Genevieve was gently pressing a palm on her chest. She had not yet recovered from her initial suprise. The bored look on her face had completely changed. Eyes widened and lips slightly parted, she watched the Straggler S1-2 on the projected screen as if it was an anomaly.
After all, she was one of the pilots who had steered the current gens into battle. Although they had shieldings, it was not as effective as the one she was watching. They were easily damaged, and occupied a lot of space. The Straggler S1-2's shield did not seem to falter even with the countless barrage of energy blasts it intercepted.
Mechs had relied on their heavy armour for protection - the 5th gens were not an exception. As such, she had judged the Straggler S1-2 wrongly. It did not need heavier alloys for protection if it had such an advance shielding module. Also, with its mobility, it did not exhibit any weakness. The Buster Twin Cannons were a nice arsenal. If only it had more firepower, it could become a terror on the battlefield as an artillery type mech. One that can bombard enemies in a demoralizing fashion.
Genevieve had many years of experience with mechs. Many things had not escaped her eyes, including the Targeting System, and the ECM of the Straggler S1-2 which was very advance for its tier. The way the mech also moved, almost that of a human, indicated its flexibility which many designers had tried before but failed to produce nearly as close as this foreign mech. It came to her that if the mech held a melee weapon, won't it be very dangerous in close combat?
In the end, she concluded that if the Straggler S1-2 had an advanced armour and better weaponry, it might surpass even the 5th gens, and perhaps.. Was this mech only a fragment of the next gens? A partial presentation?
'Is Niel behind this?' At the thought of this, she remembered the man. The mech specialist was a main contributor in the advancement of the 5th gens, and later, one of the few leading figures in developing the 6th gen. Was he doing some kind of experiment to see how it fared even with outdated armour and weaponry?
-----
Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, four aviators in Gregory's team split up from the main group. Although they outnumbered the enemy two to one, they were disheartened by the presence of a megamech in the enemy's rank. This humongous machine was slow and mean. If determined, it could direct all of its destructive arsenal onto them and there was no surviving the cascade of lasers and energy blasts.
"Let those heavy mechs duke it out. We.. the one with brains shall stay out of it." One of them said in the private channel.
"We have one more team mate just a few kilometers away. I'm surprised he survived this long. Let's go check him out." Another, the leader of the renegades, suggested.
With that, the four powered up their flight modules and whizzed through the air looking for something to point their eagerness to do battle.
Gregory had been running and laughing as the enemy aviators threw curses at him in order to provoke him into making a blunder. He, on the other hand, was already used to the aviators in this division.
As time progressed, one of the enemy aviators took the initiative and hovered above the lone mech, rapidly discharging waves of energy blasts before the slow cannons pointed toward its direction.
[Power: 54%]
'This f*ck!' Gregory gritted his teeth, seeing that the flying mech, started to fly away before the cannons could completely lock onto it.
Angered at this, he could not let the aviator get away as he leaped from the ground with surprising spring - the Straggler's hand extended with the intention to grab the flying mech.
'What the f*ck!' The other aviators witnessing this were surprised at the height the lone mech had jumped which was hundreds of meters into the air and grabbing their teammate by the leg.
"Hulk smash!" Gregory roared into the Comms as the Straggler landed on the ground, bringing along with it the flying mech. He proceeded to punish the lighter mech, slamming it in every direction before throwing it away as its teammates caught up.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaarggggh!" The aviator who had been hulk smashed was actually a girl. Feeling violated and humiliated, she screamed in the comms. After a brief check of the structural report, and seeing that no lasting damage had occured due to the soft sands cushioning her flying mech's fall damage, she rolled her mech a few times on the ground before she managed to get up - continuing the pursuit with a newfound hatred.
'It has boosters underneath its feet.' Although, the opposing younglings did not see it, Genevieve's eyes clearly saw her cousin activating this hidden thrusters at the start of his leap. 'As I thought, it's dangerous in short range.'
With the lone mech exhibiting unnatural strength, the aviators developed illogical fear toward it. Nonetheless, they did not allow it space to operate its cannons.
["The doves entered the vision of the falcons!"]
["Kaa-kaaaw!"]
["Eeeweeeek!"]
The enemy aviators tensed up - hearing the new voices, while Gregory smiled seeing the four silhouettes approaching in the distance. His sensors displayed their presence in the minimap a few minutes ago and he had been patiently waiting. These newcomers were itching for a fight and they found it.
"Briiiing it oooon!" One of the enemy aviators cried, thrilled at the anticipation of an aerial battle. He was fed up with this nonsense lone mech and wanted a proper combat.
The renegades who also had enough of the sight of heavy mechs, slammed into the enemy aviators' ranks in a blinding speed. They spiralled in the air as the fight regressed into a land battle when they crashed into the ground.
Disturbed sands whirled in the air as they rolled around. This was no ordinary bird fight brandishing their talons as a gladiatorial combat ensued. Fists, elbows and knees were used, even kicking the sands to obstruct the enemies' vision. It was only a matter of time before they unsheathed their knives and deal devastating blows - their armour lightweight.
Now these two groups of aviators had different builds. The ones from Gregory's group had the Falcon II Flight Modules, which favoured speed, sacrificing agility for a burst of forward thrusts. When they saw their counterparts with the Valkyrie Flight Module sporting a series of boosters for easy aerial maneuvers, they decided to attack head on as to not give them the time to weave in the air.
Gregory had already climbed his way on top of the cliff. He made no attempt at interrupting the flying mechs below and, instead, let his energy capacity recharge. It had always been a pleasure watching the aviators. By now, they would be trash talking each other without end.
These young men and women were without doubt in the military of the Union. The top gens were too tough for some kids to compete with in Steel Arena. Their golds would be depleted without the skills to contribute in mech battles.
With war looming over, and aviators being the mainstay of the Union, they would be unarguably sent to the frontline - spearheading every offensive operations. Many would not return - an awful thing.
The trash talking and aggressiveness. Even their weird speeches. All will be missed.
"Hahahaha!" Gregory laughed heartily when he spotted one of his teammates getting dragged in the air while clinging on the leg of an enemy flying mech. Both had already lost one of their limbs during the melee.
'Now.. let's find the sniper.' The Runerie swept his gaze across the multiple panels, searching for any mecha signature in the distance.
"There you are you sneaky bastard!" Seeing the lone object, he focused the Straggler S1-2's vision toward its direction. The medium mech had not moved from its spot, distracted with the aviators fighting. It seemed it was torn between firing at its own teammates or making a kill.
Just as a his cannons adjusted their aim, Gregory saw dozens of energy projectiles crashing into the medium mech's position, mostly hitting the crouched machine dead on. The sniper's reactor exploded, and only its lower limbs were left intact.
["Ooops! That was actually a teammate. Bwahaha!"] A new voice appeared in the open channel as everyone's attention turned to the megamech slowly making its way to their location. The heavy mech was the sole survivor of the battle on the other side of the map. It sustained a few hits on its multilayered armour plating and a couple of damaged turrets.
"Konig!" One of the enemy aviators shouted.
"You are a scum!"
"Trash - ptuf!"
With that, the flying aviators from the enemy's team, unanimously quitted. Not minding the penalty for abandoning a match.
"Pwahahaha! Fine, I'll do this on my own." The pilot of the megamech, seeing the badly damaged aviators, and none can be a serious threat to his heavy mech, confidently declared.
"Form up, team! Any available flyers, distract the enemy mech. We, the ones with damaged flight modules shall concentrate fire on a single area and hope its enough." The leader of the renegades, calmly commanded. Although he knew that the battle was already lost. His mech was already low on power after the dogged resistance by the enemy aviators.
"Step aside." Gregory spoke, even more confident than the pilot of the megamech, "I got this."
'I've been itching to try this.' A sinister grin appeared on the young man's face as he inputted several commands.
[Activating Rifle]
The Straggler S1-2 held the ugly rifle with both hands as energy conductors attached itself into the weapon.
Gregory braced his mech, lowering its posture after realizing that something big was coming. His screen had turned red, and only focused on one target: The megamech.
[Redirecting power to Hurricane Railgun]
'Holyshiiiit!' Gregory screamed in excitement as a massive vibration from the weapon affected him on the cockpit. The Straggler S1-2's torso began to glow in bright orange before a spiraling kinetic projectile took off from the rifle's barrel and violently surged forward, plowing everything in its path.
"Weeeeeeeeeerrrrrrgh!" The pilot of the megamech squealed after seeing the energy signature exceeding any energy based weapons that existed. He couldn't do anything as the kinetic projectile slammed into his mech, like it was nothing, and continued on without any evidence of stopping.
Only the bulky legs of the megamech were left, which would lifelessly collapse shortly after.
"What kind of weapon is that?" Genevieve stood up from her seat, unable to contain her surprise.
[Power: 10%].
-----
"What would I do with my life?" Sy sighed and rolled to his side. His eyes blinked once at the empty hallway of his workshop.