Silas POV
The port was silent. Too silent.
Silas kept Gaia in MS Mode, beam rifle held low, armor plates humming with a faint sapphire glow. Every step echoed between stacked containers and looming warehouses. The air smelled of salt, oil, and burned ozone left behind by earlier fighting.
He was alert. Focused. Ready.
And it still wasn't enough.
The Phoenix Hawk dropped out of the sky like a meteor.
A split-second flash of thrusters—
A screech of metal—
A shadow crossing Gaia's Vision—
WHAM!
The Phoenix Hawk slammed onto Gaia's shoulders, using jump jets to drive its full weight downward. Gaia staggered, alarms screamed, and Silas barely had time to brace before—
CLANG!
The shock knocked Gaia's beam rifle from his hands. It skittered across the concrete and slid under a loading crane.
"Shit—!"
Silas twisted, trying to throw the Phoenix Hawk off, but the pirate pilot locked its legs around Gaia's torso, pounding fists into the head and chest armor like a madman.
Then the rooftops lit up.
Two more signatures appeared on Gaia's sensors a heartbeat before they opened fire.
Griffin GRF-1N – rooftop, left side
PPC discharge snapped like thunder.
LRMs arced downward in a cascading spiral.
Shadow Hawk SHD-2H – rooftop, right side
Autocannon fire hammered Gaia's flank.
SRMs streaked out like a swarm of angry hornets.
Explosions rocked Gaia from both sides, pushing him deeper under the Phoenix Hawk's weight.
And then the fourth one appeared behind him.
The warning klaxon blared—
"HOSTILE FAST APPROACHING – REAR VECTOR."
Silas twisted Gaia's torso just in time to see:
Clint CLNT-2-3T, charging at full speed, raising its autocannon.
The Clint didn't shoot. It tackled Gaia, driving into his back like a linebacker, forcing him forward while the Phoenix Hawk rode him like a bronco, punching and hacking with its knife.
Gaia's feet skidded across the port's cracked concrete. Armor buckled. Shock dampeners strained.
Silas gritted his teeth. He'd planned for a fight. He had not planned to be jumped by four mediums in textbook ambush formation.
Missiles rained down. Autocannons hammered his armor. The Phoenix Hawk's pilot whooped over open comms:
"GET HIM! KEEP HIM PINNED! TAKE THE BASTARD APART!"
This was the start of the ambush.
Silas's fingers found the hilt of the beam saber. The Phoenix Hawk's cockpit was directly in front of him. Almost there. He slammed his thumb onto the activation stud.
FLARE!
The beam saber ignited, cutting clean through the Phoenix Hawk's cockpit and torso. Sparks and molten metal sprayed outward as the mech toppled backward, legs flailing, striking the concrete with a deafening crash. One down.
The remaining three mediums hesitated. That hesitation was all he needed.
He twisted Gaia backward, thrusters flaring, shoving the rear Clint into a nearby warehouse. Concrete cracked. Steel beams bent. The mech shuddered under the impact.
The beam saber slashed into the Griffin on the left rooftop, vaporizing its torso and severing the gyro. Two down.
The Shadow Hawk on the right tried to reposition, AC/5 firing in a flurry. Kinetic impacts rattled Gaia's frame, PSA flaring in bright sapphire ripples, but armor held. With a running leap, Gaia sprinted forward on all fours, dodging SRMs and autocannon fire. The beam saber cut across the Shadow Hawk's chest, disabling its engine and cockpit in a single, clean strike. Three down.
Finally, the rear Clint recovered, roaring in frustration. Its autocannon chewed at Gaia's back, missiles streaking past. PSA absorbed the worst of it. Silas shifted Gaia upright into MS mode and, with a single precise dash, slammed into the Clint. His fist connected with the chest, denting armor. Another swing of the beam saber severed its right arm and shredded the cockpit assembly. Four down.
Silence.
The air smelled of scorched metal, ozone, and smoke. Gaia's armor hummed, still fully intact. The mech had taken massive kinetic punishment—shoved, slammed, jostled—but nothing penetrated. PSA had done its job.
Silas exhaled slowly, scanning the wreckage. Every servo ached. Every joint complained. But he was alive. And he was ready for the next wave.
He bent forward slightly in the cockpit, flicking switches to ready his sensors. The display blinked with new contacts farther north. The heavy lance waited.
Silas: "…Alright…let's see what you've got."
—///——
The heavy lance came into view, disciplined and dangerous.
• Orion ON1-K – commander
• Battlemaster BLR-1G – heavy flanker
• Warhammer WHM-6R – brawler
• JagerMech JG-7F – scout
• Longbow LBX-2R – missile support
Silas assessed the battlefield. He had beam rifle ammo, full E-Pack, and beam sabers ready. He needed to engage carefully.
Using Gaia's thrusters, he leapt over a warehouse to catch the heavy lance off-guard. Energy rounds whizzed past, some striking Gaia but absorbed by the armor. He aimed the beam rifle—precise, measured—and fired. The Warhammer's cockpit was obliterated in a flash, systems fried, pilot gone.
Gaia landed behind cover, the concrete vibrating under the impact. The other four heavy mechs zeroed in, pouring fire down his position. Silas's mind calculated the distance, the angles, the timing.
He grabbed an E-Pack, threw it near the Orion, and fired at the pack with his beam rifle. The explosion shredded the Orion's left torso, covering him in smoke.
He surged forward, beam sabers humming, striking the Orion with one swipe, tearing the heavy mech apart. Without pause, he switched one saber to throwing mode, hurling it at the Longbow's reactor. The missile support mech went critical in a fiery detonation.
Two enemies remained: Battlemaster and JagerMech. Silas fired the beam rifle at the scout, vaporizing it in a flash.
The Battlemaster responded with a desperate alpha strike, firing all weapons simultaneously. Gaia's beam rifle shattered under the combined energy, leaving only the sabers.
Silas charged, dodging missiles and autocannon fire. The Phase Shift Armor took everything, bending energy, absorbing kinetic force. He closed in, one clean swing of the saber severing the Battlemaster's torso. Sparks and molten metal erupted; the heavy mech collapsed.
Silas stood among the wreckage, chest heaving, sensors scanning. Four medium lances and one heavy lance neutralized. The port was quiet again, except for the hum of Gaia's reactor and the crackle of distant fires.
END