Didn’t You See The Warning? Turn Back At Once!

This was going far better than she had hoped – in fact, with how nicely the two were getting along, she wondered if their contingency had even been necessary. She had been worried that something would stop them from talking – Rosie had been very anxious the entire time she was talking with her and Kaya could be uncooperative early in the morning, but the two had been performing very well. They were even exceeding her expectations – with a little help, of course, but the aerosolised drugs she’d been pumping into the room to help smooth over the anxiety of their first meeting had been cut off twenty minutes ago – if the stuff was still in their systems, it’d be little more than an afterglow by now.

Handler Veers leaned forward to look over her shoulder at the screen.

“Seems I was wrong. You had those two dead to rights by the look of it,” She chuckled. “Glad to see the effort we put into keeping all those damn plants alive has finally paid off properly.”

Fox turned. “I’ll have you know, those plants have been a great method of keeping Kaya stable, even before they helped with this little project,” she said faux-sarcastically, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow at the senior handler.

Veers rolled her eyes before nodding to the screen.

“What’s your next move then. You’ve set them up a lovely little meet-cute but pumping Escitalopram in through the vents won’t get you over the finish line.”

Fox smirked, reclining in her chair and spinning back to the screen. “I think they should handle the next steps on their own – dependency’ll build quickly I think. Rosalin needs Kaya to navigate the Kennels, and She’ll likely create some early opportunities for Rosie to provide her support without my intervention. The joint training sessions should help build intimacy as well.” She glanced up at Veers. “Of course, if things are dragging I have more… direct methods of fostering intimacy.”

“Oh yes, because turning them into fuck-buddies is exactly the same thing as persuading them to fall in love,” Veers grimaced.

“Come on, I’m not that stupid,” Fox laughed, “I’m going to hold on that option until I’m confident that they have a stronger connection.” She paused. “Honestly, though, I’m not sure I’d even need them fucking for Rosalin to give herself up.”

“You’re that confident you can get that girl to volunteer for conditioning?”

Fox looked back to the screen. The two young women had finished their circuit of the shelves and had meandered over to sit on Elsie’s old bed and talk. Rosie’s bed now, of course. They were still holding hands – Fox wasn’t even sure if they were aware they were doing it by this point.

“Yes. Given the right motivation, of course.”

“How do you find your way around this place, sir? It all seems the same to me,” Rosie asked, as Fox came to another intersection in the corridors.

“You get to know the place over time I find,” – a pause – “I’ll show you around at some point – it helps if you know the landmarks. I’m afraid It won’t be today sadly – I have some business to attend to later and this place is pretty big,” Fox said over her shoulder. “My office is very deep in the complex as well – You should have an easier time getting in and out from Kaya’s room.”

Fox rounded another corner and stopped in front of one of the steel doors that periodically studded the Kennel complex’s walls, this one with the numbers 31 and 32 printed in white paint on the viewing slot. She made to knock but paused and turned back to face Rosie. A look of consternation crossed her face momentarily, before she opened her mouth to speak.

“I… should say now. Kaya has been in a rough patch lately. I’ve been worried for her. Its part of why I wanted to be the one who did this test. You know she lost her sister last year?”

Rosie did. It was common enough knowledge – the screams of grief had echoed around the hanger like thunder the day they’d pulled her out of her mech. Everyone knew that two had gone out but only one had come back, even if they didn’t know the two pilots – Rosie hadn’t even known Kayas name until a few minutes ago.

Fox continued, “I think she needs stability now – it’ll be seven months since the incident soon and I don’t want to leave her alone” – she saw the look of confusion on Rosie’s face – “Kaya is supposed to be one of two,” she explained, “being alone isn’t normal for her, so having someone else around – even if it’s someone she hasn’t known long - will be a return to normal.”

She began to turn but stopped again and quickly said “ah, and, I should warn you, Kaya is a week into her recovery period. She sleeps for most of the day, and will be eating for a lot of the time she’s awake – it’s nothing unusual for her, but I would expect her to be lethargic and sleepy for the next two or three weeks.”

Before Rosie could ask what she meant by recovery period, Fox had knocked briskly, before pulling open the heavy door and striding in.

The room was quite the departure from the cold steel and grey concrete of the hallways – it was lit with the same dim overhead lights, but the walls were thickly papered over, and it was much warmer, almost like stepping under a heat lamp. Clearly the walls were properly insulated to stop the heat leeching outside, even if they looked like simple metal and concrete. There were two beds – simple steel frames, positioned side-by-side in the middle of the back wall. The righthand bed was neatly made up, almost undisturbed, while the lefthand was home to a piled mass of blankets and sheets, with a mountain of pillows where the bedframe met the wall behind. There were plants, as well, arranged on shelves inset into the walls. Little potted ones, and larger things with big broad leaves under special lamps to account for the low light. – Kaya was supposed to have been on a months-long deployment, wasn’t she? She supposed someone else must have been caring for the plants while she wasn’t around to do it herself.

There was also a door to the left of the room – one of the swinging half-doors that were on the showers in the regular’s barracks – from which Kaya stepped out as Fox and Rosie walked into the hound’s kennel.

“Kaya, this is Rosie,” Handler Fox began “You remember I told you she would be moving into here from the regulars barracks?”

Kaya nodded. She was different to how Rosie expected her to look – for one, she was fresh out of the shower, with only a towel on, wrapped around her torso to protect her modesty. But Rosie had only ever seen hunting dogs in the hangers – and they were all sinew and muscle, wiry strength and speed. The hawks weren’t much different, though by and large they were smaller. Kaya though, she was big, even if Rosie could see the effects of her recent deployment. Standing there she seemed somehow sunken, Like she’d lost weight on a bad diet, and even then she was bigger than the hanger hounds – broader, taller, and heavier set. She still wore a muzzle though. That was a commonality between her and the other dogs.

“Why don’t you introduce yourself, Rosie?” Fox smiled down at her, “don’t worry, Kaya doesn’t bite,” she chuckled.

Why does she need to wear the muzzle then?

“h-Hey,” she said, stepping out from behind the handler into full view, “like Handler Fox said, I’m meant to be your new roommate.” She forced herself to make eye contact with Kaya, fumbled for something to say to break the ice. “I’ve seen your mech in the hanger a few times. It looks like a very impressive machine – much more unique than my frame.”

She thought the words were pathetic as they left her mouth, but Kaya seemed to brighten. It took her a moment to form the sentence, but she managed to speak after a second or two had passed. “Most people tell me it looks like a pile of shit,” she said, smiling crookedly through the grate of her muzzle.

Behind her, Rosie felt Handler Fox check her watch before she looked between the two of them, “Right. I have some things to deal with now, so I’ll need to be going, but I’d like it if you two could spend some time getting familiar,” she said, before focusing her attention on Kaya. “When she’s ready, Kaya, I want you to lead Rosie back up to collect her things, ok?” she paused in though for a moment. “Actually, I’d like you to show her around the kennels as well. Get her familiar with where she’ll be staying.”

Kaya nodded, her back straightening. An odd look had come over her.

“Yes, Mistress.”

“Well, I hope you two get along well with one another,” Fox said, as she turned to leave, swinging open the heavy door before disappearing out into the corridor and leaving the two women alone.

Kaya relaxed after Fox had left the room. The tension that had come over her melted away and she slumped back into the posture she’d had when she came in from the bathroom. They stood awkwardly for a minute before Kaya worked her jaw and spoke, blushing slightly and glancing away.

“Could you look away for a minute? I need to put some clothes on.”

Rosie felt blood rush to her cheeks as well – Kaya was almost naked after all. She turned to the wall behind her, mumbling apologies as she did so, and found herself staring at one of Kaya’s plants. She could hear her shuffling about the room behind her.

“S’okay,” She heard her mumble, “My fault for taking too long this morning. Mistress told me I’d be meeting you today.” If Rosie had to choose a word to describe Kaya’s voice, she’d probably have said deep, but that wasn’t really right. Thick was probably more appropriate – it had a layered quality that was oddly relaxing.

“Who waters your plants when you’re on deployment?” she asked, studiously examining the patterns on the broad leaves to distract herself from the sounds of Kaya dressing herself.

“Mistress does.”

Rosie almost shivered at the adoration she poured into the word.

“Are all of them yours?”

“Yeah. I like seeing them grow. Watching them develop from seeds.” She sounded proud. “I grew all of them from seed, you know. Even the big ones.”

Huh. That’s a lot of dedication to have kept all these plants alive.

“You can turn around now.”

Kaya wasn’t dressed in a proper military uniform. She had pulled on her pilot’s flight suit – not a standard-issue one like Rosie had, something custom tailored for the girls big frame, and had on an old jacket over that. She had the muzzled wolf insignia on the collar of her flight suit though, just like her handler had on her cap and overcoat. She looked sheepish for a moment, glancing down at her feet.

“D’you want me to give you that tour now? I know there isn’t much in here.”

Get to know each other, Fox said.

Rosie stepped over to her new roommate, searching for something to talk about.

“Could you tell me a bit about your plants? You said you grew them all from seeds, right?”

Kaya’s eyes seemed to light up, and she took Rosie’s hand to lead her over to one of the shelves of plants, pointing out a small ferny thing first. She beckoned Rosie to lean down with her and began to talk, her voice still strained from disuse at first.

“This one’s the oldest – I think I had it before I was even at this base. It’s the only one I didn’t grow all the way myself – I think… I found it out in the plains… it was really small back then, even smaller than this and I thought it looked like it was dying so I… I took it and kept in my mech for a week before I potted it. I still didn’t know how to take care of them properly so it still didn’t do to great at first, but I got better with practice.” She laughed and started to explain how she kept her plants healthy.

Get to know each other. Spend some time getting familiar.

Rosie could feel herself relaxing her guard – she’d been so anxious since the orderlies showed up, but here? She felt she could relax here, away from the cold grey metal of the rest of this place. She smiled and opened her mouth to ask her new roommate another question.

She’d been disturbed in her squad barracks by a pair of orderlies who’d announced that she was to report immediately to a new superior. Apparently, Administration was transferring her to the command of a new officer – a woman named Fox. The two soldiers had led her out of the parts of the base she was familiar with, through the barracks and the hanger, into the mess hall and past the exercise rooms and the armoury, refusing to answer any of her questions about why she was being pulled away from the 7th armies regular mechanised sections. Now she was just following the two’s lead as they flanked her down the concrete corridor, boots thudding against the floor’s steel grating with every step.

She had grown increasingly anxious as they steadily encountered fewer and fewer other people in the halls, and she hadn’t seen anyone at all since they stepped out of the elevator and into the maze of winding corridors. She had been trying to keep track of the route they had taken but the whole place seemed to blend together into a mass of identical corridors and cells, all made with the same concrete walls and dim lights and heavy steel doors. Even with a map Rosie doubted that she would be able to escape the labyrinth alone, And her attempts to remember the way out were hampered further by the creeping dread that clawed at her mind – stories about the terrible things that the Handlers did down here that she’d heard related by her more experienced squadmates, she’d dismissed them out-of-hand back then but they now took on a grisly second life in her imagination, treating her to a slideshow of horrible fates that did nothing to help her nerves.

Then, they rounded a corner and were at the end of the corridor, an imposing steel door before them, almost identical to the others they’d passed on the way here, though this one had a nameplate set on it at eye level:

Handler G. Fox

Suddenly Rosies head was aflame, as the scenes flashing in her minds eye suddenly changed to feature herself as the central subject. All the horrors of the Kennels – the torturous conditioning with drugs and lights and violence being applied to her.

One of the orderlies went to knock and after a moment, a muffled voice called out from inside the office and said to send Rosie – Pilot Cressal – in.

Oh Gods Oh Gods Oh Gods. I’ve been requested by a Handler. I’m going to be turned into one of their monsters. I need to run. I Need To Run. I NEED TO RUN NOW. NOW NOW. NOW NOW NOW NOWNOWNOWNOWN-

Rosie stepped through into the office as one of the orderlies held the door, before she allowed the steel slab to swing closed behind her on oiled hinges and listened as the two soldiers walked back down the corridor, her heart thundering in her ears.

Handler Fox wass sitting at her desk, pushing some papers into a drawer, the heavy leather overcoat so emblematic of the Handlers hung up on the wall behind her, though she was still wearing her black cap, atop a head of auburn hair tied up in a proper military bun. She gestured for Rosie to take a seat. She didn’t look at all like the Handlers Rosie had seen around the base, the tall black monolithic figures with cruel smiles and wicked eyes. She looked like a normal officer – except instead of a Pilots wings she had the muzzled wolf’s head insignia of the Handlers on her uniform.

“Please, take a seat, Pilot,” Fox’s voice is warm and inviting – friendly, even. It doesn’t help to sooth Rosie’s fears as she makes her way towards the desk. Once she was sat opposite her the Handler leaned back, crossing her arms and offering another friendly smile before starting, “There’s no need to be worried, Ms Rosalin; I know the kinds of horrid tales that the older pilots have picked up about us but I can assure you that there you are in no danger here in the Kennels. Did the orderlies tell you anything about why you have been transferred?”

Rosie didn’t make eye contact as she replied timidly. “No, sir”.

Fox laughed “Well, I don’t want you for the program, If that’s what you are worried about, Pilot Cressal – no, I wanted you transferred here as a liaison. I’m sure you’ve heard of the joint barracks that the 4th and 9th have employed?”

Rosie offered her a nervous nod, feeling relief flood through her. She had heard that some of the other armies had taken to rooming the Hounds produced by the Handlers and normal pilots together – ‘to build cohesion within the ranks’ they said, though she’d never heard of something like this.

“Well I want to trial something similar here, only instead of moving the hounds to the regular barracks I want to see if we can develop better relations by moving selected pilots from the regular barracks to the Kennels.” When she saw Rosie’s face falling, she grinned, “I know that sounds silly,” – she put her hands up – “but I think it could be very helpful to get the regulars more comfortable with my wing of the army.” Another smile. “I know we aren’t well liked amongst the rest of the army,” she chuckled, before crossing her arms again.

“So you want me to bunk with one of your hounds, sir?” Rosie said as she finally found her voice again. “Why me? I’m just a medic, why not have one of the officers? Surely they’d be better at this than me?”

Fox waved a hand. “The squad leaders are officers – they need to be with their soldiers, and the rooms down here aren’t big enough to hold a full unit.” The Handler leaned in conspiratorially “And, pilot, between you and me, having reviewed your file I think you’ll get along with Kaya much better than officer Hayes.”

The ghost of a smile played across Rosie’s lips. Her CO, Roger Hayes was infamous throughout the base for his volatile temper – which Rosie had been on the receiving end more than once. She had to admit she couldn’t see him being a good ‘Liaison’ with the rest of the base.

Fox cleared her throat, leaning back into her chair again “Now you’ll also be pulled from active duty for the next few weeks – I want to give the two of you time to get to know one another, and I want you to get familiar with the Kennels before you’re back in training exercises.”

“What will happen with my unit, sir? Won’t they be a pilot short now?”

Fox waved her hand dismissively. “We have reserve pilots to fill that gap. After you come off leave your training sessions will continue on normal schedule, though they’ll by split – half will be sessions with Kaya and her Mudskipper and half will be standard exercises with your unit. To show everyone that our two sides of the army can work together.”

“When is the room transfer going to happen?” Rosie asked quietly.

“I’d like for it to be as soon as possible.” Handler Fox stood, her chair issuing a metallic scrape as it was pushed across the floor grating. “I was thinking that I could introduce the two of you now actually. You are already down here after all, and” – she checked her watch – “Kaya should be awake as well.”

She waited for confirmation from Rosie before smiling and cracking her knuckles.

“Well, we’d best be getting on then – follow me and I’ll take you to your new room.”

“I’m sorry, Fox, could you repeat that?”

“I want to try and recreate Kaya’s damaged Ego Pillar. For that I need a new hound.” Fox simplified. “Kaya relies on an external connection for stability, and that connection has been severed. I intend to create a new external relationship to bring her back to stability.”

“Doesn’t she have you? Why aren’t you suitable as an ‘external relationship’?”

“I’m her handler, Tessa, I can’t fill that role. I’m too distant, Too controlling,” she sighed.

Tessa took a long drag from his cigarette. Paused.

“Why bother? Kaya is just a failing dog. Just replace her like all the others.”

Fox’s response was dismissive. “Kaya knows the swamps better than any of our pilots. It would take years to train another to operate at her level in that environment.”

Chief Administrator Marcus Tessa narrowed his eyes at the handler. “And how do you intend to complete this project. She should be deploying again in a few weeks. Hardly enough time for you to foster her a ‘relationship’.”

Fox smirked. “Like you said earlier – Kaya is falling apart. She’s not suitable for field work. I’ve already put in an internal transfer to get her out of active service for a few months.”

“So why are you here, Fox?”

Another smirk. “I need your approval to transfer my candidate and begin the process. Normally I wouldn’t need to involve you – it’d be an internal affair – but my best chance of success is with a pilot on your roste-”

“You want me to black-bag a military pilot to condition into one of your animals?” Tessa cut her off, indignation rising in his voice. “You want me to stick my hands into that kind of business to keep your Mutt alive? Sacrifice one of my pilots to your program? I won’t give my approval to that kind of busine-”

“I’m not asking you to disappear a pilot, Tessa,” Fox laughed. “I just want to transfer the girl into Kaya’s quarters for now. Check to see if she’s suitable,” - She turned to the window, knitting her fingers behind her back - “There shouldn’t be any problems with that – it’s been standard for a while to try and set up mixed hound-pilot bunks. Helps cohesion in the field if people are familiar with the dogs.”

Sharply, “I know the logic. Only a room transfer?”

“Only a room transfer,” she confirmed.

She paused. Waited long enough for his concerns of illicit requisitions to subside. Let him break the brief silence himself.

“But you still want to condition whoever it is - you mentioned needed a new hound, not an assistant.”

“If everything goes smoothly, you won’t need to life a finger,” she reassured him, “the subject should volunteer for the program of her own free will.”

“You mean you’ll coerce the girl into volunteering?”

“Of course not. I doubt anything so crude would be necessary.”

A pause.

“I’m not going to ask for one of your aces, or your officers, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Oh? You just want one of the grunts?” his relief was almost palpable.

Fox fought to keep the smile from spreading across her face. She nodded, her back still to the Administrator. She heard Tessa sit and pull his chair forward. Heard him pick up a pen.

“Who is it then.”

Handler Fox smiled softly into the window. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had an office with a view, and the plains could look quite lovely this time of year. She was still holding her hands behind her back, but now she relaxed and brought them together in front of her.

Tessa heard her crack her knuckles before she turned to give him the relevant details.

Her performance through the last three deployments would not have raised eyebrows amongst the clerks who oversaw the 7th armies standard mission reports and pilot performance, Fox knew. After all, Kaya had shown an exemplary willingness to be deployed for long periods as of late – most pilots of her type needed much more encouragement to maintain their stability for the long deployments that were standard for guard dogs. But something hadn’t sat right about her behaviour these last months. Fox had had her theories of course – she wasn’t some green rookie, she could see that Kaya’s behaviour had shifted. But she hadn’t been sure why.

She’d watched as the mech-techs had pulled the girl from her cockpit a few hours ago and what she'd seen had confirmed her suspicions. Kaya had looked almost disappointed (as much as was possible in the state she came out of the cockpit in) and that disappointment had solidified after they'd managed to get her out of the snaking cables and neural interfaces of Mudskipper's long-term life support systems and onto the stretcher to get her into the medbay. Fox had dealt with a lot of pilots over the years, but none that weren’t glad to be out of the innards of their machines after a long deployment – even the ones who preferred being patched into their frames through neural implants and IV tubes to living with their human senses wanted out after months of the dark, hot, stinking hearts of their machines. No. Fox was quite sure Kaya wasn’t disappointed to be being removed from that and transferred to the relative comfort of the medical wing.

Kaya was disappointed that she made it back.

Fox rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. Leaned forward again, resting on her elbows.

Gods. Why didn’t I see it sooner?

The problem was glaringly obvious now she thought about it. She’d run some psych tests to make certain but even so – she was ashamed it hadn’t hit her sooner.

Half a year ago, Kaya had been one of a bonded pair – her and her sister-hound, Elsie. Fox had conditioned them together, arranged their ego pillars so that the two would support one another’s conditioning and operate better as a unit in the field. A good system – a tried-and-true method for producing scout units that could be left no-contact for weeks.

Problem was, Elsie had been killed in action. The two had been stationed out east when Vars the younger had launched his campaign westward. They’d been caught behind the line of his advance and when they made to break through and link back up with the main body of the seventh, they’d been ambushed by one of Vars’ outrider sections. Elsie had been killed covering Kaya’s retreat. The grief had been terrible at the time, but Fox had thought the months off deployment had been enough to let her process. Clearly, she had been wrong. In the months after her sister’s death, the pain had metastasised into something much worse than grief. Kaya was well-conditioned enough that direct suicide wouldn’t be a danger – the handlers had learned early on that even with willing test subjects, there was a danger of self-destruction if one or more Ego Pillars collapsed and in the aftermath of some grisly incidents, a standard part of conditioning had become stamping out the ability to directly self-terminate – but even so pilots could put themselves into harm’s way. Try to invite death, even if their conditioning prevented them from realising that was what they were doing. Kaya had tried with those five guardsmen in the swamp – Mudskippers combat logs showed clearly how reckless shed become, so much so that she nearly hadn’t made it out of the fight. The pistol was the worse offender. A few degrees to the left and the shots would have punched through the cockpit and Kaya would be as dead as her sister right now – and the girl had known she was in danger but done nothing.

How could I be so stupid?

One of Kaya’s Ego Pillars was founded on an external connection – a personal relationship. That pillar was missing, and now Kaya was unbalanced – acting recklessly. Taking fights she knew she might not survive. Of course, Kaya could be replaced. She was by no means a truly exceptional pilot, and new recruits for the program were plentiful. Her performance was taking hits, and now her unbalanced state could easily be a danger to the safety of the base. Fox could always have the poor girl terminated and simply train up new hounds.

But, no. she’d grown quite fond of her ambush predator, in her own way of course. And she didn’t want the poor thing to die so miserably alone. Besides. Kaya’s situation presented a unique opportunity. Usually when one of a bonded pair dies, the other perishes shortly afterward – driven into the one who killed its partner in a suicidal charge. But not here. Kaya’s reason had won out against the animal impulse, and she had survived, even with her sister dead. Fox was being presented with a very special situation here.

Could she repair the damaged Ego Pillar? It would require constructing a new connection that could fill the void left by Elsie’s passing, one that didn’t put the existing conditioning structures of Kaya’s mind under stress.

Fox set her elbows on the desk in front of her and cracked her knuckles absently, mulling over the possibilities.

It can’t be a sister. I can rule that one out immediately – too much competition from Elsie. Too much chance for comparison.

A mother perhaps?

She scowled, casting the thought aside as quickly as it had risen. No. for one thing there weren’t any pilots on the base old enough to fill that role, and for another the authority figure could compromise Fox’s own position in the dynamic – she didn’t need to be jostling with another for the control of her hound.

Then it hit her.

A lover?

There was no reason it wouldn’t work – there was plenty of work on romantically paired hounds to draw on as a guide, even if the connection wasn’t usually fostered in such unusual circumstances, and a partner wouldn’t challenge Fox’s authority over her hound, nor be in competition with Elsie’s memory like another sister would be. And love was easy. So chemical and predictable – and she knew Kaya better than the girl knew herself. She wouldn’t even need very long to get the whole affair up and running.

Fox leans back, smiling to herself in the privacy of her windowless office, buried deep within the kennels at the bottom of the army base. She already had a candidate in mind.

Time to play matchmaker, Handler Fox.

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.

Too late.

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.

The officer.

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.