Kaya is buried in a swamp. Alone.
Not buried unwillingly; she buried herself here – and very well. It would take a rare sort of pilot to notice Kaya’s machine. Her mech is buried so deep in muck and stagnant water that the only parts visible are the very top of its angular torso and the square peaks of its armoured shoulders. Even those are, by now, covered in a layer of rotting leaves and muddy slime, the result of almost four months sat unmoving in the deep water of the swamps.
The five mechs moving past her position certainly haven’t noticed her, so the camouflage must be doing its job.
Kaya is a guard. A scout. Sent here back in April to guard the flanks of the 7th army against any who would dare brave the swamps west of the Cos. She has known about the five before her for hours now –one of her sensors had been tripped in the small hours of the morning. She has been awake for months though, alert, and ready. Waiting for an opportunity like this. She reaches out blindly in the cockpit of her Mudskipper, searching for the radio switch that will open a brief comms channel back to base. Her eyes cannot help her with this; they are linked through her augments to the Mudskipper’s sensors. She sees, hears, feels through its mechanical body.
The comms channel flashes open.
>> Hostiles sighted. Visual contact at 1100 hours.
Kaya does not wait for confirmation from her Handler.
Mudskipper surges from the swamp in a spray of filthy water, generators roaring to life as she readies the wide-bladed axe in her left hand. Kaya feels the IV lines hooked to her arms and stomach and neck begin to feed combat stimulants into her body, feels her reactions speed, her perceptions slow.
There should be another… another coming from behind them…
To their credit, the enemy machines are fast to respond. Before Kaya has even fully cleared the water they are spinning and dropping their polearms – their rifles won’t be useful at short distance – they set their weapons to repulse a charge and prepare their back-mounted missiles to fire. Fine. Kaya isn’t one of the animal pilots who can only fight hand-to-hand – who would throw themselves on the wall of spears in front of her, and her Mudskipper is armed with more than just the wicked handaxe. She slows, stalling her charge and levels the breacher shotgun mounted to her right arm. Fires. She is still far enough away that she can aim properly, that the slug, wide as a small car can still find its target true. The shot punches through the hip of the rightmost mech, sending coolant and wrecked steel spraying out as the machine falls forward into the dirty water, incapacitated.
A message in her peripheral vision.
>> Copy Mudskipper. Do not engage.
Three of the remaining mechs now charge, weapons low. Only one stays back. An officer, who draws a longsword from his side, and launches a pair of missiles from the tubes mounted at the back of his machines torso. The two projectiles are thrown up, rockets flaring to life as they suddenly dart forward and down for her position.
Thank the gods Mudskipper is fast. She plants a steel foot and pushes to one side, throwing the weight of her mech into the rightmost enemy. They thrust upward with their halberd, but Kaya is quicker, and bats the flat of the blade aside with a metal fist even as she brings the blade of her axe down into the poor souls shoulder joint.
The missiles splash down into the water behind her and detonate, sending up a pillar of slime and muddy water, as well as a wave strong enough that kaya is knocked down, dragging the Andriosi mech with her, her axe still lodged in the joints of its shoulder. Even with half their mech scrapped, the pilot still fights though, shifting to a higher grip and stabbing at Mudskipper’s waist joint. They crack the delicate hydraulics protective armour before Kaya can dislodge the axeblade from their shoulder joint to wedge the axe’s toe into the machines top-hatch and lever it open, sending swampwater pouring into the cockpit. The mech stops stabbing after that, and Kaya stands, just in time to see the other two mechs and the officer splashing towards her.
The waves must have slowed them down, she thinks, strafing back and left, pulling their line into a looser formation, otherwise they’d already be on me.
The first halberdier Charges forward - bold, brave even. Too bold. He has left the weak points of his armour vulnerable. Kaya doesn’t slow as she sends two slugs streaking into his torso. The dead mech crashes into the water beside her.
The last two are more cautious. They slow, not stopping, but enough to buy them precious time. Kaya sees them throw up a barrage of missiles from their back tubes. A spread pattern, preventing any manoeuvres like she used to avoid the last attack. Preventing all but one.
She charges forward under the arc of the missiles. Sends her own missiles streaking out toward the officer. Not as powerful as the catapult-types they’ve been throwing at her, but still powerful enough to merit avoiding. She can almost hear him cursing as he lurches sideways to avoid her attack. The last halberdier steadies himself. Thumps forward spearing at her with the point of his halberd. Idiot. Kaya twists Mudskipper to the side, lets the blade slip past her, and brings the axeblade down on the shaft of the weapon. The mech is defenceless as she brings her axe to bear against its fragile joints, carving the helpless thing apart before it can drop the useless halberd shaft and bring its arms up to shield itself.
Her assault is brought to a premature end when a sword rakes down Mudskippers back plates, slicing through the systems housed at the rear of the scout mech before a heavy blow sends Kaya’s metal body sprawling, splashing into the swamp.
There should be another to have my back…
The blade thumps down against Mudskipper’s back again, but Kaya is ready this time. She rolls, grabbing at the officer-mechs sword hand before he can pull back to prepare another strike. He falls. Kaya has lost her axe in the confusion, and her shotgun won’t be much use at this range. She throws it aside. She still has the strength of Mudskipper’s steel fingers.
She brings down a fist on the officer mech and pushes the torso back down into the swampwater. He’s grabbed for his sidearm, she can tell, hoping to shoot up through the damaged armour at her waist joint to puncture the cockpit. Kaya presses down and her metal fingertips crunch through the armour of the officers chestplate. She begins to pull. Peels the armour from the torso of the mech, digs into the machinery beneath, until she feels the hard metal of the cockpit. She pushes again. The screaming metal is muffled by the surging water that sloshes about the two of them as they grapple. The officer presses his pistol into Mudskipper’s waist, fires, sending armour-piercing rounds slicing up through the internals of Kaya’s mech.
A blast of bubbles and fire blurred by the brown-green swamp water, and the officers machine falls silent. Mudskipper rises, leaking coolant and oil from the horrid wounds at its waist. Victorious.
>> Hostiles attacked me. All eliminated. Heavy damage sustained. Require assistance.
She waits. She is trained to be patient after all.
>> Confirm. Dispatching recovery team. Remain in position.
Kaya cannot sink back into the deep muck she has been sheltering in for the last four months – the damage to Mudskipper’s torso is too severe. So she finds solid ground and hunches down to wait for the recovery team. It will be two days before they reach her. But she is patient. She can wait.
After all, she was victorious. Alone.
