Chapter 7

Sandy-Vanguard fell to the ground. The Avatar automatically righted itself mid-air despite being flung off the balcony and that meant they landed on their feet. The Avatar’s systems were fine, even if its hull was severely damaged from being stabbed. Avatars were generally deployed over a battlefield via teleportation technology but the machine could be dropped from orbit. Teleportation tech was messy and easily seen on overwatch sensors. But being dropped from orbit was much harder to detect and the preferred opening to a mission.

Sandy-Vanguard yanked the yellow cylinder magazine from their Tweak Rifle, resetting it to default shape. They chunked the thing into the void and replaced it with the green mag. The magazine was another cylinder-shaped object, although it was more of a rectangular prism than a true cylinder. It had an insertion connector on one end, giving it the appearance of a vehicle-sized portable drive with USB connector. The magazine was clipped into the Tweak Rifle on its left side and the weapon changed to accommodate the magazine.

The Tweak Rifle expanded a pair of plates on either side of its default barrel. The plates shifted forward on a set of rails and locked into position. A vertical foregrip popped out. Sandy-Vanguard flipped it into place and locked it from moving. Holographic sights engaged on top of the weapon.

Now they were ready to rumble.

“Sandy, on your flank!”

That was Yeshua. Sandy-Vanguard turned slightly to see a tank fire in her direction. She didn’t have time to respond so they took the hit on the side.

“Critical damage, seek cover,” said Vanguard to Sandy.

“What are you doing, Yeshua?” asked Sandy.

“Trying to hold onto the dropship landing zone for Amad and Hannah. They went to recover our marines.”

“They better get back soon.”

“Typhon registered a hostile Avatar. What are we up against?”

“About that...”

And right on cue, the mecha dropped to the ground between Yeshua and Sandy.

“You survived!? I shalt have thy head, Demon!”

The mecha held its gunblade vertically in front of it, its arm at a right angle with the elbow being the vertice. It pulled back its sword parts and vented something on the right side.

“Time to end this, Demon! Chiyu Desilda!”

Sandy-Vanguard, caught between a rock and a hard place, immediately dashed to the side, dodging the initial shot from the mecha. Instead of trying to make a second shot, the mecha engaged its hover engines. The engines flared and the mecha lifted off. The pilot rang out through the comm waves:

“Deleetadehgee Ageela!”

The mecha came down towards Sandy-Vanguard’s position. She dashed backwards, escaping its clutches once more, and launching an energy projectile from the green Tweak Rifle into the mecha. There was no noticeable damage, but she knew that it was being worn down.

“Chiyu Equau!”

This time, Sandy-Vanguard took the full impact of this attack. She also was taking damage from enemies behind her. Sandy-Vanguard dashed to the left and lobbed another energy ball into the big mech. She turned to face the enemies behind her. Squat mechs and infantry with anti-armor weapons. Sandy-Vanguard pulled an arc grenade and tossed it into the clump of anti-armor infantry. The grenade exploded on impact, pulsing arc energy everywhere and destroying the entire squad.

“Chiyu Desilda! Desilda! Chiyu Saquu! Saquu! Chiyu Equau!”

The mecha behind them fired bolts of energy at their position. They took the smaller bolts on the chin but were unprepared for the big one. Sandy-Vanguard was going to take the hit. She closed her eyes expecting severe damage.

“I’ve got you, Sandy. Marines.”

“Anti-armor weapons online, Spirit.”

Amad-Solarian pushed Sandy-Vanguard out of the way, taking the Equau hit on one of their rotating particle shields. Four sets of missiles erupted from on top of the Solarian Avatar and impacted the mecha pursuing Sandy-Vanguard. The marines on top of Amad-Solarian reloaded.

“Disembark, marines. We’ve got this. Keep our flanks secure from anti-armor troopers.”

“Will do, Spirit. Marines, time to drop off!”

“Hoorah!”

Four marines dropped to the ground and made their way away from the two Avatars. They were gunning for a series of structures bordering the entrance complex and the junkyard at gridmark C3. They would have cover and be able to provide anti-infantry support. The mecha would probably leave them alone, as it was dealing with two Avatars.

“Be careful Amad, this thing probably has as much health as all four of us combined.”

“Copy that, Sandy. Engaging hostile Avatar. Back me up.”

“Roger, Amad.”

Amad-Solarian yanked the magazine out of their Trace Rifle. They chucked it into the void and reloaded a fresh one.

“Soul-Link active,” said Amad and Solarian together.

Their Trace Rifle started to glow a golden yellow. They fired into the enemy mecha, dealing considerable damage. Ten rounds were sent down range before the magazine gave out and they pulled into cover.

Sandy-Vanguard pushed forward, pelting the enemy mecha with green projectiles. They dropped a particle shield for Amad-Solarian, then dashed to the left, trying to keep the attention of the enemy mecha as Amad-Solarian reloaded. It worked.

“Chiyu Wayya!”

A new spell erupted from the mecha’s gun. A stream of small shots went for Sandy-Vanguard’s position. They dashed backwards but the stream kept coming. The mecha continued to track them.

“Critical damage. Take cover.”

“I’ve got you, Sandy.”

Amad-Solarian, reloaded back to regular attacks, poured the Trace Rifle into the enemy mecha. It stopped trying to engage Sandy-Vanguard and turned its attention to Amad-Solarian.

“Chiyu Equau!”

Amad-Solarian was unable to dodge out of the way and his particle shields were offline. He took the hit on the chin.

“Urf,” Amad grunted.

Sandy-Vanguard pulled back, pulling out the green magazine and replacing it with a yellow one. She would attempt to harass and kite the mecha. The mecha didn’t pursue, pulling back itself, tower shield up and blocking both their and Amad-Solarian’s attacks.

“You weaken! The Light shall come for you, Demons!”

“Will he shut up?”

“I hear you, Sandy. These bastards just don’t go quietly. Worse is all that talk about our demise. You’d think they’d get the hint by now.”

“Chiyu Asdav!”

The mecha jumped into the air and then came crashing down, its gun blasting a line of magic across the ground. It was aimed for Sandy-Vanguard, but they were able to dash out of the way.

Yeshua-Typhon was busy dealing with enemy squat mecha, trying to keep them busy and away from Sandy and Amad, the latter who just came into comms range. The metal man that showed up earlier was in the ground, torn apart by large bullet holes and on fire. He wasn’t much of a threat to the Typhon chassis.

They activated their Thermal Shield, wrapping a fiery screen around their chassis. Coming into close quarters with the Avatar instantly incinerated any robotic infantry. The squat mecha were burned. Yeshua-Typhon finished them off with their battle rifle.

They finished off one of the squat mecha with battle rifle precision damage, causing the mecha to explode and send fire to the ground. The fire lingered and burned another squat mech. They dashed into the fire but took no damage. The Typhon chassis was immune to its own fire.

Yeshua-Typhon turned around and dropped another Fire Blast attack into the ground, finishing off the last of the robotic infantry on this side of the entrance complex. They weren’t done with all their enemies. There were still four more squat mecha that had dropped behind them, though now the duo was facing the new mecha.

A new wave of robotic infantry marched towards Yeshua-Typhon. This group was armed with anti-armor weapons. Missiles launched from the group. Yeshua-Typhon’s Thermal Shield took the volley and was extinguished. They responded with battle rifle bullets, taking the whole squad down.

They reloaded and prepared to move to reinforce Amad and Sandy.

Then the tank rounded the corner and put a big plasma projectile into them.

The Typhon chassis, being a heavyweight type of Avatar, was able to take a beating before requiring Spirit eject. Yeshua-Typhon grunted.

“One more obstacle.”

“No, not an obstacle.”

Hannah-Cowboy engaged their Soul-Link and emblazoned their hand cannon with a fresh coat of fire. They put two shots into the tank, annihilating it. They dropped the remaining three rounds into three of the four squat mecha that rounded the corner, disintegrating them as well. Hannah-Cowboy ended their Soul-Link and finished off the last squat mecha with regular hand cannon rounds. They reloaded.

“Welcome to the party, Hannah.”

“Likewise. What’s up?”

“A hostile Avatar was detected. Haven’t seen it myself but Amad and Sandy are engaging it.”

“Avatar? Oh shit. How big is it? What sorts of weapons does it have? Does it look cool?”

Yeshua, Typhon, and Cowboy rolled their eyes. This was Hannah alright.

Hannah was a veteran Spirit, but she very well acted like a kid. Behind the scenes, Hannah would go on about explosions and hoverboarding and racing. Which made her and Yeshua great friends, mostly because Yeshua was an actual kid as far as the rest of the squad was concerned. Technically he was a young adult but Sandy and Amad regarded him as The kid, whereas Hannah was the adult-sized kid.

“I’d be a little more concerned if I were you,” said Yeshua in his most grown-up Yeshua-Typhon voice. “This is the first one we’ve encountered.”

“Spoil sport. We’re clean up here. Let’s go help the others.”

The mecha was no slouch to fight. Out in the open, it bombarded Amad and Sandy with a greater variety of spells and attacks. It also dodged more unpredictably with the greater maneuvering space and didn’t get baited into obvious feints.

The pilot that was inside was definitely learning the strengths and limitations of their Avatars.

The machine was also extremely durable. Sandy figured they only had it at fifty percent.

They were not without loss, though. Sandy had to eject from her Vanguard. The impaling and subsequent fall heavily damaged Vanguard, to the point where a few spells from the mecha Doomed it. She elected to eject rather than continue fighting. While flying up and down in the air, Sandy pulled up her Avatar selection interface and swapped Vanguard for Furion, a similarly aggressive lightweight Avatar that focused on short to mid-range engagements. She didn’t think she would be able to deploy it, but she wanted something more capable of fighting in closer quarters.