Seaside Scrape

"My Moon, bad news."

"What? Does Stephanie need ANOTHER pit stop?" Anna teased.

"Ye-yes… but that will have to w-wait. The battleship that stayed in Ear-Earth's atmosphere has deployed three units. On our current heading, they will intercept us in approximately seventeen-teen minutes."

"And how long until we are at the meet point for your contact, Wolf?"

"Half a d-alf a day, without interruptions, My Moon."

Stephanie's coms channel went green, signifying that she was about to say something.

"Can't we fly like them? Wasn't this a commandeered robot?"

Anna hadn't even considered the option because Wolf never said anything about flying. But she did remember that the mech picked up a jet propulsion backpack off of an enemy robot before they finished off the enemy commander.

"Impossible-ble," Wolf said before Anna could question it. "When the ene-enemy robots are damaged beyond repair or the pilot killed, they self destru-destruct any important systems to prevent enemy use. The one I grabbed several days ago was used to make temporary-ary repairs on my own unit. However, I still only have one functioning boo-booster. I could speed up our movements by about ten minutes for every hour. It would overheat if we used it for longer than th-that."

"How did they find us? Can they track us somehow?" Anna asked.

"Most l-likely it's our heat signature. No other machines made by man-by man give off the same kind of heat."

"Damn. We don't have any guns. We have a useless booster and enemies that can track our heat signature. What do we do?" Anna said worriedly.

Stephanie's voice then came over the comm again.

"I have an idea."

——————

"Adjutant, the heat signature got hot and is now sitting in one place. They seemed to move back and forth for a moment. They may be waiting for us." An alien said into his communication device in a foreign language.

"I don't care how you do it. It must be the source of the encrypted message. It can only be a rogue A.I. and it must be eliminated. Get to work." Replied the Adjutant.

The three alien commanders confirmed their duties over the coms before descending at full speed.

One of the commanders stayed back and took an optimal sniping position in the air. The other two fired off a few warning shots when they got closer to the ground.

Commander 2: "I don't see anything besides rocks and dirt."

Commander 3: "yeah, but the heat signature is there. It must have buried itself under the rocks."

Commander 2: "But it's an A.I., can it really be that stupid?"

Commander 3: "It's a rogue A.I., don't forget. I've heard the rogue A.I.'s can get some pretty radical notions."

Commander 1: "Cut the chatter and confirm the target."

They both nodded. One started to move rocks while the other kept a gun at the ready. Once several rocks were gone, it was obvious that the rest in the pile had a tinge of red on them, as if they were incredibly hot. The next rock began to slide out of the robot's hands before he could fully move it out of the way. It was melting. A single solid stream of fire from a propulsion pack was in the hollowed-out space below.

A sudden BOOM, puff, and a hiss caused the third commander to fire his weapon. He completely missed his target which began smoking.

Commander 1: "What's going on? Is it done?"

Commander 2: "I don't get it. It was just a propulsion pack that-"

Just before the second commander could finish his sentence, the first commander widened his view from the air and saw something that should have been obvious. There was a large metal signature in the nearby water. He took aim and fired but it had already started to move.

——————

"NOW!" Anna shouted.

The mech began running out of the ocean on all fours. The surprise of the propulsion booster overheating caused just enough confusion to keep them from noticing their impending doom.

The mech closed the distance and grabbed the gun out of the second commander's robot hand. They ran past that first robot and used the free hand to jab into the left shoulder of the second, severing the left arm.

The mech grabbed the right arm and held it behind the enemy robot. Using its ally as a shield, Anna fired at the enemy in the sky. She managed to take off a leg that crashed into the ocean.

"Why didn't it explode! I thought you said they would explode if you hit your target?" Anna asked Wolf.

"Each commander has a-has a unique weapon. This one simply has a mass-massive-ive increase in piercing power. Great for sniping through obstacles. The enemy flying above has a weapon similar to what you-you assumed this one was."

"Great…" Anna said to herself. "Gotta remember not to get hit."

The robot in front of Anna and her hostage started to recollect himself. She pointed the gun at her helpless target. She knew that pulling the trigger would end a life. She hesitated for a moment before dodging another shot from the commander above.

Anna then remembered all of the people that never even had a chance to run from the invasion. She remembered her father and friends.

"Dad… this is for you…"

Wolf centered the camera on the torso of the enemy robot as Anna willed it to happen. Wolf took it a step further and put on an x-ray overlay of the enemy cockpit inside. Anna had no idea that was a thing, but she used it to make sure the enemy would take the brunt of her hatred in a single shot.

The giant robot with a hole in its chest fell to its knees and then face down in the dirt.

"My Moon! Something is happening inside of our hostage! This is something I have no data on-on!"

It felt as if something was shifting around until the chest doors suddenly broke open from the inside and something launched with a smoke trail behind it.

"The bastard ejected!" Anna shouted as she slammed a fist down on one of the control arms.

The escape pod went straight toward the flying commander. Anna tried to aim at it but the enemy fired another shot. If Anna hadn't moved, he would have hit the mech's arm. Instead, her weapon was hit and it exploded. The explosion didn't harm the cockpit but it did damage the left arm enough to make Wolf detach the dead weight.

The commander's robot opened its chest and the cockpit rotated to one side, making room to attach the newly acquired escape pod.

Anna's mech now had the disadvantage of being disarmed, missing an arm, and unable to fly.

Anna couldn't help but wonder if it could get any worse.