Alexandria drummed her fingers against the controls of her tank as she waited for the signal to move. The shuttle she had chartered to take her to the event had been rather eager to take her since the pilot had rented a luxury hotel room for the duration and had extensive passes. He was eager to see the fighting, and taking someone along was easy business to him. It hadn’t cost too much, thankfully. The [i]King of Flame[/i] was expensive to maintain and even more costly to upgrade. Thankfully the tournament would provide insurance to all registered pilots, so any damage to the [i]King of Flame[/i] would be covered.

The rumble of planetary entry caused Alexandria to sit upright within her tank and tighten the straps into proper place. They were unsurprisingly not standard in the tank. When the tank was crewed by multiple people the ability to rapidly switch positions was key if a crew member was injured or knocked out. With a crew count of one there would be no switching positions and no one to switch with. That meant that Alexandria needed to install what would frankly be basic safety equipment inside.

A slight tingle in the scar on her cheek reminded her as to why the equipment was installed. Alexandria could remember the day she gained it like it was yesterday. They had been ordered to pull back to friendly lines and reorganize, but were discovered by a scouting mech. The hull of the tank rattled as it began to unload its autocannon. The main cannon of the tank wouldn’t charge before his rounds found substantial purchase, and the side cannons wouldn’t do enough damage to disable the gun before the hull was breached. With no other options, Alexandria, being the driver at the time, floored the accelerator. The scout mech flipped over the top of the tank and onto its back behind them at the harsh impact, and Alexandria’s head was thrown into the controls, the sharp edge of the console cutting deep into her cheek. Rotating the tank on the spot, Alexandria quickly moved over to the side of the fallen mech before pushing the tank over the top and onto the chassis of the fallen mech. Locking the brakes on the right tread, Alexandria floored the accelerator again. The sound of grinding metal filled the cabin as the small scout mech below it was unnaturally twisted around several times, crushing the operator within the twisted metal.

Unfortunately, the stunt had buried the tread in the ground, and metal from the mech had jammed itself into the road wheels. They were trapped behind enemy lines. Climbing out of the tank, the gunner fumed at Alexandria for not letting him engage despite the fact that the primary cannon wouldn’t have charged in time. The gunners face only tuned redder when Alexandria informed him of this, and he began to move aggressively towards Alexandria with a fist raised.

Alexandria didn’t hesitate, with a swift and accurate motion Alexandria drew her bulky pistol from its holster and leveled it at the gunner. A loud cracking sound announced the presence of a new hole in his chest. The gunner collapsed to the ground, and Alexandria leveled the pistol at his head and fired again in mercy. The man was doomed, as Alexandria’s first shot had taken out a good chunk of his heart. Only a full hospital could fix that, and they were miles away from anything even remotely close.

By the time the memory faded, the cargo doors of the shuttle were opening. Revving the engine, Alexandria lurched forward and down the ramp of the shuttle. The sensors alerted her to another mech nearby, which nearly prompted a reflex based aim from Alexandria until she remembered that she wasn’t in a combat zone. Taking a breath to calm her nerves Alexandria instead pushed her way towards the center of town.

The insurance was only good if you got your name into the hat, after all.

Along the way, there was no cheering for Alexandria. Rightfully so. Most people were awed by the mechs more than anything else. Alexandria’s tank was rather plain compared to them. On top of that, the mundane and practical nature of the tank meant that it was very boring to look at, at least on the surface. The reactive camouflage that the tank was painted with didn’t look like much when it was shut off as a safety precaution, just dull and grey compared to the bright colors that some of the mechs were painted with. The spikes attached to the treads bit into the ground hungrily as the tank moved towards the center of the town.

Once there Alexandria parked the tank in a fairly obvious spot and got out. Locking the tank in safe mode Alexandria made her way into the offices and got to work filling out a bundle of paperwork, which disturbingly included waivers. Alexandria double checked the insurance paperwork before handing everything back in and taking an ID tag in return. Done with the office, Alexandria headed outside and hopped back onto her tank. She sat upon the front of the tank, leaning against the turret and watching some of the big monitors that were supposed to contain the next instructions. With one hand up on the oval shaped barrel of the plasma cannon, Alexandria could do nothing more than wait.

Alexandria didn’t know how long it would be until new instructions were given, but she couldn’t do anything to move time along any faster. Relaxing a bit, Alexandria zoned out a bit to wait until something came along that gave her prompt on what to do next.