CHAPTER 3
LITTLE RUNAWAY
Review Corner
Ulquiorra9000: Like Lei Fong said, he was not a Capellan, so he had nothing to do with Sian, House Liao, or the Liaos (let alone Romano). I didn't give a reason for it. I did not develop him thoroughly when I designed him, I just gave him a quirk to make him interesting.
The Colonel: They're gonna need a bigger boat to boldly go where no one has gone before :LOL:
Jdoug4118: You'll see more things common in MechAssault game. I'll try to use as much source as possible to make it appealing to a wide range of readers.
Port Krin, Antallos,
Inner Sphere Periphery,
December 19, 3064
Saskia's head hurt just to think about her situation. That energy surge took her to an unfamiliar place called 'Antallos'. She had never heard the name before. She didn't even know it existed. All her life she had only known two planets: Zi, her birthplace where people lived side by side with zoids, the bio-mechanical natives of the planet, and Terra, the origin of humans. It was naïve to think that they were only 2 places in the universe with intelligent lives, but Saskia never heard nor cared about it, until now.
And she wouldn't probably freak out too much about the place, if her Gilvader wasn't affected by it. Something in this new world hurt her zoid. It couldn't fly right. Saskia didn't know what it was. Perhaps her zoid only needed a small adjustment to adapt to the new environment. Or perhaps the atmosphere didn't agree with the zoids set up. It could be something trivial, or it could be something critical that ate her zoid alive from inside. And the very thing that affected her zoid could be affecting her too. She just didn't feel it yet.
These thoughts started to make her lose her mind.
"Okay, Miss, let's start from the beginning," Trystan knelt beside her. "Who are you, where are you from, and how did you end up in Antallos?"
"There was a zoid, a monster of sort, with girth three times of a Whale King. The broods of it made attempt at Gilvy. Zoids of speed and dexterity, with weapons to tear flesh from bones. Eyes have not lain upon said things. Yet Gilvy stood fast; weapons bled the monster zoid. It ran with tails between legs. I pressed to victory, and then an energy surge took us." Saskia buried her head between her knees. "I should have let it go."
"So you were fighting this 'zoid', then suddenly an energy surge appeared and you arrived at Antallos out of sudden?" Trystan tried to understand the situation. "What kind of energy surge was it?"
"A cyclone of sort, where the monster zoid drifted into it."
"Cyclone energy surge? You mean Kearney-Fuchida Field?" Trystan started to get a picture.
"Kearny… what?" Saskia threw a blank stare at Trystan.
"Kearny-Fuchida Field, the energy field to initiate Faster-Than-Light travel to cover 30 light years in mere seconds?" Trystan cringe. "You don't know any of this?"
"Know?" Saskia winced in bewildered agony. "The name is foreign to ears! My life has witnessed 25 years of Zi short testament of said things…" And then, Saskia remembered something. "One moment, is that what brought Globally 3 to Zi?"
"Wait, you know Globally 3?" Trystan lurched forward. "The Terran ship that disappeared in the 24th Century?"
"Crash-landed on Zi, 100 years in passing."
"That means there is a jump path from your world to Terra," Trystan mused. "Or any other world in the Inner Sphere. You could've just been dragged through a K-F field…"
And suddenly, Trystan saw the perfect means to execute his escape plan.
"OK, listen to me, this city is occupied by Band of The Damned, a vicious pirate band. If they see you, they'll sell you as a slave and disassemble your battlemech… zoid… whatever, until none of it left attached to one another. They will make the most fortune out of you."
"No!" Saskia jerked her head. "I would not see Gilvy hurt!"
"Then we have to get out of here," Trystan suggested.
"We?" Saskia shot up briskly. "There is but one 'we': Gilvy and I. You shall see yourself returned to whatever hole you were belched from!"
"Do you know this place?" Trystan replied just as swiftly. "Do you know where to go? You don't know which turn to make to avoid the Band of The Damned. I do! You need me to guide you to escape this world!"
"I need but to go up!" Saskia scoffed.
"It is not that simple. You don't know these pirates!"
Engrossed in their biddings, Saskia and Trystan failed to notice that 4 light battlemechs had arrived at the hangar. The Gilvader put up a battle stance and armed its weapons. The horns and tail blades started to glow, and the giant buzzsaws backs whirled in high pitch. The teeth gleamed in the dimly lit room.
"Gilvy, hold weapons!" Saskia tried to take control of the situation. She turned to Trystan, "What do you make of those?"
"Band of The Damned, forward patrol," Trystan said. "Do not make a sudden move; these guys were harmless but the real bruisers are usually not far behind. Ask your pet to stay still."
But a couple of Wasps flooded the Gilvader with search lights, while a Locust aimed its search light at Saskia and Trystan. "Down on the ground! Now!" the mechwarrior yelled through external speaker as the Locust hoisted its machine guns in a threatening stance.
The Gilvader saw this maneuver as an offensive drive against Saskia, and engaged a protective overdrive.
"Gilvy NO!" Saskia screamed from the top of the lung, but it was too late. The Needle Guns and Plasma Cannons lit up in unison, turning the hangar as bright as day, and pounded the Locust with saturated fire. The Locust never had a chance to dodge the attack. The Plasma bolts turned the front armor to pulp, and the ballistics sliced through the smelter down to the internal structure. The Locust staggered with each strike. Ammo explosion eviscerated the light mech from inside, and the Locust succumbed into a fireball.
The Wasps launched a cascaded volley straight to the Gilvader's heart, but their low-powered lasers and rushed missiles only made the dragon mad. It lunged at a Wasp and stabbed the light mech with its gleaming horns. The horns bore deep into the torso, rendering the light mech catatonic. The Gilvader then flicked its neck and hurtled the Wasp at the other one. The two light mechs crashed smashed into each other, one leg shattered the other one's cockpit. The two light mechs skid on the hangar floor before crashing into the battlemech pile.
The last of the patrol, an Urbanmech, pumped up its autocannon, and momentarily stunned the Gilvader. But the stocky mech turned around and tried to escape. The Gilvader pivoted and swiped the Urbanmech's leg with its tail. The Urbanmech fell flat on its back with legs spread-eagle in the air. The Gilvader's tailblade lit up in purple glory, then fell like a guillotine, splitting the Urbanmech's cockpit into two.
"Oh God, oh God, we are undone… we are so undone…" Saskia grasped her head, as if trying to pull her hair off. Her voice barreled out of her pipes in full fury, "Gilvy why did you do that?! I told you to hold weapons!"
The Gilvader answered with a series of angry roars, almost like talking back. Trystan watched the shouting match in utter disbelief. Never before he thought he would watch a pilot having an argument with her mecha, like a mother quarrelling with her teenage boy. He convinced himself he was dreaming, and soon he would wake up in a world of slavery, and everything would wither away into memory. But no, the longer he watched Saskia and the Gilvader trading barbs with each other, the more he realized that everything was real.
Trystan felt tremors on the hangar floor, and he knew what was coming.
"We don't have time for this," Trystan dashed toward Saskia. "We have to get out of here fast!"
"Do I appear a broken record, words falling on deaf ears?!" Saskia turned to Trystan, still bearing a fuming stare in her eyes. "You are not coming with us! Take leave or see head well advanced of chest!"
"For a stranger in a foreign land, you are foolishly full of yourself!" Trystan started to get irritated. "I am just trying to help you!"
"Intention well nudged, but we can defend our stand," Saskia muttered. "Your battlemechs pose no threat to Gilvy. We shall return to Zi presently."
"Those were only forward patrol," Trystan said. "You don't know what's coming, and you haven't seen what they are capable of. They are pirates. They will skin you and your pet alive!" Inadvertently Trystan grabbed hold of Saskia's arm. "You need direction, and I will give you direction if you take me!"
Trystan was only trying to get Saskia's attention, but the Gilvader saw the act differently. It hurled a long, shrilling battlecry and opened its jaws, shoving its teeth at Trystan. Expecting all but getting mauled by a giant mecha, Trystan quickly let go of Saskia's arm, but the Gilvader moved swiftly on top of him, so quick all attempt to escape was futile.
But before the dragon could get to him, half a dozen blue bolts illuminated the hangar and stabbed the Gilvader's ribs. The Gilvader wailed in agony as the side armor fragmented, crumbling into jagged edged shards. A cloud of smoke twirled slowly from the fissure. In the distance two Awesome battlemechs approached the hangar in steady steps, with two Maulers not too far behind.
"Gilvy!" Saskia yelped in panic. She turned to Trystan, "What weapon is that?"
"Particle Projection Cannons," Trystan watched the Maulers set up a firing position. "You cannot win this round. You have to get out of here quickly!"
The Gilvader rose to its feet and turned to face the attackers, but the Maulers' launchers flickered to life, coupled by the quadruple cannons below them. A wave of missiles and ballistics slammed onto the Gilvader's side like a tidal wave, gouging armor deeper and squeezing another desperate cry from the zoid.
"Stop! Stop! Leave us alone!" Saskia screamed in hapless misery but the assault mechs kept up the pressure, landing salvos after salvos of devastating firepower. The Gilvader was pinned without a chance to return fire. Knowing nothing else to do, Saskia pulled out her last gambit, "Gilvy! Raise shield!"
The Gilvader roared as the four buzzsaws whirled in supersonic speed. The high-pitched screech grew in frequency and intensity, so much Trystan thought he was going deaf. But as the frequency reached ultrasound, a wall formed in next to the Gilvader. The Awesomes and Maulers fired their weapons in reckless abandon, but none of them reached the Gilvader's skin. The wall virtually neutralized their firepower.
"Holy… shit!" Trystan watched in awe as particle bolts and missiles exploded harmlessly inches away from his face. "Magnetic shield! And I thought only the Enterprise had this thing!"
"Acoustic, born of damaged core," Saskia started climbing the Gilvader. "You have but 10 seconds. I suggest you run!"
"Ten seconds? Ten seconds of what?" Trystan bemoaned, but quickly found the answer when the buzzsaw started to wind down as if running out of power. "Wait, wait, you have to take me! I'll help you escape!"
"I do not need help!" Saskia blurted.
"Wait, wait, I am a prisoner here!" Trystan was getting desperate. "I came from another world, just like you! These pirates held me captive against my will! Please, I beg you!"
Saskia paused for a brief moment, wondering if she should believe Trystan or not. The desperation in his voice reminded her of her own suffering as a captive. It was still fresh in her memory the torturous strokes, jabs, and prods inflicted on her feet just for the amusement of her captors. Her heart melted with compassion. But at the same time, she just met Trystan. She didn't know anything about him. She didn't know if he was telling the truth. He could be seizing opportunities, just like many others that had seen what the Gilvader could really do.
But Saskia didn't have time to think through it. The Gilvader ran out of power, and the Beam Smasher shield started to disintegrate. The missiles and ballistics from the Maulers busted through the acoustic wall and strafed the Gilvader's armor again. She took a quick glance at Trystan, and prayed that her decision wouldn't bite her in the ass later.
"Come!" she said as she jumped into the cockpit. The HUD was alive with warnings. The Gilvader's energy core had fallen dangerously below 15 percent. Damage control blinked furiously. And proximity alarm went livid with alerts of multiple missiles. If the assault battlemechs were as nasty as Trystan suggested, they might not have a chance to survive.
Trystan didn't waste time climbing up the Gilvader. He slid into the cockpit and took a second to marvel the roomy. He thought the cockpit of his Thunderbolt was spacious. But as Saskia was sitting quite high above the ground, she didn't have visual contact with things lower than the Gilvader's head. She had to rely on monitors and screens encompassing her command coach.
"See yourself fastened to something," Saskia said as she armed the jets. Without waiting for Trystan's response, she slammed her foot on the pedal, catapulting the Gilvader forward in a massive jerk. Trystan skid on the cockpit floor and slammed into the rear bulkhead of the cockpit. He dragged himself up but the cockpit shook so vigorously he lost his grips and felt down like a pile of rag.
The Gilvader broke through the hangar roof, bringing down the remaining structure as it climbed. But somehow the rocket boosters couldn't overcome the gravitational pull of the planet, and the 330-ton zoid plummeted, crashing into another building. Trystan was thrown across the cockpit, legs sprawled across the console. A sharp object stabbed his back, eliciting a groan from his mouth.
Saskia grabbed Trystan's leg and flung it aside, then fired the jets again. The Gilvader took off in near vertical thrust, but it fell again, taking down a large warehouse building in the process. For the third time Trystan found himself thrashed, slamming the cockpit wall with such a force he thought he might break his spine. He pulled himself up, then hooked his arms around Saskia's couch.
"Something is wrong! Gilvy cannot take airborne!" Saskia scrambled the console, flicking toggles and buttons in frantic helplessness. "We are stuck! Gilvy cannot elevate to midair!" Saskia grabbed Trystan's shirt and yanked him toward her. Her eyes were flooded with fear. "I need your help! Where is your escape route?"
"Escape route?" Trystan winced groggily.
"We came to terms, I took you with me, you provided exit. Now extend knowledge and set tongue to produce! Where must we go?"
Trystan didn't really have an escape route. His entire escape plan rested on his assumption that the Gilvader would fly them out of Port Krin and jump to another system, hopefully somewhere within Draconis Combine territory. He overlooked the chance that the zoid couldn't even leave the ground. Now he was trapped inside a mad beast, with a panicking girl that didn't know what to do, and Band of The Damned assault lance showering PPC bolts and missiles at him.
"This isn't happening!" he cursed under his breath. More battlemechs arrived and boxed them in, raining down firepower. He quickly assessed the situation and consulted every bit of information he had about Port Krin. On the east lied an ocean, a perfect escape route if the zoid could function as a submarine. But Trystan wouldn't risk it. He chose to go to the desert.
"Get out of the city!" he yelled. "Go west! Go west!"
Without thinking Saskia yanked the joystick left, bringing the Gilvader to make a jump over several buildings and land on a freeway. Cars and trucks immediately piled up to avoid crashing into the metal beast. Saskia powered through the freeway, taking the Gilvader into a full-speed run. At more than 80 kph, the Gilvader easily outran the assault mechs. But not to be outdone, the Band of The Damned set up a blockade at the end of the freeway, consisted of two Atlas and half a dozen Catapult-C3's.
"Dammit! Arrows!" Trystan grimaced.
"Arrows? Good? Bad?" Saskia turned to look at him.
"You need to jump over these guys," Trystan growled. "Wait for my signal, then give it all you have left!"
"Alright," Saskia's voice trembled as she armed the rocket boosters. "Please Gilvy, just this once…"
The launchers on the Catapults blasted, and six warheads zoomed toward the Gilvader, aiming for its bulky mass.
"Now! Now! Now!" Trystan screamed. Saskia buried the joystick in her crotch and floored the pedal. The Gilvader took off, and the Arrow missiles swished underneath its feet. The missiles made attempts to retrace the Gilvader but there was not enough space to turn. Half of them slammed into buildings, the rest took off to the sky and lost track of their target.
The Gilvader maintained its course but without enough lift it drifted straight at the blockade. The two Atlas launched a massive fusillade, wrecking the Gilvader's abdomen from below. The Gilvader roared in agony as it lost control of the flight. It tipped over and crashed onto an office building, creating a large swath of destruction.
"Don't stop! Don't stop!" Trystan bemoaned. "Get out of their sight before the Catapults turn around!"
As the Gilvader struggled to get back on its feet, the pirate battlemechs twisted and pivoted to get a line of fire. One Catapult managed to line up with the Gilvader but rushed for the killing blow. The Arrow missile missed the Gilvader and hammered a building in front of it. The building collapsed in a giant cloud of dust and smoke, creating a smokescreen for the Gilvader.
"Run! Run! Run!" Trystan screamed. Saskia rerouted all output to the leg actuators. The Gilvader pulled itself up from the rubbles and continued running. Missiles, laser bolts, and ballistic traces busted through the dust cloud, but without visual contact or hard lock, they all missed the mark.
The Gilvader continued its course until it arrived at the desert outside the city. Saskia checked the radar to check on the battlemechs, and took a deep breath when she realized none of them followed her to the desert. Just as she thought they were out of trouble, her radar screamed proximity alert. Four MechBuster jets came down from the sky, whistling as they dive-bombed the Gilvader with cluster munitions. The vicinity erupted in fiery conflagration, swallowing the Gilvader between fireballs.
"The split tongue of a man!" Saskia yelled in frustration. "You led hands to leave town only to place them on open terrain! We are but target practice!"
"Your thing is supposed to take us up to the jump point!" Trystan retorted.
"There shall be no flying! This place makes Gilvy sick!" Saskia cried out. Her hope of returning home flickered to die with their chance of survival. The Gilvader, after taking a lot of punishment, was less than 10 percent combat effective. "He does not have much left. Perhaps we shall make our last stand here."
"No, no, do not give up!" Trystan dove deep into his mind, digging every piece of knowledge he had about Port Krin and its surroundings. "There is an escarpment near this place. We can hide behind it. It is in Free Zone; no one will find us."
"I am done with your words," Saskia huffed. "Leave before the hellbringers return. Gilvy and I are taking them to graves."
But Trystan grabbed Saskia's arm and forced her to look into his eyes. "Trust me," he said in the earnest. "I know this place, and I am not leaving you. Dispatch those aerospace fighters, then we go to the escarpment. I promise you, they will not find us there."
Saskia didn't have any other choice, and she was planning to fight the MechBusters anyway. She yanked her arm free from Trystan's grip, then turned the autopilot on. "Gilvy, my hands hurt. Are you of mood for vengeance?"
The Gilvader, tired of running away, replied with an enthusiastic roar.
"Take stand, wait for absolution, then kill them all," she said as she zoomed in her radar. The MechBusters regrouped and engaged a strafe run, obviously bringing their powerful AC20 to bear. The Gilvader, looking forward to this sort of shootout all its life, spread its legs to steady itself while arming its Plasma Cannons. The MechBusters fell into the Plasma Cannon range and the Gilvader snarled in high anticipation.
"Wait…" Saskia wanted to kill the MechBusters in as few shots as possible, so she held her fire until the fighters were in optimum range. The crosshairs burnt gold and the Gilvader sneered impatiently, but Saskia kept holding the rein. "Wait!" she held her breath as the fighters came in 1 kilometer range. She waited a few more seconds then let her zoid loose. "Fire! Send them all to hell!"
The Plasma Cannons on the Gilvader's neck lit up in reckless abandon. The closest MechBuster burst into flames. It rolled and staggered but managed to stay afloat. The Gilvader sent another salvo, and this time the MechBuster disintegrated in midair.
The remaining MechBusters sped up to quickly get into range, but the Gilvader fired everything it had. The ballistic shells punctured the wings, and the Plasma bolts sheared them off completely. Two MechBusters quickly spun in flames and plummeted to the desert.
The last MechBuster managed to reach firing range and let loose a hail of depleted-uranium armor-piercing shells. The Gilvader's armor, already damaged from multiple engagements, gave way to the murderous cannon rounds. Sparks burst and black smoke billowed at each impact, a clear hint of internal damage, and for a few moments the Gilvader buckled under pressure.
But the Gilvader was too stubborn to go down. It pumped its weapons in unison, overwhelming the MechBuster with devastating firepower. The MechBuster didn't have a chance against the assault. The fuselage exploded in a powerful display of fireworks, leaving only burning debris raining down the desert.
The Gilvader ended the fight in a long, shrilling taunting roar, an invitation for more shootout.
"A masterful showing, Boy, but we have no time for over-embellished celebration," Saskia said as she looked at Trystan for more direction. "You accrued wounds beyond strength. We must seal them, or see yourself succumbed to hemorrhage."
The idea of turning away from battle was contemptuous for the Gilvader. It growled in protest, but Saskia put the zoid in manual control. "Apologies, Gilvy, but I can't let you kill yourself."
"Head for that ledge 2 clicks out," Trystan pointed at a visible discontinuity of the ground.
Saskia steered her zoid to the ledge. After 5 minutes of limping, the Gilvader stood at the edge of the escarpment. Saskia triggered the booster jets to slow down the descent, then parked the zoid at the darkest corner of the escarpment.