Harold was already moving, intending to check to see if his anti-safety countermeasures worked properly. By default, one usually had to stop and deploy to skate across the ground, to prevent accidentally deploying and rolling when the feet needed to grip. He just made it so that when he deployed them, they deployed, regardless of whether or not he was in the proper position. 

Three large steps and then he activated the rollers, unusually skating along behind their XO, as if wearing roller skates instead of self-driving skids. 

[hr][hr]

He silently dropped into position, and shut down Jupiter Grounded. The others were straight mechanics- they kept their machines in shape, didn't do much to the actual machines themselves. He, on the other hand, routed power so that the moment the mech started up, power would flood the hydraulics. For the moment, it was a rough job- he'd have to tune it and make sure it won't burn itself out later. Right now, though, it'd serve to get him moving immediately after starting up, before the systems were even fully online. 

This meant he could open fire first, but also meant that he'd be moving sluggishly for a bit longer than everyone else. He locked the arms into place as he took his position, autocannon already ready.

And then the order came, hostiles moving across the bridge. 

He, being Juppy, immediately fired it up, unlocking the arms to dash forward on silent, slowly-starting legs. It took a new kind of coordination to keep the mech from falling over- it wavered and moved weakly, though enough to keep its own weight and move fairly decently. He hit a tree, and ground his shoulder against his, letting its bulk and strength hold him up, as he aligned his missile launcher. 

A couple seconds later, another of the newbies started opening fire, painting several mechs that were now turning towards him. It only took a couple seconds for everyone to open fire- he was probably the first one to move, and last one to fire. 

It was obvious why, when an anti-tank missile burst from its nest and shot off, burying itself in the first mech that had been painted. As his reactor finally warmed up, he pulled back and took his own weight, stepping away from the tree to give his autocannon room, and his rockets a clear shot. He eyed the mechs cautiously; a couple mechs turned to him in response to the AT missile knocking out one of their own. For a moment, none of their rounds hit, then they started slamming into him.

He turned everything; he faced forty five degrees away from them, giving them armor that was now almost twice as thick, and then leaned forward, so his armor would have a greater chance of ricocheting enemy rounds, and surviving the impact if they didn't.

He waited a moment for one of the mechs to start moving ahead of the cargo vehicles- and the moment that Juppy saw empty space between the mech and the cargo vehicles, he unleashed all his rockets, taking care to aim them carefully. The arc messed him up slightly, but that just meant that they started slamming into the enemy's legs, instead of his chest or thick shoulders.

Slowly taking damage, he opened fire with his autocannon, trying to place rounds carefully, rather than opening fire and hoping he'd hit the right spot. He used the laser designator on his arm as a reticle- he locked his hand so the designator would be facing the same line that the line of fire from the autocannon would, and used that to place rounds in the very center of the hostile mech's chest, hoping for penetration to kill the pilot, or to hit a joint and knock off an arm, leg, or sensor. 

Considering that they were facing, more or less, directly at him, with armor that wasn't any more than 50mm, versus an autocannon that could penetrate up to 65mm, he figured he had a pretty good chance of shooting out the pilots without getting shot himself, whatwith a great big angled shoulder inbetween himself and himself in his cockpit.