Mech Pilot who doesn’t climb into and out of the cockpit; they disassemble and reassemble into the nanobot circulation.
ATTENTION CITIZEN. YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED FOR RANDOMIZED SCREENING. HOLD YOUR HANDS AND ARMS TO THE SIDE AND AWAIT SCANNING
Cold sweat sprung on Kathryn’s brow. She’d known this was coming. They’d prepared for this. All she had to do was go into a T Pose and wait. Ten seconds, and she could be about her day. That’s how long a standard scan took. Thirty seconds if they did a deep scan. Neither would be enough. She’d be safe. They’d tested this against a two hour scan, for fuck’s sake, and no one had detected it.
Concrete crunched behind her, followed by the grinding noise as the streetsweeper nanobots pulled the material back together. A booming voice rang out.
KEEP YOUR HANDS RAISED. TURN AROUND SLOWLY. THIS IS A ROUTINE SCAN. THE INNOCENT HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR.
Kathryn did so.
The mecha behind her was designed for combat on the moons of Orion-7 or heavy duty infantry work in the Carshannah Front, retrofitted for police work. The retrofitting involved a coat of blue paint with gold trim. The Paladin X-1312 was a Champion Class infantry mech suit, and it had been the pinnacle of warfare five years ago. The X-6U3-11 series had replaced it on the front lines, and the 1312s had been sold to law enforcement across the Syndicated Terran Dominion.
“Evening officer!” Kathryn said as cheerfully as she could manage.
GOOD EVENING CITIZEN. REMAIN CALM.
“Kind of hard with a gun pointed at my skull, no offense,” Kathryn said to herself. The 1312’s primary cannon, was also attached to the scanner. If the cop inside the mecha decided he didn’t like whatever his scanner showed him, Kathryn would be a fine red mist before she realized he’d caught her. It was hard to talk casually, but she forced herself to do so.
SCAN IS ALMOST COMPLETE. REMAIN CALM.
Deep breaths, Kathryn told herself. Deep breaths, and it’ll be all right. And if it wasn’t, at least it would be quick.
YOU’RE CLEAR TO PROCEED!
Kathryn didn’t sign in relief. Her body desperately wanted to - it was screaming at her to do so - but she made herself just nod. “I can rest easier knowing you’re keeping us safe!” she said,. Cops liked it when you stroked their egos a little bit.
HAPPY TO -
He stopped. Kathryn’s pulse sped up again.
I NEED YOU TO COME WITH ME
The cop hadn’t raised his weapon again yet, but he was starting to. What had gone wrong? Had they been sold-
Doesn’t matter. Kathryn leapt. As she did, she sent an activation code down her spine.
A dark fog erupted around Kathryn as nanites poured out of her sweat glands. The cop opened fire. A half second sooner and Kathryn wouldn’t have made it. By the time he realized he needed to shoot, however, thirty percent of the nanomass had emerged and surrounded her. By the time he thought to shout for backup, she was at sixty percent.
He shot again at ninety, but he was already dead. All Kathryn needed to do was bring his vital signs up to speed with reality.
SHE’S GOT XENTH TECH!
Kathryn barely registered the words. He was wrong - this suit wasn’t Xenth tech. It was reverse engineered from recovered technology from that alien race, but it was human made. Which was why she didn’t have the energy fields of the Xenth or hard-light weaponry that could shred a 1312 like it was a cardboard model.
Her mecha stood on two legs, supporting a central orb. She sat in the middle of that orb, surrounded by a sea of nanonites that buzzed, awaiting her command. A deep voice, so deep it shook her bones, filled her ears. “Kathryn-Thing. This is our adversary?”
“Correct,” she said.
“Pathetic,” the suit responded. Her name was Larceny.
“Will you allow me to kill it?” Kathryn asked.
There was no hesitation in Larceny’s response. “Use me”
Consent. That was the trick to Xenth tech, and was the trick to adapted Xenth tech. It was why the military could never properly steal it. Once they got their hands on a Xenth drive, they tried to force their way in.
Kathryn had just asked. And when she’d given the drive to Dr. Wheller, she had also asked.
And now that they’d built Larceny, Kathryn just needed to keep asking.
The consent link established, Kathryn’s mind fully integrated with the suit. She wasn’t piloting a fifteen foot tall orb of darkness standing on alien legs, those were her legs supporting her body. When tendrils of nanites erupted from the sphere, they were arms. When she shaped the ends of them into gatling guns, they were her hands.
When she opened fire with bullets that then returned to her, it felt like she’d finally let out that sigh of relief.
The 1312 detonated, but Kathryn was already moving. She had to get out of here. There would be worse than 1312’s coming, and Larceny couldn’t singlehandedly take down an entire police force. Several of the most heavily geared police mecha were equipped for fighting full blown Xenth suits, an Larceny couldn’t handle that.
“Yes I can,” Larceny grumbled. “We just need the missing half of my parent-drive.”
Which had been the whole damn point of this mission. Recover that to get the rest of what she needed. The information to build Xenth hard light generators.
The power to free everyone that had been arrested in the last clean-up. All Kathryn had to do was get close enough to breach the outer perimeter as a human, then wear Larceny. Get the drive, get out before backup arrived. Getting in was supposed to be the easy part.
“What happened, Kathryn-thing?”
Good question. Larceny had been detected. Or someone had betrayed them. She’d have to regroup and recover. They needed a new plan. Once Kathryn got to safety. Once they had time.
But she would get that drive. She, Larceny, and the good Doctor would get what they needed.
And then Larceny would be able to give Kathryn the power to fight this entire city. And she would, too.
All Kathryn had to do was ask.
