“Good to see you back in the world of the living,” Dakota’s face hovered above Mai. She blinked against the harsh white light. It felt as though needles were being driven into her eyeballs.

“Where am I?” She groaned.

“Medical centre. It was touch and go there,” Dakota’s eyes were puffy, as if she’d been crying. Mai decided not to point it out. “We nearly lost you. We lost the entire rebel council.”

“I know. The assassin was someone from my past. From before the culling actually. An urbexer that tried to rob me and my colleagues when we were in the sewers. They were the only one to escape. Seems like they held a grudge. Enough of one to join the culling.”

“They must have been gutted to know you were better than them,” grinned Dakota. “You’re a fucking legend amongst the troops now.”

Mai ignored the pun, the memory too fresh for her to find it even remotely funny. She doubted that she would ever find that particular memory worthy of even retelling. She dreaded to think about how popular the kill would have been with any viewers.

“How have they taken the loss of the council?” Mai asked.

“Our people aren’t fussed, you’re our leader. The others, especially the officers that survived are a bit torn. A couple have hinted that they might be up for taking command, but the rest seem to be happy to just sit back and deal with getting the base back on its feet rather than actually assuming command.”

Mai pushed herself up from the bed. Whilst she was HEALED, the memory of the injuries she had suffered remained. Phantom pain. Or perhaps it was real pain and the nanites hadn’t fully healed her. Who knew what the developers had written into the code of her life.

Calling up her SASS, she saw that her bio-mass was the lowest it had been for days, and that her health was still around the ninety-per cent mark. Not phantom pain then. Real pain.

“I’m fed up with pussy-footing around. We’ll announce that I’m going to take over the rebel faction. If anyone has a problem with that they can take it up with me or leave.”

Dakota’s mouth opened and closed a couple of times before she found her voice.

“Okay. Um. Does that make me second-in-command?”

“Only if you want it,” Mai took hold of her friend’s hands. “This is entirely your choice. If you want to be second-in-command you will be. If you don’t want the responsibility then that’s fine too.”

Dakota stared at her for a few seconds, squeezing her hands tightly before giving a small nod.

“Appreciate that. I’ll take it. Means that I’ll get one of the posh command staff bedrooms and not have to bunk with anyone. Devin’s farts are damned awful!”

They both laughed, Devin had become somewhat of a legend with his ability to create a stench that would likely clear a room whilst he sat and revelled in the smell.

“Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, I mean it,” Mai pulled Dakota in for a hug.

Mai’s declaration of power had gone without a hitch. Her killing of the assassin had raised her reputation with all of the NPC rebels to new heights and she saw a new found respect in the eyes of the rebel players. Word had spread of the attack, and the resulting duel, and many of the bounty hunters had fled the city.

Those that hadn’t had quickly found a bounty on their own heads, something which the locals were more than happy to try and achieve. The rebel faction had plenty of UC in the coffers since the council had been more interested in accumulating rather than spending the wealth. Mai had no such compunction and so had offered a minimum of ten thousand universal credits per bounty. That in turn had raised the faction’s reputation once again.

“The people bloody love you. Not the factions mind you, but the people. There have been more defections, people running from the other factions,” reported Jock as they stood in the freshly cleaned command centre. She’d made Jock the new sergeant-at-arms and given Hind command of the recon platoon. Biyu had been made head of the intelligence section, something which had most certainly put a smile on her face. Aside from that, she’d left the command structure pretty much as it was, not wanting to reinvent the wheel or force change too quickly.

“Ma’am! Report just in. Spies have warned us that the Ghosts are rebuilding their factory. There’s a new structure. They’ve sent a picture,” the rebel who had spoken threw the image over to the command centre holotable.

“What the hells?” They all leaned in for a closer look.

“Look at those frames. Those look like docking stations,” Jock murmured.

“It’s a mecha station. They’re building mecha,” groaned Dakota.

“We can never get a damned break!” cursed Hind. “One day. Just one fucking day!”

Mai said nothing but opened up the base menu. Recently she’d been too busy concentrating on defences to look at other building options in the sub-menus. Defence was the priority, as much good as it had done them, as well as habitation blocks for all of the new civilians moving into their sector.

As a result she hadn’t realised that a host of other buildings had been unlocked. She scrolled down to the vehicles menu. In order to build and house vehicles, they first had to have the building for them, much like she had with the garage.

Now she saw that they could not only build a larger garage, but they could also build a light-tank bay and, more importantly, a mecha bay. Building the mecha bay would not only unlock the ability to build and use mecha for the rest of the rebels, but it would also allow her to create a Mecha Knight Academy, where she could train them up.

Not having heard of a Mecha Knight Academy, she read the description.

Mecha are more than walking suits of armour, they are the pure embodiment of the martial spirit, piloted by true Knights of War. Men and women dedicated to honing their skills whilst dominating the battlefield.

A Mecha Knight Academy takes rookie pilots and turns them into seasoned warriors with skills to rival those of any opponent using advanced virtual technology so that even before they step into a mecha they are truly ready to pilot them.

Looking back at the image of the Ghost base, she saw no sign of a Mecha Knight Academy.

“They don't have an academy. Looks like they’re going to wing it like we had to when we unlocked mecha at the last base. From what it says, we can use the academy to go on virtual missions and build up our skills. Rather than just running through a basic familiarisation and then launching straight into combat.”

“So we’ve got an edge until they have enough control points to build the academy,” mused Dakota. “If you merged the command centre with the academy, you’d have space to replace the garage with the mecha bay, increasing that as well. We’ll just park the cars in the next compound, there’s room for a garage there.”

As she spoke, she moved the buildings to demonstrate what she meant.

Mai agreed, and quickly made the changes. As the nanites set to work, they started on putting a list together as to who would go through the academy first. Naturally, the rebels from the upper city were first, followed by some of the newer recruits. If she was going to have a mecha contingent, she wanted to retain a strong infantry corps to support them and moving infantry veterans over to the mecha would only serve to lessen the existing combined experience.

Starting afresh with new recruits would retain the experience in the infantry and create a new corps totally dedicated to that role.

“This is damned impressive,” Dakota spun in the mecha bay, arms outstretched. “You’ve got room for twenty units, a dedicated armoury, bunks for the mechanics, droids, and even a damned oil bath!”

Mai just smiled, not bothering to point out that since she’d been the one who created it that she knew exactly the specifications. From what she could see of the Ghost facility, they were only able to house five mecha. Five mecha was more than enough to give them a massive edge over the other factions though, and she didn’t fancy having to face the Ghosts once they were stronger.

“Wait until you see the virtual training in the academy,” she called out as Dakota continued to spin her way through the bay.

“Pah! Academy nothing. I want to see what babies this place is going to produce!”

Mai was keen herself, so made her way over to the bay’s menu. Until she accessed it, it wouldn’t be available in her own menu. She gasped, the size of the menu taking her breath away. There were too many combinations to take onboard. Everything was customisable, although there was a default setting.

We’ve got a whole new set of suits, she mused as she scrolled down. Most were redded out, but the few that weren’t were beasts.

“Recon suit, also known as the Ranger, doubles up as a mecha killer,” she read out. “Comes with a sniper railgun. Damned barrel’s three paces long! Half the size of the suit!”

The suit itself was compact, one and half times the size of an adult male, or three paces. It had a number of shoulder-mounted drones which could be deployed to act as eyes and ears. Each of the drones could also be tailored to fit certain roles. The left shoulder housed counter-measure drones, designed to protect and hide the recon suit from its enemies should it be discovered.

On the right were offensive drones. Smart, they could be left to cover the recon suit’s retreat, packing single-shot shaped charges that would seriously put a cramp on an enemy’s attacks. Some of the others were also suicide drones, designed to fly like miniature missiles and detonate on the enemy.

For anti-personnel, it had a back-mounted tri-barrel laser. Lasers were considerably quieter than ballistic weapons and would allow the user to pick off humans at a considerable range with little chance of detection. There was an option to add a colour to the laser, which she immediately discounted as it completely negated the stealth effects.

Bet some players bloody love that sort of thing. Coloured lasers strobing around like some sort of disco ball, she thought with disgust.

“One for you here,” she called out as Dakota finally reached the end of the mecha bay and reversed her spin. Mai couldn’t help but grin at her friend’s childish exuberance. “It’s a Destroyer. Of mecha and tanks.”

The Destroyer did exactly what it said on the tin. Both arms ended in huge power fists, capable of ripping the armour away from a mecha. Mounted on the forearms were titanium spikes more than two paces long. Driven by the power assisted arms, they would easily punch through damaged armour, or that of a small mecha.

Mounted in the chest were two double banks of guided anti-armour missiles. Sixteen in total. Looking at the damage values, Mai let out a low whistle. Not only would they damage on the SOAK, but if they struck for damage which equalled the target mecha’s remaining SOAK total, they would then penetrate for twenty-five per cent of that remaining total.

Coup-de-grace, Mai’s mind raced as she already started to understand the tactics to be used by anyone piloting the destroyer. Use the power fist and spikes in close if required, finished with a blast of missiles. Or overwhelm with a ripple of missiles, close and kill in close quarters.

That was just a couple of ways. She hadn’t even taken into consideration the two shoulder-mounted lasers. At five finger’s width, they were absolutely huge. She didn’t even want to think of the bio-mass cost for keeping them firing.

And then, almost as an afterthought, there was a head-mounted heavy machine gun to deal with any pesky infantry. At six paces tall, this mecha would shake the ground with every step, and just looking at it filled her with terror. Which was another status it had. All infantry would be PANICKED if they were within ten paces, and all mecha pilots would be INTIMIDATED so long as they had line of sight. It didn’t matter the distance.

“That’s a fucking beast!” crowed Dakota as she draped her arm over Mai’s shoulder and leaned in to look at the menu.

“It’s a war winner is what it is,” Mai replied. “It’s a war winner.”

“What’s next?” Asked Dakota.

“Anti-personnel, essential back up to the Destroyer.”

She opened up the stats for the mecha. It was just as impressive, and costly as the others. Standing at five paces, it would tower above any infantry. It had the INTIMIDATION buff, but this included any infantry who could hear it. And to help them hear it, it had a speaker through which it would project subsonic growls, filling any infantry within thirty paces with PANIC unless they had dampeners in their suits.

Covered in vicious spikes, it looked like a walking nightmare. All of the spikes were saw tooth, with hooks, meaning that any infantry struck a glancing blow would be immediately trapped, unable to flee as the mecha strode through their ranks.

Each of its arms ended in a cornucopia of small arms. Automatic shotguns, grenade launchers, forearm-mounted flame throwers, and even small, guided missiles. Where its mouth would have been had it been human was another flame thrower and mounted on both shoulders were tri-barrel lasers.

“Nightmare”, breathed Dakota, reading the mecha’s name. “Nightmare by name, nightmare by fucking nature.”

“Bet you want to ride this one don’t you?”

Dakota was silent as she re-read the stats.

“Actually, this thing makes me feel a bit sick. Just look at the damage it can do. It’s going to rip people apart if they manage to overcome their PANIC, and if it doesn’t kill them, they’ll be killed by their own people as it drags them along. For Buddha’s sake, those spikes cause ten per cent BLEED per second, per spike!”

Mai called up the physical stats of the mecha.

Ranger

Shoulder - 125

Head - 200

Shoulder - 125

Torso - 310

Leg - 250

Leg - 250

Destroyer

Shoulder - 350

Head - 475

Shoulder – 350

Torso - 800

Leg - 425

Leg - 425

Nightmare

Shoulder - 175

Head - 300

Shoulder - 175

Torso - 450

Leg - 350

Leg - 350

Following that, she brought up the descriptions of their status effects to see how they differed from those they were familiar with.

Cloaking

Whilst you can't exactly hide a mecha easily, the CLOAKING effect scrambles enemy units' abilities to spot, lock on, and shoot at the mecha.

Intimidation

Whilst any mecha is intimidating enough, this unit is built to cause fear in its opponents. With enough mecha using this status effect, a mecha unit can render entire regiments of enemy troops utterly incapable of aiming or fighting properly.

Panic

Whilst any mecha is intimidating enough, this unit is built to cause fear in its opponents. With enough mecha using this status effect, a mecha unit can cause entire regiments of enemy troops to flee the battlefield.

Soak up damage

Built to take punishment, this mecha has redundant units which kick in as soon as a module is destroyed, practically returning the mecha to full health.

Spotting

Recon units use this effect to assist their comrades-in-arms. With up to fifty times magnification on their spotting scopes, the mecha can identify, highlight, and map enemy units in real time, sending their locations and even assisting in countering any CLOAKING effects.

“Well, I supposed we’re levelling up,” sighed Mai bitterly, regretting the words instantly.

“That we are, that we are,” Dakota said to Mai’s well-hidden relief. Granted, levelling up was part and parcel of their life, but it meant something completely different now Mai was aware of their true nature.

“When can we start playing with these beauties?” Dakota repeatedly taped her on her shoulder. It was both endearing and incredibly frustrating.

“Right now if the simulators are ready,” Mai laughed as Dakota did a happy dance. “Seriously, if I’d know that mecha would make you this happy I’d have built them before.”