352 Side Story Chapter 4

This was, of course, the reason why Lance dropped out of the Acrobat some twenty seconds later, and hopped into the cockpit of the Sniper Goshawk while the previous pilot of the Sniper took over the Star Wizard.

"Captain…" the previous Sniper was a somewhat foxy girl named Ermine. She was young, hard-bitten and often put on a bitter expression, but right now, that bitterness was nowhere to be seen, and she had on her face an almost regretful look.

"Get that Acrobat to safety, Ermine. That's an order." Lance said grimly. "Any complaints you have can be submitted in your formal report during debriefing later."

"Yes, sir!" Ermine saluted. "I'll be sure to include them, sir! So, please be there to read it, sir!"

"That will do. All Mechs, get to evac, NOW!"

"Sir!" four voices chimed in chorus, accompanied by a sigh from the Artillery Pilot who was sailing away in his ejection pod.

Another tremor shook the ground. This time, even the Goshawk stumbled. Lance took a few seconds to re-familiarize himself with the controls of a Second Generation Medium Mech with Jump capability. Taking a deep breath, he scanned for the Princess, and locked on to her in his sensors.

Then he checked his gauss rifle. Three shots left.

[What's this? Someone got left behind?] The Princess noticed how the Sniper Mech had separated from the others and was taking aim at her, targeting her eyes.

As for how she knew it was targeting her eyes, well…

It was because it just shot at her. She blinked and the gauss round slammed painfully into her eyelid, but failed to penetrate.

[How dare you!] The Princess Mitigok was enraged. She leapt forward again, crossing a kilometer in a single jump. Two more jumps and she would be right on top of the Sniper Goshawk.

"Run, captain!" Ermine yelped.

"Not yet! I have one more shot…"

"It's not worth it! Run!"

She had a point. The entire reason for him to shoot at the Princess was to draw her attention. That, he had definitely achieved. It was time to run.

Lance turned the Goshawk around and fired up the jump jets, all six of them, and spread the Goshawk's wings for stability. He headed away at a right angle from the others…

Only to turn around and see the Princess pounce toward where the others were headed instead. [Fool!]

"No…! Guys, she's headed straight for you!"

"Scatter! SCATTER!" Ermine yelped.

Lance turned around and fired at the Princess once more. But it was no use. She lunged, and then struck, whip-like tendrils as thick as pillars reaching over hundreds of meters lashed out and tore into both Skirmishers within a single second.

"Eject! Eject!!" Lance yelled. "Guys, it's not worth dying for!"

Ejection pods appeared. One, two, three, four…

WHAM! The tendrils lashed out again. They struck down all four pods at the same time.

Filled with rage, he turned back and fired off everything he had left, but did almost nothing to the hullking beast.

[HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Suffer! Suffer and weep as I destroy everything you have left to care about!] the Princess Mitigok flicked out one tendril at him in an almost idle manner. That single hit tore through the Sniper's armor, ripped into his main power core, and wrenched it right out of the helpless mech. Red flashed across the board for a split-second, and then, everything went dark.

With that, the Princess turned, and lunged directly toward where the mana vein and the Asred were located.

***

Half an hour later, it was raining as a lone figure in an EVA suit tugged Ermine out from her wrecked pod.

"C-captain…" Ermine recognized Lance. "I… I'm sorry…"

"Save your strength. We're getting out of here." Lance grunted.

"T… the others…?"

Lance shook his head wordlessly.

With difficulty, they struggled to the Sniper's escape pod. Lance piloted the pod over to the Star Wizard, which remained miraculously untouched. Since it had been abandoned, the Princess hadn't bothered to wreck it herself. Lance settled the Pod into the Acrobat. Having secured some measure of safety, he did his best to treat Ermine's injuries.

"Star Wizard calling the Asred. Star Wizard calling the Asred. Can anyone hear me?" Captain Lance didn't dare mention the Bright Lance Mercenaries at all. Who knew if the Princess had some way of listening in.

There was a response. "Star Wizard, this is the Asred. What is your status?"

That was Ay'eni. Lance breathed a sigh of relief. At least the Carrier had managed to get to safety.

"We're in bad shape. I have one wounded with me in the pod. We need evac."

There was a short pause. "Star Wizard, can you make it to the rendezvous point?"

Rendezvous point? What rendezvous point… ah! Lance suddenly remembered that his squad was supposed to meet the dropship halfway to the East Mountains. "Asred, is the beacon still valid?"

"The dropship is still waiting." Ay'eni confirmed.

"I'm headed straight there."

***

On the way, they were ambushed by a trio of Pawns. Lance literally stumbled into them before he found them. They had been asleep or something, their life-signs reduced to near-undetectable, hardly distinguishable from the vibrant plant-life around them. He almost didn't realize he'd woken something up before they attacked.

"Scrap…" Lance activated his main weapon.

The problem with the Star Wizard was that it was actually very unsuitable for Lance. Frankly speaking, its main draw was its ability to enhance magic. Lance himself was no mage, and he hadn't brought any magitech weapons either. All he had in way of weaponry, therefore, was the Star Wizard's Staff of Lightning.

That Staff was basically just a Shock Lance that ran on mana. Specially designed gauntlets enabled the Wizard to wield it while it was emitting deadly electrical currents. While Lance wasn't particularly skilled in staff-fighting, he at least was able to stab a forty-foot Pawn in the center and trigger the electrical burst.

The shock nearly sent the Pawn flying. Say what you will, that staff was still the product of Fourth Generation tech. A single hit, and a single zap was enough to knock a Pawn right off its feet.

The staff also had a mid-range feature. Pointing it at a second Pawn, Lance triggered that feature. Sheer lightning blasted out at the Pawn, frying it instantly.

The third Pawn jumped the Wizard from behind and nearly bowled it over. Red flickered across the Wizard's screens. Lance spun, kicking the Pawn like an oversized beach ball. Like a beach ball, it went spinning, bouncing through the air…

This was why Lance was using the Star Wizard as a final defense line for the Artillery Mech earlier. Despite his unsuitability for it (and lacking any pilot more suitable), despite it having only one weapon he could actually use, the Star Wizard itself was a decent melee combatant due to its sheer agility and strength. While certainly nothing to speak of compared to others in its generation, compared to Second Generation Jumpers like the Goshawk, its raw physical abilities were unmatched.

The only problem was that any damage it sustained was irreparable. While other mechs could be repaired and patched up easily enough in the Asred, the Star Wizard was just too advanced for the Bright Lance's facilities to properly maintain and repair. Never mind its sophisticated internal systems that their mechanics and engineers couldn't make head or tail of, its armor and structure alone used materials that their equipment totally couldn't handle. That was why Lance kept it out of the fighting until now.

Alerts rang out. Lance found more and more Pawns appearing on his sensors.

"Blast it, they're all around us. We walked right into a nest of sleeping Pawns…" Lance realized.

He ran for it. Their best bet of survival was to get out of there before the Pawns fully awakened. There were dozens of them on every side, and who knew if there were bigger, stronger Mitigok in the vicinity. If they woke a Knight or something worse…

With a roar, a Knight appeared on his sensors.

"I didn't even say anything!" Lance protested. "You can't say I jinxed it when I didn't even say it out loud!!"

Ermine didn't accuse him either. She only let out a small grunt as the mech dashed forward, zapping Pawns and ramming past them like a rugby player in a desperate bid to get away before the Knight arrived.