fired their weapons at the cockpit and tried to find a weak place but nothing penetrated, and the Excalibur swung the hammer once again. A jet fired from the back to power it earthward almost impossibly fast with a thunderous crash. The blow flattened one of the Lancers in much the same way the leader had met his end.

  Hammerhand wasn't alone, Jessica13 suddenly realize
d. Another group of mechs had arrived—members of the Knights Mechanica, she assumed. Their mechs appeared to be in good shape—fighting shape, as A7 had been fond of saying—although a couple of them had a few bits and pieces that didn't fit their model types.

  Two Nordicgear mechs—one a tall, fast Sherlock and the other a squat Watson to back it up—both wore the same green banners on their shoulders. They lurched in front of Hammerhand to take advantage of the opening the falling hammer had given them and advanced on the pirates. The Sherlock picked up the fallen Lancer's chain sword and leapt smoothly over the Lancers around it.

  It was almost possible to forget that it was a ten-ton mech that stood a good five feet taller than the Minato when it moved like that.

  The chain sword flashed and a shower of sparks erupted in all directions as it attacked. The weapon slashed smoothly at anything close enough while the rifle the mech carried selected its shots to fire into the openings the sword created. The deliberate, coordinated assault felled the mechs quickly and efficiently.

  Those that weren't eliminated suddenly experienced issues and seemed to have difficulty staying upright. The Watson moved through the distracted pirates and consistently fired the filaments from the needler it carried. Each one delivered the kind of electrical charge that could kill a human on direct impact.

  For the mechs, though, their electronics would experience fifteen different kinds of problems, as enough of the filaments could fry a mech’s electronics for good.

  The Watson had no real interest in permanently disabling anything and seemed content to distract as many of the pirates as possible to support the Sherlock that did most of the real damage.

  The hammer swept into another powerful blow that pounded another couple of mechs under the weight of the strike while the ground shuddered from the force of it.

  Jessica13 had difficulty taking it all in. The Knights Mechanica surged onto the offensive as a group and seemed to deliver their deadly attacks almost without effort. While she’d been otherwise occupied, enemy reinforcements had, in fact, arrived and the pirates outnumbered her rescuers, but it didn't seem to matter. They were apparently too afraid to take advantage of their number superiority and chose not to put themselves in the path of the hammer that swung relentlessly whenever an opportunity presented itself.

  She climbed out of the cockpit, stood on top of the Minato, and watched the fight as she and her mech were forgotten by both the pirates and Knights alike. The combatants appeared to be thoroughly engaged in wreaking destruction on one another.

  "Mini, do you see this?" she asked, almost breathless, and ducked when a few stray rounds ricocheted near her.

  "Most of my sensors have been damaged and those that are functional appear to be malfunctioning," he replied but still sounded as calm and collected as ever. "Are we experiencing an earthquake? Maybe Skyfall near our location?"

  "Not really," Jessica13 said and slid into the cockpit with a groan. She attempted to fix some of the broken electrical equipment inside the Minato that might allow it to move again. "It's the Knights. They're fighting the pirates and one of them is piloting an Excalibur-class mech. With a fucking rocket-powered hammer."

  The ground shuddered again as if to emphasize what she had said.

  "That is odd," Mini said. "My data banks might be malfunctioning from the damage, but the data I have would indicate that only a handful ever made it off of the production line."

  "That was what I heard too," she said with a weak laugh. "As it turns out, there's one Hammerhand got his hands on, no pun intended, and he's earned the nickname too. That hammer of his turned the Balthazar into fucking paste."

  "Another malfunction, possibly, but I think I would have liked to see that," Mini said as she brought a few of the electronics back to life.

  Jessica13 laughed again. She simply felt the need to laugh now, for some reason. Like the bright and beautiful world around her had somehow become brighter and more beautiful. "I think I would have liked to see that too. Unfortunately, I thought I was about to have my head shot off so I closed my eyes and missed the whole thing. But seeing the result was gratifying enough."

  There was no HUD but there was still life to be had in the Minato. She would need to clear the rubble that still held its limbs trapped but there was no real way she could help the Knights in the fighting without a mech of her own.

  "Oh, and for the record, Mini, wanting to see a pirate asshole eat shit will never be considered a malfunction to my eyes," she said before she hauled herself from inside the cockpit.

  "Noted," Mini said. "I will add that to my databanks as well. Assuming they haven't been corrupted in the damage."

  She stayed as low as she could and grimaced at the reality that her body still ached from the damage it had taken. The fighting had moved away from her for now, but stray bullets and pieces of shrapnel from explosives as well as the massive hammer were a reason for caution. It meant that if she stood, she was likely to be caught and killed accidentally by a stray projectile. She began to remove the rubble from Mini’s arms.

  While it was slow work, it was better than waiting for something bad to come their way.

  Jessica13 looked up when more explosives detonated around them and made it difficult to focus on her work. A handful of the pirate Lancers remained and attempted to slow the Knights, while the remainder looked like they were beating a hasty retreat. They’d obviously had way more reinforcements than she had first noticed, and she assumed they had been lurking in the nearby buildings or had been close by.

  With a mech that stood thirty feet tall and swung a hammer that could flatten them with one stroke, she really couldn’t blame them for choosing flight over fight.

  But they’d return when the coast was clear, and she wouldn't leave Mini behind to be scavenged.

  "They retreat but do not surrender!" Hammerhand boomed to the Knights who fought beside him. "Like roaches, they pull back to strengthen themselves and then try to rise again. It is our duty, my Knights, to crush each and every one of them until they realize there is still honor to be found in these wild lands!"

  The other Knights raised their weapons and cheered. Jessica13 couldn't help but feel inspired herself by the words. While his terminology did feel a little antiquated, the spirit behind it was something that couldn't be ignored. It was as if he was a physical embodiment of what it was to be a member of the Knights Mechanica.

  And there was also the fact that the man piloted a mech that could literally crush the pirates like the roaches and pests they were. He didn't even need the hammer for that, although it did help a great deal. She thought he could probably lift a boot and stamp them to death if he didn't feel like swinging the weapon.

  The other Knights gathered again and the pirates huddled nearby, mostly piloting Lancers that were barely held together and in a condition much worse than those she had seen before.

  Maybe the few that had followed the Balthazar were an elite unit and those who remained were only the grunts who had managed to piece something together that could only barely be classified as mechs.

  Stupidly, they seemed to believe they had an advantage since they had the greater numbers and charged forward, shooting and spinning their chain swords as they advanced.

  Hammerhand was, predictably, at the front of his troop. He raised his hammer in the air like some kind of symbol to the rest of his fighters to stand by him, come hell or high water. Suddenly, the rocket on the other end of the weapon activated and launched it into an arc that made landfall hard enough to shake the ground to the point that Jessica13 wasn't sure how the buildings didn’t collapse.

  She covered her head when a few pieces of debris plummeted but thankfully, that was all. The blow had struck close to the pirates, though, and made a couple of them stumble and fall.

  "It’s probably only bad hydraulics," she said, more to herself than her AI.

  "It is interesting to note that the impact of the hammer with the ground causes a seismic event
that registers at 2.3 on the Richter scale," Mini told her as she continued her work to clear the rubble.

  She had no idea what a Richter scale was but she assumed it was impressive. "All I know is that I wouldn't trade places with those pirates for all the best mechs in all the world."

  Chapter Seventeen

  As much as Jessica13 wanted to continue to free the Minato from under the rubble, it was almost impossible not to watch the battle as it unfolded. Despite the fact that she knew flesh and blood piloted the mechs, something like awe came over her.

  She'd heard of the Knights before, of course. Peddlers had told tales of watching them fight and said it was reminiscent of watching the battles when the planet was how it used to be.

  Damned if they weren’t right, although she wasn't sure how they would know about how battles were conducted in the past.

  The earth shuddered every time the Excalibur touched down and it advanced on the pirates who were, for some reason, pushing into the attack rather than running the hell away.

  Jessica13 looked at the top of one of the buildings when she caught the movement of three individual mechs that seemed to be attempting to find a position from which to strike from the flank—or maybe an angle that would allow them to fire at the massive mech on the ground without being hit themselves. The chances were that one blow would be all Hammerhand needed anyway.

  A Cinder and a couple of Lancers jumped from their position on the building and abandoned the high ground in favor of a surprise attack.

  Hammerhand looked up, saw them approach, and raised his left hand. He held something large and square-shaped in the massive fingers.

  A loud crack preceded the sudden smell of ozone as a blue layer, almost a film, emerged from the square contraption and expanded into the area around it to form a rectangle that almost matched the size of the mech that held it.