The hammer swept into another powerful blow that pounded another couple of mechs under the weight of the strike while the ground shuddered from the force of it.
Jessica13 had difficulty taking it all in. The Knights Mechanica surged onto the offensive as a group and seemed to deliver their deadly attacks almost without effort. While she’d been otherwise occupied, enemy reinforcements had, in fact, arrived and the pirates outnumbered her rescuers, but it didn't seem to matter. They were apparently too afraid to take advantage of their number superiority and chose not to put themselves in the path of the hammer that swung relentlessly whenever an opportunity presented itself.
She climbed out of the cockpit, stood on top of the Minato, and watched the fight as she and her mech were forgotten by both the pirates and Knights alike. The combatants appeared to be thoroughly engaged in wreaking destruction on one another.
"Mini, do you see this?" she asked, almost breathless, and ducked when a few stray rounds ricocheted near her.
"Most of my sensors have been damaged and those that are functional appear to be malfunctioning," he replied but still sounded as calm and collected as ever. "Are we experiencing an earthquake? Maybe Skyfall near our location?"
"Not really," Jessica13 said and slid into the cockpit with a groan. She attempted to fix some of the broken electrical equipment inside the Minato that might allow it to move again. "It's the Knights. They're fighting the pirates and one of them is piloting an Excalibur-class mech. With a fucking rocket-powered hammer."
The ground shuddered again as if to emphasize what she had said.
"That is odd," Mini said. "My data banks might be malfunctioning from the damage, but the data I have would indicate that only a handful ever made it off of the production line."
"That was what I heard too," she said with a weak laugh. "As it turns out, there's one Hammerhand got his hands on, no pun intended, and he's earned the nickname too. That hammer of his turned the Balthazar into fucking paste."
"Another malfunction, possibly, but I think I would have liked to see that," Mini said as she brought a few of the electronics back to life.
Jessica13 laughed again. She simply felt the need to laugh now, for some reason. Like the bright and beautiful world around her had somehow become brighter and more beautiful. "I think I would have liked to see that too. Unfortunately, I thought I was about to have my head shot off so I closed my eyes and missed the whole thing. But seeing the result was gratifying enough."
There was no HUD but there was still life to be had in the Minato. She would need to clear the rubble that still held its limbs trapped but there was no real way she could help the Knights in the fighting without a mech of her own.
"Oh, and for the record, Mini, wanting to see a pirate asshole eat shit will never be considered a malfunction to my eyes," she said before she hauled herself from inside the cockpit.
"Noted," Mini said. "I will add that to my databanks as well. Assuming they haven't been corrupted in the damage."
She stayed as low as she could and grimaced at the reality that her body still ached from the damage it had taken. The fighting had moved away from her for now, but stray bullets and pieces of shrapnel from explosives as well as the massive hammer were a reason for caution. It meant that if she stood, she was likely to be caught and killed accidentally by a stray projectile. She began to remove the rubble from Mini’s arms.
While it was slow work, it was better than waiting for something bad to come their way.
Jessica13 looked up when more explosives detonated around them and made it difficult to focus on her work. A handful of the pirate Lancers remained and attempted to slow the Knights, while the remainder looked like they were beating a hasty retreat. They’d obviously had way more reinforcements than she had first noticed, and she assumed they had been lurking in the nearby buildings or had been close by.
With a mech that stood thirty feet tall and swung a hammer that could flatten them with one stroke, she really couldn’t blame them for choosing flight over fight.
But they’d return when the coast was clear, and she wouldn't leave Mini behind to be scavenged.
"They retreat but do not surrender!" Hammerhand boomed to the Knights who fought beside him. "Like roaches, they pull back to strengthen themselves and then try to rise again. It is our duty, my Knights, to crush each and every one of them until they realize there is still honor to be found in these wild lands!"
The other Knights raised their weapons and cheered. Jessica13 couldn't help but feel inspired herself by the words. While his terminology did feel a little antiquated, the spirit behind it was something that couldn't be ignored. It was as if he was a physical embodiment of what it was to be a member of the Knights Mechanica.
And there was also the fact that the man piloted a mech that could literally crush the pirates like the roaches and pests they were. He didn't even need the hammer for that, although it did help a great deal. She thought he could probably lift a boot and stamp them to death if he didn't feel like swinging the weapon.
The other Knights gathered again and the pirates huddled nearby, mostly piloting Lancers that were barely held together and in a condition much worse than those she had seen before.
Maybe the few that had followed the Balthazar were an elite unit and those who remained were only the grunts who had managed to piece something together that could only barely be classified as mechs.
Stupidly, they seemed to
