Cogs

5

Romero urged Kate to hurry finishing her startup sequence. The Shrike was in range, and there was a fifty-fifty chance it would be Kate that the pilot selected as his first kill. Romero was relieved when he heard and felt the explosion of Becky Sue's death. He had a chance! Besides its very short-range attack zone, the other downside of the Shrike was that it took a while to recharge its weapons.

The nearly panicked cog laughed as Kate's turbines roared to life, lifting the damaged tank from the road. Romero didn't hesitate; he immediately accelerated away until Kate was redlined. She was hurt but still had plenty of life left in her.

Romero debated for a microsecond before deciding to turn away from the American forces in Pyongyang, streaking instead towards the ruins of the factory town he had just left. In the open fields between the industrial park and the suburbs of Pyongyang, the Shrike had the advantage. Back among the ruined buildings of the industrial complex, he had half a chance. Half a chance was better than none.

The Shrike made no effort to follow; instead, it rose upwards, disappearing from visual, cloaking itself in ECM and becoming invisible. Romero knew better than to falsely hope the pilot had headed off to hunt elsewhere. The Shrike would be following him from on high, waiting for its EMP and Lance to fully charge.

As Kate sped into the canyons of wrecked concrete buildings, Romero redirected her energy from the quench cannons to maximize Kate's anti-EMP shielding. Doing so would disable the main guns and drain her fuel cells faster than a coed doing shots of tequila, but he had no choice. He doubted the pilot would allow him a clear shot and one more burst of EMP might overwhelm the already damaged systems — new shielding or not.

It was clear; this wasn't a battle, it was a foxhunt and Romero was the fox. Sometimes the fox escapes, he thought with grim optimism though deep down he knew his chances were nearly non-existent. Romero looked for a place to run, to hide; anything to get rid of the horrible feeling that at any moment he would personally experience what one hundred million watts of light felt like as it vaporized human tissue and ceramite alloy armor.

Romero flew without direction, trying to be as random as he could until he could find something, anything, he could use to his advantage. His heart leaped into his throat when Kate's alarms sounded. The Shrike was dropping, fast. Too late, no place to run or hide, Romero played a desperate hand. He diverted all power to Kate's shields in anticipation of —

PAIN!

Romero screamed through grit teeth, spasming in pure agony as his wiring burned for a split second. Then, mercifully, his shielding kicked in again. Kate's protection held, and she withstood the burst — barely. Though his mind was rocked with fiery pain, he managed to drop Kate onto the ground, acting as if she had been shut down.

Romero waited and watched on visual channels, sweat running down his face as the Shrike dropped to lancing range. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the long glassteel tube that jutted out from the brick. It glowed with a most beautiful, intense blue light as it began to build up energy before firing. Romero grit back his fear and waited until the very last second then redirected all Kate's power to her thrusters.

The Berserker surged forward like a stuck pig. Behind her, the Laser Lance instantly burnt a perfect smoking hole deep into the ground where the tank had been a moment ago.

Romero had bought himself time with his trick, but he knew the pilot wouldn't be fooled a second time. This was no half-trained North Korean cog with last generation gear. There was no way the Chinese would sell a Shrike to the North Koreans — 'friendly neighbor' or not. No, this pilot was Chinese — elite and wired with the best tech. If Shrikes were here, China was no longer an 'interested party' but a main player. This punitive action was about to become an all-out war between superpowers.