Giant Robots? Say no more. I’m in. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

…

Have you ever been afraid?

Ever felt that moment, where your stomach curls, your bowels threaten to void, and your brain screams at you to do something, anything, so loudly that it wipes out your whole mind?

I think that fighting since I was six in this life got rid of that for me.

You can only be pant-shittingly terrified so many times before your brain decides it doesn’t have time for that anymore.

Naturally, I understood that my lack of fear response is a very bad thing.

Fear is meant to keep you alive. Back in my old life, I’m the sort of person that believed in running away. Even if I had a weapon, I’d prefer to run away. If I was cornered, if there was no way out, I’d fight for my life, sure. If someone I cared about couldn’t run away with me, then I’d fight for sure, too. However, if neither were applicable, I’d run.

That’s a good and honest fear response.

If anyone tells you that you should square up, or pull a gun out the moment you’re afraid, they’re just trying to get you killed or put in prison.

Unfortunately, getting a bomb strapped to my mech and told to fight or it blows up, put me in the position of always fighting. I don’t recall if I was sold off at five or six, but since then it’s been nonstop, back-to-the-wall, and gun-in-hand as a situation.

Did I grow to enjoy it?

Yeah. Giant robots are cool.

But the fact is that I grew to enjoy it, and that came after summoning up every ounce of courage I could muster to overcome my fear.

And, I did that a little too well.

So, because that wasn’t present in my head anymore, I made sure to be calmer and procedural in my approach to conflict. I always listened to my briefings from start to finish and asked questions. I asked for permission to scan the target area while on site and map it out. I made plans for sorties, set up anchoring points, and made sure that I was prepared as much as possible. If I could get more support, as a rule, I would use it and make it count for its cost.

Over my years of piloting, I was able to develop my methods to address all my opponents outside of the mech, ranging from the bugs, the AI, the extra-dimensional eldritch horrors, and my command staff.

Now, though, I had to start again against a new foe.

My class full of genetically engineered superhumans who all had intentions on me because of my achievements.

…

From my personal intelligence gathering, there are two primary camps and multiple subsidiaries to those two camps. The corporate aristocracy that ruled over humanity are divided between reclaiming as much land as possible on Earth as fast as possible, and those who want to build up more and defend what they already have. Both sides believe in kicking the three kinds of aliens of the planet and out of the solar system, but they don’t agree on the timeframe.

The first conglomerate calls go by the name Suwon Corp, and they have the SC moniker in the stock exchange. Functioning like an exchange-traded fund (ETF), investing in the Suwon Corp is investing into the multiple subsidiaries and corporations that are working towards reclaiming the planet. With the mission statement of reconquering Earth for humanity, and the fact that they’ve met most of the quarterly fiscal and military goals, since the stock’s inception one-hundred-and-fifty years ago, they’ve enjoyed an upward trend. From administrative agencies that oversee military manufacturing and deployment to zoological organizations dedicated to revitalizing fauna and flora across the planet, they’re a lean and agile corporation that effectively holds twenty-eight percent of the market.

ReBuild Systems, or RS in the stock exchange, is a more recent organization at just seventy-five years old, but they hold twenty-five percent of the market. Their mission statement works on the theory that humanity currently holds enough land to outproduce and out-tech their opponent, especially with increased spending on arcology improvements, expansions, and defenses. Through iterative improvements and overall reductions in costs across the board, they plan on increasing the output of humanity on Earth until it can all be reclaimed with greater ease and less loss of resources. Organizations under their umbrellas are arcology builders and maintainers, and they heavily invest in automated defenses and long-range firepower like orbital artillery, nuclear barrages, and communications technology.

Combined they have over fifty percent of the market, so the rest of the corporations are effectively third-parties that barely have a say in the grand scheme of things. ReBuild and Suwon were both more than happy to team up to keep their competitors down, and they were honestly in a symbiotic relationship that was barely above the ridiculously loose anti-monopoly laws that exist in this world. Even with their divergent views, they don’t step on each other’s toes when making money, and if either one succeeds, they both profit. Suwon takes another region of Earth? ReBuild is the one making the Arcology. Suwon starts an offensive? ReBuild has the big guns needed to open the area for conventional assault.

In the end, though, they were still competitors and both sides still wanted bigger profits than the other.

That came into play in the pseudo-high-school bullshit place they’ve got going, where the future leaders of those two conglomerates worked to get third party corporations under their umbrella.

House Harris happens to be unaffiliated and is focused on financial and property management.

Meaning they hold a section of the arcology and make sure that it produces people of various skill levels to do jobs required by others. Ranging from sewer worker, to six-year-old disposable mech pilots, and all the way up to engineer astronauts, they provide what people need at affordable rental and lease rates. Yep, that’s right. They’re basically a massive temp agency that raises workers and lends them out for money.

Literally slavery but with extra steps, since the workers are indebted from birth and need to buy/work their way out of it.

Anyway, that’s enough haranguing about the circumstances of my current existence.

Let’s go ahead and have the big corporations try and influence us for their own gain.

“Look, Cina, my desk is once again covered in various gift baskets. I told you that the cart will be useful.” I was back at my desk now, and since I was caught up and passable in my classes, Lady Hariss’s protections no longer extended. That basically gave my classmates the freedom to bother me while I’m at school and while class isn’t in session. “Go ahead and pack it all up for Lady Hariss to enjoy!”

I made sure that they couldn’t cheap out on their attempts to buy me by making sure all the gifts went to my boss. It’s one thing to give a gift to an up-and-coming knight. It’s another thing entirely to give it to the head of a house.

“Ooh, look at that. I think it’s real chocolate. I only read about it.” Cina-140 looked tired, despite being a cyborg with incredible skills and physical talents. She brought the cart out and endured the stares since we left the transport. I didn’t know that she could blush, but she’d been blushing since we entered the main gate. “Do you think Lady Hariss would be cross if I tried it?”

Cina-140 said nothing.

She was completely aware that I was just leading the swarm along.

Tomorrow, my table will probably be covered in chocolates… and Lady Hariss had a sweet tooth, so she wasn’t going to tell me to stop.

Cina-140 went ahead and started scooping off the gifts into the refrigerated cart when the person who managed to win the influence game yesterday approached me.

I had to blink this time around, since I didn’t expect to be faced with one of the main power players in the student body.

Ryleigh of House Remington was at the very head of ReBuild conglomerate. Stern-faced and with a sharp jawline. She had straight blonde hair held by a band, blue eyes, and almost reasonable in terms of height. Just a little past six feet tall, instead of closing in one seven. If you told me she was sixteen, I could believe you, unlike the rest of the students in my school. Everyone looked closer to twenty-five than eighteen, because they’re all meant to be statuesque titans of aristocratic-industry.

The most interesting part, however, was that she was wearing a piloting suit rather than a uniform.

I let my polite smile go in favor of beaming at her wholesale.

“OS-549, I challenge you to a mechanized walker battle. With my victory, you will accept the assignments offer by my household through House Hariss. If it is your victory, House Hariss can negotiate on your behalf for a suitable prize.”

Finally, someone’s speaking my language.

…

Interlude: Cina-140: The Indebted Servant

…

A mechanized walker arena is a facility of extremely high cost and typically only found in military complexes specializing in fielding divisions of combat walkers. They are designed to create virtual environments around simulator mechs, which can have the designs and specifications of all parts and pieces downloaded into its central computational unit. That unit is a supercomputer that consumes one megawatt of energy per operating hour and requires lithium-based heatsinks to efficiently offload waste heat when in use. That lithium heatsink is required, even while kept in sub-zero temperatures inside a cooled pool of mineral oil.  

The cost of the computer and the simulation field it controls and maintains has been judged worthwhile, as specialized combat walkers would destroy one another in practice matches. Additionally, it has been judged as a worthwhile alternative to live practice against the various foes of humanity, which can lead to the death of a pilot and the complete destruction of their mech. Each mechanized walker arena is judged to save millions in credits in cost and is a strategic asset with access to highly-classified parts, and equipment that may be proprietary to certain Arcologies.

The fact that children can access an arena for training purposes at Lady Evangeline’s Institution for the Gifted is ridiculous. 99.99% of people alive across the planet will never enter such an arena.

Today, my charge has been challenged to a duel, he accepted, and now the massive facility with all its technology might and wonder has been activated for their duel.

My unit price will be expended in full by the warm-up sequence alone.

“Oh, neat, Gray’s already in here.” My charge comments from within the cockpit, as I have settled into the simulated communication pod to provide him with information and support. In the pod next to me, Lady Remington’s friend slots herself in. Her maids and servants eye me with suspicion and form a perimeter around their mistress. They expect too much of my model. “Briefing please, operator. Just read the match rules, please.”

“OS-549 has accepted a duel from Lady Remington in simulated combat. OS-549 is operating mech walker unit: Gray Corpse.”

“Woah, forgot I put that last name in. Need to change that.” I ignored his quip, and his swift start up sequence and activation of his mech. Lady Priscilla is guiding her friend through the same, and I detect an edge of panic in her voice. The average start sequence for a mechanized combat walker is two minutes. The information provided by my subsystems is followed by recordings of all of OS-549’s startup sequences. Never more than twenty seconds from ignition. “Hey, keep an eye on my opponent. I want to get a feel for Gray in here. It’s different.”

There should be no difference at all. I nearly say such things, until my subsystems inform me that ace pilots of elite cadre state that the simulator has certain inconsistencies and needs improvements. I am effectively silenced by my own sub-mind.

“Lady Remington is operating the mech walker unit: Azure Field.” It is a seventh-generation mechanized combat walker. It sports an antimatter-based engine of classified design. It’s various limbs float independently of the torso and is always in flight. Many of the weapon systems it has is blurred in my vision, my sensors and databases blocked from understanding them. However… however… I could not give OS-549 the warnings blared by my systems. I could not feel it. The possibility that this heiress in this amazing machine was not a threat to my pilot. “This is a training simulation, but I advise against overwhelming—”

“She’s out here on the field facing me. I won’t shame her.” The words are concise and simple, and I sighed and shook my head. He hears my sigh, which my internal systems are already reprimanding me for. I hear a smile in his next words. “Relax, Cina, everything’s going to be okay.”

I knew instantly that wasn’t the case.

The start of the battle resounded through the arena, a simple temperate forest was formed circling paths and a clearing at the center for combat.

The arena approximately five kilometers in circumference.  

Priscilla swears, and I know what has happened.

OS-549 has already reached Azure Field.

Through the sensors of his mech, I see dozens of warnings of overheating of the engine being overloaded and heat levels spiking to a dangerous degree. The simulation declared his machine was just a few degrees below shutting down for rapid cooling… but the battle was over.

OS-549 utilized Gray to its fullest extent at every deployment. He husbanded material and armor and energy carefully as he intended to sortie for three missions a day. Every time his machine entered, the fuel supplies were nearly empty, all the barrels needed replacing, all the ammunition reloaded, and every explosive plate replaced.

Against one opponent, with no chance of that opponent being reinforced, of course he would overload his machine to deliver a singular alpha-strike without a moment’s hesitation to win.

Azure Field does not have time to react, as all the explosive plates on the front of Gray explode, as all point defenses unload every bullet they have, and as micro-missiles stream out and push the machine back. Shields flare and break, armor is rent, and a supplemental arm shield is raised… and it is bashed into by a laser emitter glowing bright red as a makeshift bomb and both explode. Azure Field’s left arm is gone and Gray’s right arm takes hold of the opposing machine’s ‘neck’ while both barrels of its shoulder-mounted particle cannons fire straight at the sensor pod that was the machine’s head.

Leaving the pilot with a one-armed, blind machine covered in soot and being peppered by autocannon rounds… while OS-549 is overcharging the capacitors on his electromagnetic ram while the right arm steadfastly holds the remains of the torso upright and steady.

He fires the weapon right at the simulated cockpit and the battle ends.

His machine is barely functional and nearly completely expended in energy and ammunition.

Lady Remington’s Azure Field no longer exists.