The deeper John moved into the cave, the more he was convinced it was anything but. The path he was following was smooth, almost like he was running the mech down a highway. He would have liked to investigate more, but the Panthers tracks were quickly dissipating on his thermals, and he wanted to make it as far as he could in case there were branching paths ahead. Not to mention the Urbie's running lights were all blown out.

  "This cave isn't natural. Somebody went to a lot of effort to cut this deep into the rock." Lucy said over the radio, staying about a hundred yards behind John. The Bck Jack did have running lights, but she only turned them on for a moment before shutting them off, not wanting to give the Panther or any of its friends an easy target. It wouldn't matter if they had thermals, but most mechs out here in the periphery were riddled with issues. Between that and the mineral deposits pying havoc with sensors, there was a good chance that the pirates' mechs wouldn't be able to see them without visuals.

  "Agreed. It might have been a mine a long time ago, but I am willing to bet that this path is leading us to the pirate base and the Star League cache." John replied, then added after a moment, "We will get her back, Lucy."

  "I... thank you, John." She replied.

  They continued on in silence, the road winding zily beneath their mech's feet. With every step, John was growing more and more concerned that they were about fall into a trap, the oppressive darkness of the path doing nothing to help his building anxiety. He kept trying to reassure himself that there was probably no better mech that the pirates could field for close quarters combat than this trash can he was driving. That didn't help.

  I just jinxed myself, didn't I?

  They continued along the roadway for another ten minutes, the Panthers heat trail having long since dissipated. The road didn’t branch off, so John remained confident they would come out wherever the Panther did. His surroundings were beginning to brighten up slightly, making him think they were nearing the end of the tunnel.

  "Be ready. The Panther probably let his buddies know about our attack already, so we could have a welcoming party waiting for us." He said to Lucy, breaking the silence.

  "I got your back. All else fails, we can just retreat.... err..." She replied, then realised they probably wouldn't be able to, neither of their mechs fast enough to get away from most other mechs.

  "Well, we pop our heads out to see what is at the end of this tunnel, then make the decision to retreat or not then. They can't have many mechs left. They lost three the other day, and the Jenner. The Panther might as well be destroyed with its primary weapon out of commission. Any light mech pilot would be crazy to try and chase an Urbie down a narrow corridor like this."

  "I hope you are right, but these are not your average pirates. As far as I could tell, they have an extensive supply network, sometimes fielding even heavy mechs on operations I was forced to join. Just be careful, okay?"

  "Roger," John said, approaching another bend in the tunnel. The far end had significantly lightened up, making him think the exit was right there. He wiggled his arm controls, getting ready to use both his small ser and autocannon manually. With his sensors acting haywire in this cave, he was going to have to fire everything manually.

  As he came around the bend, he smmed his throttle back, the silhouette in front of him sending chills down his spine worse than even that Javarian Mothership did in Infinite Frontiers. Before he could warn Lucy to run, a bright fsh and thunderous noise assaulted him, blinding and deafening John as his world went white.

  A Few Minutes AgoPirate Compound

  "Boss, we tried to fnk the Guards, but they had a second nce coming up the mountain pass. They got Brit's Jenner and nearly got me too!" The pirate said to Bke as he was idling his mech in the vast cavern they were using as a base. It was full of looted goods, refined metals, and pretty much anything else that over a dozen cells of pirates had stolen over the st few months.

  Bckstone had an excellent pirate Jump point near the pnet, making this cavern the prime depot that the pirates working for the Syndicate used to move goods from other nations back into Greater Valkyrate. The pnet had no equipment capable of detecting incoming dropships beyond its two aging Leopards, or any way to detect Jumpship arrivals, making it ideal for their operation. His boss would show up every few months with a couple of union dropships to clean it all out and do some personnel transfers for the other pirate units. She was actually due in tomorrow, making this attack poorly timed for his team.

  "What were they piloting?"

  "Well, a Spider and Javelin had run past us, so we popped out to follow behind them, but a Bck Jack that was much further behind them lit us up. We engaged, and when Brit jumped behind the mech, it should have been over. That was when her Jenner exploded, one shotted by a damn Urbie. It then proceeded to destroy my cover, and I needed to beat a hasty retreat when they disabled my mechs' PPC."

  Bke nodded to himself, not surprised at the outcome. Those two mechs would be great for covering the others' weaknesses. It wasn't surprising that he nearly lost two pirates to them. Luckily, he had the solution right here to their Urbie problem; he just had to watch his ammo. He didn't have much left, and they would need it for that nce of medium mechs. Not to mention that he had a bone to pick with that Bck Jack pilot, his pride still hurt from the battle the other day.

  "Alright, go join the rest of the nce outside and dey them as long as you can," Bke replied, then turned his mech towards the cave the Panther had come out of. "I got this. I'm a Hunchback pilot after all."

  "Yes, Boss!"

  Bke found that a 203mm big bore autocannon was the solution to most problems he had encountered out here in the periphery.

  Fmes spewed out of the left side of John's mech as its left torso disappeared, the absolutely awesome power of the pirate Hunchbacks autocannon nearly crippling him in a single blow. More of an accident than intentional, John had depressed his own autocannon trigger and raked a line of fire along the fifty-ton mech's right leg. Unlike the UrbanMech, the heavily armoured Hunchback shrugged off most of the damage.

  "Hunchback! Retreat!" John called out to Lucy, smming his throttle forward again. There was no way John could get away from it; the mech's top speed, while slow, was still much faster than his own. They were designed to take punishment and wade in with Assault mechs twice their weight, their giant autocannons able to tear limbs off most mechs with a single volley. They had problems tracking fast-moving mechs, but an Urbie would be literal cannon fodder for him. His only chance would be if he could somehow squeeze past it and... jump somewhere? Another design fw of the UrbanMech was that it did not have an ejection system, so if its reactor went, he was going with it.

  I'm fucking dead again.

  While his autocannon was reloading, he opened up his skill list again, looking for something he could use from the list of all the new abilities he gained recently. Sadly, he found nothing that could reach the Hunchback from here. He had to close that gap.

  Loping along the road, he expected its cannon to bark out again, ending the garbage cans' charge. Instead, two green beams smmed into his torso, melting some armour but otherwise leaving him unscathed. Cannon fire did ring through the air, as on either side of his cockpit, 25mm shells blew past him, raking the pirate's torso. Two more green sers followed, the superheated beams sgging more armour off its right leg.

  "Lucy! I said run. This thing will kill us!" John shouted across the radio as he tried to take aim at the heavily damaged right leg. His line was a little off, and the cannon walked upwards, damaging its torso instead.

  "I'm not leaving you behind! I would rather face death at your side than have to live with the shame of not being able to repay my debt to you." She said, the conviction in her voice sounding like she wouldn’t brook any argument. She then ughed a little. "Besides, I can't easily turn around in here; these cannons are too long. He would be on top of me before I could get going."

  "Fine. Do what-" John said, but was interrupted by the big cannon again. Explosions rippled lower in his mech, the autocannon severing his mech's left leg at the knee. Unable to arrest his forward momentum, John held on for dear life as the Urbie crashed to the ground, his vision starting to go dark. He thought he heard some shouting, but his ears were ringing too much to make out what they were saying. The st thing that went through his mind before he bcked out was the Hunchback slowly advancing on his fallen mech, its body being pelted by 25mm autocannon fire.

  Lucy POV

  "JOHN! JOHN! GET UP!" Lucy shouted into the radio, holding her triggers down, slowly walking backwards as the Hunchback turned its sights upon her mech. The barrels of her autocannons were glowing nearly white hot in the dim lighting of the tunnel, her mechs' reloaders barely getting a chance to cycle completely before she sent the next salvo down range.

  The two mechs continued to exchange fire, the hunchback holding back on firing its big gun and just worrying her already weakened armour with medium sers. That surprised her, as one good shot with that heavy weapon in her torso would be all it would take, and the Bck Jack would be out.

  Her autocannon rounds were slowly chipping away at its armour, but other than its right leg, the brawler was barely damaged. Her guns cycled again, and she paused her movement, trying to aim for the more vulnerable limb. If she could hit that with her weapons, she might be able to slow it down enough that she could kite it.

  The pirate continued forward, almost inside of her optimal range for her long-range cannons, going straight towards John's fallen mech.

  "C'mon, John! Get up! He is going to step on you!" She shouted again, firing an aimed shot at that limb. One of the cannons hit, stripping the leg of its remaining armour, but the other caught it in the center torso, the heavy armour there barely noticing the impacts.

  The Hunchback slowed for a moment as it got beside John's UrbanMech, and as if knowing exactly what she was thinking, lifted its leg and smmed its foot down on the mech's cockpit.

  "NOOOO!!!! JOHN-SAMA!!!!" She screamed, tears rolling down her face as she fired her sers into the Hunchback.