A video appeared on the main screen. This was from the POV of Steamer from Team Cannon Fodder. He stood before the Cheetah being driven by the Julie Experience from Thunder Thighs. Bastet was there to the side, not saying anything. Steamer and Julie were arguing back and forth about Skeet-Skeet using a Heavy from a distance and just blowing everything up, ruining their stream.
And then suddenly the hidden RMI soldier holed up inside the Gonzales house fired his missile at the group.
There was a slight delay as the missile streaked across the field, but several of the Cheetahs hit their jump jets to get away. The video paused and zoomed in. The Cheetah being driven by Steamer also hit the jets in time, but the mech driven by Bastet appeared to have reachedup and grabbed the back of the mech next to her. It happened very quickly, but she basically held Steamer in place, preventing the jump, and they both ended up destroyed by the missile.
“Huh,” I said. “That could’ve just been an accident.”
“Possibly,” Roger said, “but I have searched the available feed, and I found one additional clip featuring Bastet from the day before.”
The scene changed to a different city.
“This is a town on the eastern coast, a hundred kilometers south of Fat Landing, named Not-Acapulco.”
The scene showed a group of ten scout mechs and about five Attenuators turn a corner. Bastet was one of the Attenuators. They suddenly faced a large group of fleeing people. In the middle of the group was a single RMI soldier firing a pulse gun at the oncoming mechs.
The view was from the front of the pack, so I didn’t see what happened next, but the entire group suddenly went up. There was an explosion, fire, then nothing. The words “Your mech has been destroyed. You did not purchase insurance. You have six minutes to purchase another spot or your deployment will be released to someone on the wait list.” appeared on the screen as the streamer started shrieking obscenities.
“What happened was not captured on stream, but the Attenuator immediately to the left of Bastet had a catastrophic detonation of his twelve-pack missile launcher, which resulted in the destruction of the entire party. This player claims he did nothing to blow his launcher and has since filed an appeal to Apex Command to give him a new mech, but Apex Command denied it, citing that the missiles were likely hit by enemy fire. But if you listen carefully to the feed, a fifteenth of a second before the missiles blew, there was the distinctive sound of a shotgun blast. I believe Bastet took a step back and fired into the missile tube, thus temporarily saving those fleeing the mechs. Unfortunately, several were killed later that day.”
“I’m surprised Apex Command hasn’t figured that out. I imagine they have to know,” I said.
Roger clicked. “Interestingly, the terms of service do not address so-called friendly fire. They state if you do not heed orders from Apex Command, they reserve the right to eject you from the game and take control of your mech, but there are no provisions for friendly fire casualties. There have been dozens of instances of conflicts arising from errant shots already, including an all-out battle in a village between two rival streamer groups that ended with over a hundred missiles fired, an entire town razed, and twelve mechs destroyed, all at great expense to all the combatants. Apex has not issued a statement supporting or condemning the action. In fact, just yesterday Apex instituted a ‘Grudge Match’ feature that allows two parties to fight one another if they both agree. They will be dropped in a remote location. There are already rumors about this possibly being expanded in the future as a prizefighting sport with off-Earth betting.”
“Okay,” I said, thinking hard. “What about that thing with Lulu being too small to be seen by the mechs? Is that true?”
“I believe it might be. She is just about the size of the average twelve-year-old boy, and it’s possible they won’t be able to see her, as they hide children on their HUDs. As Lulu has done an admirable job so far of staying out of sight and there are no twelve-year-olds on planet, I do not have any way to confirm this until it is tested. The message implies she would also have to appear unarmed and unarmored.”
Lulu remained silent, but I scoffed.
“It’s also asking her to go there in the middle of the battle,” I said. “There’s no way. If you run off into the hills in the middle of the night to meet a mech, all that’s going to happen is that you’ll get your head blown off. There’s probably a bounty on the RMI leadership. This whole thing could be a clever hunter trying to win some prize.”
“Read it again,” Lulu said. “They said a representative could come. We can send a drone. Or a scout. Or even a UAV.”
That made me feel somewhat better, but I was still skeptical.
“What is he or she or whatever going to do? It’s not like you can give them something to bring back to Earth or vice versa. All they do is…”
I trailed off.
Holy shit,I thought.
Roger beeped. “Lulu, I must agree with Oliver in terms of the possible utility of this asset, especially in the short term. I will send a honeybee to the location during the upcoming skirmish. That will have to be good enough. The battle will be difficult as it is. I am following the feed of several of tonight’s participants, and I see we will be facing Snipers for the first time. We will need you on mortars.”
Damn,I thought,if only we had arranged this sooner.My mind was reeling with sudden possibilities.
The drop ships brought the mechs back up to thePinnacle. We could give them a bomb. It would have to be done in secret, but would that work? How big was that ship? How big of a bomb could we sneak onto a mech? Could we at least try?
We didn’t have time. Not tonight.
Still, Lulu’s eyes met mine with intense ferocity. We were suddenly on the same wavelength here. But how could we make this work?
Sam’s voice crackled over my earpiece. “You’re gonna miss the show,” he said. “We see the drop ships. God, there’re a lot of them.”
Chapter 34
“What the hell is that thing?” Sam said, looking through the scope on his helmet as we stood on the western wall. This time, the majority of the enemy had landed on the other side of the Pantano River and they were coming at us from the heavy woods.
There were apparently several leftover RMI soldiers scattered on the other side of the river, and they’d activated to engage with the mechs, meaning we would have to wait longer than the previous night before they appeared. But now they were appearing, approaching the wall cautiously, having learned their lesson the night before.
