Sgt. Golem: Royal Mech Hussar - Stubs Soon!

Veronica was trying to think about how she could get close enough to use her sword. Frustrated at only having such a poor weapon, she hesitated a moment too long as the others scrambled off the roof. The beams collapsed around her. She fell down into the building.

Her mech came through the beams beside her, and they both smashed into the floor. Shells ripped through the building around them. The floor collapsed under them and they fell into darkness below.

She landed with a jolt that sent pain all through her. For a moment, she lay stunned. The feeling faded, and she knew she wasn't hurt, but she felt an incredible crushing, suffocating feeling in her chest.

It wasn't injury. It was devastation. She had been close, so close to impressing her new friends with what she could do. So close to finally proving what she was capable of.

She lay there in the dark. Tears started to fall. Why hadn't she waited and gotten a gun? Anything to be actually useful?

It was just like every team she had ever joined. She tried so hard to be just a bit better, to show everyone that she could be the best mech rider that ever lived. And she always failed. Even if she got the top marks in marksmanship and could best the rest of the team with her swordplay, they would go behind her back to her father, and the next thing she knew, she was off the team. A mech rider without a wing, a hussar with no companions, was nothing and no-one.

What was she doing wrong? She strived so hard to be the best, and all she got was glares of jealousy from the other girls and gossip behind her back. Now she had done it again, pushing a little too hard and making a fool of herself in front of her new friends.

She lay, breathing deeply and feeling the hot tears trickling down her face. She was trapped; she had to get out of here. This was pathetic. She couldn't just lay here useless.

The building had stopped collapsing. She rolled over and sat up. Her mech in the debris next to her shifted slightly. She could feel it through her link, waiting for her command. What now?

The others would have fallen back already, and the Russians would be coming. She took a deep breath and pushed the panic down in her chest. Slowly, the tightness eased. Get a grip, Veronica, this isn't the time.

This wasn't about impressing people; this was about surviving, about defeating the enemy, about protecting her country and her people. Get a grip and be a soldier.

Maybe she couldn't ever impress anyone. But there was something she could do, that none of the other girls she had met could.

Veronica focused inwardly, concentrating on the magic inside her. The shape of it, the feel of it, the flow of it. It swirled and moved as if buffeted by unseen currents. She reached out and felt past her magic, sensing those currents. They tickled her sensation just at the edge of feeling. It was like being in the flow of a rapidly moving creek.

She stretched out further and felt the flow all around, in the building and beyond. It rippled at the edge of her senses, and she felt a disturbance in the rocks in a stream, rocks and boulders that the flow was swirling around. The Russians, coming up the street. When she kept her eyes closed and focused on her inward senses, she could feel the magic of their mech girls. Even the sparks of desh in their mechs as they moved up the street were ripples in the currents around her.

Veronica wrapped her awareness around her own machine. It lay there in the dark, waiting for her command. She could feel the hilt of the sword still in the grip of its right hand. With the rest of her magic sense, she felt what the foe was going to do. They were moving up the street,. She could feel each of their movements just before they happened. Was it the future, or just a sense of their will? She couldn't be sure. But what she sensed happened a moment later, as surely as if she was feeling time itself. It was a skill she been developing for years but one no other riders she’d met seemed to have.

She pictured her own actions, her own future. She would stand. She would reach out and grab the shoulder plate of her mech. It would step forward, and she would push a wave of force into the wall in front of them. They would follow close behind, bursting out of the building. She could feel how the building would fall behind them, collapsing further as they destroyed yet another of its walls. Then they would be among their foe, her sword swinging.

Her vision of it became muddled. Too far in the future, the sense of sureness faded and blurred.

She could do this. She had to do this.

Veronica took a deep, shuddering breath and then leapt into action. In the dark, her hands found the shoulder of her mech and the rungs of steel set into its armor. She grabbed hold and urged it to action.

The mech surged up and threw itself at the wall. Veronica summoned a force wave, blasting forward and shattering the wall just before they hit.

A cloud of bricks shattered around them, bouncing off the armor of her mech and flying in all directions. Veronica ducked low as they cleared the building and emerged in the midst of the Russian mechs.

Veronica fought to get back her focus, to reconnect with the feel of the flow of magic. Her charger swung its sword, catching the first opponent low across its hips and severing one of its legs. The mech tumbled away, rider falling, screaming.

Veronica kept low to her mech’s shoulder and using the hand holds rather than trying to stand. All her attention was on the flow of magic around them, the feel of her connection to her mech. Her charger whirled away from the first opponent and swung for the second with an overhand chop. The sword sliced clean through the mech’s rider and deep into its shoulder armor.

Her mech pulled its sword clear and pivoted, bringing the blade around for the neck of their next target. The blade came in over its shoulder, cutting the rider through both her legs and decapitating the mech.

The flow of magic was jumbled now. The marching Russian column had descended into chaos. Veronica shut her eyes tight against the movement of her machine and the screams of her victims, trying desperately to hold on to the flow of the river of magic, to see it and feel it. But the river was slipping away, turning into a churning whitewater.

Something tickled her awareness. The pattern shifted. She threw herself from her mech, commanding it to dive for cover. The world around them exploded. Shells rained down from two directions, ripping through the Russian formation, smashing machines and riders all around them.

Veronica hit the ground hard, rolled over, and came up against a pile of rubble, curled into a ball. She was hit by a storm of metal. Blood washed over them.

Her charger had gone the other way, out of the group of Russians. She focused on it, trying to steer it clear of the maelstrom.

Veronica got her knees under her. She ducked involuntarily as a mech came crashing down next to her. She staggered up, reeling, trying to get her bearings. Another Russian robot was thrashing in the middle of the street. All around were chunks of metal, and at least a couple of bodies. Off to her right, a knot of mechs were stomping away, the remnants of the Russian wings making their escape.

Anger flared bright. They thought they could come in here and cause all this devastation and then just leave?

She reached out through her link, pulling hard at her mech. She wanted to leap to its shoulder but didn't trust herself and instead had it extend a hand so she could scramble up. Shouts and mech-sized footsteps were coming from the other direction. Most likely Hungarians or Polish units moving in for the kill. No! The fleeing Russians were hers!

Veronica spotted the end of a cannon sticking out of some debris and grabbed for it, hoisting it up even as she commanded her mech to charge after the stragglers. Her charger slipped on some debris but managed to right itself. Then she was off and running down the street. Far behind, she thought she heard someone calling for her, but she was too busy to listen. She pushed her mech to go faster.

Veronica examined the cannon in her hands. It was unfamiliar, a Russian model. She shifted her mech's grip on it to take a proper hold of it. Looking ahead, she realized she would never be able to hit them on the move with an unfamiliar weapon.

Up ahead, two blocks away, the Russians were disappearing down the street. The big machines moved in and out of the shadows of streetlights as they passed by the buildings they had destroyed earlier. They were headed for the north gate, weren’t they? This wasn’t the fastest way there; this was just the way that they had come in.

Veronica turned and headed left between the destroyed buildings. At the next intersection, she cut diagonally across, taking herself one street further up. She repeated the trick again at the next corner.

The grid of barracks blocks ended. She was sprinting through trees at the outer edge of the base. Up ahead, she saw the gate, its wooden barrier smashed open. Where were the Russians? She realized with a shock she had gotten ahead of them.

She stopped at the last of the trees, 30 yards short of the gate, and turned just in time. Four Russian mechs came around the line of trees, three still carrying guns and one with an arm ripped apart. Veronica stood her ground and lifted the unfamiliar cannon. They were less than 50 yards away, coming towards her, and she had a clear shot.

The cannon roared. The first mech in the line staggered and righted itself as it continued to run. She hoped she had damaged it. Veronica was already shifting her aim. The cannon roared again, and the second mech took a round through its chest. It staggered but didn’t fall, though its rider jumped clear.

Veronica shifted her aim again and squeezed; nothing happened. The gun was jammed or empty. She screamed in frustration and leapt her mech forward. The first mech she'd hit dodged past her without stopping. The second Russian mech was moving towards her, raising its weapon. Veronica’s mech swung the empty cannon like a club. The Russian mech caught the blow on an upraised forearm. The impact knocked it off stride, and it fell.

Veronica lifted the cannon to swing again. The Russian mech kicked upward and caught her own machine in the hip, knocking her sprawling. She leapt clear of the shoulder and landed 20 feet away. Her leg gave out and she sprawled on the ground. Surprisingly, the other Russian mechs ignored the fight and ran on past.

An inhuman roar filled the air, shaking Veronica to her bones. Something hulking ran out of the trees, headed straight for them. Veronica lay frozen as it leapt and landed atop the fallen Russian mech. It was Eva's mech, eyes glowing red, hunched over atop its fallen foe. It looked like a devil from hell itself as it raised its fists and smashed them down into the fallen Russian, over and over.

Boom! A cannon round hit Eva's mech's shoulder in a glancing blow. It looked up, growling.

Two of the Russian mechs who had run past were stopped by the gate. One of them had its cannon raised.

Eva's mech roared again and leapt towards them. The smarter of the two Russians turned and ran. The remaining one raised its cannon firing and firing again. Its shots went wide as Eva's mech bore down on it.

Veronica tried to get back to her mech, but her leg collapsed when she put weight on it. She pitched forward to lay sprawled in the undergrowth. Her mech was dangerously low on desh. She had to get to it, but she was so exhausted.

In the distance, she could hear Eva's mech roaring and the rending of metal. That thing was horrifying. She closed her eyes. She would rest her head here for just a minute, then she had to get up and find the others. She would only rest a minute. Just a minute….