"Zair will flank the convoy from the west as they cross the river, their guards submerged in the water. At this point, Stryke will take his spot on top of the hill and begin to pick off the most dangerous - and farthest away from Zair - targets.
"Destroy the shipment of ore and you will receive your payment; of course, repairs and ammunitions will need to be repiad in full."
Twilight sparkled in the canyon - star were beginning to light up the darkened sky, only later to be outshone and faded by the single moon. The first of three trucks was now about halyway across as the last was just entering. Four enemy mechs were assigned guard duty - two were quadlegs as the other two were hovering above the water. Either quadped was stationed at one bank or the other. The forward intel was wrong - the river's depth would not affect the outcome of this battle.
The entire convoy was now about halfway across the river, almost time for the Zair to make its move. An old machine gun hung on its right holster; the same blade was strapped to his left. A back-mounted radar now took the place of the chain gun, and a lighter missile pack was hefted on the right. Not only did each missile cost less to restock, but it would seem the Zair would need the extra speed this night.
Energy gathered behind the back of the Zair, the blue hue contrasting the once again newly painted red of the Zair. Its approach hardly covert, or for that matter silent, the machine gunned blared, cutting across the once dead silence of the night in the canyon.
Taking its cue, Stryke appeared atop the canyon and dug in its heels, preparing the massive rifle that was slung over its right shoulder. The black, sleek metal clicked into place as the barrel unfolded itself from its three folds - it was nearly twice as long as the Stryke was tall. It carefully acquired its target as the pilot held its breath, a common practice among all snipers.
The Zair's gun was merely a distraction as the quadped on the opposite shore was brought to its knees; a high-velocity armor-piercing shell had had torn through two of its four kees, causing it to collapse with the added stress on only two of the legs. The bullet contiued its flight path into the fuesalage of the first vehicle of the convoy, causing a massive explosion which knocked the handicap newly-biped onto its side, no longer fit to even aide in the dfense of the ambush.
The two hovoring giants first headed toward the fast approaching Zair, but seeing the downfall of their partner, quickly decided that the target atop the canyon posed the greatest threat and so changed targets accordingly, leaving the other black quadped to face the wrath of Zair alone.
Zair faced its next foe, the mech dubbed "Spider." Highly agile, it boosted to the Zair's left as it fired off a few concentrated heat rounds at the back of the passing Zair. The temperature warning buzzer instantly sounded as three of the five shots connected with its back, the already high temperatures of overboosting sent higher by the balls of heat. Slowing down with the lack of the heightened boosters, Zair turned round before he stopped and stepped upon the back of the last vehicle in the stranded convoy, now making two of three targets down.
The destruction of the guards was not necessary, but their employer promised a bonus if they were; any agreement not paid in full would incur the wrath of every available mercenary.
Stryke retreated away from the cliffside as it buried some odd-looking objects out of site of the approaching floaters. True, they would easily climb the great vertical height of the cliff, but they wouldn't get anywhere with any speed at all. About 100 meters away, it again kneeled and prepared the massive rifle on its shoulder.
Pyromancer, the first floater to show its head above the cliffside was immedaitely sent hurtling down back the height that it had just climbed, now without a head. His partner, Rose, hesitated, but knew that the rifle could not be firend in quick succession and so completed the rise and 'touched down' at the edge of the cliff, the back half of it still hainging over the edge. The first thing the Rose noticed was the smallish glinting objects that were sticking out of the ground underneath its base.
But she reacted too late. Stryke had activated the EMP measures, bringing Rose to the ground, unable to move any of its body parts. Down below near the river, Zair was not having the same luck with Spider. Both mechs were built for agility, neither for outright destruction. Spider had a simple weapon setup - it was built to slowly whittle down its opponent through overheating. By causing the enemy mech to overheat, it would cause internal damage to itself unless it cooled off, something that the Spider had never let an opponent happen.
Zair had enough problems with an overheating core, and now he faced an opponent which made that its ultimate goal.
Zair used its machine gun sparingly on order to consereve ammunition and direct more of his payment from repairs to his pocket. The two were too close for missiles to be effective, but too far away for his blade to Stryke his opponent safely without being burned up himself. The two danced around and over the river, boosting and jumping, sliding and ciricling, each only firing when the chance of hitting was over one hundred percent.
Zair's temperature warning, which had only been lit a few moments before, now began to blare as the temperature just outside of the cockpit neared 500� Celcius; it was at this point that Zair took extra care to avoid giving the Spider a clear shot at its body.
The Spider itself was still dancing around with the grace and deadly beauty of an arachnid, its movements showing no fatigue and its armor showing only little damage from the glancing bullets of the somewhat weak machine gun. The Spider's left arm held a flamethrower, absolutely devastating in close quarters, yet painstakingly useless at any even insignificant length of distance. Its black and red patters were said to resemble an insect on Earth, a poisonous spider itself.
Too bad spiders had been extinct for nearly 100 years, as well as just about every other life form other than the human.
Zair's internal temperature hit the 600 degree mark, causing the systems to damage themselves just for being on. It avoided sinking and getting stuck in the water as it zoomed around and up and down, still taking potshots at the mobile Spider, the damage indicators showied growing damage all throughout the mech.
Stryke had pulled the Rose's cockpit from the now invalid piece of metal before shoving the mass of junk across the edged of the cliff, hurtling it down as it hit extended rocks with jagged points as they tore into the scrap that had now broken into arms, legs, and body. At the bottom lay the left arm, broken in three; the right arm lay farther away from the cliff wall, nearly intact. The floater had taken the brunt of the damage, now in an unrecognizable form laying beside the chest with a gaping hole in it.
Stryke stood at the edge and watched the battle below, the Rose's cockpit safe in its hands. It didn't matter that they had been sent to do conflicting jobs; they were still human, they would still be friends.
Zair's left blading arm had now stopped functioning due to excessive heat; the internal an external sensors were functioning at lower levels of efficiency: even the radiator has having a hard time keeping itself from overheating, let alone the rest of the machine. The pilot looked at the temperature guage; it was now displaying 650, with no sign of it dropping to safer levels any time soon.
The Spider got close enough to unleash the flames - the left arm set forth a torrent of fire, setting aflame the exterior of the Zair as it flew again out of reach of the Zair. Zair chanced a quick glance at the temperature guage - it flashed a quick 736 before it the sensors burned in the intense heat. Its legs were now very sluggish to response as the Spider danced figure eights around the nearly immobile beast.
The Zair had to complete the mission; the outcome of this duel was a moot point when considering how badly he needed the reward, especially now after the future repair bill on the Zair. It picked a spot to fall as the boosters sputtered once, twice; it fell right on top of the middle vehicle in the convoy, stranded as it path both forward and back was blocked by a smoldering mass of metal.
Spider, not caring as the the mission had already failed - that the entire convoy make it to its destination - stood silently on the far bank. As the Zair collapsed atop the fuel that the freighter was pulling, it exploded in a massive fireball, adding more to the heat damage that the red mech had already sustained. Spider could not have asked for more is this magnificent display of fireworks.
The water sizzled as the badly heated mech began to cool swiftly, submerged in the water it had been thrown in.
A loud bang echoed through the canyon - Spider was missing a leg. But a few moments passed, then another shot rang as it echoed off of the walls - it now had one arm. In mere moments, it lay immobilized on the ground with only one arm and half of one leg.
A droning voice came in and out over the intercom. The pilot could at least surmise the following: "Mission complete. You may return to pick up your payment - as well as your bill."