"All right, marines!" Sergeant Shang Shi barked. "Go slowly and smoothly. If any of you alert the target to our presence, I'll shoot you myself. That includes you, Mr. Scientist. So stay close, obey my orders and do not stray! Do not go too fast, and do not get impatient! Nice and slow, now, people! Is that understood?"
"Yes, SARGE!" Everyone bellowed over the coms. I raised an eyebrow at being singled out, but I didn't object. It was true that I was the odd one out and I hadn't really trained with the platoon. I spent most of the time doing maintenance. That was probably why they didn't have a good impression of me.
It wasn't for the lack of trying, though. I did offer to join the training, but they shut me down. Apparently they were worried they would have to lower the intensity of their training for my sake. And they viewed me as a non-soldier or non-combatant, so they didn't think I would be able to handle it. They didn't want me to suffer an injury before the mission even began.
As much as it felt like they were looking down on me, on another level, I did understand their concerns. I needed conditioning and to slowly acclimatize to the intensity that marines were used to. What, did you think I was some sort of unrealistic CEO who could somehow balance work life with gym training? I didn't know why so many female readers believed that CEOs all had hot bodies and abs and had the time to train and develop awesome physiques on top of attending daily meetings and running multibillionaire businesses. Perhaps a few could do that, but it was unrealistic to expect all of them to do it. From the number of CEO novels out there, you would think every CEO did it, but reality wasn't as ideally perfect.
Whatever the case, physical fitness was not exactly necessary to pilot a mech. I leaned in my seat, feeling comfortable at the helm. I gripped the gear sticks and ran my fingers across the buttons and touchscreen pads that controlled my Steel Shark. Practicing with the ease of a veteran pilot – by now I had plenty of experience in piloting war walkers – I gently glided my Steel Shark across the water. Following the sergeant's instructions to the letter, I stayed back and kept a distance, allowing the marines to plow forward.
I listened with morbid satisfaction when Shang Shi snapped and yelled at a few marines for going too far forward or too quickly. Unlike me, they didn't have as much time to get used to the controls of a war walker. I could tell that Shang Shi was eagerly looking for an excuse to call me out, but he grudgingly held back when he saw that I did nothing to warrant his displeasure.
Sorry, pal, but I had been developing and piloting war walkers for much longer than you had been a sergeant…well, not exactly. I was sure he had been a sergeant for much longer than I was working on war walkers, but I had more experience piloting them than anyone alive right now. Or so I hoped.
The mercenary's warship didn't react to our presence. It slowly drifted across the sea, partially powered down. I wasn't sure what they were waiting for or why they remained within our territorial waters, but they probably wanted to do something. Hopefully it wasn't to fire another cruise missile into one of our cities.
We had to stop them before that happened, though they had several weeks – over a month, in fact – to do that if they wanted to, but they didn't. I suspected they were sticking around for another reason, but I wasn't sure what.
That was the point of this mission. To arrest them and demand answers.
Damn, I shouldn't let my attention slip. I didn't want to give Shang Shi an excuse to yell at me. I tightened my grip on my controls and watched as the ship slid closer.
"Steady…steady!" Shang Shi shouted. Then when we were a few feet away from the hull of the ship, he gave the order. "Now!"
The Steel Sharks immediately surged forward and clamped onto the ship, their laser claws digging in. Shang Shi wasted no time assigning orders, transmitting holographic windows depicting which fire team should go where.
"Ying, Shi, your squads drill a hole to the deck, and get to the engine room. Disable the engines and stop it from sailing away at all costs. Chen, Wang, your squads go to the bridge. Capture whoever you can, kill if you have to – but don't be too trigger happy. We need at least a few of them alive! All weapons live. We don't know what sort of firepower they are packing, so take no chances. But remember! You're in a mech suit and they are not. Don't underestimate your strength. If they surrender, take them alive. I'll shoot whoever decides to go on a shooting spree and mow down potential prisoners because their trigger finger got too itchy. Is that understood?"
"Yes, SARGE!"
"Bing, your squad is with mine. We'll hop onto the deck and draw out the majority of their forces out. We'll soak up most of their firepower and hopefully allow the other squads to complete their objectives."
"Yes, sergeant!"
I listened patiently, noting that I wasn't assigned to any of the squads and had no role. Did they want me to stay in the water? That made no sense. I shook my head and decided to assume that I was following the sergeant's squad. Once everyone else rappelled onboard, I followed Shang Shi and his men onto the deck.
The Steel Sharks moved very nimbly, creating footholds and handholds easily by slicing into the metallic hull with laser-tipped claws. Using advanced hydraulics systems, the Steel Sharks traversed the vertical terrain with astonishing ease, their metallic limbs and hissing pistons propelling the armored body upward. I had incorporated antigravity technology to offset the weight of the fuselage, though in limited fashion. I still had yet to develop antigravity powerful enough for anything larger than a drone to hover in the air, but I found that it could improve the mobility of a lighter mech.
Of course, this antigravity technology wouldn't work on something as large and heavy as a Titan, but it worked with the Hunter. That was why my design of the Hunter was so fast, nimble and agile. A significant reason why it could traversed forest terrain so easily, allowing it to jump over trees or climb them was because of the similar antigravity technology I had installed into the frame to offset a good amount of the weight of the fuselage.
To a certain extent, it was also applicable to something as large as the Titan – normally, if you wanted to design a massive bipedal walker, the sheer weight of its frame would render it impractical to move normally. That was why most military vehicles still used treads or wheels as opposed to mechanical legs. Just imagine something the size of the God-machines of the Adeptus Titanicus in Warhammer 40,000 trying to move. Without antigravity technology of some limited fashion, it would collapse under its own weight.
Oh, never mind. I was straying too much. I shook my head and focused on the present. Despite my skills and experience in piloting war walkers, I took care not to get carried away. I stayed behind the marines, allowing them to go in first. Not because I was afraid or decided to make use of them as bullet sponges or meat shields, but because I knew Shang Shi would throw a fit and order me back. Not to mention, they were soldiers. I wasn't. I was still a civilian. It made sense that they knew how to conduct combat better than me.
Even though I had plenty of experience after the Province Y campaign, I wasn't familiar with how this particular platoon operated, how they covered each other or fought beside each other. I should leave the combat to the professionals and focus on collecting combat data.
Of course, I intended to provide fire support from the rear and keep an eye out on any unexpected developments. The foreign mercenaries were an unknown factor and I didn't know what sort of weapons or technology they might be able to bring to bear. They might even have access to the exosuits that were manufactured by companies such as the now defunct Han Industries.
The two squads reached the deck without any difficulty, clambering onto the vast, open space within minutes and spreading out. Lasers whined as they began chewing up the place and causing destruction.
As per Shang Shi's orders, we were to cause as much mayhem as possible so that the majority of the mercenaries would be drawn to the open. Rather than the enclosed, claustrophobic confines of the corridors within the warship, the huge, open space was more to our advantage. If we could draw the enemy up here, we would be able to cut them down as much as possible, or at least pin them down at the cover they were taking. Stray lasers brushed past dangerously close to the bridge, which was certain to cause more panic.
The mercenaries couldn't afford to lose their ship…otherwise they would be set adrift in enemy territory, completely to our mercy. Furthermore, the frigate that had dropped us off would be moving in anytime soon, especially after Ying and Shi's squads disabled the engines.
A missile streaked toward us, corkscrewing from its launcher, and detonating against the shimmering energy shield of the lead Steel Shark. Private Pang, who was piloting that, recoiled, his machine staggering, but otherwise he didn't take any damage. Immediately he let fly a bolt of laser that scorched through the deck and blew the cover into bits.
"Charge!"
What, no fix bayonets order? Then again, the Steel Sharks didn't have bayonets.
The mercenaries, to their credit, had begun to mount an effective response. I could see them taking cover behind bulkheads, kneeling and firing missiles and handheld lasers from behind reinforced doors. The beams and projectiles expended themselves harmlessly against the energy shields and we responded with a punishing volley of lasers that turned metal into molten sludge.
Several of the mercenaries screamed as they were bathed by molten steel, their skin scalded immediately. The rest retreated deeper into their corridors, firing ineffectually as they disappeared.
They weren't safe, no matter how deep they went.
At Shang Shi's orders, the first line of Steel Sharks slammed into the walls, their claws scything down and tearing the bulkhead apart. Laser sliced through reinforced steel as easily as a hot knife through butter, rending the plates apart and tossing half-melted pieces away to expose the cowering mercenaries inside.
Despite the fear they must be feeling when confronted with a monstrous golem of metal, armed with claws and blistering thermal rays, more than a few of the mercenaries held their ground and tried to fire back.
They were annihilated within seconds.
However, while I slowly approached from the back, I noticed new signatures coming to life aboard my sensors. I narrowed my eyes, studying them for a few seconds before I hailed Shang Shi.
"What is it?" The sergeant snapped gruffly. "I'm busy."
"Approaching exosuits," I warned him, undaunted by his tone. "At least thirty of them. They are coming from the launch decks."