Chapter Fourteen—Penultimate Stop

Governor Madison’s forces must have been lazy—or perhaps they didn’t have the supplies needed to properly patrol the skies, because they didn’t detect Ichiro in his stolen mech.

Despite that, the fuel station was a vital resource, so instead of flying in, he had landed in a field of tall grasses and walked the last ten kilometers.

The fuel gauge pulsed in the red. He was down to his final ten percent. But Ichiro was here now, and he would acquire the fuel he needed to go the rest of the way.

Across the country road was a tall cement wall with a tank parked next to the entry. Sandbags and a gate had been set up. Soldiers patrolled the entry and exit.

Up on the hills, military tents had been erected. This fuel depot was being guarded by a relatively small military force.

Ichiro inched the mech between two trees, locked onto the tank with his rail gun and fired both guns simultaneously.

The tank lurched, but otherwise didn’t explode as Ichiro fired his machine guns at the startled soldiers.

They were cut down where they stood.

An alarm sounded and the entire camp agitated. Dozens of men ran out of the tents. As they poured out, Ichiro activated his air to ground missiles and fired two of them in front of the line of tents. The missiles screamed up into the sky, leaving arcing trails in a convex shape. The explosion was impactful enough to send dark waves of earth into the air as plumes of fire roiled up, spreading thick oily smoke.

Walking the mech out of the woods and across the road, Ichiro kept an eye on the tank. It didn’t move, but black smoke wafted from the turret and hatch.

Stamping forward, Ichiro started taking fire from the soldiers still alive. At best they were disorganized and stunned.

He opened up on them with the machine guns, the munitions count reaching critically low levels.

Seven percent.

He swiveled the cockpit about the stationary legs and continuing firing, cutting down dozens of men. Some of them ran or hid, but otherwise were killed when the mech’s machineguns penetrated their meager spots of cover.

Three percent.

He stamped forward toward the fuel lines as he continued cutting down soldiers.

The anti-vehicle warning sounded and Ichiro’s eyes widened. He continued strafing right as the weapon wielder came from the ruin of tents, his outline magnified on the display.

He fired his machineguns up on the hill, but the warning did not desist.

As the anti-mech soldier fired his rocket, the projectile burst forth and Ichiro angled his guns up and turned the body of the mech perpendicular to the direction of the legs and the rocket missed him by mere feet.

Narrowing his eyes, he fired another air to ground missile and shook the ground in a thunderous explosion where the rocket came from.

With the few remaining soldiers scattering about, Ichiro got out and put the fuel line into the mech, filled the machine to the brim.

No more hostility came his way, as the camp smoked for multiple areas, most of the personnel killed and fleeing. He found a weapons depot stocked with tank rounds and machinegun ammunition. Refitting a mech was not impossible for one man, but it did take more time.

Within twenty minutes he was locked, stocked and full on fuel.

He stamped away into the road.

Before leaving completely, he turned and fired a missile at the fuel lines still spurting out the flammable liquid. The fuel depot exploded as he fired the mech’s jets and lifted off into the air. The ground below him receded as secondary explosions from the ammunitions stockpile went off.