Hammerhand was, predictably, at the front of his troop. He raised his hammer in the air like some kind of symbol to the rest of his fighters to stand by him, come hell or high water. Suddenly, the rocket on the other end of the weapon activated and launched it into an arc that made landfall hard enough to shake the ground to the point that Jessica13 wasn't sure how the buildings didn’t collapse.
She covered her head when a few pieces of debris plummeted but thankfully, that was all. The blow had struck close to the pirates, though, and made a couple of them stumble and fall.
"It’s probably only bad hydraulics," she said, more to herself than her AI.
"It is interesting to note that the impact of the hammer with the ground causes a seismic event that registers at 2.3 on the Richter scale," Mini told her as she continued her work to clear the rubble.
She had no idea what a Richter scale was but she assumed it was impressive. "All I know is that I wouldn't trade places with those pirates for all the best mechs in all the world."
Chapter Seventeen
As much as Jessica13 wanted to continue to free the Minato from under the rubble, it was almost impossible not to watch the battle as it unfolded. Despite the fact that she knew flesh and blood piloted the mechs, something like awe came over her.
She'd heard of the Knights before, of course. Peddlers had told tales of watching them fight and said it was reminiscent of watching the battles when the planet was how it used to be.
Damned if they weren’t right, although she wasn't sure how they would know about how battles were conducted in the past.
The earth shuddered every time the Excalibur touched down and it advanced on the pirates who were, for some reason, pushing into the attack rather than running the hell away.
Jessica13 looked at the top of one of the buildings when she caught the movement of three individual mechs that seemed to be attempting to find a position from which to strike from the flank—or maybe an angle that would allow them to fire at the massive mech on the ground without being hit themselves. The chances were that one blow would be all Hammerhand needed anyway.
A Cinder and a couple of Lancers jumped from their position on the building and abandoned the high ground in favor of a surprise attack.
Hammerhand looked up, saw them approach, and raised his left hand. He held something large and square-shaped in the massive fingers.
A loud crack preceded the sudden smell of ozone as a blue layer, almost a film, emerged from the square contraption and expanded into the area around it to form a rectangle that almost matched the size of the mech that held it.
The device looked like a shield, and when the two lancers bounced off it like they had been electrically repelled, she realized that it was exactly that. Maybe he activated it now because it was necessary but otherwise, it took too much power to maintain it constantly.
The Cinder was quicker than the other two but could not alter its trajectory to avoid the barrier that prevented it from delivering anything even remotely like an effective attack. The mech tried to move away while it was still in the air but there was nothing it could do other than brace for impact and use it to slow its descent.
It landed clumsily but still on its two feet and mostly intact, although the experience was likely uncomfortable for the man inside. A couple of joints had loosened when it jarred against the ground and it would need more than a few repairs.
The Lancers were not so lucky and fell heavily on their backs.
They probably didn't have any inertia dampeners installed, and from the way they remained where they had fallen, the pilots were either dead or severely injured.
Jessica13 tried to think of some form of commiseration, but all she could think was good riddance. Shitty pirates weren't good for much else—not for building mechs and definitely not for helping people.
The Cinder activated both its main weapons and aimed the shotgun at the Excalibur first. It fired a sheet of flechettes that either pinged off the thick armor or simply embedded themselves into it with no damage. It was a distraction, meant to hide the use of the flame-thrower that snuck in beneath in the hopes that it would find something that wouldn’t be resistant to a tongue of plasma.
It didn't work out quite the way the pirate had hoped as the shield thumped down quickly, caught the pirate's flame-throwing arm, and pinned it roughly to the ground.
The head of the Cinder pivoted to look up and a hand raised to try to block the deadly hammer.
Jessica13 doubted that he would have survived even if the rocket in the back of the hammer hadn't suddenly activated. This provided all the speed it needed to pound the Cinder flat with a loud yet somehow anti-climactic boom.
Hammerhand lifted his hammer and flicked it to the side to remove any bits and pieces from the mech it had crushed that might have adhered to the surface of the weapon before he turned to face the remaining pirates.
It was difficult to tell if there was any reaction from those involved in the attack at seeing their comrade turned into paste, but they didn't falter in their attack. Maybe they hoped they could use the distraction to their benefit, or something equally stupid. She wasn't sure how they could think that as none of the others appeared to have any luck.
It only took one, though.
A couple of Lancers managed to skirt the shield before it swung toward them and attempted to flank the larger mech, only to be reminded that Hammerhand was not alone. The Watson
