The Pride Before the Fall

As Harrison rode the lift back up to the stadium, he couldn’t help but feel warm and fuzzy inside. His usual hard-boiled exterior didn’t even rise with him as the audience cheered his name and his teammates tried to speak with him. He handled them all with grace and pleasure exposing a softer side of him that no one would think was there if they didn’t see him with his ‘friend’ Marjorie. As Harrison took his place back in D5 he was practically beaming as the move timer resumed for the Sentinel’s. A date with Marjorie and two wins under his belt in the first match of his professional career. What could possibly go wrong? Harrison noticed Florence trying to page him and he opened his com. “You did much better that round, I’m impressed.” she said.

“Florence I am on the top of the world right now; I feel like I can take on anything.” Harrison said. Power in his voice and conviction in his soul. “Well, you may have to Harrison. We don’t have a move for you under our belt, so you’re stuck in D5 for the time being. If we can’t deter or engage the queen before she sets her sites on you, you’re pretty much done.” Harrison was unaffected by Florence’s statement. “What will our next move be then? Harrison said starting to put on his more serious face for appearances sake. Florence looked at her personal board for a moment before deciding to move the right bishop back one square to line up with D5. “I’m going to move Kinjiro back from H3 to G2 to put additional pressure on D5. With Xavier and Kinjiro threatening D5 it may dissuade her from risking the attack for a single pawn.”

“But a really skilled Pawn.” Harrison retorted. Florence moved to submit the move radioing Kinjiro to run it by him getting a quick confirmation, he must be desperate for some action. The timer stopped and the game maker announced the move. “SENTINEL’S, BISHOP AT H3 TO G2.” Kinjiro moved quickly landing in G2 facing D5. The move was apparent from the Sentinel’s, ‘Don’t attack D5’. As the round timer ended the Golem’s turn began. It took them all of five seconds to submit their move. “GOLEM’S,” Amy Andross said slightly hesitantly. “QUEEN AT D6 TO D5.” Harrison tensed up. The stadium fell quiet. Very rarely had a pawn ever beaten a Queen, it was almost unheard of. Most of the time such fights were intended towards wearing the larger pieces down with exhaustion then an actual defeat. But the audience was antsy. Harrison defeated a pawn and a knight back-to-back. Could he defeat a Queen?

Harrison looked in front of him. The massive Seren Unit rose to life as she began to hover over to D5. She was nearly twice the Pilgrim’s size, and she was much more equipped than Harrison was. The iron hem detached from her waist floating around her as the sound of her engines slowly filled the square even from the opposite corner of where Harrison now stood. Once she landed the hem reconnected to the sides of her legs revealing her armored legs and several thrusters working to stabilize her hovering movements and allowing her to float so gracefully. Harrison stood upright on his square as the Queen did the same. The safety walls came up as the map started to rebuild the town in Harrison’s favor, being the defender and all.

Harrison began to sweat as the reality of the situation dawned upon him. He was going to lose. There was no way he could win this fight. Even with all of his skills and methods, patience, and practice, you couldn’t defeat sheer size. One of Harrison’s coms lit up, it was Florence. Harrison responded only to be given a line of helpful and direct advice. “Don’t let her get under you. Whatever your plan is, never let her get under you. As a flying unit she’ll have the advantage, just farm as many points as possible and try to wear her down.” Harrison’s former enthusiasm and glow were not sheltered deep within him. He had to survive in the lion’s cage for seven and a half minutes. He wouldn’t even win. But a voice nitpicked at the back of his mind. A familiar one, a fatherly one. “Standing in the face of the greatest adversity is daunting and terrifying, but only when you give it your best effort do you truly know what you’re capable of.” The words of his father echoed in his mind as he regrettably took his advice. As much as hated to.

A new conviction filled his head as several dozen ideas manifested on how to defeat the Queen. But two truths rang true, don’t get pinned, and don’t let her get under you. “But every rule has a certain amount of flexibility.” He thought. The emergency wall rose as the round siren blared. The squares season randomizer simulated winter again, and Harrison would use it to his advantage. Harrison took out his knife leaping off the pedestal, first he had to locate the Queen. He didn’t hear her launch and he didn’t hear her run so she must still be around her pedestal. “Wait.” Harrison thought to himself, he stopped moving and listened. The cold wind whipped through the street banners and the leafless trees as normal ambient noises for a town devoid of life filled his ears. But he didn’t hear what he was looking for, engines. No steps either. She wasn’t moving.

Harrison tapped his shoulder, and a small drone came out hovering silently around him. Unlike Adeline’s orb drone, Harrison’s was more of a beetle in its appearance with fluttering wings. Harrison sent it high in the sky hoping to catch a glimpse of her before the snow turned into a blizzard. Harrison checked his drone’s camera feed as it flew around the map looking for any inkling of the Queen, until it spotted her. She was walking slowly along the outside of the map preparing to turn inward into the arena to the center intersection. She stepped slowly, and quietly, but Harrison got the feeling that she wasn’t trying to sneak. She was waiting. Waiting for him to find her then react like he had with Adeline. This revelation complicated things.

Harrison sent his drone to perch on the eighth floor of the taller skyscraper as she made her way down the street. Back in the Pilgrim Harrison could now feel the steady vibrations of her footsteps. Eventually she came to a stop in the middle of the intersection, dead center of the map.

Harrison took a moment to look behind him at the artificial horizon. The sun was coming down and the street was lined with oranges and yellows stretching across the freshly fallen snow. Harrison took a deep breath in to collect himself before springing into action. At the end of today, win or lose, he’d have a date with beautiful women, and he would have laid out his legacy as the first pawn to defeat two pieces in his first match ever. But that didn’t mean he’d go down without a fight. But then his mind started to race once again. What if he could win? What if he was the pawn who defeated a Queen? Defeated The Queen? His start was good but with a Queen defeat underneath his belt in his first round he’d be a legend out of the gate. Immediately jumping out of the shadow of his parents as the best up and coming League pilot in the world.

Harrison had an opportunity here and he couldn’t waste it, so he started to think carefully. He would have to get past her guard, and to do that he would have to disable the iron hem. A threatening weapon, it’s use was banned in the League for a large portion of its existence until two seasons ago when the Queen herself made a proper argument to the board to allow it’s use on self-generating powered units. Without the self-generating power, the hem would require an additional battery that if struck would explode in a horrible fashion most likely killing the hems user. It wouldn’t be a pretty sight. But on a unit like the Queen’s, she could contain the battery in a reinforced pack on her main engine that would protect her from such circumstances.

“I need to disable the hem.” Harrison decided. And to do that he needed to get behind her. He needed to distract her cause a full-frontal assault would get him destroyed. Harrison would bring out his knife again to use the reflection trick but with the sun shining right on him the reflection or glare would give away his position and he’d be done, over. So, he activated his drone. His drone scurried around looking for anything until Harrison noticed the metal antennas on top of the skyscrapers rooves. “A perfect distraction, pure chaos. Perfect.” Harrison thought to himself prepping his shoulder missiles for launch. He took another breath before proceeding with his plan. “Here I go.”

The Pilgrim turned on its knee facing the interior of the map and launched a barrage of missiles from two batteries on its shoulders. The missiles whistled into the sky spraying a light cloud of smoke behind them that unfortunately gave away his position. As soon as the last one was away Harrison bolted to his left hiding behind the next block facing the artificial barrier. He quickly checked his drone feed and much to his surprise, the Queen was still where she was, in the middle of the intersection. Unmoved and unphased. Harrison grew uneasy. She was playing at something; he just knew it.

Harrison raised his head to look at his missiles just as they collided with the tops of the buildings. Chunks of concrete and glass flew in all directions as the waning and twisting of steel could be heard as the antennas struggled to stay upright. But alas they failed and began to fall. Harrison moved quickly. As much larger debris rained down upon the town Harrison made sure to check his projectile censors so he could dodge the falling rubble and steel the best he could as he placed his turrets around the map. He ran just as fast if not faster than he did when Nick was taking pot shots at him, but this time it was more trying to cover as much ground as possible while avoiding his own mess, and the Queen all together. Just as he did before Harrison dropped turrets that rolled out of his legs and crawled into a pre-determined position in view of the Queen.

As girders and cross beams began to puncture the ground and destroy buildings and trees Harrison deployed his knife and pushed it beyond a pillar. She hadn’t moved. Harrison didn’t have time to question her methods when one of the antennas started to collide with the tower across from it sending more shards of glass raining down with the snow. If he was outside right now it would be like a blizzard from hell. The first antenna punctured the ground bursting a water main and slowly flooded the intersection as the second got lodged between the two buildings. Harrison cursed under his breath as he held his hand over his forearm waiting for a grenade to deploy into his hand. Once it did, he chucked it at the lower hanging side of the antenna, and it exploded on impact dislodging it and sending it crashing down.

Mayhem had engulfed the town, which now resembled an actual warzone. Just like last time shop fronts were destroyed and whatever road might have existed mere moments ago was now just a series of piles of asphalt and concrete. Harrison satisfied with his work with the antenna’s main bodies blocking off the roads to the left and right of the Queen he could now move more freely without fear of being seen. Unluckily the attack didn’t warrant a response from the Queen, nor did it appear to damage her. “One step at a time.” Harrison thought, switching to his drone view again.

Even through the fire and the smoke, even through the water undoubtedly pooling around her feet, even though she was hit by several larger chunks or debris denting some of her armor. There yet she stood, exactly where she planted herself before all this mess started. Harrison grew impatient. He checked the timer, nearly six minutes remained and neither of them had nothing to show for it except for the destruction of imaginary property and a lot of running around. “Well, I can’t keep them waiting all day.” Harrison thought, activating the turrets.

Just as the sunset the new night was just lit up with stream of bullet fire all aimed directly at the Queen. From above it must look like quite the spectacle as golden flashes shot from every direction at the same target. And just like that, she stirred. The Queen rose her hem from the sides of her waist to impromptu shield rotating around her. Bullets deflected in every direction shattering what car and shop windows remained unshattered and putting a new fire in Harrison’s eyes. Harrison took to the street crouching along his way up behind the Queen. The sound of the bullet storm and the ricochet on metal disguising his footfalls as he approached his opponent. Harrison activated his drone feed and intentionally stopped the turrets. The rampant noise evaporated into the light spinning of the hem as that too stopped. The queen lowered her hem slowly scanning the buildings no doubt looking for the drones as a large red laser scanned over the shops. Harrison realizing what she was up to began firing again but the turrets in the location she scanned were immediately dispatched with the wave of the Queen’s arm as she launched pieces of the hem to destroy the turrets.

The process was slow but as she scanned, she’d throw one of the dozens of roughly billboard size sheets of metal to crash through whatever was in its way to destroy the drone. Then it would retreat to the Queen’s waist. If he wasn’t in the hot seat Harrison would be enthralled but he was running out of time and needed to focus. Harrison remote piloted his drone to turn to the Queen. Even as she moved about the drone was able to find the hem’s battery position, located horizontally underneath the backpack. The drone jumped from its perch and launched a small tracker dart that embedded itself into the Queen’s back. She continued to fire on the drones. She didn’t notice.

Harrison crouched retrieving another grenade and did a quick calculation. He then launched it into the air quickly bending down to get one more. He chucked the grenade at the Queens head, a direct impact, exploding on contact. She staggered to her right as the few remaining turrets adjusted their positions to compensate for their target’s movement. She turned quickly to see the direction she as struck in but not before the first thrown grenade came back down and truck her on her left side, disorienting her further. This was Harrison’s chance. Harrison brought out his knife and sprinted towards the makeshift antenna barricade. The Queen staggered to her left recalling all her hem shards back to her. Harrison knew it was down to the second. With one hand on the antenna and his legs pulled up to avoid hitting any obstructions Harrison practically flew over the barricade. In a flash he had his left hand around the tracker, it was nearly the size of his own cockpit. He dug his knife in as the hem grew closer and knew he’d have to come around again for another swing as he pried off half of the battery cannister jumping back before the hem came in. The Queen spun the hem around her trying to snag Harrison, but he was just a tad to fast, and quickly ran for cover again before the Queen could spot him.

She got to her feet. Standing to her full height as she fully reattached the hem in it’s skirt from and turned in the direction of the turrets. She flew at them with blinding speed destroying the remainder of buildings just to take care of the few turrets that still pelted her. While Harrison ran, he looked at her through the drone noticing the turrets didn’t do much but dent up some armor plating and cause her a minor annoyance. If he could just get that battery off her she’d be exposed. Then an idea popped into his head. A gloriously bad idea. Harrison knew that she wouldn’t allow herself to be exposed like that again and sure enough she wasn’t. Within the few seconds after the last turret was destroyed the Queen had returned to her spot in the middle of the intersection now having the hem broadly circle her. Waiting for a move like a cowboy with his hand hovering over the trigger in a shootout. Just waiting for the moment to shoot.

Harrison began to run around the map, dashing into her sights when he crossed the streets entering her sightline but quickly dodging the hem shards as he ran. Now this was a fight. As the Queen’s movements became more erratic and unfocused as he began to turn her around herself Harrison noticed his opening in her defense. Just like he thought it would be, above her was completely exposed. He knew what Florence had told him and he weighed the bad and the good but one more good move and the playing field would be even. He could dispatch a Queen in his first game. He could go down in League history. To Harrison, it was worth the risk.

Harrison began looing for a way to get up the tower without being seen as he circled the arena again. He noticed several girders that stuck out of the buildings at odd angles that he could use to shift himself upwards and around without changing his speed. Harrison would inact it on his next go around. The Queen continued to fire the shards down the streets, some arriving on time to be dodged by the Pilgrim and some preemptive ones anticipating his movements showing Harrison more and more that the Queen was getting sloppy. Once he reached the skyscraper again, he swung girder to girder launching himself up and around the corner of the building, easily swinging around six stories tall. Then as he turned the next corner, he did the same. Seeing the lack of girders, he ran on the side of the building shattering the glass windows and embedding himself into the concrete floors of the offices to stay afloat. He was effectively wall running if you could call it that. Embedding a hand into the corner column of the 12th floor and igniting his thrusters at the same time Harrison launched himself up above the intersection the Queen was standing in. He brought his knife over his head and looked down, but before he could get his bearing a blinding red light flew up beneath him and past him leaving a trail of red smoke behind it. Harrison still riding his momentum upwards quickly looked down and froze as the flare behind him exploded illuminating the snowy night sky in an impossibly bright red glow.

The Queen was staring right at him. And she posed herself in a lunch position as she ignited her jets.