CERESUltra

Music Nerd, Author, Yote!

  • She/they/it

30s/white/tired/coyote/&
Words are my favorite stim toy


Making-up-Mech-Pilots
@Making-up-Mech-Pilots

Mech Pilot who says “Fs in Chat” whenever the missile-lock confirmation chime sounds


enochianjones
@enochianjones

Valke's voice was strained from speaking over the soft-yet-shrill bee-bee-beep that indicated infrared heat-seeking missiles, and the louder BZZZZZZ buzzer that betrayed a radar lock (not to mention the guitar solo from the second half of Freebird). His follower count on Trigger had plateaued, so he decided interacting with his live chat was the way to boost his numbers. If he was going to make Trigger Partner (and start getting a piece of the ad revenue), he needed another influx of followers, and they all needed to be active in the chat.

"Chat listen," he began, matter-of-factly, "I know it's a super no-life, never been outside thing to do, but people have before, and they will again, watch your stream, get your net ID off the stream, cross-reference it with your pilot ID, and hack your system, you know, live through Trigger. I've seen it happen." He hadn't seen it, but it was something that happened (though his description of the process couldn't be further from accurate). "I'm not getting stream-sniped by you ghouls," he told his audience. "I'm not telling you how much CM I have, or how--uh, how much ammo I have left. You're lucky you get my radar. And a face cam, isn't that enough?" He winked at his in-cockpit camera.

Valke was a decent enough pilot, able to keep pace with his opponent while entertaining his chat, but he hadn't been watching his reserves; the battle had gone on overlong, and though he hadn't run out of ammo and countermeasures yet, he would soon. One eagle-eyed chat member had been biding their time, carefully crafting a message in the chat window: "so I know the IR and radar lock tones, and the sounds of the engine and hydraulics in the background (and also i caught a look at the cockpit CPU in the face-cam once and got the serial number off it). the stock IR chaff on that model is 60, and the MAX the CPU can register is 1024. default ECM decoys is 15, max is 90. i'm guessing he has maxed out the ECM bc he should've run out by now but i'd say he's got another three minutes, less if he didn't max out IR chaff"

A long message like that catches his attention without fail, and after reading it aloud to the viewers, he took a long overdue look at his readout. Three minutes was a generous estimate; his frivolously stylish use of the evasion boosters meant the mech was rapidly overheating, and nearly out of fuel. His fighting style immediately shifted from evasive stunts to all-out offense--he had to win the fight before his mech gave out on him. His audience noticed the shift, and where split almost evenly, between his fans who wanted to see him prevail, and bloodsport junkies who relished live footage of pilots meeting their demise on the battlefield. The soft bee-bee-beep and loud BZZZZ were dutifully interrupted as Valke continued to fire the respective countermeasure, but his narration has come to complete stop. He was no longer entertaining anyone, but rather fighting for his life...

...until a loud bang came from the back of his mech, as the reactor door flung itself open and the white-hot nuclear engine was fired out of the opening, to erupt a safe distance from the pilot. Valke's viewer count halved almost immediately, as those who were pulling for him closed the feed. He looked at the cockpit camera, still running off auxiliary power, and sighed. "Well that sucks. I guess that's it, chat; I hope this guy doesn't have a chainsaw or some shit, just for humiliating dumbasses like me."

A new sound filled the cockpit, a loud continuous BEEEEEEEEEEEP, the warning tone of a laser-guided weapon, undoubtedly pointed at the empty reactor core. "Oh this guy's a real piece of shit, real hard to miss a beam-rider when I can't even move. Well, that's the stream I guess, thanks to those that stuck around to the end, even if you're all death-pervs.

"So. One last time, this is callsign 'V for Victory' sayi--"


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