Bulletfoot One
Page 47
It took her a full minute and a handful of accurate shots to register the tactic they had quickly adopted. The men who piloted the mechs didn't want to be blown the hell up and neither did they want to run headlong into the rounds that eliminated them by the dozen. Those who were already dead, however, had no real use other than to clear a path through the explosives. It was both logical and inevitable, and all the Knights did was speed up the process.
The other defenders opened fire on the group that reached the clear path that had been made through the hedgehogs and pushed toward the town without delay. The lines were closing again, and she knew her role in it.
As much as she wanted to continue doing her part in the fighting, she knew her role as a bulletfoot was far more meaningful to the group as a whole. She wasn't in this for herself but was there to help others.
It was a difficult decision to come to but once made, it became easier to back away from the group that kept the lighter mechs at bay and she rushed to join the support team. The townsfolk in their commandeered mechs seemed to have settled into the role surprisingly well.
The lightning continued its staccato bursts with unnatural regularity and each strike made the ground shudder with ear-shattering rumbles that could be felt even through the mech. Jessica13 scowled at the sky and wished the damn balloons were in range—although Athena had no doubt taken a ground attack into account. She pushed her frustration aside, grateful that they at least had protection in the form of the towers, and continued to move. There was a routine to her task that came easily, despite the challenges of having to carry the crates to the front where all the fighting took place and immediately return for more.
Trudging through the mud was slower than she was used to, but it at least appeared to slow the enemy mechs as well, which made them easier to target and eliminate or disable. A couple of Balthazars elevated to hover above the battlefield and fire on those below.
For the most part, she could tell that armor would be more relevant than mobility in a battle like this, and while they had the advantage of the Excalibur on their side, a few Guardians marched through the trees to join the front lines and their plasma rounds already impacted solidly with Hammerhand's shield.
Armor like that wouldn’t be easy to pierce.
Jessica13 delivered the ammo she had collected and turned quickly to join the group that targeted the lighter mechs. These had finally navigated through the minefield and the hedgehogs and began to rush at the sharpshooters. The intention was clear, of course. Athena had likely noted the casualties that had been suffered thanks to them and had put the lighter mechs in place to engage them, keep them occupied, and kill them while the rest of the battle progressed without their help.
It was an excellent strategy, and there was little the Knights could do to adjust for it. The Sherlocks moved quickly and maintained fire to slow their attackers, but it wasn't long before two Predators surged into their ranks with their chainswords ready to cut through the light armor and find the pilots beneath.
Jessica13 managed to shoot one before he could begin his assault and the mech suddenly slowed.
Surprisingly, a Watson lurched in front of the other and fired a series of electric filaments that quickly electrocuted it into submission. The wiring inside sizzled dramatically and left it a smoking husk that collapsed within moments.
The pilot of the Watson seemed almost surprised by the efficacy of its attack but hastily reloaded the filament shooter as it turned to find another target.
Lightning flashed suddenly and the booming roar of thunder reverberated across the battlefield. Jessica13 ducked and instinctively put her hands behind her neck.
When the flash faded and the roar moved away, a hasty check confirmed that she and the Minato were intact, although the light and sound filters still struggled to cope.
The Watson, however, had been flung aside by a bolt of lightning that blew its intended target to pieces. It was pure dumb luck that the enemy mech had surged forward and pushed the defender back to avoid its attack, effectively taking its place in the firing line. Only a few signs remained of the main chassis, and those she could identify were a smoking wreck, useless even as scrap metal.
"Shit!" Tinker shouted. "I thought that was supposed to be avoided with those towers that you put up."
That comment was directed at her, and Jessica13 turned to see why the towers now allowed bolts through. The cause was immediately apparent, and she couldn’t believe she hadn't seen it before. A light emanated from the wiring that had been set up to connect the improvised towers and glowed bright white all the way down to the cores they had used to connect and ground them all.
It resembled a spider web stretched across the entire town and made it look like hundreds of different threads spread between them as arcs of electricity jumped from one wire to the other.
She wasn't sure what was happening, but it seemed like the power that was gathered by the towers somehow spread outward and fed into the rest of the wiring.
Her brain insisted it was impossible and yet, there it was, right in front of her. The whole town was illuminated by the power collected by what was supposed to attack them.
Either way, it seemed as though what was stored in the wiring directed itself back to the towers, which made them less viable to draw the lightning to them. A couple of bolts struck the ground as Hammerhand took advantage of a moment clear of fighting and looked at the balloons above him. They weren’t as high as they had been earlier, and she wasn’t sure if this was a good or a bad thing. Lower meant they might be within range, but it also meant they could have moved to be within range to attack.
The one in the lead was heavily armored, which accounted for the slow pace, but those that brought up the rear were less protected. She narrowed her eyes and focused, and was finally able to see a couple of weak places in the armor and even where the chambers themselves were exposed.
Hammerhand stared into the sky as a couple of bolts struck the Excalibur and made it shudder, but it looked like most of the energy was quickly transferred into the ground. Startled, she looked more closely and realized that he had pulled up a couple of grapplers on his right arm and aimed them skyward.
She realized that Tinker stood beside him and had worked to attach the weapons to his arm while the Knights’ leader had defended them both. She doubted that raising his shield would have done much to suppress the high-energy attacks of the lightning and even though it looked like the suit was designed to transfer the energy into the ground as quickly as it struck, it was only a matter of time until a bolt burned something out and caused a short that impacted the rest of the mech.
The Knight continued to aim above his head while the mechanic worked frantically. It appeared as though he attempted to ground the Excalibur further to protect it from additional strikes as the first of the grapplers was launched. There was no cable attached to the dart, but the weapon fired quickly, soared above them, and pounded into the balloon that trailed far to the left.
The impact of the dart seemed to have no effect at first, but as the chamber ruptured, it began to lose altitude—slowly, at first, but it gained speed, drifting toward the ground, and dragged a couple of the others it was tethered to with it.
Hammerhand lowered his arm to let Tinker reload the darts since his mech appeared to have no reloading mechanism of its own. The two men seemed to work well together, and it was easy to discern that they had been forced to do so more than once in the past.
Jessica13 turned away suddenly as another flash seared into the ground, close enough to her that it made her sensors panic and throw red lights up as a warning before they settled. She blinked to ease a blind spot in her vision and focused on the area where the lightning had struck. Her heart sank and a sick feeling settled into her gut.
Tinker stumbled and finally fell on his back. Various sections of his mech were on fire. He was quick to eject once it was down and used an emergency booster to remove the cockpit from the chassis. It
splattered through the mud and he climbed out, looking a little the worse for wear.
The most significant damage appeared to have been dealt to Hammerhand, however. The mech was frozen in place and she could only imagine that hundreds of malfunctions skittered through the mech's hardware and software as the man inside tried to cope with the damage the bolt had caused him.
After a few seconds of stillness, she noticed some movement. Not the kind that would come from the hydraulics of the massive mech but rather the result when gravity acted on it and tugged it almost in slow motion. In the next moment, it simply plummeted to land hard enough to make the earth shake beneath her feet.
Hammerhand, the invincible leader of the Knights Mechanica, was down.
For what seemed like forever, her brain seemed to freeze in a place where no thought was possible. The sight of the felled Excalibur made her feel numb somehow. It was impossible and yet she couldn't deny the evidence of her own eyes.
Jessica13 snapped out of her shocked immobility when one of the lightened Predators climbed onto the chest plate of the Excalibur and one of the Balthazars drifted down to land beside it. Together, they began to pry the armor open to gain access to the cockpit.
"Oh…fuck no." She growled an incoherent sound of quiet fury and raised her rifle.
"Jessica13, what are you doing?" Mini asked.
She didn't answer and simply strode over to where Hammerhand lay with the Predator already in her sights. With unnatural calm, she pulled the trigger and the shot hurled it clear of its perch.
The Balthazar turned, trained its twin assault rifles on her, and fired a few rounds before two of her shots drilled into the mech and ended its efforts. She took their place on top of the Excalibur, stood her ground, and glowered at their enemies that began to converge on them.
"Jessie," Hammerhand called over the comms, clearly strained, “what the fuck are you doing? Get the hell out of here!"
"You work on getting this fucking mech on its feet!" Jessica13 snapped. The fact that she had actually at cursed her commanding officer didn’t even occur to her as she took calm, measured shots at the approaching forces. "Don't you worry about me."
"Jessie—"
"Was I fucking unclear?" she demanded. She intended to stand over him and protect him as long as he needed it and he would have no say in the matter until he could get his mech on his feet.
When he managed that, he could yell at her for disobeying a direct order. Not if. When.
She startled at an odd noise in the distance and turned her head toward the hills. The cloud parted a little to reveal a glimpse of the sun starting to set in the west and she frowned at the vivid image of mechs sky-lined in the distance but moving closer.
What sounded like a low, indistinct buzz grew louder as they approached and what she thought might be deep trombones announced their arrival.
"What is that?" Jessica13 asked but shook herself out of her stupor. She had to focus if she wanted to keep Hammerhand safe. While the enemy had, like her, been distracted, they had quickly recovered and now tried to take advantage of his fall and her divided concentration.
"Ride of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner," Mini replied.
"Who?"
"It was a song commonly used to indicate that the cavalry had arrived," the AI said and displayed an image of a long-haired woman riding on the back of a horse with wings.
"What cavalry?" she asked in bewilderment. No winged horses approached as far as she could see.
"One led by our friend Windchime."
Thankfully, her would-be attackers must have realized that the new arrivals might be cause for concern and were momentarily confused. They seemed a little confused as to whether they should continue their efforts to eliminate Hammerhand or regroup to meet what might be a new threat.
She used the opportunity to zoom into the mech that led the others. Sure enough, her teammate strode ahead as quickly as his mech would allow.
There was no mistaking the crazy-looking, four-armed machine of his.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Windchime marched at the head of the troop that hurried into the town to engage Athena's men who now quickly tried to form up again to repel this new and unexpected force. He had brought the two Knights he had taken with him to the neighboring town but had somehow acquired additional fighters.
Dozens of mechs flanked them and rushed into the fight with the same vigor as the Knights themselves. They were a patchwork force, put together hastily but surprisingly competently, no doubt the result of concerted effort to put as many of them in action in as short a time as possible.
Their leader was difficult to miss as he was the first to reach the line of Athena's men. His assault rifles spoke first and delivered a consistent barrage that forced the enemy back inch by inch before he finally attacked them with his blades. It looked like a whirlwind of vibroswords and each strike released a shower of sparks. They began to focus their attacks on him as he sliced into their ranks and almost completely ignored the group of mechs that assaulted them from the side.
The lines crashed together, and the surge of energy that rushed through the other members of the Knights Mechanica was almost visible. A feral kind of violence raced through their veins as their numbers were boosted by their returning comrades and what she could only guess were the members of the nearest town who were willing to help.
She raised her rifle and relished the surge of power in her veins as she continued to target those mechs that tried to attack the Excalibur while their comrades drew the attention of the defenders.
Finally, the massive mech’s systems began to reboot and she turned as Tinker, still alive and well, scrambled up beside her.
"I'll take care of Hammerhand, lassie," the man shouted and immediately opened a couple of panels to help with the repairs. "You get on down there and help them in the battle. They need you."
With a nod, she clambered off to rejoin the combat and rush to the side of her comrades. With Hammerhand in Tinker’s capable hands, she could fight alongside them while still running support.
One of the Balthazars turned and noticed her—and that she was alone and her teammates engaged in the battle. Almost lazily, it fired its assault rifle at her.
Jessica13 paused when she felt the pings as the rounds struck their armor and bounced away.
"Mini, I'll need a little help here," she called and struggled to keep the mech in motion.
"Understood," the AI said and immediately took control of the left arm and the grappler attached to it as reached the outer edge of the fight. They stayed away from the worst of it while he aimed the grappler at the Balthazar and, after a moment of swift calculation, fired it.
The dart with the cable attached flew quick and true and it planted itself firmly and remained rooted in the boot of the Balthazar.
"What the hell was that supposed to do?" she asked. The damage to the other mech was minimal and it continued to fire as if nothing had happened.
"One of the grounding towers is to the left there," Mini replied. "Run in and I'll release the cable into it."
It was risky as she could see the bolts of electricity still buzzing from the pole although it was connected to the rest of the spiderweb network, Still, with Mini manning and timing the grappler, she was more or less confident of success.
If not, she would have to deal with a similar amount of power entering her mech as had gone into Hammerhand's and with considerably less protection.
She turned and dragged the Balthazar, still in mid-air, toward the tower. At what seemed like the final second, the cable came free with a loud twang and whipped forward to wind itself around the base of the tower.
The reaction was less explosive than she thought it would be, but the rockets on the Balthazar instantly cut out, as did the rest of the movement, and all it could do was fly into one of the nearby buildings with a significant thump.
"Well played," Jessica13 conceded.
"Your compliment is noted a
nd appreciated," the AI replied.
It was easy enough to quickly reload another dart into the grappler as Windchime came over to where she stood.
"Good afternoon there, Jessie," he said over comms and laughed.
"You have no idea how good it is to see your face again, Windchime," she replied with a broad smile. "Well, not your face, but you know what I mean."
"I do, and I have to say, it's good to see you alive and well too," he said. "I see you're still not taking my advice to stay far away from the fight."
"It's against every fiber in my being," she tried to explain but he raised a hand.
"Soon, you'll learn there are times to follow orders and times to follow your instincts," he said. "Let's get these fuckers out of here and we can talk more about it."
It sounded like the promise of something to look forward to, and as she settled in behind him and used her rifle to deliver what damage she could, it was impossible to miss the sight of Hammerhand rising from his prone position. It was a slow, difficult process, especially for a mech of that size, but a few Knights had assembled to help him with a combination of pushing as well as cables to pull him onto his feet again.
One of his teammates helped him grasp his hammer again, and the speakers came alive with a loud crackle.
"Knights Mechanica, to me!" His voice rolled across the clearing around them to draw their attention. The defenders gravitated toward him and he twisted a little in place, likely still dealing with a handful of difficulties with his mech.
But if there was ever someone who could power through it, Hammerhand could.
The shield came up with a crackle as the Knights fell in behind him. Not all had been Knights at the beginning of the day, but all had fallen under the same banner by the end. It wasn't long before they surged forward into Athena's fighters, who had managed to regroup as well.
While the enemy might have regained their battle-readiness, they were still unprepared for the reinvigorated and reinforced Knights. With Hammerhand at the tip of the spear, they powered into the fray.