Chapter 18: Ricono

“These House Ariti pirates sure share the same modus operandi: Torturing the downtrodden,” Neon groused. “You’d think they came from the same family.”

“Maybe they did. Ever think of that?” Yan snapped, more from the tension of the moment than any true animosity towards the purple-haired boy. He did not seem particularly fazed.

Sierra! Initiate Smart Sight Protocol.

“Command acknowledged. Initiating Smart Sight Protocol. Five Protocol uses remaining.”

Yan had not been sure whether she could even activate Protocols at will but now she had the answer.

The tunnel walls faded from view, revealing what lay ahead beyond the tunnel’s exit: A huge, circular cavern.

Eight pirates were spread out into a semi-circle around the cavern’s centre, hiding behind various crates and rocky outcrops. Intimidating as they were, the red hulking mechsuit that loomed in their middle was even more so.

It was a hunched, beefy behemoth of steel with a pincer for a left hand and a bloodied drill for the right. Each of its limbs was as thick as a log. Hunched as it was, it still towered over the pirates, standing twice the height of an ordinary man.

Where its head should be, there was a glass dome containing a single, murky figure behind a control panel.

That could only be Ricono.

At her feet lay a body clad in a yellow jumpsuit. Four figures knelt around the victim, dressed in similar clothes - the hostages. From this distance, Yan could not make out any other details, and for that, she was glad.

The crimson splatter clinging to Ricono’s drill was sickening enough.

As she watched, two smaller mining droids lumbered into position right beside the tunnel exit, keeping close to the cavern walls. These looked like human-sized versions of Ricono’s mechsuit and moved without the need for a human operator.

The pirates were setting up a simple ambush. The moment her crew walked in, these droids would engage. Even if her crew fought them off, it would have given the pirates plenty of time to riddle them with holes.

There was a little beep in her eye and the walls faded back into place.

The beginnings of a plan were starting to form in Yan’s mind, but there was one crucial problem: the hostages.

Suddenly, her eye chimed.

“Initiating Analysis-Recommendation Protocol. Four Protocol uses remaining.

Analysis: Overheard conversations suggest that Ricono might be open to single combat if she believes that the odds are stacked in her favour.

Recommendation: Trick her into single combat and exploit the resulting situation.”

Yan’s lips twisted into a smile.

Turning to her crew, she announced, “Alright, people, here’s the plan.”

And Sierra, just how partial are you to an electro-scrambler?

Yan walked out into the chamber alone, Luke’s pistol in her offhand, her knife in the other. Behind her, her team waited in the shadows of the tunnel, weapons ready in case of treachery.

“And here I thought you were just buying time,” Ricono’s voice boomed across the arena, enhanced by the speakers of her mining mechsuit.

“Ricono! You heard my terms over the radio. Come and fight me!” Yan roared. Her voice carried over the rocky terrain, echoing off the walls.

She strode forward, tensing as she stepped past the two droids lying in ambush.

They did not move.

Ricono laughed. “Not expecting them, were you? No matter. I, Ricono Ariti, of the Great House Ariti, respect my challengers. I will have these rocks stained with your blood in no time.”

“Tell your men to stand down. We will fight fairly!” Yan motioned to the array of pirates with their guns trained on her.

Now that she was closer, Yan could just make out the features of the woman sitting in the mining suit’s cockpit.

What she saw made her pause.

Ricono’s face was a brutal mass of scars and her right eye was the milky white of blindness. Framing that tapestry of injury was a short bob cut of brown hair and a strong jaw.

The woman replied, “Drop the gun first. Our terms were single combat, no guns.”

Yan spat on the ground and flung the pistol aside. It clattered against the rocky floor and she cringed internally. She had not meant to throw it that hard. Hopefully, Luke would get it back in one piece.

Her opponent smiled, scars pulling and widening as her teeth showed.

This fight was one small girl against a giant suit of metal. It was ridiculously imbalanced and they both knew it.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Yan held her breath. If she had not made this deal sweet enough for Ricono, the lasers and bullets of her cronies would inform her soon enough.

For a single, breathless moment, she waited.

Then, Ricono stepped forward, her foot thudding heavily into the ground.

“Stand down!” She bellowed as she trundled forward. Although the suit was slow and bulky, its strides were large.

“To think that somebody like you managed to carve your way through my men. They were pathetic. Weak! You did me a favour by purging those unworthy of my father’s name,” Ricono roared.

Yan did not reply, stepping steadily across the open chamber. As she neared the centre, a large, circular hole about twenty paces across rose into view, evidence of the pirates’ mining activities.

For a moment, Yan wondered why Ricono was headed straight for the pit.

Her question was swiftly answered. A violent gust of flame erupted from the back of Ricono’s suit and she leapt skywards, soaring over the gaping hole.

There was a resounding boom as she landed. The entire chamber shook from the impact. Loose rocks and pebbles rained from the ceiling.

Yan looked up, sidestepping a cluster of falling debris.

“Praying to the Void Mother already? She does not listen. She never listens,” Ricono sneered. The drill that was her right hand spun into motion and her left claw clacked menacingly.

“I did not come here to yap. Ready yourself!” Yan shouted, dropping into a defensive stance.

Ricono did not reply. Instead, her suit started thundering forward, picking up into a barrelling charge.

Ten paces.

Yan stood her ground. Her magical enhancement was still going strong. If her timer was accurate, it had thirty or so minutes left.

Seven paces.

She brought her knife up, bending her knees to spring into action.

Four paces.

The mining suit was towering over her now, the whirling of its drill deafening.

Ricono leapt into the air, flames trailing from her back, intent on squashing her like a bug.

Yan was no fool. She tumbled aside at the last possible moment and the mining drill slammed into the ground, throwing up a cascade of rocks and dust.

As her opponent ripped her weapon out of the ground, the two-pronged claw surged towards Yan.

She leapt, landing on the tubular arms of the mechsuit. Immediately, she realised her mistake. Despite her newfound skills, running on a narrow, moving hostile was still too far out of her league.

Stumbling, Yan slipped but managed to leap clear. She hit the ground with a thud and immediately rolled aside as Ricono’s drill flew towards her.

Again, rocks sprayed into the air. This time, however, Yan heard a clang and a sharp hiss. The oxygen gauge in her suit’s visor plummeted.

A rock had penetrated one of her oxygen tanks.

Cursing, she scrambled to her feet and ripped the tank off. Without thinking, she hurled it at Ricono who batted it aside, cackling madly.

One tank less would not kill her immediately but it meant that losing the other would be the last mistake she ever made.

“Give up! You cannot win against a daughter of House Ariti!” Ricono yelled, circling her. The earth trembled as the mechsuit moved.

Yan gritted her teeth. Her plan required her to cling onto Ricono’s cockpit - or did it?

The suit’s claw clacked again. It was a risky bet but if she still did not have the dexterity to run up this beast, that was her only option.

Ricono lunged again with her drill. It was a slow, ponderous move, well-telegraphed. Yan ducked, watching the whirling mass of steel fly above her head.

Something was amiss.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a foot the size of a log hurtling towards her with the force of a raging bull.

Only her enhanced reflexes saved her and she managed to twist aside. Still, the foot glanced across her right shoulder.

Pain blossomed as the force spun her off balance. That was going to bruise badly.

Not giving Yan a moment to rest, Ricono swung forward with her open claw, intent on snapping her clean in half.

The woman’s lips were pulled back into a toothy smile.

Spinning into a crouch, Yan slammed her knife back into her belt. At the same time, her other hand pulled out a small object from within her holster.

It was spherical in shape, barely bigger than an egg. At the very top of the object was a pull-ring pin that held a safety lever in place.

Claw flying towards her, Yan yanked out the pin. The lever went flying.

Ricono’s smile evaporated and through the glass dome, Yan could see her pull hard against the controls, trying to retract her claw. But the suit was too ponderous, too slow to react.

As the claw snapped shut around her, Yan let herself slip against the loose pebbles underfoot. One hand outstretched, she stuffed the grenade into the closing pincers, her fingers slipping out from between them at the last moment.

They slammed shut.

There was a high-pitched whine. The air around them distorted as an electromagnetic pulse exploded outwards from the grenade.

Ricono’s mechsuit popped and fizzled, the electronics short-circuiting. It sagged and the glass cockpit drooped to the height of Yan’s head. The drill powered down with a whine.

But Yan heard none of those things. A scream tore through her left eye and her vision blurred. Pain exploded in her skull. Clutching her throbbing eye, she stumbled towards Ricono.

For the first time since she had woken up, the constant presence of Sierra was gone, as was her left peripheral vision.

Although Sierra had warned her as much, it was hard to be prepared for something like this.

There was a cry of outrage from across the pit as the pirates witnessed their leader’s peril. Laser fire started flying overhead. Back at the tunnel exit, Yan heard the smaller drills of the mining droids come to life.

Nevertheless, she had a job. Pain still throbbing in her head and shoulder, she put both hands under the ledge of Ricono’s glass dome and heaved.

It moved a little. Air hissed as it escaped from the cockpit.

True to Isabella’s words, the dome had unlocked once the power went out. A safety mechanism, she had said, to prevent such suits from becoming death traps.

Ricono, still slamming against the controls, looked up.

“You liar! You broke the terms of our challenge!” She screamed. Now that the mechsuit’s speakers were fried, her voice came out oddly muted by the reinforced glass.

“We said, ‘no guns’. A grenade against your suit, now that’s just fair,” Yan grinned through her pain as she spoke.

Ricono sneered in response.

Suddenly, the pirate’s eyes flew down to look at the little vent inside the cockpit. The streamers tied to the grilles hung limp. Realising that her life support had given out, she quickly slapped a gas mask onto her face and breathed deep.

Then, Ricono tugged a combat knife from her belt. She left her laser pistol well alone. With the electromagnetic pulse, it was little more than dead weight at this point.

Having confirmed that the cockpit was unlocked, Yan felt along the underside of the ledge. There was no point trying to lift that impossibly heavy dome. Then, she felt it, a little switch, right where Isabella said it would be.

She slammed hard on it. Behind her, she heard another electro-scrambler go off.

“Woohoo! Take that you big, dumb droids!” At least Neon was happy.

With a blast of escaping gas, the glass dome sprang upwards.

Yelling wildly, Ricono immediately leapt from the cockpit, smashing into Yan and knocking her down onto her back. The pirate was faster than she had thought.

Pressed under the weight of her opponent, Yan managed to jerk her head aside as Ricono stabbed down. Her knife bounced off rock and rubble.

Seizing the opening, Yan managed to get a leg under her opponent and heaved. The pirate tumbled aside, rolling out from under the shadow of the suit. She surged back onto her feet, blade poised for Yan to attack.

Only, Yan had no such intention. Ricono might still have some fight left in her but out in the open, she was at her mercy.

Shielded from the pirate’s lasers by the bulk of the now-defunct suit, Yan raised her left hand.

[Telekinesis]