The White Glint was a smoldering mess with white hot flames marking the spot where it once stood. Grey smoke rose up towards the high ceiling. The C-dog units were barely functional. Ryuki's unit was mission killed, unable to do anything useful ever again. It lay in a growing pool of brown hydraulic fluid, like the scene of a gruesome murder.
Ryuki banged on the hatch but it wouldn't open. The pilot deck was slick with a thin layer of fuel, making whatever effort to open the hatch useless. His hands slipped off the handles without any firm footing to work with. The control panel had gone dark and so did the communication equipment. With no way to get out or to call his team, he sat their in the dark with noxious fumes slowly suffocating him.
His vision began to fade as he he slowly drifted from consciousness. Brief regrets surfaced on his mind, the people he left behind and the life he took for granted. He chuckled when he realized his collection of super robot chogokin toys would go unloved. There was a sound of muffled shouting reverberating through the steel cage of his pilot deck. It didn't matter, he thought, it was time to get some shut eye.
Sparks burned through the hatch. Metal blistered and melted as the spark traced the hatch's perimeter. The hinges and locking bolts burst into tiny fires. A loud clang vibrated through the hatch. Silence followed for a few moments before an explosive force blew out the for corners of the hatch. The whining of a massive motor woke Ryuki from his sleep.
The hatch burst open into the dim darkness. A red shoulder loomed over him with its battered plating and stripped paint. The distant motor rumbled again and pulled the hatch right off. A bright light shone through the new opening into Ryuki's eyes. He raised his hand to block the light from his unaccustomed eyes. A pair of hands emerged from the bright white light and grabbed onto his arm.
Sounds of labor reached his ears. Loud voices spoke over him while he stayed seated. Then a strong tug pulled him up. More hands grasped onto him . One more heave pulled him right out and into the relatively crisp air. Cold water splashed on his face with a few drops reaching his parched throat.
Light tapping on his face soon turned to hard slaps. He coughed a bit of fuel out and gasped for air. Sight and hearing cascaded into sensory overload before he could adjust to his return to the living world. "LT , how many fingers am I holding".
Ryuki blurted out several numbers that weren't close to the amount of fingers being flashed in front of him. "Alright, he's alive but we're gonna need to get evac , like right now" , the communications officer said. Ryuki recognized his face and blurted out to him "Barry, we need to haul this crate up to the surface".
"Sir , we got two units left functional. There is no way we can haul this thing on our own", Barry replied as he applied a splint to Ryuki's neck. Strength returned to Ryuki's voice. "Call down an orbital strike" ,he said.
They were stunned. Barry shook his head, while Ross sat with his jaw slack. "To hell with that man,I want outta this place" screamed Ken. Karin, the field technician stood there with a grim look on her face as she put the plasma cutter back into her repair kit.
"If we can't get out of here with this crate then we'll blow it up and everything else around us. That's the alternative", he said trying to convince himself.
The Earth Federation had formed after the nuclear war had wiped out half the planet. It launched the first fleet of sub-light ships to colonize the stars, along with the EFSF. In under a hundred years a wide network of colonies were encompassed under the Earth Federation's tight grip. The colonies suffered under the iron fist of the EFSF.
A faction of indignant colonists formed their own military to fight for independence. They called themselves the Zeonic Confederacy. Their elite troops, the Jade Falcons ,were notoriously cruel and destructive. The Jade Falcons deftly used the experimental NEXT mechs to decimate the aging Federation forces.
While the EF still used the aging battlemechs that it had for centuries, Zeon progressed to advanced humanoid robotics. They built their machines with more flexibility than even the Mad Kat couldn't fight off. While the batlemechs would run out of ammunition, the Zeon's mechanized armors would scavenge the battlefield and steal weapons right from the dead hulks. Their small forms allowed them to dodge many of even the fasted battlemechs. Many a fleet footed Raven met doom at the barrel of a Zaku II mechanized armor, out maneuvered decisively. And where guns and missiles were spent , the iron fist would mete out punishing wounds with the Zeonic beam sabers and vibroaxes. The Heat Hawk proved itself as the symbol of Zeonic might.
Many colonies perished in the ensuing war. Neither side seemed to care much of the lives caught in the cross fire. The colonists were left to fight for themselves with no hope or help. The glimmer of a bright future turned dark and rusted under the thundersteps of the massive warmachines. Ryuki knew well what that felt. He watched as his future was crushed. The war ignited in him a righteous indignation that took him to the frontlines of the war.
The Minovsky reactor ,hidden deep underground, thus became Zeon's final blow at the Earth Federation. The armored cores of the Jade Falcons were to house the minovosky generator and lead the rest of the armored fist to victory. Ryuki wouldn't let that happen.
"We either get this out or blow it. Im not leaving without this" Ryuki reiterated. Barry went over to Ryuki, still laid out on the floor. "Ryu, my AT is in pieces. We don't have any other radio that could reach up to the comm-sat. We'll have to hit the surface if you want to call down the strike" , he said while checking Ryuki again for wounds.
While they spoke Ross and Karin looked around the nearly vacant chamber. They were curious of the strange silence of the room. "LT, why is this box sitting out here like this? There weren't any defenses other than this AC. I don't get it", Karin said with Ross emphatically agreeing.
The entrance began to close shut behind a matte gray aperture. The sounds of fans blowing air began to echo through the cavernous chamber. "Ah damn it!" Ryuki yelled. Puffs of greenish-white gas crawled down the sides of the chamber from ducts high up near the ceiling. "All right, three to each AT. It'll be a tight fit but the NBC systems should take care of the gas." They scrambled to the last two functioning C-dogs. Although each had a single folding seat for an extra passenger , the seating was dangerously tight. An ill-fit would have left the pilots with little room to use the control surfaces.
"Alright, look for any other ways out. We have limited ammunition left and I am not sure if what we do have would do a thing against that aperture".
They raced around the black metal perimeter frantically scanning for another way out. Grates that were too small. Ports that were too high. The exhaust from there walkers reacted with the gas to turn into a thin layer of green tinted dust . They continued to spin the tracks without a sign of another way out.
The green dust that lay on the ground shifted like snow on a windy day. The tiny particulates fell into small ,thin tracks that encircled the shipping container. Soon enough the outline became sharp and distinct enough for Ryuki to notice it. "Look to the right, there's some kind of outline forming under that container. I think it might be some kind of freight lift".
Their rubberized tracks screeched as they raced towards the container. The lines confused them though. What's a freight elevator doing in a giant room that's filled with nothing, Ryuki wondered. "This doesn't seem right. If this elevator is here then why is the crate still here?" Ross asked.
Ryuki responded tersely, "Because there's a very good chance that whatever's in there could make a mess of anything that gets near it. They keep it here so that it doesn't screw around with any mission critical hardware and I think we're about to see why", he finished gruffly.
The ground rumbled under them but to their surprise the crate began to glow at its corners. "The EM detector is reading about 300 teslas. Something is powering up inside that thing", Karin said from behind Ryuki. The walls of the container shuddered. A loud crash emanated from inside it then a pounding that slowly pried apart the container walls.
A sudden jolt pushed their C-dogs back. The bolts holding the walls burst from their seats amidst blue flames. The top of the container slowly peeled back with the shriek of bending metal accompanying it. Sparks erupted from the curled top slamming into the ground. All the other walls soon fell with it.
Standing before them was forty meter tall behemoth. Its eyes blazed gold and its "face" was like that of an ancient samurai. A shining gold V topped its head. The dark blue and white body was beset with thruster ports and its back contained oversized thrust nozzles. In its left hand was a massive shield and in the right , a bizarre rifle. "The EM field is coming from that gun. Oh frak it's a capital ship class rail gun!" Karin yelled.
The forward body of the rifle split into two rails. Electricity arcs ran up and down between them. Blistering white light poured out of the crevices and panel lines of the rifle. A low hum began to grow louder with each passing second. "Disperse!" Ryuki yelled.
Maneuvering around the mech revealed a shoulder mounted pack that seemed to provide energy to the rifle. Swinging freely was a dark red cable that snaked its way down into the rail gun, ."Ammo check!" Ryuki yelled through the radio. His machine had only six 40 mm shells left and two missiles in its pod. Barry's was down to four rockets and one full magazine for his auto-rifle. "Alright, aim for that pack! Keep away from its rifle. If that thing goes off then everything in this room is gonna come crashing down on us!" Ryuki yelled urgently.
Rubberized tracks squeeled as the AT's pressed forward at full speed. Each took an opposite side to attack, forcing the mech to ignore one of them. Ryuki snatched a glimpse of the power pack and almost immediately pressed down on the trigger. Fire burst from his cannon followed by a streaking dual tandem warhead. Its pointed noise raced towards the pack but the mech turned slightly. An explosion erupted at the wall at the far end, the round meeting solid wall at the end of its travel.
The clumsy robot samurai adjusted its torso towards Ryuki. A concussive wave buffeted the mech as Barry's rockets slammed into its back. He let loose a barrage from his auto-rifle. The rythmic popping of the propellent rang through the chamber. Each shell barely missed the mech's body.
"This frakking targeting computer!" Barry cursed. Ryuki slipped behind the mech a good distance. Two more shells raced from the barrel of his cannon. One slammed into the skirt armor and another hitting the back of its knee. The mech lurched forward and slammed down its wounded knee. The shield propped it up from the ground to keep from falling on its belly.
Another pair of shells flew through the air and met the gun-arm's elbow while the other went wide and passed by the mech. The gun-arm elbow now leaked hydraulic fluid and sparks , its motion locked up by the damage it received. "Sweet Lincoln's mullet, a single one of those shells would have perforated a land strider. How the frak did this thing survive?" Barry yelled out, not expecting an answer.
Barry had long since emptied his rockets and was left with less than half a magazine left. His change in firing patterns alerted the mech pilot that Barry had little munitions left. It turned its torso towards him and lofted the rifle onto the shield ,using it like a tripod. A flurry of curses rang through the radio comm.
Ryuki had one shell left and a pair of missiles. His goal was to either destroy the gun or disable the the power supply,. He ran his AT in a wide oval shape then sharply turning towards the rear of the mech. He fired his two missiles at the damaged arm and leg. The first missile bounced off the arm plating without detonating. The second missile slammed into damaged knee . Fire sprouted out of the dismembered knee. Loud whirring from the other limbs meant it was attempting to support itself with its none damaged parts. But the impact had left it tottering towards the ground.
Ryuki fired off his last shell at the backpack.
Throughout history, armored vehicles were always weakest from behind . The pointed tip of the warhead pierced through the thin armor under the backpack. The force of impact liquified the copper core. Momentum forced the liquid copper into right through the second layer of streams of molten copper finally reached their destination and exploded , tearing apart the innards viciously. Sparks burst from the many holes left by the shrapnel that pierced the armored skin.
"Talk about a lucky shot!" Ross yelled from behind Ryuki. Ryuki's tension eased. Sweat that built up on his brow evaporated. His palms were slippery from anxiousness but soon dried once the waves of anxiety passed. "Hey ,check that out" Barry called over the comm.
A hatch unfolded from the chest. Inside it was an array of controls and a flickering omnidirectional holographic screen. It wrapped around the pilots chair , like a virtual reality display. "Fancy stuff, anyone taking pictures?" Ross said half-jokingly. Karin had already brought out her helmet cam to record the interior. "This is great stuff. This is beyond anything we have", she said.
'Hey Ryu, I think you might want to check this out!" Barry yelled out. Kurz, the recon pilot, had spotted hatch on the back open up. A boxy container rolled out on a set of rails. He was spooked by the light glow it gave off and brought Barry over to look. The mind latched onto the shape and the glow. No other explanation could be given for this enigma. It was the reactor.
Ryuki walked briskly to the rear of the mech. Fingers pointed up towards the back. There it was, Ryuki thought. Despite all the damage wrought on the machine, its reactor remained undamaged. "Alright, lets pack this thing up and get the hell out".
Barry and Ryuki rushed back into the AT's. Each fired off the rocket-claws to attach to the reactor. Careful tugs pulled the box off the rails and down to the ground. The others began to build a net to carry the reactor on the back of Ryuki's AT.
A series of improvised pulleys were lofted onto Ryuki's scarred machine. Flakes of armor fell off the frame revealing deep burn marks and jagged scars. The pulleys were hoisted onto the arms and then connected to the reactor. The others, with the help of Barry's AT, pulled the reactor onto the backpack. Ropes were wrapped around the waist and shoulders tightly so that the reactor reactor would not bounce inside the netting.
"Everythings secure!" Karin yelled to Ryuki through the external phone mounted inside a panel on the leg. After a few more checks , he was sure that they were ready.
They rigged the remaining weapons into an impromptu bomb. Using gunpowder from the auto-rifle rounds and unexploded rocket warheads, they built an impressive explosive device. When the reactor has finally been secured, the AT's carried the bomb over to the armored aperture that blocked their way out.
It had only been two hours since they wrecked the mech. Logically, if no one came down to check why contact was lost to the NEXT, it meant that no one was coming back. Ryuki didn't think that perhaps the time was spent marshaling troops after Captain Shiryu's team was slaughtered.
The freight elevator cover lifted up from the floor and swung away. Loud clanging echoed from the deep chasm. Ryuki cursed loudly , venturing into incoherence. "Blow it now!" he yelled. The heads of several NEXT units popped above the elevator entrance. They were followed by Clan battlemechs and two full platoons of Elemental battle armor.
The first shots were fired almost simultaneously to the bomb exploding. The rounds slammed into the flying debris ,creating a massive bright orange fireball and a back draft that pushed the AT's into the tunnel. They took the opportunity to ignite the rocket boosters on their legs to speed away from the incoming hostiles.
The smoking debris flew ahead of them and bounced along the ground. Burning embers clung to their machines as they raced towards the shaft. Missiles streaked towards them, their trails twirling between pillars of smoke and falling ceiling. One crashed above them, causing the tunnel to partially collapse. Another missile slammed into the obstruction to clear the tunnel once more.
The NEXT units fired off their rail-guns but were impeded by the ceiling debris. Their shots exploded prematurely against the walls of the collapsing tunnel.
A shaft of light appeared in front of them like a beacon of hope. They raced towards it with their rocket-claws ready to fire up towards the sky. Then the shadows moved mechanically.