Jubey’s Mech with Hammer Arms attachments, gained after this chapter
Red lines spun and streamed all around him, outlining his cockpit in energetic neon. The moment he embarked towards this battle had been the most chaotic hour of his life, and the next 5 minutes might beat that. He was waiting… waiting to be released back into control of the machine… when he flashed back to his gaming ‘career’. That had been the last console: the TechSquare Finale. He liked to play on it as its lifespan ended as it formed a very elite multiplayer gaming climate. Once, he was piloting a Mech onto the field, which caused his team’s threat score to raise high enough to bring another tank player into the fight. Just enough score manipulation to net an easy quint kill and clear his clan’s region of the battlemap to dive towards the rival faction’s city. One more missile equipped, and it would’ve been a rival Mech instead of a tank.
The opposing players weren’t happy, but they chose to overload their kits until the system rated their Mechless team as equal. He played for a few more hours - his Mech was taken down by a superweapon hit by Hour 2. Then he was back in one of his favorite heavy tanks, and that team was stalking him during his clan’s Dive. 2 tanks, a heavy tank, a tank destroyer, and a troop carrier. Jubey had separated from his clan to take down a desert dragon with his nigh-flameproof armor. There were a couple teammates in skirmish range, but it’d take a few flares to signal them in, giving away his position. He put the flares on a time delay. The troop carrier was fastest, and invaded the upcoming town with nested gunners, preventing his NPC soldiers from surviving coming with him. He set them on perimeter guard.
He wove through the streets. This was hardly the strategic move - they were crippling their clan’s defense with a grudge. That troop carrier was nimble, but ended up with a flaming hole. Then the tanks were invading… it would be so easy to get caught in crossfire, suddenly putting an end to the endless plink of assault fire with BOOM SHNK BOOM. The game was sponsored by the government, and made you feel the pain of losing a cherished vehicle. He did his best to counter their moves while staying healthy… then the heavy came around the corner of the northeast street, while a tank had its back to him on the northwest. This dude was a hasty firer… he quickly angled his hull just before he got into firing position, and the shell bounced off into his ally, an instant kill from hitting the fuel.
Jubey began to take light superficial damage from the soldiers in the houses switching to grenade launching because he had been sitting too long. He peeled off, and the enemies’ aggression amped up even more. He turned down a street before the heavy could reload, and he dropped a Tank Barricade item that would give a 20 second delay to its pursuit. The roar of engines indicated they were burning fuel to the point a return trip to the frontline was impossible, and support moves would be strained by the end-of-war scenario… he dove towards the town center, always the best place to start a fire trap. Firebombs big enough to burn down a town were expensive, and he had 5. He dropped 3 with a slight delay… the hazard with fire traps that they affected both sides equally, yet normally a great move when outnumbered.
The cacophony of engines, NPCS and collapsing buildings was hellish, and the Tank Destroyer started firing straight through buildings where he thought Jubey was. Jubey had been stumbling his rapid speed to avoid being led-shot on the path from the fires. There was an upcoming intersection and he stopped at an awkward distance for receiving a charging attack, but the TD hit and fully stripped a section of top-back armor.
They were away from sensor scans and so wouldn’t know about the successful hit… otherwise an artillery-type attack would be likely. He waited, and waited; the fire had killed all nearby soldiers in the buildings. The remaining tank came around to serve as a scout, Jubey fired, and snapped its left tread as the fire spread around the intersection. He checked his rear view, the heavy must be nearly there… reload, reload, the turret and front began to crest the hill. Still needed to reload… the buildings were burnt enough to drive through them, but as he did so he took internal damage through the stripped armor. His temps… yes, they rose higher than they would otherwise, because the cooling system was damaged…
ChatGPT-created battle poses and rendering for Hammer Arms loadout
His view reopened. Jubey’s Mecha was coming down on one of the trio from the side, with a fuel barrel in its crane arm. It bashed it into the side of the cockpit while still far above in the air. “Pilot, I need you to operate the Curtain-Gun! Let’s engage!” Jubey’s blood ran hot, and as he turned his control stick he saw a new holographic menu open up - pressure sensitive buttons and slight tips of the stick crawled up options for the sniper, cannon, and twin turret barrels, the support items hidden in the goo, and melee attacks from the curtain. “I took the time to augment your piloting granularity.” Jubey was momentarily amazed then looked back to the field, hit sniper shots in systemic-looking areas, riddled with all three guns, and as he landed on the Blue Mech he made the curtain slash the side of the cockpit. Now, the machine gun barrel was pointed in the Blue Pilot’s cheek.
“Hey bud, I heard you’ve got civilians and scientists trapped in that big standing building. Let em go and I won’t execute you, alright?” The target didn’t move, but laughed. “You’ve got 15 seconds before you get pincer-hit by both of my teammates. Moved too fast, nerd.”
Jubey looked down. The fuel flame rapidly licked from every angle as the deflective armor sought to shed the fuel through vibration and slight leveling. His barrage on the burning side has stripped down the exterior like skin, but most of the armor sheets were still intact. Sparks showered from one of the sniper hits. Calculating showed that the target wasn’t much of a hostage; Jubey’s reinforcements could easily clean this one up. The Mech Leader with the laser cannon was to his right, the other Mech he damaged to his left. The external eyes blinked. This model of ‘eye’ was a set of advanced layered sensors and sights, made to resemble giant eyes for aesthetics and insect-inspired psychological effects on enemies. Women loved how cute they look. This was the first time they had ever blinked, or rapidly moved.
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The Blue Pilot was distracted enough to look away from the gun towards his Mech’s head. An entirely different, emotionless voice crackled from the other side of the Mech: “We have ways to answer pincer attacks.” “Your Mech’s alive?!” he screeched. Jubey thought the sound of his voice was kind of funny, and stunned that he feared this more than death.
3 seconds left on his timer… The AI pulled the Blue Pilot out with its crane arm and spun-shoved him towards the gutted Blue. That Mech hesitated; probably more reluctant to attack than if he was still in his Mech, Jubey thought. Jubey ducked the torso in front of the vacated Mech as the Leader Blue fired the laser cannon again. There was a special option at the top of his holographic menu… he pushed his stick all the way forward, and the shoulder discs spun out in AI-designed arcs, severing joints and armor of the vacant Mech, the curtain pulling the parts together into a shield-wall, gluing it together. The goo was heat-resistant, and the mech parts blackened, and the wall held until the laser tapered off. Jubey could hear the high-pitched whine as it ended and he came out of an overwhelmed state.
“Cut and take! Upgrading again, Jubey!”
The goo yanked back some of the parts; it was extra-thick around them, the AI had judged which to preserve. They connected between the antennae, cooling rods and energy cells of his back, locking into ports for weapon connections and maintenance. The assembled ‘upgrade’ crouched on their back like a giant beetle, featuring machine guns, rocket pods and an electrocution weapon. Also a second cockpit… which the AI put the Blue Pilot in.
“You shall fight for us.” The digital sound wavered off after the sentence to resemble rhythmic bass drops. “I-I’m not fighting against my own guys!” The blue interior unfolded into blaring red screens swirling with yellow teeth. “YOU SHALL FIGHT FOR US.” “Yes! Yes… ! Sir?!” The combined mech dove thorough an alley, tumbling bricks, as both of the other two opened fire. Carving through buildings, it emerged behind another tank squad. The rocket pods fired - but they blew apart the terrain around the Blue troops rather than the vehicles and infantry.
The Mech Leader had departed from the laser cannon, unloading its autorocket launcher. A spiraling tunnel of smoke and missiles blew apart the building behind them, and the AI jumped them in front of the Blue troops. The Leader went back up the stone steps into the columns, potentially making a number of common moves from Blue leadership.
The gutted Mech came up, making precision shots of heavy-caliber autorifle followed by long-range shotgun blasts. Their left thigh armor wasn’t fully fastened, and bent in, exposing internals. The beetle unloaded the machine guns, then rockets, urged by flashing threats from his hacked HUD. Tons of superficial damage was received, and the Blue Mech backed up around a building.
They had begun to take tank and explosive fire from the back. The AI turned itself back to block with the beetle component. Then they dove back to where the assimilated blue Mech had been dismembered. The AI grabbed a fused assembly of the remaining parts with the crane arm - it had been doing more work while they were gone. But how? Jubey zoomed in with the eyes… he saw a churning colony of nanomachines. That’s what was responsible for all this… RA-RE had infected his Mech with a newly modified strain no human would understand. But it had changed the battle significantly… so far. “Jubey?” Said the new voice. Jubey watched as the frankendevice was moved in front of their head, looking kind of like a suit or an escape pod. “I’d like you to get in this.”
“That… does not look safe!” The 10 minutes were up. The Red soldiers and vehicles were here, engaging the tanks. 2 heavily-armored fire support Mechs were coming up. The other side of the head spoke: “We shall not win with the Lead Mech on the high ground and the remaining Assault Mech ambushing us. I calculate 86% chance the ally reinforcements shall be disintegrated by the surprise laser cannon and another, undetected move by the Leader. Depart the cockpit and we have all the odds on our side.” This was the nuttiest moment yet in all he had endured. Getting in that thing… and going ground against Mechs? He wasn’t privy to the calculations that produced this plan, but had to assume they were good.
The frankendevice was fully blackened, its metal coils and slats fully exposed, sparking. His suit was insulated, and the head popped open and he leapt from the cockpit into the whistling air. “This is crazy!!” Jubey screamed as he landed on the device, turning and strapping himself in. The Mech leaned back, whirled the crane arm, and threw it like a fastball. A rocket engine activated in the air. Upon landing, an extra battery and excised components for the electrocution weapon activated, letting out an electrical burst that bathed throughout the area beyond the columns. The Mech Leader was caught in the electrical sphere, and his Mech deactivated. Jubey got out through air cushions, and the Leader disembarked as the emergency process unfolded the cockpit and ladder.
“So you’ve managed to meet me, face to face. And yet you’re clearly not trained in military combat, and lack essential equipment. I can simply shoot you, right here.” The Leader’s snub rifle dangled at his left, as his right hand pointed to Jubey’s bizarre ride. “Perhaps, this is a suicide bomb tactic? Such a hasty maneuver, lacks faith in your battlefield debut.”
“No…” the device beeped, and emitted a hologram of what laid beneath City Hall: Green troops organizing throughout the basement floors. “Instead I have intel on the Blue-Green alliance going beyond a mere Merc relationship. Even your own home command doesn’t know about this. This device is jury-rigged to send all scans back to your homebase, unless you deactivate that laser cannon.”
“Ah, such penetrating scouting. Clever! I will do as you request. I must assume shooting you will activate it, too. But what about hand to hand combat? Surely honorable combat isn’t out of the question?” The Leader dropped his rifle, ammo belts, grenades.
“With a scrawny nerd?”
“Your debut has been a star performance so far, close quarters would be another notch on the belt of your metrics.” The Leader rose his fists, and Jubey rose his. Sparks emitted from the cuffs of his suit.
“See? You do have a way to even the odds… have a little more faith in yourself, won’t you? Let’s master the basics of close quarters combat…”
As they slowly approached each other, Jubey recalled again the roaring blaze in the inky black of War’s End. It had ceased to feel like a video game, but rather his own last stand of potential glory. His clan would be amazed at the solo quint… if only he could make it through that night. Moments like that were why nobody minded playing a game meant to drum up recruitment, as they made it clear there were aspects of the human experience that could only be felt on the battlefield.
And… yeah… with Red government officials watching him from a couple windows, Jubey felt like a hero. It surged inside of him: he wanted to win this fight.
—
To be concluded!
Would you trust the AI enough to perform an out-of-cockpit combat maneuver it calculated would work?
