Mechanix

Mechanix: Initiate

2082, a year that no one will forget. 2082 was the year one of the saviours of the new world made his first appearance in the greatest sport of all time. The last 30 years, or so, had been quite an eventful time. In 2054 a scientist, by the name of Corrun Holden, developed a means to power huge bipedal tanks up to 20 stories high. The Holden Core, a relatively small nuclear power station, hidden deep within its core, powers each VT, Vertical Tank. In a short few years, VTs had become very popular and had been used by many nations as their primary force.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on the point of view, for Holden, he did not live to see his creation used in such a manner. His death, however, had connections to the usage of the Core. He was killed during an attempt to steal the plans. The plans were sold to the finest weapons manufacturers in the world.

2057 saw the introduction of VTs to the already devastating WWIV, WWIII already fully resolved in 2025. Within a year, the world had seen more devastation, due to the introduction of the VTs, than any of the past nine years of the war. Understandably so, many people just wished it would end. These people finally got their wish when, in 2068, all nations involved called for a Worldwide seize fire. Everyone thought that it would be best to better the human race as a whole. The World banded together as one race. Discrimination was brought to a near stop, as a result. Finally, we seemed to be doing something right. However, there was a little unrest. 2069 saw the birth of the Terran Defence Force.

In 2070, an anonymous person illegally made the plans, for designing and building VTs, public. After claims that hobbyists used the plans to build their own VTs for their own uses, they were deemed legal. The only way to get the plans was to obtain a VT hobby licence. To get the licence, a hobbyist would sign a contract stating that the weapons systems would be disabled. The contract also said that the TDF could call upon the hobbyists to help at any time. Should this ever happen, the TDF would activate the weapons systems for each VT involved.

Just two years later, the TDF finalised plans for a method of venting frustrating that would take care of the rise hobbyist activity. The hobbyists would take part in mock wars, providing entertainment for the masses as well as the outlet they so richly wanted. This arrangement seemed to work well for a long period. The world got the silence it deserved, as far as wars go. Many factions of hobbyists and military groups took part in these ‘Wargames’ that had become so popular in such a short time.

One faction quickly rose through the ranks to become the unbeaten champions. Just two years after the first ‘game’, the Faction known as The Redeemers won their first tournament and remained unbeaten for three years. The leader of the Faction was a man by the name of Walter Strider. He was a loving father and husband. Walter’s VT, a bipedal brute he called Surge, was almost the perfect balance between size and manoeuvrability. Whenever he played the crowds would be riveted to their seats, never knowing what he would do next. His son was always excited to see The Redeemers play, regardless of the outcome.

Joey, Walter’s son, had often told his father how he wished to join his father’s faction. Ever since Joey first mentioned he wanted to join, Walter has been teaching him the ways of the Vetter, the name given to those that pilot VTs. Joey soon became his father’s personal mechanic. Joey still had a few years before he would be able to join his father’s faction. This did not stop Joey from getting a head started. He set about designing his VT. He was not over keen on the bipedal design and had occasionally seen VTs with four legs instead of the usual two. He seemed to favour multiple legs, and took it a bit too far in the design. Joey had designed the first, and so far only, eight-legged spider-like VT. Being Walter’s son, who was probably the best Vetter of his time, Joey was given enough money to acquire the right parts.

Joey was so committed to the idea of a new style of VT that he designed and made his own parts. Because of its design, Joey registered the final product with the TDF under the call sign Spider. Spider wasn’t complete until the week after Joey’s fourteenth birthday. Joey still had another four years until he could join The Redeemers. Within those four years, Joey spent more time working on Spider than he did within the four walls of his own home.

For Joey, the four years between the completion of Spider and Joey joining The Redeemers at the age of eighteen went by really quick. He put it down to the amount of fun he had been having either working on Spider, or testing each and every system. The time had come for Joey to fight by his father’s side.


The city of Zanzibar, a large city with a heavily industrialised centre. The general opinion of Zanzibar is that they produce more VT components than any other city. Several miles west of the city limits lies the Zanzibar arena, home ground to The Redeemers. Being built to hold the wargames, the Zanzibar arena is, itself, roughly 5 miles square. Within the western pit stood the much-loved ‘home team’.

The western pit completely lined the western limit to the grounds, needing to hold the VTs of the entire faction it needed to be big. Within the pit stood several dozen VTs. The Redeemers’ pit crew and pilots busied themselves making final preparations for the coming event. At the northern end of the pit stood a very unique VT. A nervous looking man, in his early 20s, paced between his own VT and a smaller VT that was situated a short distance away.
“Strider, why don’t you calm yourself.” Said a man that looked as if he had seen more than his fair share of action in his life as he watched Joey Strider pace up and down. The man was leant against a bipedal VT whose size gave the impression it was quick on its feet. The man’s head was about half way between the knee and the ankle.
“Easy for you to say, this isn’t your first game, what if I choke out there?” Joey said quickly as he seemed hesitant about the event ahead. Joey stopped by one of the eight feet of his beloved VT. Some people would say it was more of a HT, Horizontal tank, than a VT. He reached for the cigarettes he left on the foot. He slapped the bottom of the box in a way that forced two out of the flip top box. Taking one with his mouth as he fished for a lighter in his pockets, he then offered the box to the man that had asked him to calm himself, who was actually looking at a woman as she walked through an open door. The Woman was about Joey’s height and had flowing red hair that hung below her shoulder blades. The way she walked was enough to make almost any man turn their head and gaze at her seductively swinging hips.
“Cable.” Joey said sharply, Cable turned almost as sharply as his name was called. Cable gladly accepted the cigarette and pulled a petrol lighter from his own pocket. After lighting his own cigarette, he gently through the lighter in Joey’s direction.
“Keep it, I got plenty of them.” Cable said as he puffed away. Joey smiled, partly because his own lighter had been a cheap disposable, but partly because of the dragon design engraved right round the lighter casing. He sparked up his cigarette and instantly felt as if it had soothing effects on a person.
“Where’s my father?” Joey asked, not really bothered about the answer. He had stopped pacing and now leant against Spider’s foot.
“He’s going through his pre-game with Surge.” Cable said as he started to climb up the side of his own VT, Sprite. Joey’s face almost dropped at the mention of a pre-game. He almost let the cigarette drop from his mouth.
“Don’t sweat it, kid, I seen the way you work on that thing. There is no way you actually need to go through a pre-game. Why, I would bet anything that once the warning klaxon sounds, you’d be ready to be first out the door.” Cable said in an attempt to encourage Joey. Joey snapped himself out of the trance brought on by the state of near panic.
“Spider.” He said less than a second before the huge VT hummed to life. A lift descended from its underside. “Initiate warm up sequence.” He said this unnecessarily due to his own programming. Spider automatically starts a warm up sequence if Joey says ‘his’ name during stand by. Joey looked at Cable, who seemed to be checking the fittings on the light-laser cannons fitted to the shoulders of Sprite.

The lights in the pits shut off. Almost simultaneously, red warning lights started flashing, the warning klaxon blearing. Joey knew this was it, no more time to prepare, no more time to worry. He was about to take his first steps, in a faction capacity, on the battlefield. He rushed for the lowered lift.
“Ascend.” Joey said before he had even reached the lift. Joey leapt for the base of the rapidly ascending lift and pulled himself up, his mother hated it when he did that. When the lift slammed into place, he found himself in the very familiar corridor of Spider, leading from the ‘box’ cockpit up front, to the passenger compartment. People laughed at his suggestion of a passenger compartment, but he thought he should have one anyway. He ran for the cockpit and leapt over the back of the only chair set in the middle of the small control centre of the VT. To anyone else, the vast array of switches, levers and monitors was both confusing and unneeded. Joey knew what each and every switch and lever did, knew both the location and the bearing of each monitor. Joey watched the doors he was to go through. A voice came over his radio.
“Joey, you’re not to come out with us.” Said a familiar voice, distorted by the radio transmission.
“Almost forgot, thanks for the heads up, dad.” Joey said as he eased of the controls a bit. He could barely hear the voice of the announcer, but he must’ve introduced The Redeemers, he watched as nine of them left the pit area. He waited in anticipation, a few minutes passed. The announcers voice seemed to go on forever. It went silent only to start up again roughly 30 seconds later. He heard his radio click, the pre-arranged signal for him to make his entrance. He pushed forward on the controls and felt Spider move like the spider he was. He flipped a short series of switches and could feel the cockpit rumble. Some monitors went black as the feed was cancelled. One monitor, which had previously shown the shrinking shapes of a few VTs, showed the shrinking hole that was the tunnel entrance and four short tails that Joey knew to be the booster emissions.
“-JOEY STRIDEEEER!” yelled the announcers voice as Joey burst forth from the pit tunnel. The crowd instantly exploded into a cheer of appreciation. Joey felt great; the possibility of choking once he got out here seemed to float away. The crowd seemed to have imbued him with the confidence needed. He flipped the same switches back to their original position and let go of the controls. He felt the cockpit rumble again. Joey braced himself for the jolt as Spider dropped to the ground. The monitors winked back on with the jolt and within moments were obscured by clouds of dust kicked up as Spider slid along the dust floor.
“IN ALL MY YEARS AS ANNOUNCER OF THE WARGAMES, I HAVE NEVER SEEN AN EIGHT-LEGGED VT, THAT WAS UNTIL I TRANSFERRED HERE. IT LOOKS AS IF IT COULD CLIMB THE WALLS, WE’LL BE WATCHING FOR IT. GOOD LUCK OUT THERE STRIDER.” Boomed the announcers voice giving him a brief introduction. Not really necessary due to the fact that as it is his first game, a brief history of him and his family is in the program. The information in the program went a bit deeper on Spider than it did on him. As Spider was skidding to a halt, Joey ran to the access way to get topside. Running up the ladder, almost slipping about half way up, he keyed open the hatch and jumped out and basked in the applause. Only staying for a brief moment, he jumped back into the hatch. Hitting the bottom and almost buckling, he cursed and keyed the hatch closed.
“TONIGHT, THE REDEEMERS HAVE A SPECIAL GAME AHEAD OF THEM. TONIGHT, THEY FACE A FORMER AFFILIATE. LETS HEAR IT,” there was a slight pause, thus far proven to raise the level of anticipation. The silence lingered as he waited for the right moment, the moment when he felt the crowd would burst if they did not hear whom they faced, “FOR THE HUNTEEEERS.” The announcer boomed. It was widely known that The Hunters had once been a sub-faction of The Redeemers until an unfortunate disagreement that forced them to separate and go their separate ways. They always knew they would face each other again. Ten similarly built VTs boosted out of tunnel to the opposing pit. Over the radio, Joey could hear the exchange of taunts between the factions.
“Don’t let them get to you, Joey, they’re just trying to psych you out.” Came Walter’s distorted voice through a secure channel, back up by encouragement from Cable, Kane and Quee. The rest of The Redeemers backed it up with comm. clicks.

The landscape within Zanzibar arena resembled that of a rocky desert, scarred with canyons and pitfalls. The occasional rocky mountain obscured the rest of the desert. Underneath the desert was riddled with tunnels. Other arenas around the world resembled different terrains. The largest arena in the world houses the largest array of terrains, as it is used every two years for the big tournaments. Joey gripped the controls and reassured himself that he knew the terrain; he’d tested every aspect of Spider and was fully aware of his limits. The ten-second count down began. He knew the others would be going through their start up procedures. He reached for a bank of switches above his head and switched them all into the on position. He then turned a dial to his left and finally activated his weapons systems using a series of buttons. Had this been a real sortie, and he’d been called on by the TDF, he would’ve been using his weapons to their full potential. For the wargames, all weapons were replaced with non-lethal levels of EMP designed to act like the weapons they are replacing. The idea was that the EMP would cause enough electrical damage to effectively simulate real-time weapons damage. The ten seconds seemed to take almost forever. The moment fatefully came, the siren signalling the start of battle sounded. He looked out over the battlefield and saw his comrades running in all directions in a seemingly haphazard manner. Joey looked for the nearest cliff face and ran straight for it. Spider looked exactly like a spider in the way he was moving.
“Spider, prepare for ascension.” Joey said as he saw the cliff loom closer.
“AFFIRMATIVE.” Came Spiders mechanical voice. Joey smiled at the thought that it was himself that programmed it. He didn’t even slow his speed when Spider began his ascent.
“OH MY GOD, I NEVER WOULD’VE BELIEVED IT IF I DIDN’T SEE IT FOR MYSELF, YOUNG STRIDER IS ACTUALLY WALKING UP THE WALL.” Boomed the announcer, genuinely surprised. Joey had kept this modification a secret, only he and his father knew about it. A small commotion was heard over the PA system as the announcer was being reprimanded for his outburst. Many knew that it was not accepted to give commentary on the game. Joey didn’t let it faze him; he waited for sign of the enemy. He aimed the high-velocity rockets towards a bank of dunes. From where he sat, Joey could see Cable taking Sprite into a listening position. Quee had taken her VT, Scarab, underground alongside Kane and Able. Both Scarab and Able were well equipped to take on the enemy in confined subterranean environments. Scarab was more of a power suit that was about fifteen sizes too big. Able was about twice the size of Scarab. Though small, they were both felt very much at home in confined spaces. Joey saw a flicker of movement just over a dune. With an itchy trigger finger, he almost fired. He saw it again but this time it was clearer. Joey soon realised that what he was seeing was Kyp and his VT, Locust. Locust was a rare design. Joey could honestly say that he had only ever seen one other reverse knee jointed VT. Locust was originally made out of humour, the reverse knee joint giving its jump extra lift. Kyp also fitted Locust with jump jets of his back to allow him to stay in the air longer.

Joey shook his head and snapped back to his task at hand.
“Sprite, you hear me?” Joey asked over a secure channel, knowing full well that Cable would hear him from where he was.
“I hear ya kid, s’up?” came back Cable’s transmission distorted voice.
“I’m getting down, need a better position.” Joey finally said, a bit disappointed about his lack of action so far.
“Negative, stay where you are. Obviously, they haven’t seen you up there. Look down.” Cable warned, he had a better view of the area as well as the added bonus of listening to the enemy’s transmissions. Joey flipped a switched and took hold of the controls. He carefully manoeuvred the front right leg into a position that allowed him to see over the edge without exposing himself to the enemy. He knew he put a camera in each foot for a reason. At the base of the cliff, Joey could clearly see that one of The Hunters had managed to sneak by. He used the foot to look round, fortunately there was no one else about. Joey could hazard a guess that the VT below him was waiting for one, or more, of the others. Joey went to puff on his cigarette, in all the excitement of starting his first match; he must’ve smoked it all. He quickly took another from the packet and wasted no time in light it. Moving the leg back beneath him, Joey flipped the switch back to its original position and slowly moved himself forward. He felt Spider move into position to begin his descent. Joey took a drag on his cigarette and smiled as he moved almost silently down the cliff face. The target moved ever closer.
“Spider, warm up the meds.” Joey said as a few temperature gauges began to rise. He gave a cocky smirk as he noticed the VT turn to face him.
“GOTCHA!” he shouted as he released Spiders grip of the cliff and dropped down. The cockpit shook as he knocked the VT to the floor, effectively pinning it down. He pulled the triggers for the medium-laser cannons, situated just below the cockpit. A brilliant blue beam of light spouted from each of the two cannons and converged on the point where the enemy’s cockpit joined the body. From this distance, Joey could see his target just let go of his now dead controls and fold his arms. He gave a nod of respect to Joey, who returned the nod.
“FIRST KILL GOES TO THE REDEEMERS, AND WHAT A KILL IT WAS.” Boomed the announcer, being careful not to give details that would give Joey’s position away. The second kill came within seconds of the first, The Hunters had equalised. Joey glanced at his radar; there was no sign of activity.
“Strider, northeast, now.” Came the uneasy voice of Cable over the comm. system. The length suggested that he did not want to give his position away. Joey replied with a simple comm. click. He wasted no time in turning Spider in the right direction. He immediately flipped a small bank of switches. He felt the cockpit shudder as the middle four legs arranged themselves in a position to point back. The ground seemed to drop away as the huge VT rose of the ground. Joey felt himself pushed back into his seat. He crested a dune and did not stop. He launched into the air and gently rested on his boosters upon landing. There. His radar blipped and faded. Blipped and faded. Something was not right; the blip on the radar was on an intercept course with him. A proximity alarm sounded.
“INCOMING MISSILE, SUGGEST EVASIVE MANEUVOURS!” warned the tinny mechanical voice of Spider. Joey huffed in disagreement as a reached for the controls of the double barrelled light lasers. He flipped targeting controls to target anything that would constitute as a direct threat to Spider and himself. He heard the familiar harrumph of the cannons as they fired. He failed to hear the explosion. The proximity alarm still wailing. The cannons kept firing.
“Shit.” He cursed as he opened the throttle right up. He was thrown further into his seat as Spider sped up. After a few seconds, the cannons and the alarm stopped almost in time with the explosion. He scanned the damage report that came through. 6% loss of efficiency to the rear laser cannons, 5% loss of efficiency in the rear six boosters. Not what Joey wanted to see, but it was better than losing the entire back end. The blip was falling back on the radar. Either because it was distracted by another, slower moving, target or because they were ordered. The radar kept beeping even after the attacker should’ve been out of range. Glancing in confusion at the radar, Joey could see a larger group of contacts on the radar directly ahead of him, and closing fast. He scanned ahead of him. Another dune obstructed his view of the contacts. Seconds later, the cockpit was starting to flash red; he glanced at the temperature gauges. All eight boosters were beginning to overheat. He hoped they would hold out long enough to crest the next dune. The time seemed to pass slowly as he felt the front end start to rise as it hit the bottom of the incline. He reached for the booster controls.
“WARNING, BOOSTER FAILURE IN 3… 2…” Spider didn’t even get to one before Joey shut off the boosters and looked out of the cockpit. He was in the right place. He saw Surge attempting to hold off three of The Hunters VTs as he flew almost three times, as high as the tallest of the group, above them. The group was tightly packed and using melee weapons only. He hit a switch that reset the legs into their standing position. With the boosters virtually overheated, the four concealed double-barrelled med-cannons, front four legs only, did not have to charge before firing. He waited till he was almost overhead before he kicked the missile launch controls, firing a short salvo directly skyward. As he did so, he squeezed the med cannon firing controls. A larger ‘harrumph’ shook the cockpit several times before he knew he was passed them. Joey watched as the ground headed toward him. His hand hovered above the booster controls.
“What took you?” joked the distorted voice of Walter. The transmission was distorted more than normal. Probably due to the damage taken thus far.
“You know this place, traffic is murder.” Joey joked in return as he hit the booster restart button.
“1…” concluded Spider as Joey landed. Though the boosters cut out almost instantly, they had sufficiently reduced the risk of serious damage to vital systems. Joey seriously wished he didn’t push the boosters as much as he did. The cockpit shook violently as Spider’s back end swung round almost a full 180 degrees. As Joey shuddered to a halt, he hit the melee button. The ground now dropped away much quicker than when he was moving on boosters. He felt himself raise higher of the ground than before. Joey watched out of the cockpit at the three-on-one fight against his father. To finish of the transformation, Joey hit two buttons, ejecting a solid blade for each button. The foremost arms ejected relatively short blades from within Spider’s forearms. Joey approached the group. Another kill for The Redeemers. Walter felled one of his assailants with a swift blow to the head. One down two to go.
“Joey, check your left flank.” Warned Walter. From his cockpit, he could easily see that one of the remaining Hunters had come to join in the fray. Joey turned Spider round in time to parry a blow from the stray Hunter. He followed the parry with a jab from the other sword arm. His sword penetrated the outer layer of his target, but did not catch any of the vital components. From his cockpit, Joey could see his target checking automated damage reports.
“Shit!” said Joey sharply as he saw the pilot breath a sigh of relief. He knew he had not hit anything important. He felt his VT rumble as the Hunter slammed his free fist into Spider’s midriff. Joey knew there would be quite a nasty dent, but it would be nothing he couldn’t fix. Joey hit a button and withdrew the swords back into his arms. Controlling the lower two arms, Joey punched out towards his target. He connected only with the targets hands as he was stopped in his tracks. He opened Spiders fists and tried to force his opponent of balance. With almost lightning speed, Joey hit a button, near the controls, locking the arms and switching control to the two free arms. Joey observed, briefly, a look of surprise on his targets face as he grabbed the head shaped cockpit. Joey allowed himself a brief laugh, as he knew the pilot would be staring down four barrels, two double-barrelled, of the concealed medium-laser cannons. Joey fired the, currently, non-lethal weapons, completely disabling his target. Joey released all the arms and dropped them to his side. He glanced at his sensors, which showed a quickly approaching group of enemies.
“All Redeemers to the surface immediately. Converge on my position.” Called Walter over the static filled radio, the signal was clearly deteriorating as the seconds ticked by.
“Say again Old Man, you’re breaking up.” Came the gruff voice of Kane.

“All Redeemers to the surface immediately. Converge on my position.” Called Joey, repeating word for word his father’s transmission.
“You heard the kid, get your asses over there immediately. I’m showing multiple contacts already closing on his position.” Called Cable from his listening post. The transmission was followed by a flurry of comm. clicks. To anyone with experience, they would be able to tell that some of The Redeemers had fallen, leaving their numbers at five. Joey quickly turned to his father, who still hadn’t dispatched the last of his assailants. He pushed the controls forward and quickly made his way over. He extended all four of his swords as he got neared and thrust them through the back of the VT, which was about ¾ the size of Spider in his current state. Joey could literally feel the extra weight as the controls became tougher to move. Slowly but surely he lifted the VT above his head. At the moment, Joey felt a massive weight land on the VT above him. The cause of the weight was unknown to Joey.
“Good to see you made it, Kyp.” Walter’s distorted voice said over the radio.
“S’ok, you know I wouldn’t leave you in the lurch.” Kyp said. Kyp was almost as young as Joey. He was quite a scrawny person, and looked as if he had escaped from a mental institute. He always liked to play up to the joke. His VT, Locust, was a rare design with reverse jointed legs, allowing for extra lift when jumping. Locust is both small and fast. Joey felt a sudden shift and the weight was gone. Instinctively, Joey lowered the VT in front of him. It was still active. Joey could tell, easily, from the thrum of machinery reverberating through his own. If that wasn’t enough, the VT was still moving. Joey glanced out of the cockpit and up, looking for sign of Locust.
“Woohoo, keep that VT steady, I’m coming down.” Called Kyp over the radio, obviously talking to Joey. It seemed like a second or two passed before Locust came smashing down on the shoulders of the VT, shearing the arms right off. Kyp quickly removed himself from the shoulders. Joey withdrew his blades, using the four hands to push the still active VT from the blades. The VT turned to look at Joey, Walter and Kyp in turn. The VT made no movements towards any of them, but instead try to make for the quickest route away. Joey went to chase him.
“Leave him. He knows he’s beat.” Came Cable’s voice as he entered the area.
“Cable, on my way over here, I had an encounter with a stray Hunter, did you see where it went?” asked Joey, knowing that Cable was best equipped out of the lot of them for surveillance.
“Don’t you worry about him, I took care of it. Unfortunately, I didn’t deal with him before he could get a message out to the others about your projected heading.” Replied Cable as he readied himself for the arrival of the pack advancing on them.
“That would explain why they’re coming this way.” Said Kane as he made an appearance, followed closely by Quee.
“Are we late for the butt whooping?” asked Quee in a tone that bordered on seductive.
“Nope.” Replied Kyp quickly, not wanted to be caught with his trousers down, as it were, when the remaining Hunters finally reached their position.
“Actually, you’re a little early.” Added Cable, trying to add even the slightest bit of humour to the tense situation.
“In that case, I’ll come back in five.” Said Quee still in a seductive tone that seemed to hint she wanted Cable’s company.
“Now’s not the time. Maybe later babe.” Said Cable, picking up on the seductive hint. There was no time for any other conversation; proximity alerts started going off in the ears of all those present. The Redeemers were currently sat in a large basin, surrounded on most sides by rocky ridges and sandy dunes. The contacts were coming from the north, just past the largest of the rocky ridges.
“Take out that ridge.” Ordered Walter as a barrage of med-cannon fire erupted from all present. The combined firepower of The Redeemers was quite amazing. The ridge crumbled within seconds, followed closely by the first of the contacts leaping from the rapidly falling rocks. Kyp leapt up to meet the enemy, displaying a dizzying array of hack and slash movements with his blades. The airborne Hunter was thrice the size of Locust, a powerful bipedal brute that sacrificed speed and agility for raw strength and power. Before Locust and the brute hit the floor, the remaining Hunters fell over the fallen ridge, obviously oblivious to the fact that it had been destroyed. This showed that The Hunters were not being coordinated to any particular degree. Joey allowed himself a laugh as he looked at them scrambling to get up. Joey made a mental note of the amount of ‘kills’ each team had made. They were tied at five apiece, assuming the VT that lost its arms had given up; else they were down by one. The confusion gave Joey a few moments to light himself another cigarette. Taking a pull on his cigarette, Joey pushed the throttle forward and made his presence known. He swung his two massive left arms back across his front to his right side. When he was close enough to the group of fallen Hunters, he started his forward swing, catching the topmost with a devastating blow to the midriff. Being half the size of Spider, the Hunter was thrown of the still struggling pile, hit the floor with considerable force and finally skidded to a halt. Joey watched intently, just waiting for it to move. He was completely oblivious to anything else that was happening around him. Movement so close to his cockpit that it may have left a scratch made Joey almost jump out of his seat. Kyp flew past in his immobilised VT. Instinctively, he swung the controls round to get a better view of Kyp as he slid across the floor. Joey continued to turn on the spot, until he faced the direction from which Kyp had flown. Joey dropped his cigarette as he saw a large VT bearing down upon him. Stamping the cigarette out, Joey quickly reversed the throttle and hoped that it would buy him some distance. Spider stopped with a sickening jolt. Quickly, Joey checked all the sensors. They all showed that there was no problem. Joey started to panic as the large VT continued its approach. Joey checked the cameras. Four monitors were blank, indicating that they were planted firmly on the ground, two were showing directly to his left and right and, finally, two displayed nothing but air. He reached for the throttle to reverse his direction. He stopped scant centimetres from the controls and flicked back to the two monitors directed skyward. He saw the expanding propulsion tails of the rocket salvo he unleashed earlier.
“About fucking time.” He said as he pushed forward on the throttle. He spun Spider round as tight as he could manage. He managed to get a glimpse of the cause of the sickening jolt. An enemy VT. The VT was gone within moments.
“Strider, get down.” Cable Called over the ever-worsening comm. system. Joey barely had time to react before Spider was violently thrown to the ground, doing the same with Joey in the process. Joey caught his head as he was thrown through the crash webbing and onto the controls. He laid almost motion less as his vision began to fog. No, I can’t lose it now. Joey though as he shook his head, almost blacking out completely through doing it, and pushed himself up enough to get to controls. From what he saw, he was laying on his front. He worked as well as he could with the controls, in his current position, to turn himself over onto his back. He found his target, the large VT that was headed for him. He aimed his four arms towards that VT and waited for just a second. The timing would have to be almost perfect. He had a window of a scant few seconds in which to inflict fatal damage to his target. He could feel himself shaking. He felt something inside him, or on him as the case was. He felt a sudden burning in his leg. He looked down and saw his, still lit, cigarette. Quickly he replaced it in his mouth and immediately took a drag, closing his eyes as he did so. Without even opening his eyes, he squeezed the trigger. The cockpit shook and was accompanied by the signature ‘harrumph’ of the med-cannons. Alarms started going off as damage was taken. Joey ignored it and watched as the 16 beams from the med-cannons rapidly approached the target. The VT reacted immediately as it was hit with such force, the torso smoking, where each beam hit. The VT stumbled backwards before finally tipping backwards. From his angle, Joey couldn’t see the face of the Vetter, but he could imagine that it was the look of a man, or woman, that knew he could not win. Joey smiled as Spider was shaken by the shockwave from the HV rockets. He knew, though he could not see for sure, that he had made another kill. The alarms faded to nothing. Joey eased the controls forward. He felt the cockpit shake as Spider struggled to right itself. Spider fell still, Joey continued to push forward on the controls. The ever-present thrum of machinery went the way of the alarms, and Spider felt as silent as a tomb. Finally, the lights on the various controls faded out, completing the illusion. Joey took a pull on his cigarette, bathing the immediate area in a shallow glow. It wasn’t long before power came back on. Though this was his first ‘battle’, Joey knew that it meant it was over.
“OH WHAT A FANTASTIC BATTLE. THIS REALLY WAS A CLOSE ONE, FOLKS. I’M PRETTY SURE JOEY HAS MADE A NAME FOR HIMSELF HERE TODAY. HE FOUGHT EXCELLENTLY, THEY ALL DID. SADLY, THE REDEEMERS HAVE ANOTHER LOSS TO THEIR NAME. FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE THEIR SPLIT, THE HUNTERS HAVE CLAIMED VICTORY OVER THE REDEEMERS.” The Announcer stopped, as he knew the audience would erupt into thunderous applause. When the applause died down, the Announcer continued, “LET US NOT FORGET OUR HOSTS, THEY FOUGHT WELL, THEY SURPRISED NOT ONLY US, BUT THE HUNTERS, LET’S HEAR IT. THE REDEEMERS.” Once again, the crowd broke into applause, an applause that differed from the last by nothing.

When they got back into the pits, Joey took a slow walk to the lift. His head hung low. He tossed his cigarette butt aside. The cockpit behind him fell dark and silent. The only light that made it into the cockpit filtered in through the window. He reached the lift breathed a sigh. He could not believe his first battle was a loss. The lift began its descent. He had barely emerged from the underside of Spider when he was met with cheers from the crowd that had gathered. Joey almost fell from the lift in surprise. He had not expected this reception. The main bulk of the crowd were female. They were all shouting and cheering at once so it was hard to pick out anything specific.
“Don’t ‘cha just love this part,” came the familiar voice of Cable, who had a similar crowd round him, “win or lose, these guys are here ‘til the end.” Joey allowed himself a smile. The lift was almost at the bottom, but Joey didn’t wait. He jumped off and began walking to his fans.
“Joey, I love you.”
“Sign this for me?”
“Joey, you were amazing out there.”
“Whoa, take it easy guys, one at a time, please.” Joey said in an effort to calm the frenzy down. He took the booklet and a pen from one of the fans and began signing his autograph for them. Some had programs they wanted signing by those that took part. He kissed the females on the cheek as he handed back his autograph and shook the hands of the males. After a while, the crowd dispersed. He looked over at Cable, who shot him a thumbs up. Joey walked over to him, taking out his cigarettes on the way.
“You did good out there, kid. You should be proud.” Said Cable as he took the cigarette Joey was offering.
“I know I am.” Said Walter as he approached. Joey said nothing, but gave a lopsided smile. Though he knew Spider was going to need repairs, he knew it was nothing he couldn’t handle, so he let it slip from his mind. The disappointment of losing faded, giving way to a feeling that felt almost as good as winning. Knowing that people were there, watching his every move, cheering him at every turn. He could get used to this.