616 616 Unexpected Pilot
The moment that the Titan Class Volga Mecha’s Warp signature had been spotted, Nico and the defenders of Terminus took action, unleashing a fusillade of weapons fire at the incoming threat, including a suicidal rush by a Drone Interceptor, which had directly hit the Mecha and collapsed its warp bubble, sending it crashing to the surface.
The first thing that the Pilot had done once he recovered was to shoot at the barrier around the city, but he was taking time to breach it, with his Ion Destroyers malfunctioning from the damage sustained in the most recent attack.
Nico scrambled the Mecha of Terminus and took a cargo shuttle to the surface with Shattered Pride, landing between the Titan Class Mecha and the city.
[Everyone, stand back. I don’t want any casualties.] She ordered as she exited the shuttle to engage the Volga Mecha.
“Power down and exit your Mecha, and I can guarantee your life.” She called out in an Alliance standard accent, giving the Pilot one last chance to surrender before things got messy.
The Mecha raised its sword toward her and turned to engage the much smaller Super Heavy Mecha, which barely reached its torso.
Nico banged her twin swords together in acceptance of the challenge and engaged her thrusters, causing a sonic boom to ring through the city before the sound of deadly steel constructs colliding made ears ring in the closest spires.
The Volga Pilot was injured from the crash, and his Mecha had been damaged by Max, to begin with. He really didn’t stand a chance against the fury of Shattered Pride, and within seconds, the right arm, and with it, the unit’s sword, had been lost.
With that advantage gone, it was only a matter of time, and soon after, the second arm was lost, and then the power plant was severed from the controls as Nico swung her agile Mecha in behind and targeted the torso joints of the Titan Class Mecha.
[Exit your vehicle now. I will not warn you again.] Nico informed the fallen Mecha and then forcefully opened the hatches by hacking the Mecha’s few remaining operational systems.
With the hatches open, she paused and made a detailed scan of the interior of the Mecha. There were signs of movement but no signs of life or thermal differences. So, she waited to see what could possibly be interfering with her scans at this point, with the enemy Mecha so heavily damaged.
After a very tense thirty seconds, a skeletal robotic figure, missing one limb and sparking with many additional points of damage, climbed from the cockpit and put its remaining hand in the air.
[I surrender]
The message was garbled and cut out twice in the short burst of binary data, but the intention was clear. This was the Pilot of the Titan Class Mecha, and they were done fighting.
[Step away from the Mecha, and I will escort you to my shuttle for detainment and emergency triage to prevent cascading system failures.] Nico ordered.
[Cascading failures deemed unacceptable. Loyalty subroutines damaged. The ethical sub-processor is damaged and offline. The legal database is offline. Please advise. This unit does not wish to become inactive.] The Pilot responded, then stepped off the fallen Mecha and out onto the grass.
[Just follow my instructions, and we will stabilize your systems and keep you online. Your previous orders proved incompatible with the actions taken by your programmers, so I will inform you of current events and provide assistance rebuilding your databases.] Nico informed the android.
It was an incredible machine, purely artificial intelligence, but not intended to be self-aware. Perhaps it was on standby too long and had developed a rudimentary consciousness, or perhaps the Volga didn’t understand the potential of artificial intelligence. Either way, it was a thing of wonder to Nico, and it certainly would be to the Innu.
Max was blissfully unaware of the fact that his second in command had captured an alien android as he was leading the charge through the city, accompanied by a retinue of ten Corvette Class mecha, which were small enough to get into the alleyways and hiding spots that Cleansing Light was unable to target.
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Enemy morale was already faltering, and Mary Tarith was broadcasting the charges against the Volga government, as well as short clips of the evidence against them, on every civilian frequency that the Volga had been using.
It was on every television, every radio station, even playing over the city’s public address system, including orders to remain stationary on the floor if they were not combatants. Anyone who moved or attempted to engage the Compliance Forces would be deemed a threat and conspirator.
It was working, the Volga defensive forces had been routed, and they were falling back toward the government buildings, not even stopping to put up a fight as they fled in front of the Mecha.
[Let them run. Slow your pace to the point that they can just barely stay ahead of you, and the survivors should do most of our work for us.] Max ordered, getting an enthusiastic cheer from the Pilots in return.
They knew the horrors of war well enough, and they had seen this scene play out dozens of times in the past few years. Once the planetary defence force realized that their leaders had attracted a force that was intent on eliminating them entirely, they were usually more than happy to do the work themselves and plead for leniency.
The Alliance Envoys in orbit above the planet could only sigh in defeat as they saw how the battle was going. Most of the smaller cities had already fallen, the defence force was in disarray, and anything that they had which might have been capable of staging a comeback had already taken an orbital lance strike.
In short, they had nothing left to give and no hope that they were on the right side of this battle. Their leaders had poked a monster that they could not contain, and now everyone had to pay the price for their decision.
But what else could they do? If they didn’t resist, it looked like these Humans, as they called themselves, would take everything the Volga had in reparations and make the Eternal Volga Empire a mere subordinate of their species’ might. To the proud Volga, that was unthinkable. But a few hours ago, it was unthinkable that they would lose a battle such as this to a species they had never heard of, and now they feared that anything was possible.