Weaving through the storm of projectiles was an Atmos-9 mech. Despite the large void of space, the pilot, Lariat, was confined by the sheer amount of shots fired on both sides of the battlefield. Still He blazed forward, sometimes dodging shots by the thinnest of margins.
His display showed him the multitude of real time predictions the mechs systems made, calculating velocity, time, distance. Only a highly skilled pilot such as Lariat could do anything with the sheer amount of projections.
In a flash he reached the enemy line, pouncing on the first ship within range.
"-RaTTattlle-"
Lariat could feel the chassis shake as he slammed onto the hull of the enemy ship. Without hesitation he pulled out a large phaseblade attached to his mech and drove it into the ship's exterior. The weak plating gave away like butter to the blade. He felt as his blade demolished the ship's power source. As he pulled his sword out a large warning sign flashed on his display.
"-INCOMING-196,48 "
Lariat spun around, deploying a small arm shield. In that small time frame the superheated projectile slammed against his shield. Having deflected the shot, Lariat looked up to see the one who fired it. The enemy mech hovered high above as it prepared its next shot.
Without delay Lariat kicked off the enemy craft and activated his thrusters. He charged the enemy mech at superspeed, going in with his blade. Seeing this the enemy immediately activated their thrusters and strafed out of reach.
Lariat put away his sword. He'd never be able to get within range anyway. From the back he pulled out a large rifle, already loaded with the first round.
The two mechs darted through the battlefield, each taking aim at one another. As Lariat pursued the enemy mech, he lined up his shot mid-flight.
He paused
"-BOOM!-"
With pin-point accuracy his shot blasted into the enemy's shoulder. Just as he predicted, the enemy mech was knocked off course and crashed straight through one of their own ships.
"204." He muttered under his breath.
Still on the move, Lariat loaded another shot into his rifle. It was then that he heard a voice over his coms.
"Good one Lare!" It was the voice of the commander.
"Tch, of course it was." Lariat replied pridefully. He was the best at what he did. Practically built to fight.
He spotted his next target, the enemy's flagship. He made a beeline for the large cruiser. In response the ships turrets went on the defensive.
All at once a barrage of projectiles were shot toward Lariat. He weaved through the bullets like a fish through water. As he moved his eyes scanned the enemy ship.
'There it is'
The blind spot. If he could remove just a single turret the rest would be unable to fire on him.
In one swift motion, Lariat swooped downward and pulled out his phaseblade. He came down on the turret like a waterfall, his blade cutting it clean in half. The rest of the turrets had stopped.
"HA!" Lariat laughed. They couldn't hit him. Cleanly and calmly, Lariat sliced through the large ship's metal plating. Unlike the last ship, this one wouldn't go down so easy. He opened up a hole near the power source but he couldn't reach it inside the Atmos. He'd have to go in himself and disrupt the ship's warp drive.
Without hesitation, He disembarked his mech and crawled into the ship's interior. He then heard the commander over his comms again.
"You disembarked!? What the hell are you doing!? Take out the fighters!" Lariat merely shrugged him off.
"I didn't come here to hunt small game." Lariat said indignantly.
"GAME!?" The commander shouted over the comm device. "DO YOU THINK TH—!" With a click Larat shut his comm device off. That was enough of that. He had work to do.
Using his suit's built in thrusters, Lariat maneuvered his way over to the door. Just behind this door would be the ship's warp drive. Any damage to such a precise mechanism would be catastrophic for the ship. In some cases the ship could just blink out existence.
Lariat popped open the panel on the side of the door. Honestly the security was a joke. With just a few clicks the door was open.
Lariat made his way in and saw the warp drive. A massive system encased in a protective shell. It was currently dormant making it hard to mess with. Luckily the room had a manual control board.
Lariat turned the mechanism on and watched as it roared to life. He could feel a strange pulsing energy radiating off drive. He planted a charge on the shell and set the time to 1 minute. Plenty of time to get out of the warp area.
Without delay Lariat rushed back to the Atmos. He still had about 30 seconds to high tail it out of there As he climbed back inside the mech he had a bad feeling.
As the hatch closed shut and the vision system booted up, Lariat felt the whole cockpit swing forward.
"-Warning-" The mech's alarm rang.
"No sh*t!" Lariat blurted out. An enemy mech had pinned him to the side of the ship. The enemy brandished a knife similar to Lariats phaseblade. Using their free hand the foe brought the knife down toward Lariats head.
Lariat violently twisted to the left, causing the knife to narrowly miss its target. The enemy brought back their knife for another stab but this time Lariat kicked them away.
The enemy fell backward, dropping their knife. Lariat snatched it out of the air and in a flash, seized the enemy's neck with his free hand. He spun, forcibly slamming the enemy mech into the enemy ship.
"You f***er" Lariat was furious. He'd been brought within inches of death all because of this piece of sh*t.
Without hesitation Lariat brought the knife down on the enemy's head. But just as it was about to land, Lariat froze.
In that split second the whole of everything seemed to freeze. That was when Lariat remembered.
'The timer!'
Lariat's vision blurred and the space around him seemed to wobble.
"Oh hell!"
******
The stars shone brilliantly in the night sky. Yota took in a breath of the cool night air. After a long day spent underground, just being outside like this was extremely refreshing. He gazed over the edge of the cliff. He certainly had to admit, these mountains sure were beautiful when he wasn't destroying them.
The top of his HEM-4 mining mech was the perfect spot to lay down. He almost felt like just falling asleep right here. It would be perfect. Aside from him probably freezing to death.
He let out a long yawn.
"Well it's probably time to head back." He concluded, rubbing his eyes. But just as he was about to leave, something caught his attention.
"What the…!"
Streaking through the sky was something big and fiery. And worst of all it seemed to be coming straight for him.
"Oh no no no." Full on panicking, Yota struggled to open the hatch on his mech. When he finally did he hopped in without a second to lose.
"HEM, activate bunker mode." Obeying the voice command, the mech seemed to get on its hands and knees while a shell unfolded around its back.
Bunker mode is supposed to be used in case of a cave collapsing but Yota hoped it would work to protect him from whatever was coming his way.
Yota waited in silence for a couple seconds. The external cameras were all shelled off so Yota was blind. He braced, but nothing came.
"Did it—?"
"-BOOOMMM!!!-"
The impact was sudden. The ground shook as a Yota braced against his controls. Then, just as fast as it happened, it stopped.
Cautiously, Yota popped his head out of the mech, he couldn't see where the thing had crashed.
Confused he exited the mech completely and peered over the edge of the cliff
"Oh"
There he saw a crater at the base of the cliff. Lying in the crater was a larger mech. It was a lot less bulky than Yota's mining mech.
Curious, Yota jumped and slid down the cliff. He landed at the base, right next to the crater. He hopped down into the crater and approached the crashed mech. Just as he was about to touch it, he heard a loud hiss and jumped back.
A hatch on the back of the mech opened up and the one of the most average men Yota had ever seen popped out. With brown hair, brown eyes, and a figure that wasn't winning any competitions, he wouldn't stand out in a crowd of a dozen people. What did stand out was his clothes. Unlike Yota with his dirty workers uniform, the man's attire was clean and sleek. Hanging just below his chin was a breathing apparatus of some kind. The man rubbed his head and took a look around.
It was then that he noticed Yota and their eyes met.
****
Lariat had admit, this was one of the poorer situations he'd ever been in. After being warped to god knows where, Lariat was immediately made aware of the planet's gravity. Thankfully he managed to slow down enough to prevent serious injury after crashing.
Still the impact hurt, and worse, after overcoming the shock, Lariat was overcome by nausea and ended up throwing up.
"Great!" He hissed. Wanting to get out of there he popped open the hatch. As he crawled out of the mech, he was greeted with a picturesque night sky.
It was then that Lariat saw that person. He was strange looking. His clothes were covered in dust and so was his face. He was about the same age as Lariat.
"Who are you?" Lariat asked bluntly. He was in a strange land, with strange people. He quickly decided that he could not afford to be passive.
"I-I'm Yota" The young man stumbled with his words before answering.
Lariat looked down on him from atop his mech. He looked human enough, but one never really knew with all the different species around, humanoid and otherwise.
"Well Yota, you mind telling me where I am." Knowing where he was a priority. If he was on an Federation allied planet he could just get help at the nearest government facility. If he was on a neutral planet it'd be a little harder but he'd manage.
"Um, this is Tachio mine, in north Fenstern."
Well that was of no help. Lariat pinched his brow in frustration realizing that Yota didn't understand.
"What PLANET am I on?" Lariat clarified.
"Planet?" Yota questioned, "Well, um….Traxa. Are you ok?"
Lariat's expression stiffened. Traxa!? That was the worst case scenario. Actually it was worse than that. It was a near impossibility which spelled certain death, or imprisonment, or torture, or all 3.
Billions of planets in the galaxy and he just happened to get warped to the one which was the ENEMY'S HOME BASE!
"I'm fine." He reassured Yota, although he was clearly not fine.
Meanwhile Yota tried to piece together Lariat's identity. He had lived in Tachio all his life so there was a lot he didn't know. Regardless he didn't hesitate to take a guess.
"Are you the Sentinel that was supposed to come two months ago?" Toya asked
A while back the folks in Tachio had requested for a Sentinel to be sent down. With how frequent the raiders attacks were coming it would help a lot. Unfortunately they had gotten zero replies to their request. They ended up thinking they had just been ignored. But if this man was the one sent in response it would start to make sense for Toya.
Unlike Toya who was just trying to make sense of things, Lariat immediately recognized the opportunity for what it was.
"Yeah I'm the one." He lied straight through his teeth. Whether Yota believed him or not would decide his fate. He felt tense. Would he be seen through? If he was caught could he escape the planets? There was so much he didn't know. For now he'd just have to play the game and hope he wasn't caught.
He looked Yota straight in the eye, awaiting a response.
"..."
"That's great!" Yota gave Lariat a toothy smile.