A Bluff

Her Tarksun arose, its pieces screaming against each other as it pulled itself into a sinister pose. Its left arm was still limp; its dreadlocks shifted loudly as they formed a jungle of tubbing covering its torso. From between the gaps, two slitted, yellow eyes glared out. Her left leg limped but was still barely usable. Light wind blew by, but her Tarksun didn't move an inch. The sun was hot, burning in the blue sky above. The woman sat tensed in her cockpit, eyes honed in on the enemy: a lanky Tarksun, stood much taller than her now that it was also moving around. It was predominantly white, with blotches of blood-red where its joints attached. It held its hand out, causing the white rifle lying nearby to magnetize to it. It spun the weapon around with a flourish, its barrel ending up pointed at the woman's Tarksun.

She almost chuckled, her Tarksun entirely out in the open. She was the world's easiest target...

"Communications request received. Would you like to accept?" The voice cut through the tension.

She squinted. "Accept?"

A voice-only line opened up to her display. "Another Vanguard?" The voice was scrambled, impossible to identify.

"Who's asking?" The woman snapped back.

"That's a no then. How did you get caught in the Gate?"

She twisted her lips. "The Gate?"

"..." Silence from the other end.

"That flash? That was you?"

"You're an unexpected variable, stand down; I'll find out what we should do with you." The voice dismissed her nonchalantly.

The woman grunted forward in displeasure. "Huh? Answer my fucking question!"

"485 ft, optimal weather conditions with minimal wind. This shot will land 11 times out of 10. You've sustained damage just like me, and scans show no hidden long-range weaponry. Your chances of winning are slim to none. I won't warn you again. Stand down, wait for orders." The voice was firm, trained.

"You've got some nerve assuming I'm in no position to fight... And I really don't have time to wait around." She chuckled. "So I think I'm just going to run you down." She pulled the control sticks back. Her Tarksun lowered itself, taking a sprinter's stance.

"There will be no warning shot. I will neutralize you if I must."

"Name's Ira. Just in case you want to curse me when I squeeze you out of that lanky Tarksun of yours."

Both stood still. Their ire focused.

The white Tarksun fired first. A round ripped through the air like thunder, but it was nowhere near on target. The enemy's head perked up in surprise. Ira's Tarksun twitched, and then it launched. A drumming beat sounded through the street she was barreling down; her left foot sprayed dark red liquid as it pounded off the ground. The enemy didn't falter for too long; they yanked back the chamber of their rifle, which released the heavy casing inside. It planted into the sand below with a satisfying thump as they thrust the chamber back forward.

234 ft. Target was moving in a predictable direction at a constant pace. Their targeting systems calibrated, lining up just before Ira could breach the 200ft gap. It was a surefire hit.

And yet, they missed. As if they'd aimed there all along, the shot impacted a nearby building, demolishing half of it on contact.

Ira let out a burst of laughter over the comms link. "RULE 1: Use of ranged weaponry against an unarmed target is cowardly! Show some honour!"

The enemy hastily rechambered the rifle one last time. This time, instead of aiming for Ira, they kept the barrel low, waiting for her to get closer.

"A classic stand-off, HA! That's more like it. Let's see who's faster!" Ira roared, pushing her Tarksun to the limit for the last 50ft.

The enemy dropped the barrel lower and fired. An explosion of sand sprayed up towards Ira, causing them to lose sight of her. For a moment, it looked like their plan had worked, but a hand penetrated the spray. It grabbed the barrel of the rifle, wrenching it from their hands. Both of them backed off from each other. Once the dust settled, Ira grinned. She held the rifle high above her head and snapped it like a stick over her knee.

"You dodged my shots without moving, likely some sort of probability manipulation or gravity redirection. Not that it matters." The slim, white right arm of the enemy Tarksun pointed towards Ira's left leg.

A bright red goo was soaking through the plating and holes where it had been previously impaled. Ira looked towards one of the previously missed shots, noticing the same goo gradually engulfing a nearby building.

"Can't imagine that's good for my leg." Ira gauged the potential threat of the invasive substance.

"One last chance. Stand down, and you'll be spared."

Ira muted her comms, "Dumbass! Redirect all power from the left leg to the left arm! This is it! The winning play!"

The enemy noticed the shift of power but was unsure of the result.

"Release left leg couplings!" Ira screamed, using both her Tarksuns arms to rip off the infected leg, tossing it aside.

The enemy turned to start running, but Ira had already gotten on her hands and foot, pouncing towards them like a savage animal. Before she could land on them, they pivoted low to the ground, managing to roll out of the way with grace.

This time, the voice over the comms link came through without any scrambling. "On second thought, you're much too dangerous to deliberate over. I'll take charge of the situation and eliminate you before you can become a roadblock for us." The voice was male. "You can call me Bloom. After all, you might need a name to curse soon..."

Ira's Tarksuns head twisted, a single yellow eye pinned onto Bloom from between the dreadlocks. Bloom stood tall, casting a long shadow over a hunched Ira. They allowed each other a moment to strategize. Ira moved first, a single-clawed hand reaching out towards Bloom's head. But he was prepared; from the palms of its hands, the goo ballooned out as if being inflated. Ira pulled back mid-air, barely dodging the unexpected attack. Bloom danced backwards, throwing droplets of the red substance in all directions, which quickly began to form a dangerous arena around them.

"You seem to lack any real Breakers beyond your ranged attack negation. You truly do think you can just close it out in a fistfight." Bloom was calm. "You assumed I preferred there to be distance between us, but only a fool would train to be effective at just one range..."

Ira breathed heavily, the air was thick again.

Bloom allowed a more significant goo collection to drip down in front of himself. "This polymer is an extension of my will, easy to mold... A Breaker I've trained for years. Take notes." The goo pulled together, taking on the form of a skinny four-legged insectoid. Without delay, it started to scurry towards Ira with unexpected acceleration. She only had a few moments to figure out how to counter the situation. He was using a long-range rifle yet was still formidable up close. She needed more time. Before it could get to her, she slammed the ground, creating a cloud of sand again. She spun around again, producing even more sand. With enough cover, she could spend time charging enough to leap upwards and out of the arena. Landing on the perfect white roofs above, she continued to hunch from her lack of leg.

As the dust cleared, they locked eyes. They'd revealed their cards. There was little chance of any more surprises. Ira's eyes wandered over to the right, spotting a mound of red goo which had seemingly hardened into a solid. It had clearly been trying to make its way over to the fight, its trail in the sand leading back to where Bloom had missed his first shot.

She chuckled, which slowly built up to a full laugh. "That's why you use a sniper... You're bluffing..."

Bloom scaled the buildings as well, getting up to the same height as Ira. They stared each other down, the higher altitude creating a bridge-like runway between them. There was only one way for Ira to approach. Bloom allowed more goo to seep from his hands, forming two more beast-like creatures. They snapped and growled before lurching into a sprint towards Ira. She got on her hands and feet as well, awkwardly darting towards Bloom. She leaned her approach off to one side, so when the creatures got close, she lunged to the other side of the runway.

"Got you," Bloom stated over comms, as from the ledge and out of sight, the smaller insect goo from before jumped up to wrap itself around Ira's right leg.

But to his surprise, Ira didn't slow down at all. She threw her entire weight against the stunned white Tarksun, metal clanging and hulls shaking as Ira grappled him. Bloom tried to create more of the red substance to stick onto Ira, but it was in vain. With one thrust of her arm, she easily penetrated the chest, ripping Bloom out in brutal fashion. The red goo lost all form immediately, stopping its progress up Ira's leg and chest. Bloom struggled weakly in Ira's grip but gave in once he realized it was over.

"You can't control when it hardens, right? That's the drawback. So you hit people from long ranges to make sure they don't have time to get to you before they get stuck." Ira's Tarksun spoke out loud in a growling tone. "What a shit Breaker. You should be embarrassed. No honour, no power, no pride."

Bloom hesitated for a moment as if about to reply. He was outfitted in a full hardsuit, along with having a pilot helmet, which had likely facilitated his NNL. It followed similar design choices and colouring as his Tarksun. Before Ira could say another word, he reached behind his helmet and pulled a piece away, causing it to explode at the base of his neck. His head dropped into the sand below, the helmet serving as a high-tech bucket for what was left of him.

Ira tossed the body aside and allowed the enemy Tarksun to slump to its knees. She tried her best to rip off the goo before it hardened on her right leg, only realizing it was easier to shatter once it had set into a more solid state. After kicking the corpse of the Tarksun off the building, she dragged it over to her left leg, which she smashed out of the hardened goo before reattaching it. A thick cable wire shot out of her chest, which she promptly stabbed into the Tarksun corpse.

"Siphon Repairs in progress, target core at 59%. Estimating completion time."

Slumped in her cockpit, Ira's eyes wandered off into the distance. She squinted. "Wha..."

Her Tarksun's chest opened up, and the dreadlocks naturally parted, allowing her to get out and climb her way down into the sand below. In the distance, there seemed to be a suspicious lack of buildings or sand, as if there was a sudden drop-off. As she inched closer, she noticed sand slowly drifting towards the potential ledge she was coming up on. When she reached the edge, she stood still in complete confusion.

The sand that reached the edge was falling downward. The blue sky above and the land below seemed to fade into a caramel colour. It shifted like soup. The only things sticking out in the distance were large floating islands, varying in size from small green pastures where water flowed through seemingly infinitely, all the way up to large city-like structures. It was as if chunks of a planet had been separated into important pieces, floating idly in a shining, caramel soup of essence. She looked back at her island, noticing it to be pretty small in comparison.

"What the hell is this..."