Nueve Lt'aldo

By Hadrian (Hardman) Howell

The still night air betrayed the feelings of anxiety that ran through everyone who stood facing the Valley of Death outside the city of Shade. Unworldly black mists flowed around the ankles of Marcus’s Knight, the armored, walking war machine standing at silent attention, ready to move on a moment’s notice.

Inside the confined cockpit that sat within’ the Knight’s helmet, Marcus took a drink of water from the flask that sat beneath the chair. A five point harness held him in place, preventing him from bouncing around the small metal chamber should things get rough in the heat of combat.

And things were going to get rough tonight.

One of the city guards, riding within a Ranger class TechMech, shifted his machine’s weight nervously. Over the radio came a female guard’s voice. “Are they coming?”

“I have no contacts on my long range scanners,” another, cockier guard spoke up. “Maybe the Necros decided to stay in the valley tonight, eh?”

Marcus shook his head silently in his own cockpit while the guard sergeant, also in a Ranger, voiced the thought he was having. “Don’t relax. Necros have a nasty habit of waiting until you breathe to strike.”

There was a long radio silence as everyone checked their long range sensors on and off. It wasn’t as if they weren’t prepared for an undead assault. They happened nearly every night here at the border of the Valley of Death. Their regularity, however, did little to make them any easier.

Since time immemorial, the Valley of Death had been the home of immense amounts of sinister magical energy. The dark magic seeped into the very ground of the wasteland, and brought the dead back to plague the living. Skeletons, Zombies, and all manner of other ghastly, twisted human forms poured from the Valley every night, seeking to extinguish the flames of life. That was why they were attracted to Shade.

Occasionally, however, some gung-ho idiot decided to take the fight to the dead, and ran off into the Valley with their Mech. Deeper into the Valley, however, the evil was much more intense, and the undead became much bigger, more demonic, and deadly to the extreme. Many foolish pilots lost their lives and Mechs by running off into the Valley alone, believing themselves to be some legendary hero.

And so the ruined remains of their Mech would rot in the wasteland, a shattered testament to thousands of young fools. At least, until the Mech rose once more, as a horrifying mix of technology and necromancy know as a NecroMech.

A small, warning blip startled Marcus from his thoughts, and drew his full attention to his long range sensors. Across the top of the screen, red pinpoints of light began to appear, and move toward the center, where a series of blue lights picked out his companions.

“All right, boys and girls,” Marcus said into his radio, placing his hands on the arm controls and resting his feet on the movement pedals, “It’s show time.”

As the Knight began to lumber forward, two of the Rangers also began to move. The end of each arm of the lighter, more nimble Mechs ended in the barrel of a Brak class machine gun, which were capable of tearing apart human sized targets with ease and could do a good job of stopping other Mechs as well.

“Closure 2 and 3, remain by the wall,” Marcus heard the guard sergeant bark over the radio. “If any of them get by the initial line, take them out.”

“Closure 2, copy,” the female voice spoke up.

“Closure 3, copy,” sighed the cocky man.

“Closure 4, flank Big Guy on the right. I’ll take the left.”

“Closure 4, copy,” came the affirmation.

As Marcus continued to drive his Knight forward at a slow, stead pace, the Ranger designated Closure 4 moved up to his right and matched his speed. On the right, the sergeant’s Mech, Closure 1, did the same.

As a last minute precaution, Marcus checked his armaments again. In his Mech’s right hand was a massive sword, easily as long as his Mech was tall. The blade had been specially treated with chemicals and magic to keep its edge, no matter what it hit, and it had served Marcus well in quite a few battles already. On the left arm was a shield-gun. The large steel square had a light machine gun built into the side of it, in order to give the Knight a ranged punch and a more effective weapon against infantry, or, as the case may be, undead humans.

“Don’t let us down, Big Guy,” the sergeant cautioned Marcus over a private radio channel.

“Not a chance, sir,” Marcus chuckled.

Out of the black fog loomed the broken shape of a NecroMech. At one time, it might have been a Ranger, but not all it could be called was a walking scrap heap. Both of its arms had been demolished by whatever monster had taken it down the first time, leaving the NecroMech with a body and legs.

As the Necromech began to pick up speed coming toward him, Marcus brought his Knight to a halt. Lacking any real weapons, the NecroMech’s only option was to bash people to death with its body. Shifting one of the Knight’s feet behind it, Marcus brought his shield to bear, preparing for impact.

Closure 1 spotted the incoming threat as well, and opened up on the incoming Ranger with one of his Braks. The regular, punching sound of the machine gun spewing out round after round rang out over the wasteland, and the bullets found their mark in the Ranger’s body, tearing a few new holes in the Mech-turned-monster, but doing little to slow it down.

“Closure 4, I have multiple enemy sightings,” the pilot in the Mech to Marcus’s right reported, with a tinge of worry in his voice.”

“Copy that, Closure 4. Open fire!” the sergeant barked.

Ranger Mechs are very basic TechMechs that are able to target two targets at once. A standard armament for a Ranger is a pair of Braks, but substitutions can be made depending on the pilots taste. Usually, however, a pair of machine guns is ideal for taking on NecroMechs, since they usually come in hordes.

Closure 4’s Ranger spit out twin streams of destruction at two different targets as the first NecroMech slammed into Marcus’s Knight. Fighting for balance, Marcus pitched his machine’s weight forward, forcing the armless Ranger to slide backwards. Quickly swinging the Knight’s torso around, Marcus brought the sword around in a wide arc and caught the Ranger in the body right under where the shoulder might have been. Marcus only felt a minimal resistance as the sword kept going, separating the NecroMech’s upper body from its waist.

Closure 1 opened fire on another target as Marcus’s Knight stepped over the remains of the undead Ranger. He checked his sensors and quickly counted five targets. Two, he know, were being engaged by Closure 4, while at least one more was taking fire from Closure 1. That left two more enemies unaccounted for.

A warning sound went off in the cramped cockpit a few seconds too late as a large hook on a heavy chain rocketed out of the fog and slammed into the unready Knight. Marcus cursed loudly and pulled back on the controls, trying to back away, but instead found himself being pulled forward. The hook had latched onto his right shoulder joint, and would be nearly impossible to dislodge without leaving his Mech.

Something that would be much deadlier than facing whatever was on the other end of the chain attached to the hook.

Bringing his shield again to bear, Marcus fired the machine gun mounted on it into the black fog before him. Not caring if he actually hit, he continued to fire until all fifty rounds in the gun were depleted.

“You want to have fun?” Marcus asked the black fog that drew him toward it. As he did so, he keyed a sequence into the small command consol in front of him that disengaged the electro-magnetic lock holding his shield in place. As the heavy steel barrier fell to the ground with a resounding clang, Marcus keyed another sequence that moved his Knight’s now free left hand and clasped it around the extra length of he handle of the sword.

“Then let’s play,” Marcus growled, charging his Knight forward. The chain went slack as he moved, but it picked up slightly where it shouldn’t have, telling Marcus exactly where his target was.

Slamming his Mech’s left shoulder into the chest of the NecroMech, he knocked it off balance. As the monster tried regaining its balance, Marcus brought the sword over his head and slammed it down with incredible force.

There was an inhuman screech as the NecroMech’s arm was separated from its body and fell to the ground. Pressing the attack, Marcus drew back the Knight’s arms and thrust the blade into the NecroMech’s chest. Sparks flew as the possessed metal let loose a tortured scream.

Marcus barely heard the warning siren that told him of an enemy approaching from behind. Shifting his Knight’s weight, Marcus pulled the sword up, through the body of the now destroyed NecroMech, and wheeled around using the momentum of the heavy sword to cleave the approaching undead Mech in two.

As more machine gun shots rang out, Marcus took a deep, satisfied breath.

“Closure 1 here. One target destroyed.”

“Copy that, Closure 1. Big Guy killed three.” Marcus replied over the radio, turning his back to the black fog and trudging his way back toward Shade. His walk was made slower by the arm attached to his Mech by the long chain and hook.

“Closure 4 here. One of them got by me, but I got the other one.”

“Copy that Closure 4, this is Closure 2. No need to worry about the one that got away.” Marcus nodded in silent approval as he scooped up his shield and reengaged the locks on his arm.

“We got him,” Closure 3 confirmed.

“Nice work everyone,” the sergeant said. “Back to the wall. Sun rise isn’t for another three hours.”

“Roger that, Closure 1,” Marcus said as the wall came into view again, “just enough time for a good nap.”