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Volume One ~ Part One, The Awakening
March 9th, 3051
21:07 Hours
House Kurita Space (Disputed)
Irece, 3 Miles South of Tengoku
The deafening noise of alarms rang in his ears, a taste of thick iron blood dominated his mouth and his nostrils were packed with the unmistakable acrid smell of boiling coolant. His head and arms were heavy, his eyelids even more so. His weak body conjured up a splutter, riding his nostrils and throat of the horrid smoke that filled them. He could hear the thundering footsteps draw closer with every rattle of his cockpit and he forced his eyes to open. His eyes stung in response to the acrid smoke and his blurred vision did no better for him than if he still had his eyes shut. He could hear the flicker of flame and his skin peel from the heat radiated from the metal backdrop of his cockpit. Could his blurred eyes be showing him his end?
The rumbling footsteps drew closer as his hearing became ever more sensitive. The alarms rang out still as he tried his arms – that did not obey him. As he became aware of his legs, he became aware of the pain that accompanied them as well as the intense smell of his own flesh burning. He glanced to his right to observe his arm, pinned to the side wall of his cockpit by a ragged rod of metal. He managed to find strength in his left arm, reaching over to grasp the metal rod. Try as he might, it wasn't moving. He shifted his legs up and out of their rests, charred and scarred from the hot metal surrounding them. He shook his head, attempting to shake away the nausea as he made use of his legs to kick out at the front window paneling of his cockpit. The already damaged panels gave way and tumbled out the front of his cockpit to smash far down on the ground below. With a sudden surge, the smoke fled the cockpit to no longer obscure his vision. He now realized his harness was the only thing keeping him alive.
He glanced out the front of his cockpit with his damaged eyes to see the ground fall away below him, his harness suspending him there hanging above a drop to certain death. As he shifted ever more carefully in his seat he propped his back against the left hand side of his cockpit and forced both his legs to push against the right. His right arm – still pinned to the back wall – was in agony with the movements but if this worked then soon it would be free. Now that he was carefully propped across the open gap to the ground so far below, propped up by his legs, he slowly unclipped the harness. With a sudden movement he felt his body sag towards the opening, his legs and upper body strength the only thing keeping him from a fall to his death. Carefully he made use of his free hand to tie the harness around both ankles in a slipknot formation. This plan was risky at best but from the situation he was in, it was simply his best chance at getting free. With the harness tied around both his ankles, he pulled it back towards him and the knot tightened. He would have to be quick about his plan as well as precise, otherwise he would risk breaking his ankles.
Carefully he reached up and slipped the remaining strip of harness around a handle on the back wall, just above where his head would sit. With this he slowly lowered himself down out of the gap, the harness and his makeshift winch the only thing holding him in place. The harness would not be enough for him to reach the ground but that was not his intention. The next part would be the hard, painful part. Now that he was just about to lower himself down, his right arm was starting to be put under strain from still being pinned to the back wall. In a slow, gradual movement he lowered himself down using his left arm as the feed for the winch with harness in hand, the handle as the pivot point and his ankles as the counter balance. Slowly he felt his right arm getting tugged – centimetre by centimetre free from the ragged metal pole pinning it. The jagged outcrops of metal sliced through his muscle and flesh as he slowly slid his arm down the pole towards his body. The winch taking all of his weight. He was slowly lowering down out the cockpit to dangle in mid-air, the ground still looming far below as his arm was sliced free inch by inch. Finally, it slid free with blood streaming down his forearm and his arm flopped down by his side. He could barely move it but he could just use it. As he glanced around his surroundings, hanging just outside his cockpit his first hurdle he overcame was quickly drowned out by fear.
As he swung there, the harness taking all his weight his whole mech sat dead in the shadow of his enemy. The thundering footsteps had stopped a while back, he had only realized. As he glanced round the fear struck him and his small win was crushed. A Nova Cat sat stationary, dwarfing him and looming over his defeated mech. Dozens of ground troops accompanying it – all focussed on him, weapons trained.
One shot echoed out from below...
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Part Two Next Sunday!
(Part Two will be longer, this is a wee trial run)
(Note: Basing this story series off of existing Sarna Lore)
Check back next week, all the best!
Written By: IGravemind
Edited by IGravemind, 02 October 2014 - 11:41 AM.
