Bulletfoot One

by Marshall Rust

  "If they do become violent, we could always run away. Robert7 is able to hold on better, so we would at least be able to get away quickly enough."

  "I do hope you are right."

  "It’s not like an AI to hope for anything. Aren't you supposed to give me all the numbers that support the fact that this is a terrible idea?"

  "I could, but would that change your mind?"

  "No."

  "And would it gain us anything?"

  "Probably not."

  "And we do need to speak to the mayor, as you said. Which means that all the numbers I could provide in an attempt dissuade you would merely be a waste of my core processing power when all it should do is find us ways to escape a potentially lethal situation."

  He wasn't wrong and she wasn't about to question it as they continued to approach the growing din that represented the mob of Auburnites who gathered in the center of town.

  The militia was present, and they appeared to escort another group toward the stockade. The prisoners mostly included surviving FEMA pilots and raiders, but what looked like a few townsfolk were swept along with the others.

  Six men and women were dragged along by their guards and seemed to have taken a beating before they were captured by the militia. Those people who followed yelled insults and as Jessica13 drew closer, she realized that similar plaques hung around the prisoners’ necks. These once again denoted traitors, informers, collaborators, or other ways in which they had apparently helped Athena's men while they were still in control of the town.

  She could understand the Auburnites’ need to vent their frustration. They were in a shitty situation and it was easy to pick it up and blame it all on someone, but this was taking it too far.

  Someone in the mob found one of the kitchen's refuse bins—the kind usually saved to be added to the fields as fertilizer—and distributed the contents among the others. Before long, the crowd hurled the garbage at the prisoners. When that ran out, one of them picked up a rock.

  Jessica13 couldn't help but wince when the rock struck one of the men in the stomach. He shouted in pain and doubled over. A second caught him in the head and he fell, bleeding from where it had opened a gash in his scalp.

  The militia didn't bother to try to help him to his feet. They stepped around him, and the mob snatched him up, slipped a noose around his neck, and hauled the unconscious or dead man into the branches of a nearby tree.

  His plaque read collaborator.

  "What's happening?" she asked in a strangled tone. She’d never seen anything like this. The people of Auburn, who had seemed so peaceful and hard-working a few hours before, were in a frenzy that made her feel unsafe, even inside her mech. She could only imagine how Robert7 felt with no protection and nothing between him and the crowd.

  They finally noticed her arrival, and while none wanted to engage the mech piloted by one of the now-famed Knights Mechanica, there was no shortage of hateful looks directed at the man on her back. She didn't know what to say or do, having seen what they were more than willing to do to one of their own.

  No more rocks were thrown and there wasn't any more refuse to fling either, but the full attention of the people began to settle on her, especially when the prisoners were herded into the quickly filling stockade.

  Mayor Jones was nowhere to be seen.

  "Why are they locked up and not this one?"

  Jessica13 couldn't see who said that, but the crowd seemed generally in agreement. Some held ropes up and demanded to have Robert7 strung up like the rest, and the militia was quick to approach. It seemed pathetically ironic that Jessica13 and Robert7 were essentially back where they’d started. She couldn't recognize any of those she had encountered earlier and who had executed their prisoners, but that wasn't saying much. It seemed reasonable to assume that this group would behave no differently.

  At a guess, she would have said that any one of them was responsible for the executions.

  "Get him down and let him be tried like the fucking rest!"

  The mob persisted with the demand, and more began to take up the chant. It seemed most of them wanted to kill the man, although none appeared to have the courage to advance on Jessica13 yet. No mechs were present, and no one wanted to try their hand against one of the Knights Mechanica.

  Except for the militia, possibly, and even they appeared a little hesitant to approach her. The man at the front shoved a couple of the townsfolk aside and snatched a rope from the hands of another before he turned to her.

  "You have to surrender him to us," he shouted in an attempt to be heard over the yells of the crowd behind him. "He must be locked up like the rest or he will be torn to pieces."

  Maybe the militia didn't approve of the way that the mob handled their own version of justice, although she couldn’t banish the memory of how they’d stepped over an unconscious man. Not only that, but they’d also left him to be strung up by the Auburnites and made no effort to intervene.

  She studied them and realized that they looked tired and even exhausted. Certainly, they weren’t in the mood to have to deal with her and the other people at the same time.

  "I can't," Jessica13 said and took a step back.

  She regretted it instantly. Maybe they saw it as a sign of weakness or merely didn't like her to defend one of the FEMA pilots, but the crowd surged forward.

  Mini had already disengaged the grappler gun from its dart, ready to repulse anyone who tried to attack them.

  "This man needs to be held with the others," the militia leader yelled and tried to gain control of the situation once more.

  Even so, Jessica13 couldn't agree to simply hand Robert7 over. The chances were that he would be executed like the others. She trusted the Minato to protect him more than a stockade.

  She was about to say as much when she noticed that the weight on the magnetic clamp on her back had disappeared. Robert7 didn’t move quickly but with the help of a makeshift crutch, he managed to climb off her back and moved out in front of her.

  "What are you doing?" she demanded and took a step forward. Her first instinct was to protect him as some of the folk behind the militia began to gather rocks again.

  He looked at her and her gut twisted. His nostrils flared and his wide eyes told her that he was terrified but still, he stood his ground.

  “I can’t let you or Mini put yourselves into any more danger on my account,” he said, his voice soft. It quivered like he tried to convince himself that he was doing the right thing.

  She didn't think the FEMA pilots qualified as the best people, all in all, but they certainly didn't have cowards in their ranks. Robert7 wasn't one, at least. He was scared, that much was plain, and she wondered if he regretted his actions when the militia grasped him by the arms.

  "Thank you for keeping me safe!" he called to her and his voice trembled a little as he was dragged away. The militia pushed at the townsfolk to clear a path for him through the mob.

  No rocks were thrown, although a few spat on him as he passed. Finally, he was shoved inside the stockade and the makeshift gate closed behind him.

  The crowd's yells turned to mumbles. Maybe their thirst for murder and vengeance had abated, or maybe they understood that there would be another time and another place.

  Their reasons seemed irrelevant and they drifted away to their improvised homes or perhaps to work. A few threw dirty looks at her and shouted something she couldn't quite pick up, but the rest appeared more than willing to simply leave.

  Jessica13 vehemently agreed. Nausea churned in her stomach again, and when she released the controls of the mech, Mini immediately picked them up and eased them into a steady pace.

  "What should I do?" she whimpered, put her hands over her face, and felt hot tears streaming down her cheeks.

  He didn't answer immediately but pulled the Minato to a halt once they were a safe distance from the scene.

  "Maybe you can introduce a little goodness, sanity, and brotherhood to the mix."

  Cha
pter Fifty

  Night began to fall and cast long shadows across the sweep of grassland around them. The uneven terrain was enough to cover their movements, for the most part, but that would change when they approached the mesa.

  Still, this was close enough. Hammerhand didn't like to step into the open like this. Charging into battle while shouting for attention seemed pointless, like empty bravado that would get people killed unnecessarily.

  In this case, however, they needed to capture the attention of the men defending the stronghold and make them come down for a fight It was imperative to draw as many of them as they could away from their defensive positions.

  As much as he disliked the idea, the first order of business was to attack those same defensive positions while they shouted for attention.

  "I will fucking regret this."

  No comms were allowed, at least not until the fighting started, but he could only imagine Tinker commenting as to why Hammerhand should already regret their decision.

  The Knights were positioned behind him together with a group of the Auburn pilots who had volunteered for the mission. So many of them had done so that there weren't enough working mechs available to outfit them all.

  While the numbers had surprised him, it was understandable, of course. They wanted to avenge themselves on those who had oppressed them for years. Possibly even decades, he reminded himself, given how long the FEMA city had been in place and had taken advantage of the people living in the surrounding areas.

  The sky above was painted by a bright red streak of dying sunlight that stretched beyond the tall grass. The hillocks and even slight rises lengthened their shadows as the flow faded and bled into the first hint of twilight.

  Sunset. It was time.

  And about fucking time too.

  Hammerhand welcomed the familiar sensation of adrenaline spiking in his body as he took the controls of the mech and guided it slowly out of a ravine. The defile had been carefully chosen because it was the last one between them and the mesa. This would be the point they would have to fall back to if things went wrong, which was why a handful of Sherlocks would remain there with their rifles at the ready to hold the position.

  All the others would make the charge and do so as loudly as they could.

  The cooling vents popped out of the Excalibur as he began the ascent. Climbing wasn't the massive mech's strongest point so cooling it was necessary, but it also made it look like a cloud rose from their position that would draw the focus of those watching from above and provide quite a show as they emerged in numbers, ready for a fight.

  He reached the top and took a moment to steady the mech before he continued. A couple of assault mechs flanked him, and Tinker moved in behind, ready to support them if it was needed.

  Cora, who piloted their Raptor, advanced as well but remained to the rear. She would provide cover fire if things got messy during the retreat.

  The remainder of his group had already begun to surge forward when Hammerhand raised his weapon and brought it down slowly to point at the defensive positions held at the base of the mesa.

  "And it came to pass, at the end of their days, that the hammer of the Lord smote them from their peak and cast them asunder to be scattered by the winds so that none would stand before them!"

  The massive speakers vibrated the entire mech and carried his voice well across the open plains toward the concrete barriers that had been set up to stop any attacking mechs. As his hammer pointed toward it, the first volley of rockets from Cora's Raptor streaked away and left plumes of white smoke in their wake.

  Alarms were immediately raised at the top of the mesa. Sightlines were established and mechs moved toward the edge. That was all they needed.

  The defensive barriers were struck by the rockets, exploded, and were effectively shredded in three different sections of the perimeter, which gave the Knights three clear routes of attack while Cora prepared to set the Raptor up in position.

  She knew what to do from that point forward. Coordinating the inevitable retreat would be their only chance to survive this.

  Hammerhand pushed the Excalibur to increase speed with every step. Something as massive as his mech couldn't really run in the strictest sense, but the long strides were enough to make it move faster than most of those around him.

  A couple of his group fell as the incoming rounds and rockets from the defense at the top of the mesa impacted them. The alarm continued to sound and more enemy mechs appeared to join the defensive formation at the top, and their firepower increased. They realized that the Knights had cleared paths through the barriers and focused their attack on those three entrances.

  The sheer volume of fire was difficult to contend with. More mechs took damage and used the comms to call the support mechs for on-the-go repairs as they continued to press forward toward the mesa.

  They hadn’t expected it to be an easy fight, but Hammerhand had at least hoped they could reach the base without taking casualties. The defenders were quick to respond to the threat, annoyingly enough.

  The air was thick with bullets and he raised his shield to give his people as much cover as he could while still allowing them to advance. Not all the Knights and townsfolk could crowd behind the thick blue layer of film, but the brilliance of it drew fire from all angles.

  His HUD alerted him that the generator for it had begun to heat faster than usual and spiked well above the acceptable parameters.

  Of course, those parameters had been tested in pristine conditions and usually only took fire from one source.

  Still, it would be best to not burn it out. He stopped when he reached one of the sections of obstacles that hadn't been destroyed and dropped his shield. In that moment, the mechs behind him opened fire in a solid volley and tried to reach the mechs above them as they continued their advance. They didn’t appear to do much damage but it was enough to make the defenders back away from the edge, which gave them a small reprieve from the barrage.

  It was a start. Hammerhand led a group through the central path and waited for the enemy to resume their fire again before he raised his shield. He held it above him now to deflect a rain of bullets and explosives as they advanced toward the steps.

  The cutoff from the top of the mesa was sharp, which meant they would have some cover from the fire when they were close to the base. As long as they hugged the towering rock, things would be easier. Not much, obviously, but every little help counted.

  The Knights were organized enough to know this and sure enough, as they moved in closer, the shooting diminished. Hammerhand moved first and held his shield up to block any rounds that might be fired at them.

  A few of the defending Raptors aimed their launchers over the edge and began to fire straight down, but they did so almost completely blindly.

  “Keep moving!” he roared at his men and guided them successfully to the first step.

  When they reached the second, he looked up and scowled when he realized that not all the defenses were at the top of the mesa. Scaffolds were visible at the edge, where a group of Quadrupeds held position. They lacked the height advantage of those above but their heavy armor would make up for that.

  And unlike the higher defenders, these had a clear firing line on the advancing Knights.

  “Shit,” he muttered. “Hold the fucking advance!”

  Either some hadn’t heard him or the townsfolk wouldn’t be dissuaded from their charge, even though the artillery rounds pounded into the ground around them. A few found their targets with direct strikes, and all that was left were smoking craters with scattered chunks of metal.

  The shield came up and blocked a handful of the shots, which immediately triggered alarms in the Excalibur and he was forced to take a step back for balance.

  It had been fun while it lasted.

  He opened a comm channel to the other Knights and rebels in his group. "Pull back! Fall back, you motherfuckers!"

  They had all waited for the order, and although they seem
ed as reluctant to follow it as he was, they obeyed without delay. It was a wise decision with literal hell now unleashed on them in a lethal barrage.

  Hammerhand was the last to drop from the step and gave the FEMA pilots something to shoot at. The armor took a beating in a handful of non-vital areas but he’d been lucky thus far. There was no telling when they would hit something critical, however, and he brought the shield up as soon as the heating vents stopped screaming bloody murder at him.

  Overall, they had made it farther than he had thought they would but not as far in as he’d hoped. As futile as the entire assault was, he hadn’t held out much hope that they would manage to reach the top. Still, the closer they got, the more likely it would have been that those above would elect to abandon the high ground to attack.

  The cost, of course, was almost too heavy. He counted two of his Knights being dragged out of the fight by support mechs and another whose mech was being opened to help the pilot get clear. Six of the Auburn pilots had gone down as well, and three had to be helped to the ravine.

  "Cora, tell me you have some targets.”

  “They’re still too high.”

  Hammerhand turned and shifted his shield to deflect the continuous fusillade that followed their retreat. The mech continued to move backward and still at a good enough speed to keep pace with his men. The sensors would tell him if they would be tripped by anything.

  The shadows had grown longer and the last traces of daylight had almost completely disappeared from the sky. The smoke had already begun to fill the area and made it even more difficult to see anything.

  Tinker opened a commlink with him.

  “Hammerhand, what’s the situation at the front?”

  His gaze turned toward the mesa, where weapons continued to flare as they maintained their fire from their secure position at the top.

  “I wish I could say there was good news.”

  “Shit. If they don’t come down from the fucking top there, all this crap will have been for nothing.”