Chapter 03 – In a pinch
The metal flooring hissed with steam as it began to cool back down.
From his advantageous position, Vernax could easily see both humans hiding behind cover and fired a few shots down towards them.
As Scott predicted, the wide spread of the blasts across the long distance failed to hit home, and the small pieces of shrapnel that did, merely tickled the Alliance shields. However, the attacks were still doing a good job of supressing movement, keeping the two humans split up.
"Can't believe we're pinned down by this guy," grumbled Scott.
Rebecca's voice came through Scott's helmet communications; "At least he's not down here charging us. Listen, I have an idea that I think will work."
Vernax grumbled as his clip emptied, but rather than reload, he sheathed the weapon.
"You know what?!" bellowed the krogan pressing various touch-screen buttons on the hand-held controller he stole earlier, "I think I'll test out my new toy, see how much it's really worth!"
The panel on the large container just below the gantry began to light up and then made a series of beeps. The container doors slid open to reveal what looked like a largely modified YMIR battle mech.
"Erm, scratch that," reconsidered Rebecca, "idea won't work any more."
"Hey, you were right," pointed out Scott, "it was some sort of mech inside… I owe you twenty."
"Well it was hardly going to be 'some random naked chick' like you suggested."
"It could have been," said Scott disappointedly.
A loud rumbling, like an old motor engine starting up, echoed across the room and the mech awoke, stepping firmly out of its dwelling. Initially standing at eight-foot, several panels across its body shifted and various pieces turned or extended to add a further two foot to its height. It also revealed a blue-lit circular senor array and other strange, but oddly familiar, modifications weaving in and out along the standard frame.
Rebecca looked over to Scott in horror; "Geth tech?!"
"The rumour of a prototype weapon was right, but this is…" said Scott in disbelief.
Vernax pressed a few commands on the control tablet and chuckled as the phrase 'Targets Acquired' flashed up; "Heh, this should be fun."
The colour of the mech's electronic 'eye' spread to the geth modifications, turning the pale blues to a menacing red. The machine began to lurch forward, two large mechanical claws clamping down on various obstacles and throwing them to either side, systematically removing any cover the humans could use.
"Bex! Call Fido!" ordered Scott, dashing off to his left as the bank of terminals he was hidden behind was ripped up out of the floor.
"On it!" she replied, summoning her combat drone to appear just behind the mech while Scott vanished.
Fido quickly let out a short burst of high voltage electricity but it seemed to have no effect at all. After a second burst, a small antenna protruded from the mech's spinal panel and retuned the shock back, destroying the drone in a single hit.
"What the?" blinked Rebecca.
Scott de-cloaked directly behind the mech's right leg and fired his M-27 Scimitar at point blank; "Suck it!"
Upon realising the shotgun barely even scratched it, the human quickly dived and rolled to the left as a raised claw smashed down into the floor where he had been stood a second ago.
Rebecca used her omni-tool to set off an overload within the mech that seemed to do no damage at all, but it at least distracted the machine from performing a follow-up attack.
Scott cloaked again while Rebecca fired her pistol at the geth-like senor array, frustratingly missing what she assumed was a vital point despite the aid of her laser sight.
The mech was still for a moment allowing Rebecca to fire a direct hit, but it only managed to deliver a slight crack to the casing.
The right claw of the mech then oddly snapped down and forward at thin-air before rearing up.
Believing the robot to be malfunctioning from her attacks, Rebecca dared a smile and whispered a quick; "Yes."
The smile instantly faded when she saw Scott decloak in the space between the mech's grip; "No…"
Scott tried to wiggle himself free from the two large pieces of metal holding him up in the air; "No fair! How did you see through my cloak?! I'm calling hax! You OP piece of shi-"
"Ho ho hooo," beamed Vernax, thoroughly enjoying his new toy and pressing more commands on the tablet; "now get the other one!"
The mech stomped forward at surprising speed, kicking up debris from the earlier rampage high into the air. Although some of the wreckage soared past her harmlessly, a piece of piping flew forward, striking a glancing blow to Rebecca's helmet.
It was enough to daze her, the force causing her to spin around, trip over her own feet, and fall to the floor. Just as she got on all fours to push herself back up, she felt the mech's left claw clamp around the sides of her chest.
She let out a quick scream of fear and surprise as she was lifted into the air.
"Becky!" cried out her partner, "Don't panic, we'll get out of this!"
Her eyes fixed on him from across the gap between them as he continued flailing. His words giving her a small confidence boost to keep fighting.
Although full of dread, she assessed the situation. Scott's left arm was trapped between the claw pincers, but his right was free. Sadly this meant very little as he had dropped his shotgun to the floor during the grab. He was also unable to reach the backup assault rifle attached to his back or the grenades on his belt.
Both her own arms were free but she had completely lost track of her pistol, she couldn't remember if she had holstered it or dropped it again before getting grabbed. She realised she was in a similar situation anyway, the width of the pincers meant she couldn't reach around to any of her attached kit. She thrashed out with her dangling legs but the mech kept a firm grip on her.
Rebecca's omni-tool flared into life and she used a quick marco button to fabricate an incendiary cartridge. Firing it directly at the mech's geth-like 'eye', she flinched as the cartridge exploded in a burst of high temperature flames. The blaze died quickly to reveal no damage at all.
The engineer gasped as her omni-tool started its cool-down procedure; "It didn't do anything! What grade armour has this thing got?"
Scott, who had been pounding his free fist down on the claw in the hopes of finding a weakness, began to fear that this was the end for them both.
He decided to distract the krogan in the hopes that he'd make a mistake; "Hey ugly! Why don't you ditch this stupid robot and you and me have a fist fight, come on! Mano-a-mano!"
Vernax began to laugh; "Normally I'd take you up on the offer, but this is too much fun. Let's savour it by slowly crushing you both to death. I'll start with you first since you seem so desperate to die. The female can watch."
"No! Don't!" screamed Rebecca, feeling even more helpless.
"Seconded!" agreed Scott.
The krogan bared his teeth with glee while changing a setting on the control tablet.