12 Mecha Fight
"Captain, the mercenary about to get into our decoy, you have two minutes twenty-second before they realize it is a trap," Altea's sound could be heard inside Holocaust C-2's cockpit.
Ed was ready in the cockpit since the mercenary's frigates came within firing range. He was waiting for the perfect opportunity to make use of his first strike.
It would be ideal for him to wait for both frigates to come close so he could disable both of them at once, but sadly only one frigate comes closer to the decoy.
"Is the Holocaust ready for deployment, Altea?" he asked the AI.
"I have run full diagnostic and the holocaust engine is running without problem, the C-2 is in perfect condition," it reported.
"Can you..." he was about to ask it to do another diagnostic to make sure there was nothing wrong.
"I'm sorry captain, the enemy hacker is better than our prediction, they will realize the trap in ten seconds," Altea interrupted him.
"Deploy the C-2 immediately," he commanded as he switched the alien mecha online from standby.
It directly launched out of the Alpha-Charlie toward the frigate that was boarding the decoy, Ed got startled by how fast the acceleration was, but he got the hang of it soon enough.
The C-2 raised its giant scythe and slash through the stationary frigate with its energy blade. It cut through it with so much ease that Ed almost made the mecha stumble, but luckily he was able to stabilize it.
"Target beta has been neutralized, no energy signature detected," the AI reported.
Ed engaged the C-2's propulsion system and went directly toward the other frigate AKA target alpha as it flew back to run from him.
He did not care about the crew of the destroyed frigate as they were coming for his life, "If they are aiming for my life then they could not blame me for being ruthless," he thought.
"2 energy signatures detected, Target Alpha deploying their own mecha," Altea warned him.
Two red mechas were launched from the frigate, they direct pellet him with their laser rifle to cover the frigate's retreat.
"Unknown mecha detected, Alpha-Charlie is scanning for their specification, please wait for a full report," it reported.
"Energy weapons detected, heat level increasing, please use an evasive maneuver to spread out the damage," it suggested.
Ed already learned about it in the simulator but he has his own plan, "Altea, how long will C-2's armor last before it reaches critical level?" he asked the AI.
"According to their current firepower, it would take five minutes before they could take down the C-2," it reported dutifully.
According to the sensor data, he would be able to reach them in two minutes if he flew in a straight line.
Just thirty seconds after they start peppering him with the lasers, they suddenly change the target to his mecha's arm.
Ed could only shake his head in his enemies' stupidity, if C-2 was a normal Mecha then their action would be a wise move as they could continue their work after but against the regeneration mecha, changing target just give it enough time to get back to top condition.
"C-2's right arm is under focus fire, 2 minutes until structural integrity got compromised," the AI reported, but Ed did not even bother to use an evasive maneuver.
"Another energy signature detected. Target Alpha launching another Mecha," Altea reported again.
The newcomer was quite far away since it just came out of the ship that was already getting quite far away.
Ed was still accelerating toward the two closer Mecha as they kept trying to disable his Mecha's arm.
C-2's scythe was too big to be used with one hand. It was possible, but the attack speed would definitely suffer if it only had one arm.
"How long before the third mecha joins the fight?" he asked.
"Less than a minute before it got into firing distance," it replied.
"I need to buy some time so I can close the distance," he thought as he would be troubled if the three of them were focused on firing on him.
We were still deep in thought when another report came in, "Captain, the enemy tries to haul into our communication channel," Altea informed him.
"Connect me to them, make sure they can see me," he told the alien AI.
The moment it connected, Ed put on his game face, "I'm sorry for the late introduction, I'm Edward Everette, would you be so kind and surrender?"
He tried to exude the sense of superiority and complete confidence he was trying to bluff his way.
"Edward, A pirate like you has no place in this galaxy, you are going down now, don't you think using alien tech will help you!" A rough man's voice came from the comms.
As an expert manipulator, Ed knew that his opponent was trying to intimidate him, that's mean they are not confident of beating him.
They have superior numbers so they could just beat him without intimidation, now that they contact him first and try to intimidate him, that's mean they were not sure of their chance of getting out unscratched.
Ed continued their game of intimidation while he accelerates the C-2 further, he was not going at full speed, now that his enemy was busy listening to his bluff, he took the chance to surprise them.
"It's not good! The Black mecha suddenly accelerates forward, it will reach RF-1 in ten-second," a girl's voice could be heard from the other side on the communication channel.
He closed the communication channel as he didn't need it anymore to distract his enemy, C-2 already upon them, and they had no time to dodge.
Both mecha split up so Ed would only get one of them also to confuse him but he did not fall for it, he focused on one instead of aiming for both only to gain nothing.
C-2 arrived in front of the red rifleman with its scythe raised about to reap some life, but to his surprise, the opposing mecha let go of its rifle and block his scythe with a hidden blade on its right arm.
Just as they engage in melee, detailed data on the rifleman mech was sent by Altea to him.
The data just saves him as he disengages the rifleman just as another hidden blade pops out of its other hand as it tries to attack the C-2's cockpit.
"That was close," he thought as he tried to keep his distance as his scythe had longer reach than the rifleman's blade.
The rifleman mecha was more agile than Holocaust C-2 since the C-2 was using a heavy weapon, Ed was in quite a pinch as he suddenly was in defensive as he uses the scythe to block incoming attacks.
Lucky for him, his enemy was focusing at his cockpit so his movement was quite obvious and he could easily block them.
Just as it was about to finish him off, Ed used an evasive maneuver and dodge the blade to the side, and raised both of the C-2 arms at the opposing mecha's chest plate.
'Boom' Ed activated the C-2's secondary weapon, and it smashed the opposing mech in point black distance.
The rifleman mecha's armor was not thick enough to block a hit from point-blank range.
He was waiting for this moment; he made them believe that he did not know how to use evasive maneuver so he could take them by surprise.
"I guess I'm not so bad for a first-timer," he thought as he turned his mecha toward the other mecha who was peppering him with lasers while he was busy with its friend.
The third mecha also already in firing distance as it joined to pepper him down. This time, Ed did not take it standing. He used an evasive maneuver to spread out the damage all across the C-2.
He was going after the second mecha that came with the one he destroyed while keeping the newcomer for last.
He could only go after one of them at a time as they are splitting up to make it hard for him.
"Captain, another hail came from the newcomer," Altea reported as Richard was trying to contact him again.
"Ignore them, he's just going to curse at me to vent," he said as he could guess how bitter the man was.
Ed could guess that the newcomer was actually the mercenary captain, as he was the one who contacted him.
"Now, how should I get close to them?" he thought as they were wary of him. There was no way he could get closer as easily again.
"I guess I should be creative with my option here," thought as he flew toward the mecha wreckage he just created.
He pried open the rifle man's arm and take its laser rifle for himself, "with this, I should be able to slow them down," he thought as he tried to shoot the other mecha.
It missed quite far away from his target as he did not know how to operate rifleman mech and the C-2 did not have any aiming aid.
