1.7
A short while later Cameron was making his way up a series of rungs on the back of one of the Squire’s legs making his way to the cockpit. He reached the top, finding the handle towards the center of the boxy container, nearly hidden from view save for the chipped brown paint on the hinges. He gripped the handle, giving it a sharp yank as Logan had instructed him to, and listened as a series of gears begin to turn. Finally, with a hiss of pressurized hair a seal broke open, bisecting the container from left to right. The lid slowly rose along with Cameron’s brows as he stared wide eyed at the scene before him.
“Wow,” He whispered, awestruck by what he saw.
The cockpit was an organized chaos. Wires and tubing ran the length of the walls, going into a control board lined with a litany of switches and breakers. A dashboard above the switches had a screen built into the middle, showing an outline of the Squire segmented into separate sections, monitoring the health of the arms, legs, and cockpit respectively. Underneath the outline, a bar lit in green ran the length of the screen, showing the reserves of solar energy the mech contained. Above all that, was a black wall, showing nothing but a thin layer of dust that Cameron wiped away. A plush, leather bucket seat was situated dead center, with a control stick on either side. To Cameron, it was a thing of beauty. So much so that he only stopped staring open mouthed at the compartment when Logan’s voice came crackling out over a set of speakers.
“Well ya gonna stare at it all day or are you gonna hop in?”
Cameron cracked a smile, scrambling to get inside. He sat down in the seat, reaching for the sticks as the lid to the compartment snapped shut behind him. As it did, the now pitch black cockpit grew alight, as the black wall above the dash lit up. There in front of him, was the field he had been standing on earlier, Logan’s mech staring him down across the way.
“Outside projector working? Can you see anything?” Logan asked, almost as if on cue.
“Uh, yeah. Seems to be anyways. I can see outside, and I can see you.”
“Good. That squire hasn’t seen use in quite a while so I was worried something had broken down. They’re tough little bastards. Not a lot in the way of armaments but you can run them into the ground and they’ll keep limping along. One of the reasons why they’re the staple of most planetary forces.”
“What’s the other reason?”
“They’re easy to pilot. I can teach a little shit like you how to be a halfway decent operator after only a few hours.”
“Was the ‘little shit’ necessary?” Cameron asked indignantly.
“Absolutely, now grip the sticks and let’s go through ‘baby’s first mech’ class.”
Cameron learned the basics quickly enough. That was in equal part thanks to Logan’s teaching, and the simplicity of the Squire’s controls. Each stick powered one side of the units frame. Working in tandem was how movement occurred. To go forward, Cameron had to simply push both sticks forward, and vice-versa to reverse. Turning and strafing required a little more thought, as the unit would turn either clockwise or counter-clockwise depending on which stick was being used. Pretty soon, Cameron was able to walk, turn, and run with little difficulty.
“How am I looking?” Cameron asked over the comm channel as the Squire lumbered up and down the field. Mud replaced grass in spaces where he had walked, massive clawed feet effortlessly turning over the soil with every step.
“Like a newborn calf.” Logan shot back, the smile on his face able to be heard over the radio.
“Considering I hadn’t even sat inside one of these things before today, I think I’m doing fairly well.”
“I’ll give you that. But now it’s time to get to the fun stuff.” Logan’s smile turned into a dangerous smirk as he took his first steps in his Crusader. Well, taking steps wasn’t quite right. In actuality, the unit glided across the ground, legs working back and forth in smooth skating motion as blue plasma pulsed out from two vents underneath each foot. The Crusader danced around, circling the Squire as Logan showed off the expansive movement of the mech.
“Okay, now that’s cool.” Cameron said, watching from within the squire as Logan weaved around him. It took a while more for Logan to go through the mannerisms of utilizing the plasma boosters unique to each A.R.M.S. unit. The Crusader for example had seven; four on it’s feet, two at the midsection for strafing, and a large one at the back for rapid acceleration. In contrast, the Squire only had the first two sections, leaving it at a distinct disadvantage in terms of speed. Still, it didn’t deter Cameron from proposing a challenge to his mentor.
“How about we test these things out?” He asked, after a while of smooth skating around the field.
“And just what kind of test do you propose?” Logan replied, sounding a tad apprehensive. He looked down through the Crusaders head slot spying the now ruined garden field. Though the numbing relief of integration didn’t make him feel too terribly bad, the last thing he wanted to do was to ruin the warm welcome Augustus had given him.
Cameron on the other hand, was nonplussed. “How about a game of tag?”
“Tag?”
“Yeah, you heard me. Tag. Think of it like a little movement exercise. How else am I going to acclimate to this?”
Logan thought for a moment, considering the offer. He felt conflicted. One part of him saw the damage they were doing to the royal gardens and it gnawed at his sense of professionalism that he prided himself on. The other part wanted to jump at the chance to do some training. He’d been unlinked for too long and needed to stretch his legs. It didn’t take long for one of them to win out.
“Fine… You’re it.” He said, blasting forward and swinging out with his shield arm to bash the Squire dead on, knocking it on its rear with a thundering crash.
Cameron’s body shook inside the cockpit as the Squire toppled over. He struggled to get up, but eventually he managed, using the mech’s sword as a crutch to pull its massive body upright.
“That was a cheap shot man.” He said, fighting hard to suppress the smile slowly creeping across his face.
“This was your idea kid.” Logan retorted, the distinct tinge of snark evident in his voice. “Not my fault you suck at the game.”
Cameron’s smirk fell as the spark of competition flashed through him. Without another word he pushed the sticks forward hard, activating the Squire’s boosters as he shot forward in a blink. Logan counted down in his head, calculating the distance before the squire would be on him. At the very last moment he shifted to the hard, watching as five tons of steel careened past him, rocketing towards the tree line.
“Damn it!” Cameron exclaimed, braking hard and turning to the right, carving a small channel into the soil as the Squire’s feet dug into the earth. He shot back out, leaping into the air as he zeroed in on Logan’s position. Again, he waited until the right moment, before simply leaping backwards just in time. He chuckled as watched Cameron’s mech bury itself into the muddy ground.
“Jeez, you really are bad at this.” He said, egging the prince on.
“Didn’t you say that your Crusader outpaced my Squire in damn near every way?”
“No… I said my Crusader outpaced your squire IN every way. It’s just pure numbers kid. We can run around this field all day and you won’t be able to touch me if I don’t want you to.”
“Then why the hell are we doing this?” Cameron asked, watching as the Crusader shrugged, mimicking the movements of its operator. His eyes cut to the switchboard, trying to see if there was anything he could use to prove Logan a liar. After a moment he spied a switch which was emblazoned with what seemed to be a smoke cloud. A smile teased the corner of his mouth as he stared Logan down again, before rushing back in.
“You just don’t listen do you?” Logan replied with a sigh, counting down the distance in his head once again.
“What can I say? I don’t like being told I can’t do something.” Cameron’s smile was growing as he inched closer and closer to the Crusader’s location. Unbeknownst to Logan, Cameron counted down as well, waiting for his moment. He found it as he got within five meters of his target. Then, as he heard Logan’s booster prime for a dash, he flipped the switch.
Twin hatches flipped open on the Squire’s shoulders as six canisters propelled forward before burying themselves halfway into the dirt. As they did so, the canisters opened with a sharp hiss. Smoke billowed in thick plumes covering the field in a dense fog completely concealing both units.
“Interesting…” Logan said, straining his eyes, trying his damnedest to make out the definitive shape of the squire through the ever shifting smoke.
“I think you forgot something important though kid.”
“And what’s that Logan?” Cameron replied, gently shifting the momentum of the Squire to slowly make his way across the ground in a silent glide.
“You’ve blinded yourself too. We’re still in the same position, but I’ll hand it to you that you’ve increased our percentage for a head on collision a good amount.”
Cameron smirked, boosters softly flaring as he skirted around the perimeter of the cloud, marked by a distinct increase in visibility. “Hey… The game is I just have to touch you, we didn’t specify how hard that touch has to be.”
Logan furrowed his brow, scanning his surroundings. He knew he could trivialize this by having Vic conduct a heat signature scan, but he was determined to embrace and nurture Cameron’s tactical education, happy the prince was embracing his role, even if he didn’t know it. Besides, where was the fun in cheating in a game that was just for fun?
Then the first sword thrust cut through the heavy fog, inches from his head. His eyes widened in surprise as he dashed backward. The second attack, this one a long sweeping horizontal slash, followed up from the first in the blink of an eye. He gritted his teeth, feeling the g-forces pressing on his ribs as he hooked to the right, leading the blade as it completed its arc. Pretty soon, both units were dancing in and out of the fog, Cameron thrusting and slashing, as Logan dodged and evaded, watching the blade inch closer every second. Logan felt the sweat dripping from his brow, tasted the iron in the back of his throat as he sucked in air, heard his heart pounding in his ears as he danced around Cameron’s attacks. He couldn’t remember the last time he had this much fun.
It wasn’t meant to last though. It was a shame that the end came just as Cameron was about to hit his mark.
“There you are!” He shouted as he swung in a powerful downward arc. He only made it a quarter of the way through when he felt the Squire’s arm stop in an instant. Cameron struggled, grabbing the stick to free the arm from whatever kept it locked in place. When the smoke finally cleared, Cameron could see what had hindered his progress.
Standing off to the side, was the Crusader, its hand outstretched to catch Cameron’s holding his Squire by its wrist as Logan’s voice crackled out over the speakers. “Yeah, I cheated a little bit and engaged my Rail Drive to get an extra burst of speed. But in my defense… I hate losing.”
Cameron was dumbstruck. Was this the privilege of an A.R.M.S. pilot? Something that big should never move that fast, or silent. And yet here he was, bested by a giant blocky mech that defied the laws of science.
It was terrifying, when he stopped to consider the ramifications of this. Terrifying, and awesome. He felt a large grin creep onto face as Logan spoke up again.
“How you feeling kid?”
Cameron saw his hand shaking as he turned on his suits PA system. Whether that was nervousness or excitement, he wasn’t sure. What he was sure of however, was the emotion shooting through him at this very moment. So sure was he, that the first things out of his lips, were an answer more honest than he’d ever been.
“Alive, Logan. I feel alive.”