Chapter 9
The light turned green and Wayne started forward a bit more cautiously than he had at the start of the tournament.
The Walker he was fighting against right now was a Hunter and Wayne would be better off keeping his distance from it.
The last thing he wanted to do was to catch an unlucky hit and get forced into an ugly situation.
Or give the referee an excuse again.
Because there was no telling if the referee was on his side or not. Over the last two days of the tournament since he’d spoken with Dahl, he’d had a few close calls in his fights simply because a referee wanted to rule him out.
Despite the fact that Wayne had been able to continue, the damage was minimal, and the damage hadn’t done much to him.
To the point that he’d demanded a new fight with a different referee, challenging the previous referee to a fight to the death due to his interference.
Wayne had forcefully demanded that no referee ever stop a fight on his behalf again and he’d rather die.
The referee had been ejected at that point and Wayne had been allowed to continue the fight from where it left off.
At which point he’d trounced his opponent completely.
Now he was in the semi-finals and the field was coming to a rapid consolidation of people who were skilled, lethal, and well aware how to fight in this arena.
Ahead he got a blip from his systems as a white-box unfolded around his enemy.
While Wayne didn’t like that his system was giving him a leg up, whatever this Walker was doing wasn’t quite up to code either. There shouldn’t be any active systems able to run right now.
In a bid to prevent external influence or interference, all Walkers were stripped down of the ability to connect to external objects.
That meant this Walker had something on board that was disallowed since Wayne could connect to it.
To be fair though, Arsenic technically is illegal since she can reach out and attack things.
Not like I can turn her off though so… is what it is.
The enemy came out from around the corner and Wayne immediately began hitting it dead center with his laser. Warming up that Glass-Steel so that subsequent hits would have an easier time to cause higher damage.
A few more steps and Wayne was in range to let loose with his cannons, or auto-cannons as they preferred to call them here on Dashi.
Endless rounds began pounding into the enemy cockpit, one after another.
Both arms were firing in unison as Wayne partially turned to the left and kept at the right engagement distance for his Walker in this battle.
He fired off a single rocket just to see if he’d been able to cause any weakening in the structure.
Though it did strike true, it didn’t seem to cause any issues.
All the while there’d been constant instrument light-ups on Wayne’s side of the fight as the enemy’s laser weapons struck him over and over. Heat warnings flaring up rapidly here and there and several indicators that several armor plates had exceeded heat allowances.
Once that happened they tended to shatter or crack much easier.
Then a large number of rockets were launched in a flat pattern. Both kicking off from the Hunter in their load-out rather than in a sequence. Creating a field that was almost the size of Eitchbee.
Letting his point-defense handle the rockets but directing them to the center of the spread, Wayne took a dash forward to close the distance as there was a set narrow point that the rockets would converge.
In only a second or two of time, the laser had knocked out two of the rockets, but there was no time left.
Trusting to the red-lines projected by Sidra and their projected paths he moved.
Wayne slid through the incoming rockets as if it were as simple as moving through a doorway. Splitting the grouping easily and letting Eitchbee take a single strike in the left shoulder.
Though it was a glancing blow and the warhead didn’t actually detonate.
Which only rotated the shoulder of the Eitchbee a fraction and let Wayne roll his Walker left while his legs kept him pumping forward. He didn’t even lose a step, other than the partial shifting of his aimpoint.
Which right now was dead-center of the enemy Walker’s cockpit. The auto-cannon fit for the right hand was endlessly pounding away at the same spot.
Once his aim point came back into line Wayne let loose with three rockets, adding in the laser weapon as it came back into a green range on it’s heat.
Shifting his footwork around as he thought all that, Wayne moved his lower half behind a low rectangle of thick concrete as his opponent attempted to shift downward into a small crater for a partial defilade.
For Wayne that really didn’t do much to counter his aim and abilities.
Pushing harder at Sidra for a moment, Wayne backpedaled a few steps, forcing the enemy to lose part of his own targeting in his defilade, and used his rocket pod to attack.
It was the highest mounted weapon on his Walker which made it the most likely to be able to strike true.
Wayne touched off the entirety of the pod, making micro-adjustments as they fired off so that they’d strike roughly in the same area.
The whoosh of the rockets felt slow, loud, and annoying. The backblast from them, while only micro-sends in time, felt like forever to Wayne. His mind chewing endlessly at Sidra and the Walker like a kid with a jawbreaker.
Shifting his line Wayne moved out behind a large square to move around the wide side and get a better shot on his opponent.
Before he made it halfway to the location a number of his warning lights went off for incoming missiles. The type that were locked onto him rather than dummy fire rockets.
Ducking to the left, stepping in, and rotating the cockpit around, Wayne brought his cockpit around to face his enemy quickly. Attempting to juke the missile if possible but to also give himself a chance for the point defense lasers to knock them out.
Mid turn he saw the incoming trajectory of the missiles and saw they were massive, heading for his cockpit, and coming from the wrong direction.
These weren’t originating from his enemy, but the far side of the arena.
Leveling his laser weapon on the two in front Wayne personally interdicted them. Both going up in an explosion that was worthy of giving Wayne a puckering of his asshole.
The amount of boom that came from those two were much larger than what he would’ve expected from a Combat Walker.
Given the location, missile miss-match to weight class, and direction, this felt like a breach of security in the arena. Someone had broken into the arena and was trying to kill him.
Pushing Eithcbee forward Wayne thrust his mind rough into Sidra to see if anyone would pop up as to an enemy.
“Arsenic, attack!” Wayne demanded as he powered his Walker forward in a sprint. He wanted to close the distance, break contact with his original enemy, and see about finding better cover.
A red box immediately popped up as Arsenic responded in Dashi.
Arsenic: “Yes, my perfect Lord!”
Pulling harder at Sidra than he ever had before, Wayne dug into the Walker as deeply as he could to dig out every scrap of power out of it. Something able to fire a payload that large was easily in the Assault Class to start.
That meant even if Wayne had his full munitions available he’d be outclassed from the get-go. He didn’t have a single rocket in the pod right now and half of his auto-cannon’s ammo in the right arm was spent and a fourth in the left.
Arsenic: “Located! Attacking! Hardened, cannot pierce! It has no comms or connections!”
Wayne only nodded his head at that. It wasn’t that much of a surprise given his luck but he’d been hopeful. The idea that something had managed to get into the arena but had an outside connection was unlikely in the extreme.
He’d bet on it being in a complete communications blackout of some sort. Or that it didn’t even have comms equipment at all.
A red box had appeared in front of him though it didn’t quite match the normal box he’d expected. Clearly Arsenic was modifying the output directly since his normal AI hadn’t been able to pick it up and handle it.
The box was behind a wide and somewhat tall block of obliterated stone.
Wayne had no clear line of sight or ability to hit it, but those missiles had been able to lock on and fire over the top of it.
“Take the perimeter point-defense lasers and direct them!” ordered Wayne. He knew Arsenic could crack into those systems as she’d already done it repeatedly for them to get outside internet and news.
As Wayne pushed forward at speed he watched as all the perimeter defenses began to shift and line up. Moving away from their designated protection areas.
They began firing, the beams vanishing as they passed behind the large rock.
Moving along the edge of the rock Wayne turned the corner, then rapidly shifted to the far side and peeked the corner with the right side of his Walker.
He saw what’d fired at him.
It was a squat quadrupedal Walker that had missile pods on both shoulders, both arms were replaced with cannons, and it had a great deal of bulk to it.
There was no head location, nor anything that would look like a sensor array though there were several odd sections across the torso, above and below the cockpit.
The height of it wasn’t that high, but Wayne would place this in a Dreadnought class.
Heavy Dreadnought class.
The reality was he wouldn’t be able to kill such a thing in the Eitchbee. The missmatch wasn’t just in the weight class, but Wayne simply lacked the weaponry to damage it.
“Target the missile pods,” Wayne commanded and lined up his right auto-cannon and laser weapon on the pod closer to him. He began firing on it and didn’t stop.
His best bet was hoping he could cause the missle launcher to go off in an full explosion. If he could manage that it was likely the best damage he could cause to this thing.
All the laser weapons that’d been used to snipe out rockets, ballistics, or missiles that went wide shifted their fire from the cockpit of the spider-Walker to the missile pods. Hitting them from multiple angles and directions.
The damn thing ignored all of it and turned to face Wayne with a speed he hadn’t expected. Snapping to face him by the time he’d fired his third beam off his energy weapon.
Both arm cannons fired, the pod bays opened, and then everything exploded.
Partly because the cannon shots from the enemy Walker were heavy.
Very heavy.
Both rounds connected with Eitchbee.
One struck the shoulder joint and took the right arm clean off.
The other round went high on the cockpit, cracked it, and caused a spiderweb of cracks across the whole front of the Steel-Glass. Spreading outward from the corner and covering the whole of the front.
Another reason why everything had felt like it was exploding was both of the missile pods on the foe had gone off. In attempting to open and launch, both exposed themselves were targeted.
Ducking away, Wayne got out of sight. The left arm still workable, but the right arm was destroyed outright.
The laser weapon was still functioning, but a lot of the heat dissipation relays wer damaged. It wasn’t going to last long once it started getting up to a fighting temperature.
Standing there beside the rock, Wayne thought on what to do.
How to handle this.
He needed more than what he had but there was nothing else for him to actually utilize.
Lashing his mind to the task he desperately tore through everything and anything that came up as an idea or a possibility.
Yet nothing came to him.
There was no hold out weapon, no exo suit, no medical kit, no explosives, nothing.
All he had was the webbing for his cockpit and his clothes.
Then a singular thought sprang into his mind.
His only move was to engage directly and in a way that would limit the singular weapon this thing had, that he’d seen.
It didn’t have arms that could be used to manipulate anything.
Those monstrous cannons were easily at the level of being field artillery, if not guns suitable to a space-navy.
Much as Cara had pointed out though, that made manipulation of anything impossible.
If the only goal of the Walker in the arena was to kill him, even at the pilots own life, then it needed to get to him and end this swiftly.
Darkest part of a flashlight, right?
Taking in several deep breaths, Wayne steadied himself, unkinked his mind, and tried to push for being calm. Calm, cool, and calculated.
Because he would only get one shot at this and if it failed, that’d be it.
Opening his cockpit, Wayne pulled the remaining arm of the Eitchbee in close. He turned the Walker over to Arsenic who had long ago completely taken it over as she wished.
Wayne released Sidra gently, grabbed the gun barrel, and pulled himself out of the cockpit, though he took the entirety of the webbing, seatbelt, and harness with him.
As he moved, two pairs of handcuffs he kept on his person clattered to the bottom of the cockpit and laid there. Wayne had gotten into the habit of bringing them after having too many encounters when he could’ve used them.
It’d been custom built for him to fit the damn cockpit, which meant it was removable after all. The magnets that they’d used in it to keep him strapped in were electro-magnets and incredibly powerful.
“Put me at the top of the rock, Arsenic,” Wayne requested as he turned off the cockpit-harness. Letting the magnets depower. “Then pilot this thing away so that damn spider-bot looks at you and I can make a move. Also, make sure you keep connected to the laser defense in case an opportunity presents itself!”
Arsenic: “Understood!”
The barrel tip lifted up and Wayne was able to reach the top of the rock. Scrambling up to the top of it he got down low.
Glancing back, he watched as Arsenic closed Eitchbee’s cockpit, then started moving away, but near to the rock. Putting itself into a visible spot to lure in the enemy.
Keeping himself low to the rock, Wayne began to shift forward to where the redbox still was. His cybernetic eye providing him with a constant stream of information from Arsenic despite the fact he was moving away from Eitchbee.
As if realizing that Wayne was attempting to move to attack in the Walker, the enemy Walker moved close into the rock and began to move backward.
It was taking the near angle and would be able to line it’s shot with the wall once Eitchbee peeked the corner.
Breathing roughly, Wayne moved at a hunched walk over to the location the foe was in. Keeping himself as low as possible in the doing of it.
Reaching the edge, he peered off and saw the enemy quadruped below him.
Both missile pods had been blown clear off.
Though there didn’t seem to be much more than a blackening of the armor of the Walker. It’d taken the explosions as if they were little more than an excuse to update the paint scheme.
Taking in a quivering breath, Wayne knew this was the now or never point.
Such a chance wasn’t going to make itself known again to him.
Then, he jumped.
Launching himself for the spider-bot.
He struck the flat top of the thing and stuck the landing pretty well.
While it felt incredibly stupid, he shimmied down the back of it, put the harness across himself, turned on the magnets, then laid down across the top of the Walker.
All six points of the harness activated against the Walker and Wayne was effectively locked into place.
He could partially see down the front of it from where he was, which was rather nice.
There was no way he could have beaten this damn walker in a fight.
He simply didn’t have the firepower or armor to survive an engagement with it.
The best he could do in this situation was to hide and stall for time.
But that likely wasn’t on his side given this thing was here.
Nor that anyone had intervened at all so far.
“I wonder if Cara, Arsenic, or the Dashi will think this is cowardly,” Wayne asked no one as the Walker he was now attached to went absolutely still.
Then it began turning to the left rather than chasing after where Arsenic had piloted the Eitchbee.
Once it turned a hundred and eighty degrees it paused. Shifting slightly one direction, then the other. As if it were seeking him.
Or his voice.
It has no external cameras or sensors?
But it has a microphone.
It doesn’t know where I am.
“Shush, it might have a microphone,” Wayne whispered as if nervous. “Get more in the middle, away from the legs.”
Staring down the front of the Walker, Wayne just hung there. Wondering what would happen.
The Walker didn’t have the hands or arms it would need to catch him when he was this close. At the moment, given the distance, Wayne was as safe as could be.
So long as he kept himself where he was, where the torso couldn’t target him, or the Walker couldn’t see him, it was fine.
Lifting itself up, the Walker began slamming itself down into the ground. Splaying it’s legs out and grinding itself against the ground.
Well… maybe… maybe not safe.
If it thinks I’m on the top, it might try to scrape me off against a wall.
Holy shit.
Wayne said nothing.
Did nothing.
He just laid there, watching as the Walker did it’s very best to make sure the entirety of it’s underside had been ground against the ground or the rock.
After a good ten seconds of this, it finally got back up to a standing position. It lifted it’s legs one by one to inspect the underside of them.
Eventually it put the legs back down, the arm cannons shifted positions a bit, then went still. As if the pilot were considering what to do next.
It spun around the other way, seemed to confirm where it was fairly certain Eitchbee went, and went still again.
With a clank, a part of the front of the Walker began to open.
Are they opening the cock pit to check if I’m dead?
What the hell?
Is the goal that strong for them?
My death matters that much that they’d break cockpit security?
Wayne undid the magnets, partially slid out of the harness, and waited.
If he got a chance to ambush them, he was absolutely going to take it.
Most cockpits swung to one side or another.
Opening upwards, or downwards, could be horrifically problematic if the Walker became unpowered, or gravity became strange.
So when it opened up downward as if the cockpit were a ramp to be used to get in or out, Wayne was a bit surprised. It just wasn’t good tactics considering the possibilities.
I mean, I’ve done dumber things to accomplish goals or mission parameters.
I can’t really talk.
This is nothing more—
The pilot began easing themselves out of the cockpit. In the leading hand was a small weapon that looked like a pistol or a very compact PDW or SMG.
They were dressed in a brown and white pressure suit and it seemed to stretch around them. Almost as if they were expecting space to be an issue, or that they came from space.
On a dark launch just as Wayne had done.
From what he could see, they didn’t seem that big.
But that could be the angle and distance that Wayne was currently at.
It didn’t matter though. This was the opportunity he sought.
If he wasn’t quick enough Arsenic might drop the pilot with a laser-shot. Having someone to question was exactly what they needed right now.
Turning off the magnets, Wayne quietly stood up, braced himself, then jumped down.
With a boom he slammed into the back of the pilot, knocking them to the ground.
Laying his bulk down across the pilot, Wayne grabbed their wrists, went somewhat slack, and let his full weight press down on the pilot who was face down on the ramp.
“Holy fuck,” Wayne got out even as the pilot writhed, flexed, and heaved themselves around on the ground. The man was putting out a fair bit of strength but Wayne’s bulk, size, and muscle was just too much.
All he had to do now, was wait for someone to come over.