By David C. Daoust
Mech, Mecha, and Drone— Each came in varying shapes and sizes. Drones, of course, were devices piloted from afar, with no occupants; either by humans or AI. Mechs, which were extremely rare and expensive, were piloted from a jacked-in mind. Where a Mecha, was piloted by an on-board human, maybe a bot, sitting in a cockpit… Really, the First Wave’s Rover was more like a Mecha than the Battle Drones the two little girls liked to call their ‘Spider-Mechas’.
This seemed natural, of course, because, in game, they were presented as Mechas. Vehicles manned by their characters in the game world. In fact, in the games interface, it actually depicted their sprites handling all the controls as they made their selections, all in first-person view. It showed the inside of the cockpit, framed around the world outside.
Now that the machines were separated from the illusion, they were actually just ‘drones’, plain and simple. Yet, no one could really fault the girls to still want to call them Mechas.
Ratchet too, joined in and referred to them as Mecha as well. Mainly, because it was easier to talk about the swarm of Battle Drones, as Drones, and their own, as Mechas, rather than calling them all the same thing.
And so, as the two ‘Mechas’ soared ever nearer to the massive swarm of Battle-drones, Ratchet had no problem understanding what Grace was talking about when she complained about having her Mecha run by a nub. And how angry she would be if he wrecked it.
Ratchet was in no mood to appease the little girl, even if she was considered the good sister. ‘Good’ as in sweet and polite, if not completely silent and unassuming. As opposed to Dicey’s brash enthusiasm and need to be heard at all times. He found Grace was not quite so ‘good’, when she was not consulted on how, what she had decided was ‘hers’, was used in her absence.
“Oh, my goodness, Grace,” Dicey suddenly erupted, “Just give it a rest… we’re just going to take a quick peek at what these guys are doing out here…”
“You should have woken me up!” Grace declared, accusingly to her sister.
Ratchet could picture the pout on her face as she spoke. Mainly because he had witnessed it, moments before, when he refused to give up the controls.
Truth was, had he not been so grouchy to begin with, he may have tried to talk her into letting him continue on with her blessing, even made her feel involved.
As it were, Ratchet was just being a jerk and he knew it.
“Quiet, Grace,” Ratchet said dismissively, “You’re distracting us…”
Ratchet heard a ‘shhhh,’ that he had to assume was Dicey obnoxiously shushing her now stewing sister. He was sure this just fueled Graces frustration, and at the same time delighted the youngest sister. He knew he was letting an imbalance form, he was going to have fireworks on his hands if he continued to ignore it; he knew he was going to have to diffuse it, but… he just hadn’t hit the point where he cared.
Out in the dunes, the two Spider-mechas dove down into the swarm…
Considering the earlier encounter had involved gamers manning the drones, Ratchet and Dicey both, assumed that their arrival would just be more players joining back in. They had assumed they would be ignored. So, when the swarm suddenly parted, isolating them, and then circled them like prey— it raised the hairs on the back of Ratchet’s neck.
“What?” Dicey voiced Ratchet’s very thoughts, “What are they doing?”
“That’s creepy right?” Ratchet asked.
The drones were moving in a pattern, organized, if not in unison. This was not the kind of behavior one would expect from a mass of drones controlled by random gamers being piped through the hub; In point of fact, unknowingly controlling machines out in the real world.
More like a pack of wolves, planning to strike.
Suddenly, a drone flew in close… Ratchet pulled back, giving way as he tried to figure out what it was going to do… he suddenly clashed with something else entirely. He found himself within the clutches of another drone. He lost altitude pretty quick as it suddenly felt like he was flying a brick, the attacking drone however managed to slow him from a plummet; held his Mecha aloft.
It had him good.
“Oh no!” Dicey suddenly announced, “I think it’s got me!”
Ratchet, with limited control, spun around in midair, found Dicey’s Mecha completely in the clutches of another Drone.
It had been a pincer attack.
Apparently, they had fallen for it!
All four machines careened wildly through the sky. Neither pilot able to wrest control… yet their struggle against, hampered their attacker’s ability to fly straight as well.
“Awe,” Grace could be heard crying, “See! Now you’re going to lose my Mecha! You guys can’t take on all those drones! You don’t even know how to play!”
“Shut up, Grace,” Ratchet snapped, as he tried to figure out the best course of action.
“Oh no! It’s trying to Splice my Mecha!” Dicey suddenly cried.
As she said this, Ratchet spotted the series of tentacles that had descended from the head of the Drone and begun to attach itself to Dicey’s Spider.
“Hit it,” Ratchet suggested aggressively, while he tried to twist from the one that was grappling his Mecha, “Knock it away.”
This action could not be considered a normal attack. He was actually trying to flail the machines’ legs around to kind of break himself free. He’d even hit his ‘super-jump’ button, in the hopes that the sudden fierce movement may help to affect this strategy. Instead, it just uselessly kicked the air. Ultimately, Ratchet could not fire on his attacker, because it had him from behind.
Red text flashed in the center of his image, ‘Splice detected’. It was trying to splice his Mecha as well!
“Target mine! Target it,” Dicey, vehemently, commanded, “I got yours in my sites!”
Ratchet did as he had been shown earlier and selected the targeting reticle hovering over the opposing drone…
“Got it!” he reported.
“Fire, Fire, Fire,” Dicey suddenly shouted.
Ratchet let loose… Sent a series of small pulses of energy drilling into the enemy drone. At that very moment, Dicey attacked his as well. Each fired on each other’s attacker at the exact same time. Absolutely crushed the Drones…
Both had managed to break free of their attackers. Try as they might, they managed to regain control of their Mechas…
The red text, warning of a splice in progress, vanished, as the now wrecked machines plummeted to the dunes below, great plumes of black smoke trailing behind.
The two victors rocketed free– Ratchet was holding his breath, unsure what may come next… Only to find that as soon as the two drones had failed in their assault, the rest of the swarm, rather than joining in on the attack, suddenly broke apart. Each one flying off in a different direction. The swarm was dispersed in a matter of seconds. The Battle Drones fled! Vanishing over the horizon.
But that wasn’t the craziest thing they saw.
As the shadow seemed to descend from above… Huge angelic wings swept into view… and then passed under them just as quickly.
Ratchet spun his Mecha about, chasing the arrow that appeared on the edge of his vision, he managed to select the targeting reticle- this immediately steadied and oriented his view on the object, tracking it– it was a Dragon.
A massive metallic dragon. A freaking mechanical Dragon! It was the coolest thing he’d ever seen. No sooner had he gotten a good look at the thing, than it soared away.
The two Spiders hovered all alone in the desert.
Both pilots completely bewildered by what they had just witnessed…
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