Heavy Construct Brooklynn Chapter 2: Encounter

A few moments later, the flash dissipated, it took Nat’s eyes a few moments more for vision to return. Shock met her gaze. There was a new large crater in the asteroid, right where Zira had been. Her heat sensor beeping returned her to her senses. She glanced at the reading, two distinct heat signatures, one massive.

“Zira, you good?” Her question was curt and full of worry.

“I’m alive! My legs are damaged, and my HC isn’t moving like it should” Zira was anxious and scared.

“Dammit, I’ll get you out of this. Fire the enemy contact beckon. Ranks and Sime should be close” Her last works were more hope than certainty, but she could not Zira know that. “And fall back to that asteroid and give me covering fire, I’ll make sure they don’t get you”

Shots began raining in, aimed more for suppression than damage, they were easy to avoid. But the enemy was here, with a terrifying new weapon, and she needed a plan, and quick. Luckily for her, Zira’s beacon firing, meant to signal Ranks, Sime, and the Eridus also attracted the attention of the rebels.

She was able to see both heavy constructs identified by heat source. One was the standard boxy type. Its large torso imposing to those not used to them but easy prey for a competent marksman. Combining the cockpit and main camera in the largest target on the construct was a choice made out of ease of building rather than pilot safety. This appeared to be a deficiency the rebels were working on. The second heavy construct was far slimmer, its arms and legs appeared to lack no power. Nat thought the main camera being on the top of the torso in the style of a head was a novel one. Its armaments brought a furrow to her brow though. In addition to a standard enough looking rifle type gun, the construct’s left hand was filled with a long tube, with a hose connected to an oversized pack on the back of the machine. Nat’s moment of study was over as she aimed her rifle at the standard construct. Her breathing paused slightly as she fired.

Her three shots were dodged at the last second. The heavy construct maneuvering to the west just in time. It began firing back, this time with much more lethal intent. Nat did her best to dodge, suddenly turning on a dime, Nat aimed her heavy construct towards the other. Nat pushed forward, closing distance to the standard construct, squeezing off shots to keep it in place. This gambit paid off as she was nearly upon it, readying her sword in her left hand. She did not notice the headed construct’s foot dashing towards her position.

She was suddenly slammed into her right control, helmet dampening the blow.

“Forget I was here too ya bastard, you won’t take us down that easily” The taunting voice crackled over the open channel. She had, it was a rookie mistake, one she was paying for, as the headed construct began pounding her right arm with the butt of its rifle. 

“I’m not done yet!” She retorted, spinning her mech in such a way top break free, she then fired a few shots, forcing the headed one to back away. She was less than hopeless two on one. Giving herself not time to think, she set her sights on the standard one and pushed forward once again, this time focusing on her peripherals as well. It was backing up in a panic towards the asteroid.

“The same trick twice, the president must be desperate and giving anyone a construct” Nat her crackling over the radio. She dodged left, forcing the headed one who was speeding at her behind to run head long into the standard heavy construct. There was a flash of fire as the standard one devoted all its thruster power to pushing up, sending it far above the asteroid. Zira made his move. Pounding shot after shot into the surprised construct. Nat turned away after the first shot landed, keeping her attention on the headed one. She fired the remains of her magazine where it was and then quickly wielded her sword in her right hand going in for the kill. The headed construct had superb agility though as it was able to avoid each strike. It fired its rifle in vain hope of forcing Nat to disengage, Rose’s makeshift shield was passing its first test.

Slowly, the headed one was pushed past the asteroid. Zira once again tried a surprise attack, but his shots rang wide. The heavy construct with the head quickly fired its back thrusters and nearly landed on Nat. Nat slammed herself against the asteroid to avoid being hit. Using the asteroid as a springboard she launched herself with surprising speed at the headed one. She felt a surprising force pull her back and arrest her momentum.

“Get the Brooklynn out of here Eri! Their help will be here soon” A voice wheezed over the open channel, just as Nat looked in her peripherals to see the standard construct, with its single remaining arm attached to her leg, thrusters firing backwards. Nat slashed herself free with her sword and attempted to follow the headed one, which was zooming to the north. Her pursuit was stopped as her heat sensor once again showed a spike. A large red flash came from the distant headed construct, it hit the asteroid, causing a large section to break away from the main body.

After a brief check in on Zira, Nat caught her breath. She had done it again, fought and not died. She sat floating in the silent void. Tears welled in her eyes. A soft hiccup in her breathe, fighting back the urge to wail. Her mind running. Every action replaying in her head, every moment her life nearly ended. It went on this way until the Eridus picked them up a few minutes later.

Nat sat in her cockpit after returning to her docking station. It was standard procedure for pilots to quickly eject and allow the maintenance crew to fix heavy constructs promptly. Nat never liked that part. She stared blankly forward, her mind unable to make thoughts.

“Hey, Nat, you’re safe now” a soft, kind voice reached her ear. “It’s okay, your back, you survived” Nat turned to her left to see a look of worry on Rose’s face.

“Sorry, I just… It's scary out there, one wrong move and it's over, I break my promise to you” Nat found a knot in her throat welling up.

“But you didn’t, you’re right here, talking to me”

“I, I, I came closer than I ever have to though, they almost had me. They’ll got a new HC, its so, so, so, powerful, I don’t know how we chased it off”

Rose gave Nat her right hand and pulled her out of the seat, then helped her take off her helmet. Rose embraced her.

“I know, I saw the recording, its scary they’ve got something that strong and fast now, but we’ll get through this” Rose took the circle around Nat’s neck into her hand. “We’ve gotta get this to zero, c’mon let’s get you out of that suit, you’ll feel better after”

After guiding Nat to the changing room, Rose returned to the hanger bay. “Damn, legs are more fucked that I thought, thing could barely walk in here, at least the shield did its job” she mused aloud

“He’s certainly got a reckless way of piloting, best pilot on the ship that’s damn for sure but I wish he would think more about his HC. I dunno how you let yourself get so close tho that boy, His timer’s gunna ring sooner than later and you are in for a world of pain when it happens” the reply was unexpected and harsh, Rose glared in the direction of the voice.

”Nat’s not going to die, I’ll make sure of it, Malcolm” She shot back harshly

“You don’t have the power to stop it from happening. You can tinker and you can fix but at the end of the day it’s Nathan and the enemy that decides if he comes home. Hate me all you want you know i’m right” the large man grabbed a wrench and began working on Nat’s heavy construct. Rose flushed with anger and began fixing the damaged hydronic system from where the enemy heavy construct had grabbed onto the leg. They both worked in a begrudging silence.

Zira was sitting staring at the helmet in his hands when Nat walked into the changing room.

“Hey, Welks, I dunno if I would be alive right now if it wasn’t for you, so thanks I guess” He was shaken. “Man, some of the moves you pulled, how did you know the rebels would forget about me when I moved to behind the asteroid?”

“I didn’t know exactly but figured they’d assume they disabled your HC. We got lucky, big time, but coming back to the Eridus is the main thing we can hope for when we leave” Nat was in no mood to give a pep talk but something Ilo had taught her was that you must always be ready to talk with your men. Nat paused on that thought. Her men. Since Ilo died she was technically the second ranking member of the Hunter Fishers, but she had never contemplated what that actually meant. She was too wrapped up in her own world.

“Yeah, I guess, I dunno how the bastards made an HC that can fire a laser as strong as a ship though. We gotta stop that thing somehow.”

“I dunno if we can, and it terrifies me” Nat let the vulnerability seep through her. What had gotten into her. “But we’ll have to do our best, hopefully command sends some help our way, we’ll need it”

Later that day, a council consisting of the foremost military brass was convened in Bruslex, the capital of the Galactic Republic.

“The advancement of rebel weaponry as shown in the encounter in the Alpha-065 asteroid belt is very concerning. If the enemy is testing weapons of that magnitude so close to the middle galactic belt should not be possible, Wilson, why have we not redoubled our surveillance of the outer belt and the arms?” A small gruff man spoke back “We don’t have the resources and those we do have are inadequate at their positions. In this case it took four days for the Eridus to arrive, far too slow, a proper crew would have done it in two. And then there’s the fact they only have four heavy constructs on the ship. We have 6745 operational hunting ships at any one time, each with a crew of around 300. What we need is over 10,000 ships. Since the lose of the Orion Arm and its population, we’ve struggled to maintain the fleet we need to cage in the rebels. If we could take some of the Sagittarius forces to patrol the”

“Out of the question, we will not have our best security forces and the prime of our population hunting around for mice instead of protecting our valuable citizenry from harm” A large stout man fired in. Just then a thin man with a long face spoke up.

“Gentlemen, I think we can reach a compromise on how best to use my forces. I would hate to disagree with Secretary Kelly about the need to protect the galactic core, but we need not use all over even most of the Sagittarius forces, we have the selection branch for a reason. Yes, I know, they’re used to not leaving the middle belt but, desperate times call for desperate measures” His teeth flashed in a wide smile “While the draftees may be largely beneath the worth of my glorious Sagittarius forces, there are always exceptions and we have been logging them for some time. How about we form a task force with the Falcion, the Eridus, The Wilkan, and Yewfell. How about we promote the tenacious young man who fought with the rebels' new toy to a squad commander, this Nathan Welks interests me, I would like to see where he goes. We can deploy this task force for a sweep of where the Eridus ran into our new friend, and if we don’t find them, at least we can establish a new base on the edge of the Orion belt.”

Secretary Kelly Cleared his throat “Very well, I like this plan, it shows the public we are taking this attack seriously. I’ll approve it. Claudius, I am counting on you to see it through”

“Of course, sir, it would be my pleasure” The thin man said. The meeting was then adjourned. Each man walked quickly out of the room. Claudius chuckled as he exited, his cunning eyes sizing up his colleagues.