Mech Pilot who has something in their heart that is not in the world.
[WARNING; Cockpit is exposed. Pilot vital signs show slight concussion, otherwise nominal. Pilot ejection sequence queued. Proceed?]_
Broadside stirred from unconsciousness, wincing as Mountain's monitoring AI warnings blared in her comm unit. She clutched her head in her natural hand and fought off the blurriness to her vision as best she could.
"B-... Ghah, shit. Hold ejection sequence. Status repor-?"
Her abrupt silence didn't register. The AI proceeded to read off different notes as she stared out the open hole in her mech's collarbone.
[Primary Power Core undamaged. No action needed.]_
[Auxillary Power Core ruptured and at 46% integrity. Core ejection Subroutine ready at Pilot's discrecion. ]_
She stared coldly at the creature bent over the husk of a second mech Mountain had been deployed alongside, codenaned Fleetfoot, held down under the demon's claws to prevent a thrashing escape she knew there would never be.
[Right Ankle Assembly broken. Right foot sheared off. Both shoulder assemblies at ~70% integrity.]_
Broadside felt her body go cold seeing its head rear up, the fractured helmet of Yunaska Orphix gleaming in the moonlight between its jaws before tossing it aside... towards her, like the shell off a crawfish, and began to leave the area. It had no eyes, but she knew it knew she was alive. It had been too precise not to be savoring the helplessness.
It was then, in the midst of the numb fury building within her and repressed horror of the situation that Broadside had the same realization she would always have once a new loss was dropped at her doorstep.
[Flak Cannon undamaged, two charges remaining before ammunition cycle is required.]_
"Switch to slug mode. Initiate auxillary core eject. Clayshot."
Broadside has loved ones. They kept her company through her years of service, and some even served alongside her to this day. But she couldn't lie and say they were the sole reason she was doing this still.
[Calculating arc from current position. Trajectory locked.]
As she lined up the shot, she sighed with a tearless, empty resignation known only to those who hold not just a family in their heart, but a mausoleum etched with every name of a life lost. With urns of ash dedicated to people she respected and loved enclosed within...
"Pull."
[Acknowledged.]
...And the unmarked mounds of the willful monsters that took them from her left rotting outside.