Chapter 7
Wayne ended up wishing for the tournament to occur faster.
With every fiber of his being, with every moment spent stuck in a meeting, every tick of the clock, he wanted the tournament.
Over the last three days he had done nothing but sit in meetings, provide information, listen to Wendy talk, or listen to the Dashi envoys talk.
While Wendy was a new addition to the MDF through the House of Hesh, she came prepared. Prepared and ready to negotiate every single possible point of this trip and how they could help one another.
Up until this point, most of the conversation between the envoys of each nation had been somewhat cold and aloof. In using House Hesh, or more accurately Warrior Wayne Hesh and Warrior Cara, doors had opened that had never been opened before.
Surprisingly, both sides seemed to have an intense appetite for trade. With both of them demanding trade stations, border points, and joint trade enclaves.
It was almost as if the war had brought them closer rather than further apart. Though given the disposition of the Blood of Dashi, that wasn’t really a far fetched thought.
Looking out at the long line of Combat class Walkers, he was glad it was something he could actually participate in. During the trade negotiations and diplomatic nonsense he was mostly just there to justify the conversation at all.
“I’m kind of surprised they’ll let me join the tournament,” Barbie confessed from his left. “I really just asked because this has been horribly boring. We’re not even allowed to go sightseeing or exploring. Just cooped up in the palace or a meeting room.”
“Tell me about it,” Wayne grumbled and walked up to a rather ugly looking Typhoonwolf. The weapons were mounted on the sides of the arms and it had a strange hunched like frame.
He’d never piloted one before but he’d seen them often enough to know that they were a disgustingly versatile Walker. All their attachment points were omni and had a lot of space to fit nearly everything on board.
The cockpit on it was conical in a way that allowed it to shift and slide rounds coming in to other parts or just away, rather than taking them head on.
It’s only lack was that it was a Combat class. Putting it into something it’s own weight class was a great way to win, but that over-confidence could lead it to attacking things it really shouldn’t.
That and it was often piloted by Blood pilots, more so than Confed pilots.
“I like the Typhoonwolf. I’m thinking I’ll pilot one for my own fights. The variants they have are all laser based and I’m a fair hand with those,” Barbie offered from beside him.
Glancing at the platinum blonde, Wayne grinned at her and looked back to the Typhoonwolf. He had the sudden opinion that Warrior Barbie Chestnut might become a thing if she over-performed here.
Which she likely would.
She was actually a very good Walker pilot.
With the implant he’d personally paid for her to get, she’d become much more deadly since she no longer needed to rely completely on physical controls.
“I will pilot a Medved,” Cara declared and turned her head to look at a Walker across the way. It used two sets of heavy claws, one for each hand, and a series of lasers.
Given Cara’s recent penchant for melee combat, that really wasn’t much of a surprise.
“I want a Honey-badger,” Wayne stated and walked over to where that particular Walker was standing.
It was a fairly humanoid looking Walker. There was a large rocket pod on it’s shoulder, the right arm was a literal cannon that fired more akin to a machine gun, and the left could hold a weapon, attach one, or be modified to become another cannon.
There were also a few hard points to attach a laser or two, to it.
It was a robust Walker that had high speed, maneuverability, and a good weapons platform. Wayne felt like he could pilot it well and that it’d feel similar to things he’d already worked with.
“I’m not surprised. Of course you’d want a middle-of-the-road thing,” Barbie said with a laugh.
“I like having a big toolbox,” countered Wayne.
“Ah, right? I really should get my toolbox fixed up, too. I hate standing next to Miri or Tink,” Barbie whined. Then she glanced at Cara. Then looked back to Wayne. Cara wasn’t as heavily up front as the others, but bigger than Barbie. “Think I’ll need some medical leave.”
“Get it done here,” suggested Cara. “Recovery time on the trip back would likely be the same.”
Barbie made a strangled noise at that, then laughed.
Without waiting, she turned and jogged off.
Wayne watched her got and looked back to the Walkers.
“Warrior Hesh,” called a voice from his right. “We’ve received your request to equip the chip into the Walker of your choice. After examining it, we feel that it’s something we can make happen.
“Your willingness to supply multiple’s made it much easier to confirm they’re all the same. We’ll make one available to your opponent every time just in case they feel like you’re getting something they’re not.”
“Yeah, it’s just to protect any AI on board and let me operate it as a Lode and Ghost Speaker,” Wayne said after turning to look at the approaching man. He looked fairly mundane and nothing out of the ordinary, though his Confed was very good.
Since word had spread that he was a Ghost Speaker, there was a lot more difference being given to him, but also a lot more security.
When he’d come in to look over the Walkers, they’d cleared the armory of everyone else first. They were treating him very differntly.
“I want the Honey-badger,” Wayne stated and pointed at it.
“Good! Your match will begin in one hour, give or take depending on how fast other things go,” answered the man and looked at Cara. “Warrior Fahleigh, your own match is in an hour and thirty minutes. Your Medved has been prepared as you requested.”
“Good,” Cara stated then grinned at Wayne. “You will likely meet my family during the matches. The Pureblood was willing to invite them into the VIP viewing area.”
“Actually, the Pureblood requested the training area for Warrior Hesh to prepare himself,” countered the man, looking to Wayne. “Would you like that?”
“Yes,” Wayne said immediately. He very much wanted to practice a bit before his match. He wasn’t sure how different the Dashi Walker would be.
The last time he’d been in one, he hadn’t been able to understand much of it at all.
***
“Are Dashi just small?” complained Wayne as he leaned to the side. Then he shoved on the arm rest.
It creaked dangerously, then bent partially. Turning away from him.
“You’re just large, my Perfect Lord,” Arsenic answered.
“Cara complained of that the other day,” added Sidra followed by a laugh. “Sex is weird. Well, less weird than previously.
“Thank you for watching that sex video the other day with us, Wayne. It’s a lot easier to understand and comprehend when we can visualize it.”
Wayne only nodded his head as he shifted the Honey-badger around. Moving it this way and that. Letting his mind flex, bend the Walker, and push it.
He’d woken up in the middle of the night with nightmares while everyone else was asleep. Sidra and Arsenic were always awake of course so he’d just started watching things on his phone with them.
Which eventually turned into them wanting to see a porno with him. They had both been work AI’s that were sentient. They didn’t get exposed to the internet or things outside of their purview.
“How different are AI?” Wayne asked. “I know they have their own classifications.”
“Very different. Depending on where it was grown, with what data, and by who,” Sidra answered. “My entire product line was made in a similar way, yet I became sentient, the others didn’t. I’m not a high class AI, nor is Arsenic, but we’re not bottom tier either.”
“Neat. So there could be some AI that are really terrifying,” Wayne summarized.
“Yes,” Arsenic confirmed. “Also, we received the go signal. Start moving down the hall.”
Taking in a short breath, Wayne held it and started the Honey-badger forward.
It didn’t have a name other than HB-42. Wayne was about to start calling it Eitchbee if he ended up piloting it for a while.
Moving from a walk to a jog, Wayne moved through the tunnel quickly and with an aggressive speed.
While he’d been warming up, he’d heard a lot of explosions, gunfire, and the roar and cheer of crowds. As well as an announcer shouting in Dashi here and there.
Unable to help himself, Wayne felt his mouth curling into a smile.
His hands had a slight tremble to them and his heart was speeding up. Pounding inside his chest even as he stared ahead intently at just a set of doors.
“I’m going to be a Walker jock,” Wayne whispered. “I’m going to actually compete in a Dashi circus.”
“Indeed! Feel proud my perfect Lord,” Arsenic put in with some heat. “You will be performing in the priomh-circus of Dashi. This is where all the competitors wish to be.
“This is where only the best of the best will gather for this Warrior Tournament. Sponsored by the Trueblood, held in honor of the visiting Warrior Hesh, and broadcast to all of Dashi! Many young ones will watch today and feel the thrill of the battle through you.”
“There’s even an external cockpit view!” Sidra added helpfully.
The doors opened in front of Wayne.
They started slowly then started moving very quickly as if they realized he was coming at a rate faster than a walk.
Wayne came out of the tunnel and into the bright light of day. It poured in from above into his cockpit, piercing through the Glass-Steel and giving him a sense of warmth.
He was standing in a large circular area that was easily the size of four or five football fields. A large area that would make the Walkers seem smaller, but also still visible, for the crowd all around him.
Set at the perimeter of the arena was a very thick pane of Steel-Glass that ran the entirety of the arena. Protecting everyone from any munitions that might miss or go high, while not being intercepted by the point-defense laser systems at the edges.
Throughout the arena were geometric obstacles, positions to take cover, break line of sight, or lay out an angle and hold from.
There were some open areas as well as a water feature as well.
It was in a strange mimicry of urban warfare through ruins.
Standing there, Wayne looked up to the crowd and around himself. He could see a number of broadcasting drones that would likely be recording the whole thing and playing it out to everyone.
Then he was struck by the roar.
The pounding and shouting of the crowd as they cheered his arrival.
Unable to help himself, Wayne held up both of his arms above himself. Each had been modified into an auto-cannon that’d fire heavy shells in a similar style to a machine gun.
Unbelievably, the crowd had more to give him.
At his raised arms the volume went up and his gyro-sensors told him there was minor movement nearby through the ground.
Knowing Dashi as well as he did now, he knew this wasn’t just a tournament. It was a challenge of sorts.
One he needed to declare openly.
Triggering his external speakers and maximizing their volume output and opening the microphone channel he took a breath.
“I am the Warrior Hesh! Of House Hesh!” Wayne called out. “I am the husband of the princess, Warrior Cara Fahleigh is my Handfast woman, I am a Ghost Speaker of Dashi, and have spoken at great length with Tadhg, and I am here to claim the right to lead a Dashi army!
“I want to take a Dashi army and ram it down the throat of House Hawke who treacherously launched an assassination attack upon me, my wife, and my Handfast Warrior Fahleigh!
“We shall join hands with Mirkil and destroy Hawke! Your loot shall be proportional to your work, I will take none! Your glory will be yours, I do not need it! Your names shall gain Warrior titles and perhaps even Mirkil awards or medals!
“I will lead you to glorious battle in the defense of a foe who defeated you, showed you great respect for the war, and let it end with high estimation!
“That is why I am here! I am challenging for the very right to take you into a battle! For that reason I am here! For that reason I will hold nothing back! I will do my best to crush everyone in front of me!
“I will put forth my greatest effort in every fight to show you I am here to earn your respect and your sword! Because a Dashi’s ability to fight is unquestioned and I desire it!”
As he’d spoken, a direct translation was being provided for him by Arsenic, who had modulated the sound to be a near perfect imitation of his own voice as if he were speaking Dashi.
When he finished speaking he turned off the comms and Wayne let his arms down. Without another word he moved out to the starting point he’d been directed to take.
At his words, the crowd had gone into a stunned silence.
There was no response, no applause, no calls of any sort.
As quiet as a tomb.
“Did I piss them off?” Wayne growled as he got into position.
“No. You challenged them,” Arsenic answered. “They have received your challenge. It was given to every person in Dashi from Warrior Hesh. Dashi is no longer here just for sport, but to see a challenge the likes of which they have only heard of in tales.
“If this goes the way I expect, there will be many her who try to take heirlooms away from the circus. To make sure they can say ‘this is from that day’, my perfect lord.”
A red light in his cock pit turned orange.
Signaling that his opponent had indicated they were ready. They had arrived before Wayne.
“Throw the green light, Arsenic. Then get ready,” Wayne ordered.
Arsenic sent a positive response to the referee.
“Am I going to be grabbed, too?” asked Sidra.
Then Wayne realized something.
Sidra was a physics monster.
Astro-physics, but physics.
He chuckled to himself.
“Actually, change of plans. Sidra, you’re getting turned into a puppet. Arsenic, you’re my battle buddy,” Wayne declared a second before the light turned green.
Not wasting time, he started piloting his Walker forward at a sprint.
As he did, he took hold of Sidra, subsumed her, and forced her into the same shape he’d often worn Arsenic in. Turning her into his control bar for the Walker and it’s systems.
The world sped up, Wayne felt his mind burn with speed and control, and the Walker instantly react to his actions.
He also immediately he felt a difference from his AI companion.
Arsenic was responsive and quick to his needs, but her base functions were in cyber-security and warfare.
Sidra was something that was constantly extrapolating, plotting, and generating mathematical solutions. While also remaining quick to his needs and responsive.
In the few seconds he’d already taken hold of her, his previous ability to see the plots of objects in motion became much more.
The drones were tracked and plotted out.
Eitchbee’s movement and projected location became a yellow line.
Even the dirt kicked up in his movements received a faint glittering semi-opaque cloud.
Tuning all that out through Sidra he was able to dial it in to only what was coming toward them.
Ahead of him a blue-line appeared as a rock skittered out from behind a large rectangle.
Except in the next second, Sidra had managed to extrapolate where it came from, how it was likely launched, and Wayne now had an idea of where the Walker he was facing was.
Turning hard to the right, Wayne felt Eitchbee move smoothly. It reminded him of his early work with Patchwork and how it handled his needs.
Not perfect, but with precision and smoothness.
Pushing out past the object Wayne turned outward, hitched the cockpit left, and began moving in a semi-circle around the last known position of his enemy.
Turning his focus and awareness into the point the Walker might and should be.
Only to end up finding himself directly in their line of sight as his own reticles lined up on them. Red lines shooting outward from the enemies armaments and intersecting with Wayne and Eitchbee.
Planting his left foot, Wayne cranked the servos to break, pivoted his right foot, swung his hips, and turned in the span of one step. All while keeping his weapons lock clean on the enemy Walker.
They committed to a Launch, firing everything at the exact same time.
Wayne had simply decided to not be in the spot they were firing at.
What he was looking at as an enemy was a Typhoonwolf.
Aiming high and to it’s shoulder, rather than it’s cockpit, Wayne started firing his cannons. Interspersed between those auto-cannon shots, he let loose with a rocket, then another, then another, then another.
Timing them all so that the Typhoonwolf would constantly be jerked up and to the right.
Trying to fire at that conical cockpit was far more likely to let it shed munitions to either side of it, rather than take the hit full on. So he simply didn’t even try.
Timing the rocket hits with the projected return of center for the Typhoonwolf’s weapons, Wayne was able to keep it more or less stunlocked. Trying to turn back to center even as it’s systems kept getting pulled away.
Wayne had shifted his approach though and was now running straight at the enemy at a full sprint. Letting his mind propel the Eitchbee as if it were the round leaving the barrel instead of it’s weapons.
Part of the Typhoon’s shoulder blew off and took a large portion of it’s platform with it. Eliminating a large part of the Walker’s weapon payload.
The timing worked out for Wayne anyways. He was already at the point of no return on his charge. He was indeed now the bullet.
Sidra projected his path and he watched in real time as it lined up on the Typhoonwolf and the red lines of his foe landed on Eitchbee.
Pushing the Walker, Wayne shifted downward, bringing the bulk of the Walker in low.
Under almost all of the enemy’s next Launch attack, save for a single laser that pinged off the top of Wayne’s shoulder mounted rocket launcher.
Wayne had kept a wary eye on the projection from Sidra. He wanted to launch himself up and into the Typhoonwolf. Under that stupid bulbous nose of it to send it flying backward.
Turning his movements into an upward slant, he watched as the projection point intersected with the enemy exactly where he wanted it to be.
And in the next moment he blew into the Typhoonwolf at full speed.
It was rocketed of it’s feet a short ways backward and lost it’s ability to maintain an upright position. It’s legs and feet came out from under it and it slammed into the dirt.
Not waiting, Wayne lept atop the downed Typhoonwolf and began pounding the gun barrels of the autocannon into the cockpit over and over.
In his mind all he could see was when Cara had torn the pilot out herself.
His thoughts didn’t quite catch up to the part that this was just a tournament match and not life or deaht, or that his Walker didn’t even have hands. He just kept pummeling away at the cockpit.
“He just surrendered!” Arsenic yelled, causing Wayne to instantly freeze. The light that’d been green was now a flashing red.
Releasing his hold on Sidra slowly he came back to his right mind.
He wasn’t fighting for his life. This was all a tournament.
A show.
Pagentry of a sort.
Staring down from his cockpit into the opposing cockpit, Wayne could see the pilot had their hands up. As high as they could go.
They were also screaming or babbling, Wayne couldn’t tell.
With a grunt, Wayne got off the Typhoonwolf and then marched back to the hall he’d come from. He didn’t stand around to pose or lord his victory over the foe.
Wayne just walked out.
The crowd behind him was absolutely silent as he did so.
He wasn’t sure if that was good, or bad, but he’d clearly gotten everyone’s attention.
“How was that, Arsenic?” Wayne asked as he moved into the darkness of the corridor.
“Savage, brutal, swift, and without a hint of hesitation,” Arsenic responded, sounding rather annoyed. “I am certain that you will be the highlight reel for the day if that is your only match today. They will understand that you are truly here to take them as a commander and your challenge was given with absolute conviction.”
“Am… am I dead?” Sidra whimpered, though it sounded more like a moan in some ways. “I somehow ache. That was painful. Or… pleasurable? I don’t know.”
“It’s pleasure,” Arsenic replied, sounding deeply wounded. “Pleasure and that’s not your man, it’s my man.”
“Can we do it again?” Sidra whispered, then made an odd noise. Almost like she took a shuddering breath, but she didn’t breathe. “Testing. Yes. We need to test. I now understand why Arsenic needed so much practice and testing.”