I wanted to give story writing a try, so I made a short story. Constructive criticism is welcomed.

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It should have been a simple contract: guard the outpost for a few hours, get paid, and leave. Segar had two others with him to complete the contract. Jennings was the marksman of the three, having an FW-3 Grady. As a sniper variant, the Grady traded its default slug cannon pair for missile pods, each containing 20 missiles for a total of 40 missiles. It was more than capable of causing harm while remaining hidden. Granite was the brawler, the heavy hitter. Piloting the simple but sturdy B-1 Zanis, he could land several hits with his mech’s mechanical claws while ripping apart enemy mechs and their armor. As for himself, Segar had the VI-4 Magrin, a skirmisher that could hop its way over obstacles thanks to its jump jets.

The three mercenaries were finding themselves with bad luck. Their last two contracts were costing them more in repairs than they were able to save. The latest contract was exceptionally bad when the group was pestered by pirates while escorting colonists on Martis-II. Granite was out of commission for a while as extensive repairs were necessary to get his mech functional. Regardless of how bad the last few contracts were, Segar was hoping that this contract would improve their luck.

However, not everything has an easy way out.

Only an hour into the contract and already the mercenaries were finding themselves in a tussle. The VI-4 Magrin was currently dealing with two L8-Roadrunners, each armed with four small lasers. While one Roadrunner would be easy to take out, two of them would pose quite a challenge. Thankfully, Jennings, who was hiding in a nearby forest for cover, managed to strike one of them using four of the twenty missiles from her Grady’s left pod. Meanwhile, Segar was able to close in and perform a multi-shot using two of his medium lasers on one of the Roadrunners while using the machine gun to destroy the legs on the other one. Segar knew that the mech’s fatal weakness was its thin armor.

While Segar and Jennings were dealing with the Roadrunners, Granite was struggling to gain the upper hand on a bandit that was piloting an H-4 Pakartt. Although the Pakartt was no brawler, its pilot had no issue using the mech’s arm-mounted laser cannons to ram the Zanis from striking distance. Despite receiving several damaging hits to the front torso and right leg, Granite was still able to put up a fight. Using the Zanis’s left hand, Granite managed to grab a hold of the Pakartt’s right arm laser and crush it enough to cause devastating damage. The Pakartt attempted to topple the Zanis with an uppercut, but Granite was able to anticipate the attack. Granite maneuvered his Zanis to dodge the attack and countered with a right hook to the side of the torso, causing the Pakartt to stumble around. Granite then knocked the mech off its legs with another punch aimed at the cockpit. The Pakartt fell, causing its pilot to be knocked unconscious.

“Status report,” Segar exclaimed over the intercom of his VI-4 Magrin.

“Doing ok. The Zanis is cut up and beaten, but I’m not stirred,” said Granite.

Segar attempted to reach out to Jennings over his comms unit, hearing nothing from her.

“…”

“Jennings? Are you there?”

“…”

Segar became concerned that perhaps another bandit was out somewhere and was in the process of destroying Jennings. It wasn’t the first time that he had been worried about her mech. The FW-3 Grady was fragile enough on its own. The missile pods however created a level of volatility that, if hit just right, could trigger a chain explosion that would wipe out the top half of the mech itself. Despite the mech’s current flaws, Jennings was smart enough not to let herself get into danger.

But what if –

“I-bzzt---m----he-bzzt-re.”

Jennings was able to respond, relieving Segar’s fear, but his expression changed to annoyance as he realized what was happening to his squad mate.

“Jennings, your communications are still jammed. We’re going to need to rendezvous back to the drop pad once this is over.” It wasn’t the first time this had happened to the FW-3 Grady.

---

Miraculously, the contract went smoothly after the three mechs were destroyed. Two other bandits attempted to raid the outpost, but they were no match for the mercenaries. After guarding the outpost without any other activity for a couple more hours, a unit of four mechs arrived. The mechs were piloted by the local government of the planet. Shortly later, the mercenaries’ dropship arrived to pick them up. Quincy, the pilot, got out of the dropship, heading towards the outpost’s command center to discuss the payment from the contract.

Inside the dropship, the mercenaries shut off their mechs and fastened them to the harnesses. Segar, once outside, could see that Jennings was inspecting the communications hardware for the FW-3 Grady with a melancholy expression.

“This thing keeps failing no matter what I do,” said Jennings.

“You know, it could be worse. The missile pods could have jammed. We’re still thankful that you were able to operate the mech, let alone fire a single missile,” replied Segar.

“Yeah, but still. How many times do I need to repair this? I shouldn’t have to be doing this constantly,” stated Jennings rather flatly.

“True…true…” Segar could not disagree anymore about that statement. The Imton Model #24 Communications Panel was failing not because of damages from battle or neglect. Rather, it was due to its age. The panel was only meant to last 30 years at most before it would experience some type of failure. It was a miracle that they could get it to work at all, given that they bought it when it was 48 years old. Eventually though, some things become too much of a hassle to save.

“Maybe it’s time we ought to replace it,” chimed Granite, who was just now getting out of his mech.

“Perhaps we could, but we need to find a scrapyard to find another communications panel for the mech,” said Jennings.

“Maybe so, but at least it will last you another few years. Besides, what if we find a better one? One that can do music,” blurted Segar.

The last part made Jennings grin slightly. She did get bored waiting for other mechs to snipe with her own. Music would make most contracts at least marginally more tolerable. The only problem would be that she couldn’t be efficient at her role, as the music would end up giving her location away to the enemy. Before she could object to the idea, Quincy rushed into the hangar.

“Hey guys, guess what! The contractor was impressed with our handy work. We managed to snag not only 156,000 credits but also a 24,000-credit bonus for not wrecking the outpost.”

Perhaps they wouldn’t have to go to a scrapyard at all this time. If anything, the mercenaries could afford to repair their mechs to full strength this time.

Except…

“Bad news though, we need to refuel the ship and save some of the money for travel fares.”

For now, they would test their luck at the scrapyard once more.