MelonHead

Black Mountain Tournament: Sigurd vs Gigue

Sigurd’s eyes widened momentarily as he watched his foe carry out something he had truly not expected. A frontal charge against an enemy with a ranged weapon, with every intention of his feet leaving the ground where manoeuvring would be possible. Perhaps he thought Sigurd a complete incompetent, and that he would either miss or his axe would not penetrate? Perhaps, but unlikely, Sigurd had pierced iron plate with his steel tipped axes in the past, there was no reason today would be any different.

His shield side was forward as he held the axe aloft in his free right hand, his muscles bunching in preparation. The Tall man burst forward with a sudden speed and his feet left the ground, at which point Sigurd reacted in turn. His right arm curled as his forearm snapped forward whip-like, the iron grip on the axe-handle releasing at the perfect point, the armour-piercing weapon shot through the air to meet his foe. With no shield in his enemy’s hands there was no need for any special precision with the weapon, it could crush bone and rupture armour, destroying flesh with ease.

The axe revolved only once over such a paltry distance, perfect range for an axe throw in many respects. The steel-tipped head of the axe was presented towards his enemy’s centre (or solar plexus if you will) as it reached him, perhaps luck, perhaps testament to Sigurd’s skill at judging his weapons effectiveness. How Gigue would react to the sudden axe-throw was uncertain, but having taken relatively poor precautions beforehand and with his feet off the ground, remaining unscathed would be a tall order.

For Sigurd’s part he had no intention of standing and waiting to see the effectiveness of his weapon. After releasing regardless of the effect on the target he would side-step leftward on his back foot, and drag his front after it, effectively strafing his foe and his intended landing point. As he did this, his right hand sank to his waist to grab his second and last axe.

Running and Gunning - Higan Vs. The Magna Pater

It was a race to the finish, so to speak, and one that the Mech couldn’t quite win in such unfavourable terrain. Still, the A.S.P put in a good effort, and Slimy had a few chunks blasted out of him for the trouble. The Creature’s signature began to fade as it rounded the hill, blocking Electric vision and alerting Higan to the fact that further expenditure of ammo would just be a waste. Forty 40mm Rifle rounds remaining, good enough to finish the bastard but less than the Ramor might have liked. The question was, would he be able to find it again once he reached the hill himself?

Perhaps half a minute later the A.S.P reached the foot of the hill and began to round it as Slimy had done. He was moving far slower by this point out of necessity, having lost direct sight of the monster it was only the large visible signs of its blood and other matter that provided any insight into its potential location. Like an ancient tracker the Mech paced after the wounded beast, rifle at the ready, alert for any signs of ambush as it often swayed to check both angles of attack. He refrained from looking directly behind himself, finding it unlikely the monster could have completely circled him, expecting it instead to be up ahead somewhere.

“Where have you ran off to Slimy?” Higan projected his somewhat rhetoric question outside the Mech in a taunting manner, though it was unlikely the monster would even care or understand. After perhaps a full minute of searching however, Higan would know where the monster had escaped to. The blood and mucous were telling signs, even by eye. The narrow hole in the earth was like a portal of itself, perhaps leaving no surprise that the creature had found itself in Ramor. A cave, leading deep into the bowels of the earth no doubt. This was certain to be shit. The A.S.P paused before the cave entrance as Higan worked through his options.

“Fuck.”

Running and Gunning - Higan Vs. The Magna Pater

Well, I suppose the entry-point the Pater chose doesn't have to be the exact one described in that post. I was just going to have Higan blow up the entrance a bit, cause a big mess, and have his Mech struggle through a hundred meters or so of tunnel before it started to deepen and open out enough for his Mech to move around properly. Though I suppose he'll have to wait until the Pater gets there before worrying about that. I'm assuming it didn't quite make it in the previous post judging by the wording.

Running and Gunning - Higan Vs. The Magna Pater

I'm not saying I'm planning to blow up the cave entrance before your character can enter (in fact, blowing it up before the Pater arrived would probably be impossible due to the convenient hill) but it seems a little unlikely that the act would be 'impossible' as you say. There really isn't any natural stone dense enough to resist a HEAT round, consider that Quarries and the like which dealt with particularly dense stone on hills and mountains were made centuries ago with simple dynamite. I'm asking because Higan really isn't equipped to enter the death cave without his Mech, so he's going to have to blow a hole large enough to get in, regardless of if you say it's impossible. I'll do some research into the effect of HEAT rounds on solid rock, so I can guesstimate the effects.

Yeah, I don't profess to be an expert, but HEAT rounds would definitely be effective against the rock, as it utilizes a shaped charge, which are often used in quarrying and demolitions.

Running and Gunning - Higan Vs. The Magna Pater

Also, if you were interested it might be cool to do a 'prequel' of sorts for this fight, where the Pater first came to Ramor. I have another Ramor character who is essentially a super-soldier, who with a squad of fluff troops could be ambushed by the Pater. Obviously as it's a prequel it wouldn't have gone well for the troops, though they may have managed to beat the Pater off and the current fight could be a week or so later, depending on how fast the Pater could heal.

Just an idea, I just think the Pater would be most entertaining to fight with a squad of relatively human soldiers, as I absolutely love the Aliens universe.

Running and Gunning - Higan Vs. The Magna Pater

His shots weren’t having an ideal effect on his target, Slimy, but there was one benefit for Higan in regards to him blasting the hell out of the forest. As the Pater had been taking a direct route, albeit while zig-zagging, the Mech had been firing in a relatively straight line with an increasing number of rounds. What Higan found, and this was very much an unexpected but welcome consequence, was that the anti-material rounds were absolutely destroying the forest. Perhaps unsurprisingly rounds designed to punch holes in metal found the wood of trunks far easier targets, and had pretty much devastated them. Where the trees were still standing they were brittle, easily bowled over by the Mech. The effect was that Higan had essentially shot himself a straight path directly towards the Pater, and with a minute left until the creature was safe the Mech could finally unleash all its speed in a straight line.

The Mech picked up pace quickly, hitting a solid seventy miles per hour as it ran full pelt down the wood strewn path it had created for itself. He was firing rarely now, as the Computer announced he had reached half ammunition, it was time to close on his enemy. At double the speed of the Pater he’d be gaining on it by at least four hundred meters every thirty seconds, so if the creature took up to a minute to arrive to its lair he’d be right on its heels, and as the distance between them reduced… dodging the rounds of the Mech would grow exceedingly more difficult. He’d be firing sporadically at that point, one shot every five seconds or so, leaving him with thirty eight rounds roughly if the Pater arrived at its lair unscathed. However, that was still twelve more shots it had to avoid, with the distance and subsequently the travel time of each round reducing with every great stride of the A.S.P.

Running and Gunning - Higan Vs. The Magna Pater

Something just occurred to me which may make the Pater's escape to its lair a little less easy, though I still suspect the battle will end in the bowels of the earth so to speak, as all good monster confrontations should.

Also, Electric vision doesn't work through solid rock, just so you know the limitation in regards to how effective it is.

Running and Gunning - Higan Vs. The Magna Pater

Higan had been pursuing the beast for a goodly mile by that point, which had taken the two about two minutes to cover. With little effect on target he had slowly staggered his shots, taking up to five to ten seconds to fire a single round. None-the-less at the mile mark he was down to eighty rounds remaining and Slimy had been unscathed. He wondered where the Creature ran to, perhaps some lair or haunt where it could lick its wounds. Perhaps it was driven only by desperation, fleeing the unseen Machinations of Ramor which had brought it great pain from afar. Higan figured it was a mixture of the two, Slimy was being a bit of a bitch and wanted to hide but it couldn’t.

Despite its wounds Slimy was better suited for the terrain and had outpaced the Mech, earning an additional four hundred meters as they ran, hence it was once again three quarters of a mile ahead of him when he had reduced the distance to eight hundred meters while it remained immobile. Higan was not overly perturbed though, he could hardly expect to keep close to Slimy with all the damn trees everywhere. He was half a mind to blow a chunk out of the forest with a HEAT round.

Such thoughts reminded him of the Anti-Personnel Rounds his Mech carried, and he smiled a terrible smile beneath his course beard. What a way that would be to finish off Slimy, fully deserved for what it had done to his patrol squad and the innocents they were sent to protect. The Ramor’s knuckles whitened for a moment as his fists clenched, the Mech mimicking his actions. As if spurred on by thoughts of revenge, the deadly salvo began anew. Locking in on Slimy’s form up ahead the rifle moved to compensate and fired, the sound echoing in the forest. The bullets would come thick and fast from then on, one every three seconds until his Mech decided to announce he was at half ammo capacity. Slimy was gunna sweat, maybe even bleed.

“Get dead, you fucker.”

Running and Gunning - Higan Vs. The Magna Pater

“Target located, 800 meters and clos-“ Once again Higan’s nifty front/back/everywhere seat driver was cut off by evolving circumstances it wasn’t prepared for. Two pinpricks of light had revealed themselves to the Optical systems, though not yet Higan himself who was still using ordinary vision on the main screen. He looked up in confusion, as if he could see his own Optic systems through the roof of the cockpit. Nothing was going to be easy with this one apparently, he slumped momentarily and then got moving again. Eventually, a good five seconds later, the Optics systems remembered their job and flickered to Electric vision automatically. In the far distance and gaining ground was the grounded form of Slimy, who seemed to be moving around erratically far ahead.

The Mech raised its rifle into position, Systems calculating the distance. It was impossible to predict where Slimy was going to be a second from when the shot fired, but there were some high probability guesses to be made. Higan paused for only a moment.

“Alright then let’s see if we get lucky eh?” He laughed, preparing to unleash hell upon the slick creature before it could fully escape him. The Mech lumbered after the beast faster now, darting past larger trees and through smaller ones. With the rifle in position he fired, the round shooting forward. The difficulty with the lower nature of the shot was that it had thicker parts of trees to burrow its way through, so it lost more power and speed then he would have liked. Still, the round would probably burst into Slimy’s general vicinity, splintering the trees around him and maybe even scaring the nasty bugger. To actually hit him though would require a lot of luck, the Mech wasn’t exactly spraying and praying, but it was firing into zones rather than bodies, so a direct hit was always going to be unlikely. Perhaps ten percent with each round.

For as long as the chase continued and Slimy remained in view, Higan would fire rounds off every three seconds, though if he was reduced to 80 rounds remaining with no discernible hits or damage he’d have to settle for just chasing the beast.

Running and Gunning - Higan Vs. The Magna Pater

Pretty lucky for Higan his Mech is outfitted with Electric vision, I still do no know why I included it when I made the character almost a year back, but it's finally come in handy.