The Frontier Spark
Episode 8: Mean Machines
A/N: Sorry for the delay folks!
-CIRCUS CAMPSITE-
"Alright VEX, let's show that hunk of junk how we do things back home." Burke said coolly.
"Affirmative pilot, combat functions at 100%. Status: Combat ready." Vex reported.
The giant crab clank retorted with an unnervingly eerie mechanical screeching sound, almost like a challenging roar. A moment later the monstrous machine pounded its claw onto the ground, then repeatedly opened and shut it. Burke charged forward with VX and let loose a burst of armor-piercing X016 rounds in the crab clank's direction. He knew he had to avoid taking direct hits from the crab clank's laser eye and concentrating on the eye with his gunfire seemed to be the best strategy for the moment. The bang of every single chain-gun round was akin to miniature thunder claps as the performers watched in awe.
The titan aimed it gun directly into the laser eye, hoping it was a weak point of some kind. Bullet after bullet pounded against the clank's armor as it attempted to shield its main weapon from the powerful storm of automatic fire. The mechanical monster rushed forward to try striking its opponent with the iron claw but the nimble Vanguard-class titan simply dashed backwards with its thrusters to evade. Burke activated the ordinance launcher and fired a volley of rockets at the crab clank that pounded its hull. Soon enough the chaingun's drum ran empty and the seasoned pilot gritted his teeth as the machine raised its claw and the eye glow a bright green hue. The apparently angry machine warmed up its laser and fired at the Vanguard class titan. Burke reacted quickly and evaded again with the dash jets, narrowly avoiding a destructive zap that decimated a group of trees behind him. The crab clank clattered forward and swung its claw at the titan for a powerful melee assault. Burke instinctively blocked the claw strike with his titan's weapon, causing them to slide backwards slightly. A battle of sheer hydraulic muscle occurred as both of the heavy metal behemoths pushed back and forth.
"Warning: Hydraulic systems at 106% percent capacity. I recommend an immediate change in strategy." VX reported as he struggled against the physical power of the crab clank. "Pilot, my chassis is not rated for this level of force."
"Yeah, yeah, brute force isn't looking so good." Burke agreed with his partner. A thought then popped into the pilot's head, causing him to grin. "Vex, reroute any available power from non-critical systems to the dash boosters and hydraulics!"
"Acknowledged, rerouting power." VX replied as the hydraulic systems began to exceed output safety limits and the dash boosters pushed the mighty war machine forward to win the battle of might. The crab clank's arm groaned as it began to slowly move backwards in response to the being outpowered. VX's warning system blared as the hydraulic system began to overload from the extensive overtaxing that went borderline to a system overload. With a final blast from the thrusters Burke forced back the crab clank and landed a mighty punch with VX's fist to the clank's eye. Soon enough the pilot had wrestled his weapon free and began firing it at point blank onto the crab clank. The rounds began to penetrate the metal beast's thick armor but it was still far from defeated. In a swift change of tactics, the clank rushed forward again in attempt to mow over the bipedal titan, causing the vanguard to fall backwards onto the mud. Burke struggled to get the clank off of his titan, but it proved to be at an advantage by that point. He fired the boosters to roll VX away from the crab clank's legs as the came down in attempt to skewer the titan. As Burke attempted to stand back up the clank swung its claw directly at VX, knocking the titan backwards again onto the flat muddy ground again.
Seeing her friend in trouble, Agatha fired her blaster cannon again but missed the crab clank. The ancient hunk of junk slammed its claw onto the downed Vanguard, pounding it into the ground. In seconds the crazed machine turned and faced the heterodyne heir with a menacing glow in its eye. On instinct Agatha attempted to avoid the blast from its eye laser but the clank had her zeroed in. Burke was no genius but he knew Agatha was now the clank's main focus. He popped open the hatch and leapt onto the clank's back. The pilot desperately parkoured over the machine at his speediest pace in order to prevent his friend from being blown to bits. He saw the machine's eye glow ahead of him and he threw in a burst of heart pounding adrenaline to squeeze out one last ounce of nearly inhuman effort for his next maneuver. Burke felt time slow down as he jumped from the clank's back, firing his grappling hook and latching it to a tree just before the beam erupted from the hulking metal monster's eye. His focus at that almost still moment was on Agatha's face, memorizing all the details he possibly could. The slightly enhanced heart that beat within his chest ached with fear at the thought of being to slow to save her. Suddenly Agatha moved slightly to the side and someone else took her place, even moving her into Burke's reach just as he reached his hand out to hers.
The heterodyne heir felt her heart nearly stop as she looked death in its glowing eye. In her mind it was almost surreal as the beam closed in on her, everything slowing down to a snail's pace. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Burke's approaching figure making its way towards her just ahead of the beam. She reached her hand out in an effort to grab his, but it seemed just too far out of reach from her grasp. At that very second a powerful shove moved her towards Burke, putting her close enough to feel his ungloved fingers wrap tightly around her soft yet slightly calloused hand. She looked into his glowing blue visor and her heart seemed to skip a beat as it gazed straight into her own green eyes, the view even making her cheeks blush red. Time speed up again gradually as she felt herself get lifted off of the ground and into the air by Burke. With a mighty heave the pilot swung his friend along with him to the safety of a sturdy tree branch. The position Agatha found herself in made her feel a mix of emotions as Burke set her on the branch. Her blush was burning fiercely as she took a moment to think about what happened.
Meanwhile, VX had risen form the dirt and sprinted over to the clank's back legs. The war machine of tomorrow holstered the X016 and grabbed a desperate hold of the beastly machine's rearmost appendages. The clank jerked as it was suddenly pulled backwards and fired its next beam discharge into the sky like an extremely powerful signal flare. It bucked and groaned as the titan wrestled for control once again, though this time the machine from the future was unassisted by its pilot. A short tug of war began as the two engines of destruction struggled against one another. VX turned the tables and pushed forward to knock the crab clank onto its back for a change.
The titan then began pounding into the crab clank's underbelly repeatedly, mashing his metal fist against a visible weakness as the clank thrashed around like a wild animal. VX detected his pilot closing in again and a free hand out as the future soldier soared towards him. Burke was then flung back into his titan's seat and continued with the beatdown on the crab clank. After another minute or two or smacking against a crack in the clank's under armor the shell gave way and Burke didn't hesitate to activate the acolyte pods, firing them into the heart of the crab clank. The monstrous machine spasmed and sputtered as it began to finally collapse internally from the repeated explosions within it. With one last large bang the clank dropped it limbs to the ground and the eye dimmed until the light within it vanished, signaling its destruction.
"Pilot, I can confirm the hostile unit's functions have completely ceased as my scans detect no further heat from within its chassis, the battle is over." VX reported to his pilot.
"Whew, you said it partner." Burke breathed heavily under his visor as he relaxed and let his thoughts return to normal. He looked over to Agatha who was now safely on the ground, and looking straight at the titan with an unpleasant expression on her face. Burke, now faced with another new dilemma, acknowledged the fact that he had more explaining to do and then some. The pilot sighed to himself and disembarked from VX, removing his helmet shortly after, afraid of the coming headache that was about hit him.
"Burke… don't you ever run off like that again!" Agatha snapped at the pilot.
"Heh, sorry about that. But I had to-" He weakly defended his actions but was interrupted.
"You idiot!" The heterodyne heir berated him.
"Yeah I'm an idiot." He conceded before being unexpectedly hugged by her again, leaving him dumbstruck with a face redder than a tomato.
"Thank you for saving my life." Agatha said as she broke off the hug.
"Err, well I eh… your welcome. You saved me so I'd say we're even." Burke babbled in a nervous tone.
"Now, what is that!" She pointed at the hulking Vanguard Class Titan standing idle nearby.
Burke snapped out of his bashful state and looked to his partner with a nod. "Oh right!" The pilot took a breath and grinned." Agatha Clay, I should introduce you to my partner." He gestured to the massive Vanguard-class titan whom he shared a battle forged bond with.
"Greetings Miss Clay, I am titan model VX-1887." The titan greeted the Heterodyne heir as he looked down on her from above.
"This is absolutely amazing! I just have to know, is he a clank from your time?!" Agatha exclaimed with wonder in her eyes at the sight of the mighty metal behemoth from the future.
"I am a Vanguard-class Titan, constructed and designed by the Frontier Militia for frontline combat." VX replied honestly to Agatha's inquiry of his origins.
"What's a Titan?" Agatha asked with a curious look on her face as she looked to Burke for an answer.
"I'll tell you later, right now we have some other matters to deal with, like them and… "He trailed off as he looked to the crowd of performers and then a smoldering corpse where Agatha was nearly vaporized. "…who died to help me help you."
-LATER-
The group was eventually bombarded with questions by the members of the circus troupe. Burke remained reluctant to share too much information about VX despite some insistence from the more mechanically experienced members. Eventually Master Payne put an end to that line of questions as part of his thanks to Burke and Agatha. The pilot was certainly grateful at that due to the fact that he couldn't share any details of extremely advanced technology he'd brought with him. When all thanks had ended, the troupe members took care of the corpse of their fallen friend. It bothered Burke to an extent but that was something he understood that he couldn't have prevented. In the end all he and Agatha had done was minimize the overall casualties of the clank's attack. After the burial, Burke focused on another problem what he was going to do now that VX was here in this strange world. Agatha proposed an idea to disguise VX as something else but Burke refused, citing the fact that he was simply too bulky for that strategy. This left the pilot in a precarious position as he couldn't just send VX back home and since a disguise wasn't viable it left Burke with a choice that made him somewhat frustrated, going off alone into the strange world. His friend Agatha was not exactly happy when he put the idea forward but what other choice did, they have?
Burke was shaken from his thought as a familiar droning hummed in the air. He turned his attention skyward to see Castle Wulfenbach and the rest of the air fleet it traveled with. The militia pilot steeled his nerves as he watched a smaller vessel touch down and who stepped were none other than the Baron, his goons, and Gilgamesh. He pulled a Kraber rifle out of VX's cockpit to get a closer view of the situation, he zoomed in the scope and then tuned his radio to a transmitter he'd left with Agatha. Burke tensed his finger on the high caliber rifle's trigger as he watched Dupree manhandle Abner with reckless abandon.
"Pilot, your heartrate has increased and your pulse is elevated." VX reported his pilot's medical status, not that the pilot cared about that.
"I'm fine VEX." Burke replied curtly with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"My tactical assessment of our situation only confirms that we would be at a terrible disadvantage if we were to intervene." VX added in an attempt to keep his pilot from making any unnecessarily hasty decisions. For a short moment Burke didn't reply, as his attention was fixated on the Baron and his goons harassing the circus folks and citizens.
Burke eventually acknowledged his titan's words and replied with a sigh. "I know partner, I just hate watching this happen."
"We will link up with Agatha and the circus troupe at a later time, my calculations predict she will be fine, trust me." VX said encouragingly to his troubled partner.
"You're right buddy, It's out of my hands and I just have to keep faith. She can take care of herself after all." Burke agreed with a confident smirk under his helmet's mask. "Just hope we covered out racks good enough."
"Affirmative pilot. We have done the best we can, I am 75% positive we will not be followed." VX stated to his pilot confidently.
"And the other 25%?" Burke asked curiously with a raised eyebrow.
"… We will be discovered and either escape or be captured by hostile forces. The former possibility being 16 percent, and the latter being 9 percent." The titan said truthfully with no lack of honesty whatsoever in his words.
"Yep, I figured that much." Burke shook his head. He then watched as the group made their way back to the sight of the battle and the events played to wher the Baron and his forces eventually took the body that had been buried, believing it was Agatha's corpse and Dupree had been orderd to try and find the source of the tracks from the mystery clank that had defeated the crab calnck. Gilgamesh had tears in his eyes and a newfound disdain for the rival that he believed had abandoned or failed to protect her, the young heir had no idea how wrong he was.
-END CHAPTER-