Mech pilot Kira's Arc

Chapter 5 of 8

The win made Kira famous. It also made her a puzzle every fighter now studied. She sat in her cockpit before the next match and watched replay footage of the veteran's fall. She had one trick: vanish, reappear, strike the weak joint. Anyone who watched the tape could see it coming. Her next opponent had watched. She had no second move. The bay door rolled up. A short man in stained coveralls walked in without asking. Gray beard, thick goggles pushed up on his forehead, a tool belt heavy on his hips. He circled her mech and touched the jump drive seam like he already knew its shape. Kira's stomach dropped. She knew that walk. She knew those hands. Her father. "Scotty," she said. She hadn't spoken his name in years. "You slot a jump drive into a frame this light and you'll crack the chassis," he said. He didn't look at her. He never looked at her when it mattered. "You lean on it like a crutch. That's why they beat you now. One trick isn't a fight." "You track me down to lecture me?" "I came because you'll die out there." He finally met her eyes. Something worked behind the goggles. Then he pulled a compact module from his pack. Heavy plating, cooling vents, a bright core glowing behind a round lens. "Palm-mount laser. Fits your left arm. Gives you range. Teleport in, they expect the heel. Instead you burn them before you land." Kira stared at the module. "Where'd you get it?" "I build things. It's what I do." He set it on her tread. "You harvested a charge node off electrified pines once. Same idea. This holds that kind of power in a beam. Wire it to your line and it fires hot." She should have refused it. He had left her mother. He had left her. But the gate horn was already sounding, and one trick would get her killed. She took the module. Scotty worked fast. He cut the arm plating, seated the emitter, ran the power line. His hands never shook. "Trigger's on your left grip," he said. "Short bursts. It overheats." He wiped his palms and stepped back. "Don't teleport first. Make them think you will. Then shoot." The gate dropped. Kira rolled onto the sand. Her opponent crouched low, waiting for the vanish. She saw it in his stance. He had studied the tape. Kira didn't teleport. She raised the new arm and fired. The beam punched through his shoulder joint. He staggered, confused, hunting for a trick that hadn't come. Then she teleported, reappeared at his flank, and fired again. His mech dropped smoking to the sand. The crowd screamed her name. Kira climbed out, breathing hard. Scotty was gone from the bay. He'd left a note on her tread: a power reading, too high, circled twice. The laser burned a signature bright enough for every hunter in the sector to find.