Hounds of Orion

A short while later Cameron was making his way up a series of rungs on the back of one of the Squire’s legs making his way to the cockpit. He reached the top, finding the handle towards the center of the boxy container, nearly hidden from view save for the chipped brown paint on the hinges. He gripped the handle, giving it a sharp yank as Logan had instructed him to, and listened as a series of gears began to turn. Finally, with a hiss of pressurized hair a seal broke open, bisecting the container from left to right. The lid slowly rose along with Cameron’s brows as he stared wide eyed at the scene before him.

“Wow,” He whispered, awestruck by what he saw.

The cockpit was an organized chaos. Wires and tubing ran the length of the walls, going into a control board lined with a litany of switches and breakers. A dashboard above the switches had a screen built into the middle, showing an outline of the Squire segmented into separate sections, monitoring the health of the arms, legs, and cockpit respectively. Underneath the outline, a bar lit in green ran the length of the screen, showing the reserves of solar energy the mech contained. Above all that, was a black wall, showing nothing but a thin layer of dust that Cameron wiped away. A plush, leather bucket seat was situated dead center, with a control stick on either side. To Cameron, it was a thing of beauty. So much so that he only stopped staring open mouthed at the compartment when Logan’s voice came crackling out over a set of speakers.

“Well ya gonna stare at it all day or are you gonna hop in?”

Cameron cracked a smile, scrambling to get inside. He sat down in the seat, reaching for the sticks as the lid to the compartment snapped shut behind him. As it did, the now pitch black cockpit grew alight, as the black wall above the dash lit up. There in front of him, was the field he had been standing on earlier, Logan’s mech staring him down across the way.

“Outside projector working? Can you see anything?” Logan asked, almost as if on cue.

“Uh, yeah. Seems to be anyways. I can see outside, and I can see you.”

“Good. That squire hasn’t seen use in quite a while so I was worried something had broken down. They’re tough little bastards. Not a lot in the way of armaments but you can run them into the ground and they’ll keep limping along. One of the reasons why they’re the staple of most planetary forces.”

“What’s the other reason?”

“They’re easy to pilot. I can teach a little shit like you how to be a halfway decent operator after only a few hours.”

“Was the ‘little shit’ necessary?” Cameron asked indignantly.

“Absolutely, now grip the sticks and let’s go through ‘baby’s first mech’ class.”

Cameron learned the basics quickly enough. That was in equal part thanks to Logan’s teaching, and the simplicity of the Squire’s controls. Each stick powered one side of the units frame. Working in tandem was how movement occurred. To go forward, Cameron had to simply push both sticks forward, and vice-versa to reverse. Turning and strafing required a little more thought, as the unit would turn either clockwise or counter-clockwise depending on which stick was being used. Pretty soon, Cameron was able to walk, turn, and run with little difficulty.

“How am I looking?” Cameron asked over the comm channel as the Squire lumbered up and down the field. Mud replaced grass in spaces where he had walked, massive clawed feet effortlessly turning over the soil with every step.

“Like a newborn calf.” Logan shot back, the smile on his face able to be heard over the radio.

“Considering I hadn’t even sat inside one of these things before today, I think I’m doing fairly well.”

“I’ll give you that. But now it’s time to get to the fun stuff.” Logan’s smile turned into a dangerous smirk as he took his first steps in his Crusader. Well, taking steps wasn’t quite right. In actuality, the unit glided across the ground, legs working back and forth in smooth skating motion as blue plasma pulsed out from two vents underneath each foot. The Crusader danced around, circling the Squire as Logan showed off the expansive movement of the mech.

“Okay, now that’s cool.” Cameron said, watching from within the squire as Logan weaved around him. It took a while more for Logan to go through the mannerisms of utilizing the plasma boosters unique to each A.R.M.S. unit. The Crusader for example had seven; four on it’s feet, two at the midsection for strafing, and a large one at the back for rapid acceleration. In contrast, the Squire only had the first two sections, leaving it at a distinct disadvantage in terms of speed. Still, it didn’t deter Cameron from proposing a challenge to his mentor.

“How about we test these things out?” He asked, after a while of smooth skating around the field.

“And just what kind of test do you propose?” Logan replied, sounding a tad apprehensive. He looked down through the Crusaders head slot spying the now ruined garden field. Though the numbing relief of integration didn’t make him feel too terribly bad, the last thing he wanted to do was to ruin the warm welcome Augustus had given him.

Cameron on the other hand, was nonplussed. “How about a game of tag?”

“Tag?”

“Yeah, you heard me. Tag. Think of it like a little movement exercise. How else am I going to acclimate to this?”

Logan thought for a moment, considering the offer. He felt conflicted. One part of him saw the damage they were doing to the royal gardens and it gnawed at his sense of professionalism that he prided himself on. The other part wanted to jump at the chance to do some training. He’d been unlinked for too long and needed to stretch his legs. It didn’t take long for one of them to win out.

“Fine… You’re it.” He said, blasting forward and swinging out with his shield arm to bash the Squire dead on, knocking it on its rear with a thundering crash.