Clarity of Purpose (Welded Sunset)
#243 of Short Stories
A mecha badger acts with urgency.
~ Well above the discrete happenings of the base camp below, the broad winged eagle mech carefully balanced atop a fresh thermal updraft while waiting for the final phase of calibrations to conclude. His attentions, lazily darting about over the camp's rows of tents and structure, were drawn with abrupt certainty to the stuttering blur that was a stealth badger sprinting into visibility somewhere amongst the anti-air cannons.
~ Unable to hear the details of events below from this distance, the eagle focused on the portions of the badger mech that were not the glimmering stripes of distortion along her length, and it became apparent that getting to somewhere was the entirety of her priority. She dashed into the gaps between the guards, barriers, and members of the pack of wolves who'd been called up to answer the confusion.
~ It was not until she'd discharged the remaining pulses of her stripes that the cockpit between her shoulders came into sharp relief, while she ducked low and tumbled sideways towards the hospital to dodge the jaws of one wolf and the tail slash from another. The frame of the badger slammed and slid her shoulder into earth and gravel as the cockpit opened with a sense of urgency that the badger's posture no longer indicated.