Black Market Merchant

Chapter 168: Beware the Bear
“Smash!”

Another ICAD-18 was flattened by an enraged Demon Kodiak’s giant paw. After the artillery trucks fired on the Hoard Mother, they retreated leaving the ICADs behind to be their rear guard and deal with the remaining Twisted. The ICADs made swift work in dealing with the smaller Logos Cutters and Night Wolves and few were now left in the vicinity. Even though the majority had been pulled away by the many baby Hoard Mothers, the Plains Striders and Demon Kodiaks remained the sole threat to the pawn ICADs. From the initial charge out from the safety of the plasma wall with the Hunters and special artillery, only 30 or less of the ICADs remained.

“Quickly, Red Hen, Kill-monger and Laughing Rain, circle right and assist those ICADs.” The lead running silver HCMM Iron Tomb ordered over the linked intercom. “Hammer-fall, Blitzkrieg, Shimmering Snake, and Talon swing left and take out the Plains Striders there immediately. Those ICADs aren’t cheep and the city needs them. The rest of us will engage the DKs (Demon Kodiak) first.”

“Understood Captain!” The HCMMs pilots all responded in unison.

The twenty-three HCMMs had crossed the distance between the plasma wall and where the ICADs were making their stand in a third of the time it took the Hunters and Artillery trucks to reach this point earlier. Though they were traveling in a unit and taking orders from Iron Tomb, there wasn’t any kind of formal ranking system among the Hunters Clan Mech pilots. Typically, the pilot with the most experience, reputation or kill count took the lead to simplify organizing rushed formations like this.

Party Badger was no exception. Even though she was mostly a loose cannon, even she was smart enough to understand that there was a time and place for taking orders. Well, most of the time she understood this.

The three groups split and engaged the Twisted. Most chose to fight with their various handheld weapons rather than the Mechanized 76.2 mm Rifle’s that they all carried. Like Party Badger, most used massive two-sided swords while others used spears the length of flagpoles or axes that looked to be capable of cutting boulders like cake.

From above the HCMMs, Hunters on their hover bikes followed to provide air support and reconnaissance. Though the Mech pilots were capable of fighting on their own, they needed guidance as to the progress of the battle and target locations. The Hunters could hear all the chatter coming from the pilots but as to clear up communication, the Hunters could only correspond with pilots from their own team. Dixon, Sam and 56 were among them and were flying fast to keep up.

“Party Badger,” Dixon called over the private intercom, “The closest DK is probably the biggest of the four. If you are going to solo fight one of these beasts, skirt around this one and target the DK on the left.”

“Got it Dixon!” Party Badger replied.

“Are you sure she can solo one of those things?” 56 yelled over the sound of the wind.

“We are about to find out.” Dixon replied shouting over his shoulder. “We can harass the DK and provide her cover, but we need to watch out for those spikes on their backs. Intel is saying we need to be cautious of them.”

“Porcupines can launch their quills if I’m not mistaken, perhaps these can too.” Sam said as his bike hissed to a stop. He raised his rifle and fired two shots at the DK they were targeting.

The Demon Kodiak let out a vicious roar as the shots struck the side of its dark scarlet leathery looking jaw. Two tiny holes started leaking black blood, but the damage was far from substantial. Looking up at its attacker the Demon Kodiak grimaced, which would have been scarry enough for a regular bear to make such a face, but one without fur was even more terrifying.

“Tch.” Sam responded clicking his tongue in disapproval of the outcome. “Looks like it is all up to Tammy now.”

56 looked down at Party Badger just as she was reaching the closest of the Demon Kodiak’s. The largest Demon Kodiak was currently engaged in fighting five ICAD-18s all at once, along with three Plains Striders that were keeping the ICADs from getting clean shots off at the big DK.

“Party Badger engaging now!” Tammy shouted onto the Mech linked intercom.

Easily speeding ahead of the others, Party Badger, with no weapon in hand, charged right at the backside of the closest ICAD that was shooting furiously at a Plains Strider that was bearing down at it. Then as if she were playing a game of leapfrog, she jumped to plant her hand on the ICADs shoulders and using them, launched her Mech high into the air. Leaning slightly forward from the jump, she activated her magnetic pulse backpack, “Womp!” The orange-ring of energy projected her further out at the charging Plains Strider.

“Yahoo!” Party Badger shouted exuberantly.

Still airborne, she reached back and grabbed the handle of her massive sword and whipped it out in an instant to point its end at the charging Twisted. The blade sunk right through the Plains Striders back, striking the soft spot between the spine and shoulder blades. The hapless beast crumped to a grinding halt in a plum of sand and dust, dead.

Without wasting as second, Party Badger wrenched free her bloodied sword and kicked off the dead Twisted’s body just as a massive paw swatted the creature away. Her brazen attack had been noticed by the Demon Kodiak and with no regards to its former ally the DK tried taking her out.

“Ha-ha! Nice try, but you’re not the one I’m after!” Party Badger laughed as she ran left around the goliath Twisted.

The Demon Kodiak growled as if displeased it missed and started to give chase, only to be blindsided by a hail of heavy caliber bullets. The other HCMMs had arrived and opened fire at the exposed soft parts of the Twisted. In response the Demon Kodiak let out a yelp and curled up like an armadillo with every angle blocked by numerous fearsome protruding spines.

“I’m going head, you can have this one!” Party Badger called over the intercom.

“Wait for backup. It will be easier to down them in mass.” Iron Tomb respond as he and the others started to encircle the big Twisted.

“Nope! I don’t have time to wait and neither do you. Right side, incoming!” Party Badger shouted.

Her warning was just in time. The pilots looked up to see a second Demon Kodiak had jumped into the air and was about to body slam the newly arriving Hunters. Pilots scrambled to get out of the way as the beast bellyflopped like a meteor and sent dust, sand and rocks flying in all directions. A few HCMMs were knocked flat by the force of the impact too.

Party Badger laughed shamelessly as she continued towards her target. This Demon Kodiak had just grabbed an ICAD with it massive, fanged mouth and was thrashing it around like a rag doll. Several other ICADs were firing with little success at the creature’s undersides, but all they managed to do was break skin and bleed it a little. Their weapons caliber was too low to be much of a threat to the thick leathery skin of the DK.

Seeing it was distracted for the moment, Party Badger with her sword trailing behind in one hand, approached at high-speed circling in towards the monster’s blind spot. Her target was the toad like back leg of the Twisted. Its soft achilleas heel was beckoning to her to be sliced.

“Sh-ling!”

Her blade sliced neatly through the soft flesh of the monster’s vulnerable leg in a spray of black blood. The Demon Kodiak let out a screech of pained surprise from her attack and dropped the trashed ICAD from its mouth. The wound was deep enough that it caused the Twisted to faulter and drop to one knee unable to support its own weight.

The Demon Kodiak started to turn about and confront its new attacker only to find that the Party Badger hadn’t stopped moving. She was still going at full speed, circling around towards the creature’s other leg. Sensing what her intentions were, the Demon Kodiak twisted around to throw a dangerous swing at her with its paw.

Expecting the attack, Party Badger halted and jumped away just as the paw slammed onto the ground in front of her. Then reacting with lightning reflexes, Party Badger stabbed her sword straight through the paw and pinned it to the ground. The Demon Kodiak roared in protest, angered by the pain of being stabbed yet again. In response the bear like creature went to bite at the Mech to snap her in two.

Party Badger then planted a foot onto the swords handle and grabbed her Mechanized 76.2mm Rifle from off her back and fired once at the creature’s eye as it was nearly about to crush her in its jaws. The deep brown eye exploded into a wave of blood and clear fluids as the large bullet ripped through it head. The creature let out a fearful wail as it recoiled in true anguish. It then started to roll up into its armadillo defense position, hoping to hide from any further attacks from the Party Badger. However, its paw was still pinned to the ground and unable to retract into the safety of its spiky ball.

Taking aim at the wrist of the pinned paw, Party Badger laughed, “Pop goes the weasel!”

She emptied the entire clip into the exposed wrist of the Demon Kodiak, severing the paw from the arm in a ragged tattered mess of flesh and bone. The attack caused the Demon Kodiak to open from its defensive position as it grabbed at its wound with its the other paw. This was its last mistake.

Throwing caution to the wind, Party Badger tore her sword from the paw and ground to charge headlong at the Twisted. Then jumping and activating the magnetic pulse backpack, launched herself at the patchy haired chest of the Demon Kodiak and stabbed it where its heart was meant to be. Both the Mechs impact and the stabbing knocked the Demon Kodiak off balance and onto the ground to land on its side.

Party Badger quickly discharged her Rifles magazine and loaded a fresh one before the Twisted had even come to a stop on the ground. Aiming down her sights at its exposed neck she fired while advancing closer with hurried steps. With each shot a splash of blood erupted from a gaping hole as bullets tore into the neck, brain, and jaw of the creature. As soon as that clip was emptied, she loaded another one and repeated firing until she arrived at the Twisted’s now Swiss cheese like head.

Smoke was still drifting out from the end of her rifles barrel as she used her pulse backpack to jump atop the twitching Twisted’s head. The fight had ended in an awesome bloody mess!

“Well, that was awesome! Let’s do it again, but not with you.” Party Badger said to the dead creature. Then she raised her rifle one last time to fire a final bullet right into the temple of the dead creature. This shot caused the Twisted’s twitching to stop for good.

“Nice kill Party Badger! This is why you are our number one girl!” Dixon shouted pumping his fists into the air.

Sam gave a satisfied smile as he lowered his own rifle seeing that his help wasn’t needed after all.

56 gave a high-pitched whistle. “Now that was impressive!”

“Good kill, show off.” Iron Tomb added over the intercom. “But there is still one more left.”

Party Badger looked up to see that he and the rest of the Hunter Mechs had already killed two of the Demon Kodiaks and were already giving chase to the last of the giant Twisted that upon seeing its allies dying, started to flee. She turned to jump down from the creature’s head and retrieved her sword to give chase. However, Dixon’s voice called to her on the private channel.

“Party Badger, that’s good enough. We need to go after the baby Hoard Mother that we are currently tracking.”

“Awe, come on! Just a few more minutes?” Tammy’s voice whined back.

“No one has ever killed one of those before, you can be the first.” Dixon countered.

Party Badger stopped dead in her tracks and turned back with hast. “Say no more!”