Which beat being dead, she supposed.
One eye opened and then the other when she realized she wasn't quite dead and from the looks of it, something had happened to stay her execution for the moment. The barrel of the assault rifle was still visible but it now pointed away from her and aimed upward, which made it look like the arm that held it was pressed into the ground.
The dust began to clear, and after a few more coughs, she tried to wave some of the dust away from her face to see more clearly.
A mech stood at the base of the pile of rubble and she gaped at the sight of it. Painted bright green, it was the same one she'd seen earlier and thought it had been one of the pirate reinforcements. It seemed impossible that it had reached her so quickly.
There were scores of carvings cut directly into the green paint. She was too far away to see what they actually were but the silver beneath was clearly visible. Vents hissed steam from both the rocket behind the hammer as well as the hips of the massive mech as it straightened to compensate for the impossible weight of something that large. Even more improbable were a couple of banners hung from the shoulder pauldrons in the same green as the mech but a little brighter somehow. These displayed a group of lettering she couldn’t understand painted in red and silver.
Flames still surrounded the rocket pack it carried on its back, powerful enough to launch it into space if what she’d seen about mechs that size was true. They framed it in what looked like wings of flame and smoke as it adjusted its position.
The dust continued to clear and the pirate Lancers came into focus. They still stood nearby and had apparently been joined by a considerable number of others, and she realized that the newcomer must have jumped from one of the nearby buildings. It had no doubt used the power of its landing as well as the rocket behind the massive hammer it held to completely flatten the Balthazar and the man inside it. Only most of the arm and the assault rifle next to it seemed unscathed.
"Impossible," she whispered and pushed herself out of the mech to confirm what she was looking at.
Jessica13 had read about Excalibur-class mechs before but only a handful had ever made it out of the manu plants before the war began and destroyed the factories. At least, that was what she had read.
But, large as fucking life, one now stood in front of her and damned if she didn’t believe it was the most powerful mech ever built. The pirate Lancers that had dwarfed her Minato were in turn dwarfed by the massive form that towered over them and lifted its heavy hammer from where it had flattened the Balthazar like a fucking pancake.
The weapon all but confirmed to her mind who piloted the mech. It could only be Hammerhand of the Knights Mechanica.
The mech took a step that made the ground shudder and looked at her.
"Good thinking!" The thick voice boomed through the massive outside speakers loudly enough to burst her eardrums. Dust was shaken from the buildings surrounding them and a group of birds took flight, probably thinking their homes were about to collapse.
Her ears were still ringing but she raised her thumb at the gigantor.
"Thank you!" she shouted in response, unsure if the pilot had heard her.
Still, it wasn't like he really needed any input from her. He had his own problems to deal with as the Lancers came out of the stupor they had been thrust into when a mech the size of smaller buildings descended from the sky and crushed their leader into paste. It was the kind of thing that required a moment to think about.
They now fired their weapons at the cockpit and tried to find a weak place but nothing penetrated, and the Excalibur swung the hammer once again. A jet fired from the back to power it earthward almost impossibly fast with a thunderous crash. The blow flattened one of the Lancers in much the same way the leader had met his end.
Hammerhand wasn't alone, Jessica13 suddenly realized. Another group of mechs had arrived—members of the Knights Mechanica, she assumed. Their mechs appeared to be in good shape—fighting shape, as A7 had been fond of saying—although a couple of them had a few bits and pieces that didn't fit their model types.
Two Nordicgear mechs—one a tall, fast Sherlock and the other a squat Watson to back it up—both wore the same green banners on their shoulders. They lurched in front of Hammerhand to take advantage of the opening the falling hammer had given them and advanced on the pirates. The Sherlock picked up the fallen Lancer's chain sword and leapt smoothly over the Lancers around it.
It was almost possible to forget that it was a ten-ton mech that stood a good five feet taller than the Minato when it moved like that.
The chain sword flashed and a shower of sparks erupted in all directions as it attacked. The weapon slashed smoothly at anything close enough while the rifle the mech carried selected its shots to fire into the openings the sword created. The deliberate, coordinated assault felled the mechs quickly and efficiently.
Those that weren't eliminated suddenly experienced issues and seemed to have difficulty staying upright. The Watson moved through the distracted pirates and consistently fired the filaments from the needler it carried. Each one delivered the kind of electrical charge that could kill a human on direct impact.
For the mechs, though, their electronics would experience fifteen different kinds of problems, as enough of the filaments could fry a mech’s electronics for good.
The Watson had no real interest in permanently
