It would take a fair amount of power to hit them at precisely the right angle, and the AI used all his algorithms that would keep them safe while they raced into the heart of the battle.
A handful of rounds did manage to catch their armor but ricocheted away. There was the chance that they would strike someone else, but they would be left deformed after they bounced off the Minato and would lose most of their piercing power. While any of them might be lucky, the chances were, with the reduced speed and piercing power, they wouldn’t actually do much damage.
Mini kept them moving at a steady pace but not in a direct trajectory that would take them directly into the firing line. While the intention to use the weapon in tandem with their support function was a good one, she missed her first few shots as she tried to keep herself stable inside the mech.
"Would you like me to take over the shooting capabilities as well?" Mini asked and it sounded like he was a little sarcastic.
"Do you think you can keep us steady?" She growled her irritation and managed not to snap at the AI as they traversed the battlefield. Athena's warriors appeared to have determined the timing the Knights used and a couple of the larger, turret-based mechs began to line up at the rear. From this position, they coordinated their flurries of rockets perfectly to take advantage of the moments when Hammerhand's shield was down.
"I thought you might want to avoid being shot as a priority," Mini replied.
"Are you being sarcastic with me?" she demanded, her good intentions forgotten. "Right now? Really?"
"My apologies. I thought you might want some humor to defuse the tension of our current situation," he replied. "That can be postponed if preferred."
She felt a little bad about telling him to not engage his human-understanding software since it was exactly what made him such a unique AI. But honestly, there were times for experimental study and times for him to get his combat subroutines up and running.
Jessica13 chose to simply not reply and focused to place her shots a little more carefully. The rifle had a fifteen-round mag that took about three seconds to reload and a few quick alterations to the Minato allowed her to carry five more mags that were automatically reloaded from their slot in the arm.
It seemed she’d subconsciously adjusted to Mini’s erratic movements as she fired a couple of rounds that both found their targets. She wasn't able to see if they managed to do any significant damage as Hammerhand's shield was restored and the Knights surged to attack the few of Athena's forces that had managed to get through. Their numbers increased now that they had improved their timing, and they would begin to push in harder.
It wouldn’t be long before the defenders would have to begin a retreat from their current position and fall back to the secondary defense points. She didn’t have much personal experience but if any of her somewhat random reading on how battle structures worked could be relied on, retreats were bound to be the point in battles where the most could go wrong. Positions needed to be adjusted effectively so those who retreated could be covered by people who were hopefully already in position.
Hammerhand would be the last one to withdraw, of course. That was the job he had taken by assuming the forward position and there was no indication from the man that he was anything other than ready for it. Jessica13 wouldn’t tell him about the dangers, obviously, since he probably knew them better than she did, but she would try to help and cover him if she needed to.
She moved in beside the Raptor while Mini kept them low so they wouldn’t be accidentally targeted by one of the enemy. Quickly, she inserted the new rockets into the slot that would take them into the firing mechanism of the mech.
A quick ping from the pilot expressed his thanks as he fired another volley.
Hammerhand's shield was down, and the rockets turned five of the mechs that attempted to pass him into scrap metal. She counted at least a dozen coming through, however. Most of them were Lancers, but two Cinders followed quickly and moved uncharacteristically subtly to avoid being targeted first.
Their ploy seemed to work. Most of the shooting was directed at the Lancers, which left the two Cinders unhindered. They took advantage of their position near Hammerhand's ankles to fire a couple of flechettes into the legs of the massive Excalibur, hoping to find a weakness they could exploit.
There was none, and they immediately proceeded to spark their throwers.
"We need to help him!" she shouted, not sure who would be able to hear her over the cacophony of the battle around them. She couldn't even hear herself, and the Knights were busy holding the Lancers back while the flames crept up to Hammerhand's knees.
"Shit." She hissed her frustration. Mini had already anticipated her needs and quickly shifted onto all fours as she slapped the rifle onto her back again.
Jessica13 knew the AI would take control and put them in motion now, and all she could really do was brace herself since the damn inertia dampeners were still out of sync with the rest of the mech.
The Minato moved smoothly and sidled around the combat to keep them out of it. They evaded the Lancers that began to push toward the Raptor in an attempt to prevent it from being able to eliminate the front ranks that drove forward.
Mini took them quickly to the other side. Hammerhand was intent on keeping the shield up and pushing back despite the fact that he was attacked from below. None of the other Knights were able to reach him to help.
Except her, she reminded herself. It was odd how she still had difficulty thinking of herself as one of the Knights.
"Do you have any idea what we can do against two Cinder mechs?" the AI asked as they came out of Bulletfoot mode.
"Keep us moving," she said.
"I can't help but note that you haven't answered the question," he persisted.
She didn't know what she would do, which was why she hadn’t answered the question, but she did have a basic idea of how to destroy the mechs. The only issue was that if she blew them up so close to Hammerhand's position, she wouldn’t be able to contain it. They might cause damage to the Excalibur that they hadn’t been able to accomplish in their attack.
"We'll have to be creative," Jessica13 said, yanked her rifle clear of the mag clamp on her back, and looked around for an opening for her to shoot. Hammerhand moved his feet in an effort to knock the Cinders away, which didn't do any damage. It was, however, enough to keep them occupied and they barely noticed her.
She pulled her grappler up, kept it connected to the dart, and pulled the trigger to fire it quickly while still on the move.
The dart embedded itself in the back of one of the Cinders' shoulders and she braced as the retractor began to pull. The first tug drew her closer instead of hauling the mech away, but when she leaned back and put the full weight of the Minato behind it, the Cinder finally began to tip and lost its balance while the AI inside tried to compensate. There wasn't much it could do, however, and she held her breath until it finally toppled heavily onto its back.
The other Cinder turned to see what had happened and swung the thrower and the flechette gun to aim at her while it maintained the same position. Its feet were set for maximum balance against the power of the weapons it fired.
"Engaging evasive maneuvers," Mini announced and shifted rapidly in place. The first round of flechettes hammered into the side of the Minato. None of them pierced the armor but a few were embedded and pushed Mini's balance off a little until he managed to engage the rest of the mech. A tongue of flame lashed out at them as he crouched but she could still feel the heat of it, even from inside.
It was instinct more than anything that made her pull the trigger on her rifle and she was almost surprised by the kick as the round fired. Pure luck or her recently discovered instinct delivered a round inside the Cinder's armor, where it caught one of the large gas tanks on its back.
A second ticked by as a series of chain reactions sparked after the round broke the containment of the fuel for the thrower. Then, in a bright flash of white light, it erupte
d across the mech and the force hurled Jessica13 onto her back.
"Shit!" she shouted and struggled to pull the Minato onto its feet.
The Excalibur reacted quickly to the sudden heat around it and released a cloud of steam from its cooling vents. The explosion did far more damage than Jessica13 had thought it would, especially to the fallen Cinder, and while the armor kept Hammerhand mostly intact, there appeared to be enough damage for him to finally have to address it. Sections of his armor were still ablaze, even with the steam rushing around it.
She managed to stand although she still struggled somewhat with the off-kilter balancing systems, disengaged the air gun from the dart, and used the blasts to put the fire on Hammerhand's armor out.
It worked, even though she needed to try it a couple of times before the flames around his legs and ankles were finally extinguished, although it had spread slightly into the trees and shrubbery around them.
"Are you all right?" she asked over the comms. "I don’t see much external damage from here, but you might want to run some diagnostics."
A moment of silence followed over the line.
"I have some heating problems," Hammerhand finally answered and sounded strained. "The shield won't hold like this for much longer. We need to get back to the secondary position. Prepare to fall back. Repeat, all Knights, prepare to fall back."
Jessica13 didn't want to leave the man alone but it was an order. She could see that Athena's fighters had been dealt with and the Knights hastily gathered what could be snatched in an instant before the Raptor uprooted from its defensive position and began to move back.
"Now, Jessie!" Hammerhand roared and startled her into action. She gave the nearby fires another hasty blast of air before she jogged away to join the others.
Chapter Thirty-Three
As she had anticipated, Hammerhand was the last to withdraw. His shield was overheating and there was more internal damage than she had actually realized, which meant he suddenly struggled to hold Athena's men back. A few of them began to attack the hedgehogs that protected his flanks rather than the shield itself. He held his position for as long as he dared before he dropped the shield and pulled away.
He wasn't about to retreat without a parting gift, however. A small group of invaders rushed forward, expecting some kind of victory, but the Excalibur stopped suddenly and drew all eyes to the hammer that arced lethally from above. Two of the Lancers weren't able to pull away when the others scrambled to do so.
They were conveniently positioned one directly behind one another and the weapon crushed them both with ease to leave nothing but scrap metal where they had stood.
Thin trails of pale white smoke issued when the Raptor launched a series of rockets once it was set up again for combat. The small group of Knights stood around it for protection. The two long-distance shooters from the Knights opened fire. It didn't take much to acquire a good target as Athena's men were thoroughly bunched in the confined space.
The hope had been that they could plug the hole with broken mechs, but while the strategy was sound, it made no allowance for the determination of the enemy. They simply plowed through and over the fallen and while their passage was temporarily slowed, it wasn’t delayed sufficiently. Jessica13 fell back and reloaded her rifle quickly before she did what she could to hinder them a little more.
As had been the case with the earlier battle, the Raptor dealt most of the damage and fired volley after volley of rockets to destroy as many of the mechs that surged toward them as possible.
Once the enemy were out of the funnel, however, it became more and more difficult to target them in larger numbers. They were able to spread out and take proper combat positions to advance on the town of Auburn.
Jessica13 glanced briefly at the Knights, who stood their ground despite the fact that they were outnumbered. It seemed almost ludicrous that they could stand and wait so calmly for their attackers. That kind of courage wouldn’t be found anywhere else, especially since they rallied in defense of someone else's home.
She had no idea what would happen to them, but at least they were fighting for something that mattered.
Their courage helped to quell her fear as she grasped the weapon in her hand and tried to steel herself against the sight of the advancing army. Rather than dwell on the overwhelming odds, she focused on identifying the more vulnerable mechs and continued to fire as many rounds as she could to keep up with the advance of their attackers.
"You have to be careful or you'll run out of bullets," Mini pointed out.
"What the hell else would you have me do?" she snapped.
"Maybe play the role this mech was meant to," the AI suggested.
She sighed because she knew he was right but didn’t want to admit it as she peeled away from the Knight's line and one of the Sherlocks stepped into the hole she left behind. The enlisted support mechs worked to keep the combat mechs around them supplied, and Jessica13 was surprised to see that large groups of the Auburn townsfolk did the same. A couple had even taken control of any enemy mechs they could once the pilots were killed and had prepared for combat.
The enemy Lancers closed the distance quickly and opened fire both on the Knights and the buildings around them. It appeared that they wanted to cause as much damage and destruction as possible and pushed forward so violently that the fighting devolved into something of a perverse melee.
Hammerhand's shield came up here or there to intercept the heavier attacks, but he was soon involved in the battle. He took a step away from the Knights to gain the space he needed to allow him to swing his hammer without fear of catching any of his people.
The invaders took heavy losses but continued relentlessly and attacked with a kind of recklessness that showed a determination for victory that was no doubt motivated by thoughts of Athena’s wrath and displeasure should they fail.
They outnumbered the Knights significantly and even with the losses, there were simply too many of them.
Jessica13 did as Mini suggested. Her instincts told her to be in the middle of the fighting to help where she could, but Windchime's warnings still rang in her head. If she charged head-first into a fight like this, they would literally be torn to pieces.
No, the best she could do was let them disregard her as a support mech for the moment, take her shots when she could, and always stay on the move to help others to maintain their higher rate of firepower.
It was painful to watch, especially when the Lancers attempted to swarm onto the Raptor. The rockets continued to fire, found their targets, and annihilated them, but they were close enough to climb without being in range of the missiles.
A Predator stepped among them and she gasped, certain that it was one of Athena’s that had come to finish what the enemy mechs had started with its chainsword. The attacking mechs obviously thought the same, as they stepped back to give it space to work. Instead, however, it swung the weapon at the closest Lancer, thrust the blade into the cockpit, and carved through the armor until she could hear the screams from inside. The weapon found the pilot and was suddenly covered in red.
Her initial fear dissolved into a slightly hysterical laugh when she realized that the Predator was piloted by what was most likely an Auburn resident. The mech had obviously been one of those retrieved during the battle and thankfully, was still in good enough condition to do its lethal work.
It swung toward the next Lancer and one of the Cinders moved alongside. Between them, they managed to deliver a concerted attack that either destroyed the enemy or drove them back and away from the Raptor, which had barely noticed the mayhem and its close call.
"Shit!" she shouted with a brief surge of exultation and used the moment of confusion to fire at the scattered invaders. She managed to land a couple of effective shots and kill two of the pilots and the mechs jerked and staggered as the AIs tried to take control.
A small group of townsfolk raced from one of the nearby buildings and she gaped as they ducked and dodged toward the m
echs she had partially disabled. Their appearance was both sudden and unexpected as she would have thought that any that had elected not to join the battle initially would be hunkered in the assumed protection of their homes.
It was the kind of action that usually went unnoticed in a fight like this, where most of the attention was drawn to the larger mechs shooting at each other and tiny, squishy humans who weren't in mechs were mostly ignored. The assumption was that they would be killed by stray fire or explosions that hurled shrapnel everywhere and so needed no real attention.
While that was a real danger, these people seemed not to care. With no apparent thought to the danger they might be in, they scrambled hastily onto the mechs, worked together to pry them open, and climbed inside before they closed it again.
The mech fell silent and didn’t move at all now, despite having a new pilot. Unfortunately, Jessica13 couldn't remain where she was to watch the saga unfold and turned her attention to the battle around her. Maybe they were trying to work out how to operate it or possibly find a way to remove the dead body. Sure enough, when she turned once again to glance hastily in that direction, the hatch opened and a mangled corpse was shoved out.
She smiled as she continued to move through the battlefield to deliver ammo and supplies to those Knights who called for it. The unusual incident remained in her mind, though, and she realized that a number of other mechs merely stood unmoving while the combat ebbed and flowed around them. She had claimed a few of them and others showed signs that the pilot had been killed either through a hard external impact or by a bullet from another long-distance shooter.
But instead of an AI having taken control where the pilot was no longer capable of it, they remained absolutely still like they were powered down. She wondered how many of them had an Auburn pilot inside.
Bulletfoot One Page 45
