Embers After Flames, Chapter 11.3 (Patreon)

11.3

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This time around, it was Dolmayan who took the first shot, though ‘shot’ wasn’t quite accurate. He chose to attack with the Coral Oscillator on his left arm, the weapon making a brief, but piercing, shriek as it activated.

METS ASTGHIK’s arm was flung from right to left. The Oscillator glowed intensely, pulsating with crimson lightning. Coral particles were gathered, arranged, and then launched.

An arc of Coral shot outwards, flicked forwards with a casual gesture that belied its danger. It looked more like a wave of fire and lightning, but it was too focused and too saturated a crimson to be confused for either.

Much quicker than I would have expected, Freud raised the arm of his own AC, which I suddenly realized I didn’t know the name of. The weapon attached to the arm was like an elongated diamond in rough shape, and it looked like a laser blade, but it very quickly proved it wasn’t a simple one when he made his own strike. The diamond projected a blade, yes, but it didn’t stop there. Pulse energy gathered, and the two of them synergised, cohering into something rather more dangerous than either alone.

Freud swung the arm of his AC, and an arc of blue-white shot outwards. It met the Coral a little closer to Freud’s AC than Dolmayan’s, and when both met, they destabilised.

The explosion was as spectacular as it was violent, Surging Coral escaping containment alongside the plasma generated by decohering Laser/Pulse energies.

“The engineers were so proud of their new invention!” Freud called. “And here you are, already in possession of something even more advanced!”

They both had Bladewaves...

This must have been cutting edge stuff for Arquebus. It’s tricky to make Lightwave technology work, even for something as simple as a coherent energy blade moving in a single direction. The MOONLIGHT had been RRI’s pioneer into the technology, and it had existed for more than a decade before the AURORA was developed. The ML-REDSHIFT had come by quickly, afterwards, and then just as quickly had been replaced by Coral Oscillators entirely.

“As it happens, it’s actually rather old!” Dolmayan shared, right before both of the Coral Lightwave Projectors on his mech’s Back flipped forwards. “Just upgraded!”

Twenty bolts tore out of the projectors, fanning out in the air as they started to make their way towards Freud’s AC.

Freud didn’t let it slow him down. His AC simply continued forwards, though the two Units on his AC’s Back shifted as they activated.

Six drones emerged from each of them. These ones obviously weren’t the simpler ones that Freud had previously been using, either... These were larger, moved quicker, and I was willing to bet that they were much more dangerous, too.

Also unlike the previous Laser Drones, these ones didn’t move far from Freud’s AC. Instead, they took up position around it, keeping up with the rapid movements, even as they shifted around to present laser emitters.

Not towards METS ASTGHIK, though.

They fired instead at the scintillating Coral Lightwave orbs that were making their way towards Freud. Thin, concentrated beams lanced out, eight of the drones making shots in rapid succession. Each shot popped an orb, causing it to detonate early. Twenty shots between the eight drones meant that four of them fired twice and four had fired three times, and I couldn’t help but note that the ones that did so quickly returned to the Back Units that they had come from.

Three shots each, huh?

Dolmayan gave a considering hum, before he raised his rifle.

Again, the drones shifted in response, some of them opening up to reveal... Pulse Emitters?

Each of the remaining drones projected a barrier at a slight offset, thin panes of Pulse Barriers layered in front of each other.

Pulse Barrier Emitters...

Multi-purpose drones that could both defend and attack… Strange, yet evidently effective.

Dolmayan fired. Freud’s AC moved out of the way regardless, but the barriers stayed in place.

The Coral beam punched through the first, broke the second, shattered the third, overloaded the fourth, and finally scattered on the fifth, leaving it nearly overwhelmed and looking rather crimson.

“So this is the power of Coral?” Freud asked. “Magnificent! Show me more!”

Dolmayan obliged.

The rifle fired again, without warning. The drones reconfigured, barriers changing position. Freud had already reacted regardless, Boosters igniting and flinging his AC to the side.

Dolmayan didn’t let up, just keeping his shots going. Each one was perfectly placed, each one would have been a direct hit if not for Freud’s continuous dodging. The distance between them was vanishing quickly, but there was still some small space left.

Freud raised his gun. Much as he’d used on his old AC, it was a simple kinetic rifle, definitely Balam’s work. Simple did not mean that it was weak, however.

His drones unleashed one last set of laser bolts just as Freud fired the gun. Both bullets and laser bolts clipped the Primal Armour as METS ASTGHIK went to the side, Boosters flaring brightly for a moment. They did no real damage, but they certainly chipped the armour a bit.

Finally, there was no distance left, and both of them turned to face each other directly.

Both raised their left arms. Both of their melee weapons were beginning to activate. On one side, a burning crimson. On the other, a blinding blue.

They slashed simultaneously.

And, just as they had before, both blades interfered with each other destructively. Containment collapsed, and energy was released uselessly, doing nothing more than simply heating outer plates at the most.

Both of them went backwards, backing off.

Alright, fine. I have to admit it, Arquebus actually did a pretty good job, this time.

Dolmayan was piloting the literal latest design I’d ever made, incorporating the most advanced technologies that I could fit into that frame. It was as much artwork as it was engineering. It surpassed the upgraded BASHO that he’d been using by a very significant margin.

Even so, Freud was keeping up.

Freud’s AC was obviously a completely custom piece. Bespoke from start to finish, with all attention given to performance, costs be damned. It obviously worked, especially in this case, but damn...

I had a pretty damned good grasp on Arquebus’ science and engineering. I’d stolen a hell of a lot of it, over time. This machine was a generation ahead of anything I’d ever seen from them. Performance profiles like that were something I’d normally expect from the Institute, not a Megacorp...

How much had gone into this? How much time, how much effort? It couldn’t have been entirely recent. This... most likely, this was something that had been in development for a while that had been rushed for Freud’s use...

Bold. Often wasteful, since pilots who could get the best out of their machines were rare. In this case, though...

The most perfect, utterly lethal machine in existence would accomplish nothing if the pilot couldn’t make use of it. Freud had the skill. Well, Freud was not just skilled, he lived in a realm of capability that was normally reserved only for the best of the best of literal transhumans. The man was simply Built Different.

But would it be enough?

METS ASTGHIK raised an arm, Coral Rifle spewing beams of crimson. At this close range, dodging wasn’t easy, but Freud did his best regardless, the drones projecting shields to protect against what he couldn’t dodge.

He made a damned good effort, in all honesty. Even the hits that Dolmayan made would have been glancing blows if not for the sheer power of Coral weaponry. Something that, for any other weapon, would have achieved nothing more than surface or cosmetic damage, but for Coral…

A different story.

A few of the blasts got through, and even the undoubtedly advanced armour and materials of Freud’s new AC couldn’t hope to stand up against the Coral beams. They blasted away the structure of the mech, metal sublimating even from the slight graze. Freud reacted by retreating even further backwards, gaining just a bit of distance in order to better dodge the blasts.

Dolmayan swung his Oscillator again, and Freud responded with another Bladewave of his own. Again, the two attacks collided and destabilized, releasing another pulse of energy into the air.

Freud’s old drones emerged again, the entire set emerging to surround his AC. He didn’t hesitate to fire, all twelve of the Drones orientating towards Dolmayan.

METS ASTGHIK moved, blurring through the air as the laser blasts tore through the air where it had been. The aim of the drones shifted, and the next set shot in a far wider dispersal pattern.

For that, the only choice was which shots to take. METS ASTGHIK twisted sideways, presenting as narrow a profile as a ten meter tall war machine could, but after that, it was all up to the Primal Armour.

Blue met red in flashes of light. The barrier withered quickly, Coral particulate scattering under the injection of energy. Lightning spun around the AC in a loose sphere, and a moment later, Dolmayan pushed the Boosters to full.

METS ASTGHIK accelerated forwards in an Assault Boost, building a decent distance in just a moment. The third shot from Freud’s drones came a moment afterwards, and Dolmayan juked to avoid the worst of it.

A few of the beams were still able to penetrate the weakened barrier without much loss in energy. They flashed across the surface of the AC, marking it with laser burns.

Dolmayan cut the Assault Boost, letting his AC fall to the ground. His gun shifted, changing shape slightly, and crimson light visibly began to gather in its barrel.

He spun around a moment later, Back Projectors flicking upwards again.

Another burst of twenty Coral orbs shot out a moment later. This time, however, Freud had no drones to intercept them.

The projectiles curved through the air. Freud went forwards immediately, moving to close the distance again, but that didn’t stop the orbs from following.

They closed quickly, surrounding him and leaving him with no possible escape- and then the Pulse energies started to flicker over the form of his AC.

The Assault Armour went off at just the right time, its blast consuming the entirety of the projectiles, adding their energy to the dangerous Pulse explosion. Dolmayan had already been out of range of it, though, and so it served only to protect him.

Freud came out of the cloud of dangerous energies in a full Assault Boost, charging directly towards METS ASTGHIK.

Dolmayan raised his gun, its barrel now shining with arcs of crimson Coral lightning.

Instinct alone saved Freud’s life. The Boosters of his AC flared an instant before Dolmayan fired.

What emerged from the Coral Rifle this time was not just a simple Coral blast. No, this time it had been a fully charged shot.

The HAL’s WLT 011 Coral Rifle was designed to produce a continuous beam for several seconds. That beam destabilized upon contact with solid matter, vapourizing the points of contact. A simple sweeping motion unleashed a long line of destruction.

The IB-C04_HW-CR-MP was intended for a different purpose. Rather than unleash that energy slowly, it unleashed it all in a single shot. Rather than destabilizing upon contact in order to generate a local blast of Coral, it instead focused on coherency and pure penetration.

From the Coral Rifle came a simple flash of light, a crimson colour so deep that it painted the whole world red.

The right arm of Freud’s AC was not destroyed. It was sublimated, the armour and structure simply going away in the face of enough energy to break molecular bonds.

The blast didn’t stop there. It continued past the AC, and punched straight into the hull of the Warship that had been behind him, and then straight into the glacier behind it.

There was a noise like a growing shriek, and the ice peeled backwards, steam exploding outwards in every direction.

Freud laughed uproariously, pure joy emanating from him. “YES! THIS IS IT! I WANT NOTHING BUT YOUR VERY BEST!”

His ACS reset a moment later, and, of course, he kept going forwards, wholly uncaring of the fact that he’d just lost an arm in an attack that could have ended his life entirely.

This was everything that Freud lived for.

This was everything that Freud would die for.