Chapter Twenty-Nine: Carnage

Beneath an overcast sky a couple of miles south of the Red River Wall, a large makeshift fortification conspicuously sits smack dab in the middle of a heavily industrialized area of DFW. Within the borders of its makeshift walls, two large spotlights slowly pan across the sky, looking out for any assailants from above. Outside each of the four entrances stand a minimum of two medium armored Mecha at alert, gauss rifles at the ready, and that’s not even taking into account the hornets nest of mercenaries within that would likely respond in kind to any provocation.

Lycaon knows all this.

She also knows it’s not nearly enough to stop her.

Her arrival is seemingly heralded by thunder, its resounding boom harmonizing with the quaking steps of her Victorious MK III. The Mecha’s heavy armor plates rattle with each step she takes towards danger, their varied materials each making a slightly different sound whenever they bump into each other. Within the cockpit, Lycaon lets her mind slip into the white noise created by the computer, allowing her thoughts to be drowned out by its flow.

As she approaches the eastern entrance to the fort, the guards look up to see her approach, an unknown dark knight armed to the teeth and ready for anything. They look at each other for a nervous moment before one steps forward, broadcasting on a public channel:

{“Halt. This encampment is currently off limits to the public, as it is occupied by the Young 108. Identify yourself or be removed by force.”}

Ignoring him, with a glance Lyacon does one last check of the state of her weapons and finds each primed and ready for the chaos to come. With a flick of her left arm, her buckler extends into a full size tower shield humming with her DE spreading across its surface. Her right arm meanwhile lifts up the first of her weapons, an experimental piece lent to her specifically for this mission that had been charging off her DE recovery for at least the last hour.

The guards immediately jerk up their rifles and fire at her as an ominous orb of light begins to grow at the end of her weapon’s barrel. Despite the resounding sonic boom of the magnetic rounds though, they just bounce off her shield like they didn’t even hit. When they see the lack of damage, both freeze long enough neither of them has the mental wherewithal to get out of the way before Lycaon pulls the trigger.

While the blinding flash that follows is nearly instant, the particle cannon’s beam is potent enough to carve a fissure deep into the base, molten slag the only sign left there was anything there before.

Moments later, as claxons begin to blare, Lycaon removes the strap from over her shoulder to let the now red-hot cannon fall to the ground, freeing up her hand to wield her actual primary weapon. While the Hatchet Pulser was originally created as a tool for the entertainment side of Mecha combat, essentially being a heavy energy rifle with a chainsaw stapled on the bottom as a bayonet, it slowly began to leak out into the more practical world when people realized it was actually pretty effective at the things it needed to do. Lycaon first tried it on a mission due to a dare, and somehow it ended up in her main loadout afterwards.

Slightly retracting her shield into a more portable form, Lycaon proceeds forward, stepping above the remains of the gate as if it were never there. In the remaining sections of the base untouched by her heavy weapon, humans scurry like ants in a desperate attempt to prepare themselves for the coming onslaught.

Little do they know, it’s already there.

Marking certain pieces of critical infrastructure as she moves deeper into the base, Lycaon barely even notes as two light Mecha come running out from around a corner before she unleashes a pulse of concentrated DE into each of them. The machines crumple immediately, and the Victorious steps over them as if they were never there.

As she takes another step forward a large explosion nearly knocks the heavy Mecha off its feet, though it manages to catch itself. Lycaon glares over her shoulder and sees three mercenaries rushing to reload a missile emplacement that they must have dumbfired at her. Clicking her tongue, she sets a mark on them and then after a brief moment of consideration fires her third weapon a bit early: A shoulder mounted missile battery. Lycaon just snorts and moves on as she sees the mercenaries go pale and run for their lives upon seeing the explosives come their way.

Lycaon continues through the base, occasionally removing any sign of retaliation, until a furious voice comes over the comms.

{“Our base! Who the hell are you!?”}

Entering the now ruined fort from the north entrance, three medium armored Mecha better equipped than the rest Lycaon had seen approach, a huge piece of bone on a truck behind them. Each has at least a melee weapon alongside one or two ranged options, and Lycaon senses each is at least V4. The leader of the trio fearlessly walks towards her flanked by his mooks, his sabre and pistol drawn.

Lycaon doesn’t even bother responding to him though, raising her Hatchet and releasing a burst of bolts at the leader. To her surprise, the energy blasts seem to be dispersed by the man’s DE as he rushes towards her and for once she regrets not reading more of her briefing. Non-physical defensive powers are annoying, and she’d have probably gone about that differently if she had known.

She doesn’t panic though, and in the split second that it takes for him to reach her Lycaon decides on a counter plan. As he goes for a quick slash against her, she deflects it with her shield before firing more bolts at him, which don’t even seem to leave her gun at this range. Frowning at that, she activates the saw on her gun and swings it at him, but he sidesteps away from the attack and stabs at her leg, though it doesn’t get through her armor.

As their leader jumps out of the way to her side, the two grunts unleash a set of attacks, one using a gauss rifle and the other some sort of plasma cannon. Lycaon doesn’t even try to care about them though, keeping her focus on the leader all while their ranged attacks graze off her armor. She fires a salvo of missiles at him, but they simply turn off and fall to the ground halfway to him.

Figuring that ranged attacks are simply not possible at this point, Lycaon decides to just take the simple way out of this. With a flick of a switch her shield extends back to full size and changes to a horizontal orientation, after which she flares her DE and uses all her strength to push herself at the man. The ground nearly gives out underneath her from the sheer weight and force of the Mecha, and the man is unable to react in time as she abruptly appears right on top of him.

As her shield slams into him he goes flying, his Mecha tumbling through the fort until it is stopped by a ruined building. With that problem momentarily taken care of, Lycaon turns her attention to the other two Mecha, who to her amusement are now running away. Unfurling her fourth weapon from her other shoulder, she braces her rail gun as she takes a moment to aim and then fires it twice.

They crumple unceremoniously.

Lycaon lets out a breath, then walks over to the ruined building where she put the leader. Pulling a heavy chunk of concrete away, she raises an eyebrow when she looks down at the now crumpled form of the Mecha and finds her sensors saying the cockpit is empty.

Not particularly wanting to take a chance of her prey getting away, Lycaon activates one of her powers.

Immediately, the world in a ten meter radius becomes known to her, and she lets out a single stilted laugh as she realizes where the leader went, or well, where he didn’t. She figures his defensive power must also work to obscure what is inside of its radius. Stepping over, she presses her foot down onto the cockpit and puts all the pressure she possibly can onto it. His power shatters like that, and his lifesigns disappear from the world.

Her mission complete, Lycaon moves into an open area of the fort and just takes a moment for herself. She lets some DE enter her ears as she listens for any movement, any sign of remaining hostiles, but there’s nothing but a slowly growing pitter patter as it begins to rain. Closing her eyes, Lycaon puts a hand on her heart and lets herself feel its comforting beat.

It’s at times like this that she finds herself questioning her orders. Sometimes, she sees the necessity in things like this, but she didn’t even get a reason for the coalition sending her here. She wonders, did these people deserve this? Should she have questioned her orders despite her training?

A pang of fear rises at that thought, memories of previous rebellions rising, and she shakes her head before opening her eyes and forcing herself to take in the carnage. She did this, and it’s her fault that it ended like this. She’s powerful enough, she could escape their clutches if she tried even with the danger it would involve.

She’s just too much of a coward to do so.

Figuring it’s safe, Lycaon retracts her shield and lets her hatchet hang from its strap as she brings a hand down to the cockpit. With a hiss, the hatch opens, and Lycaon steps outside and is immediately hit with a distinct mix of scents, rain and blood and destruction all mixing together into a cocktail of rancidness. She frowns as she looks up at the sky, but finds to her surprise that the clouds are only partially covering the sun, letting its faint outline remain in what is now their domain.

A memory, one of someone she tries her best to forget, rises up in her head. One where that girl said something inane at a completely inappropriate time. She responded to it with a suitably ridiculous statement at the time, but in this moment, she finds something completely different enter her head.

‘I’d personally rather it be there, because at this moment I can’t help but yearn for its warmth.’

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