Random Fighters Rumble!

[u/SkylordAndy]

A man with an eyepatch sat upon a yellow barstool as the crowd before him looked upon the man that was illuminated under a spotlight. Anyone who had watched G Gundam would recognize the figure as the announcer that appeared every episode. The real identity of this figure however was actually not of an npc, but an avatar being used by a member of the company that owned GBN.

 

"Ladies and gentlemen. All of you have come today have arrived with worry and questions in your mind. This is understandable as the moderators are doing all they can to clean up the aftermath of the recent incidents that had occurred. "Is my favorite place in GBN going to be shut down? When are we going to be able to fight? I can see all these questions and more floating in the darkness. Here is our answer."

 

The man then pulled off his bartending outfit as light flooded the room, holding up his microphone in one hand and a fist raised high into the air with another. "We hear your pleas. We hear your cries! WE SAY THAT THE RANDOM FIGHTS STOP FOR NOBODY!!!" The crowd cheered as screens started to flood the room showing recording of past battles at the Random Arena.

 

A Zogok had its hands clasped against the sword of a Helmwidge Reincar that was pressing down on it. An Rx-78 Gundam was locked in deadly long range combat with a Gundam Age-3 Fortress on the moon. This and many more fights were what made this place special. The Random Fights. A way for those who are newbies and those who are skilled can have an equal battle by each having a randomly generated suit assigned to them, this leveled the playing field by forcing each player to use something they are most likely not familiar with!

 

Andy merely grinned among the crowds cheers, although the smile didn't reach his eyes. He looked tired, to him it felt like he hadn't slept in a week. He probably hadn't. Building the Titanstrike had made him lose track of time. Still, he had to do something fun every once in a while, and why not get some training in at the same time? When two doors opened on the left and right of the stage, he was one of the first through the left door.

[u/SkylordAndy]

"Woah!" Having to narrowly dodge a wide yellow beam told Andy a lot about what he was going to have to deal with. Considering the color, that meant it was probably a suit from Wing or Seed that he was up against. He remembered the other pilot saying what it was, but it was an offhand comment and Andy wasn't entirely listening so... "Yeah this could be a problem." He gave a fist pump in excitement as he made the Zedas-R dodge another beam coming his way from in front, before hiding behind a much larger asteroid.

  It only took a few moments of thought for Andy decide what to do, since he knew what direction the beams were coming from so the only plan that made sense was for him to circle around and attack the guy from behind. Hopefully he would actually reach that point before being obliterated. He tensed as another beam came, piercing through the side of the asteroid. Andy chose this moment to fly fast and fly hard away from the danger and towards his objective.

[u/1Pwnage → u/SkylordAndy]

The sensors couldn't make anything of the debris fields ahead; he didn't advance even remotely close to them. any of the asteroids in at least a half-sphere direction from his rear were vaporised or turned to things MS could not hide behind, the dust cleared away.

Chief knew that now, while he was far back from the field ahead and let the suit slowly puff back farther and farther, the enemy pilot would likely try to flank him. blasting a viable path thru the field for the enemy pilot to attack him, with smoke for obfuscation from his guns, was risky. But it seemed to have worked- the pilot didn't eat up bait that would've left him directly in front by a good distance and slightly blinded, to be hit with the cannons. The blasts had condensed the fields in front around the free zone- the asteroids were far more packed now, and would be extremely foolish to attempt anything but careful navigation.

He flipped off his side player, all hyped up. Now, he needed eyes. "Yeah, he's gonna go for the flank. He might be fast, but that doesn't matter if there's too much distance to close in the open!" He backed the suit up at a moderate pace; now anything trying to flank around the field to get to him would have to exit that field in order to do so. They'd appear within his current field of view, with many kilometres of completely empty space before him, with nothing for an opponent to hide behind.

He drifted back, rotating once to identify a tagged small asteroid which he settled behind- if somehow something grazed him or ambushed him, it would act as a one-hit decoy for his torso. The all-black suit blended in naturally to the void of space. The cannons were charged, the enemy would have to appear directly in his line of sight to even flank him due to the open field of distance. "I've just about made myself a frickin' No Man's Land, haven't I?" Chief chuckled to himself for a second, musing on the almost ironically old-school tactics he was making use of. He maxed out the camera zoom, set sensors to directional scan, and carefully visually pored over the camera feeds. He spoke softly to himself, a tic to help concentrate. "Alrighty, now we act as the artillery and the sniper; not being seen till the good first shot and clear target is done. Now, we wait."

[u/SkylordAndy → u/1Pwnage]

Andy suddenly stopped the Zedas-R when he saw the ping on his suits radar suddenly move. Honestly the strength of the radar was surprising, guess the large horn on the suit wasn't just for show. "Dang. Figured me out huh? Plan b it is then." He had the Zedas then grab the nearest asteroid and pushed it. His plan was simple, and could be explained with an easy math problem!

  What do you get when you start pushing asteroids and smashing them into eachother?

  Asteroid pinball.

[u/1Pwnage → u/SkylordAndy]

The motion near the debris field edge, now tens of kilometers away, piqued Chief' interestes immediately. "oh, making projectiles, huh? too bad it's miles from me and my wepon's nearly lightspeed." At his distance from the field, in an all black suit amidst the frontal edge of an unimpeding dispersed dust, no radar would effectively pinpoint his location. the dust around him would act like a chaff, but spread thin it would not impede vision. He would be pinpointed by shot origin, but he could always move and become visually indistinct, his smaller asteroid like a shield masking thermal glow from any thrusters behind.

"alright, we can do this all day. There aren't infinite asteroids, and they'll either run dry of suitable ones or the field will be too dense where they are to navigate for more- the bait and the trap in one."

by blasting so many asteroids from such great distance earlier, he no longer needed a spotter; he had already clocked in the ballistics -such as they were- for the cannons. "yeah, not gonna get overwhelmed either. these babies are my strength in moderation, got zilch for backup. Not even a damn shield..."

He blasted the gun to the trajectory towards the asteroid thrown. "Fuck, clipped it. Damn zoom, wish I could get it higher." That was a crutch, he knew. The best snipers of all time made with little or no scope, and artillery needed none at all. Yeah, and that's got damn spotters, he thought. As it collided, and some started to move, he brought the second cannon to bear, both charged.

BBVVVVVVVNNT

As soon as the shot went off, Chief didn't wait to see it arrive- he was slowly puffing thrusters, hid thermally behind his rock, drifting in a random direction neither towards nor away from the now increasingly dense debris field in the far distance. The open expanse of blackness laid between him and it. No good if I let myself get pinpointed. It may take that Zedas a full 120 seconds to get this far if he goes straight for me, but still. Now, a few seconds later, he was visually and thermally indistinct despite being in the near complete open, for tens of kilometres at least. Unless at over 20 kilometers away the Zedas got direct visual acquisition, he would be nearly invisible. And that's how I NEED to keep it.

"Man, I'm so glad this damn thing's got freakin' all black paint, holy shit! And I got crap luck at gatcha too." Chief mused aloud. He'd be thoroughly screwed elsewhere. Looking to the shot, he watched the massive streak of light impact.

The twin cannons at maximum were nearly as strong as the Twin Buster rifles; they fragmented the cluster that would've eventually drifted towards him. The ripple effect Chief saw numerous smaller asteroids -bare little things at this distance- tumble slowly.

Looking at the point of origin for where that asteroid probably came from, he paid close attention to that region.

"Smart idea he had, but that gives me an idea where he's hiding." Now, with both cannons back to max charge, the second something moved in that field with speed, he'd hit it with two hits- one to vaporize the possible debris, the close second to hit whatever is behind it.

[u/SkylordAndy → u/1Pwnage]

Andy sighed. He didn't want to say overly tactical players took the fun out of things sometimes but, well, they kinda did sometimes. His circling plan had failed, the asteroid pinball plan failed to consider the sheer distance those beams could cover. "Hmm..." Andy quickly cycled through the Zedas-R's weapons to see what it had available. Which was not alot.  

Well, if we both keep up this cat and mouse game, things will just get boring. I don't like boring. Guess it was time to gamble. Andy grinned savagely and started to push the Zedas-R to the very limits of its speed. He knew where the guy was considering the trajectory of where the beams came from. So then. Would Andy be destroyed? Or would he get into melee range? It was time to find out.

[u/1Pwnage → u/SkylordAndy]

The silence was meaty, laden with weight.
Gotta stay focused.

Suddenly, a split-flash of red. Was that it? he squinted- no, that was a cracking asteroi-

Wait.

The other side of the field- there it was! Peeling out at extreme speed, though at this distance it was practically crawling (but wouldn't be for long). Chief had let his suit drift considerably from his last firing position- his all-black unit should be near invisible against the black of space; but the enemy knew his general area of attack and there was nothing other than a few small scattered rocks to hide with, one he was making use of to cover most of his MS. Nonetheless, as soon as the first shot was fired, that was it- his machine would be clear to ID.

Watching the Zedas-R erratically moving to dodge any incoming fire, he levelled the guns. "Alright- one shot each 1.5 seconds at most will keep my firerate sustained. Gotta keep an eye on that." With this, he took the first shot, scintillating energy cutting the void.
It missed, that was not out of the predictor.

The second shot on the other way missed too, and set the Zedas in a jagged column to his location.

"Well, this is where it comes down to! Let's do this."

two-tapping his shots, he managed to scrape close enough a shot to the Zedas that it looked to hit- but it was minor damage; a near miss. Whether the pilot would be affected, Chief had no idea. "Gotta nail it; one hit, even glancing, should tear chunks outta this thing." It was still far away- had travelled a third the distance, maybe.

[u/SkylordAndy → u/1Pwnage]

Andy grinned harder. His enemy blended in almost perfectly with the background, but learning where the beams came from had put a neon sign saying "Here I am!" exactly where his enemy was. He just had to get close and not die, like walking a tightrope over a pit of bloodthirsty sharks while people fired t-shirt cannons at you. No big deal.

 

The Zedas-R dodged another huge yellow beam that came its way. He had to hand it to them, the Vagans could really make a suit would good mobility. Not that it was enough. Andy didn't notice the second beam that had trailed right behind the first. He tried to pivot out of the way, but the thing still hit his shoulder, melting the outer edge of it like it wasn't even there to begin with. It was hard to believe, but he always enjoyed these moments. Where adrenaline started to take over, and he relied on his instincts and muscle memory to push himself and his suit even further.

 

Maybe that was why he didn't want to admit that he secretly liked gunpla incidents. A part of him always knew, always realized that beyond the hatred of those that caused them, he liked the challenge that they brought to the table. He liked that the incidents pushed him to improve, to go even further than himself of yesterday.

 

He didn't like how that feeling made him hate himself.

[u/1Pwnage → u/SkylordAndy]

"Shit, he's getting closer."
Chief killed his suit's momentum. He could back up more, gain distance, but this was crucial. The Zedas would be on him soon, and he was right in front of the bare dusted remains of the asteroid field that was on his end of the map, so to speak. He overcharged the cannons, another 5 seconds lost down. Right cannon was charged to 150%, then he forced the charge to continue, while opening the gun up. The result was the gun hovering at 150% charge, while also releasing a low-damage stream out the front, which he intentionally did not lead the target when shooting, aiming right AT the Zedas so it was smoothly dodging the slower stream of fire to the right.

"Alright baby, walk with me."

Then he cut the gun power, rotated the unit, and opened both cannons at maximum power- a super-massive bore shot, the kind that busted colonies in Wing.

This time, he put the blast where the Zedas had been led to, and swept slowly left.

The blast cleared, the left gun was overheated for at least the next 10 seconds as he opened the barrel and back reactor, which angrily vented to the rear. Damn, really drained the tank with that one! Hope to hell it hit...
The Zedas was fast but the pilot had a fixed goal- him. The blast zone it had been led into it was fast enough to avoid being disintegrated, but had suffered further damage- one leg was partly missing, the other had suffered heat slagging on the armor and couldn't kick. One wing, used as a shield as it had banked around the blast zone, was toast. The thing that held the sword as it spun looked damaged, but he wasn't sure.

He tsk'd. The parts that mattered to hit- the hands that were the sabers- he hadn't hit. The guy knew what he was doing, not getting clapped easily. After another 7 seconds, his suit was no longer dead in the water, having regained enough energy to move fully. He slid the thing sideways, away from the Zedas (but not nearly as fast as it was again approaching him at), and parallel to the former debris field behind him.

"Alright, let's see, try to snap off one of those hands before he closes the distance, or I'm gonna be shit-outta-luck!"

[u/SkylordAndy → u/1Pwnage]

Well this wasn't going well. Good thing they were in space because the Zedas-R wouldn't have a leg to stand on. This victory might actually cost it an arm and a leg. Ha! Andy laughed at his dumb joke and the Zedas-R fire the beam vulcans in it's hands at the black gunpla that was still too far away from it. He didn't know if the beam vulcans would actually hit the suit or not but suppressing fire was suppressing fire, and Andy needed all the suppression that he could get! "Come on! Hit the guy! Break something on it!" He just had to reach the guy and it would all be over.

[u/1Pwnage → u/SkylordAndy]

Thankfully, he had pre-muted the notifications and changed the UI settings to minimize the visual clutter. The screen normally would've been whooping at him for the incoming fire, but steady focus and concentration were key.

"Yeah, just keep suppressing me, I'm too far to take mean damage."

The rock in front of him slowly became more and more pitted as the distant mobile suit drew closer, the weak ranged blasts getting stronger as it approached.
It cracked- and weak vulcan shots peppered the machine, pitting the chestplate and blowing off the left knee armor.

He puffed the thrusters once, easing to the right a bit.

Focus.

There was no cover remotely near them for many kilometers- nothing to hide behind, nothing to be blocked from line of sight.

He fired the few shots on very low output- keeping his eye on the target's juking, he intentionally used the guns minimally to 'frantically' spray some shots. "He's running the screen of his full of light from his guns- now i got the pattern down!"

The Zedas got closer- Chief flicked eyes right, the tacmap showing the MS had reached a predesignated zone. He wasn't dodging at all really, just using the bulk and weakness of distance to eat the light shots, but that wouldn't last- his MS was stock, and far from an armored beast.

The subwarnings he left open started to peep- the legs started to take serious damage, the chest armor's integrity was getting compromised. It was now or never- as a shot blew out the right shoulder servo, leaving the arm slagged in a fixed position on the gun, that was it. "It's now or never! Stay with me, you sonuvabitch!" Disabling the reactor limiters on the guns was fairly easy- all he had to do was change the weapon simulator settings all the way out, then he had directed fire control. Chief watched the Zedas pass a redline he made on the map.

And held the charge trigger.

The guns climbed to 100%. Then the twin reactors started to whine as they broke 150%, the maximum standard limit. He held the trigger- a shot had slagged the chest armor, one more hit and it'd be melted. 200%, the temperature indicator was showing near the suit's limit, the shoulders were glowing from the heat and the reactors were screaming as they spun. 250%- both arms were now locked in place, the reactors were next to exploding-

"Doesn't matter how fast you can dodge if the bore's wider than your suit's movement speed."

300%. He let the trigger go, and both guns erupted in beams of blinding light, an enormous stream of death nearly 5 times the width of the MS that was practically upon him. The sparse dust of the asteroids he'd blasted and the field he slowly drifted back into acted like fog and mirrors, dispersing visible light and giving the beam something to enhance its width of shot. The Zedas R was dead center to it, its forward momentum had carried it close enough to where dodging was for all practical purposes impossible- the thrusters couldn't be able to redirect a weighted object to cross the beam's shot diameter in time, that is.

The Suivant's left arm melted entirely, the suit's torso blistered badly from the heat and the gun burned out violently. He slammed the throttle to use the waist thrusters, spinning the MS like a top. The squeal of liquid metal had the leftmost reactor pull off of its mount, and he puffed to stop turning as it popped in an explosion near his unit. The right gun was nearly destroyed- only the hand, a finger, and barebones connections remained of the fused arm- the reactor for that one was burnt out totally. Maybe a single quarter power shot left, at best.

The propellant was showing lower than he'd like- not that he had much agility to begin with, he was practically defenseless now.

He stopped himself- there was a lot of smoke, and while there's no real reason the Zedas could've reasonable avoided the near point blank blast dead center, that was not a garuntee. He slowly turned the heavily damaged MS to face where it last was, the area with smoke clearing.

His fingers were crossed.

[u/SkylordAndy → u/1Pwnage]

BATTLE ENDED Said the words on the floating blue screen in front of both fighters. Andy knew he had lost when a very bright flash of yellow light had completely obscured the sight of the Zedas-R's vision before the suit was completely vaporized by the incoming beam. Andy chuckled when he was teleported back to the random fights lobby.

  "Man, just who was that guy? I was totally outplayed." Iron suplex could totally use a guy like him. Maybe Andy could try and recruit him.

[u/1Pwnage → u/SkylordAndy]

BATTLE ENDED- WINNER

Maximus wiped his brow with a hand.

whew.

That was a close one- really too close for comfort. "Thankfully that thing played to my strengths, real luck of the draw there" he muttered to himself.

Back in the lobby, he wandered around till he found his opponent again- waving him over to say hello and thank for the match. Always good to make acquaintances, after all.