Mech-bøurnɇ
Swords clashed, shredding space dust that sparked away as emerald embers spraying off in the black abyss surrounding the battlefield—a lone asteroid speeding through space. Despite the high acceleration the Mechnauts kept footing due to the weight of their goliath sized mechanical suits.
Wielding Staralloy forged weapons they are dueling against the Mars Cartels in their Death-Mechs, specially designed mechanical suits designed to kill Mechnauts. However despite using illegal projectiles weapons, such as radiation flamethrowers, laser blasters, and ballistic rockets, their numbers dwindled from formidable dozen to less than five.
Heaving up his green glistening black axe, the Mechnaut known as Ervo Bane, brought the deadly sharp wedge of his weapon against the pilot hatch of the Death-Mech. Vibrations through the weapon, move throughout the mech’s nervous system, and the pilot of the Bane could feel his strike sliced into the enemy pilots.
Skin was splitting, organs were sliced, and blood poured from the wound as freely as water from a fall.
Continuing to slice down he severed all power cords and punctured the fuel tanks, causing a combustion that created a blinding, but silent explosion. Other mech pilots watched as blinding light overcome their view screens, stinging their eyes even through electronic monitors, those more so who looked out their one way portholes.
Eventually a dark silhouette move away from the light, and as the explosion ceased both sides of the battle saw the smoldering, but fully functioning mech of Ervo Bane’s had survived. Wielding an axe the mech hauled back as if it were throwing a pitch, and as the last two Death-Mechs started to take flight to return to their shuttle, the axe was thrown. Spinning in the air, it stuck one of them in the back, slicing through its hull, and depressurizing it, causing the pilot to erupt in a implosion of blood and gore.
Some might think its a wise strategy to allow one of the enemy to leave, to tell the rest what happens if their boundaries are crossed, but the Mechnauts realized a long time ago, no survivors is the best message.
Apollo Lance, the Mechnaut with the second highest kills next to Bane, poised his lance back, preparing to throw it, which he did at speeds nearing that of a launched rocket. Striking the fleeing enemy, it impaled it, causing sparks and another explosion, that obliterated the mech, sending its many flaming fragments to scatter into the outer void of space.
Weight of the Lance once it finished its task, was drawn to the nearest force of gravity, the asteroid which the Mechnauts had reclaimed from the cartel. A valuable mining installation, that was necessary to retain the Earth Union’s control of the solar system. Shifting through worthless gold and platinum for the components for the power infusing Staralloy.
The same substance that the Mechnauts rely upon to stay ahead of the arms race, that has sent the solar system perilously close to another War Of The Planets. Despite skirmishes and espionage missions to retain control, the Earth Union had held a precious peace, but the Mars Cartel had been antagonizing installations between their two borders.
As the Mechnauts watched as the Cartel shuttle sped off to avoid the same fate as its formers passengers. Setting their controls to autopilot back to their own shuttle, the Mechnauts watched as the miners left their bunkers to return to work. They needed to hollow out the rock before their three months of UST (Universal Space Time) expires.
Boarding their shuttle, they were sealed inside, and carried off to the Hanger Ship Hades, where they would be debriefed and allowed to rest.
***
‘God damn it Tomas!’ growled the head engineer, as he tried to open the chest cavity of the Hercules Mech. Slicing between the seams of the front hatch with a industrial buzz saw, that lowered from the ceiling on a mechanical limb, he hoped to free the last pilot Dülf. Having been sealed inside by the radiation flame thrower, he was trapped inside his mech, as two of his comrades watch from the tactics room overlooking the mech bay.
‘I told you these new suits were no good! They have no shielding, and are—!’ he continued to scream out his anger at Captain Tomas Pierce, as the hissing roar of the saw drowned out most of his tirade. However once the last bit of sealed metal was undone, the saw was turned off, as the hatch opened on its own, and the engineer cried out in terror. From within came a gust of steam, the smell of boiled flesh, and springing at him, clutching at his jumpsuit, a cooked to the bone pilot—Dülf whose radio systems were fried from the flames.
Unable to communicate his distress, he was slowly cooked alive in his own mech by the radiation, as if he were a potato wrapped in tinfoil and left in a microwave on high. As his organs blistered and fell out of his legless torso, he let out a forlorn wail, as he coughed up blood, and went into seizures.
‘Jesus Christ!’ the head engineer looked pained at the young pilot, who was so close to death, but God hadn’t the mercy to send him all the way.
Crack!
Captain Pierce shot Dülf through the head, splattering his half-cooked brains all over the head engineer. ‘Take Dülf to decontamination and to the morgue, and everyone within ten feet of him will also need to be decontaminated.’ immediately men in oxygen masks, and yellow jumpsuits came into the hanger, started to spray a specialized green foam, and taking away the engineers who were near the dead pilot, and the pilot away.
Walking away from the scene, putting away his recently fire pistol, Captain Pierce looked as disappointed as a cold father seeking a F on his child’s report card.
Mirräh and Jügo two of the four Mechnauts deployed on the asteroid witnessed their comrades fate and became sickened by the Union’s lack of remorse. It could’ve easily been Mirräh or Jügo who would have suffered that fate, since both piloted the new Olympus series, it was clear they were being used as test subjects.
As soon as Captain Pierce entered the room, Mirräh sprinted right up to him, wanting to demand answers, but she was seized by the Captain’s men who sprang at her from behind their commander.
‘You pig!’ she swore, her heavy Russian accent in her voice, as she fought against the two men’s hold, as if she were a silver fox being grabbed by hunters. ‘You knew! You knew this would happen!’
Showing no remorse on his face, he made a sucking sound with his lips, as he walked calmly to the hologram displayer at the center of the room. Pushing buttons on the console, he brought up a three dimensional map of the border between Mars and Earth.
‘The Cartel has seized mining facilities, here, here, and here—’ it was clear he was ignoring Mirräh’s outburst, as if she were a young brat who needed to be ignored. ‘—you were the only team to have successfully repel the invaders, the other mechs were have been reported to have been decimated by the enemy. We believed the Olympic series was ahead of our enemy, but it has been clear that the cartel has been advancing illegal weaponry in order to get us to break the treaty.’
Mirräh calmed, though her silver eyes didn’t lose the hatred she had for the Captain, who seemed completely disinterested in her disapproval of his tactics.
‘That still doesn’t excuse us going in their blind.’ Jügo stepped forward, his large, exercise bloated muscles strained against his shirt displaying his national flag, Finland. ‘We must be aware of all changes, if we are to keep being successful on our missions.’ his voice carried wisdom, as well as he carried away the two men restraining Mirräh.
He never liked men ganging up on a woman, even one that was genetically engineered by the Russian government to be stronger than a grizzly bear.
Fortunately for the soldiers she restrained her strength, as her temper if out of hand had bee known to kill people.
‘That is irrelevant.’ Captain Pierce shot back, as if he heard a student give the wrong answer on a question. ‘You may have succeeded in the mission, but between the four of you, Ervo Bane in his mech has gotten the majority of the kills. Only you Mirräh managed to get one, the rest all Bane. If he wasn’t there, you’d all be like Dülf.’ those words almost made Mirräh rush at him, and break a few of his bones.
‘Don’t talk to him like that!’ her words coming out in sharp snarls. ‘He is twice the warrior you ever were. You and the rest of those Union stooges.’
‘He’s dead.’ Captain Pierce told her coldly. ‘He is dead, and if you don’t want to end up like him, train better. You deploy in twelve hours, we’re clearing out the last two facilities.’
Both Mirräh and Jügo looked at one another when they heard that, to see if they were on the same thought.
‘We won’t go on another mission in the Olympus series.’ Jügo loomed over the Captain who was not fazed by the man invading his personal space. Even though he had over two pounds of muscle and sever feet over him, Captain Pierce acted as if his fear was lobotomized from his brains.
‘We only have the the Olympic series, it’ll take too long to send for others.’
‘What about the Mech-bøurnɇ series?’ Mirräh’s utterance of that taboo name, broke through Captain Pierce’s cool headed appearance, and as a morbid shock came over his face.
‘You do not have clearance to even discuss that with me or anyone!’ he shouted back as if he had a wasp flying in his mouth. ‘Go back to your personal quarters, till you are sent for.’ that order was backed up by ten soldiers entering the room, armed with automatic rifles. It was clear disobedience would be a capital offense with a summary judgement.
Deciding it was best not to argue with the soldiers and their guns, both Mechnauts were taken through separate routes to their quarters on opposite sides of the ship. Locked into their prison cell sized rooms, the doors were magnetically sealed, to be unsealed when the Captain sent for them.
***
Ten hours until their next mission, and Mirräh was going half-mad inside her confined quarters. None of her personal effects were there, only her snug pilot jumpsuits, and training clothes. Smells of stagnant sweat, and sterilized metallic surfaces made her wish she could get sick from that artificial smell. Nothing in space travel felt right to her, if she was drafted into the Mechnauts, she would’ve preferred the life of a government assassin.
Sadly none of this was something she could go back to, her life in espionage was wiped clean from all known records. Even those that knew her, only know her of her birth name, her mech name Mirräh was that of one with no identity outside her record as a Mechnaut. Piloting those metallic behemoths, their fate is to work till death.
Unfortunately for Captain Pierce, she was not inclined to die in vain on some God forsaken asteroid. The key to her long term survival was bound to getting better gear for her mech, and that was kept secured in X-Bay, where all Mech-bøurnɇ’s were kept isolated.
Her and Jügo hacked into the shuttles secure files, and discovered despite the redactions on file, the Mech-bøurnɇ series were eons ahead of all other mech classes. No series could out match their resilience, their ability to use weaponry, and even their ability to traverse space. However the methods to become one of those pilots were hidden behind blacked out text, and despite their efforts, the original files were no store anywhere.
One name however, stood out like a knife in a babies skull, Captain Pierce, oversaw the project from the beginning, back when he was Executive Pierce of the Union Corporation. Before the government fully integrated government and industry, Pierce was a company man who oversaw government contracts on building mechs, and his division created the Mech-bøurnɇ.
Somewhere in his controlled mind is the secret to their power, that and in X-Bay. Not willing to wait down the ten hours she went into her clothes drawer, and tipped it upside down. A demagnetized card was taped to the bottom of it, which she kept just in case.
Demagnetizing the door, she slipped outside, and programmed the door to magnetize it, just incase anyone came by and the automatic doors went off. Grime covered blue alloy covered the corridors, that led to all over the ship. Security cameras might’ve been useful, if the engineers didn’t sort out the surveillance system on the last time they rewired the ship.
Surviving on a slashed budget, the Mechnauts were reduced to skirmishers and test subjects, a open secret that Mirräh has been battling against. Recruited over ten years ago, she saw promising recruits and skilled veterans dead in various ugly fashions. Many she heard of dying on mission, only to discover later it was either a glorified suicide mission or a casualty in testing a new mech series.
There had been next to zero fatalities from Mechnauts using the Mech-bøurnɇ, the reason for their discontinuation she had yet to discover. Reading over files, and gathering gossip from senior engineers it was clear the Mechnauts were at one time entirely made up of Mech-bøurnɇ pilots. Over the decades however many of them were retired, that word becoming sinister by the lack of details about the pilots whereabouts. Only five Mech-bøurnɇ pilots remain, and Ervo Bane is said to be one of the first.
She was convinced she can get Ervo to show her mech, the Elric, a pale ivory mech, that wields a great axe as its weapon, and was designed as slender and tall as any other series. Power, strong, swift, its coordination far surpassed her own, the Apollo Lance. Moving swiftly and quietly through the corridors, she was hoping he wasn’t cooked alive in those radiated flames like Dülf.
Opening a emergency shaft with a sliding pole, she moved between her current floor, to the one near the bottom, near the engine deck. Climbing down, find the floor near X-Bay had dimmed lights, and the walls were covered in thick panels with many grips made into them as if they were made for rock climbers.
She hide behind a archway when she heard the faint echo of footsteps. Listened as the footsteps were followed by words.
‘I’m getting sick of his whining.’ one of the voices she recognized as one of the engineers. ‘Every day he talks to me like he is in some Shakespearean tragedy.’
‘Stop that!’ the other voice she recognized as a medical nurse. ‘He is in a lot of pain. I would be too if they did that—’ she was hushed by the engineer.
‘We can’t go into that!’ he scolded her, as if he was aware someone was listening. ‘Let’s stop talking about him, we’ll be… retired if anyone catches us talking about him here.’ Quickening their footsteps they left the immediate area, leaving Mirräh to slowly crawl out into the four way split between corridors.
She noticed the way they came from by the direction of their voices, so she head down the way they came, down the slope, were the lighting was dimmed further. Barely able to see in font of her, she saw the way wasn’t that far. Turning a around a bend, she saw a security door, and above it was clearly labeled,
Authorized Personnel Only.
Moving up to the door, she found it was a standard mechanism lock, the kind that didn’t need to be magnetized. Fortunately her years as a trained spy, taught her to keep a peculiar hair pin in her hair, which can be used as a lockpick. Quicker than she expected, the lock tumblers eventually gave way, and she opened the door, that groaned loudly as it popped open.
Stopping right there, she waited to see if she was observed breaking into X-Bay. After half-a-minute, she expected to be shot or alarms to go off, but they didn’t. She opened the door wider, and slipped inside, keeping it open, just in case she needed a quick escape. Immediately she saw she was in a strange laboratory, walking into what looked like a movie set of a monster movie.
Translucent lights, large tubes filled with bubbling green and blue fluids, and wires sending who knows how many volts between tower machines. Everything seemed foreign to her, nothing on the monitors looked right, they all resembled life support machines to some degree, and others statistics analyzers for battle simulators.
Walking between aisles of consoles, her eyes were pulled to the large hanger where only one mech was being housed—the Elric. Moving towards it, she had to get a look at the inside of it, it components may give her an idea how to better her own to survive future missions. Coming to lift elevators, she lowered herself to the hanger, feeling paranoid that no one was out and about there, as if some unseen entity was observing her infiltration.
Paranoia and fear of getting caught made her look around for any signs that she was being spied on or going to get caught. Breathing tensed in her lungs, as she sped to the mech, once the lift reached the bottom. Wanting to finish her task as soon as possible, she went up to the ivory mech, that was nearly twice the size of hers, and looked at the almost human face on its elongated head. Battle scars cut deep into the metal, showing off a scarlet undercoat that took on the appearance of a forlorn face of some crestfallen warrior.
Seeing its axe up on a nearby rack, made her jealous that she was not permitted to pilot such a craft herself. Going to the platform lift, she raised herself up to the hatch of the mech, anticipation causing her to become coated with sweat. Smells in the air seemed more pungent, the disinfectants, and the ammonia from the cleaner, there was also something else, a medical smell of shifting fluids, as if by blood transfusion.
Putting her hands on the latch, she lifted the opening mechanism, and with a sharp exhale of oxygen and slicing metal it opened—
***
Ervo Bane looked at the trespasser with awareness of her identity. He had seen her before leaving her mech, before he was taken to his prison. Fleeting fantasies he had of touching her snow pallid skin, her sniffing her platinum hair seemed plausible at first, till he remember what he was—he was Mech-bøurnɇ.
‘My God…’ were the first words she spoke, whether it was to him or about him he couldn’t say, but he was pleased to have her notice.
‘Hello Mirräh.’ the speakers in the mech spoke for him, the smooth, melancholic voice of a tortured philosopher was conveyed with the coolness of a old soul. ‘What brings you to my cell today?’
She couldn’t believe what she saw, he knew as much while she looked over his abominable form, of living alloy and flesh. Eyes sunken in, one shielded by glass, the other beautiful, and searching albino crimson. He was a amalgamation of mech and human, his arms and legs were tendrils of flesh and metallic cables, connecting his torso and head to the mech, serving as its brain.
All other vital organs, blood, and other fluids were controlled by the mechs bio-metallic body.
‘What are you?’ she asked in a mortified voice, as she was too fascinated to flee, but too terrorized to come closer.
For a moment Ervo didn’t respond, he was summing up the entirety of his existence for ease of her comprehension. ‘I am Mech-bøurnɇ.’ he responded then clarified. ‘Me and my brothers and sisters were conceived to be as you see me presently.’
Ervo relished the look of mixed emotions on her beautiful face, disgust, wonderment, confusion, and horror were honey he longed to lick with his long metallic, worm-like tongue.
‘Are you artificial intelligence?’ she was confused by his manner of speech, and how it came out from the speakers.
Some sound came out from the speakers, that sounded similar to a laugh, as his mind could process without the muscles to form them from his half sealed up mouth.
‘Artificial? Technically speaking and speaking in the spirit of it according to the current publics lexicon, then I can only answer in saying, everything about me is artificial.’ those words had a haunting truth to them, that made Mirräh feel pity for him.
‘So Mech-bøurnɇ means you were born to be…a mech?’ the mutation on his body was beyond her ability to comprehend. ‘But how did they do this to you?’
There was a moment of quiet, then she was answered. ‘I was conceived on a lab on Earth. From latent memories of my existence before now, I understand the Union found schematics for my creation on a ancient alien probe.
‘Using it they extracted human genetic material from anonymous donors. Then while I was barely a fetus, grafted the alien material to my body. As I grew, Elric grew, becoming apart of my body, till I matured fully. The rest you can surmise.’
Already Mirräh deduced the whole plot, they programmed into his body military tactics, making him the ultimate Mechnaut. Using him to retain control of the solar system, and keep the other opposing super powers to heel.
‘But…why did they discontinue this? And what happened to your siblings?’ she spoke so kindly, he wanted to embrace her, and felt the immediately twinge of lacking arms that wouldn’t crush her.
‘The DNA they used, their DNA, was imperfect. Unlike the aliens who sent those schematics, theirs were evolved by eons of constant progress. Mankind in relation haven’t even spawned out of the evolutionary quagmire. So making us, we got all of the strengths, and defects in their personalities. Naturally as you imagined, there were rebellions, war crimes committed, many of them I had to destroy…others fled, some are locked away.
‘Those of us that remain, we are loyal to the Union, simply due to our understanding that to do anything else is to suffer.’
His words made her want to comfort him, despite his grotesque appearance, he was human at heart, and craved affection. A pitiable predicament, he hoped to lure in female love as if he were a Venus flytrap catching flies with its sweet aroma.
Then he felt something, an alert in his internal systems.
‘Captain Pierce is coming. Quick hide in here, if he catches you…’ he didn’t need to finish his words. After a brief hesitation, she crawled in, and felt herself pressed against, his slimy, slug skin body, that was moist with pus, it was warm inside as if she stepped into a greenhouse. As the hatch closed, she heard the groan of the door outside being pulled open.
As she huddled in the dark beside, the throbbing form of Ervo, she could hear the voices outside being spoken through the internal speakers.
‘Ervo! Why is the door open?’ he spoke harshly, far more than he ever addressed her or her comrades.
‘I don’t use that door, speak with the maintenance crew.’
‘Don’t talk smart with me!’ scolded the Captain. ‘You know very well you’re plugged into the security of this ship, what happened?’ it was evident that the Captain dropped his cold, rigid demeanor when interacting with Ervo. She could tell there was an underlining affection, as if he were speaking with a disobedient child.
‘If there was any such breaches I would tell you. It wasn’t most likely never closed properly, so try yelling at them no me.’
A surly response made Ervo sound as if he were a teenager smart mouthing a parent.
‘You grow more of a disappointment to me by the day, Ervo.’ the Captain sounded almost disappointed. ‘You were supposed to protect the rest of your team, but you lost another one today.’
‘Dülf, I know. That was a regrettable result…’
‘Don’t give me that.’ there was a core of anger in the Captain’s words. As if he was more angry by the response than the deed. ‘Why is it, anytime anyone on your team takes interest in her they suddenly wind up dead?’
‘There are plenty who end up dead that don’t care about her in the least.’ Mirräh could tell something was going on in that fight. A unspoken conflict that she had yet to decipher.
‘You and I both know how calculating you are…I don’t want to have anyone else die on this team. We don’t have the budget to replace these pilots.’
Then she could feel a vibration coming from Ervo, as if his thinking was being process as if he were a computer.
‘Then I will do the next mission alone.’ he uttered finally. ‘So you won’t have to worry for them.’ that suggestion despite his sardonic tone, was accepted.
Mirräh began to worry in her confines, whether she’ll be discovered missing.
‘Very well, they need a little longer to cool off anyway. We managed to hit a temporal slide, so we’ll be there sooner than expected. Get prepped you got twenty minutes before we reach the point of departure.’
Mirräh could feel the excitement writhing next to her, as the smells inside the confines became more musky. She’ll be inside the Elric first hand, and see how Ervo pilots his mech body, she wanted to see how differs from the Olympic series anyway.
***
Bunkers made of the toughest alloys and metals, had been burned out by skin melting radiation flames, by Death-Mechs. Three of their bunkers despite activating their defense turrets were blasted with the intense green flame. Totally wiping out the miners hiding aside and their security detail. The Mechnauts bought them some time, but they were no match for the half dozen cartel pilots, whose new weaponry outclassed their closeup weaponry. Looking more like medieval knights, it was clear to the miners contracted to work the asteroid, that their designs were out of date.
Only two bunkers remained, and the cartel was climbing the last ridge of space rock to get within firing range. Bullets from the turrets bounced off the mechs, that took advantage of the low gravity to withstand the lessened penetration of the miner’s weapons.
A Death-Mech with a red skull painted on its torso, lifting its flamethrower weapon, and prepared to spray—WHOOSH!
Something was thrown at the fuel tank attached to its back, causing a radiation explosion. Erupting in fire, the mech and pilot melted to the rock below, as Elric stomped forward through the flames, picking up his axe. Charging forward, before the haze cleared by the Cartel, he slammed the butt of his axe into another one, and shattered through its hatch. Prying it open, he reached inside and as the pilot was suffering a decompressed implosion, he pulled him out.
Holding up the bloating man to the other Death-Mechs, they watched as their comrade exploded like a balloon overfilled with blood and intestines.
‘Santo Jesús, eso es malo!’ the voice cried over the radio, that Ervo broadcasted in the cockpit for Mirräh’s convenience. She didn’t know the language, but was certain it didn’t like what he just did.
‘You can’t do that!’ she told him in a harsh tone. ‘That is against the Charter Of Solar Wars.’
Similar to the Geneva Convention, it purpose was to expand protections against soldiers and prisons of war to outer space, since it was declared previously that Earth’s conventions of war didn’t extend to space. One such rule forbid the display of torture or execution of enemy combatants and allies, while also restricting methods to puncture the cockpit. In fact it was a requirement to disable to opposing vehicle or mechanized battle suit, rather than try to destroy it or puncture the cockpit, unless capture or disabling them is otherwise unlikely.
What Ervo could result in court martial or sanctions.
‘Whose going to report it?’ his slightly amused sounding voice said over the radio, obviously pleased with his actions. Charging before he slammed the butt of his axe into another cockpit, tearing it open to crushed another pilot in his hands, as if to make the point clear, he didn’t care for any rules of war.
Doing it twice more, he managed to punched into the cockpits of two other Death-Mechs while they blasted him with their flamethrowers. Pulling out the pilots, he cooked them alive in his mech hands, as he held them over the flame of their own throwers. His flesh squirmed as he felt them writhe against the flames, they lasted longer in the intense heat than expected.
‘Like roasting marshmallows…or so I’ve been told.’ he recoiled when he felt something slap his sensitive exposed torso. The mech lurched forward slightly in response to the strike. ‘Don’t do that Mirräh.’ he warned her gently. ‘In a fight I can’t afford to show weakness.’
‘For Christ’s sake then stop being so cruel.’ she couldn’t help but remember the atrocities she witnessed in her service as a spy. Torture, murder of innocents, previously she buried but not were clawing out of their tombs, to torment her psyche.
‘You speak of cruelty, but don’t act so innocent. I read your file, don’t judge me, we are made to kill. Mercy is a handicap none can afford when lives are at stake.’
All the while he was talking he charged after the fleeing enemies, and with his superior speed, caught up to one and hacked him mercilessly with his axe. Tearing apart limbs, till he was utterly immobilized, then with one hefty stomp obliterated the pilot’s existence.
The other was closing in to the shuttle, and looked as if he might get away, but Ervo couldn’t afford to let him live and report his crimes against humanity. Throwing his axe one again, he crippled the fleeing Death-Mech, and charged after it, even as it crawled to the shuttle that lowered its bay doors to allow it inside, it was too slow. Crawling on hands alone the Cartel pilot radioed his surrender, again and again, trying to save his life, but as he was shouting into his received he felt his compartment squeeze tight, nearly crushing him—then it completely collapsed and he was smashed and burnt in a explosion of fire.
‘Stop Ervo!’ Mirräh pleaded. ‘It is utterly forbidden to destroy a shuttle ship, even the Cartels wouldn’t go that far!’
‘They’ve gone far enough!’ the malicious war cry nearly broke the speakers, as Elric climbed onto the shuttle, and with axe in hand, chopped away at it, destroying its thrusters. Ripping and hacking away till it caused the ship to pull downward as it attempted to take off, crashing into the asteroid rock, as smoke erupted from within the craft.
Before any of the crew could radio for help or warning they were engulfed in irradiated fire from their engines were busted open. Elric leapt from the crashing shuttle, as it was about to explode, he managed to dash away before he was caught in its radius. Skidding across the rock as he was hit by the aftershock, he stopped close to the miner’s bunker.
Rising to his feet, he watched as the miner’s left their protective shelter in their space suits to wave at him in jubilation at their rescue. He waved back to them, and appreciated their radio thanks and praise for his timely rescue.
‘If they don’t care for mercy to their enemies, why should I?’ Ervo’s point to Mirräh was taken in silence, as she began to realize there was a reason why most Mech-bøurnɇs were retired.
***
Mirräh did pushups on the floor in her quarters. After Ervo returned from the last mission, he got Captain Pierce to leave him alone after debriefing so he could ‘decompress.’ After the coast was clear, he let her out of his cockpit.
‘I’ll miss having you next to me.’ he told her, already missing her warmth next to him.
She didn’t respond, she had mixed feeling ranging from sympathy to animosity.
Disgust from witnessing his tactics and violation of the ethics of war, she couldn’t help but to think back on her disgraces. She murdered men, women, and children for the sake of the mission, being told every time time it was for the greater good. Till her last mission, after that she crossed a line she was trying to repent for, but she just can’t seem to do the absolute right thing.
Compromise always left her feeling as though she lost some of honor and principals every time. Leaving Ervo in with a silent cold shoulder, she snuck back in her cabin, and has been doing exercises to sweat out the mental anguish.
For eight hours she was by herself, eating nutrient packets, and lying in bed, unable to sleep. Finally she heard her door buzzing with the sound of being demagnetized, she stood up at attention, when a pair of soldiers opened the door. No longer armed with rifles, they were more cordial (as much as military grunts can be) and ushered her to the briefing room.
On the way she felt a slight tension in the air, as if the ship was on a silent alert, something happened, she could tell, but what she was afraid to wonder. If they found out she trespassed in X-Bay, she be led into a empty room, and the last thing she’ll see is everything suddenly go black.
The typical Union retirement package didn’t suit her, and she was careful to lag behind enough so that the soldiers where slightly ahead of her, just in case. When they got to the briefing room she tried to hide her relief when she saw Jügo and Captain Pierce there waiting.
‘Hope you got that rebellious streak out of you pilot.’ he told her, his cold demeanor seeming more fake to her, after she heard how he sounded like talking to Ervo. ‘I decided it was best to send Ervo Bane on the last mission alone, figured you needed more R and R.’
She kept quiet, she wasn’t sure how much she was betraying of herself, and decided the best way was to keep quiet.
She nodded, and the briefing began.
‘Good. Now, the last mining installation we must deal with has to be dealt with in a different manner.’ He paused in case the Mechnauts wished to chime in, and he was surprised they didn’t and continued speaking, while a hologram of the asteroid was put on the hologram projector. ‘The Mars Cartel has already wiped out the mining workers on this one, and have changed its trajectory to send it flying into their control space.’
Jügo and Mirräh took the news in stride, those weren’t the first casualties they weren’t in time to save.
‘Now it has been handed to us from the higher ups, that the asteroid must not reach Cartel space, so we are going to send you there to hack into the controls for steering the asteroid. Putting in these coordinates—’ he pressed a button and a formula came on scream. ‘—it’ll boost the asteroid on a temporal wave and send it directly into the sun. It’ll be too close to escape its gravitational pull.’
Mirräh felt her spine go rigid, she wanted to look at Jügo to confirm her own feelings, but she didn’t want to seem to apprehensive. After all she just committed a capital offense, and she didn’t need to draw unwanted attention.
‘So what do you need us for? Couldn’t we just do this from a distance?’ Jügo’s tone didn’t show any personal feelings about the mission, or the grotesque violation it had against the conventions of war.
‘No.’ Captain Pierce pulled up schematics for the bunker housing the controls. ‘They need to be done up close, using a coded network. We did this so our enemies won’t be doing what we are attempting to do.’
The room was silent, no one wanted to say anything. It was a violation what they were doing, condemning men to a prolonged agony, till they are incinerated by the heat of the sun, but then again they did break the treaty and commit war crimes. However they all were brought up to believe the Union stood for something more, a sort of moral principal that superseded revenge.
‘Jügo, you mech has the best interface for this task, I leave it to you, while Ervo and Mirräh give you back up, you’ll need it, there are two dozen of them this time.’ the room was heavy with a unspoken tension. A premonition lingered in the artificial air as if it were a specter of some doomed soul. ‘You have your orders, suit up.’ Captain Pierce ending the briefing and both Mechnauts went to the hanger to prepare for another mission.
***
The three Mechnauts were quiet as they were being carried over to the asteroid. Having jumped ahead by going through three slides, they managed to intercept it just before it was crossing the border.
‘Alright, lets do this.’ Jügo said over the radio, as he leapt out of the opening hanger doors in his mech, the Onix Prime. A lumbering, bulking mech, it had more protective layers than the rest in the Olympus Series. As dark as the blackness of space it blended well in the dimly lit environment.
Mirräh and Ervo joined to, taking Jügo’s right flank, as that was the direction the Cartel will be coming from; with the bunker on the left, Onyx Prime quickly pulled up next to it, and began accessing the controls on his cockpits console.
That was when the first Death-Mech was seen climbing over the hill, wielding a plasma rifle, it was long banned weapon, due to its lingering radiation. Before he could fire it however, Elric flung the axe with such force that it seemed to be a comets tail, streaking across the night sky. Slicing the rifle in two, the blade struck the cockpit, and as air rushed out, Mirräh imagined the pilot exploding in a burst of gore.
A similar thing she witnessed not too long ago, as Ervo charged forward, more of the Death-Mechs came into view, and Mirräh knew she had to be cautious. They were wielding weapons that caused a lethal amount of radiation, the Apollo Lance was a speedier mech, but at the cost of protective plating.
Preparing to throw her lance just in case one got close, she began to worry less about it, as she saw how handedly the pale mech was devastating the enemy ranks. After dispatching one by throwing his axe, he punched a hole through another, and proceeded once he retrieved his axe went about slicing into the rest.
Over twenty Death-Mech crowded him, firing upon him with lasers and green flame, but it all seemed to fuel his sadistic rage. Mercilessly he went after the pilots, crushing them in their cockpits, or tearing them out to cook them on their comrade’s flamethrowers. It was hard for her to witness all over again, the pure savagery made it seem as if he were a child playing rough with his toys.
“Perhaps we are just toys to him” the thought made her sick, so much so she didn’t notice a Death-Mech coming in close. Before she could react she was blasted at a long distance by the flamethrower. She threw her lance at it, piercing the mech’s torso and causing a leak in the flamethrower tank, that then ignited, but she was already sprayed with a dangerous amount of radiation.
Pulling free her lance from the melting Death-Mech, she looked towards Elric, and saw the pale, towering mech stood still. It was as if it was a living being, standing on the battlefield, looking at something unbearably terrible.
Bringing down his axe on one of the mech, Elric rushed towards Apollo Lance.
‘I’m coming over, I’ll be there right away!’ she heard Ervo’s voice over the radio. Before she could react the swift moving mech, grabbed onto hers and began towing it away, back towards the shuttle.
‘Wait! The mission! Jügo is still—’
‘If we don’t treat it right away, it’ll be too late!’ Ervo’s tone brokered no compromised, despite her continuous pleas and angry protests.
‘I’m not leaving him!’ she screamed at her receiver. She tried to contact Jügo, but something was scrambling her message, and he was too focused on hacking to realize what was happening. ‘He’ll die!’
‘But you will live...’ Ervo managed to disable her console, using some backdoor to her system, and carried her mech’s deadweight with relative ease. Coming to the shuttle, she tried to warn Jügo, flailing madly at her controls, but she was already on the shuttle, and the last thing she saw of Onyx Prime was him finishing up his task, and looking back to see he was being left behind.
What awful things he must’ve been thinking, was all she could think about, as acidic tears burned her eyes, and rolled down her face. As she accepted he was going to die, either to the surviving Death-Mechs, or burning up in the suns heat.
The shuttle departed having been giving priority orders from Ervo, leaving a man behind. As they flew away, the asteroid hit a temporal slide and was shot towards an inevitable doom.
***
Mirräh went through weeks of radiation treatment. Skin was removed and grafted back on, organs were transplanted, and her blood was filtered out completely. It was a agonizing series of procedures that left her feeling as if she was being held together by staples and stitches.
Her silver hair fell out, in such large amounts she shaved her head bald. She rather look like a butch than some radiation ravaged weakling. Captain Pierce waited till she was stable to debrief her.
Alone in her quarters, he and her shared a tense moment of silence.
Captain Pierce spoke first, and when he did he had a softer coldness to his tone. ‘I understand Ervo left Jügo behind to save you.’ She didn’t respond, her anger might let her slip something too dire to share. ‘I know you rather have died than let a comrade die, especially like that…you are not to blame. Ervo Bane is a dangerous but effective asset to the Union, and at heart he is just a stupid boy.’
They shared a look, she saw in his eyes a knowing that made her skin crawl.
‘Good thing, you never met him in person. He is not a difficult person…’
At that moment she understood what was being said, by reading between the lines and the look on his face, it was obvious she was caught, but he was going to pretend she wasn’t.
‘Yes, it is a good thing.’ she spoke up finally, unable to withhold the rage she was restraining, as if it were a wild bear bound by chains whose links were gonna snap. ‘I’m sure I’d kill him, for what he did.’
Crossing his arms, Captain Pierce by his looks didn’t condone her response, but understood why she felt that way.
‘I’m sure you would…that is why I am moving you to another division. You and Ervo won’t be working together anymore.’
Hearing that made her relieved and shocked, she didn’t know exactly how to feel about it.
‘Did I do something wrong?’ she knew she did, but she needed clarity.
‘Yes, and so did he. I can’t have him playing favorites on missions. It is best to separate you two, it’ll only get worse if you remain.’
She nodded, and before he left Captain Pierce saluted her, and remarked. ‘You were one of the best, if I have more like you, I wouldn’t need Ervo.’ he then left her alone with her thoughts, which grew more dismal as time went on.