Space Galleon Javelin

Chapter 49

I quickly shoved both sticks to my right, one second before the AI's WT broke through the building. As it went right through it, arms extended, it tried desperately to get us. I completely avoided her approach, her arms, and most important, her view. I had been right all along, and now it was time to go on the offensive once again. As the building collapsed behind us and before the AI was even able to tell what had happened, I twisted the right stick while leaving the left one where it was so the unit pivoted on its left leg and pushed the hat of the right joystick.

I hit the AI's unit with the right arm, directly on the solar plexus. Both machines shook and rumbled as metal collided with metal. Danielle wasn't kidding when she said its WT was thicker. Even with the huge blow delivered by the punch and with all the momentum, the metal bent inside but didn't shatter as it would have in any other case.

It did, however, send its unit flying upwards. I aimed my rifle. Ion activated its turbines and tried to escape again. I quickly returned the outside mic back to its default configuration so we didn't go deaf and gave chase, both units flying at top speed over the city and several luscious green parks while I fired at it. I hit it a handful of times as it accelerated.

It was really going to be an uphill battle, but I was going to enjoy every minute of it, and most importantly, win.

I noticed it tried to make the same move I did on it before. I activated the afterburners for a quick burst of speed. It had to slow down in order to turn. By the time it was able to open fire I was way too close for it to aim properly. I was one second too fast and before Ion was able to correct its aim, I managed to land another hit right on its unit's solar plexus, this time managing to tear away the metal and leave the mechanical parts revealed.

Before I could do more damage, the AI activated its own afterburners. There was no way I could match that speed.

Out of nowhere a big loud bright light came over us, surrounding us, and leaving us partially blind for an instant. All sensors and screens went crazy as my eyes felt like they were staring right at the sun. I tried to keep my eyes open though they were hurt.

"Agh! What happened?"

For a brief moment, I lost complete control of the unit and my sense of direction was completely ruined. We were flying blind, with a crazed artificial intelligence aiming straight at us.

We had to move somewhere, anywhere. Out of the light to begin with.

I shoved the sticks back without being able to see where I was going, hoping that my reflexes and speed were still up to the task after the burning sensation of my eyes disappeared. The side turbines twisted on their own axis and began to push us back and away from the blinding light. The background music that we heard before became even louder than the turbines to the point of it echoing several times on the cockpit itself. One of the worst sensory overloads.

I heard a familiar, barely audible noise over that horrible music that had somehow become ten times louder than before reach my ears: missiles being launched.

I knew we still weren't out of wherever we were. I knew those weren't normal lights or flares since they didn't hurt that much. I've seen both before. I forced my eyes open to see if I was right, even if it was only the vaguest of hints.

I soon spotted several grey circles getting bigger on the screen. I was right.

I closed my eyes again and tried to shove the sticks harder, even though I knew it was useless. What I did was push the pedals even harder and hope my memory was correct and weren't flying backwards on an angle.

We weren't. In a second that felt almost like a minute, the light died off and the cockpit went back to normal. My eyes hurt like hell and could barely see. That was more than enough. We had been flying inside one of those holographic displays, its bizarre overly cutie music still drilling on my ears, the proximity not helping.

"Dammit."

Several missiles soon came out of the same display, flying straight at us. As fast as the WT was, we were never going to outrun them. Due to how close they were there was no way a flare was going to work.

Instead, I fired at them with the rifle.

"What?" a shocked Danielle asked to no one as she observed what I was doing, "How are you--?"

It was an impossible feat for the standard pilot, shooting down missiles manually, especially these smaller missiles. I was no ordinary pilot, that much I was sure Danielle was starting to notice. I aimed at the closest ones and shot it down, then the next one, then the next one, while still flying backwards and swayed the machine left and right between the buildings, making some projectiles crash into them. Some exploded too close to us and managed to shake the machine and damage some redundant circuits, but it was nothing Danielle didn't quickly re-calibrate and fix.

Soon enough, the missiles were replaced by a stream of bullets from the AI's unit gunning at us as it flew towards us, this time keeping its distance so not to pull any tricks against it. It was learning, fast, and that was a bad thing. The slow movements of my own Walking Tank were starting to become an issue. I knew I was able, fast, and accurate, but the machine wasn't as much, and the explosions close to us surely didn't help. I was pushing the machine to its very limits as it was. I was always one second too late with the rifle and the AI was avoiding it with some difficulty, but still avoiding it, while some of its shots were starting to hit us, pretty badly.

"Secondary thruster is offline. Redundant left thrusters coupling has been destroyed. Left turbine has been compromised. Main power battery is hit." Danielle sounded more and more panicked as each system went down. It was frustrating, I couldn't win the duel. I had to do something, and fast.

"Screw it. I was saving this for an emergency, and this sure is one."

I had reserved something in case we were being overwhelmed, and truth is, we were being overwhelmed, and badly. The VI thought it had us beaten and it was just a matter of time, especially with both shoulder missile pods gone.

What it didn't know, from the looks of it, is that legs hold missiles too. Ours did.

I launched the right leg's side missiles -all six of them- as it was ducking my rifle fire by shifting to its right side.

"What?!" It shouted through the com system. With that, I knew I had surprised it.

While the AI was incredibly accurate, it wasn't fast or accurate enough to shoot them all down as if it had been too focused on me to change its priorities in time. Half of the load hit it, two of them damaging its cockpit. It had taken far more punishment than ours, yet it kept working as if nothing was wrong.

It only made it angrier as it flew right through my rifle fire straight at us, pulling its arm back as if positioning to punch a hole right through the unit and tears us a new one.

"Jesus."

There was no time to think for a counterattack. There was no time for anything. Rifle fire was out of the question, and we were all out of missiles. All I could think of was to activate the afterburners for a fraction of a second to match its speed... and punch it just like it was going to punch us.

This was going to hurt.