Warsong (Hunter-Killer #2)

Chapter 01 - Rolling Out the Red Carpet

Year 247 P.L. Rychter Calendar
Coordinates: 39.2°S; 62.3°W
Site Designation: Brekka (City of)

The heavy toothed feet of Ryke's Hunter-Killer ground into the hard-packed dirt of the plateau that surrounded the city of Brekka. A Riot Pattern model, it stood just over four meters tall, and all fifteen tons of the fearsome war machine responded to his every thought as he trudged his way through the outer earthworks, its humanoid shape casting a long shadow in the morning sun.

Its brass armour still bore the scars of battle, scuffed and scratched, and across the armoured slab of his right shoulder there were dozens of crimson slashes, a message to anyone who saw his mech that Ryke Vannigan was a killer.

A retractable rotating cannon was slung under the right hand with an enormous trigger mechanism and an ammunition feeder snaking back to link with the cache of armour-piercing shells in the upper arm. The left shoulder of war machine bore a thick blast plate that served as an extra bulwark of armour while attached, or a shield when detached and held in the opposite hand. Folded back into the wrist section of that same arm a gigantic, oil-black blade was concealed.

The spherical head rested within an armoured crater of a neck, swivelling left and right as he looked around, sensor feeds relaying the outside world into the heads-up-display within his Hunter-Killer. An army of engineers, volunteers and military personnel laboured round the clock, relaying power cables, repairing roadways and rebuilding defensive installations. Behind them the once impregnable walls of Brekka were covered in intricate webs of scaffolding, with massive cranes hoisting fresh blocks of stone into position in the breaches left behind by the battle.

It had been five months since the siege that had almost destroyed his home, and the memories were still raw in Ryke's mind. The humans who colonised Rychter had been at war with the Scraegans for decades, but never had there been a pitched battle of such size and brutality. He'd lost friends; comrades. They'd very nearly lost Brekka itself.

The rebuilding work was slow and arduous, and HK-Rupture, along with many Hunter-Killer units, had been pressed into service to help the overstretched and overworked Engineering Cadre undo the damage of the siege. Behind him the nine other Hunter-Killers of his squad crunched their way through the earthworks, every second mech hauling vast equipment crates on makeshift, balloon-wheeled trailers. There simply weren't enough trucks to get the raw materials where they needed to go.

"You'd think they could tie these damn things to some rookies," Brigg 'Avalanche' Alwick grumbled over the comm as they marched on. Piloting one of the taller, bulkier Goliath Pattern heavy mechs, Brigg was dragging more weight than most. "If any Scraegans come knocking over the horizon we'll not be much good carrying ten tons of ballast."

Ryke smiled his half-smile, feeling the weight of the metal that replaced most of his jaw on the left side. In his first ever engagement that part of his face had been completely shattered when a blast from a Scraegan furnace cannon struck his mech. His own callsign, 'Lockjaw' had spawned from that distinctive feature, and served as a constant reminder of how dangerous their adversaries could be.

"I'd rather have rookies learning how to fight than dragging freight," he replied, angling his Hunter-Killer to the left in a looping arc through a series of half-ruined trenches. "Last thing we need is another Scraegan army to turn up to find us short on pilots."

"Maybe we should be out there doing a bit of dissuasion?" Thaye chimed in, a girl whose ferocity in combat had earned her the callsign 'Havoc' which she embraced wholeheartedly. "We all know they're out there just licking their wounds. They'll be back."

"All the more reason to get the defences fixed, eh?" the squad's second in command, Preese 'Deadbolt' Sarassian cut in. "Don't want them coming back here while there's still a bunch of holes in the walls."