text: INCOMING TRANSMISSION....SENDER: HIGH COMMAND..........DOWNLOADING.......4% ....... 36% ....... 78% ....... ERROR! TRANSMISSION MISSING CLOSING REQUEST. DECODING PARTIAL TRANSMISSION..... _______START PARTIAL TRANSMISSION_______ [SOL 127 - 0724 ] Sergeant Jay Hopkins, you are to head east of the town of Grenrik. Our foot soldiers are being pinned down from Imperialist artillery fire in that direction and data shows you are the only Javelin in the area who is capable of dealing with the threat. Reconnaissance suggests two artillery guns with t... _______END PARTIAL TRANSMISSION_______ “Well shit,” said Jay as she re-read the transmission. “The rest of that message could say anything. Artillery guns with the most dangerous soldiers this side of the Red Line. Artillery guns with the best brownies recipe stabled to them....Hey K-5, any chance of getting the rest of that message?” The 30 foot tall bipedal mech stood towering behind Jay, with it’s rifle sweeping around their perimeter. “I’m sorry Jay,” said the computerized static voice coming from the Javelin’s external speakers. “Seems as soon as High Command started transmitting to us, the Imperialist activated a radio jammer. I’m not receiving any external communications or data at the moment. Although a new brownie recipe would be a nice change of pace.” “Yah, I figured that must be the case,” Jay said looking at a blood smeared picture of what looked like a happy family from a time long ago. She tossed the picture and dropped the bullet ridden bag it had come from. She had been inspecting the Imperialist troops her and K-5 had just killed while on patrol. These troops were nothing more then grunts. Possibly doing some reconnaissance to see what defenses we had. By the looks of their gear, the Imperialist did not expect a Javelin pilot to be making the rounds since they had no armaments to deal with such a threat. Standing up and brushing the dirt off her pants, Jay started walking back to K-5. “I guess we better get going. These grunts don’t have anything useful. Do you at least have our heading?” “Yes Ma’am. I cross referenced the transmission with our own downloaded maps of the area. If we head south east at our usual pace we can arrive in 15 minutes. I’ve sent the data to your PDA.” Jay looked at her wrist PDA to see a detailed map of their current location, heading, and projected path. She furrowed her brow, analyzing the new data. “We don’t know what we’re walking into. There’s some high ground just south of the artillery. Lets go there first and see if they’re hiding anything.” “Roger that Sergeant.” Jay walked up to K-5 who had knelt down and opened it’s cockpit in the center of the javelins bipedal body. She climbed up the lowered hatched door and sat into the padded leather interior of the mech. With familiar gears whirling and a final airlock hiss, K-5 closed its hatch and stood up. “Passing controls over to you Jay,” came the computerized static voice inside K-5’s cockpit. ______________ Jay and K-5 could hear the artillery fire before seeing it. It’s thunderous booms rattled Jay’s eardrums, even through K-5’s thick hull. About half a kilometer from the source of the explosions, Jay brought K-5 to a halt. “We’d better keep a low profile until we know what we are really dealing with,” Jay said as she hoped out of K-5. “I’ll go ahead on my own, you hold down here.” As she crested over a crater filled hill, Jay noticed 300 meters away, a small enemy foxhole dug into the side of a cliff. It looked like a wave of dirt and rock hovered over, ready to crash onto the Imperialist underneath. She could see two long range anti-personal artillery rifles surrounded with sandbags. Each artillery rifle had four grunts assigned to it, working in unison to fire an anti-personal round every two minutes. Beside each artillery rifle was a single Scarab Class Javelin posted on guard duty. “Son of...” Jay whispered to herself. Scarab Javelins were tough little machines. Hard to kill, but thankfully they were no where near K-5’s Class, Mantis Javelin, fighting power. Scarabs were more like thick exo-suits then mechs. They had no A.I. like K-5 and were completely driven by a pilot. Standing only 10 feet tall, they were usually equipped with basic grunt weaponry. However, their thick armor can cause some problems. Normal bullets won’t penetrate it. Luckily K-5 comes prepared for any situation. Jay continued to survey the encampment. Watching the Imperialist shoot shell after shell. She committed the enemy soldier’s movements to memory, analyzing every nook and cranny, looking for vulnerabilities. K-5 was the only mech around that could deal with this threat. All other’s were probably on the Red Line. If Jay failed this mission, the town of Grenrik would be a loss for sure. Jay couldn’t let that happen. As Jay was turning around to crawl back down the hill, she noticed pressed inside the wall of the dug out cliff, a 10 foot metal door. “Interesting...” Jay whispered. Jay continued crawling down the hill. When Jay reached K-5, he was watching the perimeter with his rifle aimed. Jay began to talk in a low voice, “K-5, looks like Command’s intel was accurate. Two artillery guns maned with four infantry. We’ve also got two surprise guests, Scarab class Javelins.” “Those are easy to take on. How do you want to do this?” K-5 responded, continuing to watch the perimeter. Jay looked at her wrist PDA and reviewed the maps K-5 had sent her. “Ok K-5, I’ve got it. I want you to go half a km west of their foxhole, towards the town of Grenrik, and hide. We can’t signal to each other since they’re jamming us. So when our clocks read 0810, I want you stand up and start sprinting towards their encampment to draw their fire. If my timing is right, you’ll be their focus as I swoop in and kill them all.” “Roger Jay, beginning to move to position. You stay safe Ma’am.” “You too. See you at 0810.” ______________ K-5 reached 500 meters east of the enemy encampment. Looking around, K-5 noticed tall shrubs to hide in until it was time. Wood branches scraped their tough metal armor, as he laid down. Hiding from anyone who’d be taking a stroll in the battlefield; not that it was likely. K-5 never liked it when Jay would separate them. Their primary goal was keep her safe and with maneuvers like these, it was never a guarantee. Jay and K-5 had been in their share of fights together, so he knew to trust her judgment and intuition. But does not mean he had to like it. 0805, almost time to go. K-5 laid there noticing the clouds lazily drifting by and thought, “Jay, please be safe.” K-5 continued to lay there until an alarm sounded in his system. Turning it off, K-5 pushed out of the shrubs, unintentionally taking some branches with him, and ran towards the enemy artillery. It did not take long for the enemy to notice K-5. He was a gigantic mech trampling war torn farmland with pieces of branches stuck to him. K-5 shooting his rifle at them didn’t scream subtlety either. But K-5 would do it’s job to the letter if it meant having all the attention on him to keep Jay safe. K-5 could see the encampment clearly now, both artillery rifles were spinning towards him. The artillery grunts were screaming at each other to move faster. The Scarab Javelins broke formation and charged their oncoming foe. This had been Jay’s plan all along, K-5 rightfully assumed, because as soon as the Scarabs had left the encampment, K-5 could see Jay cresting the cliff above the encampment. K-5 planted his feet and raised his rifle at the oncoming Scarabs. Focusing his rifle on the closer of the two, K-5 unloaded the rifle into it. Bullet after bullet slammed into the closest Javelin, slowing it down. The Scarab raised his hands, deflecting the oncoming bullets. K-5’s rifle fire wouldn’t be able to penetrate the Scarab’s thick armor, but that wasn’t the point. K-5 wanted to slow them down and do everything possible to hold their attention away from Jay. The suppression fire only helped for so long as the other Scarab Javeline readied it’s own rifle and started shooting at K-5. While K-5’s armor was very strong, he wasn’t impervious to gunfire. One stray bullet, hitting the wrong place, and K-5’s systems would be in jeopardy. K-5 knew this, so he jumped to the nearest mound of earth to use as cover. K-5 put his back to the earth mound and waited. The Scarab continued to fire, trapping K-5 while they advanced. K-5 waited, tracking the Scarabs as they closer. 100 meters. Thunk, thunk, thunk. Bullets continued to drive into the dirt behind K-5, sprinkling dirt over his chassis. 50 meters, the Scarabs were almost on top of him. Relentlessly shooting and cutting through the earth. 20 meters. The branches still stuck to K-5 started splintering from the gunfire. 10 meters. K-5 holstered it’s rifle and bent into a crouch. It’s gears winding up and hydraulics pressurizing in it’s legs and arms. 5 meters. “Now,” K-5 thought to itself. K-5 grabbed the top of the mound and used it’s whirling mech arms and legs to push himself up. Leaping over the mound and landing inches from the nearest Scarab. “Nice of you to come to me.” K-5 belted out of his speakers. K-5 grabbed the arms of the Scarab’s with his own and with one swift movement, ripped the metal arms off. Oil and hydraulic fluids spewed from the Scarab’s open appendages. K-5 could hear the pilot’s scream as it looked like K-5 had also ripped the arms off of the pilot inside. “One threat eliminated.” K-5 exclaimed towards the remaining Scarab. The last Scarab, stunned, looked at K-5 who was still holding the limp arms of his fallen comrade. The remaining Scarab pilot howled in horror, raised it’s rifle, and sprayed bullets in K-5’s direction. K-5 swiftly dropped the appendages and grabbed the fallen Javelin mech. He then raised it between him and the enemy. Bullets screamed off the armless Scarab as K-5 advanced closer to his target. The enemy Scarab’s pilot bawled as his fallen comrade inched closer and closer. When within range, K-5 reeled back and threw the lifeless mech at his friend, knocking him over. The pilot tried using his Scarab’s arms to push his fallen comrade off of him, but it was too heavy. As K-5 walked to the defeated man, the pilot started cursing at him. “When my men are done with you, your soul will be dragged into the deepest pits of hell where it belongs!” K-5 leaned directly over the Scarab pilot, blocking out the sun. “Luckily for me, we AI don’t come equipped with souls.” K-5 clasped his right hand’s fingers into a spear like shape, and stabbed into the Scarab. Piercing through the thick metal armor straight into the pilot’s chest. K-5 removed his hand out of the now slumped enemy’s body. Unfolding his blood soaked hand, K-5 began shaking off the filth. He stood up and looked to where Jay was hunkered down. He could see Jay smirking back at him from atop the cliff. Raising his right arm K-5 gave a thumb’s up to her. “He can clean himself after we get through this,” Jay thought to herself. A thunderous explosion erupted below her. Ears ringing, she saw the horrific site in front of her. An artillery shell streaked towards K-5, ripping through K-5’s chest, shearing the cockpit and sending him back 20 feet. Jay watched from atop the cliff, helpless, as K-5 landed on his back, lights flickering. “No! K-5! You fucking bastards!” Jay screamed through gritted teeth. She took out two grenades, pulled the pins, and lobbed one to each of artillery gun. Two concussive explosions were followed by screams of pain. With her rifle armed, she slid down the cliff looking for survivors. She noticed a disoriented soldier who was struggling to his feet. Jay kicked in his knee with a gut wrenching crack. The enemy cried out in pain, falling back down. There was no sympathy in Jay’s eyes, or pause, as she turned her rifle to his head and fired. Silencing the man instantly. Jay risked a quick glance at K-5, lying there. His lights looked out. A crack of a bullet whizzed by Jay’s head. She instinctively crouched behind the closest artillery crate as more bullets peppered the air she used to occupy. “You scum!” A surviving Imperialist grunt screamed at Jay. “We’re going to fill you with holes like we did with your robot friend over there!” “Yah! You’ve got nowhere to go! " said another grunt. Both recklessly shot at Jay’s cover. Splinters of wood struck her face as she peered around her cover. “Shit,” Jay whispered, assessing her surroundings. There, within arms reach, she noticed a dead soldier within. She patted the soldier down, finding a smoke grenade in his breast pocket. “I can make this work,” Jay thought as she pulled the pin and dropped it at her feet. Thick green smoke billowed all around her, making it impossible to see anything, including her. “You think we got them?” The first Imperialist grunt said cowering behind a wooden crate as the second continued to shoot into the smoke. “How would I know? You should go check. I’ll cover you from here.” The second one had stopped firing but didn’t dare take his eyes off the thick green smoke. “You kidding? I’m not going to walk blindly into some smoke where a crazy soldier is waiting to ambush me. You go in there!” The second grunt ponders, weighing his odds. “Fine, how about we both wait and keep watch. The smoke will eventually stop and they can’t go anywhere. We’ll pick them off then.” “Good idea! We can just wait and see!” Both men agreed, trying to hide the fear in their words. A female voice came from the smoke, “Thanks for talking dick wads. You make this much easier.” A bullet streaked through smoke, creating a thin vortex protruding from the green cloud, slamming into the second grunt’s head. The first Imperialist yelped as his fallen comrade hit the dirt floor, blood leaking out of his head. Screaming in terror, the last Imperialist scrambled to his feet, attempting to dash away, jumping over dead bodies and spent artillery shells. Jay, stepping out of the green smoke, aimed her rifle and fired. Crack! The last Imperialist fell. Panning the area, she confirmed the area was clear, and sprinted towards K-5. Jay screamed at him, “K-5 are you ok? K-5 respond! Damn it K-5 respond! That’s an order!” Jay could now see black smoke coming from K-5’s chest as she got closer. “K-5! Failure to follow orders will cause immediate discharge. Now you get your ass up!” K-5 remained motionless on the ground. Jay’s eyes started filling with tears. “No. K-5,” Jay choked in a whisper. She slowed her pace upon seeing the extent of K-5’s wounds. His body was littered with dents from gun fire, oil from other Javelins or his own, and one big hole at the center of it’s chest where the cockpit used to be. Tears streaked Jay’s dirt covered face as she knelt next to him. “Come on K. Can you hear me?” Silence. She lowered herself into what was left of the destroyed cockpit and looked around. She prodded at the remnants of a central control panel, tearing off the screen exposing five control drives. These drives were what stored K-5’s core functions and saved data, basically K-5’s soul if he had one. Three of them were cracked, who knows if they’d be salvageable. She undocked each one carefully and put them in her pack. Jay slumped down, legs folded into her chest. “You can’t leave me K-5, ” Jay whispered. “I need you. We need to finish this war, together.” Jay laid in K-5 for several minutes before standing up. She stepped out of his metal body and brushed the dust off. A rough smoker voice echoed in the back of her head. “Buck up your bootstraps Jay. Mission’s not over.” A faint smile washed over Jay. “Roger that Dad,” Jay whispered. Jay walked through the battlefield, stepping over javelins bodies alike, to the mysterious metal door. She examined it, noticing it had not been opened and didn’t appear locked. Jay readied her rifle and rested herself next to the iron door. She listened for anything on the other side. She could hear computer beeps and what sounded like chains moving. Jay grabbed the door handle, took a deep breath and the flung the door open, aiming her rifle into the unknown. As sunlight bled into what looked like a small warehouse, Jay’s eyes adjusted to see the contents. Jay gasped and lowered her rifle. ______________ INCOMING TRANSMISSION......SENDER: SERGEANT JAY HOPKINS..........DOWNLOADING.......2% ....... 28% .....57%....... 95% ....... SUCCESS!....DECODING TRANSMISSION..... _______START TRANSMISSION_______ [SOL 127 - 0958 ] Command, the artillery east of Grenrik has been taken care of. Tell our soldiers in Grenrik to get a move on. I’ve destroyed an Imperialist jammer causing the issues with our communications. You wouldn’t be receiving this otherwise. You’re welcome. Reporting single casualty of the Mantis Class Javelin “K-5”. Retrieved memory drives for possible recovery. Returning back to Frethlin base to resupply. Will not be alone. Requesting eight fresh beds. See you in two days. Over and Out. Jay _______END TRANSMISSION_______