Embers After Flames, Chapter 11.4 (Patreon)

11.4

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Freud’s drones streamed out again, moving once more to orbit his AC. He held off on firing for the moment, however.

Instead, it was his blade that lit up again.

Dolmayan obliged, his own blade flaring. Both of them made simultaneous flicks, sending a pair of preliminary Bladewaves at each other. Another detonation occurred, but Freud didn’t care, and he simply went straight through it.

The smoke and debris provided at least some cover for his drones, though. Without warning, twelve shots lanced out simultaneously, again in a wide spread pattern.

Dolmayan moved between them, turning his AC to the left this time. It was the less damaged side of his armour- and much more importantly, it left his rifle in position to attack.

Crimson bolts chased back into the cloud. There was a flash of light, a capacitor detonation, and the next volley of Laser blasts was only eleven strong.

Freud emerged from the cloud wreathed in plasma lightning and remnant Coral. An intimidating sight, to be certain.

His blade ignited again. This time, he didn’t stop at just a flick of a Bladewave. Instead, his AC’s Boosters ignited, and the machine shot forwards with lethal intent.

Dolmayan didn’t hesitate to meet him head on.

Blue and red clashed again, and just like last time, the result was simple destabilization, energy crackling everywhere that it wasn’t useful.

Freud’s drones angled. Dolmayan’s projectors raised.

From that close, there was no way to dodge all the shots. Dolmayan did his best, but a large portion of the left side of his Core armour melted away under the power of the strikes, with only the Primal Armour stopping it from being something dangerously close to lethal.

It wasn’t without cost, however.

Coral Lightwave orbs streamed out. Their target was not Freud’s AC, but instead the drones surrounding it.

They juked as best as they could, miniaturised thrusters firing as they tried to move out of the way. If they had been targeted by anything other than Coral Lightwave orbs, they probably would have managed it. As it was, however…

The drones tried to shift out of the way, but the things seeking them were even more maneuverable. The result was predictable.

The drones were obliterated, the orbs finding their targets and promptly detonating upon them, unleashing the energy they contained. Only one was required for each of the drones, however, and that left nine free orbs to take a different target.

They split as evenly as they could, and promptly targeted the attachments that connected the drone bay to the AC.

Four slammed into the left Unit, and five slammed into the right. Neither withstood it, and Freud’s AC lurched as the explosions went off directly on its back.

Freud did not stop laughing.

His AC kicked forwards, Boosters igniting on the Legs and Core, driving a foot forwards into METS ASTGHIK.

Dolmayan reacted in time to get an arm up, turning his AC and redirecting the limb to the side. That couldn’t stop all the momentum, though, and the AC itself shortly slammed into METS ASTGHIK.

“This is it!” Freud shouted. “This is how it should be!”

His Boosters ignited. Dolmayan didn’t let him go. METS ASTGHIK dropped its Coral Rifle, and its hand caught the shoulder of the other mech. METS ASTGHIK pulled, leveraging its greater strength and weight from having all limbs.

Freud’s AC was propelled by its own Boosters, and it spun around METS ASTGHIK. It slammed into the ground with a thunderous crash of groaning metal.

METS ASTGHIK’s leg raised. Freud’s AC ignited its Boosters again just in time to avoid having the other mech slam its foot into its Head. The sole remaining arm was raised in the same movement, the blade igniting as it swung.

Dolmayan went sideways, just in time to avoid the worst of the Laser Bladewave as it went past. The edge of it still bit into the armour of one of METS ASTGHIK’s leg, but that was ignorable damage.

Freud’s AC was rising again, Boosters flaring as it tried to get back upright.

Dolmayan wasn’t having it.

The Coral Oscillator charged, and Dolmayan swung towards Freud. Freud Quick Boosters to the side, of course, but his entire AC was still on an angle. Rather than going neatly horizontally, it went diagonally, and that was the same angle that Dolmayan had launched his Bladewave at.

It caught Freud’s AC directly across the chest.

Surging Coral burned through it. Metal vapourised, the armour superheated so quickly that it literally detonated from the sudden increase in energy. A little lower, and it would have gone straight through the Core-Legs joint. A little higher, and it would have severed the Head from the Core entirely.

As it was, it caught the densest, most heavily armoured part of the entire AC.

Freud’s AC crashed against the ground again, a great red gash weeping molten metal across it, so hot that the metal was literally on fire.

Vents opened across the frame, immediately discharging superheated gouts of air and sucking in the cold atmosphere, the mech trying to cool itself. An automated response, and for a moment, I wondered if that was it.

Had the cockpit been damaged? Had the pilot cradle been breached? Had the extreme heat compromised it?

Then the mech twitched, before the left arm pushed against the ground and the entire mech turned over.

Steam rushed out into the air with a loud, whistling hiss as the front of mech pressed into the snow and ice. It stayed like that for a few seconds, before the vents all over the machine began to close.

“I never did get the name of your AC.” Dolmayan spoke.

Freud’s AC shifted, pushing off the ground as it began to rise.

The damage it had taken was immediately visible. The gash across the Core was wide and deep.The Core Block was exposed and breached, the internals avoiding major damage through what I could only assume was sheer dumb luck.

“DEEP PRACTICE.” Freud elaborated.

Dolmayan allowed himself a chuckle. “A good name.” He decides.

The Coral Oscillator began to charge, crimson lightning beginning to compress in front of it.

DEEP PRACTICE raises its blade, briefly pulsing its activation to test that it was functional. Against all odds, it was.

The Coral Oscillator finished charging- and then it opened up, expanding as even more Coral began to gather inside the already compressed mass.

“There are still things to see?” Freud asked, genuine wonder in his voice. “Yes. Show me!”

“I will.” Dolmayan stated.

DEEP PRACTICE’s Blade ignited. The AC, ruined as it was, still moved to Freud’s will, and threw itself at his opponent, swinging the blade with lethal intent.

Dolmayan did not swing. He thrusted.

The compressed orb of Coral shot forwards faster than a human could blink.

There was a flicker of red light. The orb went straight forwards, and it went straight into the Core Block of DEEP PRACTICE.

Crimson burned from the AC’s back, Coral spilling outwards through the air, lightning arcing between the particles. The blast of fire was almost constrained in comparison, but that was a trick. The dense orb had punctured, and most of its energy hadn’t been released, yet.

DEEP PRACTICE kept going forwards, but that was nothing but momentum. It fell to the ground, and slid across the ice, its posture unchanging.

METS ASTGHIK raised its right hand, and just as DEEP PRACTICE began to tip over, Dolmayan caught it and halted its momentum.

In the skies above, the orb finally lost containment.

Crimson light coloured the world for a moment, casting everything into a deep red colour. The shockwave that came from the sound it made came shortly afterwards, rumbling angrily.

The light faded. The sound stopped.

METS ASTGHIK stepped back. DEEP PRACTICE stayed upright.

“... Alright.” Seria spoke. “I’ll admit it. That was really cool.”

The CEL 240 she was piloting landed gently on the ground. It crouched, slightly, and one hand picked up the Coral Rifle that Dolmayan had discarded earlier.

Dolmayan took it when she offered it. The weapon shifted slightly as it went through a brief check for damage, annd then reactivated fully. “I’ve never had a battle quite like that.” He admitted. “Loathe as I am to give a Corpo anything, I can’t find it in myself to dislike Freud.”

“Well… was he really Corpo?” Seria asked. “He certainly didn’t seem to be in it for greed… unless you consider a desire for interesting fights greed, anyway.”

“Perhaps.” Dolmayan considered. “I do apologize, Seria. I know that you desired to fight alongside me, but my selfishness has damaged my machine severely. To continue in this state-”

“Oh, don’t worry.” Seria interrupted. “I wanted to fight alongside you because you were fighting. Not for the sake of fighting.” She sighed. “... And it was a cool battle.”

He chuckled. “Drich?”

“Closing the mission.” I responded. “Stay put. I’ll get the transport to you. We’ll load up Freud’s mech as well, see what Arquebus has worked out this time.”

METS ASTGHIK’s head turned towards DEEP PRACTICE. “That might be a little difficult.” He spoke, after a moment.

There wasn’t that much left of DEEP PRACTICE, so… yeah. Probably right.

On the other hand, we had two Legs, a Head, and one Arm that were mostly undamaged, so that was a decent amount of the movement and actuation systems already there. The Core internals were interesting, certainly, and I’d have liked to take a look inside the Core Block itself, but that wasn’t going to happen.

At least the Drone Units had survived. Mostly. The connectors were fucked, but the rest of the Units were still present. Those were really interesting.

Ah well. Something for later.

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Okay.

Freud was dead, and the most dangerous thing that Arquebus was likely to have access to was gone with him. For Arquebus, that left Snail, Hawkins, Maeterlinck, Swinburne, and Pater for their available AC pilots. Balam had Michigan, Nile, Wu Huahai, Volta, Iguazu, and Red.

Snail was the most skilled of the remaining pilots for Arquebus, but all the rest were mediocre at best. Balam had Michigan and Nile for their list of pilots that were actually pretty good, and the others were again relatively mediocre.

Arquebus under Snail was a shitshow waiting to happen. Balam under Michigan remained pretty damned strong since the man wasn’t likely to waste his forces unnecessarily. Arquebus operated more through fear and dangled rewards than actual, genuine loyalty that Michigan usually managed to inspire… if you weren’t Wu Huahai and Iguazu.

With Freud out of the way and not balancing the scales, the earlier consideration I’d had was now firmly left in favour of one side.

I sent a comms request. Walter picked it up a few seconds later. “It’s time.”

I heard a brief grunt, before a secondary channel opened up.

“Raven.” I spoke, both directly to Raven and also with the synthesized voice so that Walter could listen in. “I’ve got a job for you. If all goes well, it should be the last job you’ll receive for this whole thing.” I sent a few files over the line, waiting a moment for them to open up. “If you’ve been keeping up with the news, you’ll know that we recently destroyed the vast majority of PCA forces. The remnants are already being hunted down, but that still leaves two rather large problems on Rubicon.”

A pair of logos showed up on the screen. “Arquebus and Balam settled in and fortified their positions in the face of the PCA. Now that the PCA is gone, they’re still present, with the vast majority of their forces located in their own bases.” A pair of Grids were displayed, marked with their numbers and given logos to indicate which is which. “I intend to assault both. I would like you to join that assault.”

For each logo, six smaller images appeared underneath, the symbols for each pilot. “I had intended to offer you the choice on which one to hit, but Dolmayan took out V.I Freud earlier today. That leaves Arquebus undermanned, but Balam at full strength. I want to task you with joining the attack on Balam’s position. It’ll be one hell of a fight, but you’ve handled everything so far just fine.”

Arquebus’s entire side of things vanished, and Balam’s expanded, offering a bit more information. “So.” I began. “You feeling up for something dangerous?”