Chapter 24

“Good luck. My Black Harpy will be hard to hit.”

Sam barely even noticed that message when it arrived as she was still in shock over the schematics she was reading. When she saw Jeff submitted a document 12 hours early, one that was neatly written and concise, she barely even looked at it. With the documents she had seen Jeff use in the past, something like that could only be considered a ruse.

As the ten minute deadline passed and it dawned on her that it was actually the design being use, she kicked herself over it. To make it somehow worse, the tone of the message made her realise that Jeff hadn't intended to trick her, and wanted her to have time to plan. With no time to make changes or correct their plans, Sam could only trust Sachiko's instincts.

Since they didn't believe the designs, and Sam didn't have a clue about the 'real' one, they had prepared their usual model with a variety of missiles. Sam had prepared one extra surprise though; a durable back unit filled with extra missiles.

The idea was a variation on the classic extra ammo drop plan. The unit was something Sam found while looking through the parts available at a used parts dealer. During the first time when attack type units were the meta, missiles were just as popular as high powered energy weapons, or so she read, and it seemed that some pilots felt that the more shots you had the better the odds of winning were. That was why they would forgo wings and instead bring back units that could reload a launcher as it fired. While they were unpopular for many reasons, including the way that shooting that rapidly damaged the launcher, they were designed to be able to take some damage during that overt era.

With a few adjustments, Sam got the back unit to function with a battery. That was her plan, the unit would be carried into the fight and dropped, giving them extra options in other rounds and allowing Sachiko to reload during the fight. Since that Black Harpy didn't seem to have anything that could break the unit's armour, Sam was confident that the extra missiles wouldn't be wasted. It seemed unlikely that either Jeff or Savannah would recognise that discontinued part, so she hoped that they would just think she was being money conscious, rather than realising her plan.

The nine shot missile launcher that was strapped to that thinly armoured orange rig was what Sam considered their best chance of winning. That wasn't to say she expected any of the missiles to make contact with such a fast moving opponent, but they would definitely be the best tool for directing their opponent's movements towards the heavy Gatling’s bullets. While the Black Harpy had much better armour when compared to the Golden Harpy, it was impossible that it could withstand a barrage from such a high powered weapon. Thankfully, the earnings in the junior league were far better than those in the school league, so they could use more expendable items while still making a profit.

When Sachiko flew out to the arena, Sam realised that there was something wrong. Just looking at their opponent caused a headache to start. Not in a metaphoric sense but a literal pain in her head. Looking around, it seemed that the crowd wasn't feeling it, though they might not have noticed through their own excited roars. Jeff's design seemed to have worked them up. The overwhelming support for her opponent seemed to be affecting Sachiko; Sam could see it on her face.

Trying to retake momentum, Sachiko started the match from the very first moment with a barrage of tracking missiles. While they wouldn't be able to keep up with the speed of a rig, they would continue to trail after their target. They were really more of a distraction than a real threat, but they worked really well when the opponent is taken by surprise.

And she really was surprised; Sachiko that is. The missiles flew straight past Savannah’s rig, making no motions or corrections, as if they didn't see the rig there at all. Sam rushed to run a diagnostic program, but the results showed no problems with the missiles or the launcher. As that program ran, the harpy had time to escape and reach its full speed while staying at least half an arena away. Bursts of Gatling fire tracked after it, but the harpy was faster than Sachiko's arms and flexible enough to avoid any rounds that got anywhere near close to hitting.

While keeping distance, Savannah would fire off the occasional pistol shot, hitting Sachiko centre of mass. To have any kind of accuracy while moving at that kind of speed showed just how different the skill levels of the pilots were. Luckily, the pistol bullets have very little mass and only barely made it through the thin armour of the orange rig, once slowed by the defensive energy field. Since the armour was thickest around the chest, those shots would have been dangerous if they hit the less protected arms or legs though.

Seeing that the movements were too fast for her to track, Sam tried to track the black rig using the stadium's sensors. That was when she realised that the malfunction was due to some blocking or dampening. If Sam wasn't still shaken up by her earlier mistake, that would have been obvious. Thankfully Sachiko seemed to have noticed it also and was manually aiming. Since the analytical program hadn't found any active jammers in Jeff's designs, Sam only installed a default set of sensors in her rig, not wanting to limit Sachiko's vision with a cluttered HUD or slow down her thoughts with too much sensory data.

Standard sensors included heat, radar, magnetic and enhanced dynamics. Since heat and radar didn't seem to be working, that just left the last two if a reliable lock-on was needed. That was problematic since magnetic was only useful at close range, something that the black harpy showed no interest in, and enhanced dynamics was essentially a kind of normal sight but faster and more detailed since the rig handled some of the data before transferring it to the pilots mind. While that was definitely the kind of thing they needed, just looking at the blackness hurt with normal eyes; Sam couldn't imagine how painful it would get to look through those sensors.

While Sachiko could be stuffed full of painkillers during the break between rounds, Sam could only prey that the damage from the first round wouldn't be bad enough to lock them out.

Sachiko however wasn't willing to rule out a first round victory. Her opponent's advantages were speed and manoeuvring, both of which required distance. In that large arena with three dimensional movements, something like that wasn't a problem. While the trick Sam had planned to counter that advantage was supposed to be saved, Sachiko impatiently used it to rush for a quick victory.

Two pairs of missiles left the launcher. Two collided with the outer force fields and quickly filled that space with a vaporous gas, the other two froze it. The crystal like ice structures formed two canyon walls, funnels that would drive that harpy towards Sachiko. The ice wasn't durable in the slightest, any kind of energy weapon would collapse them in moments, but they handled ballistic forces very well because of their fragility. Any solid impacts would cause a dramatic explosion of icy dust as the exposed layers broke down into a gas that pushed projectiles away. Heat or slow objects could beat it easily but guns would do nothing.

Since Savannah was trapped in a space that was less than one third of the arena’s size, she would naturally need to move into the remaining two third sized space to regain her advantage. To do that meant going through the passage between the ice walls; where Sachiko lay in wait. If she made it through, Savannah could continue to win just by taking shots on the run, but the vertical gap was the ideal environment for attack type rigs, it would be almost impossible to avoid attacks.

Sachiko flew to the direct middle of the gap, just as Savannah made her approach. As the Gatling began to spin, the game of luck began. If Sachiko moved her gun down and Savannah flew up, then the round would be lost. Even though the moment lasted less than half a second, it was tense enough to fill an hour.

Sachiko's weapon fired. Bullets flew upwards. Savannah flew downwards.

Sam's chest grew tight as she knew the gamble failed.

But Sachiko still hadn't given up. The bullets were just a trick; the real attack came out of her launcher. No matter which way Savannah moved, an attack had been waiting for her. As the missile was pointed towards the ground, gravity aided its acceleration and it headed directly towards the black harpy rig.

One surprise lead directly to another, as the missile flew through empty space and in a blink of an eye, Savannah's golden blade was moments away from contact with the orange rig. Somewhere in the back of Sam's mind, an explanation for what happened played on repeat. In essence, it was the most basic of aeroplane techniques; flying downwards to gain speed before an ascent. Since rigs were able to move in far steeper arcs and directions to what a plane could, basic movements like that were only covered briefly to first year pilots.

Unknown to Sam and Sachiko, Savannah's military base childhood had included trips along with jet pilots, who would show off to the young child with those types of manoeuvres. They were a kind of foundation to her, something she did to relax. They were so well practised that when she avoided that missile, it was done entirely on reflex.

Conscious or not, the blades tore through Sachiko's light armour and made long scratches against her body. Luckily, Sachiko managed to twist her body to that the injuries were shallow. The damage to the rig, however, wasn't so light. Sam could only watch in despair as her partner's rig turned back to a black cube and rolled down the icy jagged walls. Thankfully, Savannah displayed good sportsmanship and caught Sachiko before she hit the ice.

As Sam set about patching the rig back together, Sachiko was treated by the medical team. The cuts were filled with a jelly that stuck to the wound and prevented blood from flowing out. The high levels of silver in it also killed off any risk of infection, but the resulting pain meant using it without an anaesthetic was bordering on madness. Thankfully, drugging her pilot was already part of Sam's plan. Only, she worried that it might impair Sachiko's judgement and control; it was no use being able to see an opponent if you aren't able to pull a trigger fast enough.

When Sachiko rushed into the room and booted the rig back up, with a little over a minute left before the next round, Sam had metallic jell ready to fill in any gaps in the armour that hadn't recovered. It was far from an ideal solution, but it would set in a minute. After the match, Sam would have to spend a full hour separating any formless particles that came in contact with the stuff, but it would at least provide some protection and hide the damage.

During the break, Savannah had swapped her pistol out for an energy weapon equivalent, and within moments of the round commencing, the ice had been cleared away. All but three of Sachiko's missiles had been used and identified in the previous round, and the ice gas wouldn't work a second time. That limited their options, but at least their opponent didn't know what the final three were, let alone what was in the reloading unit.

After a few minutes of dodging and trading shots, Sam sent Sachiko the signal and they began their comeback.

It started with shooting of the last three unknown rockets. They exploded in different locations and filled the arena with a thick black smoke. With the speeds that Savannah was travelling at, to have any kind of control meant she had to be using an advanced version of the enhanced dynamic sensors. The smoke blocked any kind of light or motion, meaning neither pilot would be able to see a thing. While that was worse for Sachiko, since her opponent wasn't visible to her other types of sensors, they had planned in advance for that situation.

The orange rig moved to an exact position, calculated before the match had even started, and sent a signal to the waiting loader. The missiles inside all launched out and scattered fire across the whole arena; all except for the space where Sachiko waited. Without being able to see the moving rockets, Savannah had no way to plan a safe place.

When the fire burnt away the smoke, they found that Savannah was one the ground with burning wings. It seemed that when she lost sight, she landed on the ground as a way of protecting herself. Then, when the fire came, she hugged the ground to avoid damage.

To some extent it worked, since her body was unharmed, but her wings were melted melted in several places and unable to be used. Seeing that Savannah's rig was about to retract, Jeff forfeited the round and had her run in for repairs. Generally, forfeiting a round wasn't considered good sportsmanship unless it was clear to both sides that the rig was about to give in. In regards to their match, there wasn't a problem, but making that judgement was a serious issue when it came to professional matches.

Feeling the need to gloat, Sam sent a message to Jeff.

“Forget just hitting your bird, I clipped its wings!”