Mech pilot Kira's Arc

Chapter 1 of 8

Kira wanted to win the galaxy's deadliest mech tournament, but her mech was a rusted hand-me-down that shook when it walked. She stood in the loading bay and watched a scorer scan its dented chest plate. The screen flashed red. "This frame won't survive round one," the scorer said. "Bring a real machine or don't come back." She had six days. Her mechanical wolf pressed against her leg. Its violet eyes glowed as it whined. She scratched its armored neck and made a choice. If nobody would sell her a working mech, she would build the parts herself. She rode the wolf out past the settled zones, hunting for salvage-grade materials the tournament techs threw away. The trail ended at a cluster of towering pines. Bright veins of lightning crawled up their dark trunks. The crowns pulled crackling threads down from the clouds above. She understood at once. These trees stored raw power, the same charge her dead capacitor needed. Kira climbed the largest trunk. The bark stung her palms with static. She pried loose a fist-sized node where three lightning veins met. Blue current jumped up her arm and threw her off the tree. She hit the ground hard. The wolf dragged her clear by her collar as the whole cluster flared white. But she held the node. It hummed in her glove, hot and alive. She carried it to the towering industrial facility where the tournament stored its workshop bays. A back door hung open. Inside, half-built mechs lined the racks under harsh lights. Kira found an empty bay and got to work. She cut her mech's dead power core free and wired the pine node into the frame. Her hands bled. She did not stop. The node fit. The mech's chest plate lit blue. Old joints that once groaned now snapped tight and fast. She fed the frame full charge and stepped back. The machine rose to full height without a shake. For the first time it looked like a weapon, not a wreck. A guard's boots rang on the metal floor. "Nobody builds here without clearance," a voice barked. "That charge signature is off the map. Where did you get it?" Kira climbed into the cockpit and sealed the hatch. The mech's systems roared to life around her. She drove it out the open bay door, the wolf running at its heels, and did not look back. She had a mech that could survive the tournament now. She also had a stolen power source the facility would trace, and a guard who had seen her face. The scorer would let her compete. But someone would come asking how a scrap pilot found lightning to burn.