Mikan looked up at the mech she would be piloting. It was a baseline carcha mech, which was good since that was the only kind of mech she'd piloted in combat before. The mech was painted an icy blue, though, instead of grey, and had a few other modifications, which the mech's normal pilot was currently elaborating on. "I removed the missiles and launcher mechanisms from Chichi. I hate missiles." 'What a strange name for a mech.' "But that makes her lighter and faster. The chain-glaive will give you reach on most enemies and don't forget the butt can be used as a weapon too!" The woman talking was Joan and the reason Mikan was borrowing her mech was evident in the fact that she was sitting on a hover chair, her right leg up in front of her with a bandage and cast around the ankle. Apparently a Rukh had bitten her.
"You usually don't have a co-pilot, right?"
"Nah," Joan said, waving a hand dismissively. "I don't like having anyone but me up here." She tapped the side of her head and barked a laugh. "Nobody really likes getting all up in there either. That's another reason I removed the missiles. Too much trouble to launch them when I'm by myself."
"What about an ether cannon?"
"Under the left wrist, same as the factory model. I don't use it too much, either. The glaive takes two hands to wield and I'm a close-quarters kind of gal, anyway." Mikan nodded. She didn't care overmuch about the missiles but not having an ether beam would have been troublesome.
She noticed Joan cast an anxious glance at Chichi and said, "Don't worry, I'll bring her back in one piece."
"I know you will, honey. Just, don't take any risks, okay? I know you're probably feeling invincible right now but be careful."
Mikan nodded. She didn't feel invincible, exactly, but she did feel good. Fantastic, in fact. She'd had time to take a quick shower and change out of her sweat and blood soaked clothes and into her red jumpsuit. She'd also been given what Wu called a "power-up bar" and "power-up punch." They had washed away her fatigue and left her buzzing with energy. A doctor had treated and anesthetized her wounds. Mikan was feeling like she could take on the whole carcha empire.
"Alright!" Wu thundered. "Let's mount up!" Mikan cast a quick glance his way, and then down at Joan, who smiled reassuringly at her.
"Kill them all," the woman said, as sweet as you please.
Mikan grinned and raced up the rope ladder. She reached out and activated Chichi as she did. It felt as easy and natural as breathing. The cockpit opened up and Mikan slid inside. She breathed in the PFC liquid and then gasped her control rods. Her consciousness shifted and she was the mech.
Mikan walked Chichi over to join the others at the front of the hangar. There was Wu, in his black Crusher, along with Li Mei and Carmen, another woman named Aria who was presumably another lover or maybe daughter, and a strange man who went by the name Timbop. Apparently they were all the mech forces Tianlong had to offer. The other mechs in the hangar were too broken down to fight. Mikan was a little surprised it was only going to be the six of them but she supposed Wu wasn't some kind of war-leader like Tsyirinsaku was. Wu had also assured her that all of them were more powerful than the average pilot. The three women all had co-pilots while the two men did not.
"Okay," Wu said, once they had all gathered, "here's the sit-rep as far as we've been able to figure it. The fie have fought off the initial invasion of their ship and are fighting the Rukh outside now but they don't seem to be making a lot of headway. That giant-ass ship of the fie outmasses and outguns the Rukh cruiser by a lot but the cruiser is keeping the mech battle between itself and the fie ship because it knows the fie won't fire on its own pilots. The splintery-ass thing is so thin that it can easily keep the angle."
"Damn cowards!" Timbop said. His voice had a peculiar drawl to it.
"Damn right," Wu agreed. "So here's the plan. We're gonna do an old-style cavalry charge. The fie are fighting in formation and the Rukh haven't broken it yet so the battle lines are pretty clear. So we're going to smash them in the flank." Crusher pounded its fist into its hand to emphasize the point. "Hit 'em hard and keep moving. So far the Rukh cruiser hasn't fired into the mech melee either but I wouldn't count on them having the same qualms as the fie if things start going south for them so keep a sharp eye out. Everybody good?"
"G-got it!" Mikan said, joining the chorus of affirmatives.
"Then let's go." Wu launched Crusher out of the hangar and Mikan hurried to follow. It felt good to fly. Though it was probably her imagination, Mikan thought she could feel the weight difference in Chichi. The mech felt fast and agile. Mikan added more ether to the thrusters and sped ahead of the pack. "Hang on, girl," Wu said, "don't get too far away from us."
Mikan was feeling giddy. "Can't keep up, old man?"
Wu laughed. "This old man has some fire left in him. Don't you worry about that." Crusher suddenly blasted forward, catching her easily. Mikan giggled and increased her speed more and more. Wu kept pace with her and soon they were both far ahead of the other mechs. Mikan spotted the flashing beams and explosions that told of a mech fight. Instead of slowing up to wait for the others, she increased her speed even further. Wu stayed with her.
They crashed into the Rukh mechs at full speed. Mikan imagined a layer of ether over her mech and was shocked at how easily it sprang to life. She spun off the first mech, clipped a second and smashed straight into a third. It took Mikan a moment to orient herself and then she cautiously jetted away from the Rukh she'd smashed into. She glanced at the readout that sat at the top left of her vision, blurry unless she concentrated. It told her she hadn't suffered any damage. Was that possible? Mikan moved the arms and legs of her mech as if she were a human checking for damage. Everything seemed fine.
That was not the case for the three mechs she'd hit. The first one was spinning away to who knew where, the second's arm had been ripped half out of its socket and the third had its entire chest caved in. Its cockpit had to have been smashed. Mikan noticed another mech that had been nearly obliterated and watched Wu casually bash in the cockpit of a second. Four mechs down in a few seconds with another damaged. That seemed pretty good. Mikan felt ether surging in her, mixing with her adrenaline. The cocktail was amazing and intense. She turned and lifted her left hand. The beam that sprang out was almost blinding and easily pierced the cockpit of the Rukh that had been drifting toward her from behind.
Mikan brought down her chain-glaive so she was holding it in both hands and fed ether into it. The chain came to life and Mikan fancied she could hear it roaring. 'Oh, I like this a lot.' She attacked. The Rukh mech pilots weren't bad. Mikan could tell that they were better than the carcha pilots-in-training they'd faced over Ragrun. But it didn't matter. Mikan was faster and stronger and she was able to keep up her ether shell even while fighting so any attack that managed to sneak through did little to no damage to Chichi. Wu kept up with her easily, destroying mechs to her right. The other four caught up and whenever Mikan had a moment to check on any of them, they seemed to be handling themselves just fine.
Mikan was just starting to wonder if the six of them were going to destroy the entire Rukh line by themselves when Wu said, "Heads up. They're sending out reinforcements." Mikan whipped the butt of her glaive into the head of a Rukh mech, smashing it and sending it spinning away, then she glanced at the Rukh ship. About fifteen mechs were coming at them. "Be careful," Wu said. "I've heard the best Rukh pilots usually sit around until the end and then swoop in when the enemy is weakened."
"What?" Aria grunted. "That doesn't make any sense."
"The Rukh don't operate on sense," Carmen muttered.
Mikan turned and readied her glaive. 'Maybe these will actually be a challenge,' she thought with a soft giggle. Two of them broke her way and accelerated. Mikan could see that their mechs were in much better condition than the ones she'd been fighting. One was armed with two curved swords and the other seemed like it had spikes for fingers. As it got closer, Mikan saw they were actually drills. 'Damn, that's pretty cool.'
The mech with the swords went high and chopped down. Mikan got the haft of her glaive in the way to block, though it was close. The mech had moved faster than she anticipated. The other one ducked in and kicked her in the chest, just below where her cockpit was situated. Mikan expected her ether shell to absorb the blow but it didn't absorb enough to stop the kick from sending her flying backward. She quickly used her thrusters to stop her backward momentum and a quick look at her readout told her nothing was seriously damaged. The swords-mech had come with her and tried a double chop at her side but Mikan caught it with her glaive. She let go of the haft with her left hand and pointed it at the mech, her beam firing the moment she lined up the shot. It wasn't fast enough, though, and the swords-mech twisted out of the way.
Mikan jetted back a bit and lifted her glaive back into guard position. The two enemy mechs maneuvered until they were side by side again. 'Both these pilots are way better than the Rukh I was facing earlier and they clearly know how to fight together.' Mikan had wanted a challenge and now she had one. 'I can't let them have the initiative again. They are too good when they can coordinate their attacks.' That left only one choice for Mikan. Attack.
Mikan rushed forward, her glaive held high. She had no plan and very little technique but she did have enough ether pouring into her body that she thought she was going to explode. Either physically or with the most mind-shattering orgasm of her life. Mikan kept the two Rukh on the defensive with sheer, relentless speed. She whipped her glaive at them again and again, hoping to get lucky or spot an advantage. She did the latter. The drill-hand mech was dodging her attacks rather than blocking and on the occasions it couldn't dodge, the swords-mech would block her attack. 'So if I can get this sword-bitch out of the way for a second…'
She had a plan. Mikan went low at the sword-mech and it blocked her with both swords. Mikan kept pushing forward and, with a roar, flung the swords-mech away. The drill mech took its chance to stab at her chest but Mikan concentrated everything on the armor at that point and stopped it. Then she whipped her glaive back, knocking it to the side. The drill mech fell back enough for her to let go of her glaive with one hand and then fire a beam that slashed open a gash in its chest. The drill mech stopped moving.
Mikan's flash of triumph was extinguished when the swords-mech came streaking back at her. She was dealt a taste of her own medicine as the mech attacked her with relentless ferocity. She defended the best she could but without any experience with the glaive she was using, the mech got past her guard as often as she blocked him. The only thing that saved her was the constant ether shell she kept around herself. She knew that even with her newfound power, she couldn't keep up such an absolute defense forever, though. A crazy plan occurred to her.
'Don't be scared. Don't be scared.' Mikan lifted her glaive straight up over her head. The swords-mech instantly tried to shove both its swords into her chest. She concentrated and stopped both of them with the points stabbing into her armor but before they hit anything vital. Then she slammed her glaive down. The swords-mech was too close for her to hit with the blade but the haft crushed the head of the mech. As she expected, the Rukh was pouring all of its ether into the two swords. The lights on the mech flickered and it let go of both swords, drifting backward. Mikan smashed her glaive through the side of the mech, killing the Rukh inside.
She didn't have a moment to savor this victory either. Aria screamed and Mikan twisted her mech around, looking for what happened. Then she saw it. The young woman's mech was spinning away at a rapid pace. "No!" Carmen gasped. "Her mech is offline!" A cold hand gripped Mikan's heart.
"I'll get her!" Wu said. Mikan saw Crusher throw off the mech it was tangling with and blast toward the rapidly disappearing Aria. A Rukh mech, a gigantic, poison yellow machine that was even chunkier than Angra Mainyu, got in his way. Wu lashed out with his great sword and Mikan expected Crusher to smash the mech out of the way but the Rukh caught his blow with the massive axe it wielded. "Shit!"
MIkan blasted forward, pouring ether into her thrusters. Wu dodged a chop from the axe and slashed at the Rukh mech's side. It blocked him with the butt of its axe. 'Damn, this guy is legit.' Mikan didn't hesitate. She reached the fight and whipped her glaive down at the Rukh's head. He blocked her with his axe but Mikan kept pushing, making the chain on her glaive spin so fast it felt like it should have been tearing through the fabric of space-time. "Go!" she shouted.
"Hold on!" Wu shouted. "Once I stop her, I'll be back!" He dodged around the big Rukh and blasted toward Aria, who was little more than a speck at this point.
'No need. I'm going to destroy this bastard right now!' Mikan thought savagely. She let the Rukh push her away and then came in on the attack again. She jabbed and swung with every iota of speed she could summon but couldn't get past its guard. Part of the problem was the axe blade was just so damn big that he only had to move it fractionally to keep her glaive away from him. But that also meant he couldn't attack her. 'Unless he…' Just as she had the thought, he moved his axe just slightly to the side and revealed his off-hand pointing at her palm up. An ether beam burst out of it.
Mikan just barely managed to twist out of the way but it left her in a vulnerable position, with her back halfway turned on the Rukh. It didn't waste the advantage, slashing at her with its gigantic axe. Mikan desperately flew up but didn't manage to get all the way out of the way in time. The axe blade smashed into Chichi's knee and, though Mikan tried to reinforce it with ether, it sliced through one knee and then the next.
Alarms screamed in the mech as her legs spun away from her. Instead of panic or shock, though, what Mikan felt was rage. Overpowering, blood-boiling, bone-melting rage at the Rukh who had done this to the mech she'd promised to bring back in one piece. She didn't even think of running. The mech was finally defenseless, with its axe out wide in the follow-through of its attack. Mikan jammed her glaive backwards, right into the upper-chest of the mech where the cockpit was. It stopped her by reinforcing her armor but Mikan kept pressing. She twisted around so that she could put her full weight into it.
She pressed and the Rukh resisted. Its axe was forgotten in its hand as it used all of its ether to try to keep her blade from piercing its cockpit. Mikan's entire world focused down to pressing the glaive forward. For the first time since she'd had sex with Callum, she could feel the fiery tendrils of ether snaking through her body. The pain was excruciating yet at the same time she felt better than she ever had in her entire life. The power felt like something alive inside her. She pressed, the chain-glaive screamed and the Rukh broke.
Her blade stabbed deep inside, killing the Rukh instantly. Mikan lifted up her glaive and flung the mech away from her. It soared over the battle-line. Mikan threw back her head and screamed. It was a roar of triumph and defiance and challenge. It carried across the battlespace, heard by every single ether-wielding creature and stopping the desperate struggles. The Rukh turned and saw the dead mech of their champion spinning over them. They heard the cry of the one who had defeated them and felt terror in their very souls. First one, then another and then a flood of Rukh ran. Without order or pride, they fled back to their ship.
Crouched protectively over Valencia, in a transport headed for a hospital, Callum heard it, too. And a shiver ran down his spine.
End of Part 2