The NPC SuitMakers approached the trio as they finished putting the final touches on the unnamed War Suit. In their hands were wrenches, power tools, and even a few energy-based cutting tools, which, as you might expect, made their entry onto the scene feel a bit like they were a group of Prohibition-era Gangsters looking to show why a local business needed their ‘protection’. Axton, Thomas, and Sally noticed the incoming people, and they watched with growing trepidation as the group of roughly twenty NPCs (all of whom each had a much higher level than either of the two Players) stopped just 15 meters away and stared down the trio.

Axton felt the air shift and could feel the tension building. He wasn’t feeling too good about this, and so he decided to lighten the mood in his mind by imagining the 20 or so NPCs snapping their fingers in unison to a musical rhythm. And, as one might expect, mentally picturing one’s attackers preparing to engage in a musical number fit for Broadway did take off some of the stress of what he figured would come next.

It was about this time when yet another group of people (also NPCs) made their entrance. They approached from the opposite direction that the SuitMakers had come from, locking the Players and their NPC ally in a classic Hammer and Anvil, or perhaps you could call it a Pincer. These NPCs were just about the same level as the SuitMakers, but they were armed and clothed differently. They were wearing the uniform of the lower ranking NPCs from the current area, essentially making them the Generic Mob of the base, and they were all armed similarly.

The SuitMakers’ gaze switched from Axton and the other two to the newcomers, and their faces went from ones of irritation and aggravation to ones of pure anger and contempt.

“Oh?” asked one of the newcomers. “You here to collect as well?”

Axton felt the puzzle pieces fall into place in his head. Of course Donovan’s reach would extend to this place as well. There was not a snowball’s chance in hell that he was getting out of this one. Two groups of people who wanted to collect the bounty on his head, both of which had cut off a route by which he could escape. The only real option would be to hop into the new machine and hope it could hold against the NPCs, but that would void the contract that Admiral DiVeto had with him and would make yet another place a hostile zone for him.

“Nah.” Replied one of the SuitMakers, which surprised Axton, his friend, and the NPC that was alongside them. “We were going to threaten him into telling us how to make custom War Suits, but then you traitors showed up. Now we’ve got to earn our keep in another way.”

“Hah! Loyal grease-covered dogs to the end, eh? You should know we’ve more training than you and our weapons are better, so sod off and let us collect that prize.” Retorted one of the grunts.

“Ah, you know we can’t do that.” Remarked another SuitMaker. “Despite our dislike for them, they are guests of the Admiral, and we would be absolute idiots to actually put a hand on them. Sally excluded, of course. Sorry about that. No offense, you know.”

Sally shrugged and effectively sent a non-verbal message of “None taken.”

“It’s good, quick money! You sure you don’t want it? It’s a big fucking payout, you know?”

The SuitMakers looked at each other and then laughed.

“What good will that do you when there is a bounty on your heads? Do you honestly think The Revelry will let you get away with crossing a member of the Council of Admirals? I knew you were not exactly the smartest of people, but you’ll be putting a target on your own backs, and for what, a few tens of thousands of Credits? You dumb bastards…”

“W-we’ll be given asylum in the Empire for our service!” stammered one of the grunts, but this just made the SuitMakers and even Axton, Thomas and Sally laugh all the harder.

“Oh, that’s fucking rich!” Axton said through his chuckling. “You actually expect that they won’t just make you into slaves and take what they gave you back! I knew Donovan before I came here, and you guys are royally fucked if you think that he’ll pay you a single fucking cent! Let me guess, the bounty states that he’ll pay you in person, right?”

“Well, yeah, and?”

Axton slapped his knee several times as he finally composed himself.

“There is a damn good reason why Bounty Hunters, Assassins, and Hitmen alike demand payment without a personal meeting after their service has been rendered. You don’t need to pay your contractor if they are dead before you hand them the money, and Donovan almost certainly plans to either snuff you out before meeting you or plans to lock you in chains and earn money from your bodies.”

“Sh-shut up! Everyone, let’s get ‘em!”

Axton’s truth was too much for the grunts to bear, and they began to advance. Axton sighed and closed his eyes and waited for the deluded goons to knock him out. Instead, he heard the advance of the SuitMakers in conjunction with that of the grunts. As he opened his eyes, he heard the sound of gunshots and then the noise of an alarm being triggered. He, Thomas, and Sally sat on top of the War Suit they had nearly finished, using it as an island of safety as the two groups clashed together around them.

The light of blaster beams dancing and the flashes erupting from the muzzles of kinetic ranged weapons made the scene look a bit like a game of highly lethal combination of paintball and laser tag, but with more death and bloodshed than either of the two. Oddly enough, the ranged weapons were not nearly as effective as Axton had thought, as they did little to stop the SuitMakers from getting into melee range with the now hostile mobs. And, while the weapons that the mechanics carried were improvised, they actually did more damage than either of the Players that were present had expected.

The two sides were still beefy as fuck, though, and their weapons did about as much damage to each other as you might expect from two NPCs fighting each other. Which is to say very little. Of course, the stalemate would not rage forever, and soon enough there were NPCs that were far more loyal to Admiral DiVeto pouring in from all angles, which immediately turned the tables and caused the stalemate to turn into a slaughter.

Two of the traitorous grunts managed to flee from the carnage, but this just gave the two Players an opportunity that they would be fools to miss. Axton waved Thomas over as he hopped down from the mech and picked up a kinetic rifle. Thomas followed and grabbed another one that had been dropped by someone who no longer could use it, and the two took a potshot each at the fleeing idiots.

The two Players’ intuition and ability to see Health Bars paid off in the long run, as each of them landed a direct hit and dealt the last bit of damage needed to defeat their targets. As Axton had shot first and killed his target first, he was the lucky recipient of an announcement as soon as the bullet connected with its target. With the level difference between the two, it was only right that Axton beat literally everyone else to getting the Achievement that he had. The way he had gotten it was a bit of cheese, but what good gamer doesn’t use cheese when it suits them?

『 Achievement Unlocked: Goliath? Meet David.』