Cavalier's Gambit 2 -ch 16-

Chapter 16

Wayne lurked atop the building.

Dozing.

There were brief explosions in the distance, the sounds of gunfire here and there, even a jet shooting past over head at one point. All of it happened without Wayne doing much of anything.

It didn’t concern him.

A lone Walker squatting on a building wasn’t something most people would concern themselves with. Doubly so when he had taken up a position that Walkers were often left ‘unattended to’ in.

Squatting, pitched partially forward.

As if the pilot had gotten out in a hurry and might come back in a hurry.

Given the ruined Walkers all over, that only sold the story even more. As if there was something critically wrong.

All while he just stared at the gardens below him.

He had turned up the volume for patchwork to a high level closed his eyes, and dozed in his pilot seat. Nothing would sneak up on him, and he’d get a chance to let his body try and reset to a degree.

Because his mind had started to wander yet again.

He’d been in several high adrenaline situations and his body was showing the signs of being wrung out. That if he didn’t get a chance to give his body the time for a full reset, he was going to not be at his best.

So when there was the crackle and pop of boots on tile slowly increasing in volume in his cockpit, Wayne opened his eyes. He felt a bit better, but tired.

He immediately repowered all the systems, stood up, and made himself ready. Flexing his hands, arms, legs, and feet as he began to get ready.

This would need to happen fast.

Fast and with absolute commitment.

Anything less would risk the targets as well as himself.

Slowly, the sounds of what was unmistakably people exiting from a tiled interior became the crunch of gravel under foot. Multiple pairs of boots crushing small rocks in the garden beneath Wayne as they entered the area and likely started making a bee-line for where the Walker’s should be.

Yet were no longer.

Smiling to himself, Wayne regretted the fact that Cara had the laser cannon removed on Patchwork’s left arm, but he couldn’t deny the shed-weight had definitely made the Walker more maneuverable.

Having a ranged weapon that didn’t rely on ammo though would’ve been nice in this situation.

He could’ve just started killing without having to worry about running out of ammunition.

Because what he saw moving out in front of him was twenty some-odd soldiers. All of them looking as if they were on the higher end of the ‘common to elite’ forces scale.

Their gear looked good, their uniforms customized, and their boots worn in and not military issue. Weapons held in hands or beside themselves also looked well handled and maintained.

Wayne saw them then.

A young woman in her early twenties and a boy that was likely twelve.

Two people who most certainly didn’t belong in that group of soldiers and very much looked as if they didn’t want to be there.

Wayne decided this was the perfect moment to make his entrance.

Leaping forward he angled his blade to the flat side of it, and brought it down with a thunderous boom next to the soldiers. A ground pound with such force that it made the clothes rustle of the soldiers and the woman’s hair to blow outward.

“Halt,” Wayne ordered as he stood up. “I am Lord Cavalier Hesh. You will surrender, or I’ll kill you all.

“Also, I am not here to retrieve your hostages alive. I am here to insure they are dead, or rescued. I will complete my mission. You have five seconds to comply by putting your weapons down.

“Five… four… three…—”

Initially panicking, the soldiers had all turned to look at Patchwork towering over them.

All of them had lifted their weapons, which he couldn’t fault them for. He would’ve likely done the same. None of the rounds that they could pack in those weapons though could harm him.

Simply put, the moment they stepped out of the building, this entire group was at his mercy. It was the same reason he hadn’t dismounted from the Walker to enter.

“Two…—” Wayne had continued without pause. He shifted, brought up his sword, and prepared to commit to slaughtering them all. Starting with the hostages. The flat of the blade was lifted up and ready to strike.

“Okay!” shouted one of the soldiers. “Okay. You just want them, right? That’s it?”

“That’s it. Also, do not think to stall. I already eliminated the Titan, it’s over there, as well as both Assault Walker’s,” Wayne advised. He had noted that there was a camera on one of the soldier’s shoulders. It was likely recording everything for the sake of propaganda. Wayne was happy to lean into that. “By Lady Mirkil’s grace I stand victorious over your force. When I report in, I will state that I gave you mercy and quit the field with my charges. Unless you wish to take this to the end?”

“No! No, most certainly no,” said the same soldier. “What do you want us to do?”

“Leave. Just walk away. I’ll take the nobility with me,” Wayne advised. “Your duty ends here and you get to live.”

“Yes, Lord Cavalier!” said the same soldier. “Thank you, Lord Cavalier. We’ll… we’ll quit the field.”

As one, the soldiers began to move away, leaving behind the young woman and the boy.

Once the soldiers had gained some distance, Wayne put himself between his new charges and the soldiers. Even going so far as to kneel with the two of them behind him, and laying his sword flat across the path before him. Creating a barrier that simple ballistic weapons like theirs wouldn’t be able to get through.

Wayne waited until they were a significant distance away, then turned away. Facing the two nobles who were quite close to him now. Both of them staring up into his cockpit with wide eyes and surprised faces.

Unlatching it, Wayne kicked it open.

“Get in, quickly,” he hissed. “Boy, lay down on the bottom of the cockpit. There’s enough room and it’s safe for you down there.

“Lady… uh… we’ll see where you fit.”

Wayne’s brain had gone straight back to Josephine perched in his lap the last time he’d done something like this. She even seemed to be of a similar age to Josephine.

The boy had just about launched himself into Patchwork.

He had pale brown hair and light brown eyes and looked young and very confused.

Once he’d settled in, the woman came next.

She had long blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and small, pretty, tight features. She had a delicateness to her surprised Wayne to her.

“Thank you, Lord Cavalier,” she whispered as she took his outstretched hand and got into the cockpit. She looked around, realizing there wasn’t much room for her.

“Yes, I know. It’s cramped. This was the fastest way to you though, and while uncomfortable, it’ll get you two out of here,” he stated. “So, squeeze in beside my left side and… yeah it’s uncomfortable. Or sit in my lap. I use an implant to power the Walker.

“Your choice, but choose quickly. We need to go.”

Wayne said it as he had Patchwork stand up.

The woman chose and with immediacy. She sat down on his lap, leaned against the arm of the cockpit, and gave him a tight, forced smile.

“I understand and am thankful for the rescue,” said the woman.

“It’s the same way he rescued Princess Josephine! She was in his cockpit,” said the boy in an excited quivering voice. “Doesn’t that mean she sat in his lap, too?”

Smirking, Wayne used Patchwork’s left arm to shut the cockpit since he couldn’t do it himself.

“Hold on. We’re going to break out now. I have no idea what we’re looking at since it’s been an hour or two since I came in but… we’re not waiting,” Wayne advised. Then he took off at a run toward the building and jumped.

Slamming into the side of it he threw Patchwork’s foot through a window, his left hand grasping the top of the building in the same jump, then powered himself up over the top of it.

Running forward as soon as Patchwork’s large metallic feet hit the roof Wayne was moving off quickly. When he reached the edge he slid to a stop, grasped the edge, and let himself hang down, then fell the final distance with a boom.

Neither of his charges seemed bothered by any of it and were alright.

Though Wayne did note the young boy was now peeking out the bottom of the cockpit.

“I heard your message by the way,” Wayne said as he started off at a sprint. Back in the direction he’d come from.

“We didn’t send a mesage,” the woman answered.

Which caused Wayne to come up short.

Quickly digging into his system as he slowed to a jog he called up it’s data.

He replayed the single word he’d heard for both of his charges.

“—there!?” asked a quiet voice on his radio. Distinctly female. Distinctly panicked. Distinctly on the encrypted frequency that’d been assigned to the estate.

“That’s not… ah… ah?” murmured the young woman. “It sounds like my cousin but she shouldn’t— shouldn’t be on the planet.”

“Cousin. Cousin? Like… royal princess cousin kind of thing? Further-further up in the line of the throne?” Wayne asked, bringing Patchwork to a stop.

“Yes,” confirmed the woman.

Wayne blew out a slow breath, considering his options.

Technically his mission was done.

“Why would she be here? There’s no reason for her to be here, is there?” asked Wayne.

“Legitimately? No. But she… her fiance is a general here on planet,” admitted the woman.

“Shit,” Wayne grumbled, now realizing the full scope of it.

Turning around, Wayne looked out to the distance.

He pulled at Arsenic, his targeting AI, his mapping feature, and tried to get them to all work together to tell him the direction that the jammer was coming from.

Considering he had all the communications data from his long run in, as well as his movements at the estate, theoretically, his AI and the Walker itself should be able to get an approximate direction.

No sooner than he had put the thought to action, then he had a new waypoint.

It wasn’t even that far away.

As if the jammer was put down specifically for the attack on the estate.

Wayne pivoted, turned, and began sprinting full out again.

“Oh my!” squeaked the young woman who promptly clung to Wayne. Going from reserved to face pressed to his shoulder in seconds.

“Sorry, you’ll need to get decontaminated after this by the way. Both of you I bet,” Wayne apologized as he sprinted to the waypoint. It was shifting curiously even as he approached though. As if his AI were adjusting the location as he moved. “I was exposed to an explosion today and I’m likely still shedding some of the chemicals.”

“Awesome,” said the boy, still watching from the bottom of the cockpit. If it wasn’t for the inertia dampeners and suspension systems in the cock pit, he’d be rattling around like the last jelly bean in a jar that just came loose from the bottom.

Wayne came over a short rise, then moved across it, and found his target.

It was indeed a temporary signal jammer.

Attached to a vehicle, it looked more like portable generator with some type of radar dish off the top of it.

“Oh, that’s what’s likely—”

Wayne shot it without even letting the woman finish. Then he shot it twice more and opened up his comms.

“This is Cavalier Hesh,” Wayne stated straight into the frequency. “I heard someone on this line earlier. Is there someone there?”

“Yes!” came back the immediate response. “Yes! Please! Lord Hesh! This is Princess Anissa and I need your help immediately! My fiance and I are in a small forward position. We’ve been able to stay out of sight it can’t last for ever!”

Wayne turned off the comms and looked at the woman in his lap.

“What’s your name? Also, is that your cousin?” he asked.

“I’m Mikaela and yes. That sounds definitely like Annisa,” confirmed the woman.

“She sucks,” the boy added. “I’m Todd.”

“Hey Todd, most nobility sucks little dude. Sorry, not sorry,” Wayne stated then turned on the comms again. “Give me your GPS coordinates and I’ll go to you. Be ready. I might be coming in with people watching and we won’t have time.”

***

Wayne found that the ‘forward base’ wasn’t so forward anymore.

It was actually a no-man’s land of sorts. Filled with the burnt out hulks of tanks, Walkers, and the corpses of soldiers quite liberally spread about.

Like broken bits of a diorama depicting a battle that was historical rather than immediate.

He looked it over with as detached an eye as he could manage.

In his approach he’d been fortunate however. It seemed that whatever had happened here had moved on. Though there did seem to be remnants here and there.

As if people were policing bodies and wrecks, however. Not that they were here as a defensive force. It was somewhat odd to him, but he wasn’t going to question it.

Right now he was just glad that the enemy fleet wasn’t watching, or wasn’t in range. In either case so long as it didn’t start firing at him, he’d be thankful.

Moving across the ruined field at a jog he was trying to present the look of a Walker on a courier type of mission. It’d worked so far up to a point.

He’d come across a patrol of soldiers that’d given him a sideways glance and then looked away again. As if he weren’t much to look at with his weapons holstered and moving more like a man with a mission.

“Princess,” Wayne said as he moved deeper into the wreckage of this rather large ‘forward base’. Where exactly are you?”

“Uhm, we’re… we’re in a latrine ditch,” said the woman, sounding mortified. “I took a satellite phone with me and-and got in with my fiance. It’s quite horrid but… the alternative was worse.”

Well, she’s not entirely an idiot.

Rather brilliant in fact as well as brave.

Though her fiance hiding in a shit pit with her is going to be a disgrace one way or the other.

The man was a general.

He got his shit pushed in, then hid, rather than get taken prisoner or die with his men.

Right or wrong, the perception is going to be ugly.

There was no way he’d get out of this with his dignity intact.

“Can you hear a Walker moving around?” Wayne asked as he hunted through the camp. He noted a rather heavy looking set of artilery pieces off to the side. All of them pointing in the direction that the enemy had come from.

He couldn’t even see spent shells beside them. As if they’d been abandoned without a shot fired.

Fuck man, were they that unready?

Shit.

Looking off to the distance, Wayne saw something amusing.

Something just as stupid as what was in front of him, in fact.

The enemy had set up on a distant hill overlooking the no-man’s land and were in the middle of a meeting. A big stupid one, he was willing to bet.

Because there were several vehicles parked nearby that when his AI got a hold of him, told him they were all belonging to generals. General for the opposing side. All of them parked beside a strange thrown up tent that looked as if it’d been put up specifically for them to not be touched by the sun.

“Yes, I can even see you, Lord Cavalier,” whispered Anissa into the frequency.

Wayne nodded his head at that, dialed into his targeting AI and plotted out all the firing lines for the artillery pieces. Acting more the part of a Loader instead of a Walker pilot. Wayne started moving the pieces around.

Moving them about till all the barrels were pointed at the generals and there little gathering.

He only needed them to fire once, so he lifted or lowered them with the hand crank and didn’t mind when his horrific Walker hands mangled the physical controls.

Watching around himself, no one seemed to be paying him any thought.

Laying out a good spread of artillery shells, Wayne then looked around and spotted the latrine ditch.

A blonde head was peeking out over the top. Just a pair of blue eyes and a blonde head.

“Alright princess,” Wayne said. “I’m going to give our friends a bouquet and then I’m coming over there to grab you and your fiance up. I’m going to hold onto each of you with my Walker’s hands. One to a hand. So please get your arms above your head. So I don’t end up breaking them when I grab you.

“Then… then we’re running. Running so fast that you won’t like the experience and I’m sorry for it, but… this is the most amount of confusion I can instill and then create a break-out for us. If I just pick you up and run off, they’ll notice it more so than this stupidity.”

“Won’t they just try to follow us?” asked the princess.

“Won’t they follow us?” asked Mikaela at the same time.

“Maybe. Or they’ll be busy trying to save generals,” Wayne countered. “Either way, they were likely to follow us. I’m just giving them a reason to be distracted.”

Wayne sighed, looked at the pull cords to fire.

Then he yanked one and the boom was immediate.

Rushing forward, he pulled on three more as he came across them.

Each of the pieces going off spectacularly, except for the last one.

It hadn’t been loaded in the end. Which felt even more sickening to him if he was being honest.

By the time he’d pulled the last cord, the princess and the fiance had both clambered out of the latrine and were standing there with their arms up.

“Uppies,” Wayne said with a chuckle and snatched up both of them, pivoted, and started sprinting at an angle away from the whole thing.

Out in the direction he’d originally came from to a degree, but also not. More as if he were running away from the explosions.

Wayne didn’t look back.

He couldn’t afford it.

Right now he had three bits of nobility on his person and one cowardly general.

Who really should have known better than to allow his fiance to be here.

Sprinting along the ground at full speed, Wayne saw princess Anissa clearly in his left hand.

Her hands were pressed to the sides of her face, facing him, and staring at his cockpit. Her lower half covered in shit and piss, but looking unbothered by it all.

The satellite phone was still clutched in one hand.

“All good princess?” he asked.

Causing Anissa to jerk once, then look at her hand.

“Yes!” she called out loudly. “Hello, cousin.”

“Hello, cousin,” Mikaela said, then waved a hand from where she sat.

To which, Anissa waved back.

Well.

Let’s hope Josie doesn’t get pissy at me letting another princess sit in my lap.

“Princess, anything happening back that way?” Wayne asked and lifted Anissa up till she could actually see back the way they’d come from.

“A lot of fire!” she said into the frequency. “There’s Walkers moving around everywhere! A lot of infantry! They don’t seem to be looking at us!?”

Wayne nodded his head, brought the princess back down, then eased her up against his cock pit. Holding her against it as he ran on. If he got an opportunity, he’d let her into the cock pit as well.

The general however, was here by virtue of the princess. If the princess hadn’t been around him when it was time to rescue her, he would’ve been left behind.

Wayne glanced at the man.

He was facing away, didn’t seem to be moving much, and almost looked limp in Wayne’s grasp.

“Oh! Todd, hello,” Anissa said into the phone, now pressed to the cockpit and likely experiencing less jostling. She was resting the entirety of her body against the Steel-Glass.

Hell, she built like a super-model.

Damn D-cup or something. Sheesh.

“Hi Nees!” Todd said with a laugh. “I’m in Patchwork!”

“What happened at the estate?” Anissa asked in the satellite phone.

“Well, it—”

Wayne ran on while sending an unspoken ping to the com-channel to Wendy, yet got nothing back.