[3rr0r. catastrophic d4//93 70 /41|| 9L0r'/ d373(73D. 3rr0r. p1L07 /174L$ ||07 pH0U||D. d3PL0'/ (0PhPh1||? 3rr0r. (474$7r0P|-|1( damage 70 /41|| 9L0r'/ d373(73D. 3rr0r. p1L07 /174L$ ||07 pH0U||D. d3PL0'/ (0PhPh1||? 3rr0r. (474$7r0P|-|1( d4//93 70 Vain Glory d373(73D. 3rr0r. p1L07 /174L$ ||07 pH0U||D. d3PL0'/ (0PhPh1||?3rr0r. (474$7r0P|-|1( d4//93 70 /41|| 9L0r'/ detected. 3rr0r. p1L07 /174L$ ||07 pH0U||D. d3PL0'/ (0PhPh1||?]

Error. Catastrophic damage to Vain Glory detected. Error. Pilot vitals not found. Deploy coffin?

Elijah could barely think with the roar of the Great Machine in his head. He felt bile rise in his throat again so he clenched his teeth and swallowed it down. The Vain glory was like nothing he had ever experienced, it felt almost needy compared with the usual sterile stoicism most machines “spoke” with.

[No. No coffin launch. At least not yet.]

[...]

The pain seemed to recede as the blessed silence came, but before he could enjoy the relief a voice rang out.

“Hello Sweetie! Don’t move a muscle, I’ll be with you in a sec.” The voice was heavily synthesized but some of the words seemed oddly slurred.

[3rr0r. Primary /1D30 1||PU7 ||07 Ph0U||D. 3rr0r. 3||3//'/ 4L3r7. 4UD10 0U7PU7 ||07 pH0U||D. /1D30 0U7PU7 ||07 pH0U||D 3rr0r. PR1//R'/ /1D30 1||PU7 ||07 Ph0U||D. 3rr0r. Enemy Alert. 4UD10 0U7PU7 ||07 pH0U||D. /1D30 0U7PU7 ||07 pH0U||D 3rr0r. PR1//R'/ video 1||PU7 ||07 Ph0U||D. 3rr0r. 3||3//'/ 4L3r7. audio 0U7PU7 ||07 pH0U||D. /1D30 0U7PU7 Not Found.]

Error. Primary video input not found. Error. Enemy Alert. Audio output not found. Video output not found.

On the bright side, if she kills me then the pain stops he thought.

[Ignore the video input, route audio through secondary device, the RADIO.] He focused his power, swirling it from the input in his mouth to the radio held in his had.

[...]

[4(|<||0//L3D93D.]

Acknowledged

[Alright I can work with this, Let’s see if you’re capable of something a little special. I want an ascending tone for an enemy approaching on the left, descending tone for right. Use different notes for above, below and level relative to the cockpit.]

[…]

[…]

[…]

Elijah rapidly relayed his instructions, not waiting for the Vain Glory to respond before a frantically oscillating tone got his attention. With a screech of twisting metal the prone GM scraped backwards through the courtyard wall with an explosion of sand and debris. A heavy rod crackling with electricity slammed into the space it previously occupied.

“So someone is home after all! Don’t worry, just trust my process and I’ll add your coffin to my collection soon enough!”

with another firing of its thrusters the Great Machine righted itself and for the first time the full extent of its damage made itself apparent to Cerberus.

“Oh, goodness me oh my! I absolutely fucked you with that first shot!” The pilot crowed. “Let’s do it again yeah?”

The enemy unit thrust its open hand forward as a blast fired from the barrel mounted under the arm. Much to the pilot’s embarrassment the GM managed to drunkenly sway out of the shots path. She frowned and paused. Taking the time to actually process what she was looking at confirmed what should have been impossible. Past the bright orange crash webbing in the exposed cockpit was the pilot seat, completely empty.

“Someones been naughty.” She continued to broadcast into the open. “Fighting a glorified drone is much less fun than a cute girl so I guess I’ll just wrap this up.”

Cerberus dashed forward, thrusting the shock rod at the GM. In a flash an ax was summoned and swept the rod upwards.

“Good, maybe this wont be such a drag.”

Cerberus’ pilot prepared herself for an epic though obviously one sided clash. As she closed the gap between them what she had not prepared herself for was the GM simply tackling her and riding her to the ground. She noticed its hand closed around the coffin she had strapped to the front of her unit as decoration and defense and frowned. Clearly this things priorities were screwed, It had the speed to try and pin her it should have done its best to cleave into her with the ax. She let it remove her prize before reversing the pin and slamming her rod repeatedly into the GM. Again she marveled at the wasted action of the unit as it moved the ax to cover the gaping hole in its front.

“ENOUGH.” she snarled.

She wrenched the arms to the side and pinned them down with her unit’s knees. Then proceeded to smash into it again and again until to her immense satisfaction the eye went dark. From this close she could confirm that the cockpit was indeed empty and her curiosity burned at her. If someone had successfully gotten a Vain Glory to act independently, or even just remotely it would make a great prize. She switched to a private channel rather than the open broadcasting she had been using and informed her superiors of her suspected boon. She needed to move quickly, Rabbit’s Foot only lasted to long before the side effects kicked in.

The chest portions of her Cerberus slid open with a hiss of air and a cable deployed into the interior of the GM. She removed her harness and with great care descended onto the crash webbing. As she pulled a knife from a sheathe at her waist she failed to register the faint humming which had steadily grown louder and louder, and before she could even perceive the muzzle flash of the Railgun pointed in her direction her upper body was reduced to a fine pink mist.

======================

Evona was not having a good time. Jenny was a vision of power and grace as she interposed herself between Falak and the descending Hydras. A swing of her glaive, its edge bathed in blue energy batted the closest ones aside. Her shield easily deflecting the blades of the ones that took their place. Benaiah had not remained idle either, shots from her rifle ringing out causing the shields of the Hydra suits to crackle and flare with the impacts.

“It’s gonna be a fighting retreat, got it?” Jenny called out.

Rather than respond Evona turned and ran towards Benaiah, her focus too shot to properly use her thrusters. To her dismay her sensors screamed at an enemy contact that managed to disengage from Jenny’s GM. On instinct she raised Falak’s arm and deployed the heat whip chambered within, the blow was solid but she leaned too much into the strike and Falak landed on its back. Quick to try and capitalize on the situation the Hydra moved in to stab downwards and in a panic Evona struck upwards with both feet, the pile bunkers activating on contact and puncturing the chest, a well placed shot by Benni took its head a fraction of a second later.

“Take a second to catch your breath and focus alright?” Benni said, maneuvering to shove the downed VG out of the way and covering Evona. “Once you’re confident that you can stand we’ll start moving together.”

It was clear that Jenny was an experienced combatant, she used her greater reach and maneuverability to dance between Hydras, preferring to dodge and only blocking when it let her glaive lash out into a solid counter. Unfortunately overwhelming numbers had remained a staple tactic throughout history for a reason. One Hydra pilot upon finding itself impaled below the waist by the glaive charged forward, impaling itself further. Before she could banish her weapon the reckless foe fired its payload point blank. The suicidal maneuver costing Jenny her glaive and the arm that wielded it in exchange for the enemy Vain Glory.

“Ha, you cunts are two down. For just one limb? We’ve got twelve between us bitches!” Jenny cried out before bracing behind her shield and ramming another enemy with it. The sound it made when it fired the energy blast from its center sent tingles down Jennys spine. “C’mon then, I could do this all night!.”

Meanwhile Evona had finally gathered her composure and the retreat began once more. Emboldened by her earlier successful attack she tried to swing her heat whip at one of the Hydra’s that had broken off from Jenny to pursue, but failed to take into account Benaiah’s moving to intercept. The strike bit deeply into a thruster on the GM’s leg throwing it off balance and fouling the shot from the cannon on it’s shoulder.

To Benni’s credit she was calm as she instructed Evona. “Don’t worry about attacking anything unless it can make it behind me ok?”

“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’msorryI’msorryImsorryimsorryimsorryimsorry-”

“Remember to breath, I’m in a GM. I’d probably survive anything you tried to do on purpose let alone on accident.” Benni switched channels briefly to check in on jenny. “How’s it looking?”

“I’ve got four still on me, two broke off in your direction and I think I’m running on fumes. You?” Jenny asked.

“Took a little friendly fire from the princess, damage was minimal. I’ve got two shots left with my ‘Conversation piece’ cannon before the Barrel starts to slag but I’m otherwise fine. Pull back I’ll cover you.”

Switching back to the previous channel Benni took careful aim at the group engaging Jenny and fired. She smiled in satisfaction as another Hydra dropped.

The smile however quickly fell as her opponents seemed to remember their ordinance and fired a swarm of missiles charging towards their location. She quickly lifted her shield and angled it upwards, the lenses all taking a moment to focus before lasers began firing at them one after another. While it mitigated some of the swarm it wasn’t enough as she began to take impacts to her GM. She turned to check on her charge and was pleased and impressed with what she saw.

Evona was at a loss, she had no idea if she should try to dodge and there was nowhere convenient to take cover. She clenched her hands into fists before inspiration struck her. Quickly deploying both heat whips, she swung her arms into the sky in wide sweeping arcs. The circular motion protecting her at the cost of her weapons integrity.

Unfortunately the Hydras had not sat idle in that time, while Jenny had boosted back towards Falak’s position one had launched itself into her back, stabbing into her then firing its remaining payload at close range for good measure. Jenny cursed as her coffin deployed around her and ejected, taking her out of the fight. The other four swarmed around Benni and struck simultaneously, removing her cannon and cutting into her rifle. Benni immediately retaliated against the closest Hydra revealing her own shield's nasty surprise. Each segment of the shield separating and revealing rotating blades within, the Hydra stood no chance at such a close range.

Benni immediately used the opening to dash towards Evona hoping that they’d bought enough time for reinforcements to arrive but the lack of comms suggested otherwise. As the Hydras regrouped and began to move in a message flashed across Benni’s screen

[Order: Duck.]

As she dropped she watched wide eyed as an ax flew end over end, cleaving into a hydra and causing the others to scatter. A few heartbeats later a GM with a familiar command unit on its back landed atop the downed Hydra crunching into it and retrieved its ax. Then swung low, cutting the legs out from another unit before backhanding a third and cleaving through the arm and the chest of the last one. As the GM swung about, it revealed its bright shock of orange crash webbing and Benni gasped in surprise. She fully expected the last Hydra to cut its losses and flee but instead it charged. It seemed that the GM was caught off guard as well as it mistimed its parry, the ax and arm that wielded it sent flying. Rather than make distance the GM gripped the Hydra in a one armed embrace and then with a sickening crunch released it revealing a coffin driven into the cockpit.

Benni quickly added the new arrival to their channel.

“Good timing, I didn’t know we had you up and running yet Penny. I appreciate the assist but heading out in a trashed suit is just begging for trouble.”

[Response: Not running, Not Penny, Requesting Immediate Medical Attention.]

“What? That’s Penny’s GM.” Benni responded. “Who are you?”

Elijah heard the voice but couldn’t be bothered to respond anymore. He gingerly crawled out from behind the chair, sat heavily and let go of the radio.

[Good Job GM, kneel and power down.]

As soon as he transmitted the thought he felt a wave of panic begin to wash over him from outside of himself.

[Wait for me, I’ll be back.]

[…]

[…]

[…]

[...ok]

Elijah promptly spit out the input and vomited before passing out.