Chương 84: The Duel on Chel III: Dead Man’s Drop

The Deeps, Chel, Vidako System Imperium Stellarum May 18, 2848 The descent into Dead Man's Drop was engulfed in the sort of absolute darkness that Arc imagined might be found in the lowest abyss of an ocean-world, or at the event horizon of a black hole.

Even the low-light mode of Lady Ren's optical sensors struggled to pick out the sharp, jagged contours of the rock faces which surrounded him, and Arc was convinced that without that technology, he would have wrecked the mech in the first hundred meters of the shaft. It was so bad that he considered igniting one of his two plasma blades just for the light.

Only the knowledge that it would have picked him out against the darkness for Fletcher Radecki's targeting systems stopped him from going through with the impulse. Thankfully, Radecki was going to have to be even more cautious about taking the Karabela down the shaft, and Arc was counting on that to slow his opponent down. In a straight up fight, the extra twenty-five tons of mass making up a Kestrel was an absolute advantage.

That room let Radecki's mech carry more thruster fuel, more missiles, heavier lasers, more solid-state batteries, and enough armor to protect it all. But in the tight confines of Dead Man's Drop, where their mechs could only just fit without scraping the rock walls, it actually gave Arc the edge. The final fifty meters of the drop gradually opened up, into a chamber shaped like a distorted diamond.

Arc brought Lady Ren in for a landing with his thrusters, flexing the mech's knees and digging its feet in to get a grip on the slope. That was another one of the small, individually insignificant things he had over Radecki: without feet, the Karabela couldn't ever land. It would be constantly burning fuel, constantly demanding a portion of its pilot's attention to keep it hovering. Even in gravity as low as Chel's, that was difficult to pull off.

Arc let his eyes flick to Lady Ren's readouts, in the lower left corner of his vision. The wire-frame image of his mech was picked out primarily in shades of green and yellow, which the legs of his mech as yet undamaged, thanks to the rock formation which had provided him cover in the second chamber.

The torso, head, and arms were a different matter, having taken the brunt of Radecki's second missile barrage, and to Arc's immense dissatisfaction, the worst damage was concentrated directly over his cockpit, where the mech's diagnostic systems had coded the wireframe orange. Save for his plasma blades, all of Arc's weapons were grayed out. The fire-and-forget missile pods had served their purpose and been discarded, and his shoulder-mounted missile launchers were empty, as well.

The IMT plasma shield generator would keep working as long as his batteries held out - and they currently held at 87% - but the CO-4 laser rifle was nothing but scrap, left behind somewhere above. Thankfully, Arc's thruster fuel reserves had only dipped down to 84%; at this stage of things, it was more likely that his armor would give out before his jets. The Karabela's firepower advantage was simply overwhelming. However.

Arc had made it out of the larger chambers, where Fletcher Radecki could almost fight like he normally would, into the tightest caves. At this point, any missiles that Radecki launched - and, by Arc's count, he only had two volleys left - would damage both mechs, since the blasts would be confined to such a small space. On top of that, the range was too close for guided flight, and the Karabela's heavier weapons were as likely to bring thousands of tons of rock down on top of them as they were to hit Lady Ren.

If the man was smart, he'd hang back and wait for Arc to emerge - or perhaps launch missiles down the shaft from above and try to bury him alive. Which was why Arc had needed his opponent angry, and why he'd made himself send that taunt over the comms. Still, he couldn't afford to remain in one place for long. That would only make him an easier target. Another two mines are attached to the south wall, Iceni told Arc. They do not appear to be armed, however.

Though most of his awareness encompassed the artificial body of his mech, Arc could still feel it when a frown creased his face.

"That doesn't make any sense," he told the AI.

"First of all, how did Radecki even get them down here? And if someone else found them, why would they deactivate the mines but leave them in place?" Out of caution, he moved his mech to the north side of the chamber, where a gap between rock faces formed an acute, triangular opening into another crevice which would - hopefully - lead even deeper beneath the surface of the moon. Our sensors indicate the mines have limited mobility and are designed for low gravity, Iceni answered.

All he would have had to do was take them to an entrance into the Deeps and then give the command for them to spread throughout the chambers. The mines would have made the descent themselves at that point and found a place to secure themselves against the rock face. I can't speculate as to why their proximity triggers have been disabled, but - this is odd.

"What?" Arc asked. Was that light, descending from above? He backed Lady Ren carefully into the three-sided crevice, even though it required crouching. Then, he reached back over the mech's shoulder to detach one of his plasma blades, disengaging its magnetic lock. He kept the hilt ready in the mech's right hand, though he didn't ignite the weapon yet. I have access to this mine, Iceni explained. It's accepting a link request. Arc, I can trigger both of these whenever you want.

"Do you mean it's open access?" Arc's mind raced, and the upper slopes of the rock walls were definitely being illuminated by something coming down the shaft.

"Or that you, specifically, have access?" Me, specifically, Iceni confirmed. The mine checked for authorization and determined that I was authorized to connect. I didn't have to so much as attempt to crack a passkey.

"Which means someone set this up specifically for us," Arc realized.

"If Radecki set the mines, that's a violation of imperial dueling laws. And if he was left just enough access to trigger one, and only one mine, while the rest were taken out of his control - that means whoever did this wanted him to be able to break the law, while making certain that he didn't have enough mines to actually win the duel. I can only think of one person who came to Vidako with the express purpose of not only making certain Radecki lost but also bringing the imperium down on his family like a hammer."

I... am not accustomed to thinking this way, Iceni admitted.

"Conversation for another time, anyway," Arc said, watching the descending glow of the Karabela's thrusters.

"I want you to set those mines off the moment he's out of the shaft and into the chamber. I don't want to risk him being bounced back up into the shaft, understand?" Carefully, he pulled Lady Ren back, back, out of sight, and positioned the vectoring nozzles of his thrusters so that they would be parallel to the rock floor he was positioned on. Understood, Iceni said. The waiting was the hardest part. Radecki was clearly either having trouble with the descent down the shaft or deliberately taking it slowly.

The light from his thrusters flickered like a candle, as the other cadet made minute adjustments, firing for a fraction of a second on one side of his mech, then gently lightning up a few nozzles on the other. It was, Arc had to admit, an impressive bit of piloting. He didn't think that, in Radecki's place, he would have been able to manage Dead Man's Drop in the larger mech - at least, not without sustaining damage on the way down.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Finally, the Karabela broke into sight, jittering back and forth like some frenzied water bug, as it emerged from the shaft. Now that their sensors could finally get a good read on the other mech, Arc could see that Radecki hadn't made it out of their second exchange unscathed.

His mech's left wing ended in a jagged stump, rather than a light laser, and though he didn't have feet to lose, the mangled lower right leg of his mech had lost a vectoring nozzle - which would have only made it more difficult to manage the drop. Arc didn't have any sympathy, after everything the other man had done.

"I know you're down here somewhere, Sandhurst," Radecki's voice came over the comms, filling Arc's cockpit.

"You can't run forever, and you've got nothing left. This didn't have to end with you dead, but I'll admit I'm glad it will. The thought of trash like you getting his hands on a princess imperial makes me sick."

"Now," Arc whispered to Iceni. Two mines exploded on the opposite side of the Karabela, catching Radecki's mech between the blast and the triangular crevice where Arc had hidden his mech. The explosions wouldn't be enough to cripple the heavier mech, but Arc wasn't expecting them to. Instead, they threw Radecki's mech forward, toward Arc's hiding place, and forced the other pilot to fire off his thruster nozzles rather than hit the rock wall of the small chamber.

Though he must have been taken by surprise, Radecki's reflexes were good enough to manage that bit of piloting. But he wasn't good enough to prevent the impact and react in time to Arc lighting of his own thrusters and come barreling out of the crevice toward him with a lit plasma blade. It was tempting to aim for the cockpit, just like Radecki had done - but Arc didn't have weapons that would end the duel in a single attack. It would have been a mistake, and it would have gotten him killed.

Instead, he twisted Lady Ren around as he came in, shearing through the lower barrel of Radecki's left heavy laser with a single swipe and disabling the weapon. An instant later, he planted the left foot of his mech against the Karabela's right torso and pushed off, then lit his thrusters again.

Lady Ren's foot crunched against the ceramic armor plating of Radecki's mech, flinging the two mechs away from each other, and then Arc's thruster nozzles erupted in the other mech's face, melting armor plating and delicate sensor equipment in their wake. Over the comms, Radecki swore in frustration, but by the time he'd gotten full control of his mech again, Arc was already back through the crevice. This time, Arc didn't hide.

Instead, he flicked off the plasma blade in his mech's right hand and fled down through the crevice. They were truly in uncharted territory now, and he'd have to trust Iceni's mapping capabilities to make certain they could find their way back to the surface. Every bit of piloting strained his concentration, and Arc could feel sweat rolling down his face.

"You're a coward!" Radecki ranted, somewhere behind him, as the Karabela, against all tactical wisdom, pursued Arc into yet tighter passageways.

"People like you should know when they're beaten." And then, to Arc's surprise, Fletcher Radecki fired his remaining heavy laser. If Arc's mech hadn't been oriented as it was - legs back, head forward, thruster propelling Lady Ren parallel to the crevice, a maneuver that would have been utterly impossible in higher gravity - the bright blue beam would almost certainly have caught him in the back of his torso, melting through already-damaged armor plates which had already been scarred by the first mine.

That might well have been the end of him - and the fight - in a single shot. Instead, the heavy laser caught Arc's mech with its undamaged feet and legs between Radecki and the more vulnerable components in the torso. In an instant, the wire-frame readout tracking Lady Ren's condition flashed from green directly to orange. Arc felt the surreal sensation of losing a left foot, just like how he'd lost an arm in the jungle of Vidako.

All around the two mechs, the crevice shook, sending chunks of rock and dust down on them like falling rain. That hit took three vectoring nozzles with it, Iceni told him, with a note of panic in her voice that he wasn't used to hearing. That's going to make it a lot more difficult to maneuver, Arc. We can't afford to give him another shot like that.

"We won't." Arc threw his mech to the left, using the thruster nozzles on the foot he still had, into a yawning abyss that opened up around them. How far it went in any direction, he didn't have time to see - but he suspected this was where Robin Exley had met her end. He ignited the plasma blade in his right hand, drew the second blade in his left, and fired off his thrusters to stop Lady Ren from tumbling off into the darkness.

The Karabela came out of the crevice like a bat out of hell, sending a cloud of dust and debris in every direction, and Arc saw a piece of jagged rock on the edge of the opening scrape along its missile racks, tearing through the ceramic armor before breaking off itself. The barrel of the other mech's one remaining heavy laser was illuminated by a blue glow so bright that it lit up both mechs, and Arc knew that his only chance was to get in close. He almost made it.

A beam of scorching light took Lady Ren in the left torso as Arc closed, melting armor away into a cloud of superheated vapor and then continuing into the internal structures of the mech. Alarms blared in Arc's cockpit as artificial graphene muscles were severed, electrical circuits broken, and the mech's support structure - the equivalent of a human's skeleton - buckled. If Arc had been swinging his plasma blades, the full extent of that damage might have taken his left arm out of action, entirely.

But, as he'd learned from not only Cassie, but Commandant Marlowe, as well, the quickest and most direct attack one could make with a sword wasn't a slash, but a thrust. Propelled by a plume of fire from the remaining vectoring nozzles on his mech's back, Lady Ren slammed into the Karabela with the mech's arms extended, and two lit purple plasma blades leading the charge.

Arc's left blade sunk into the Karabela's right torso, skewed off to one side by the RSiNC armor which was, until that moment, very nearly still intact. The left side of Radecki's mech, however, had already been damaged not only by the mines Arc had laid from his missile racks in the first chamber, but also the short-range missile which had blown off the tip of the mech's wing, as well as the light laser mounted there. That blast had done a lot of work on the armor that remained, leaving it cracked and broken.

When the purple edge of Arc's right plasma blade sunk into that weakened armor, it went up to the hilt in a single thrust. He could see, through Lady Ren's visual sensors, the armor bubbling up around the entry hole in a ring of superheated ceramic and metal. Best of all, with both mech's torso pressed together, Arc was inside the reach of Radecki's arm-mounted heavy laser. He opened Lady Ren's left hand, dropping the hilt of his second plasma blade, and grabbed the larger mech's wrist, instead.

The weapon spun off and was lost to his sensors, to impact somewhere far below. Ceramic crunched under the pressure of his mech's squeezing fingers as he levered the barrel of the laser off to one side, where it pointed impotently off into the black.

"Surrender," Arc growled over the comms as their two mechs spun about the abyss, thrusters firing from every direction in a mad attempt to wrestle for some kind of leverage against each other.

"To a pathetic boy from the outworlds? Never," Fletcher Radecki's voice came back, gasping with effort. Arc tightened his mech's fingers around his only remaining weapon and began to drag it inward through the Karabela's torso, melting everything in its path. Sparks flew and smoke rose from between the two mechs, and then something exploded. Still, he forced the plasma blade toward the other mech's cockpit - closer and closer to Fletcher Radecki himself.

He was almost - almost - there, and Arc was just about to have to make a decision as to whether he was actually willing to kill a man, when the explosive bolts holding the Karabela's armored plating in place at the rear fired. A spherical, armored escape pod shot out of the back of the other mech, and in the instant that Radecki's neural link was severed, it went limp in Lady Ren's arms. That's it, Iceni told Arc. He ejected. The duel is over.

Arc let out a shuddering gasp, released the Karabela's arm with his mech's left hand, and ripped the plasma blade out of its torso with his right. Chunks of armor, graphene artificial muscle, and who knew what other components sprayed out of the gaping wound in the other mech's torso at the motion. With nothing holding it, the modified Kestrel fell into the abyss. Lady Ren's remaining thruster nozzles flared, and Arc got the mech back under control.

He could feel his heart hammering in his chest, the sweat that soaked the inside of his skinsuit, and how dry his mouth was. For a moment, he wondered whether it was his responsibility to make certain Radecki's escape pod was safe and then decided that was what Doctor Seung had come for.

"Find us a way out of here," Arc told Iceni.