Cavalier's Gambit 2- CH 5-

Chapter 5

“Nothing,” Wayne said, watching the ruins of a neighborhood slowly moving past them on the right. The coordinates that Miriam had gotten for the location had brought them to this general location. The error variance was pretty large because she had been pretty positive that they were using a relay to get to this point.

Now they were just searching the area assuming it was around here somewhere, but Wayne was starting to wonder if this was just a dead end.

As much as he wanted to believe that they’d find something worth their time, there was an equal possibility that whoever was here, had immediately fled. Fled the very moment that Wayne had ordered them to stand-to.

“My Lord,” hissed Cara. “I have found them. They moved. It is a neighborhood with apartment buildings. There are seven Walkers. All Freebooters. Nine means… two… squads of four, with a leader?”

“Warrior,  you beautiful red-headed wonder. I will kiss that face of yours,” growled Wayne and began to immediately move in the direction Cara had last reported as her location. He also spotted a cluster of buildings that were likely exactly what Cara had been talking about. “Do they have pilots? Or do they have antenna like the other Freebooters.”

“No antenna. They have pilots. When I arrived they were milling about, but then immediately loaded in before I could act,” she hissed. “I was not spotted. The perfect Armorer has made Patchwork a glorious extension of me. I was silent on approach. I think they are watching your approach, my Perfect Lord.

“Warhorse and Lance are quite visible even from my position. Though only just. Many of the houses are bigger than I expected.”

“Yeah, this was a pretty rich world,” Wayne agreed as he thought about the lay of the land. There wasn’t any high ground to be had, and really, this was going to be a shit fight. A bunch of houses and probably the apartment buildings were going to get wrecked. There wasn’t anything he could do about that though. “You’re confident they see us and suspect we’re coming, Warrior?”

“Yes, they aren’t turned toward you, nor have they powered up, but they are most certainly aware and watching,” she confirmed. “My perfect Lord, what should I do?”

“Hold Warrior. Longbow, find a line-of-sight that’ll work. We’ll use the damn apartment buildings themselves to narrow this fight a bit. We can’t see them very well from where we are, but they can’t see us. We’re straight lining toward it. Lance, with me, Shield, on my long side,” Wayne ordered, then started moving through houses. Simply bulldozing them as he moved toward the apartment buildings. “Squire, behind me. Get those missiles and rockets of yours ready. You’ll get a lot of shots in while we keep them locked up.”

“Yes, Lord Cavalier,” came a general response. There were a few other variations, but it was mostly the same.

“I’m excited,” hissed Cara, the breathlessness of her voice carried a crackling energy. It was infections. Wayne could feel it in the muscles of his body. An electrical current that sparked and sizzled.

He hadn’t been excited for combat at first, yet the more he did it, the more he found it correct. That it fit what he wanted.

“I got a line, Lord Cavalier,” Mick reported. “Third floor, far left window, middle?”

Wayne glanced to where the man had called out. The line of a shot was indeed lined up exactly as he asked.

“Middle,” confirmed Wayne, then smirked. Mick clearly liked being able to have someone confirm his shot in real time. Not that Wayne blamed him.

“Drone away,” Natalie announced. There was a long pause as Wayne, Sal, and Barbie bulldozed through homes. Crushed cars. Ruined dreams.

There was a part of Wayne that felt horrible, but he was heading into a fight. He didn’t have the luxury or spare time to pussyfoot it around. If the apartments hid their targets, it in turn, hid them. They were smaller than most of Wayne’s squad, but that didn’t mean their weapons weren’t strong.

“I can’t wait, Lord Cavalier,” Sal said. The man had a seeming need to take hits and he really enjoyed letting the massive shield he carried do it’s job. His damage output was lower because of it, but you couldn’t ignore Sal. He would whittle you down even as his big dumb shield just ate up rounds.

“Marked,” Natalie stated as seven individual markers appeared. He wasn’t sure if it was something being projected on the interior of his cock-pit, or being read by his implant, but he had information to work with now.

Then Wayne felt his skin go clammy and cold. He’d been over confident.

He’d forgotten a basic rule of how his damn implant worked.

It only worked on hot weapons. It didn’t do anything at all for dumb fire or non-computer based weapons. Anything that needed no computations at all would never show up for him.

“Squire, dump that fucking apartment building facing us if anything even looks like a weapon in it. If it’s an anti-material rifle, a dummy fire rocket, or someone with a peashooter,” he ordered. “I don’t care of there’s innocents in it, if we’ve got live fire coming out of it, we can’t just not return fire. You’re welcome to focus on where the rounds are coming from if it happens, but I’d bet there’d be more than one location and… I don’t want to play that game.”

“Aye, Lord Cavalier,” answered Natalie.

Wayne still hated this situation even as they closed in on their destination. He tried not to think about the fact that even now they could be killing innocent civilians hiding in homes. Or that they’d be harmed in the upcoming fight that was about to happen.

He was doing his best to limit such deaths, but there was still the possibility. Still the fact that was entirely possible. Then he blew out a breath.

Wayne did something stupid.

He activated his external speakers, threw the volume to maximum, and more or less trumpeted his intentions. As if he were an old timey knight moving to attack.

“I am the Cavalier Hesh!” he called out, his speakers booming the message out to everyone nearby. “By order of Lady Mirkil I have come here to battle those who attempted to do harm upon myself, and the delegates of house Ginil by treacherous means! House Feda and the freebooters hiding behind the civilian apartment buildings! Surrender and be taken into custody! I will grant you clemency if you do it immediately, if not… then so be it!”

Wayne closed up his external speakers then and continued to stomp his way toward the buildings.

“My perfect Lord!” hissed Cara, sounding as if she were holding herself perfectly still while being buffeted by hurricane level winds. “Yes! We declare the fight! Yes… yes.”

“Blood always declare their intention first. That’s why she’s excited,” Miriam murmured in his cockpit. “I… have no doubt there’s someone around that recorded that. This is just… one… giant photo-op.”

“They’re starting engines!” Natalie called out. “They were running everything passive so they’ll be up and moving but not hot enough.”

“Warrior, hit and run, do not risk yourself. Show them why you’re you. Show them a Dashi Warrior,” he said. He had no love for Dashi for what they did, but he could at least respect them as a people. They were quite violent, good at combat, and had their own way of doing things. He imagined that a Confed military leadership paired to a Dashi batallion would be disastrous to anything it came across. Confed were great leaders, less so fighters and warriors. The Blood as a whole were inverted to that.

“Yes!” screamed Cara.

Wayne watched as a Freebooter came out from around the apartment buildings and was already turning to face him, their weapons in line of sight of himself and likely Sal.

Patchwork, smaller than the Freebooters, raced out and around the Freebooter. The sword in the left hand flashed forward as she ran right at the Freebooter. She went low, slid, then up, the sword punching into the waist of the larger Walker.

Then Cara kept sprinting away, blowing through a ranch house and a car as she fled. Yuna came up and she fired at a target Wayne couldn’t see, until she was then moving past the apartment building.

Mick’s line dropped on the waist of the Freebooter Cara had engaged and there was a boom. The heavy barrel put a round right into the same spot Cara had hit.

With a crackle the Freebooter’s torso began to twist all on it’s own slowly moving to one side until it was facing away, even though the legs kept moving.

If Wayne had to guess, it wasn’t able to turn properly now. It’d only turn to the left.

Wayne hadn’t realized it, but seven white boxes had appeared. All of them were listed as Freebooters, with tech that all came from House Feda’s foundries. Their serial numbers and registrations quickly unrolling.

Then the red boxes that told him all the ways he could attack it.

“Good work Warrior, Longbow. Perfect. Warrior, loop around, gimmie another run and—”

A stream of rockets and missiles flew past him and smashed into one section of the apartment building. All of it concentrated to one area.

“— and give me another run, Warrior. No risk to yourself, but be you,” he finished.

Sal had moved further left now, his laser started to fire out and several ballistic rounds were shot back at him. All of them blasted into the man’s big shield, sparks and fragments spattering out in wide arcs.

“Lance, let’s get up to that corner and hold the angle,” he ordered and pushed Warhorse to a faster speed. He put it to less than it’s max, but the max that Barbie could go at. Tink had already been working on it, and it was far and away much better than a normal Dreadnought, but it was still a Dreadnought.

“Yes, Lord Cavalier. And… the Armorer is amazing,” remarked Barbie as the Dreadnought moved far faster than it had any right to. Then faster than even Wayne had expected. He had to shift Warhorse to pick up just a touch.

“Yes! She is!” hissed Cara, Patchwork vanishing around the corner as she literally sprinted out of sight and behind an apartment building. She was acting more like a wolf at this point. She’d already hamstrung one Freebooter for Mick to knocked it out.

Two Freebooters came into line of sight. Then a third. They were all laying on fire to Sal and his shield. It just soaked it up, eating them just in the way that Sal wanted it.

“Lance, third on right,” ordered Wayne, locking on with his ballistic weapon and his laser cannon. “Longbow, your shot, your choice.”

Wayne began pumping off rounds from his big rifle. Warhorse had great stabilization at a good jog. It was a bit bumpy right now but nothing he couldn’t time. He just started firing in sync with his foot falls. His first three shots struck the leading section of the Steel-Glass cockpit. His laser cannon was painted to the same spot.

Because Glass-Steel really didn’t like getting heated and treated at the same time. It would start to weaken at the point of impact.

Then Barbie opened up.

He massive cannon in the right arm, along with several laser cannons and a machine gun on her left shoulder, all fired on the same target. Her spread was a touch worse than Wayne’s but she had clearly seen where he was firing. Her rounds all punched into the same area that Wayne had been going for.

The Freebooter had stood up to a lot of abuse, before it finally did a stupid thing, and turned away. In that moment, the pilot lost his nerve, and Barbie put a massive round and all of her laser blasts into a single point on the back of the Walker.

Walker’s were fairly well armored but the back was always the weakest.

So when it started to walk in a slow circle almost brainless, Wayne swapped to the next Walker.

Barbie’s round had punched through enough to kill the pilot.

Even as he started firing on this new target, three more came out from around the corner. Six Freebooters, many of them firing on Sal. Only to turn and focus on Wayne.

He saw it the moment multiple weapons platforms hard focused him.

“Aw shit,” he said, planted his foot to the right, shifted left, took two steps, pivoted to the right and reoriented his direction, slowed down, then turned back left. By the time he’d finished his strange manuever he was now heading to the left of his original approach, his weapons angled out to his right and locked on the Freebooter Barbie was firing on.

His whole strange hokey-pokey dance had been to juke as much ordinance as possible, before he started into a long strafe. He’d been running right at the enemy when they’d turned on him.

Which was a great way to get cored, where you engine went off and everything gets obliterated in the resulting explosion and the Walker is more or less toast.

They were still firing at him even now as he had made his maneuver, he’d seen more than a few warnings pop up that he’d been struck during it, but he hadn’t felt any heavy rocking or true alarms. It meant the heavier things that took more lead time had missed him.

Even as he began firing, a Freebooter exploded. Wayne had no idea why, but he was glad for it. They were down to five Freebooters to deal with.

Warning lights began flickering on his display.

Repeatedly. His right arm and the ballistic cannon there was taking more hits than he wanted to think about. Wayne had been lucky at the amount of firepower he’d dodged at the started. He needed to spread the damage out a bit or he’d just end up with his right getting trashed along with the weapon.

Halting his strafe, all five Freebooters visible, Wayne pivoted.

Hard.

He nearly came to a full stop, swung to the right, and started strafing toward the Freebooters with his cockpit facing them more so this time. Several heavy ballistic rounds slammed into the Steel-Glass. Hard enough that Wayne flinched under the barrage. Followed by six or seven laser cannon shots.

Except Wayne had taken them even as he turned. Letting the damage trail across the front and slowly toward the left arm as he moved.

Another Freebooter went up in a horrific explosion as a mass of missiles struck the center of the damn thing. It connected in a way that made the whole thing start to glow for several seconds before the engine on it blew out. The Freebooter becoming an explosion all it’s own.

Parts of it’s armaments, cockpit, and probably the pilot, splashing out at the Freebooters around it.

One enterprising hunk of the Walker spiraled upward and out of view, as if it were a jack-in-the-box puppet and it was going for a record.

Wayne was now taking hits on his left arm, the laser cannon. As he had turned, he’d been firing at the same target Barbie was pegging. One of her cannons shells went low and took it in the knee joint, causing it to stagger on the next step.

Immediately, Wayne dialed in on it and put several rounds into it. Each hitting the exact same spot. The knee started to give outright and the weight of the Walker was too much for it.

Then Mick put a round in it and the knee join suddenly bent the wrong way and the Freebooter faceplanted. Leaving their side down to three left.

Cara came around the far side of the apartment, Patchwork moving at a speed that Wayne thought he’d been able to get up to, but he’d have to check later. She was a blur of angry red-head in a walker and fired Yuna six times at one of the Freebooters that was still focused on Mick.

Striking it in the rear.

Yuna was not a cannon with extreme firepower, but it was something that was way beyond what Patchwork should have had. Easily sneaking in hits that would likely be more comparable to a full Assault class walker.

Before the Freebooter could probably register there was a problem behind it, Cara was there. Stomping her foot down and driving the whole force of her being into the sword she put into the point she’d fired into.

There was a moment where the sword came to a stop, then shot forward, through the cockpit, and knocking it forward and open. The pilot had been cut in half from shoulder to hip.

Cara jumped up, put both feet onto the Walker with Patchwork, and heaved,  launching it to the ground as she retrieved her weapon.

Wayne’s view was cut away from the field as Sal trundled up to stand in front of Warhorse.

Hell yeah, Sal you beautiful man.

Wayne changed his trajectory, stuck his cannon atop Sal’s dialed in the angle to match, and started firing on the same target he was. The two Freebooters who remained were being struck by missiles, ballistic rounds, energy discharges, and Mick trying to leg the next target.

To which Barbie joined in and ended up blowing out the mechanical joint.

A mass of missiles and rockets, likely all from Natalie swarmed the last Freebooter and the right arm came off in chunks and explosive heaps, causing the whole Walker to take several steps to the side.

Only for Cara to slam into it at full speed with Patchwork. Sending it crashing to the ground.

Patchwork stood atop it and began slamming the sword into the cockpit like a lumberjack trying to hack apart an obstinate log.

Wayne moved his reticle and fired his ballistic cannon in time with Cara’s overhead chops. Her sword hitting, then a round, then her sword, then a round. His onboard implant telling him the exact moment to fire and how to make it perfectly in sync with her and her swings.

Cara’s sword smashed through the cock pit and she flung her sword to the side. She began reaching into the cockpit and tearing off sections of the Steel-Glass.

She’s… like a damn raccoon trying to get into the trash.

Clawing, pulling, and tearing at the Steel-Glass, Cara eventually came up with the pilot. Holding them above her head.

“My perfect Lord! This is for you!” she screamed.

“Well,” Josephine remarked as Cara started coming over to them. “I’m glad Squire put that drone up. That’ll be a lot of fun to showcase later. Seven against five. And even a formal declaration of battle beforehand.”

“Photo…op,” Miriam replied.