Cavalier's Gambit -CH 8- (Patreon)

Wayne didn’t delay.

Neither with moving, nor with taking shots.

Even as he exited the courtyard he saw the rest of his squad forming up.

As he did, the moment a white-box appeared with a name he recognized as anti-armor, Wayne just fired. His kinetic rifle had been put away and now his laser canon was vaporizing enemies as they showed up.

For the first time, he was appreciative of his screwed up eye and the fact that it refused to ever turn off. Always giving him information whether he wanted it or not.

Another white-box appeared and the familiar name of “Tung” appeared which was an anti-armor weapon. Wayne immediately fired on it, his laser cannon’s beam piercing through the sky and smashing through the carrier of the weapon.

Even in the bright noon day of the sun, they couldn’t hide from Wayne’s implant. For whatever reason, it was performing at a much higher level than it should have if it was just an installed AI.

“Frelking hell I— five, in the center. Cover us,” the sergeant ordered.

Wayne wasn’t about to argue and did as instructed. Moving to the center of the formation.

White-boxes would appear, catch a las-cannon beam, then vanish.

As they ran along the boxes became fewer and fewer. Either due to Wayne having sniped out each and every one, or them simply escaping the ambush.

In either situation, three minutes passed that felt like a lifetime, and they moved away. Putting distance on their attackers until it stopped entirely.

There were clearly things being discussed on a different communication line as it seemed like half the group started to move off down a street, only to snap back into place with everyone else.

“We’ve got orders to proceed to the original mission now. The team that took over for us got fucked,” reported the sergeant. “A pair of Walkers are peeling off to escort the VIPs we just secured. They’re heading to a police station that’s well defended.”

“We’re gonna get frelked, too, aren’t we?” asked someone.

“I sure as hell hope not. I don’t want to die here with a bunch of hired hands like you spishts,” the sergeant growled.

“Love you too, Sarge,” Wayne blurted out.

Everyone laughed at that, even the sergeant.

“Yeah, whatever. Hoof it. We’ve been elected to hold the middle thankfully. Apparently they think we’re all playing headshot-fuckery when it’s just Five,” the sergeant relayed. “So thanks Five, keep making us look good.”

“Sure, sure, Sarge, I just need ten minutes and a subscription to pictureshop. Did you want me to shop in some abs for everyone, or like, better haircuts.”

Again, another round of laughs came through the coms.

Quickly Wayne’s squad pushed into the middle of the formation. Two squads moved off with the VIPs and a portion of the infantry.

Everyone else started down the street at a trot.

They couldn’t move that quick as the infantry would be exhausted quickly.

Even if everything went right, they’d still have to get back out of the area.

“Got some more info,” the sergeant said as they moved. “The group that went to our original goal got the VIPs and got out, then ran into an ambush.

“Most of the team got annhilated but the VIPs are safe. The survivors are all holed up in a building and defending from attacks.

“Our target is only a minute or two away. Anything you see is hostile if it isn’t in the building that’s are target. Probably going to be walking into an—”

A white-box showed up in a window just to the right and Wayne cracked a shot off.

This time he’d seen the attacker’s head before he fired.

He’d even seen it when the head vanished in a blur of heavy laser light. The weapon they’d been hefting falling out of their hands and clattering to the street below.

“Probably be walking into an ambush,” the sergeant tried again. “Nice shot, Five.”

Yeah… except if he’d been using a dumb-weapon, or something without electronics, I wouldn’t have spotted it at all.

“Yeah, gonna be honest Sarge, just catching heat signatures on those fancy weapons they’re using,” Wayne tried, trying to deflect a bit. “If it was something cold or unpowered, I don’t think I’d spot it.”

The formation moved on.

“Break formation, we’re taking the alley on the right. Six, Seven, front and center,” ordered the sergeant.

The squad slipped away from the formation and went into the alley as ordered. The two Walkers in the front opened fire almost immediately. Rounds came back in return.

Wayne noted it in a strange dispassionate way. Bright orange lights slipping past him at full speed. That they were military grade tracers that he was looking at.

“They raided a number of depots, didn’t they?” Wayne asked aloud, voicing his thoughts.

“Fucking seems like it,” someone else answered. Wayne really didn’t have time to learn names of anyone. They’d all been flung into motion even before they’d been assigned to groups, let alone a chance to ask each other basic questions.

“They did, now shut the fuck up and push, we need to get to the end, turn, and hustle up. We’re smashing into the back of the building as the rest of the unit goes to the front,” the sergeant ordered. “Five, I want you policing the damn area like you have been. I want you to hit that harder than invite to find hot horny single moms in your area!”

Snickering, Wayne pitched his cockpit up several degrees. He lost sight of the ground in front of him but he could see his surroundings better.

Wayne choked down a response, realizing this wasn’t the time to be a funny bastard.

Almost as if on cue a white-box appeared.

Wayne didn’t bother to wait to read it, he just took the shot. His cannon wiping out another life.

Several boxes appeared at the same time then. Two of them in front in the windows and a third to the right on the roof. He wouldn’t be able to catch all three.

“Right side window,” Wayne hissed and fired an elongated shot from his beam weapon. It cut right to left and the white boxes vanished.

Someone else fired a kinetic rifle to the box on the right though a return shot went off.

A missile speared through the air and slammed into a Walker on the left. It struck the laser cannon armed right arm. Shattering the weapon.

“Shift out seven, to the back. Someone rotate up!” ordered the sergeant. “Keep going! Hit the turn!”

Everyone rotated, though Wayne had to do it without really looking. He was trying to keep his sight on all the various ways they could be ambushed from.

“That’s the objective!” the sergeant warned. “Five, put yourself on a ground level and watch the windows. If anyone tries to get in, fry’em.”

Wayne regretfully did as ordered.

He posted up at the corner of the building and eased the laser-cannon arm out past the edge along with a fractional part of his cockpit.

It had him leaning in his seat just to see around it.

There wasn’t anyone there but he doubted it’d remain that way.

“Extraction is starting! Hold here!” called the sergeant behind him.

Wayne heard a lot of weapons fire coming from behind him. He desperately wanted to turn around and look at what was going on, but he had his own worries.

Grimacing, he stared ahead.

Watching the street, surrounding buildings, and entry-points.

Nothing was happening at all.

“Frelk you, fucker!” screamed someone followed by an explosion.

A large explosion.

As if something blew up.

“The fuck was that?” Wayne asked, unable to help himself.

“They’ve got Walkers,” the sarge admitted. “Was a Lugh or something like it. Was already spittin’ fireworks as if it took a hit in the ammo bay but it was active.”

Holy shit.

This is more than a riot!

Shaking his head, Wayne was reconsidering this contract. That it wasn’t worth at all what they’d paid him.

Then he remembered the emergency clauses in it.

If the risk increased, the pay would increase by set levels depending on what they encountered.

He’d actually sat down and read it from top to bottom before signing.

“I wonder what the percent increase will be for fighting Walkers,” he mused.

“A frelking lot,” the sergeant stated. “More than I’ll be getting for this.”

“You should retire and get a contract, Sarge,” someone suggested.

“Yeah, fuck. Nah… I’m only a year or two off from being able to retire,” the sargeant muttered.

“Ah, shit, man. You’re gonna die now. You threw out the red flag,” Wayne moaned. “You’re gonna die and tell us to take shit to your wife or whatever.”

“Uh… don’t got a wife. Got a escort that’s mine alone though. She lives with me,” admitted the sergeant.

“Fucking gonna die,” Wayne warned him. Then he saw a great deal of movement on the right. A mob of people rushed toward the building.

Then a Walker that Wayne couldn’t identify jogged out from behind a building. Given it’s size and height, it was more than likely some type of heavy Combat or Light Assault class.

“Fuck, I got a Walker here, big spisht bastard,” Wayne said as the white box snapped into place around it.

Aiming his laser-cannon Wayne dropped the crosshair on the Walker’s cockpit.

There was no way he’d be able to take it in a one-on-one fight.

The distance was so short though that his beams could probably keep him from seeing very well.

Holding down the trigger Wayne watched as the cell began to rapidly deplete.

The Walker stumbled to one side and then began to shift it’s orientation. Trying to strafe away and into the far side of the building.

A second beam joined his and landed in nearly the same spot.

The rapid fire of the kinetic rifle began to pound out rounds passed Wayne.

Except the Walker took it all in stride and simply dipped out around side of the building. As if it’d been annoyed enough to leave them alone, but to not stop.

No sooner than it was out of sight then Wayne swung his cannon toward the mob. The over-charged beam flash-frying heads as it was pointed down into the center mass of the group.

Playing it back and forth Wayne resolved himself to emptying the cell outright.

These people were too brave by half and unless met with overwhelming force, there was a distinct possibility that their morale wouldn’t break. Sweeping it back and forth, at a level that the large laser would hit from waist to head, he didn’t release the trigger.

People caught fire, melted, screamed, fell to the ground, and slowly began to panic. Hearing their compatriots dying around them and watching the fires spread was breaking their resolve.

Then, Wayne’s cell died.

Sliding out of cover he ejected the cell and set the auto function to load a new one. He wasn’t going to be able to fire immediately though as the warning light for the barrel overheating had gone to yellow.

Ejecting the cell and giving it a moment would be more than enough to help it cool naturally.

In the mean time, he could work his kinetic rifle.

Pulling the trigger Wayne started to let the rifle blast into the crowd. Oversized rounds pushing right through the crowd.

Tearing apart people and sending parts and clothes into the sky.

When the magazine went empty and the bolt on the weapon slammed open, Wayne stepped back fully into cover.

He raised his laser-cannon and began firing individual bursts into the crowd. Trying to time it so that the heat didn’t overwhelm the heat-sinks on the weapon.

At the same time he ejected the spent magazine, called a new one from the ammo pod in the Walker’s leg, and slammed the rifle onto it without looking.

He knew where it was after having done a reload like this multiple times in training, as well as with Horrace.

Whoever had fired their las-cannon on the Walker had remained thankfully. This entire time they’d been taking pot-shots at the crowd.

Behind Wayne, he could hear what sounded like a fire-fight ongoing.

There was also something on the other side of the building as far as he could tell. Or so he guessed from random beams going over the top of the building.

Finally, after laying on half the cell’s stores, the mob broke. Fleeing in every direction. Scattering and leaving their wounded and dying behind.

There was a thrumming in the air that sounded like a helicopter. As if some type of aerial vehicle was coming in.

“Sarge?” someone asked.

“That’s their ticket out, leave it,” ordered the sergeant.

Kneeling there, Wayne waited. Mildly disturbed at the ongoing gunfight behind him, though it was slowly ending.

“They’re pushing off. We’re outta here,” the sergeant ordered. “Back the way we came, then out to the road.”

Wayne gratefully got up and turned around.

There was a lot of corpses spread out all over the alley. There was a number of holes in buildings and one of the Walker’s in his squad was laid out on their side. Thrown over a dumpster.

As everyone got moving, Wayne saw they were down to five out of their original number, outside of the sergeant. A third had been lost somewhere.

Then there was the Walker that was missing their laser-cannon. Effectively cutting that Walker’s ammo count and ability to deal damage in half.

Nothing happened as they exited the alley and made it back to the formation. Nor did anything occur as they formed up.

The helicopter was already on it’s way back and on the horizon by the time they’d started moving out of the area.

Of the fifty that set out, there was only about twenty left.

“Holy sphist. We got frelked,” someone whispered.

“Order up, left side,” sergeant commanded, not responding to that comment.

Wayne moved to take the center position again, and began looking upward again.

Just in time to see a helicopter that was screaming toward them take a hit from a laser beam.

“Sarge, that bird just took a hit,” reported Wayne.

The helicopter kept moving forward as if the hit hadn’t done anything at all.

“Oh, never—”

The rear rotor of the helicopter came off.

As if it were simply disconnected.

It started to spin to one side, then began to drop out of the sky.

“Shit,” the sergeant muttered.

The formation kept going down the road they were treading on. As far as Wayne knew, they were on their way out.

“Well shit. Guess what we just got tasked to do since we have the strongest squad complement,” the sarge said with a curse behind his words.

“Gonna go look at the helicopter and roast some marshmallows over the fire?” Wayne asked. “Come back with body parts from the rescue mission?”

“Part of one, part of the other,” admitted the sergeant. “Someone survived that helicopter going down. We’ve got a get out there and pick up people run.”

“Nah, fuck that, not a Flight driver. Pass on that, tip ain’t high enough,” Wayne offered immediate.

“Not a choice. It’s an order,” the sergeant offered up with a sigh. “If it helps, you’re clearly getting that maximum bonus for this one.”

Wayne groaned, contemplated what his options were, then realized he didn’t have any.

“You’re now One and Two,” the sergeant said. “Got it?”

“Yes, sir,” came two voices.

“Great, let’s go. I want to get this over with. Five, Six, Seven, front and center. Eight, rear. One, Two, left and right,” ordered the sarge. “Left into that street. Full speed. Just take it to the top and we’ll adjust if anyone can’t keep up.”

Wayne nodded his head, moved to the middle position, and made the turn.

Once he was clear he shifted his speed to maximum and started off.

Moving down the street at a speed that made him feel better. They weren’t going to be as likely to hid by an ambush with this kind of speed.

“Bring it down a single click,” the sarge ordered.

Everyone moved down one click but no further changes were made.

For an entire minute they raced onward. All of them stomping down the street.

There were a number of places that Wayne had to shift his position out to get around abandoned vehicles and barricades.

From the look of it, the riot had been ongoing for a while.

A long while, given that there were a number of wrecks and burnt out vehicle husks.

“Hard left there, helicopter should be right around there given the loc I was given,” the sergeant stated. “Practically step on it.”

Everyone shifted down in speed, took the turn, and came to something more similar to a fast walk.

This speed was far more usable to engage in combat without having the gyro on the weapon systems over-work and try to offset it.

The sarge had been right though, the helicopter was indeed right here. The wreck of it laid out in the middle of a strange and very ugly looking field. Filled with broken humps of metal and slagged debris.

There was a group of soldiers in various states of wounded, dead, and on guard, squat down around the wreck. They had weapons up, looked quite well equipped, and were most assuredly waiting for Wayne and company.

Their faces were covered in balistic masks with the eyeslits covered in steel-glass. It was undoubtably that these soldiers were likely the best of the best.

Between them was a number of people in business suits.

“Sergeant Willer, sent to escort you out,” offered the sarge, stepping up to the group. “You’ve got the lead captain, how do you want to do this?”

One of the men in uniform and tactical armor, as well as what looked to be some exo-powered joints, slowly stood up.

“We’re not capable of a rapid egress,” the soldier grumbled in a deep voice. The man sounded rather grizzled. “We’ll displace, maneuver, and find a hide. Best you take our VIPs and get out of here.”

That made sense to Wayne, but also didn’t like the idea much.

The idea of a semi-wounded squad of soldiers trying to find a hide in the middle of a riot sounded like a great way to get dead.

Wayne had taken a number of lessons away from his training with Horrace.

Key amongst them had been to plan as if he had to ditch his Walker. That’d been a continued sticking point he’d come across over and over in the training.

An unseated Walker needed to become infantry in a hurry.

Wayne had realized he wouldn’t be able to do fuck-all with a weapon as infantry, but he could bring with him clothes, barter materials, and medical supplies.

Turning around, he dropped to a knee, and detached an ammo pod he’d stuck on the back of his Justifier.

It hit the ground with a boom and then unsealed itself.

“I packed it with everything I’d need to survive on my own,” Wayne said aloud after flicking his communication line to open-silent. It’d broadcast at a speaking volume around him. “Was a free armory trip so I loaded up.”

Wayne got up and turned around.

The soldiers were already rapidly sorting through it.

“Medical, barter, and clothes. No guns or ammo, sorry. I didn’t think I’d survive if I tried to be… uh… well… you guys,” Wayne explained.

There was a guttural chuckle from one of the soldier even as they all snapped up the medical kits. Wayne had packed more than he needed just in case he had a place he could hunker down in.

His paranoia was turning out to be beneficial, just not for him.

Then Wayne realized there was one more kit he could give them.

He activated the hatch on his cockpit and then shoved it open with a boot.

It creaked open partway before the auto-open function kicked in and splayed it open.

The stink of burning fuel, acrid smoke, and something else, hit him in the face.

Reaching down, Wayne grabbed the pistol case and mags that were in every cockpit, and tossed it down to the ground. Then he snatched up the emergency rations and medical kit and threw that out too.

The captain was standing not far off from everything landed and he was looking up at Wayne.

“Everyone do the same,” Wayne encouraged them and then reached out to hit the auto-close button but hesitated.

A strange thought had intruded upon him.

“They’ll need it more than we will,” Wayne finished and then took a short breath. He was pretty certain he could probably get someone into the cockpit with him. If this had been Patchwork, that’d be impossible. There was just enough room to squeeze someone in with him. “There’s, what, six VIPs? If they’re kinda on the average to slim side we can have each of them clamber in and uh… well, get friendly. Like wearing them like a shirt friendly. It’ll be awkward but if we avoid combat it’ll be swifter. A lot swifter.

“I mean… uh… now that I think about it, could you all just clamber on and hold tight? I have no idea if that’d work.”

In short order, everyone did as he asked and displaced their cockpit supplies.

“No. We can’t just clip in to the armor. We’ve got wounded that we won’t leave behind that just wouldn’t survive that kind of a ride.

“The supplies help more than you’ll know. We’ll be fine,” the captain said. Then he gestured to the VIPs. “Everyone pair up, get inside just like the merc said.

“Also, someone get Helm into a Walker. He’s the most likely to survive a Walker run but wouldn’t be useful to us either. Burns kill, just not fast.”