Bestial Planet

Chapter 23: Gridt your Teeth

Another, more desperate, warning sensor went off and a red dot was flashing erratically on the right side of her HUD next to the yellow one. Something hit again and the crack raced along the glass. She pressed a button and swatted in front of her with the mechs empty hand which connected with something.

"I thought I activated my energy blade!"

She grabbed a rock with the extra, utility-limb, wanting to save ammo for the Androids and their ship. While she was looking for the invisible threat she rolls over and sees Yora aiming a rail-gun right at her. Gridt hurls the rock at Yora, hitting him square in the head. He fell to the ground unconscious and the rail-gun bucked up, firing uselessly into the sky.

Before she could regain her bearings the rhino charged her again and shattered the glass of her cockpit. She took a deep breath and the Earthen air stung in her lungs. Gridt let out a battle cry that rattled and boomed through the air. It sounded like the hissing-grumble you'd hear from a pissed off crocodile. The cry caught Catty off guard causing her to unintentionally de-cloak.

At that moment the air-lock doors of Section 6 whined, intending to open but the damage Gridt had done trying to get in made it impossible. Gridt, the Rhino-horse and Catty stood still, unsure of what was happening. They whined again then a series of beeps faintly sounded before an explosion blew the doors open. Gridt ignored the neo-humans that were proving to be more than a handful, stood up and squared off to the doors. Two patch-work Guardians and an Android Combat suit walk through the dust and out of Section 6. While Gridt was focused on the guardians, Catty and the Rhino-Horse charge her again.

"Stay back!"

Lancieta yelled as the energy blade lit up, headed directly for Catty. The light from the blade reflected in her eyes but fizzled out just before connecting, making the attack just a punch to the face, which still hurt like hell. Gridt turned back to the other neo-human as a piece of a warning icon showed up on her busted display. The Rhino-Horse almost made contact but Gridt stopped it with one hand of her mech. They slid to a stop and she lifted the Rhino-Horse over her head and tossed her to the side. The rhino-horse sailed at least 20 feet before landing with a crunching thud. A railgun shot narrowly missed Gridt's Mech as she turned around.

"Vould, you're not aiming correctly!"

"Shut up Tould! I've never had a body before."

"Focus you two!"

Lancieta exploded forward. The jets of her combat suit at full power as she collided with Gridt, the metal of their suits grinding in protest. Gridt went to activate her energy blade but when she made contact it didn't extend.

"How is it overloaded again?"

The hit connected with Lancieta's leg making her buckle. Her jets, still active, propel her underneath the mech and away from it as another Railgun shot flew by Gridt, closer this time.

"I told you it wasn't easy Tould!"

Vould was running full tilt toward the action with his minigun spooling up.

"Oh shit." Gridt turned around as fast as she could before the bullets started racing towards her from the minigun. She raised her own and loosed a volley of ammunition at Lancieta as the Android glided across the ground, narrowly avoiding the shots. The bullets stopped mushrooming on the back of Gridt's mech just as Vould made contact.

"I can't miss if I'm this close."

His railgun sparked to life and Gridt's eyes went wide as all the warning sounds went off in her cockpit. She tried to ignite her energy-blade but nothing happened. Another emergency sound screamed at her as she forced her minigun to recoil into the arm, then it bent backward to try and get a grip on Vould's rail-gun.

"Come on! Charge faster!" Vould was panicking.

Gridt got a grip and crushed his rail-gun, causing it to explode, sending the both of them flying in opposite directions. Vould looked like a turtle on it's back, trying to get on his feet with his one good arm and the stump that used to house his rail-gun. Tould took the opening his brother created and loosed a chaotic volley of minigun fire. Gridt turned away too late and 5 bullets managed to sink into her right arm and leg.

As she turned Lancieta was already rushing at her. Gridt tried dodging out of the way to let the hail of gun fire from Tould hit Lancieta instead but the Captain read the movement and adjusted her course and closed in. Before Lancieta could get a hand around Gridt's neck she felt a searing pain in her gut. The mech arm flashed in front of her and her attack turned into a failed dodge, making her tumble to a stop with parts snapping off her suit while clutching at her stomach. It took her a few seconds to realize what exactly happened. Gridt raised her energyblade, prepared to split the Android in half but when she brought the blade down it fizzled out again.

Gridt heard clanging against her mechs arm like something was running on it and before she could react something was standing on top of her. How did it get inside the cockpit without her realizing? Gridt was overtaken by confusion as the invisible enemy was already digging its teeth into into her already shredded right arm. She punched wildly with her left at the invisible thing trying to tear her shoulder apart and she thought she heard a few of their bones break. The thing let go of her shoulder and jumped out. Then something hit her from behind causing her to fall over.

"Fuck this! None of this was in the intelligence report! Extraction!"

"Inbound."

Gridt spooled up her minigun and fired wildly around her. Trying to keep everyone away from her. She caught sight of the Panther whose tail she ripped off and steadied her minigun at him. He was standing in front of Lancieta and a limping White Tiger. She tried to hit at least one of them but the Panther kept blocking her fire, the bullets bouncing off it's fur like a child's toy.

Another rail-gun crackle echoed through the air and Gridt looked down at a new warning noise as the energy beam fizzled out from beneath her mech. It was now missing it's left leg. She punched at the ground with her mech's damaged minigun arm to steady herself and two loud, comforting booms sounded from behind her. The first knocked over Tould who was readying another shot and the second kicked up dust in front of her while knocking Captain Steegle and the humans away. She felt her mech being lifted up into her Break-ship and when she got aboard she fell out of it's cockpit and raced over to the arm-cannon.

"First - aid..."

The cannon slithered onto her right arm and started to seal her wounds.

"Unknown poison hindering natural clotting process."

Gridt felt her consciousness drifting and barely spoke her next command.

"... Dock."

The ships computer plotted a course to the main hub of Kraken and took off at full speed, up and out of the atmosphere. In only two minutes she was in the upper atmosphere and before she lost consciousness all of the warnings in her break-ship went off.

"Enemy vessel detected. Munitions fired, evading."

Gridt looked helplessly at Kraken as she blacked out from blood loss and poison.