Building the Collateral - 95 - Early Access (Patreon)

“Alright people!” eagerly barked Sadu the moment the queue popped. Her mech eagerly hefted its rifle in anticipation as the map began to load in. “Remember, we gotta rank up to qualify for the school tournament, or else they won’t even bother with the invite. The cutoff date’s soon, so put your backs into it!”

“And whose fault was it we left it to last minute to grind out the matches? I said that we should probably do it sooner rather than later, didn’t I?”

“Shut it Amadi, and get running with that chicken walker! We’re on a winning streak, aren’t we?! We can easily do this!”

The leader of their ligh mech detachment clicked his tongue, then signaled to his squad. The armless walkers swiftly sallied out from their spawn once the restraining borders vanished, each of them soon vanishing from sight amid the tall buildings of the randomly selected battleground. Their scouting effort was a necessity when these maps had a degree of variance to them, something that made Lancer Online ranked play so unpredictable. Though normally, even that had limits.

Yet when the commander of this preformed team checked the scoreboard, she was flabbergasted. “Huh? That can’t be right.”

“What’s wrong sister?” her actual sibling asked, waiting alongside with her squad. “Wait, did you queue us up in the wrong mode? Ugh, I swear, if you waste our time with this...”

“No I haven’t,” she snapped back, then pushed back from the computer she was sitting at in real life. A hand reached behind and tapped Nelly, who rolled her eyes and came over to glance at the screen in their shared bedroom. “Look.”

“...The heck? Only two enemies? You did- no. I see it, we’re in ranked. What the heck?”

“I think it’s them who chose the wrong mode to queue up for. Duos is that way, folks.” Sadu returned to her setup and thought for a moment before shrugging. “Oh well. Easy win for us I guess.”

“Damn straight we’re not going to offer a draw for them to get out of here,” Nelly agreed. “We need the rank for our school pride. Sorry rookies.”

“Well, if they’re good sports about it, maybe we can take them under our wing for a bit. Invite them in to function as additional bodies while we grind out the ranks we need. Anyways, Amadi? How’s it going?”

Scouting duty at the start of matches was usually pretty boring. It was all about just getting a feel for the map, figuring out what iteration they were going to be fighting in. That wasn’t to say that it could get exciting if reconnaissance encountered enemy observers trying the same, but typically most public rank games didn’t have many light mechs. Most understandably queued with the assumption of working together as a coincidence, or fighting alone at worst. In which case, bigger usually was better.

Hence why the student had gone along with the sisters’ suggestion to form a team. He wanted to actually have a reason to field his favorite walker, and coordinating with others encouraged that. Other teams would probably do so as well and Amadi was looking towards facing them.

But this one was probably not going to be one such case, at least based on what he’d seen so far. “Going uneventful. I’ve identified one of the capture points over here, seems pretty uncontested. Could go for it now.”

“Might as well. Do it and pass on your navigation if you can.”

“Roger, over and out.” That last bit made it sound cool, the boy thought to himself as he sauntered forwards. He stepped into the digital ring and watched as the flag fluttering at the center began to shift to blue.

Then there was a roar, of a mech boosting.

It caught him by surprise and he turned about frantically, chassis swiveling to face the unexpected threat. An incoming fast...medium mech? What? Wait, that didn’t matter! “Scout elements, on me! Enemy contact-!”

Then Amadi stared in disbelief as he suddenly was placed into spectator mode. A helpful replay camera at the top right of his screen informed him of the killing blow, that being an anti-material rifle which just one-shotted him. The enemy mech had one mounted on its shoulder, which...was a choice. Sure, it saved space, but at the cost of accuracy.

But they’d fired it on the move and nailed his cockpit all the same!

Because he was stuck in spectator mode, his communications were muted. He’d have to wait until respawn to tell the rest of the team what’d happened. The leader of the scouts though could watch through the perspective of his squad as they converged on his last stated position. Maybe one of them could radio back in time about the threat.

In hindsight though, with how fast that frame was, there wasn’t a chance.

“I have eyes on- what the-!” There went Viktor when one of the guns was shoved into his cockpit and fired.

“Boosting to get vantage- nononono!” He couldn’t blame the sheer panic in Eurwen’s voice when they tried to leap to the top a nearby building, only to be caught out by a set of legs in a diving kick.

“I’m running and getting help! HQ, this is- wait, you can’t be keeping up. You can’t be-!” Those were the last words of Yerusha before her sprinting steed was tripped up with another casual kick, bringing them down into the asphalt. To her credit, she managed to roll her machine back around into a preparatory recovery position, but that enemy frame was standing right over her, weapons pointed pointed straight at the body of her machine. “Argh...I don’t punch out! Take this!”

The defiant spray of bullets was cut short by the crimson mech silently pulling the trigger on its twin handheld machine guns and obliterating whatever little armor the walker once had. Within a matter of minutes, the entire scout squad was now stuck in the respawn room, voicing various levels of reactions.

“What the hell!”

“That has to be a hacker, surely!”

“Or a pro smurfing all over us,” Amadi absently told before directing a bit of critique to Yerusha. “You should have punched out. We’ll need all the company points we can get to deal with this.”

“Hehe. Sorry, I always wanted to say something like that.” The girl was unapologetically bouncing in her seat, a little too giddily despite the loss. “That was seriously pretty rad. I can’t wait to try it again!”

Despite the absolute loss, the scout leader was grinning too in anticipation. Maybe he could properly identify the frame they were using next time and give that whirl if it could make scouting even more fun.

The sudden elimination of the scout team did not escape notice from the rest of the team. Yet because of just how...absurd it was, they hesitated. Especially when there wasn’t any information on just what was out there. A scout killer? An ambush fighter? The lack of intelligence had Sadu gritting her teeth before making the decision to hunker down for the moment. Once the scouts respawned, then they could tell them what it was.

Without a presence to contest the mysterious two opponents, most capture points on the field changed to red and the round timer began to tick.

Finally, the missing scouts were back. An NPC supply ship with their colors passed by their base and the revived players were back. “Sadu. It’s bad,” Amadi told without preamble. “They’re good. Real good.”

“Okay, what are they?” When her classmate responded with a shrug, she hissed. “You didn’t even get a good enough look?”

“Nobody did. That’s how fast we died,” he bluntly told. “My squad needs support if you want to send us back out there.”

“You have to, because we need those control points!” The team leader paused, then took a deep breath to calm herself down. “Right. Icarus, go with Amadi. You too Timor- three squads should be enough to deal with one mech.”

“Or at least keep them busy enough for us to cap,” humorlessly suggested the one in a light mech. This time, Sadu couldn’t find it in her to admonish him, not when this flipped so suddenly from an easy match to a nightmare.

The chosen mechs sallied out and she began to think not necessarily how to win, but how to lose with grace.

The most she could do now was try to assuage and grab enough points back to avoid the team getting punted from their current league for an overwhelming loss. Which meant she was taking a risk of sending the greater majority of her side out there, leaving only her and her sister’s squads behind to guard their spawn point. If that was smashed up and destroyed, reinforcement waves would be greatly slowed down, tilting the match even more against them.

Given the cries that were coming over the open radio, she had a feeling that was going to be need.

“The heck, it’s so fast- argh!”

“I-I can’t keep up! Oh stars, my legs! I’m punching out now!”

“Are they compensating for something with the size of that AMR?!?”

“It’s a Swallowtail!”

Finally, actionable intelligence from Amadi. He was even still alive, sounding winded and harried but at least talking. “A Swallowtail? Makes sense, Smith-Shimano frames are very fast,” Sadu considered. “That one especially can be quick as a scout even despite its size.”

“It’s also packing a lot of firepower for its size,” he added, passing on a full identification record. “Twin light machine guns and a shoulder-mounted anti-materiel rifle. And the pilot’s good, real good.”

“I can tell. Losses?”

“Icarus, all gone. Timor, down to half. Amadi...just me left.” A chilling headcount given how many had departed from the base earlier. “Everybody threw themselves at them for me to catch this complete scan- ah.”

“Amadi?”

“I just realized I lost sight of them. Which means-” There was a loud ominous crunch that echoed through the connection, then the call cut. Sadu stared blankly at the error message briefly before squaring her shoulders, returning her attention to the overall battle map.

The desperate sortie yielded information which was valuable, but the problem was the price her force of assorted students had paid for it. Worse of all was how they clearly failed to take even one of the capture points away from the enemy team.

Should she have gone out there with them to grab this information herself? Send her sister perhaps? Maybe surround them with numbers? Argh, she didn’t know!

Then Nelly spoke up with a serious look. “Sis, check the sensor tower. Blip coming in from the front.”

Sadu blinked, then did so with a reluctant glance. Indeed, there appeared to be an enemy machine heading for their base. Did that lone walker out there get impatience and rush to try and crush them? Hold on, that didn’t make sense.

Sure, the Swallowtail was a dangerous foe, but it surely couldn’t deal with the automated base defenses by its lonesome. In fact, that was a weakness, wasn’t it? Ah, so maybe this was a blunder, one that she could use!

But those plans collapsed when visual identification of the incoming mech was conducted and confirmed. One that revealed not a crimson streak ripping through the streets, but an orange titan that steadily advanced with a measured gait that had Sadu feeling nervous. She’d seen that sort of pace before, in a match with a professional player.

They walked much the same way, sure of their ability- yet also on the lookout for surprises all the same.

That meant that when some of the eager defending mechs rushed to intercept, the war machine immediately responded without a single lick of hesitation. One of her team members had their head blown off in a quick snapshot from a burst of lasers, another had their legs shot out from beneath them. As they collapsed to the ground, the rest rallied and began to pour on return fire. It coincided with the base turrets spinning up and beginning to chatter, barrels spitting at the incoming enemy.

Instead of withdrawing or ducking for cover, the professional smoothly raised their off-hand and flexed their fingers. The rounds that would have struck them abruptly slowed and halted in the shimmering energy shield that had formed, forming an almost obstructive barrier of ordinance. Bullets and rockets alike strained to continue forwards, yet were firmly held into place until whatever inertia or propellant pushed them on faltered. Then they dropped harmlessly at the feet of the unmarred...Saladin!

“It’s a Saladin, we’re not going to overwhelm that with raw firepower!” Sadu cautioned her team, flinching when another was taken out by a well-placed shot at range. Thankfully, they seemed to swap to destroying parts of the sensors instead, bringing down the sensor tower and a few turrets alongside. “We need numbers!”

“Our next reinforcement ship should be in a minute!” Nelly added, directing her squad to just firm up the defense. “Just suppress them until they get here!”

That was easier said than done though with that frame’s absurd shielding systems. Sadu bit back some very unbecoming swears that would earn her a lecture from their parents- as is, there probably was going to be a noise complaint later. But it was hard to hold back from making a noise, because despite being on the backfoot, this was also somehow the most intense match she found herself getting drawn into in a long while. Now, she almost wanted to say that ranking up and winning didn’t matter.

Just being in the moment did.

Buckling down and fortifying their position did appear to be the right call, as while the Saladin still smoothly popped the heads of any daring defender that dared peek longer than they should have, neither could the pilot within advance. There was just too much coming their way now that stalled them, the lone laser rifle armament it was carrying unable to kill fast enough to open up the way.

Which meant that Sadu was paranoid about its partner. The Swallowtail should have enough.

So where was it?

The roar of engines had the player’s heart leap into her throat, making her think for a moment that was them. But no, she looked up and was relieved to see it be the incoming supply ship. The one that carried a fresh wave of respawns for the entire team, giving them the chance to finally mount a counterattack. Then they could try and sweep the rest of the map. “Look, reinforcements are here! We’re still in this!” she shouted over comms, trying to motivate everybody to keep fighting.

It had the unintended effect of distracting her team for a brief moment, the assorted gamers glancing the way of the supply ship to assuage them of the supposed triumphant moment.

Supposed, as it meant that none were able to catch the telltale shimmer of a cloaked frame in time.

Only after a powerful shot rang out in their very midst did they realize something was amiss. Though their greater gaze was naturally more drawn to the horrifying sight of the incoming supply ship suddenly going up in flames. The singular snipe had been placed well, the round hitting the fuel line and setting the entire thing alight. Meaning that the engines exploded and the spacecraft careened away, thrown roughly about from the sudden force.

Now spiraling out of control and without a way to recover, it plunged downwards off the map before exploding. Lancer Online took a moment to process this update, then ruled that the team’s respawn timers had been reset.

Meaning it was just Sadu, Nelly, and a handful left to stare down the new monster in their midst.

The Swallowtail’s shoulder cannon ejected the round, then retracted. It folded backwards and neatly stowed away as that arm was made free again to grasp the holstered light machine gun. Now it hefted a twin set of them, one in each hand, and it wasted no time in boosting forwards to directly engaged the defenders from behind their own wall.

Nelly screamed and charged in first, her machine raising its own rifle to try and down this foe as it ripped through her squad. Meanwhile Sadu’s mind was still trying to understand how that could have happened, how an enemy could have sneaked into their base. Even with cloaking active to render them invisible from visual identification, the sensor tower would have picked up something-

Ah. That very same base installation which had been collapsed by the approaching Saladin from the front. Which drew all eyes onto them first and foremost.

...She understood now. These were not just professionals expressing a casual skill difference with disdain. This wasn’t meant to demonstrate the gulf between their respective sides to belittle them.

These lancers hadn’t held back at all and treated their amateur team with full seriousness. Enough to actually plot and work against with everything they had, exploiting weaknesses and utilizing tactics that left Sadu in awe. And a little humbled.

She should’ve prepared every rank match tonight with all due seriousness. Heck, she should have done what Amadi had mentioned and properly gotten their qualifications way before, like a proper team should have. The girl supposed she owed a classmate an apology now.

Only after she gave it her best though.

Her sister and her squad weren’t going to win, that was for certain. They were getting torn apart by the Swallowtail in their midst as it bobbed and weaved, moving too fast for panicked shots to hit while delivering a never-ending stream of bullets in return. But Sadu could take her time with her shot.

And she knew the Swallowtail was fragile- one good hit might very well stun it long enough for an opportunity to arise.

Sadu saw the opening. She pulled the trigger.

The round departed her rifle’s barrel- and was stopped in place by a suddenly manifested shield that enveloped the Swallowtail.

Oh right. The Saladin could do that, Sadu blanky remembered before she was sent to the respawn room as well when said frame slammed into her machine and broke it in a single punch.

With a sigh, she ignored her sister’s frothing accusations of hacks and just typed into the public chat two letters:

“GG”