My Book
Hooray!
I have my book back!
Let's just say I'm bloody thankful my coworker still had the printed copy I gave her to proofread! I scanned it back in to my computer and went through to make sure all the formatting was right (it wasn't, but I fixed it).
I've also rewritten the first chapter, so for those who are interested, please find it behind the cut:
“Come on, nobody here but us tall buildings...” Tristan muttered to himself as he watched the radar screen in his cockpit intently. His hands flexed over Shadowwalker's controls, dimly lit by the various information screens and status lights surrounding him. The view screens providing a live feed of the environment around Shadowwalker didn't provide much light themselves since this was a nighttime scenario. Only the dim glow of streetlights slowly trickled through the bottom of the screen. Shadowwalker was not an overly tall Mech; standing roughly twenty-two meters high, it was about average for a military-issue humanoid style Mech.
The red light next to the radar screen labeled “Proximity Warning” began to pulse slowly. On the radar screen, a hostile unit icon slowly moved through the overhead perspective map, enhanced by satellite images as they became available. The screen next to the radar sparked to life, helpfully providing information about the hostile target: JUSTICE; Heavy Humanoid Class; Hostile. The screen started to cycle through various statistics about Justice listing known weaponry, likely maximum speed, turning time, and other potentially useful information accompanied by a diagram of the Mech.
Justice was designed to be a bruiser, favoring heavy weaponry and armor over mobility and advanced computer systems. Having been built on a heavy frame, which was then loaded with as much armor as it could carry made it a very slow Mech. Making things even worse was the fact that the pilot had chosen to forgo the standard configuration of two multipurpose arm units and replaced Justice's left arm with a full-length, solid barrel energy cannon. In order to provide the power necessary to operate a full energy cannon Justice had been equipped with a super-capacity power core, which was also very heavy. This was not without it's merits, however, as being in front of this cannon was something no sane pilot would ever want to do. When Justice fired this cannon, the shock wave produced by the blast was known to shatter windows in nearby buildings and throw vehicles. The rest of the Mech, however, was relatively unremarkable. The immense weight of the cannon and all the armor meant that not much else could be loaded onto the framework without it collapsing under it's own weight. It had been equipped with standard peripherals like sensor and communication arrays, but that was about it. It had been colored a blue color scheme and styled to look modestly noble and heroic, evoking the idea of a police officer in full riot gear.
Shadowwalker also had one weapon-arm, and one multipurpose arm. In contrast, it had been designed to maximize mobility and maneuverability, sacrificing armor and the heavy punch that Justice wielded. Shadowwalker's weapon arm was a twin-barrel machine gun which spat out low powered energy blasts at a frightening rate. It was also limited to the forearm of Shadowwalker's left arm, allowing it to also have a fully flexible elbow. This allowed Shadowwalker to shoot around corners without revealing it's torso, while Justice needed to reveal at least it's shoulder to do the same thing. Also unlike Justice, Shadowwalker had one other weapon at it's disposal: a longsword which was intended for combat situations in which an enemy unit managed to get in to close quarters. It also served as an excellent way to sever specific parts of an enemy unit in order to disable it. The rest of Shadowwalker followed this same philosophy of speed and flexibility. It was a Light Humanoid class Mech, having very limited amounts of armor plating concentrated in key areas: both forearms, lower legs, and feet were armored, but the upper arms and thighs were minimally equipped with only a basic outer shell. Likewise, Shadowwalker's pelvis and upper torso were armored, while the lower abdomen remained minimally covered. The upper torso armor plating was swept back and up, creating prominent shoulders. This served to provide a little extra peripheral protection for the head, where the pilot was situated.
The head unit was also lightly armored. A sculpted faceplate comprised the lower half of Shadowwalker's face. The faceplate starts with a sharp vertical edge, swept down and backwards to create a hooked chin. From this leading edge the faceplate gently curved outward, backwards and slightly up creating the image of a jawline. At the back of the jawline, the faceplate curved upwards and slightly outwards, rising above the top of the head, seamlessly transforming from the image of a jawline to that of very long, tapered ears ending in pointed tips. Inside these protrusions were embedded sensor and communication arrays. The rest of the head unit was an aerodynamic teardrop shape with the bulbous end tucked behind the faceplate and the tip swept backwards and hooked down slightly to cover the exposed neck joint. At the very front of the head, peeking from behind the top of the faceplate was a visor, glowing red and shaped slightly to evoke the idea of eyes behind it, looking out. This rich, red glow stood out prominently against the blacks and dark grays of Shadowwalker's color scheme, creating a haunting and ominous visage.
That visage, however, had thus far had no effect on Justice's pilot. Justice continued it's slow purposeful march down the street towards Shadowwalker. “He must know I'm here. Why hasn't he attempted any counter-maneuvers?” Tristan quietly mused to himself. “Is it possible I damaged his sensor arrays?”
Tristan took a moment to replay the events of the battle in his head. Shadowwalker, while a formidable opponent, didn't stand a chance against a blast from Justice's cannon. As such, Tristan had adopted a guerrilla tactics approach to the duel. Shadowwalker would take cover behind a tall building or some other part of the environment, and then proceed to utilize it's superior speed to get behind Justice, emerging from cover only long enough to get a few quick attacks in before needing to take cover from Justice's massive cannon again.
As he played through the confrontation, Tristan remembered one particular instance when he initiated a strike, only to discover that he had made a serious mistake in his calculations, emerging in front of Justice, rather than behind it. This was an especially bad thing because Tristan had been trying to perform an attack which should have been the deciding factor in the battle. Knowing that Justice relied entirely on one weapon, he was attempting to use Shadowwalker's longsword to completely sever Justice's cannon arm, rendering it weaponless. However, because Justice was facing the wrong way, he ended up severing the wrong arm, and the attack ended up serving no tactical purpose and left him exposed to a counterattack. He had managed to get a few shots out of his machine gun as he rolled Shadowwalker out of the line of fire. Unfortunately, it wasn't fast enough as Justice let a blast roar out of it's cannon, creating a nasty gouge in Shadowwalker's side, barely missing Shadowwalker's power core. “Yeah, nothing like a power core rupture to create the worst - and last - day of your life. But I didn't hit him with that volley, did I?”
Tristan's attention was jolted back to the present by an alarm that chimed as the little icon representing Justice became close enough for Tristan to make his move. “It's show time...” he muttered as he wrenched Shadowwalker's controls into action. With one swift, almost feral motion Shadowwalker swung quickly around the corner of the building, emphatically thrusting it's gun arm forward towards Justice's face.
This maneuver proved to be only half as successful as expected though, as the image of Justice's cannon raised an pointed directly at Shadowwalker's head forced Tristan to pull Shadowwalker into an abrupt stop. Realizing that he had no momentum to pull Shadowwalker out of the line of fire, and that if he did start to move Justice's pilot would likely just pull the trigger, Tristan opted to initiate Shadowwalker's external communications with Justice. “So, care to call it a stalemate?”
“Heh, thanks, but I think I'll decline.” came the gruff voice of Justice's pilot in response.
“Fine. But you do realize that even Justice's armor can't repel an attack in such close proximity, right? You'll be dead.”
“So will you.”
I have my book back!
Let's just say I'm bloody thankful my coworker still had the printed copy I gave her to proofread! I scanned it back in to my computer and went through to make sure all the formatting was right (it wasn't, but I fixed it).
I've also rewritten the first chapter, so for those who are interested, please find it behind the cut:
“Come on, nobody here but us tall buildings...” Tristan muttered to himself as he watched the radar screen in his cockpit intently. His hands flexed over Shadowwalker's controls, dimly lit by the various information screens and status lights surrounding him. The view screens providing a live feed of the environment around Shadowwalker didn't provide much light themselves since this was a nighttime scenario. Only the dim glow of streetlights slowly trickled through the bottom of the screen. Shadowwalker was not an overly tall Mech; standing roughly twenty-two meters high, it was about average for a military-issue humanoid style Mech.
The red light next to the radar screen labeled “Proximity Warning” began to pulse slowly. On the radar screen, a hostile unit icon slowly moved through the overhead perspective map, enhanced by satellite images as they became available. The screen next to the radar sparked to life, helpfully providing information about the hostile target: JUSTICE; Heavy Humanoid Class; Hostile. The screen started to cycle through various statistics about Justice listing known weaponry, likely maximum speed, turning time, and other potentially useful information accompanied by a diagram of the Mech.
Justice was designed to be a bruiser, favoring heavy weaponry and armor over mobility and advanced computer systems. Having been built on a heavy frame, which was then loaded with as much armor as it could carry made it a very slow Mech. Making things even worse was the fact that the pilot had chosen to forgo the standard configuration of two multipurpose arm units and replaced Justice's left arm with a full-length, solid barrel energy cannon. In order to provide the power necessary to operate a full energy cannon Justice had been equipped with a super-capacity power core, which was also very heavy. This was not without it's merits, however, as being in front of this cannon was something no sane pilot would ever want to do. When Justice fired this cannon, the shock wave produced by the blast was known to shatter windows in nearby buildings and throw vehicles. The rest of the Mech, however, was relatively unremarkable. The immense weight of the cannon and all the armor meant that not much else could be loaded onto the framework without it collapsing under it's own weight. It had been equipped with standard peripherals like sensor and communication arrays, but that was about it. It had been colored a blue color scheme and styled to look modestly noble and heroic, evoking the idea of a police officer in full riot gear.
Shadowwalker also had one weapon-arm, and one multipurpose arm. In contrast, it had been designed to maximize mobility and maneuverability, sacrificing armor and the heavy punch that Justice wielded. Shadowwalker's weapon arm was a twin-barrel machine gun which spat out low powered energy blasts at a frightening rate. It was also limited to the forearm of Shadowwalker's left arm, allowing it to also have a fully flexible elbow. This allowed Shadowwalker to shoot around corners without revealing it's torso, while Justice needed to reveal at least it's shoulder to do the same thing. Also unlike Justice, Shadowwalker had one other weapon at it's disposal: a longsword which was intended for combat situations in which an enemy unit managed to get in to close quarters. It also served as an excellent way to sever specific parts of an enemy unit in order to disable it. The rest of Shadowwalker followed this same philosophy of speed and flexibility. It was a Light Humanoid class Mech, having very limited amounts of armor plating concentrated in key areas: both forearms, lower legs, and feet were armored, but the upper arms and thighs were minimally equipped with only a basic outer shell. Likewise, Shadowwalker's pelvis and upper torso were armored, while the lower abdomen remained minimally covered. The upper torso armor plating was swept back and up, creating prominent shoulders. This served to provide a little extra peripheral protection for the head, where the pilot was situated.
The head unit was also lightly armored. A sculpted faceplate comprised the lower half of Shadowwalker's face. The faceplate starts with a sharp vertical edge, swept down and backwards to create a hooked chin. From this leading edge the faceplate gently curved outward, backwards and slightly up creating the image of a jawline. At the back of the jawline, the faceplate curved upwards and slightly outwards, rising above the top of the head, seamlessly transforming from the image of a jawline to that of very long, tapered ears ending in pointed tips. Inside these protrusions were embedded sensor and communication arrays. The rest of the head unit was an aerodynamic teardrop shape with the bulbous end tucked behind the faceplate and the tip swept backwards and hooked down slightly to cover the exposed neck joint. At the very front of the head, peeking from behind the top of the faceplate was a visor, glowing red and shaped slightly to evoke the idea of eyes behind it, looking out. This rich, red glow stood out prominently against the blacks and dark grays of Shadowwalker's color scheme, creating a haunting and ominous visage.
That visage, however, had thus far had no effect on Justice's pilot. Justice continued it's slow purposeful march down the street towards Shadowwalker. “He must know I'm here. Why hasn't he attempted any counter-maneuvers?” Tristan quietly mused to himself. “Is it possible I damaged his sensor arrays?”
Tristan took a moment to replay the events of the battle in his head. Shadowwalker, while a formidable opponent, didn't stand a chance against a blast from Justice's cannon. As such, Tristan had adopted a guerrilla tactics approach to the duel. Shadowwalker would take cover behind a tall building or some other part of the environment, and then proceed to utilize it's superior speed to get behind Justice, emerging from cover only long enough to get a few quick attacks in before needing to take cover from Justice's massive cannon again.
As he played through the confrontation, Tristan remembered one particular instance when he initiated a strike, only to discover that he had made a serious mistake in his calculations, emerging in front of Justice, rather than behind it. This was an especially bad thing because Tristan had been trying to perform an attack which should have been the deciding factor in the battle. Knowing that Justice relied entirely on one weapon, he was attempting to use Shadowwalker's longsword to completely sever Justice's cannon arm, rendering it weaponless. However, because Justice was facing the wrong way, he ended up severing the wrong arm, and the attack ended up serving no tactical purpose and left him exposed to a counterattack. He had managed to get a few shots out of his machine gun as he rolled Shadowwalker out of the line of fire. Unfortunately, it wasn't fast enough as Justice let a blast roar out of it's cannon, creating a nasty gouge in Shadowwalker's side, barely missing Shadowwalker's power core. “Yeah, nothing like a power core rupture to create the worst - and last - day of your life. But I didn't hit him with that volley, did I?”
Tristan's attention was jolted back to the present by an alarm that chimed as the little icon representing Justice became close enough for Tristan to make his move. “It's show time...” he muttered as he wrenched Shadowwalker's controls into action. With one swift, almost feral motion Shadowwalker swung quickly around the corner of the building, emphatically thrusting it's gun arm forward towards Justice's face.
This maneuver proved to be only half as successful as expected though, as the image of Justice's cannon raised an pointed directly at Shadowwalker's head forced Tristan to pull Shadowwalker into an abrupt stop. Realizing that he had no momentum to pull Shadowwalker out of the line of fire, and that if he did start to move Justice's pilot would likely just pull the trigger, Tristan opted to initiate Shadowwalker's external communications with Justice. “So, care to call it a stalemate?”
“Heh, thanks, but I think I'll decline.” came the gruff voice of Justice's pilot in response.
“Fine. But you do realize that even Justice's armor can't repel an attack in such close proximity, right? You'll be dead.”
“So will you.”