Embers After Flames, Chapter 6.2 (Patreon)

6.2

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The blinding light had barely begun to dissipate into flecks of red and orange before the Firekeepers reached the Watchpoint, trailing so closely behind the Overboost Units. Crimson sparked in the air as the unleashed Coral was agitated.

It gave me a perfect view of the fortress, thrown into such stark contrast with both the world around it and the way it had been only moments ago. There was the main Watchpoint itself, of course, which was a simple circular building. The new additions had been added in rings around the Watchpoint; first were several larger buildings on top of the Watchpoint, containing sensors and weapons. A lot of additional structure had been added to the outside of the Watchpoint, extending outwards about halfway across the bridge that led to what had once been a local small city for the management of the facility. A large, thick wall surrounded the entire thing, encircling it.

It was significantly expanded from what it had been in the game.

Even so, the fortress had been wounded dramatically. The explosions had wiped out anything they’d hit, and then quite a bit besides. Five great holes had been torn in the facility, molten metal and shattered concrete dripping into water below. Large portions of the Watchpoint’s defenders had been wiped from existence in only a moment.

Not all, but enough.

The Firekeepers followed through without wasting time, the team spreading to capitalize on the distraction caused by such destruction. 

Alpha Melee charged forwards, Back Boosters igniting and carrying the mech from one target to the next, her Coral Oscillator carving them apart. 

Alpha Scout joined her, though his choice of weapons were a pair of HC-CRs, hand cannons redesigned to make use of Coral. Bang-bang, bang-bang echoed continuously as the mech danced between targets and shortly removed them from existence. 

The two Rangers had diversified. One had a mediumweight mech with two Assault Rifles and missiles, but the other had gone into heavyweight and brought a pair of Linear Rifles and Pulse Cannons. Both were completely different kinds of death, but equally effective.

Alpha Support stayed roughly in the middle of them, now that his firepower and frame integrity had been compromised. It didn’t stop him from doing his job, missiles streaming out and the remaining arm still equipped with a gatling gun.

The Auxilia swarmed in immediately, and they were felled by the dozen in mere seconds. The Cavalry units and Sentries weren’t far behind, though none of them had been equipped for this battle and my Firekeepers had more than enough experience to deal with them by now.

“Don’t get stuck in place.” I reminded them. “If the PCA can pin you, you’ll have a lot more trouble than you’ll need.”

My Firekeepers followed my advice, most of them destroying the things in their immediate vicinity before regrouping, moving together as they shifted to another part of the fortress.

There were more Auxilia, as there seemingly always was. Not as many Sentries or LCs, though. No surprise there; the manned units obviously would have investigated the incoming attack vector, and that would have left a decent portion of them involved in the Overboost Unit strike.

Most of the trouble out of the way right off the bat.

The Firekeepers split up again as they breached into the next sector, Scout, Melee and the mediumweight Ranger heading forwards while the other Ranger and Alpha Support held the backline, streaming bolts of red into the mechs that had followed them.

There was an artillery platform here, as well, already in the process of targeting the Firekeepers. It had barely reached a half charge before Alpha Melee took the time to deal with it, her Coral Oscillator carving the platform half before it could fire.

Its detonation was a fantastic sign for them to start moving again. This time, rather than going to the next zone, they moved out, dashing over the walls and then sliding down it into the water below.

With no cover except the wall itself, the squad wasted no time firing up their Assault Boost, quickly making their way around the exterior. I tracked the units that were following them, doggedly determined in a way that only unmanned machines could be.

A squad of LCs came over the wall just in front of the Firekeepers, weapons raised and ready. Laser fire and machine gun bullets went downrange, but the Firekeepers were ready for it. What few rounds that did manage to hit their targets were caught by the barriers of flickering crimson.

For their temerity, my Firekeepers rewarded them with more lethal red, far more coordinated and far better equipped. A Coral Oscillator burned two of them in half right off the bat, but the other weapons were no less lethal, especially at such a close range. 

The ensuing battle was a rapid slaughter. The LC pilots tried their best, but it just wasn’t good enough.

By the time they were done, the machine horde had caught up again, so the Firekeepers went upwards, over the wall, and then charged inwards, blowing up defences on the way past as they swept across the sky of the fortress. 

A spike in the sensor readings caught my attention, and I focused my cameras on the opposite side of the base, where a larger hangar was opening. 

Energy signature. Potent, from a large-scale generator that exceeded typical warmachine scales. It was an unusual pattern too, not one that I had ever seen before.

A flare of orange light from the interior of the docking bay was the only warning for the new machine’s exit.

It was a ridiculous thing; an oversized MT larger than even an LC that had been welded to a flight unit that was larger than itself, with a giant circular rail extending from that flight unit all the way around the approximate position of the MT.

I recognized it immediately.

BALTEUS.

Flatwell and I had caught the rumours of new machines being developed, and we’d even managed to recover some data over the years, but I had not expected to see BALTEUS today. 

I hadn’t realized they’d come this far with its development already, either. It obviously wasn’t completely finished yet- I could tell that from the armour plating alone, which were clearly just standard plating that had been attached to the frame for testing purposes rather than specifically manufactured for the machine itself like any other PCA craft. With the full Pulse Armour that surrounded it, that wasn’t as big of a problem as it could have been, though.

The armaments were also in a bit of a primitive state, but the full array was there. Oversized triple gatling gun in the right hand, quadruple scatter-gun in the left, cannon unit attached to the flight unit, double flamethrowers, and of course the biblically accurate missile launchers.

Troublesome... but not outside of the Firekeeper’s capabilities.

“Heads up, you’ve got a prototype PCA SP autonomous craft on the battlefield.” I quickly informed them. “Intel we gathered indicates that this is BALTEUS. It’s got a lot of very potent weapons that are designed to be fired at almost any angle, as well as endless hordes of missiles. You’ll have to break through the Pulse Armour to do any real damage, but you should be much more agile than it is. Don’t waste that advantage, and don’t get caught, or you’ll get shredded.”

Any of BALTEUS’ weapons would chew their Primal Armour up quickly, though the cannon’s effectiveness would be severely blunted at least. The other advantage they had was this was an autonomous craft, and the PCA sub-AI on them was never that good.

The team split up again, Alpha Scout and one Ranger turning to deal with the swarm chasing them again, while the rest of the squad redirected towards BALTEUS. 

BALTEUS didn’t wait for them to arrive. The rails extended, more of them emerging from the flight unit and locking into place. Missiles streamed from the rails only moments later, a veritable swarm of them emerging in only moments. 

I had to admit, the PCA had some pretty damned good engineers to make this shit work. It was incredible to see in action.

The Firekeepers went forwards and through, Assault Boosts engaging as they let themselves drift closer to the ground. The missiles curved, and I kept note of their performance profiles, building my library of data for this machine.

They were fast, but clearly staged; their acceleration increased dramatically after a few moments in the air, though their maneuverability suffered for it.

The Firekeepers went forwards and through, electing to pass underneath the wall of missiles. They were fast enough to get away with it, the missiles not quite able to turn quickly enough to follow nor smart enough to properly predict where they were going rather than simply home in on their current position. 

That meant most of the missiles crashed into the ground behind them, safely removed from play. Some of them weren’t; the ones that had been launched from the horizontal rails rather than the vertical ones, but their numbers had been significantly reduced regardless, and so they were much less of a threat.

The three of them split up after the missile barrage had passed, Alpha Melee going straight forwards, Coral Oscillator already charged. BALTEUS’ Pulse Armour flared into brilliant white-green as the Surging Coral beam struck it head on. 

The barrier depleted quickly, but it held for long enough that BALTEUS was able to bring an arm up, triple gatling guns already spun up and ready to go. Rather than continue to work through the barrier, Alpha Melee cut the power to the weapon, boosting sideways right as the guns began to fire. A few rounds caught on the Primal Armour, but the majority of the fire went nowhere useful.

It left BALTEUS open to the Heavyweight Ranger, who had charged both Linear Rifles to full by now. That wasn’t his actual opening attack, however; after all, he had a pair of Coral enhanced Pulse Cannons.

Both weapons unleashed a deluge of red coloured bubbles, even more dangerous than normal Pulse bubbles. BALTEUS’ Pulse Armour, already weakened, had no chance of withstanding the destructive interference from dedicated Pulse weapons.

The barrier popped, overwhelmed in moments. Green lightning briefly sparked in the air.

Now vulnerable, no time was wasted in following up with the Linear Rifles. Two ultra-velocity rounds sheathed in surging Coral punctured into BALTEUS’ left arm and tore through it, exploding out of the other side in a burst of crimson. The arm went limp, actuators surely fucked beyond functioning.

Alpha Support timed his own attack a moment later, crashing into BALTEUS and landing on the shoulder of the right arm. His own gatling gun was already raised- and pointed directly at BALTEUS’ triple weapon.

Alpha Support swept his arm down, bullets perforating the weapon from barrel to casing, leaving melting holes throughout the entire thing. It was capped off nicely when the ammunition detonated, the heat of the Coral igniting the propellant.

Two of BALTEUS’ bigger guns destroyed before they were even of use... That standardised armour really was not helping this upjumped MT.

Still, that left the flamethrowers, cannon, and missiles, and those were all still quite dangerous. At this close of a range, though, the Firekeepers should be able to take it out-

The Generator’s pattern spiked in a very familiar way.

“Scatter!” I commanded, and the Firekeepers followed without hesitation. 

Pulse energy sparked around BALTEUS’ frame, emitters straining with a dangerous hum as they absorbed the extra energy spike. The barrier attempted to form, but it was too strong, too fast.

The excess energy detonated instead, Assault Armour blasting out over the area and lighting the zone with green-white. My warning saved the Firekeepers from eating the blast at point blank, but even so, their Primal Armour flared as it dispersed the Pulse explosion as best as it could.

BALTEUS was wounded, but the war machine wasn’t dead yet.