1.38
Cameron waited until the very last moment before he activated his boosters, dodging hard to the right, watching as the cleaver whipped past him, disappearing into the sickly green haze.
“Well, that was anti-climatic,” He said, blinking as he looked back between Red and back towards the empty, foggy space.
“I wouldn’t be so sure, Sugar,” Thelma said, her soothing tone barely heard above the warning blare of an alarm, “Unidentified object approaching quickly on your six.”
“Wha- Oh shit,” Cameron said, looking behind him just in time to see the spinning hunk of death rebound back, spinning just as fast as it had when Red had initially let it go. He dove out the way, combat rolling to his feet quickly, before sighing in frustration as he watched the spinning axe arc and curve its flight until it was barreling down on him once again.
“Oh this is some bullshit!” Cameron cried, dodging the axe over and over, before he finally gave up and turned, taking off into a sprint, causing the axe to follow him without so much as a second of reprieve.
Riordan cackled loudly, quickly pulling out two more axes, spinning them rapidly, and tossing them in Cameron’s direction, “Run all you want, little Alpha! These axes are locked to your mechanical signature. They’re not going to stop until they’ve buried themselves into your spine! Lets see how long you can go without making a mistake that spells your death.”
“Logan! Some help here would be fucking nice!”
“Working on it!” Logan called, turning to see Cameron utilizing his jet boosters to leap into the air, spin over two axes the passed over and under him simultaneously, brining his blade up to block the third, causing it to ricochet away for the briefest moment, before spooling back up to begin pursuing him once again.
“Well can you work a little faster?!” Cameron called, sounding slightly short of breath, “This is starting to get annoying!”
Logan couldn’t help but smirk at the absurdity of the situation, shaking his head as he stared down Red and his Cleaver unit, widening his stance and banging on his shield with his mace to get Pirate Captain’s attention.
“Alright big guy,” he said, taking a couple of tentative steps in Riordan’s direction, “You got us alone now, as per your plan I take it. Let’s do this.”
Another shrill torrent of laughter came from the Cleaver’s speakers as its head nodded rapidly, before Riordan spoke, “My my, aren’t you a perceptive little insect. Yes, I think you can entertain me for a moment or two. Let’s dance shall we? I’ll lead…”
With that, Riordan blasted forward, his Cleaver unit eating the distance in a heartbeat until he was right on top of Logan, blade held high and poised to attack. Logan leaped back, narrowly avoiding a rock shattering slash that buried Riordan’s weapon into the ground up to his wrist. Logan prepared his counter attack, stepping forward to deliver a powerful swing in order to sever the Cleaver’s other arm, but what he thought was a disadvantage turned out to be a ruse, as Riordan free his hand with a mighty yell, spraying a large stones into the air and pelting Logan with a shower of rock.
“Gotta be better than that if you wish to entertain me, Crusader,” Riordan said, spitting out Logan’s mech model like a curse before dashing in to deliver a salvo of slashes and swipes. Before he could even orient himself to the Cleaver’s fury, alarms started to ring out inside the Crusader’s cockpit as injuries to it’s body and appendages began to quickly mount.
“Enough!” Logan bellowed, raising his shield, putting his mace behind to brace it, and blasting forward with all the force his thrusters would allow. His shield caught the Cleaver right in the center torso, forcing it back and knocking it off balance, leaving Riordan arm swinging wildly as he tried to stop his fall. Logan pressed his advantage though, dashing forward and cracking Riordan in the helm with a vicious shield smack before following up with a hearty mace swing towards his damaged arm socket, separating the arm at the joint and eliciting a blood-curdling scream from Riordan. Metal and oil gave way to flesh and blood, spraying both liquids wildly before, with a hiss of pressurized air and steam, the opening in the arm socket quickly sealed tight, preventing any such contamination from the deadly gas outside.
“Vic,” Logan said, breathing heavily as he watched Riordan writhe in pain, “What’s our hull status?”
“Structural integrity of leg and torso armor are sitting at approximately forty-five percent integrity,” Vic began, “Arm and hand armor is at approximately sixty percent. Helm armor is at ninety-five. Well done on protecting your most important appendage Sir. I believe it’s safe to say you are still very much in this fight.”
“I appreciate the compliment, Vic,” Logan said, his tone void of sarcasm, “But I know intend to win this fight, not just prolong it.”
“Then if I were you Sir… I’d be a bit more concerned as to the laughter that is coming from the enemies speaker.”
“What?” Logan said, eyes going wide as Vic muffled the surrounding ambience from coming through the audio sensors, focusing intently on the raucous cackling that was indeed from the Cleaver’s speakers. Logan felt his heart beat faster, as he swallowed, his mouth gone dry and scratchy as he watched Riordan Red work himself into a frenzy of maddening glee.
“Ah! That was a good one Crusader,” Riordan said, sounding like he was fighting back tears as he spoke, “That’s what I get for underestimating you.”
His laughter stopped immediately, almost like it was cut off from some unseen force. Logan watched as the Cleaver dropped low, leaning forward and planting its remaining fist on the ground, fingers wrapped tightly around its deadly weapon. When Logan heard Riordan’s voice this time, there was no mirth or humor. Instead, what left his lips could only be described as the growl of a predator closing in for the kill, “So… How about I start taking this seriously?”
There were scant few heartbeats that seemed to drag on in agonizing silence as Logan could only watch Riordan coil like a spring before, with a thunderous crack, he shot forward like a blood red cannonball. Crossing the distance between them in the blink of an eye, Riordan lowered his shoulder to charge into Logan’s chest. To his credit, Logan was able to get his shield up into time to protect his cockpit, but that wasn’t enough to keep the crazed pirate from cracking the massive slab of steel in two as if it was a wafer, before slamming into Crusader’s chest, knocking it back several meters.
“Gah! Fuck!” Logan said, gasping for air.
“Are you alright Sir?” Vic asked, “Your heart-rate is spiking.”
“Fuck no Vic!” Logan bellowed, “I’m pretty sure he hit me so hard it momentarily broke the synaptic link, so I felt ALL of that!”
“Oh…” Vic said, sounding for the first time worried, “Oh dear.”
“Ya think?”
Logan tried to scramble to his feet, but Riordan was faster, appearing above him, blade held high, as he went in for the kill.
“Don’t quit on me now, Crusader!” He cried out, slinging his blade down, aiming straight for Logan’s chest. Logan push a hand up, gripping his attackers wrist, and managed to stop the blade from caving in his cockpit. Unfortunately however, Riordan was determined to inflict pain on his opponent, and to Logan’s surprise, chose wisely, bashing the pommel of his cleaver into the ocular lenses of Crusader’s helm, causing Logan to reel back in agony, as his vision doubled and warped, like he was looking through a broken spyglass.
“My eyes!” Logan cried out in pain, trying to blink away the black splodges that clouded his vision as Riordan pinned him to the ground.
“Best to put a wounded beast out if it’s misery, wouldn’t you agree?” Riordan growled sadistically.
“My thoughts exactly,” Cameron’s voice came out of nowhere, giving Logan a stay of execution as Riordan looked up, trying to pinpoint where the voice came from. His answer came in the form of a thunderous crash, as the Headsman’s black blade bashed the Cleaver with the force of a freight train, lifting it off its feet before Cameron flipped around and pancaked Riordan with the full force of an industrial press.
“Why you little-” Riordan growled, pushing off the ground with his good hand to stand back up and staring down Cameron as he dashed and jumped, still fending off the three axes he had tossed his way earlier.
“You’re supposed to be dead!”
“Yeah, funny thing about what’s supposed to happen versus fact, dickhead,” Cameron shot back, twirling laterally over one axe while deflecting the other two with his sword mid spin. He blasted forward the moment he landed and blade met blade as the two clashed.
“Fair enough,” Riordan cackled, “Seems I overestimated you, little alpha. I suppose I can extend to you the same courtesy I gave your friend over there.”
“Over where?” Cameron said, the snark came out clearly over the mic.
“Over… there?” Riordan said, sounding confused as he looked towards the empty space where Logan had been only moments ago. That was when the massive gauntleted hands of the Crusader wrapped around the Cleaver’s torso, pressing its arm tight to its side.
“Looking for someone?” Logan said, laughing for the first time of the fight as Riordan struggled to free himself.
“Gah… Let me go!” He cried, wriggling and howling with fury.
“Oh he will,” Cameron said, “In about ten seconds.”
With that, Cameron broke free of the clash, blasting himself high into the air and back flipping over the three cleavers that were barreling down on him. This time however, they didn’t have time to follow him. He’d waited for just the right moment to clear the way and now Riordan had a front-row seat to three massive spinning cleavers screaming towards him at top speed.
“Oh, fuck m-” Was all he managed to let out before all three buried themselves into his cockpit with overwhelming force. His cleaver dropped from his hand as he his mech and Logan’s crusader were flung back twenty meters from the force of the impact. With a heavy thud and a clearing of gas, Cameron watched as Logan toppled over, trapped underneath the weight of a powered down mech and a dead pilot.
There was a moment of quiet as Cameron looked at the aftermath of his intervention, admiring his handiwork. Eventually, Logan filled with silence with conversation as he struggled in his attempts to free himself.
“Took ya long enough, kid.” He said, teeth grit as he tried and failed to move out from under the Cleaver’s immense weight.
“I was waiting for the right moment to make a dramatic entrance,” Cameron said, shrugging as he strode over and began to roll the unmoving mass of Riordan’s mech off of his comrade.
“And what an entrance it was, sweetie!” Thelma chimed in, “Going over the after action report, I’d say you were operating the Headsman at approximately eighty percent peak efficiency. Not bad for your first time at all!”
Couldn’t couldn’t help but smile, “Thanks Thelma, I appreciate the kind words.”
“Oh they’re not just kind words!” She said excitedly, “I’ve upload the kill feed of Riordan Red to the central A.R.M.S. database and well… perhaps I should just show you.”
With that, there was a sharp jabbing pain directly behind Cameron’s eyes, before everything went black. Suddenly, with a bright flash of scrolling blue ones and zeros, a screen appeared in Cameron’s vision, looking like the same screen he’d seen when he had been threaded, but with some noticeable changes.
PARAMETERS SUCCESFULLY MET PILOT PROMTION AUTHORIZED
Name: [REDACTED] AKA: Cam Ket Pilot Registration Number: 1128212 Pilot Rank: Alpha (Primus) Co-Pilot: T437MA (Thelma) Company: N/A Unit Type: Headsman (Assault Variant)
“Well would you look at that.”