Chapter 20

Black Pit Arena, Montenegro,
Solaris City, Solaris VII,
Freedom Theater, Lyran Alliance,
April 28, 3069

Amber sat in her cockpit, watching a couple Word of Blake mechs took their places at the arena. Her stomach churned, thinking how far the Blakists had planted their roots in Solaris VII infrastructure. Not a year ago they only dwelled in Class-6 Arenas. Now there were everywhere, robbing and scavenging everything they could, leaving only a path of attrition for the Solarans.

She scoffed in disgust.

Her mind started drifting toward her bedtime activities – or lack thereof in the past year. She remembered Mac. He was an agressive stud in bed – and everywhere, for that matter. His exceptional stamina and great skill gave her intense pleasure all night long. Remembering him turned her on until she squirmed uncomfortably in her seat.

"All right Amber, listen to…. Are you OK?" Jeremy suddenly appeared. "You seem… flushed."

Amber swallowed hard. She wasn't used to having somebody on her side before a fight. Come to think of it, she never had somebody on her side, not even Mac when they were together. Jeremy was right; they were not much of a team back then.

But look at them now. Mickey, Hyolee, and Major Tom were standing near the coolant tank as Kilroy pumped the green ooze into her mech. She understood that she wouldn't see Jenny anytime soon. They never got along anyway. And Jeremy… the Periphery kid was as juiced up as if it was his own fight. Amber never came to understand what Jeremy was looking for in this dark stuffy place, hanging out with losers and misfits like herself.

"Hey! Hey! What's the matter with you?" once again Jeremy robbed her from her solemn reckoning. "You're not focused! You can't get out there if you're not focused! There are 2 Blakists out there! Is something bothering you?"

"No… no, I'm fine," Amber painfully concentrated on the fight. "What do you have?"

"OK, listen to this," Jeremy said, flashing a doubtful look at Amber, but decided to continue. "You have 2 Blakes, 5 frakkers. On paper the Blakes will roll through the 5 frakkers, then they will gang up on you. Kill one Blake as soon as possible when they are still busy with the other guys. You don't want to fight two of those kind. You hear me?"

"Got it," Amber put on her neurohelmet. "Thanks, Jeremy."

By contrast, Jeremy was more timid than Mac but he gave her a lot of care – sincere care. He treated her with respect, something Amber hadn't felt for a long time it started to feel foreign. And even though they only shared just one kiss, he connected to her, whether he intended it to happen or not. Amber still remembered his kiss, and it made her toes tingling.

"You're drifting again."

Amber sighed. Jeremy's presence – and everybody else's – started to feel like a distraction.

"Everything's on the 5-5-5," Kilroy yelled from the ground. "She's ready to go, Jeremy."

Jeremy gave Amber a thumbs-up then locked the canopy, but not before pointing to his own eyes, a sign for Amber to focus. Amber took a deep breath and pushed the throttle gently. Wu Xian, her Vindicator-5L, galloped gracefully over the tarmac and into the arena. Directly in front of her was a powerful Blakist short-range mech BCN-3R Buccanneer with a hatchet that could match Wu Xian's sword.

The fight started and Amber quickly focused on a Buccaneer in front of her. The Blakist mech fired its lasers at her. Amber flinched and dodged most of the attack, but two laser bolts hit her torso. They only scarred her armor, but Amber knew she couldn't underestimate the Blakists.

Amber fired her PPC. The Buccaneer dodged it, but Amber anticipated it. She turned right and fired her lasers. Two bolts burnt a slab of armor in the Buccaneer's left torso. Heat wave filled the cockpit, making her sweat.

The Buccaneer shrugged the attack and fired its missiles. Amber fired her jump jets and dodged the attack, but the Buccaneer charged her. Two more laser bolts hit her in the torso, followed by a large laser.

Amber steadied her mech and fired her PPC, landed on the Buccaneer's torso. As the Buccaneer buckled, the Triple-Strength myomer kicked in. Amber charged the Buccaneer and swung her sword, but the Blakist mech parried her attack with its hatchet.

The Buccaneer fired its lasers and hit Amber in the center torso. Her alarm told her she had lost 40 percent of armor. Amber knew she couldn't stand long against the more powerful mech. The Buccaneer had 10 tons advantage over her Vindicator, so she had to find a way to end the fight quickly.

Amber fired her lasers, keeping her mech hot. The Buccaneer absorbed her laser and dashed forward to chop Amber. She sidestepped the attack, and swung her sword. The sword slit the neck of the Buccaneer. The head flew a few dozen meters in the air, while the headless body backpedalled aimlessly. As the body slump, the head clattered to the ground.

Amber sweated profusely and noticed that two other medium mechs had been destroyed by the Blakists. Now the other Blakist, a morbid 4-legged Blue Flame, set its eyes on her and broke into an animated gallop. Amber blasted her jets to reposition her mech but the quadruped mech charged her and fired its lasers. The Vindicator was hit by multiple lasers. Armor melted like butter, and the Vindicator started to lose balance.

Amber gripped her joystick to regain balance, and noticed that the remaining mechs didn't take advantage of their numbers to swarm the lone Blakist. They just traded punches with each other, in contrast to the high-speed high-powered brawl between her and the Word of Blake mechs.

But did they really want to risk their lives by coming after the Blue Flame? Maybe they did intentionally let Amber fight the Blakist alone. After the Blake mechs, Amber was arguably the best combatant in the field. Just let the best fighters kill each other. When most of upper echelon warriors had fallen and the survivor was too beat-up to continue, they could salvage what was left and get away with the prize.

Homo homini lupus, Amber scoffed.

Amber fired his PPC. The Blue Flame was jerked when hit by the PPC. But the Blakist shrugged it off, and returned fire with deadly precision. Amber fought hard to dodge the attack but half of them hammered her Vindicator. Warning sign blinked furiously and warning klaxon blarred, making her dizzy. Her torso lasers went offline. Her armor tracker turned red, and she knew she wouldn't stand another assault like that.

So what was the achilles heel of this quadruped? It was fast, well-armored, well-armed, and non-dependent on ammo so it could stay in the fight a long time. But energy weapons meant heat. It had 4 legs, meaning legging might not be the most efficient strategy. Its long body meant wide turning radius, and the lack of torso-twist meant putting Amber on its line of fire was strenuous.

So how could she beat the Blakist bastard? Make it chase its own tail.

Amber rerouted her power output to all myomer bundles and started running circles. As soon as her PPC recycled, she lobbed another round at the Blue Flame. It was a rushed attack, and the Blue Flame easily dodged the blue particle bolt. But that shot never meant to hurt anyway. With that shot, Amber's heat level spiked up and the Triple Strength Myomer was engaged. Amber jovially pushed her throttle to maximum, taking advantage of the TSM, and quickly sprinted out of the Blue Flame's line of fire.

The Blue Flame didn't read Amber's strategy. It started to give chase. But the Vindicator was faster, and every time the Blue Flame was getting close to catching up, Amber fired her jets for a quick boost in position. She didn't bother shooting the quadruped. She ran in circles, getting smaller with every turn, until the rear hinds of the Blue Flame was within her sword's reach. And the Blue Flame was still clueless.

Amber cocked her left arm and stabbed the Blue Flame's leg with her sword. The armor stopped the attack, but the sword carved a nick. Amber expoited more; her repeated stabs finally broke through the tough platings. The Blue Flame sloshed in disbelief as its rear left leg lost power.

Losing one leg made the Blue Flame turned even slower. Amber put her crosshair on the Blue Flame's side just below the ribcage and unloaded everything she had. Her remaining lasers softened and melted the torso armor, and the particle bolt punctured layers of armor platings. Groggy, the quadruped staggered, and Amber shoved her sword straight into the weakened structure. The sword bored into the reactor. Blue plasma spewed out of the puncture wound, and Amber knew the reactor was going critical. She hit her jets, seconds before the plasma consumed the Blue Flame in an ironically blue explosion.

Amber glided in the air for a while before touched ground at the far corner of the arena. There were only 2 more mechs still standing, both of them in a combat-loss grouping condition. One Griffin had a damaged leg actuator that severely hindered its movement. It didn't even flinch when Amber tore its chest open with her PPC. And the other one, a one-armed Vulcan, realized it was no match against Amber's wrath. The pilot just shut down the engine and climbed out of the mech.

"That's the kind of badassness we have been expecting from you," Jeremy's voice sprang clear on her headset. "Major Tom and I will make a case to SGC to add that last one to your kill score. Sure he chickened out to save his mech from more extensive damage, but if he didn't you would've busted his ass anyway."

"So that makes 4 kills," Amber grinned from ear to ear. "Imagine how much salvage rights we can get from them."

"Maybe enough to buy new matresses," Jeremy quipped. "Now get out of there and let us pat you in the back. You are the star of today."

That, too, never happened before. Amber's victory or loss usually went as ordinary as the day passing by. Nothing more than a surge of money in their bank account. Now somebody actually appreciated her effort, her combat prowess, and the amount of money she brought into the stable. It felt good, really good. It made her feel like she actually belonged here.

And when her mind drifted again, she wished Jeremy celebrated her victory with her in private.