Cavalier's Gambit 2 -ch 15-

Chapter 15

Wayne pushed on.

Hard.

Patchwork was flying across the grass at a speed that likely could only be matched by a true Scout Walker. Despite the weight of patchwork, the armor, the weapons, everything that’d been put into it, it was fast.

Tink had beaten away at an engine that Wayne already tinkered extensively with.

There was no doubt in his mind that this engine was at the peak of its life and likely unable to squeeze out a single bit more of speed or acceleration.

Even as he focused Wayne knew that he was pushing it to the limit it was at and could probably go past it to a degree, too. Because Wayne wasn’t normal.

His mind was a death trap to AI when he got plugged into them.

The chip that bridged him to the Walker was the only reason he could pilot it at all.

What that all meant in this moment, was Patchwork was blazing across the field.

Dirt was spraying up behind him with massive clods of grass being flung about. Like a dog kicking grass after it’d gone to the bathroom.

Patchwork’s legs flexing and stretching to their maximum as Wayne’s mind threw it at incredible speed. Shooting straight toward the waypoint that he would likely have to be swift with.

Reality being an ugly shit show so far meant that it was entirely likely that both family members were dead and Wayne was running into a turkey-shoot.

Losing himself in the run, Wayne didn’t see anything. Didn’t note differences in terrain, didn’t see houses, farms, towers, people, cars, nothing.

Wayne saw nothing but the goal.

His gaze hard locked to it as Patchwork flew.

“Comms check,” Wayne muttered, already knowing the silence would answer. They had been pretty certain that there wouldn’t be an ability to check in with Wendy or anyone else.

Something, or someone, was putting out a massive frequency jammer to the area. There was nothing going in or out of the area at all. Friend or foe.

As Wayne crested a small rise in the land, and stepped on a half destroyed yard fence, he found himself looking on what was likely ‘the estate’.

A large and palatial looking building with a great deal of greenery around it, tall walls, automated defenses, and a number of burned out Walkers.

There were also a number of destroyed tanks and dead infantry.

Shit.

Peeling out left Wayne kept running. Moving Patchwork into the side of the field the enemy would’ve come from, rather than defenders.

If he wanted any chance of seeing what happened here, his best bet was to get the drop on the enemy and surprise them. Either through approaching from a ‘known’ direction, or just outright surprise.

In either situation, he lost nothing by shifting his approach.

“This is Cavalier Hesh,” Wayne said into the encrypted frequency that he had been given. This was apparently a com signal that was being used by estate security.

While the frequencies were all being jammed, he didn’t think it would transmit or be received, but it was worth trying.

Even if it was fruitless.

Not waiting for a response, he continued to flank around, then started up the main entry path. It was a very easy to see paved street and had clearly been used somewhat frequently, but was well maintained.

It led straight up to the gates of the estate.

Wayne was moving at a more reserved rate of speed now. Moving more like a scout coming in to see how things were going, and less like someone looking to get into a fight.

Just in case someone was here and looking for him.

Moving up to a burned out Walker, Wayne saw that it was a Dreadnought. One sporting the house insignia of house Bertson. Not far away was a Titan that had an unknown marking to him.

However, neither of those things actually bothered him.

What bothered him, was that his AI wasn’t giving him white boxes for anything.

Not a single damn thing.

The jammer was doing a number on all the smart devices and things that’d require a signal to work. That meant that his AI wasn’t reaching out and touching anything at all to get the details on it.

In the same moment, it left him wondering about Arsenic again.

Arsenic required a USB insertion to get it going, yet his original AI didn’t require that and could operate quite freely even without a signal so long as it was receiving. Wayne could even do it without being in his Walker.

There was more to Arsenic than he had considered up to this point with that thought in mind.

Or more accurately, it was perhaps more than he wished to consider. More than he wanted to ponder.

He hadn’t mistaken the fact that Arsenic seemed like it was responding to him at times. That it would present him with emoji, rather than it’s string of foreign text.

Shaking his head, Wayne brought himself back into the moment.

His mind had slipped and wandered off as he stood there considering the wreckage.

Turning slowly he looked to the front of the large estate building as well as what he could see.

Most of the defenses were smoking or wreckage. Some of them were just unmoving and that spoke to something much worse happening. Like a strike team getting into the estate and actively turning off defenses.

As Wayne looked, he found an obvious trail of Walkers that moved around the side of the estate. Moving around the massive three story tall building, easily fifteen to ten feet taller than Patchwork.

Wayne followed it, wondering how bad this was about to go.

As he turned the corner, he slowed down considerably and took it at a crawl.

Coming around the building’s edge, he found himself staring straight at several Walkers. One was a Titan and the other two were Assault class.

They weren’t moving though and Wayne wasn’t sure how to approach the situation.

All three were staring into what really looked like to be an insert into the building. As if there was an entry way or loading area back that way.

Perhaps an open garden of sorts.

“—there!?” asked a quiet voice on his radio. On the encrypted channel that the house security was supposed to be using.

Except it was only one word. One static filled word that faded away into nothing as if it had only been a momentary gap in the jammer.

“I’m here,” Wayne stated into the frequency, just in case they could hear him, but he couldn’t hear them. He began moving forward.

Regardless of whether they could hear him or not, he now knew they were there. That meant he had to at least try.

His biggest issue would be the Titan.

Realistically, he could probably take on the other two if he had to, and even do it in melee combat. His sword and the strength of Patchwork was considerable.

The problem was that the Titan was a Titan.

That was all there was to it.

Pushing forward he realized that none of the Walkers were paying attention at all. They were all focused on whatever was in the cut-in.

Shifting to a further angle, Wayne set himself to come up behind the Titan.

Inside of Patchwork, with his implant, his abilities, and his control, Wayne was unlike any other Walker jock out there. No other Walker pilot could truly keep up with him and he knew it.

He didn’t have to destroy the Titan, he just had to give it so much of a problem, that it couldn’t fight back.

Moving at a steady speed Wayne could see now that the two Assault class Walkers were both using laser weapons on both arms, as well as rocket bays in their upper torsos.

One of them looked pretty battered and didn’t seem to have much left other than a single laser cannon.

The other had a full bay of rockets exposed and ready to launch.

It was the opening Wayne needed.

Titan’s were big, slow, and cumbersome.

If they got a hold of you, you were going to be turned into wreckage and that was that.

If they got a hold of you, that is.

Bringing up his targeting reticle and it’s AI assisted perfect aim, Wayne fired twice with Yuna as he closed the distance. Both rounds hitting the rockets.

Solid slug rounds with weight and penetration slamming home into the explosive devices.

Followed by the whole damn Walker’s upper torso simply becoming a bomb rather than a Walker. Shrapnel blowing out in every single direction near the Titan as the rockets went off in one sympathetic detonation.

Storming forward Wayne did something unorthodox and a tactic he had never once heard of in his entire life. Something that realistically he wasn’t sure existed anywhere.

Wayne was strange, and his brain went in strange circles, however.

He jumped onto the Titan’s back.

Much in the way a kid might leap onto a parent’s back.

Wrapping the arm that held his sword around the Titan’s neck Wayne lined up his reticle for Yuna on the other Assault Walker.

He fired one round into his laser cannon and it promptly spattered into useless bits of debris. Breaking apart under the heavy slug and partially knocking the arm to the side.

At the same time, the Titan, stood there.

Unbothered.

It was easily two to three times the weight of Patchwork with was about right really.

Except, what it couldn’t do, was get ahold of Wayne.

Now the he had disarmed the other Assault Walker, Wayne started putting a stream of rounds from Yuna into it’s cockpit. Even as it stumbled backward, either from the explosion of the other Assault Walker going up like a firework, or Wayne attacking it.

Six rounds quickly were pumped out, firing as fast as Yuna could chamber a new round.

Each and every round going out like a laser beam and from close quarters. Each impacting the same exact area. The Steel-Glass crumped inward on the fifth shot and the sixth seemed to have penetrated it outright.

Though Wayne didn’t get a chance to confirm that as the Walker kept moving backwards and was now slowly turning away. He lost sight of the cockpit as it meandered along.

Swapping the arm that hung to the Titan from the sword to Yuna, Wayne held the sword aloft, and started hacking at the Titan’s right leg.

The same leg that’d been peppered by the Assault Walker as it’s internal ammo bays became external ammo bays.

Wayne savagely swung at the hip joint over and over and spared a glance at the Assault Walker he’d caused to blow up.

The pilot was very dead.

It was a woman, or so he guess from the fully nude torso minus it’s head slumped to the side. The explosive force had blown off an arm, it’s clothes, and it’s head.

At least it was quick.

Ramming the long bladed weapon down nine times before the Titan could even seem to comprehend that he was hanging onto it, Wayne felt like he might have a shot.

Until it turned sideways, backed up, and started walking Wayne into the side of the estate building. Which would do very bad things to Wayne if the walls were heavily reinforced.

He’d be stuck in a vice of Titan armor and a building meant to withstand missile strikes.

Not waiting around for what was coming, Wayne dropped off, took a step away, then powered forward with a thrust and all his weight straight into the right hip joint of the Titan.

Leading with the tip of the sword.

There was a clang followed by a decompression of what looked like some type of fluid.

Wayne had no idea if he’d ruptured some type of hydraulic, tank of some sort, or a secondary radiator, but he wasn’t going to wait to find out.

Pivoting, he darted around the corner, took three steps, slammed both weapons into their locking points, and then leapt upward. He slammed a foot into a window, a hand into the third floor window and pulled himself straight upward.

His left hand caught the edge of the roof and he pulled himself up onto the top of the building.

Moving to the edge where he’d left the Titan, he quickly peeked over the edge to see where it was now.

It was hobbling after where Wayne had gone. It’s right leg moving in a hobbling manner, but still moving with some speed.

The Titan wasn’t crippled, but it was certainly slowed.

On top of that, it meant it’s balance was ruined.

Even as he stared the Titan, Wayne could see it was indeed tilting to one side each step. Moving away from the edge of the roof, Wayne moved away, then came back at a moving at a quick jog.

Then… he jumped.

Patchwork flew off the building and slammed into the side of the Titan.

Regardless of it being as large and as heavy as it was, Wayne caught it mid stride on a weakened leg, and across the top of it. The full weight of Patchwork slammed home with a boom.

More than a few warning lights came up on his display panel even as the Titan fell to the side.

Striking the ground with a boom, Wayne forced Patchwork away even as the Titan settled.

Wayne immediately launched himself at the Titan. Smashing the sword at anything that looked like a weapon on the massive Walker.

Obliterating all of it with giant overhead chops while firing point blank into the cockpit with Yuna. Each round smashing into what Wayne hoped was the locking mechanism. Either it’d pop open, shear, or the damn Steel-Glass would crack wide open.

The Titan flailed about a lot like a toddler that’d just toppled. Flailing it’s limbs about wildly and without any real ability to right itself.

Wayne just kept slamming the sword down.

At anything that even remotely looked like a weapon. Anything that might be able to shoot, fire, or engage him.

“I surrender!” shrieked the pilot from inside the Titan, causing Wayne to come up short. The blade held up, Yuna going quiet.

“I surrender. I’ll punch out and just… I’ll surrender,” said the pilot from inside the Titan. “Mercy, Sir Cavalier, mercy.”

He knows me?

Fine, lean into it.

Be the knight.

Mercy to those who can’t fight and spare the ones who surrender.

Wayne clanged the sword against the Steel-Glass cockpit.

“Are they inside killing the nobility, or capturing them,” Wayne demanded. “Answer and I’ll grant you that mercy.”

“Capture! Capture, Lord Hesh. Capture,” blurted out the pilot. “Our orders are to capture them at all costs. Not to kill them. Not at all.”

“They were destined to come back out to your three Walker squad?” inquired Wayne.

“Yes, Lord Hesh. They were due to come straight back to us. They went inside.”

“I see,” said Wayne, then sighed. “No radio right? Jammed all the way around?”

“No radio, Lord Hesh! Everything’s jammed. Everything.”

“I understand. Thank you. My may eject now and I shall leave you be,” Wayne allowed. “If you do not do so, as Cavalier Hesh I will end you. Do not test my patience, please.”

The Titan slowly sat up. It made no move to do anything else.

Suddenly, with a hiss, the top of the Walker popped out, the cockpit launched the pilot out through the top, and Wayne watched as they soared upward and away from the Walker.

Shooting through the air a decent ways.

Only for a parachute to open and begin taking the pilot off to the side. Taking them off on the wind.

Wayne moved away and started stomping his way to the position that the three Walkers had been looking into to begin with. Because that felt like the place to be to find out what was going on.

At a quick trot Wayne found himself in a garden.

Not far off was a door that’d been blown inward.

Scorch marks lined it and looked like it went inside.

This was the lace Wayne needed to be and to wait.

Because there was no point or reason to going in after them. He’d have to do it on foot, and outside of his Walker, Wayne just wasn’t as fearful in person.

Unlike Barbie who had special forces training, Wayne had none at all. He was a Walker Pilot.

Once more, Wayne clambered up on top of the building. He moved around till he got into a position that would alow him to watch the door and whoever might come out of it. As well as the front of the estate as well.

Just in case this group of people tried to slip away without him being able to intercede.

Because realistically, this was his best option.

To wait for them to exit, then ambush them.

Take the two nobility from them, by force or threat, and then depart back to the dropship.

So Wayne made himself comfortable.

Squatting there atop the building like an angry gargoyle waiting to come to life.