#slugs in mechs

[yalikejazz9]

Hello, here's my concept for post war yeerk mech suits!

(Humanoid)

#they have screen faces!! #animorphs #drawing #yeerks #hork bajir #my artwork #concept #android #slugs in mechs #lil hollowgram dudes #theyre like giant fish tanks #but for yeerks!

[fropomolo]

Robot Commissions

#my art #art #illustration #artwork #design #robot #mech #commissions #combat #utility #metal slug #ink

[yodawgiheardyoulikemecha]

Falcon Mech by Caleb Flutur Via Flickr: A Millennium Falcon Mech made for The Brothers Brick Falcon Contest. I tried to turn as many of the Falcon's features into parts of the mech, from the landing gear feet to the quad cannon arms. Enjoy, and good luck to all who entered!

#Millennium #Falcon #Star #Wars #LEGO #Mech #2017 #TBB #Contest #SLUG #flickr #Mecha #Lego Mecha

[maareyas]

plagued by an AU that already has a solid cast and several character arcs but it is only understood/exists between me and @genotaurus

Mech pilot Comet/Mech Teo AU that spiraled wildly out of control. This sheet tells NOTHING about how much happens ghhfdhsdads

#sonic oc #sonic #sth #my art #my ocs #oc: Comet the hedgehog #oc: teo the lynx #edean mech pilots au #to give a brief summary of the premise #pacific rim but your drift partner is an alien Orb possessing the giant robot you pilot #and you have to fight off kaiju and the slug alien army creating them #oh and you have to deal with the philosophical dilemma of 'are the orbs truly alive' and 'is it okay for me to have a robot boyfriend'

[rhynerd]

Hello Again!

I am back at attempting to update my Vex's Mechs and Memes project every Thursday, and according to my time zone it is Thursday right now. Today, I will be advertising for the Tortuga, the mech I have played the most of and in one cased named "Step into my office:"

And because one of the first things I came to mind when I saw this meme was also the metal slug announcer call for picking up a shotgun, I made a version that replaces the big bold weapon names with their appropriate call-outs in the metal slug series:

Credit continues to go to @vexwerewolf for creating memes and finding the time to have given one of my favorite mechs such a meme. That, and I suppose some thanks also goes to not having made a Drake meme yet so that one reference to it in this meme is still accurate. I hope you all enjoy this! Oh, and a small warning, I think me saying "WATCHDOG" may end up being a bit loud. I dropped it a little but the worry for your ears is still there.

#Vex's Mechs and Memes #loadingreadyrun #lrr #my voice #mecha #memes #voice acting #dave's spokesman #lancer rpg #tortuga #shotgun #metal slug #turtle #dirty bomb game #dirty bomb

[michaeladrianwright]

Inktober 2022 Day 10: Crabby

A5, Ink and Colored on Photoshop

#inktober #inktober 2022 #art #artwork #adventure #ghibli art #studio ghibli #hayao miyazaki #ghibli aesthetic #ghibli #tintin #the adventures of tintin #steampunk #dieselpunk #scifi #science fiction #mecha #mech #mecha anime #metal slug #giant robot

[virikako]

Everyday I get myself a little more hype too handle my own lancer mission.

#just the goons dropping in for a slug fest then a high priority kill #what more could you ask for from robots n mechs

[dragonmons]

i fuckin adore rimworld so much but whenever i look at other people's colonies in the tag im confronted with the fact that other people make aesthetically gorgeous colonies and mine are. uh. Not That

#-continues to not have floor mods- -continues to build everything out of stone- #i dont even do function over form. i fail at both #i have a shitton of wealth thats artificially inflating my raids and bc im doing mechanitors its a pain in the ass #i have to hire warcasket pirates from the vanilla extended mod to take down even diabolus bosses #and i DO NOT KNOW how to make killboxes that work and dont look like shit #i have three autocannon turrets and two uranium slugs and theyre in the WORST fucking position #but my map is on a river! and my colony's ass is up against a mountain! so i have nowhere to move!!! #and yet im too attached to actually abandon it and rebuild elsewhere :( #i like my water power generator/geothermal power mix #its nice for all the mech and gene fuckery im doing tht needs power

[cerastes]

I've said this before but I adore the fact that Gavial is unambiguously canonically Your Bud, Your Chum, Your Pal, Your Trusted Homie, Your Close Friend.

One of Gavial's express goals is to convince Eunectes to build you two a mech so you can ride it together. The question is not "Would you like if I could get Zumama to build us a two-seater Metal Slug Stage 2 boss?", because she already knows you're down to clown, the question is not "Would you ride together with me if I got Zumama to build us a two-seater?" because she already knows you're absolutely not gonna skimp on that, the question is very expressly "do you want to drive it or ride shotgun?", it is already one hundred percent assumed that you're coming with, and she's even letting you drive the thing if you want, because you're Bros.

It's not likely to ever get elucidated upon, but I'd LOVE to see how it is Gavial and Doctor forged their friendship. By the time of the first Gavial event, they're already objectively close friends, I want to know how it happened, how did One Punch Man - Gator Woman Edition and Sickly Bag Of Bones In A Hoodie become bros, I want to know the story!!!!!

#arknights #gavial #i like gavial and I am having gavial thoughts

[in1-nutshell]

CONGRATULATIONS FOR OPENING THE REQUESTS AGAIN HONEY 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰!!! SO, do you mind doing some more slice of life with TFP Ratchet’s opposite personality daughter pretty please?? That girl is so nice and cute I would looove to see more of her.

Bringing back one of the daughter I see. Lets see how this bit goes for Buddy and the birds.

Hope you enjoy!

Ratchet's daughter with the opposite personality slice of life

SFW, Platonic, Familial, Cybertronain reader

TFP

To be perfectly fair, Buddy did leave out several notes before she left the base.

She had been reading on some bird watching in some woods on the planet. They looked absolutely beautiful.

The birds being on the screen or paper did them no justice, she just had to see them herself.

She read the hours some bird watchers went through to just see the bird.

Buddy was prepared.

She had packed everything she might need while outside the base.

From her data slug to keep the pictures in to her tasers.

It was such a busy week at the base she barely had any time to actually talk to anyone.

Not even Ratchet or Arcee had time.

No matter, she opted to leave several notes carefully explaining where she was going and when she would be back.

Buddy left early in the morning before anyone woke up to catch the birds in their prime time.

Undenounced to her once she had used the groundbrigde a power surge had completely wiped the bridges last coordinates and all of Buddy’s notes from the dashboard.

Buddy happily set up her little area, preparing her cameras, camouflaging herself with the surroundings and quietly playing some soft tunes.

Good thing that no humans ever came up here!

Meanwhile back at the base…

The morning rush was going on its way.

Optimus was the first to notice they were short of a member.

Usually, Buddy was already by the storage rooms.

But not today.

Maybe she was helping Ratchet in the med bay.

Nope.

Maybe she is with Arcee.

Nope not with her.

Maybe she was with the kids.

No…

Where was she?

“Ratchet, have you seen Buddy today? I have checked in the storage rooms and with Arcee, but she was not there. I assumed she was with you.”--Optimus

Ratchet looking at him slightly widened optics.

“I thought she was with you or Arcee.”--Ratchet

“…”—Ratchet and Optimus

Both mechs turn to everyone in the base.

“Has anyone seen Buddy today?”--Ratchet

Multiple versions of ‘No’ are heard.

“…”--Everyone

Concern siren, truck, and car noises intensify.

Meanwhile with Buddy…

Buddy was now caked with leaves and mud watching the beautiful birds fly all around her.

Her data slug was going to be filled by the time the day was over.

Lucky for her she had several empty ones in case this happened.

To save on some room Buddy turned off her base signal.

It actually brought more birds around.

She would turn it back on when the next data slug was filled.

Anyways, it wasn’t like anyone was going to be contacting her today.

Meanwhile in the base…

Concern siren wails are intensifying by the hour.

Everyone is panicking.

Everyone is searching around the base.

Looking outside the base.

Even considering looking into her potentially being captured by the Decepticon’s.

Ratchet is on the verge of a breakdown.

Optimus was trying to keep everyone calm but even he was worried for his godchild.

Arcee is having some flashbacks and is considering hunting down Arachnid.

The Wrecker are already moving out patrolling around in case they spotted her outside.

Bumblebee, Smokescreen and the kids were just searching around the base again in case they still managed to miss Buddy.

Meanwhile with Buddy…

“Finally! The last data slug in filled!”--Buddy

Buddy starts dismantling her little camp and starts up her new remote groundbrigde back to the base.

Buddy walks into the base caked with med and plants to see everyone on base looking frazzled and messy.

“…”--Buddy

“…”--Everyone

“…What did I miss?”--Buddy

“BUDDY!”--Everyone

When Buddy was told what had happened after many hugs and scolding's, she went to the groundbrigde controls and noticed something that had happened after she had left that morning.

She rebooted the system which brought up her former coordinates and the extensive number of letters that she wrote in case they ever wondered what happened.

Since no one was at fault and the misunderstanding was resolved Buddy opted to show the rest of the team her data slugs filled with the bird and other organic life she found.

Ratchet is still hugging Buddy.

“It’s okay now—”--Buddy

“Don’t you ever do that again.”--Ratchet

“It technically wasn’t my fault--”--Buddy

Ratchet shushes her while still hugging her.

“Aren’t you glad I decided to go to the wash racks before this hug?”--Buddy

“A bit.”--Ratchet

Buddy smiles and just lets him hug it out.

#transformers x reader #maccadam #bot buddy #tfp #tfp x reader #tfp x platonic reader #tfp ratchet #tfp ratchet x platonic reader

[mote-of-ash]

Breaking news: thinking about the metal slug tank as an unhinged shortstack mech right now

[shuttershocky]

Hey shutters, another Arknights newbie attack!

I just got spooked by Ebenholz, he looks super cute and I'd love to use him, could you give me your thoughts on him? Would I use him instead of the single target casters I have (Amiya and Click at the moment)?

(Extra question: if you feel like it, could you explain chain casters too? Or just Leizi in particular, she spooked me as well haha)

As always thank you, you've helped me (and other newbies) so much with understanding this game!

You've come to the right place, Ebenholz is a personal favorite of mine!

Right so to understand him you're going to have to understand his archetype. Ebenholz is a Mystic Caster. Mystics differ from Core Casters (like Amiya) or Mech Accords (like Click) in that they have ginormous ATK stats but also attack very slowly, meaning if they were to repeatedly attack the same target, a Mystic will lose out to both a Core or a Mech Caster in DPS.

But! The archetypes gimmick is that if there are NO enemies to attack, they begin charging up. Let's say enough time has passed that a Mystic would have attacked 3 times already if there was a target, if there's none, a Mystic instead stores those 3 attacks as charges. As soon as an enemy walks in, the Mystic is ready to greet them like

Which could be amazing if that enemy is a dangerous one that gets instantly deleted before it even does anything, but could also suck if the target is, let's say, an originium slug.

As you may have already realized, Mystic Casters are terrible at dealing with crowds and stages that have plenty of trash enemies, but are incredibly good at guarding lanes with only occasional but highly dangerous enemies that you want to kill as quickly as you can.

As the 6 star of the Mystic Casters, Ebenholz takes the idea of the class and ramps it up to 11. His sheer oneshot burst potential is currently higher than anyone else in the game, and in fact if you look up videos of him you'll mostly see videos of people cheesing boss stages by setting Ebenholz up to oneshot the boss outright. To aid him in this, Ebenholz's talents let him store an extra charge that he will ONLY use for Bosses or Elite enemies, while his S3 makes him ignore all enemies EXCEPT for Bosses or Elites, meaning slugs and dogs and drones will fly right past him as he continues charging his attacks.

Think an operator ignoring certain enemies might be a little difficult for a newbie? No problem. Ebenholz's S2 is both automatic and ridiculously easy to understand, where as soon as his SP bar fills up, Ebenholz automatically converts any charges he's stored and drops them as goat-shaped magic mines on the stage. If an enemy touches them, the mines explode. The mines also have a pull to them, often to pull an enemy into a full minestack to deal a ton of damage. If you're intimidated by Ebenholz's mechanics, start by playing with S2, and then imagine all that damage from various mine explosions being focused into one gargantuan burst attack, that's his S3.

Oh but I can't leave you without telling you how to tell an Elite enemy from a normal one!

In the enemy information screen, Elite enemies like Heavy Defenders have that triangle logo next to their name. If they have one, it means Ebenholz will attack them even with his S3 activated.

As for bosses, they're fairly obvious to tell apart from normal enemies no?

____

As for Leizi, Leizi is a Chain Caster. Think of Chain Casters as the halfway point between Core Casters and Splash Casters. They shoot at a single target, but that attack can bounce to nearby enemies while slowing them. They only have a limited number of bounces so they can't quite hit theoretically infinite targets the way Splash Casters can, but since their attack bounces can move diagonally, Chain Casters are able to ricochet shots onto otherwise unreachable enemies, or else deal with a crowd that stays a little further apart to minimize AOE effects. The slow they deal on hit is also a decent crowd control option, especially in alternate game modes like IS or SSS where you can gain really large ASPD bonuses for Chain Casters so they never stop zapping an enemy.

Leizi in particular is a funny one. Her biggest powerspike isn't once she's hit Elite level 2 and it isn't once you've fully leveled her second skill. Unlike the majority of operators, Leizi's module upgrade is gamechanging for her, giving her +1 SP for every enemy she hits that isn't blocked (and remember, her attacks bounce). This lets her spam her S2 which usually has a massive SP cost and is the secret to why Leizi in particular is seen as one of the strongest carries in the SSS game mode. All you have to do is slap 5 Sniper ASPD equipment onto Leizi, point her in the general direction of the enemies, activate her S2 whenever she recharges it, and then watch her annihilate the map.

#Arknights

[drunkenskunk]

Meanwhile, somewhere on Hell's Gate...

A a hiss of displaced gas preceded a hatch swinging open, and an extremely inebriated redhead stumbled her way across the threshold and into the Hell's Gate mech bay. Scarlet, ostensibly part of the militia and one of five mech pilots on the “Strategic Response Team,” had spent the last several hours attempting to drink herself into oblivion. The rest of the team had been celebrating a successful operation at GMS_Generic_Bar, getting round after round from Bartender Motherfucker, and they were entirely right to do so: the SRT's first time out wasn't just a victory, it was a complete walkover. The moonlighter pirates trying to make a quick buck from the “unarmed freighter” had no idea what hit them.

By all rights, Scarlet should've been celebrating with the rest... but she didn't really feel like it. While everyone in the bar had been busy watching Agarin show off his karaoke skills, she had quietly slipped away while no one was looking. For the last hour or so, she had been nursing a particularly large bottle of razbo – some Ol' Smokey's Reserve – and eventually wandered her way into the station's mech bay.

The bay was eerily silent and still. Usually, the place was buzzing with technicians running around, doing some kind of maintenance of some sort or another, but... no. No one else was here. Even Calamity Havok was nowhere to be seen, which was extremely odd. Scarlet had never seen the retired Hell Hound anywhere else on the station, and just assumed she lived here.

She downed another slug of raspberry infused liquor and staggered over to the alcove where her mech was currently housed: a truly ancient GMS Everest, covered in dozens of shades of red paint, hand-lettered slogans, and artwork designed to cover up the myriad scars and bullet wounds from centuries of combat. The mech had been built, stripped down, and rebuilt so many times over the years that it possessed a very haphazard quality to all of it; it was the kind of machine where you could pick any panel at random, open it up, and see more splices than wires. It had an “official” name (at least as far as anything on Calliope could be said to have one of those) registered in some file somewhere that she always assumed was a pun based on its serial number: R4GE MACHINE. But thanks to the paint job, everyone just called it Big Red.

The mech stood immobile, surrounded by a mess of cabling, powered-down diagnostic systems, and catwalks to give the technicians access. She stared up at the machine, her gaze drawn to the wedge-shaped “head,” and the distinctive spiderweb of cracks radiating out from around the left optical unit. She grumbled in frustration, taking another drink.

Scarlet kept thinking about the operation against the pirates from earlier. During the fight, she'd tried to disable the pirate ship the moonlighters had arrived on by attaching a HEX-B explosive mine to the ship's cockpit, but it hadn't gone exactly to plan. Right as she armed it, the mech controls briefly became unresponsive, and instead of attaching to the enemy ship, the electromagnets kicked in and firmly attached the mine... to her own torso.

It didn't matter that the ship was disabled immediately after her blunder: when the ship tried to disengage, she felt a tug at her cranial socket, and Big Red plunged the heavy combat blade it carried directly into the enemy cockpit. The whole front end of the ship had practically exploded, both from the impact and the sudden depressurization.

It didn't matter, because after the smoke had cleared, everyone could see the armed mine still attached to her mech. It had been removed after the fight, of course, but the carbon scoring on the hull of Big Red was still visible for everyone to see. Her teammates had given her shit for it the entire flight back to Hell's Gate. And rightfully so, far as she was concerned. A phrase had been swimming around in her head, ever since the fighting had stopped. They were words that had haunted her for the better part of a decade:

You're not good enough.

“Why y'gotta emb'rass me like that, huh?” she slurred. Scarlet stood there, staring up at her mech with drink in hand, and downed another slug.

A noise began to echo in the otherwise silent mech bay. It was a low, persistent clicking, almost like a purring animal, steadily growing in volume. Scarlet recognized the noise immediately. It was one of Big Red's many peculiar quirks; every so often, it would just start clicking like that, and nobody knew why, because nobody could find a source of the noise, no matter how hard they tried. When Calamity had tried to fix it, she said it sounded like a damaged hard drive moments away from catastrophic, unrecoverable failure... but even her considerable talents were at a loss.

Scarlet snorted and began to shake her head. Why'd she even come here? She didn't know. She sighed heavily and started to walk away...

“Because you are holding Us back.”

The words echoed in the empty mech bay, and seemed to hang in the air above her head. Scarlet stopped immediately, and her blood ran ice cold. She'd never heard that voice before. It was synthesized, utterly inhuman, and spoke the words with a curious inflection. The mechanical purr had grown louder, turning into an angry growl. Very slowly, Scarlet turned back around to face Big Red.

A trio of glowing red pinpricks stared at her from inside the darkened crack in its metal wedge of a head. The mech was very clearly looking down, directly at her.

“You tried to be clever,” the voice bellowed from speakers buried somewhere in his chassis. “So We taught you a lesson.”

The war machine – which should have been completely cold and powered down – began to shudder in the harness keeping it tethered in the maintenance alcove. It was as if the mech was a wild animal, caged against its will, struggling to break free of the restraints shackling it so. Metal hands balled into fists, and everything in the bay seemed to shake.

“We are not a tool,” it continued, as Scarlet remained rooted in place, staring at the machine in bewilderment and terror. “We are a weapon. You need to act like it. You must never forget what We are.”

The cables, pistons, and servos connecting the wedge-shaped head to the torso should've looked like a neck... but it didn't. From where Scarlet was standing, it looked like Big Red was grinning: a wide rictus grin, with teeth that weren't teeth made of metal, and sharp as kitchen knives. The machine continued to stare at her, left optical unit glowing with malice, and metal not-teeth glinting in the dim light of the mech bay.

“Do not deny Us our purpose again.”

Scarlet gulped hard to try and steady her breathing; she really hadn't been prepared for this at all, and wasn't doing the best job of disguising her terror. She looked down, and began to vigorously rub her eyes with her free hand, shaking her head. She could barely hear anything with so much blood pounding in her ears. This wasn't real, it couldn't be real...

She gulped once again, and looked up.

The noise had stopped. The clicking had stopped. The mech was looking straight ahead, and its metal hands were no longer balled into fists. Everything in the mech bay was exactly like it was when she'd first arrived: completely silent and still.

Scarlet looked around with wide eyes, uncertain of anything. She looked down at the empty bottle of razbo in her hand. She looked back up at her mech, still and cold as the metal plates beneath her feet.

Without another word, she turned on her heel and left as quickly as she could. She grabbed the edge of the pressure door, and pulled it shut behind her.

But just before the seal around the hatch could engage, that same clicking started up once more...

#Lancer RPG #Lancer #In Golden Flame #Hells Gate #GMS Everest #short fiction

[luckyspacecadet]

So got absolutely *thrashed* by Clan Assault Mechs.

11k BV clan invasion. They brought a Kodiak, Stone Rhino, and Marauder IIC.

I on the other hand brought a Highlander, Victor, Falconer, Griffin, and Perseus (Omni-Orion)

Boi so I paid for every single pip of armour on that Perseus and it would not die! However I rolled Double 1's on the first UAC salvo and jammed my gun all game... So win some lose some.

Meanwhile the Falconer positioned itself brilliantly all game, only to land a single Medium Laser over about 8 turns of Game play, every single PPC and Gauss shot going wide. *Sigh*

My Victor was MVP with Griffin not far behind. The Victor took out a Kodiak with Griffin help, by blowing through the entire leg at point blank with Gauss + 2Med Pulse and an SRM4, the LB20 slugs went up in a glorious explosion sending the kodiak hurtling towards the ground. The Griffin capitalised next turn by putting a Large Pulse and majority of a LRM20 salvo up the arm and through the torso critting the engine out.

The Highlander tried. But was shot to pieces by the marauder and stone rhino with a combination of 2 Large Pulse, 2 Gauss, and 3 ER PPC. Even that much armour just couldn't last.

#battletech #mechwarrior #miniatures #tabletop miniatures #wargaming #mech #tabletopminiatures #miniature wargaming #luckys space cadets

[agbpaints]

Played some battletech today!

First up was a game of classic. I flipped the script on my normal opponent and brought my Rasalhague coan forces while he traded his Jade Falcons in for Royal colors with his Black Watch vets. We used @blackboxfaxes Instant Action mission generation system and played Line in the Sand. I brought my Summoner and Horned Owl out to play along with a stand of elementals for the offense, while he brought a Rifleman II and a Royal variant Warhammer for the defense. In the grand tradition of wargamers everywhere, the Summoner got its last coat of paint less than 30 minutes before the game! All said it turned into a tactical slapfight- a warhammer that *almost* has enough cooling is pretty spooky and the rifleman ii is a monster at close fire support, but my mechs had the mobility to find a line around the outside of IS guns' short range while my Thor came kitted with enough inferno SRMs to lock down the Warhammer pretty effectively. We called it when I locked out the Warhammer's hip and the Black Watch had two really bad back to back turns of whiffed shots.

Game II was a three-way Alpha Strike match. We had one of the newer BT players swing by so we each grabbed 125 points of whatever and slugged it out. Jade Falcon made an appearance with the hated Warhawk C, so the other two of us did a fusion dance after a bit of scrapping and took it down with the power of power of friendship and incredible violence. The final blow was dealt by Knife Goose the Locust! Then the timberwolf turned and sent my last mech to the Shadow Realm. Such is life

#hobby #battletech #battlemech #classic battletech #alpha strike #battle report #wargaming #tabletop gaming

[blackboxfaxes]

Trial

This is a narrative of an actual game that I played as part of my ongoing New Exford campaign

---

“Cyclops pilot! I challenge you! Let no one interfere in this matter!” Came a transmission over the clear.

“Spunky little fella, don’t you think?” Azisu Misakari asked her lance as the Jade Falcon Grendel leapt towards her. The Falcons had chosen a sharp sided canyon with a road through it as their Circle of Equals. Their intent was clear - while the Clanners had bid down to a pair of mechs, both of them were fast jump-jet equipped mediums, and the sudden elevation changes would give the Falcons an advantage against Azusu’s mechs, of which only Rebecca’s Catapult had jump jets. But still, the Grendel only massed half as much as Azisu’s Cyclops.

Maybe he hasn’t spotted the extra armor, she thought, grateful she’d passed her machine through the mechtech’s hands at the beginning of the campaign. As poorly armored as it had been, the Cyclops would’ve been easy prey for the Grendel had it been unmodified. 

“Lightning one, lightning two, this is Kabuto Actual,” Azisu said, the radio carrying her words to the Aerospace fighters orbiting just outside easy radar range. “Clanners look to be playing nice. Stay offsite unless I give the word. We’re fighting by their code today.” She flicked her radio to the open channel in time to hear the Jade Falcons’ Shadow Cat challenge her Grand Dragon pilot.  “You can take him, Janelle, you’ve got fifteen tons on him. Use it. Rebecca, Jacinda,” she ordered to her two unengaged pilots, as the clanners’ locations on the screen degraded into the static of ECM Suites. “ECCM mode, keep them easy targets for us, but hold fire unless they break zell. Janelle, weapons free, engage at will.”

Then pulse laser fire slagged off some of Azisu’s armor and she was too busy to focus on the wider war. The Grendel was staying in the air as much as possible, jumping from one copse of trees to another. Azisu was moving down the hills as well, lagging behind her other mechs. 

Janelle was already firing back at the Falcons’ Shadow Cat, though it was moving fast enough her PPC went wide. The Grendel jumped again, and another sequence of laser pulses ate into Azisu’s armor. Testing the range, she sighted on the grendel and squeezed a gauss shot downrange, but she misjudged how far it would jump between her pulling the trigger and the capacitors charging enough to fire. Her Gauss shot slammed through a patch of trees, turning one into splinters. 

Azisu forced herself to breathe slowly, calming her heartbeats, as she moved into wooded cover. She wouldn’t hit anything running and gunning, moving would only give the Grendel an advantage. Instead she dug her Cyclops’ feet into the snow. Rebecca was on the Grendel’s tail, keeping a massive array of missile launchers pointed at it in case Azisu released her to fire. In the distance, a PPC bolt streaked into the sky. Another missed shot from Janelle, then. 

Jump. Fire. Jump. Fire. The Grendel pilot had found his rhythm, and he was closing in, aiming for the point where his secondary ER lasers would be most effective. Azisu sent another gauss slug his way, mostly to remind him that she was still in the game, and followed it up with her Cyclops’ trio of lasers. He was getting closer, he’d opened the armor on her right arm, and she was watching his timing…

He jumped again. 

Azisu moved her crosshair to the point her intuition told him he would land on and pulled the trigger. Her gauss capacitors surged, drawing power from her mech’s reactor, and the Grendel slammed into the ground, knees contracting to absorb the impact of forty five tons of mech hitting the ground. In the briefest possible instant, Azisu adjusted her aim, bringing her gauss rifle a fraction of a degree to the right.

The gauss rifle fired.

The Grendel never recovered from its crouch, and Azisu gasped out loud as it tumbled to the ground. Whether by skill, instinct, or pure dumb luck, her gauss rifle had shredded the Grendel’s entire cockpit, scattering it across half a kilometer of canyon. Somewhere in the cone of shrapnel emitted from that cockpit, Azisu knew, was a fine red spray that had once been the pilot.

Azisu’s heart thumped in her chest, and she allowed herself a moment of relaxation before pulling up Jacinda’s gun camera. Her Crab was hugging the duel between Janelle’s Grand Dragon and the Shadow Cat, and Azisu’s combat computer quickly threw up a wireframe of Janelle’s Grand Dragon. C3 slave destroyed, a hole in the engine shielding, armor breached in at least two body parts, rear armor almost entirely gone. As she watched, Janelle’s lasers severed the Shadow Cat’s arm, three of its lasers falling to the ground, but it still had its primary pulse laser. Inferno missiles from Janelle’s mech slammed into the Shadow Cat, already running hot from so much jumping and firing, and in the infrared camera on Jacinda’s Crab Azisu saw the Shadow Cat spike white hot, but Janelle’s Grand Dragon was shredded. A shot almost anywhere would kill the mech, and Azisu needed Janelle’s mech active…

“Shadow Cat pilot!” Azisu’s voice cut through the radio in the clear. “Your starmate is dead. Half your mech’s firepower is gone. To succeed in this trial is now beyond your abilities. But honor is satisfied. Cease fire now, and we will allow you to retire without interference.”

There was a beat, a silence across the canyon, and then, as Azisu watched, the Shadow Cat’s remaining arm pointed into the air. Slowly, the mech began backing down the highway, away from the battlefield.

They’d won.

Azisu keyed her radio.

“Lightning one, lightning two, this is Kabuto Actual. Show is over, return to base. But get on the horn and tell base to get a Tonbo in here. I want this Grendel home ASAP. And, Kabuto Lance? We just out-trialed the Jade Falcon Clan. Drinks are on me tonight.”

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