THE TALES FROM COPPER 9! Volume 2 (Murder Drones)

Dead Drop | Chapter 001

Michael: "Boss? Are you sure you wanna drop in now? Those storms look like they could tear through a cargo freighter, let alone a Titan mech!"

I stared down at the raging storms below, watching as the inky black clouds swirled and spun wildly, flashes of lightning blitzed across the atmosphere. My mech suit was designed for heavy environments, yes, but not an orbital drop into a dead-zone class climate. Still, the adrenaline rush was urging me forwards, begging me to ride down through the raging winds like the madman I am.

Y/N: "Yes, I'm sure Michael! Now, are all the systems fully operational? I don't want to drop down into a radioactive hurricane and find out there's an O2 leak!"

Mike: "Yes, I had Harry check the cables and tubing right before we got down into the upper atmosphere! Are you absolutely sure you want to head down in this mess?!"

Y/N: "Mikey, this is the cleanest drop-zone we can get for the next 427 hours! By the time we wait for the next one, JCJenson will have already hired another goober to do it for 'em!! I'm dropping in 60 seconds!! Oh, and make sure to send down a habitat, I don't want a repeat of the incident on HYDROGEN-26!"

Mike: "Sure thing boss! Okay, dead drop initiated, dropping in 30!"

My mech was then moved down into an sealed chamber , and was sealed inside the drop-pod. The pod then moved into a chute and pressurised.

Mike: "Drop in 15!"

The wild winds made the ship rumble and shake around me, and we were barely dipping into the storms below us, who knew what kind of nightmarish whirlwinds could be hiding down there!

Mike: Drop in 10!"

There was no turning back now, as the drop pod readied to eject from the drop chute.

"3!"

Here we go!

"2, 1!"

The pod then suddenly flew out of the chute at the speed of sound, hurtling through the storms so fast that it didn't slow down. After a few more minutes, If I kept flying down at this speed, I would probably die in a fiery crash.

Y/N: "AX, reroute all pod fuel to reverse thrusters!"

Ax-8914 was my titan, a giant mechanical humanoid with enough armour and weaponry to terminate an entire city. His specialised class of titan, The Monarch Class, had an AI that was capable of non-pilot combat, allowing the Pilot and Titan to fight in sync, he also worked as a fully functional mech suit, capable of allowing two to fight as one.

AX: "New secondary objective confirmed; re-routing all fuel supplies of the drop-pod to reverse thrusters. Current altitude; 20000 ft."

His uncannily dead tone complimented both his seriousness in combat, and his comedic skills in regular conversation.

Ax: "Pilot, the drop-pod current velocity is still too fast to reach safe deployment for the parachutes. We need to find another way."

Y/N: "You got any other ideas, big guy?!"

Ax: "Calculating...
Projections estimate if we initiate a large-scale fuel purge from the reverse thruster ventilation system, we could reach safe speeds to deploy the parachutes just before we run out of power. Current altitude; 14000 ft."

Y/N: "You seriously want to burn all our fuel in one go?! The fuel tank on this is all we've got till the next supply drop!! You do realise if we don't find some other way of cooling ya down, you will overheat, right?!"