"So, Hammerhand," Athena called over the radio, "we meet again at last."
Chapter Thirty-Six
Lightning flickered vividly across the sky once more—or, possibly, it flared from the bunker tower in the distance. Jessica13 wasn't sure which but decided it didn’t matter in the bigger scheme of things. It faded into relative insignificance when she focused on Athena, who marched at the front of her army toward the town of Auburn.
Mini pinged the HUD of the Minato and caught her attention almost immediately. "Your raised heart rate and dilated pupils indicate that you are currently in a state of choice between fight or flight."
"We can't fly. Right?"
"The Minato is incapable of flying, yes, but in this case, flight means running away."
She settled into the controls of the mech. "Flight means running away?"
"It’s likely an indicator of the fastest way for someone to run away, although not for everyone. It's not important as the fight or flight instinct was what I referred to rather than the action itself."
She scowled at the indicator on her HUD. "I won’t run away. The Knights Mechanica still need me to stand by them, especially in the face of this…"
Her voice trailed off for a few seconds as she stared at the approaching army.
"I didn’t think you would. But the instinct would be there. Fear and terror are indicative of a human's response to impending danger."
"How does that help us now?"
"It doesn’t, but it should be noted that your heart rate has dropped over the duration of our conversation, so I would say there was at least one benefit from the discussion."
Jessica13 stared forward and realized the AI was right. A hint of terror remained in her gut, but the heart-wrenching knowledge that she would probably die in the coming battle was gone. She stood beside some of the best fighters on the planet, as far as she knew.
They were led by Hammerhand, who manned one of the few Excalibur mechs in the world.
Those two facts provided a little hope, at the very least.
"What do you think our chances are of surviving this?" She was determined to stop herself from descending into panic like she had been before.
"Do you want to know the actual odds?"
She shrugged. "Sure, why not?"
"I would put the odds of surviving the night at around seventy-eight point three-two to one. That is slightly worse than those for the battle we recently fought. I could inform you of the variables that went into the calculation."
"How… No, I don't think that would be a good idea. Merely knowing we are in a worse position than we were in earlier today is enough. Honestly, I'd rather not test the fight or flight instinct you mentioned."
"Understood. Although it would probably be best for you to do as Windchime has repeatedly told you to do and stay away from the fighting. At least now, you have a way to inflict damage from a distance."
Jessica13 checked the rifle she carried. She still had sufficient ammo and she didn't need to head to the Beast to reload yet. Besides, the chances were that she would have to access their supplies to take ammo to the team on the front lines before she ran out anyway.
Hammerhand seemed to have snapped out of what she believed was a moment of speculation. With the mech, it was impossible to read his reaction but she had wondered if he felt the same thing she did. In her case, it was all-encompassing terror, but she wasn’t sure if he was even capable of something like that at this point in his life.
"They'll arrive by nightfall." The man's booming voice had a calming effect on the other knights. They had all communicated between themselves and the entire team suddenly came to a standstill when his voice thundered through Auburn. "We will be prepared for their arrival. Get those barriers working again, and I want to see all the battle lines drawn up within the hour. Go!"
The last syllable was enough to snap both the Knights and the Auburn townsfolk out of the fear-induced stupor they had apparently all slumped into. They jerked into action and immediately set to work. A large part of the town had been destroyed in the combat, but the overall sentiment among the people and the knights alike appeared to be that reconstruction and mourning could wait until a time when they didn’t face an impending assault.
Mayor Edgar Jones had already gathered the people and now organized them into workgroups that would collect the rubble, chunks, and pieces and arrange them into defensive constructions. He called on those knights who could be spared for help to carry the heavier loads.
Jessica13 noted that, in the meantime, Tinker had moved to where Hammerhand stood. The older man climbed out of his hybridized mech and began to work on their leader’s Excalibur. Being struck by lightning was no small thing, even for a mech that size. By the looks of it, they were running a handful of diagnostics to make sure none of the vital functions were permanently damaged by the strike.
She understood their concern. Their chances were already slim against Athena and her army. If Hammerhand wasn't able to fight at full capacity, their fate was all but sealed.
With the other mechs quickly engaged in preparing the town for the fight, she proceeded toward the two men with the intention to offer her help.
Tinker turned to see who was approaching and waved her closer. "Jessie, fantastic. I need to perform a miracle or two to get this damn thing working again, and you'll have to help me. Come on up, lassie. Don't be shy. And bring those frequency adjusters on the way, would you?"
She climbed out of her Minato and collected the tools the man had left at the boot of the
