Ravens of Eternity

Chapter 247

247 Mechageddon Finals, Pt The seconds ticked down as both teams sat in their first zones and took them over uneventfully. The Ravens took both Data and Communications while the Dragoons took over Maintenance.

Unable to merely sit around and wait, the Dragoons also opened up their sonic emitters as they moved in a circle around the zone. While they patrolled, they also issued strict orders to the civilians inside it.

“Attention all base personnel,” said Mad Monk. “This zone is now under the control of the Silver Lance Dragoons. Evacuate now to avoid risk of casualty. I repeat: evacuate now!”

A few dozen of the zone’s simulated personnel quickly ran out of their buildings, got into hoppers, and fled the zone. Most left the field outright, but some instead went into adjacent zones.

Regardless, the amount of drones they had destroyed combined with the few dozen civilians helped bump up their score by a handful of points. It jumped up significantly once they captured Maintenance in full.

Unfortunately for them, the Ravens had also made their moves, and captured two zones at once. Up above, the holographic scoreboard in the sky flipped to reveal updated scores

–

Ravens 41

Dragoons 36

.....

–

But the Dragoons were nonplussed. There was plenty of time for them to make up the difference. And besides, they had a plan to stick to.

“Alright, form up,” ordered Mad Monk. “We’re off to take Assembly. Lead the way, Dorf.”

“You got it, boss.”

Big Dorf then blasted off towards their next targeted zone, though they had to pass through Living & Social. That zone had relatively low buildings and offered zero cover, so they moved through it as fast as they could.

While they did so, klaxons blared across the entire battlespace. It came from every device in the base itself, from personal datapads to the emergency notification amplifiers dotted everywhere.

Then, Freya’s voice came through every sonic emitter. Her tone was stern and uncompromising.

“Attention base personnel,” she said. “Evacuate the base immediately – it’s become an active warzone, and casualties are guaranteed. This is not a drill. I repeat: evacuate the entire base immediately. Casualties are guaranteed!”

Her warning, accentuated by the incessant klaxon, immediately swept through the simulated civilians. The urgency in her voice pushed most of them to act. A great majority of them ran out of the many buildings and piled into the nearest vehicles and hoppers.

Some were orderly as they fled, but others were much more panicked and chaotic. A few even screamed out of fright.

Hoppers then sped out of the base in various groups, and headed towards the only two entrances available to them. Clouds of dust were kicked up in their wake as they fled.

Members of the Dragoons shook their heads as they watched the Ravens’ score climb higher and higher.

“Well, that was clever,” said Silvermoon. “They used Data and Communications combined to perform a base-wide evac. Probably maxxed out their civilian rescue points in one go...”

He raised his rifle and fired into a handful of drones that were in their way. His bullets tore through them easily, and riddled them with numerous holes. They crumpled over just as their mecha passed by.

“Doesn’t matter,” said Mad Monk. “Eventually, we’ll have control of half the zones, and whatever points they just earned won’t mean much. Stay focused, and keep them on sensors.”

“Yessir!”

~

A few zones over, Freya and Kali sped out of Communications, skipped right past another zone, then headed straight towards Energy. As they did so, they cut through a number of drones along the way.

Freya simply skewered a few with her spear, while Kali tore into others with her axe. Neither of them barely slowed down as they ripped into the base’s relatively simple defenses. They had seen and dealt with far worse.

“What’s the Dragoons’ status?” asked Freya.

“They’re moving towards another high value target,” replied Raijin. “They have moved from Maintenance and are headed towards Assembly. I predict they will target Energy afterwards, given their general trajectory.”

The zone takeover countdown began as they both slid straight into Energy.

“We gonna defend this spot, or concede it?” asked Kali.

“Not sure, honestly,” replied Freya. “Could go either way. Got any suggestions?”

Kali grinned mischievously. Out of all the Ravens, she had the most bloodlust, and absolutely loved the thrill of combat.

“I say we fight ’em off,” she said. “Show ’em what we’re made of, even if we’re outnumbered.”

“You will not be outnumbered for long,” countered Raijin. “Once I acquire Security, I will attempt to regroup. Once we have that zone, we will have little to worry about. We will use it to our advantage.”

“Don’t worry about us too much,” said Freya. “We’ll keep ’em out – you can do what you need to do.”

Unlike Freya and Kali, Raijin didn’t bother to destroy any drones or turrets that she came across. It was simply in her best interest not to attack any. Doing so would have easily put her back on sensors, and she was enjoying her virtual invisibility.

Besides, she didn’t have any lethal weaponry, so there was no point in her trying in the first place.

Instead, she skirted around the patrols, and gave them as much space as she could. Even though she was certain her signal was abysmally low, she wanted to eliminate as much risk as possible.

As a result, she ran around completely unopposed.

She sped right between two widely-spaced turrets, right down the middle, where their sensors overlapped. They quickly spun to face her as she ran across, but didn’t get a chance to fire. Not only was the mecha incredibly fast, but they simply couldn’t lock on in time.

They could see her, but couldn’t pinpoint her exact location, and had no choice but to let her go.

Raijin entered Security without a hitch, and immediately began to scan the buildings around her. She looked for the one that housed the strongest electronic signals – no doubt the physical location of the base’s primary logic circuits and databanks.

She quickly found it – it was one of the larger buildings in the zone, and had multiple floors going both up and down from ground level. And its electronic signatures were like a big, bright light to her.

She took little time in going over to it, and knelt down as she pressed herself up against a reinforced wall. Raijin slid herself up along the walls until she found just the right spot.

Then, she hacked into the systems via her EWar pod.

Raijin expertly dismantled its defenses, just like she had done hundreds of times before. Except this time, their systems were far less robust and protected. And similar to all those other times, she injected both her Truesight and Oversight Engines into the circuits.

They were finished with their takeover of Security’s circuits even as she completed her own takeover of the Zone itself.

From there, the two Engines spread out across the battlespace, and took over the other intelligences that governed them.

Even then, Raijin was far from done. She quickly pored through the base’s access lists and permissions filters, and added the Ravens’ mecha signatures to the approved lists. This gave them the absolute freedom to move around completely unimpeded by the base’s security.

And, having negated the entire base’s defense system, the Ravens were immediately awarded the maximum possible score for neutralization, and jumped ahead by 50 points.

They had successfully taken over two more zones – Energy and Security, while the Dragoons had captured their second zone – Assembly. The scoreboard shifted as their points accrued further and further.

–

Ravens 201

Dragoons 69

–

~

The audience wowed at the sight – the Ravens were doing incredibly well, and had impressed many a great deal. They simply couldn’t believe how much of a lead they had gained in such a short amount of time.

Of course, they also knew that the match was far from over – there was still over 16 minutes left in it. That was plenty of time for the Dragoons to turn things around and take the game.

Murmurs swept through the crowd as they watched the Dragoons form up a second time, and headed their way straight towards Energy.

There, Freya and Kali simply waited patiently for the attack.

~

“Dragoons inbound to your location,” said Raijin. “Coming in from... east southeast.”

Freya and Kali both raised their tower shields in preparation, and tightened their grips on their weapons. Their hearts thumped heavily in their chests as the promise of battle began to take them both over.

They both watched as the Dragoons turned a corner and skated directly towards them in a loose diamond formation. Big Dorf was up front with his heavy scutum in front of him, and seemed utterly impenetrable.

Behind him and to his sides were Mad Monk and Silvermoon. Jester was somewhere behind Big Dorf – his signature was far too low for them to pinpoint an exact location.

And the both of them didn’t bother for the enemy team to reach them – Freya and Kali immediately maximized their thrusters and counter-charged the incoming Dragoons.

The Dragoons saw their response, and eagerly pushed their thrusters faster as well. As they did so, numerous drones around them peppered their armor with light cannonfire.

“They’re actually trying to fight us?” exclaimed Big Dorf. “Fools!”

“Don’t underestimate them!” said Mad Monk. “Haven’t you noticed that the drones aren’t attacking them?”

“Th-they’ve taken them over?” blurted out Jester. “How?!”

“Stay focused!” ordered Mad Monk. “Dorf, go for the Rakshasa. I’ll face off against the Varulv. Jester, Silvermoon – take the high ground and support us from there.”

“Yessir!”

Both Jester and Silvermoon immediately broke away from their formation, and sped off to the sides. They leapt up on buildings across from each other, and went over to the edge where they could see the engagement zone below.

Silvermoon didn’t hesitate and fired his rifle at Freya. He squeezed off burst after burst in her direction, but to his chagrin, she immediately entered evasive maneuvers.

Varulv wove left and right while she charged towards Mad Moon’s Charlatan, and even throttled her speed up and down. It threw off his aim a considerable amount, and prevented the majority of his rounds from landing.

His bullets impacted into the ground all around Freya, and kicked up dust as they embedded themselves deep in the dirt.

By the time his rifle was empty, Freya straightened out her trajectory, blasted straight into Mad Monk.

On the other building, Jester focused his EWar pod right on Kali’s Rakshasa and dove in to hack her systems. He entered through her comms circuit, and pushed through to the mecha’s operational logic circuit.

“About to disable the Rakshasa,” he declared. “Gimme ten seconds.”

.....

He ripped out its Operational Intelligences’ outer core functions with incredible ease, but before he could replace them with his own, it regenerated itself in the blink of an eye. Jester was utterly surprised by what he saw – he had never seen code regenerate that quickly in his entire career.

But that wasn’t going to stop him in the slightest.

“Twenty seconds,” he corrected himself. “They’ve got some decent anti-hacking installed on their systems.

“Take your time,” gloated Big Dorf. “This Rakshasa can’t do a thing to me.”

Big Dorf’s Silverback took Rakshasa’s charge in stride. His confidence in his own defense was staggering. Rightfully so – in his ten years fighting in Mechageddon, no-one had ever gotten past his shield.

Kali slammed right into his scutum shield with the full force of her charge, but hardly sunk in more than a few centimeters. It wasn’t just a thick slab of metal – it also absorbed the blow through numerous dampening mechanisms.

She felt the vibrations of her strike course through Rakshasa’s arms and straight to her control sticks. But that didn’t deter her. Instead, she grit her teeth and poured extra power into her arms.

Then, she swung again and again and again.