Marcus's attention bobbed between the azure glow, which filled the cockpit from the multitude of screens, and the Adder swinging to bear down on the Firestorm. He'd never seen these things turn on before and certainly didn't know why this system existed.

  "He's headed right for us." Layne called out, sweating as he carved away at the muck that bogged the Firestorm down.

  "Keep digging." Marcus stared at the Adder. He depressed the accelerator, feathered the clutch to keep the legs engaged and pushing against the mud without stalling.

  "Timur, get up right now." Amurad shouted over the radio.

  Atop the plateau, Arminius's upright sprinted, holding a rifle trained on the Adder. He fired a shot, which the scout upright dodged by weaving to the side just as the bullet neared landing. The red-hot tracer round ricochetted off the water and lobbed into the air, disappearing into the forest.

  Inside the Firestorm cockpit, the multitude of blue screens suddenly extinguished and the natural light from outside was all that remained. Marcus nearly slipped from his chair when both foot pedals lost all resistance and slid forward. The upright jolted then stood straight up.

  "The arms stopped responding." Layne called over his shoulder as he jabbed at the joysticks without effect.

  The voice that haunted Marcus’s mind called out once again, but from the intercom above. "System checks completed. Drivetrain online. Actuators online. Weapons online. Launch status: Green. F.E.N.I.C.K.S. reports nominal operation. Ready to engage."

  "What is that?" Layne stopped wrestling with the joysticks and looked over his head.

  "That's—" Marcus started but a force in the pedals slammed him back into his seat. The engine roared in a way he never heard before as a thick plume of sooty exhaust filled the area. He started to speak again, but the overwhelming boom of the engines drowned him out, even from within the cockpit. Reaching under the console to his right, near the shifter, he pulled out a wired headset and fitted them over his ears.

  Layne turned and shouted but couldn’t overcome the noise from the engine.

  Marcus pointed to the console beside the gunner's seat, to Layne's right.

  Layne reached under and placed a pair of headphones on his head and over his ears.

  As his best friend was fitting his headset, Marcus revved the engine and feathered the clutch once more. The legs didn't move.

  "What the..." Marcus muttered.

  "The legs are in manual mode to assist in combat." Fenicks, the guidance computer that recited the startup procedure called out through the headset. "Do you need me to engage training mode?"

  Outside, the Adder pivoted, bringing itself to bear on Arminius's upright moving along the plateau. Amurad shot his underside small bore gun upwards at it.

  "No, just tell me how to get this thing moving." Marcus demanded, staring at the multitude of screens displaying various stats about the upright.

  "Understood. Your rudder pedals are actuated as well as depressible. If you push one forward, the corresponding leg will respond in turn." Fenicks replied.

  Marcus thrust his leg forward and the Firestorm's hip pivoted, jutting its leg out, powering through the muck as the engine roared.

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  "Figure out if there are any other weapons on board we might have missed." Marcus called out to Layne. "I'm getting us out of this mess."

  Layne poured over the displays. "We, uh," he leaned forward and grumbled then shook his head. "Only have a 3-inch cannon with one shot and two knives."

  Swaying the pedals back and forth, Marcus freed the Firestorm and got it in motion. "Daggers will have to do."

  Marcus got the upright to speed and in motion toward the Adder, aiming to approach from its flank.

  "There's no way we're fast enough to keep up with that thing." Layne stared at the viewport.

  Another shot flew across the Adder's bow from Arminius's upright, missing and skimming along the marsh.

  "Either he gets him, or we do. Save the cannon." Marcus used both of his joysticks to adjust the upper and lower half of the body, leaning into the run.

  The Firestorm dripped with mud as it ran toward the Adder which in turn was breaking toward the small length of plateau where the cannon battery lay in flames.

  "Timur, what are you doing? Don't come near me, go after him." Amurad called out over the radio.

  Arminius's upright lowered its rifle and then took a step forward and raised its arm. A burst of rapid-fire shots peppered the Adder. Arminius ran along the length of the cliffside, toward a small alcove between the extension in the plateau upon which the remains of the cannon battery lay, and the main landmass.

  "I'm going to stay on him." Marcus stared at the Adder's smokestacks bellowing in front of them. "Get ready."

  Arminius's upright burst into a sprint and with a two-footed leap, hurled itself across the alcove gap. It ripped one of the cannons off its wooden wheels and then under-armed it.

  As the Adder approached the alcove it banked hard to break for open ground off to the right.

  Arminius’s upright brought the cannon under its arm to bear on the Adder and pressed its finger up against the fuse. After a moment, it recoiled from the shot. The cannonball lobbed and narrowly missed the Adder.

  The Adder slid to stop, but pivoted to the left, into the alcove. "Stop following me and climb, get rid of that thing!" Amurad spoke, his voice filled with panic. "Be useful for once, Timur!"

  Beneath the Firestorm, the ground firmed up in the alcove and after Marcus shifted to second, the superchargers let off a whine as he dropped the accelerator to the floor. "Your dog is dead and you're next." Marcus called out over the radio, jamming the shifter to third.

  Amurad came to a stop near the back wall of the alcove. He let out an audible gasp over the radio as he turned to face the oncoming Firestorm. "What are you going to do with that thing, boy?"

  Marcus clenched his teeth.

  Layne leaned forward and adjusted his grip on the gunner's joysticks.

  The barbarian leader cackled. "I bought that thing for pennies from a toothless, flea-bitten vendor. It eats pilots. Turns their insides out and spews them over the landscape like a raging river. The only thing saving you is that little medallion next to you. If that slips and falls off, you're as good as dead."

  The Firestorm slowed to a walk as it closed on the Adder. Each step from the hulking upright rattled chunks of auburn stone from the alcove walls.

  "The inhibitor's already been removed." Marcus spoke low, confident.

  "What?" Amurad barked. The Adder tried to retreat but bumped its exhaust stacks into the back wall.

  The Firestorm was only a dozen paces from the Adder, trotting.

  "This was my father's upright. Whether you bought it or stole it, I don't care. This is payback for what you've done to my friends and me." Marcus spoke coldly, shifted down, and jabbed the accelerator again.

  Amurad shouted wildly and took a step forward to charge at the Firestorm. But the mountainous machine leaped forward into a sprint and closed before the Adder could accelerate meaningfully.

  The metal lance on the Adder met hardened armor plating and coiled backwards from the impact. The full mass of the Firestorm plowed the Adder into the rock wall behind it, causing a rockslide.

  The impact deafened, filling the cockpit with a horrible cacophony of stone banging and scraping against metal.

  Marcus frantically shifted to back the Firestorm out from the landslide.

  Layne threw punches as the land around their upright consumed it, shouting expletives the whole time.

  "Message inbound on alternative channel." Fenicks called out through the chaos. "Tuning to 103.67 MHz."

  "Kiddo, we ought to leave, right now." Arminius's steadfast voice came through over the radio. "There are more uprights closing on us."

  Marcus started ascending the rubble. "We got to climb." He called down to Layne.

  His best friend grumbled and stopped his strikes, grabbing onto the soft slanted rock by driving the machine's fingers into it.

  As they crested onto the plateau, multiple black plumes of exhaust filled the air afar.

  "Who is that?" Marcus called out over the radio.

  "Arcadians out for blood. Apparently, our plan caught the wrong ears and now they're out here, looking for your machine." Arminius radioed. "Break for the highland forest, you can lose them there." His upright pointed toward a thick wood atop the plateau.

  https://www.patreon.com/c/mekabukiko

  https://discord.gg/vS8jjazffM

  Is that the end of Amurad?