Embers After Flames, Chapter 7.1 (Patreon)

7.1

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The plan was enacted only a few days later. I had the front row seats to both of their forces being marshalled, my Antigens keeping an eye on the situation.

The mercs were unfortunately more difficult to track. Both myself and the RLF had a scattershot of sensors throughout the area, but  outside of immediate territory, it was hard to ensure that they were comprehensive, and that meant that there was always an opportunity for some groups to slip in.

It didn’t even have to be intentional, really. 

The corps, on the other hand, were much more obvious, moving in force and numbers from their base. I kept the video feeds open for Flatwell as they went off, just in case, but it turned out to be pretty boring for the entire journey. It took them two hours before Marzan arrived at the fifty-sixty Grid cluster and I could actually put my plan into motion.

They did not actually use the Grids themselves to travel, as it happened. Their own air transports were more than up to the task, so they didn’t need to rely on the Grid’s own interlinked transit systems.

With that said, the Grids were placed where they were placed for good reasons, and optimising the flow of resources was one of those reasons.

They were keeping relatively low to the ground, flying only a kilometer or so above the dry sand below. Their path took them roughly between Grid 051 and Gird 054, and they were currently leaning in the direction of flying between Grid 055 and Grid 056. If they kept the path up, then they were going to end up going between Grid 060 and Grid 061, which was rather nice, because the SEA SPIDER was currently in Grid 061, and that would make for a relatively easy interception.

I started moving the SEA SPIDER in preparation.

In all honesty, I didn’t really need anything long or drawn out, there. I just needed this force to not exist, and the SEA SPIDER had everything it needed for that. Of course, even under the cover of a Grid, using this SEA SPIDER was still going to throw up alarms for the PCA, because that cover wasn’t omnidirectional and C-Weapons were hardly subtle.

I ended up waiting another couple minutes for the group to continue their passage between the Grids. As I had predicted, they went through 055 and 056, and then moved between 060 and 061. Their speed was decent, not too fast and not to slow, with their path on a relatively straight light that was slightly off center and rotated diagonally between the two Grid’s central pillars.

I could work with that.

I waited until they were approaching the closest point that they would get to Grid 061. Their path was steady, their velocity consistent, and their preparations insufficient.

Perfect.

The SEA SPIDER leapt out of its position, six powerful legs shifting as it launched forwards, boosters briefly engaging. From this distance, they wouldn’t be alerted in time.

Gravity took over from there. The SEA SPIDER plummeted towards the ground, shifting only to maintain its orientation. Crimson flickered around its legs and core.

“... What the hell-”

And then, impact.

The SEA SPIDER slammed into, and then through, the main transport, Coral Oscillators activating at the last moment and sending waves of Surging Coral into the transport. The energy involved was enough to immediately sublimate the hull on contact, resulting in a detonation as the metal turned directly into a gas.

Thrusters fired, bleeding off speed and energy, but that did not render the SEA SPIDER less dangerous.

“AHHH-”

Missiles streamed out, burning red volleys targeting other transports. Coral beam cannons activated, rapid firing blasts that carved holes in the structure of the other transports. I targeted anything that could provide lift or control, whether that was thrusters, boosters, or, in the case of the smallest transports, helicopter blades.

In game, all of these were just harassment weapons. In life, they were all spectacularly lethal.

“BREAK BREAK BRE-”

The transports scattered, some of them even opening their bays in preparation to dump whatever they were carrying. A small group of MTs came out of one, boosters flaring as they tried to control their descent. A Heavy MT came out of another, except it was already upside down and the pilot clearly hadn’t been prepared to deal with that.

I charged the upper cannon, briefly redirecting energy from the rest of the frame as I did. The crimson beam swept out only moments later, piercing straight through the side of one transport, before sweeping sideways. A cloud of molten and gaseous metal was left in its wake, and the same fate shortly befell another pair.

“WHAT IS THAT THING?!”

It hadn’t been even twenty seconds since this battle had started, and already a large portion of the enemy force had been destroyed. The rest were quickly catching on, flares firing into the air as they tried to redirect the missiles, with the transports’ own weapons now beginning to shoot back. 

I couldn’t help but notice that there were less kinetic rounds than there used to be. Ever since BAWS’ upgrade, everyone else had slowly followed suit.

Against the SEA SPIDER, though? It didn’t really matter.

I made the effort to avoid the worst of the incoming firepower, boosters igniting every now and then to move the SEA SPIDER out of the way whenever it got too concentrated. A careful rotation spread the damage out, letting the armour of the entire machine handle the problems. Fifty years out of date and not enjoying even my own recent developments, it was still thick enough to handle the lasers and missiles without too much issue.

In the meantime, it reaped a ruinous, bloody toll upon Marzan’s army. 

“WE NEED TO RUN!”

Alas, there was nowhere to go. The only way there would be any survivors was if they decided to scatter- anything else, and the SEA SPIDER would handle them regardless, too fast, too powerful, and too long of a range to not do so.

I had technically accomplished my objective already. The army was damaged to the point that it would be of nearly no effect against its target base, even if they did decide to regroup and hit it anyway. I doubted they would, but I had been wrong before, because sometimes the power of money overtook good sense, and since these were corp troops...

I had reason enough to keep going.

I focused primarily on getting rid of all their transports, even as more and more of them were disgorging warmachines. Their MTs, once properly grounded, weren’t nearly fast enough to get away, after all.

It barely took more than a minute between all of the SEA SPIDER’s weapons. With them out of the way, I moved on to the MTs, which, because they had spread out throughout the air and across the ground, were going to take quite a bit longer. 

The first shot was from one of the smaller Coral cannons, a beam puncturing an MT clean through. The SEA SPIDER moved on immediately-

A perimeter sensor tripped.

A rapidly approaching object, flying through the air... much too small to be a transport. 

PCA?

No, this was too quick to be a response. Whatever this was, it had already been incoming when the operation had started.

I redirected an Antigen, shifting it around to get eyes on the object. The SEA SPIDER continued to whack away at the horde.

The Antigen took about fifteen seconds to get sight. I tracked its path all the while, which... was not directly towards the current position of the transport fleet, actually. Rather, it was going towards just in front of where the transport fleet would have been.

That would still take it inside of the current battle zone and definitely inside the sensor radius of the SEA SPIDER, though.

At the speed the object was going, there’d be contact in the next forty five seconds.

As for the object itself, it...

Was an AC.

Well, that complicated matters. Visually...

I pulled up the database, cross-referencing it with what I was seeing.

A full set of BAWS model Parts, of the relatively recent 1400 line. AC-J-1400, AL-J-1401, AA-J-1402, AH-J-1404. ‘SORA’, an economical line that served more as a platform for the integration of PCA technologies into their own knowledge and design base than an actual combat unit, but it was still a fucking AC so it’d do the job in a pinch.

Well equipped, too. Furlong Split Missile Launcher, Elcano Laser Cannon for the Back Parts, as well as an older model but still reliable BAWS RANSETSU-AR for its right Hand and a relative standard Pulse Blade for its left.

A relatively eclectic array of Parts. That was an unknown Mercenary.

But why would a Merc be this far out? Obviously, the answer would be ‘they were hired’, but Flatwell had elected not to try hiring anybody this time around, having looked at the numbers and calculating that it wasn’t necessary. The only other person who would even have the intel to try and pull off a hit like this was, maybe, ALLMIND, but ALLMIND wasn’t exactly in the habit of sending off lone Mercenaries against an army like this at the moment.

And there was no match in the records I’d been able to get from her, either. This was a new one, and a BAWS model like this... no, not her work.

A Mercenary, but not one that’s here for a job.

Well, I’ll find out who they are once they get within scanning range of the SEA SPIDER. Wouldn’t be too much longer anyway.

Coral beams and missiles continued to flash and fly, the horde dying with every passing second. The upper cannon swept from side to side, carving out lines of MTs when they failed to properly scatter. Returning fire was... markedly ineffective.

Fifteen seconds, thirty... By the forty fifth, a full third of the remaining enemies were gone. The AC also entered the sensor range, so I focused a scan on it and...

No IFF. No returns whatsoever. Not even so much as an RFID tag. That was a mech that was running completely quiet. Which...

Well, technically that was illegal. Operating on this planet was forbidden by the PCA unless you had a license, after all. The PCA was also not required to ascertain if you did possess a license or not- if you weren’t broadcasting, it was assumed that you didn’t, and the PCA wouldn’t even bother trying to find an excuse to shoot you.

Hmm. Bold.

The AC dropped from the sky, power signature indicating that it had immediately dropped into Combat Mode. From there...

Absolutely nothing from it. It landed, facing towards the ongoing battle, but otherwise it was not doing anything. 

Hmm.

What exactly had I disrupted, here? If the merc wasn’t providing support, then it wasn’t some kind of alliance going on. Or were they just content to let the rest of the forces be destroyed and accept that as a completed goal?

Oh well.

The battle kept going regardless. The numbers thinned, and thinned, and thinned, and it wasn’t very long at all before there was nothing left but the broken shells of destroyed transports and MTs.

The PCA response wasn’t going to be that far away. There was nowhere the SEA SPIDER could go to make an immediate escape before it happened, but it wouldn’t take much more than twenty minutes to get to one of the artificial canals that had been carved around Belius. From there, an oceanic retreat would work wonders.

It just had to survive long enough to make the journey. That timeframe was two, two point five waves of PCA responses. More than likely it was going to be Subject Guard, but SP wasn’t out of the question if they happened to be ready to go.

As for the AC... Well, it still wasn’t doing anything, and so long as that was the case, it wasn’t really my problem.

Alright, now for the real question.

Am I going to get to keep the SEA SPIDER after all of this?

I hope so. It’s the worst when you lose your toys right after you finally get to play with them.