The Hunchback slowed for a moment as it got beside John's UrbanMech, and as if knowing exactly what Lucy was thinking, lifted its leg and smmed its foot down on the mech's cockpit.

  "NOOOO!!!! JOHN-SAMA!!!!" She screamed, tears rolling down her face as she fired her sers into the Hunchback. The beams melted armour on the mech's arms, doing little actual damage to the mech. Though for some reason, it wasn't moving, still standing on top of John's mech.

  Suddenly, the UrbanMech's autocannon moved, its barrel resting directly on the knee joint of the mech standing on its head.

  "It's Garbage Day, Asshole." John's strained voice came through the comms on an open channel.

  Fire exploded from the barrel, the HEAP rounds shredding the leg off the Hunchback. It tried to correct its bance, but ended up tipping over, falling on its face beside the UrbanMech. The UrbanMech's cockpit exploded outwards then, and a man wearing a suit of bck and white armour climbed out of it, golden light encircling him. He jumped off the top of the hatch and sprinted over to 50 ton mech, drawing a sword that she swore she could hear ring even inside her cockpit from two hundred meters away.

  "What in the world is going on?" She said, having no clue what in the hell she was watching.

  John, for she was positive was him, smmed his sword into the arm of the Hunchback, causing her to shield her eyes from a massive fsh of light. When her eyes cleared, the arm was lying on the ground, severed just above the elbow. John had made his way to the cockpit next to the massive shoulder hump that held the Hunchback's autocannon. He reached his hand out, and a block of gss and steel fell at his feet, making an opening into the cockpit.

  "Surrender, or for the love of god, I will set every inch of your cockpit on fire with you in it!" Her external microphones picked up his shout, the man sounding angrier than she had ever heard him in their short time together. Even when he was handling her capture before, he was calm and collected, and she had nearly blown his mech apart.

  She just sat there, fbbergasted. Nothing was making sense, not one little bit. John just forced a pirate mech to surrender... at sword point?

  Once the pirate had powered down his mech and climbed out of the cockpit hatch, John let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Just as the Hunchback's foot had come down, he activated his Padin spell, Divine Shield. Supposedly, it made him invulnerable to damage for thirty seconds, and he had nothing to lose by trying. The metal from his cockpit's ceiling had indeed pushed down toward him, but stopped just shy of connecting with the shield.

  He then activated his armour, and looking up out of the now broken viewport, he could just make out the man sitting in the Hunchbacks cockpit. Casting an armour buffed darkness spell, he blinded the pilot and then adjusted the arm of his autocannon to rest right on the rger mech's knee. The shockwaves from the ensuing explosion should have killed him outright, but it just washed over the shield, causing the spell to glow even brighter. The powerful bst peeled the metal of the autocannon's barrel back, destroying the weapon and effectively ending any use the Urbie had. It also caused the now crippled Hunchback to topple over, its blinded pilot having no idea what in the hell was going on.

  He patted the Urbie's console once, giving the trash can a silent thank you, then tried to climb out of the mech's cockpit. He couldn't get the now-bent frame of the hatch to open, so he sshed at the rest of the viewport screen with his sword until it broke open, jumping the ten or so feet down to the ground with his invulnerability spell still active.

  That led him to cut the Hunchbacks arm off with the sword's magic, then using Dig to open a hole into the cockpit. The man was terrified and confused as to why he went from dominating the battle to being blinded and dangling off his chest harness. When John's voice echoed through his cockpit, threatening death by fire, he immediately surrendered.

  Fuck you guys if you think I am going to die that easily this time. You gave me this stuff, I am going to bloody well use it. I have a promise to keep.

  He was pissed that he was so helpless to help Lucy find her daughter, the Hunchback, one of the few 'smaller' mechs that could have turned both of their mechs into scrap with just a couple of shots. If this were this world's can't win scenario, well tough, he won.

  "What in the hell did you do to me, man?" The pirate said, terrified of the armoured figure towering over him.

  John just backhanded him with an armoured gauntlet, sending the pirate sprawling. He then activated his Scouter skill, listening in on his thoughts.

  "Shut up! I am the one asking questions here. Unless you want to burn feet first, you are going to answer them. Do you understand?" He said, stepping on the man's chest and resting the point of his sword on his neck.

  The man nodded his head vigorously, a trickle of blood leaking from where the bde touched him.

  "Where are the captives?"

  "In-in-in the Grottenburg built along the cave wall." The man said, his thoughts telling John that there was some sort of structure built into the cave wall itself.

  "Is Lucy's daughter with them?"

  "Y-Yes. Wait? Why would you care-" He started to say, but John leaned over and smacked him again, busting the man's lips open.

  "DO NOT INTERRUPT ME! You have two choices here: a quick death or a long one. I will get the answers I am looking for either way! Now, is the Star League cache here?"

  "The doors are down the tunnel on the other side of the cave. We haven't been able to break into it yet."

  I need to stall. If I can stay alive until Susie gets here tomorrow with the rest of Ryan's Rebels, they will make quick work of the Bckstone Guards.

  "How many mechs and pirates are left?" John asked, ughing a little at this man's optimism. The fact that a major pirate band would be arriving tomorrow was somewhat concerning, but he would deal with that ter.

  "Before we fought, there should have been four mechs left engaging your nce, along with several armoured vehicles. There are about ten other workers spread throughout the camp, manning the base defences or guarding the prisoners."

  John just nodded, listening to the man's surface thoughts at the same time. "Good. Now, you are going to tell me about everything that is beyond that cave opening. Types of defences, the mechs, armaments, everything. Then we will talk about Ryan's Rebels, as I know they are due pnetside tomorrow. If you are honest with me, you get to die quickly, with little pain. If you start lying..." John said, then formed a ball of fire in his hand. "Things won't go well for you."

  "W-what is that, no, no, wait... W-w-w-why is your eye glowing, man? What is wrong with you!?!" The pirate said, literally shaking underneath John's boot.

  "Because I'm the god damn boogeyman, and am going haunt you for the rest of your short, miserable life. Now speak." John growled, grinding his heel into the man's chest.

  And the man did, spilling every detail he knew about what was going on in the cave beyond. John's mood continued to darken as he learned more, particurly about this Susie character and the pirate gang arriving tomorrow. Apparently, she was actually a pirate princess, the daughter of the leaders of the Greater Valkyrate. She oversaw most of the operations within this pirate syndicate, preparing to take over the pirate nation from her aging parents.

  Lucy's Bck Jack had stopped nearby, saying nothing but listening in on their entire conversation. When John was sure he had everything he needed, he sshed the pirate's neck with his sword, ending his life quickly as he had promised. The man didn't deserve it, but John wasn't in a position to take prisoners yet, and this man was high enough up in the food chain that the pirates might rescue him from the mines. He didn't want to end up fighting the same enemy again and again like some god damn superhero.

  John sighed, then turned around and looked up at Lucy's cockpit, realizing that he probably had some expining to do. "Hey! Can you lower the dder and give me a lift? We have some work to do still."

  She didn't say anything, but after a few moments, she bent the mech at its knees. A dder slid down off the mech's rear torso, allowing John to climb up and enter the Bck Jack's cockpit. There was even less room in there than in the Jenners'; the jump seat was just a fold-down pad behind her chair, not leaving him much room. He made his armour return to his belt buckle so he could even fit inside the cramped space.

  "Lucy, I-" John started, but she interrupted him.

  "Thank you, John-Sama. I have no idea what you just did, and I... I can't even process what I saw right now, but you found out where my daughter is. For that alone, I will be forever in your debt. So, if you want to keep whatever happened a secret, on my life, I will never say a word to anyone."

  "Lucy, thank you." He started, then turned and rested a hand on her shoulder. He was mildly surprised she didn't flinch at his touch, but instead rested her hand on top of his. "If you want to know, I will tell you everything, but ter. Until then, we have a handful of turrets to blow up. Not to mention your daughter, and some captives to rescue. Are you good to pilot, or do I need to rip my neurohelmet out of the Urbie, and we can swap spots?"

  She started to giggle, her cute little ughter bringing a smile to John's lips and clearing his mind of the dark thoughts that had been lingering there. "I'm fine." She said after a moment, "I am not some helpless woman who needs a man to fight all her battles for her, though the thought is appreciated. Let me show you just how good I am!" She said, pushing the throttle forward, sending the Bck Jack towards the end of the tunnel.

  "Never said you were. If I recall correctly, you nearly killed me once while you were in an immobile mech. I was just offering as a friend. A friend helping another friend going through a stressful situation." John said, squeezing her shoulder once before letting go and buckling himself in.

  "A friend... no, you are becoming much more than that, John-sama. My debt continues to deepen." She whispered under her breath. John only caught bits of what she said, but her mech's autocannons started barking, and he didn't have a chance to ask her to repeat herself.

  Lucy made short work of the fixed turrets inside of the cave, all of them shorter ranged missile and autocannon batteries near the mouth of the main entrance. Her 25mm cannons were some of the longest ranged weapons avaible to mechs, and with her advantageous position at the rear of the cave, she could tear them apart well beyond their maximum range. John was kind of curious as to why some of these massive weapons seemed to have such short ranges, but his memories didn't really give him a good answer.

  There were artillery units in the innersphere that had much more conventional ranges, but the Mech's and armoured vehicles themselves seemed limited to effective ranges of within a half a mile or less. There was a lot of ECM gear that would mess with targeting, so he just chalked it up to that and moved on.

  The Grottenburg appeared to be a building built into the cave wall. The door on the ground looked heavily armoured, as if it could withstand several rounds of fire from a battlemech before being breached. There were darkened windows several stories up, overlooking the cave, but otherwise it looked nearly impenetrable.

  "Let me off by the building, then go join up with the command nce. If you can help pin down the remaining pirates from behind, they might just surrender." John said, getting ready to climb out of the cockpit.

  "Wait, let me come with you!" Lucy said, sounding anxious.

  "Do you have any armour, weapons or hand-to-hand combat training?" He asked.

  "I have some training, and I have this pistol." She said, pulling out Freddy's old revolver, which he kept in the cockpit in case he had to eject on a pnet that had hostile fauna.

  "No armour. No deal. I don't want you to get yourself killed, not when you are so close to being reunited with your daughter. Go aid the old man, and bring in reinforcements. I can protect myself, but my... skills won't protect you. We don't even know how many pirates are left in that facility, but they are all armed with pistols or shotguns according to their leader." John replied.

  "Fine." She said, then raised one of her mech's arms. "Let me at least open the door for you."

  Before he could reply that it was unnecessary, the barrel smashed into a window on what appeared to be the third story of the structure, shattering the gss and exposing the unoccupied room. She then backed her mech up to the newly created opening until it bounced against the rock wall.

  "There, you can get in through an opening that probably isn't fortified now. Go save Rei, John-sama. And please, be careful. Oh, and if Sandy is with her, let her live if you can. She is an old woman who runs those Indy mechs to load cargo for the pirates and takes care of Rei for me. From what I can tell, she was just in the wrong pce at the wrong time and got stuck in a life she wanted nothing to do with."

  "No promises if she cannot be reasoned with, but I will try. Good luck." John said, then climbed out of the cockpit.

  He ran across the shoulder of the Bck Jack and climbed down into the room. Drawing the Sword of Truth, he activated his armour and cast Barrier on himself. Now ready to begin his infiltration, he waved to the back of Lucy's mech and opened the door, stepping into the hall.

  He had pirates to kill and a little girl to rescue. He wished for a moment he had some of the weapons from Infinite Frontiers with him, but he would make do. Having that divine shield would be a great equalizer for melee combatants in this world of guns and sers.