Ravens of Eternity

248 Mechageddon Finals, Pt Jester dove into the Rakshasa’s systems a second time, but with more aggressive codesets. He was able to tear into its operational intelligence with much greater ease, and dug his way towards its regeneration sublogic clusters.

He completely deleted it, and replaced it with his own with a smug smile on his face.

But to his horror, his changes were automatically rejected, and the Intelligence regenerated itself. Little did he know, but Raijin’s Oversight Engine was the one that ensured code integrity, and it was far more efficient than he could ever dream.

And while he was busy poring through Rakshasa’s incredible code, an alert resounded on a number of his screens – he was being counterhacked.

He quickly switched to his own intelligences, and watched as viral code tore into them. It swapped out functions left and right, to his utter astonishment.

While Raijin’s Oversight Engine defended Rakshasa, her Truesight Engine invaded Jester’s Kestrel. She wasn’t even connected herself – she had coded her Engines to act on her behalf, and had a great degree of autonomy. It had literally counterattacked the moment he had connected to the Rakshasa.

Jester’s eyes widened with awe as Truesight completely dismantled his Intelligences with expertise and precision. Then he dug in and began to actively restore his own circuits.

Sweat poured down his forehead as he fought against Raijin’s Truesight, and pieced his own Intelligences back together. He restored line after line of his own code as fast as humanly possible, and slowly caught up to Truesight’s takeover.

And although he regained his footing, he lost all capacity to attack.

.....

Even worse, he couldn’t shut down his link to the Rakshasa – both Truesight and Oversight had solidified the connection and ensured its integrity.

“Cancel that!” he cried out. “I’m bogged down in a defensive hack! The Rakshasa’s systems have a ridiculous sentient defense logic!”

“Can you beat it?” asked Mad Monk.

“I... I think so! I just need time.”

“Then make that time count!”

Mad Monk sidestepped Freya as she powerfully thrust at him with her spear. Its edge scraped across his shoulder, and etched a groove into his armor.

He countered with a jumping overhand swing, but with his mechanism overcharged to the maximum. He brought down his antiarmor cestus right on the middle of her shield, and dented it severely.

Freya was pushed back a number of steps, and her momentum was completely negated in that single blow.

Mad Monk pressed his advantage, and pushed forward with a flurry of strikes while Varulv’s balance was off center. He pummeled her shield with vicious blows, one after another. His punches were so relentless that she was pushed further and further backwards.

Worse, her shield was dented and warped even further with each hit. It began to crumple and fall apart under his relentless attacks.

Her Varulv stumbled as she fell back and retreated from him, but he simply followed and continued his ferocious assault. Freya didn’t even try to hit back, and instead focused everything on defending against Mad Monk’s attacks.

She watched as he wrecked her shield further and further. The power behind his strikes were utterly devastating, and she felt the tremors of each impact deep in her core.

It was clear that Mad Monk had been in countless skirmishes – he used his blinding speed and ground-shattering power to keep her on the defensive. She barely had enough time to react in the midst of his onslaught.

Nearby, Kali’s anger rose higher and higher as her axe slammed against Big Dorf’s heavy scutum shield. Despite how much energy she poured into her arms, she simply couldn’t do a significant amount of damage to it.

The best she could do was shear off small slivers of metal as she chipped against its surface. The shield itself was marred with multiple scars, but none were deep or ruinous enough to make a meaningful difference.

It was made all the more frustrating when Big Dorf activated his incredibly robust repair systems and restored the shield back to full in a matter of seconds. Kali couldn’t help but watch in frustration as whatever damage she caused vanished before her eyes.

Kali decided to stop attacking, and instead circled around him in search of a way in. But frustratingly, he simply kept his shield facing her at all times.

She had to hand it to him, though – he was a veritable immovable object.

Not only was she unable to shake him, but there were nearly a dozen drones scattered around them, most of them firing their little guns at him. And yet he ignored them completely. Simply, their guns could never do damage to him.

They barely even budged him. They simply bounced off his armor as though they were made of foam.

Big Dorf came on her comms display with a wide grin on his face, even as she stalked his flank.

“That all you’ve got, lil’ girl?” he said. “If you’re done, lemme show ya what it means to use a real poleaxe!”

He swept his shield aside suddenly, as though it was made of paper, and thrust his glaive forward with frightening speed and strength. Its long edge shot forward, aimed right at Rakshasa’s chest.

Kali automatically leapt out of the way right in the nick of time. It just barely missed her by sheer millimeters, but she could still feel the ultrasonic vibrations of its keen edge. And just like Freya, she too was pushed back as he swung at her over and over with his glaive.

She raised her shield as he brought the weapon down on her. The force of the hit was absolutely staggering, and he easily chopped off a section from its lower half in a single swing.

And every time she used it to block, he simply lopped off more and more of it.

“You oughta just give up now,” he said. “It’s not like you’re gonna beat me. Nonna you can!”

He swung his glaive again, but this time laterally. It cut into her shield and sliced off its top half in one swift motion. It flew off a few meters away and landed with a puff of dirt.

Kali was astounded at her opponent’s tenacity. She hadn’t fought against anyone with such skill in a long time, and was forced into a defensive stance. And considering her aggressive piloting style, was at a massive disadvantage.

She leapt back with full thrusters as he slammed down onto the ground with his glaive. The vibrating edge caused the ground to split right where it landed, and caused a small rift to appear in the ground.

A bunch of loose dirt was flung into the air from the sheer force as well.

“You’re a little too sure of yourself,” she said through gritted teeth. “I think we Ravens’re gonna have to take you down a peg!”

Before Big Dorf could withdraw his glaive, Kali countercharged him with her axe high above her head. She closed the gap in the blink of an eye, and brought her axe down on him diagonally. Its edge dug into his shoulder, but nowhere nearly as deeply as she would have liked. She would have preferred to have cleaved through to the structure.

Though the force of the blow was great enough that he was knocked down to one knee. It slammed right on the ground, and caused the entire mecha to shudder from the impact.

“Hah!” he said. “It’s a good effort, but you’re gonna have to do much better than that!”

He slammed his scutum into her as he leapt forward, and threw her back a few steps. He pulled back his glaive, then swung it laterally at Kali.

Instead of her evading it however, his blade simply met her axe’s edge with a heavy CLANG.

Kali pushed forward and locked their two weapons together. They shook as the both of them vied to overpower the other.

And although his resonance edge was certainly powerful, he knew that it wasn’t a match for her omnitronium edge. Nothing was, except another omnitronium weapon. Her greataxe was at the top of its class, and the only reason it didn’t eat his shield up was because it too was made with an omnitronium mesh.

“Don’t you worry,” she replied. “We’ll take you down in no time at all.”

He was about to retort but then fixated on one of the words she said, and paused as he thought about it.

“We?” he said. “I don’t see-”

Before he could finish his sentence, his shield arm’s shoulder was suddenly pierced by a 200mm round. He was pushed forward and stumbled somewhat from the force of the blow.

Then the supersonic CRACK of Xylo’s sniper cannon echoed throughout the zone a second later.

She stood up on top of the main building with the largest generators, and looked down on the battlefield. Her sensors quickly scanned all her opponents, and combined with Raijin’s data, determined their absolute weakest points.

Then, she fired again.

Another round struck his shoulder and pushed him forward. This time, it ground his shoulder to a halt as its internal mechanisms were ripped apart.

Big Dorf was forced to go fully defensive, and backed away. This time, he raised his shield as best he could, and protected himself from Xylo’s further attacks.

“Dammit Silvermoon!” he cried. “I thought you said this bitch was with Raijin!”

Silvermoon immediately rechecked his sensors, and absolutely confirmed that Xylo’s signature was next to Raijin’s, well over a zone away. And where Xylo actually, physically stood, he saw absolutely nothing except the remnants of her weapon’s heat.

She was practically invisible, and his mouth gaped open both in awe and fear. He quickly snapped out of it, and chided his foolish teammate.

“They’ve obviously spoofed us, slagbrain!” replied Silvermoon.

Mad Monk grit his teeth as he swung at Freya and kept her at bay. This changed this specific fight, but not his overall strategy. They still had the upper hand, even if their numerical advantage wasn’t as large.

His eyes widened when he realized that they had an even better opportunity.

“This means that their EWar is flying solo,” he said. “Silvermoon – go neutralize their Tsunami. Without her interference, their signals will skyrocket. You’ve got more than enough firepower to handle her.”

“Yessir!”

Silvermoon didn’t hesitate, and quickly hopped down from his building and sped straight towards Raijin’s position. His sensors reported that she was headed towards the Hangar, and no doubt looked to take it over.

Guided by Tiamat’s Transcendence, Freya detached her shield and tossed it straight at Mad Monk. It crashed right into his chest and threw him off rhythm, which caused him to stumble slightly.

Just as he swatted the shield aside and took a step to correct his balance, Freya charged straight at him with maximum velocity. She thrust forward with her spear and jammed it right into his shoulder.

It bit deeply into his armor, and into the structure underneath. Then, she pulled it back and jabbed him over and over with powerful thrusts. Each time, she dug into his armor and pierced it deeply.

This time, it was his turn to get pushed back, and he took multiple steps backwards to regain his balance. Though Mad Monk was stymied, he was an expert skirmisher and quickly took numerous small sidesteps and began to parry her spear.

Then he met her momentum with a quick hop forward, and jabbed a fist straight towards her head. However, he found nothing but air as Freya’s Varulv rolled to the side out of his path. She retaliated by swinging her spear wide and slashed him across his abdomen.

Though she only got halfway through his armor, it ate at him regardless.

Without skipping a beat, he leapt towards the Varulv yet again. He dodged a spear thrust, then stepped forward and swung a left uppercut into her midsection. There was a CRUNCH as his spiked cestus dented her abdominal armor to a great degree.

She in turn drove a knee straight into his chest, and used a blast of her thrusters to add momentum to her strike. The force was such that she dented his chest armor with equal strength, and threw him back a few meters.

He stumbled backwards a few steps, but then took the opportunity to fall back a dozen meters further. He quickly rebalanced his mecha and solidified his stance, though was careful not to let his guard down.

But Freya’s Varulv didn’t chase him. Instead, she began to circle him, and spun her spear around her with skillful flair.

The whole exchange only took a few seconds, and it caused their blood to pump heavily in their bodies. There was a primal thrill that warriors like them thrived on. It made them feel most alive.

Mad Monk’s chest swelled as excitement filled his veins. He hadn’t fought anyone as skilled as Freya in a long time, and realized that there was a chance his team could lose the match. He realized that if every single one of them was as skilled as her, then they were in for a truly serious fight.

He quickly threw those thoughts out of his mind... They had a match to win.

“You’re not bad, you know that?” he said in admiration.

“That’s what everyone says,” Freya shot back with a grin, “right before we trounce ’em into the ground.”

.....