Chapter 2: Tournament II - Vasair, the Warrior Mech

The hour passed by quickly. When there were only ten or so minutes left before the start of the tournament section of the ranking exam, all the students began to file into the building containing the remote cockpit pods. 

While piloting a mech from a remote location was much safer compared to piloting on the site, the latency of the signals and lack of security made it unfeasible. It would be easy for an enemy the pilots faced in war to intercept and hack the signals between the cockpit and the mech.

Nonetheless, Margentian was currently at peace and this battle could only be considered a friendly match at most. The risk of someone intercepting and sabotaging this tournament was deemed lower than an accident happening and a pilot getting hurt.

As she approached the cockpit, she felt a sudden pressure on her head and someone pressed down on her. The hand moved back and forth quickly, roughing up her hair. “Hey!” she protested. 

She looked up to her friend Belevere waving at her enthusiastically as she jogged to her cockpit a few pods down. “If I win, I get to do that as many times as I want, okay? It’s a promise!” she called.

“Shut up!”

Grumbling, Annabelle climbed into the cockpit fastened to the floor and turned it on. Her scalp tingled as the neural interface connected her mind to the cockpit, and through that to a stationary mech kneeling on the ground. 

With a faint buzz, the connection was completed and the next time Annabelle opened her eyes, she was looking from a point of view a dozen meters above ground, an image compiled from hundreds of sensors, most of them concentrated on the mech’s head. Moving her arms moved the mech’s arms, and each twitch of her finger translated to the movement of the mech’s digits. 

Of course, there were some inefficiencies, but for now, she had become her mech. As she checked the mech that she had been provided with, she shook her head and clicked her tongue in disapproval. 

The mech she’d been assigned was a warrior mech called the GH-3W Vasair. White-silver color coating covered tough alloyed armor plating. A heavy, robust two-handed sword hung from her back. 

The exotic metals involved in its construction kept the sword polished and sharp, maintaining an edge that could cut through mech armor long after a normal steel would have been relegated to a crushing weapon.

Yet despite its majesty, a warrior mech was a warrior mech; it was a far cry from the knights she preferred.

There were rumors that in past competitions, the academy had been bribed. They gave a favored student his second choice in mech types and he ended up getting second. Could it be the case here, or was it an honest mistake?

Her records clearly stated that she prefered knight mechs. Knight mechs facilitated the more balanced and conservative fighting style she liked, not to mention having a shield made it a lot more relaxing to pilot.

Attrition was important if she wanted to fight five battles at her best today.

“Well, it could be worse. They could’ve given me a rifleman mech instead,” she said, looking on the bright side of things. 

As much as she would’ve liked to pilot a knight mech, she was decent with warrior mechs as well. Two-handed swords were powerful in their own right, and ending a fight quickly with overwhelming power gave her more time to rest.

But first, she had to get close, and a shield would help her. Did the ability to end a fight really outweigh the safety a shield provided?

“Oh well. It’s useless to complain now. I get what I get.”

As she sullenly waited for the battle to begin, she busied herself studying the terrain. 

It was a square battlefield five kilometers on each side, with a giant opaque force field walling them in.

She was in a dense forest in the southeast corner of the map, while the northwest was a canyon. Plains stretched between the two geographical features, providing no cover except for dips in the ground that might help with throwing off headshots.

Her opponent was Ignar, a rifleman mech pilot, so he was at home anywhere except the canyons where the firing angles were limited. Facing a rifleman mech really made Annabelle wish she had a shield.

“So that means he definitely won’t stay in the canyons. I’ll meet him in the plains and kill him off there, I suppose,” Annabelle mumbled, tracing a likely route on the map.

She finished up her planning just in time for the system’s battle countdown to begin.

“...five, four, three, two... ONE! Start!” A buzzer sounded as the tournament system installed in her mech tolled the competition’s start.

“Alright, it’s go time!” Annabelle shouted, closing her mech’s fingers around the huge sword secured to the back of the mech. With the sound of hydraulic locks releasing, the bindings holding the hunk of metal to her mech fell away, leaving her free to draw the massive sword.

She turned on the open channel. “Let’s go, Ignar!”

But contrary to her enthusiasm, Ignar didn’t seem nearly as happy to go against her. His tone in the open channel said as much. “...Ah, it’s you, Annabelle. I was hoping it was a mistake.”

“Hehe. Unfortunately, you’re stuck with me. Give it up, Ignar, you’re dancing in my palms,” Annabelle teased. While she chatted, she hadn’t been standing still. Instead, she urged her mech forward through the forest. She danced around the trees deftly. Her sword cuts through the branches that she couldn’t avoid. 

Her sensors scanned her surroundings, looking for signs of Ignar as she neared the edge of the forest. 

Ignar will probably go to the middle of the plains where he has an open shot from any direction.

She had considered the possibility of him staying back in the canyons, but while it gave him a place to retreat, it was ultimately too enclosed to fire at close ranges. Given what she knew of Ignar, the plains was likely his first choice.

Then, her sensors beeped, both from detecting an enemy mech. Annabelle smiled in satisfaction as the data she received proved her right. The heat signature spiked and she slowed the Vasair just as a laser beam pierced through the space in front of her. 

“Too naive! You should’ve hidden yourself better,” Annabelle yelled into the open channel. 

“Shut up,” Ignar growled, a response that Annabelle delighted in. Annabelle could only grin as Ignar fell for her provocations. The next shot went wide without any dodging needed from Annabelle while she turned and made a beeline for Ignar’s Bismuth rifleman mech.

As she ran, her sensors picked apart the Bismuth’s specs, and what she saw made her quite happy. As a precision rifleman mech, the Bismuth was better at staying still and firing. Compared to its peers, it was more accurate on the move as well, but thanks to that accuracy, it wasn’t as quick on its feet.

In other words, it was the perfect prey for her warrior mech that possessed both the speed to catch up to fleeing mediumweight opponents, and the power to back up her threat.

Streak after streak of white light blazed past her, narrowly missing. Whether she was becoming predictable or Ignar had adapted, but he finally landed a hit. A beam of white light scorched a groove in her Vasair’s side, exposing some of its internals.

Annabelle cursed her armor’s thinness and began to mix up her dodging a bit more at the expense of her straight-line speed. “I really wish I had a shield.”

Slowly but surely, her mech closed in on Ignar’s Bismuth. When she comes within sword range of the Bismuth, that will be the end of him.

For good measure, she taunted Ignar again. “Come on, save us both some time and just give up. I promise to make it quick.”

“We don’t know who’s going to win yet!” Ignar shot back. He had stopped shooting his long ranged, powerful shots now. Instead, he switched to rapid fire mode, pelting her with tiny laser blasts as he fled. 

Most of the shots missed, but many that did hit couldn’t penetrate her armor. The heat was spread out over her whole frame.

“Ignar, I’m right behind you!”

By now, the Bismuth had already given up shooting and was focusing all of its energy on running away. He headed toward the forest, giving Annabelle a wide berth. Perhaps he aimed to use the trees to slow Annabelle down, but it was too late.

She already took that possibility into account when she planned her approach. As far as she was concerned, the Bismuth was well and truly cornered.

The Vasair bore down on the Bismuth, sword raised, poised to land a heavy two-handed overhead chop. Annabelle stomped forward with her right leg and swung. “I have you now!” 

It was at that moment that the Bismuth who had been running in a straight line the whole time juked to the side. The heavy two-handed sword crashed into the ground, sinking deep into the dirt. 

Ignar’s cackle of glee sounded over the open channel. “Ha! You fell for it!”

As the Bismuth dodged, it tossed away its rifle and drew from its waist two heated knives. It rushed forward, eager to gut the mech that had hounded it for so long. 

However, Annabelle just smiled to herself while she controlled her mech to deal the finishing blow. “Too naive, Ignar!”

The Vasair pushed against its bent right leg, lifting up its whole upper body, its arms, and the sword it held. She twisted as she pulled the sword back, sending the blade into a diagonal slash from the ground up. 

Suddenly reversing the mech’s movement had put the Vasair’s shoulders and right knee joint under a huge amount of stress, a force that Annabelle felt pulling on her own body through the feedback, but it was all worth it. 

The large chunk of metal, aided by the exotics that lined the edge of the sword, sliced cleanly through the Bismuth’s legs. It sent the charging mech tumbling to the ground in a heap of metal, skidding to a stop at the Vasair’s feet.

Ignar’s laughter was cut short by the force of the fall, and when Annabelle heard his voice again over the open channel, it was tinged with panic. “No! Wait!”

But it was too late to beg for mercy. “No can do!” 

The Vasair’s sword rose and fell, piercing right through the midriff of the grounded Bismuth, destroying the wireless module that connected Ignar’s cockpit to the mech. Her first battle of the tournament came to an eventless end.

The warrior mech just stood there, its sword still buried in the wreckage of the Bismuth, its pose exuding an air of finality. 

Annabelle took a deep breath, breathing in her victory as the tournament system announced to her her victory. 

If there was one thing about her performance that she wasn’t satisfied with, though, it was that she had gotten excited while she was fighting. Too excited. 

Annabelle disconnected from the cockpit and placed a hand on her chest, feeling her heart thumping away. For a battle against a student ranked in the latter half of the hundreds, she had expended way more effort that she would have liked. 

Trying to dodge all the laser fire aimed at her legs took a lot out of her. A lucky hit might have cut her mobility by half. If that had happened, she might as well just give up since she’d have never caught Ignar.

“Well... that’s not good. Hopefully my next opponent will be a close ranged mech,” she said, sighing. Then she remembered that she could just check. There was a minimum of ten minutes break between each battle so she had time.

The next battle would start when both contestants have been ready for ten minutes, so the longer she took in battle, the more time she gave her next opponent to rest. 

Annabelle kept that in mind as she opened her comms. To her surprise, there were a few messages, including one from Senia, and one from... Ignar. “Huh, didn’t expect that one.”

First was Senia’s.

It was one of congratulations, followed by a question. “Are there any tips you can give me for my opponent after my current one? Much appreciated!” Senia had tacked on a skull image at the end of the message.

Grim.

Annabelle checked the schedule in Senia’s bracket, then she double checked for mistakes. Finally, she offered her friend a silent prayer. Senia’s first opponent was currently ranked 144 in their year, while the one she was currently fighting was ranked 50. And the winner of their fight would go on to fight against the current number one, Matt Haines. 

No wonder she sent that skull.

Senia’s battle with such a closely matched opponent will doubtlessly be long and grueling, so when she finishes, even if she wins, she’ll be in no shape to fight Matt. It seems that Senia’s year will end soon.

As someone who excelled in both studies and piloting, there weren't any silver bullet tactics that Annabelle could come up with that would allow an already exhausted Senia to beat their number one. Thus, she merely sent a message that said “good luck” back.

Last of her pending messages was from Ignar, someone she didn’t expect to be texting her. 

“‘I guess that it was inevitable that I would lose to you,’ huh?” Annabelle said as she read the text. She wasn’t sure if she liked his deterministic thinking. As long as he tried hard enough, there was always a chance of victory. For starters, he tried way too hard to take her out in one shot instead of grinding her legs away. 

She scoffed as she read the last of his message. “‘Now that you beat me, you carry my spirit on your shoulders, so I won’t forgive you if you lose!!’

“Looks like someone has been watching way too many shows instead of practicing and studying. No wonder you lost, Ignar.” She had no intention of replying. Instead, she spent the last of her allotted ten minutes preparing for her next battle.

Just as she was about to open Terry’s profile, though, a new message appeared from her friend Belevere.

It was short and simple, and quite to the point. 

“Wash your neck and wait, dear.”

Annabelle grinned.

YuriDoggo

This is the first fight scene. One of the top ranked students versus one of the bottom ranked students was bound to end in tragedy, especially at a type mismatched like this. Realistically, Ignar had a chance if he kept his calm and aimed well. If he disabled Annabelle's legs, game over. As a side note, duels aren't fair. Real battles have a varied composition of mech classes and types.

Schedule: At least one chapter a day.

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Extra Information
Mechs in my world are about 10-15 meters tall depending on its weight class. Medium warrior mechs tend to be around 13 meters due to its bulky musculature while medium ranged mechs like the Bismuth classes at around 12 meters.

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Check out the Glossary for more information!