Cymurai

004

THE DEMIGOD rose from the lower levels of the castle proper upon the partially-shielded elevator. Its sleek black humanoid form stood six meters tall and boasted a range of weaponry that covered both long- and close-range combat. On its hip, a magnetized blade that unsheathed and extended itself by a third more when drawn, reversing the process when placed.

Battlefield Commander Tomoe Tachiyama flipped one of the few physical switches in the cockpit, bringing to life the virtual screens that allowed her a 360-degree view of the battlefield. Brilliant light filled the otherwise dark cockpit in imagery she could overlay with a multitude of real-time information.

Placing her hands on the control grips to each side, she settled into the semi-standing couch with its interface cables that hooked into her limbs and along her spine. Fully synchronized with the machine, she didn't need the grips, but they gave her hands something to do, and could be used to pilot the mecha if needed.

Moving the Demigod into place within an outer castle wall defense perimeter interlock, she equipped herself with one of the portable lighting staves, and called identified herself. "Control, this is BC Tachiyama. Ready to step out. Sitrep?"

"Commander, we show a number of mutant hostiles surrounding Unit 17. Several individual transponders have gone out. Overall unit strength is low with survival probability ratio dropping by the minute." The voice remained steady and matter-of-fact as if the man were speaking on the weather and not the lives of soldiers. She simultaneously praised and cursed the man for the detached manner in which he reported. Operators in his position had the unfortunate duty of watching their fellow soldiers blink out of existence on a callous virtual screen.

"Current position?" she queried.

"They were scheduled for Area Four-Four with a departure time of 16:45."

16:45? That was over two and a half hours ago. They should have been back long ago. Retrieval efforts were only supposed to last an hour at most. Tachiyama fumed internally. What the hell had they been thinking? Why hadn't the unit leader brought them back yet? "Understood, Control. Thank you. Opening outer defense perimeter shields."

Like the Control operator, her voice remained calm and professional throughout the interaction. Unlike him, it was expected of not only her rank in the castle defense forces and her position as an Augmented samurai, but as the cousin of the current daimyo. Publicly, he could never be anything less than in complete control at all times. Privately, her thoughts seethed as she silently cursed the fonking fool who thought sending the ashigaru out so late was a good idea. Technically there was no hour considered "too late" on the books, but even sending people out for retrieval during dusk was like ringing the dinner bell, especially after a battle that had consumed most of the day. There was desperate, and there was stupid. This had been a blatantly stupid idea, and now one of her units was paying the price.

As standard precaution, she raised the Demigod's blunt full-auto pulse rifle as the door slid down to its initial one-third position. Should enemy combatants be lying in wait for her, she would at least have a chance to defend herself. It dropped and her holodar gave the all-clear sign. Stepping on the switch to drop the door completely, she was out.

Putting her mech into a jog, she raced through the citizen-owned plots of farmland rich with rice and soybeans as she approached the battlefield from earlier in the day. The mech's feet pounded the ground with a great plodding thump-thump.

Her sensors picked up Unit 17 and she was somewhat relieved that they have formed a battle circle as they had been taught and were successfully holding their own despite the fact that they were effectively blind. She peppered several monsters approaching their position with small arms, turning some back and others into pulpy ruins.

Closing on the wayward unit, she lit the mecha in Tachiyama Clan running colors and igniting a holo banner with the clan crest high above its right shoulder. "Ashigaru Unit 17, this is BC Tachiyama."

Working off the natural currents of the soil, the lighting staff auto-activated as she slammed it into the ground, instantly illuminating the area, putting the footsoldiers on a more even grounding with their mutant foes.

Cries of surprise and gratitude went up among the men and women of the 17th as she reinforced their position, firing at a plethora of small and medium targets in quick succession. "Return to base. I will cover you until then."

Almost immediately, several large mutants made a beeline for her position, and if she stayed with the ashigaru, she would only be putting them in danger. She pressed the line of engagement outward, alternating between short bursts from her rifle and stomping on mutants she missed or threatening to circumvent her position. Placing the unit at her back, she was confident she could defend them from anything coming from Areas Four-Five, Six and Seven.

A seasoned veteran, Tomoe had sortied in a hundred battles and two wasteland campaigns. Engagement this close to the castle's immediate surrounding domain were not that common. These monsters were simply opportunistic scavengers, eager to feast on the dead. Under normal circumstances, castle defenses would never engage, preferring to keep a distant eye on them instead. Live and let live. The situation was unfortunate, and frankly the fault of the ashigaru troopers that they were even out here. She was going to have a very long word with someone.

Encouraging calls and grateful hollers followed the BC. As one of the few of the Tachiyama Clan to actually take the battlefield by their side, she was well-loved by the rank and file of the clan. They considered her a fierce warrior who showed no mercy to the enemy and no displayed no fear to those under her. She led from the front, ready to die, sword in hand. She was everything they wanted in a leader.

Ignoring the excited rallying cries, she ordered them back to the castle once more, punctuating the command by firing several rounds of explosive ammunition and an incendiary mini-missile that stabbed into the inky black of a black goo on approach. Her attack peppered the creature and the large holes appeared in the creeping menace began to heal almost immediately but not before the missile slipped in and set it ablaze. The monster sputtered, curled, shrank, and hardened as it was cooked alive from the inside out.

From her left, a trio of monsters, all at least nearly as big war machine, engaged her in close quarters, boldly bodychecking the war machine. They were eager to express their displeasure with her perceived aggression – what was on the field at this hour was theirs to feast upon; her interruption was unwelcome.

With ease, Tachiyama gripped the first beast in a single, powerful hand, twisting its long thin neck into a gnarl of furred flesh and lumpy muscles, whipping it around, and finally tossing its twitching corpse aside with no more thought.

A second monster opened its mouth and regurgitated a foul-smelling acid that sizzled menacingly as it hit and oozed down the mecha's armored plating. The armor could withstand a several minutes of complete immersion in the nasty concoction, but wasn't by any means acid-proof; eventually, even the armor would begin to break down and the acid would disintegrate the pilot within. Not overly keen to test the mech's limits, Tachiyama released a localized agent to counter and lessen the effect.

Despite the attack, BC Tachiyama momentarily ignored the acid-spitter, instead exchanging a series of physical blows with the third beast, an energy-leeching mutant, which could drain her mech dry in a matter of minutes if she allowed it prolonged physical contact.

The leech lunged and snapped, trying to find a point where it could latch on and stay until it bleed the mecha of power. She clobbered it with a right hook, and brought her arm around to the blade on her left hip, drawing it in a smooth, practiced motion from below. The energy-vamp danced back howling, enraged by the sight of the deep wound inflicted upon it. It watched in disbelief as its own innards spilled forth, and mewled as it fell dead.

To her left, the acid-spitter convulsed violently in an effort to bring a significant amount of bile and acid forth from deep within its body. The moment it opened its mouth, Tachiyama aimed a battery of forearm weapons down its gullet at point blank range. The burn of hard laser scorched the inside of the mutie's neck until the flesh was blackened and thinner than the finest paper. The head lolled forward and the acid exploded backward away from the samurai in her mecha as the corpse dropped to the side.