Hot Box

#######Author's Note#######

The seeds Xerxes sewed at the meeting he attended have sprouted and Ketna finds herself in a trap that nearly costs her, her life. There's no sex in this one, but there is a lot of action, and important plot elements that add to future interactions.

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Dawn had barely broken when desperate calls for assistance filled the emergency line. Ketna monitored the activity and soon-to-be-flooding news reports. She was still recovering from injuries sustained from the evening before and was in no rush to strain herself unless it was absolutely necessary. She wasn't completely reckless, most days. When big events like this happened she would give it some time to see if something or someone managed to handle it first, but when it seemed to be more than the local peacekeepers could handle, she felt compelled to do something about it herself. It was a significant distance from her current location, but nothing she couldn't make in a reasonable amount of time.

It was the kind of thing that seemed both strange and completely mundane, either some very augmented person or some experimental weapon let loose on a population. Granted, were it the latter, there would have been some operation to retrieve it but that had not happened by the time she made it to the point of interest. According to the reports, whatever it was had not spoken in the entire rampage. For the most part it seemed to be close combat oriented, no mention of explosive or long range attacks beyond some sort of grapple hook of some sort to take out cars and pull itself onto buildings. At least it wasn't in a dense city. Though the more rural local did make her wonder where it even came from, a question she'd have to answer after she brought it down.

The thing was easily twice her height and built like a deer, triangular shapes on all fours with bolted vinyl covering the joints. Getting close now, it didn't appear to be any sort of augmented person, but a drone of some sort, but somehow completely autonomous and completely alone. And word was they had already attempted an EMP suppression which it shook off, which meant she would have to get a bit more personal to take it down. It was really too bad this was all in the open, she always had to restrict her arsenal when she was anywhere that could be seen or recorded.

In the midst of it winding up an attack to slap a car into a building, Ketna used her own grappling hook she had brought with her. A wrap around the neck and raised leg turned it into a less stable tripod by way of holding the raised leg fast to the chest. It adapted to the attack, pulling backward at the cord that restricted its movements, and Ketna pulled back to match. With the tug of war not budging for either, the drone lunged forward to give the cord some slack then raised on its haunches, twisting in a sharp opposite direction to whip the cord. Ketna saw the whiplash coming and matched its momentum, rolling in the direction it most wanted to go so that when it reached her she worked with it and was able to keep her hold. The moment she had her stability back she yanked back with significant strength to which the drone only barely budged.

Well that was unfortunate.

It looked light but after the tug of war and her attempt to yank it, it seemed to be much denser than units of its type were typically constructed as. In normal circumstances she'd just scale it and strike down into the back of the neck, but with her lower back injury she didn't trust her left leg to have the footing she would need to scale it cleanly. She didn't have long till it would no longer be a tripod so the next plan was to see if its balance was flimsy enough to topple it, though with the surprising density of the legs that was not going to be easy. From all perspectives, the direct approach seemed the most effective, she'd deal with the aggravated injury later.

Just as she was about to prepare to grapple it again, this time for the climb, when a figure atop a nearby building jumped off landing on the back of the quad drone. It wasn't anyone or anything she could recognize, but from all she could tell it looked like some plain clothes teenager trying to be a hero. The drone, aware of the new weight on its back lurched and bucked. Ketna watched the person on its back prepared to take off if she saw them fall but they held on much to her relief.

"Hey hold on, I'm coming up!" Ketna used the amplifier in her helmet to make her announcement loud enough for the civilian to hear.

Seeing no other choice, she released the wire that she had been using to wrestle with the machine. But instead of remaining in place it launched into a run the moment it was free before she could ready another line in the grapple.

"Shit."

Dashing to where she had stashed her motorcycle Ketna sped off after it, its large frame still barely in sight. While in transit she took time to fill her partner in on the changes.

"You know that rampaging machine I went off to take care of?" She announced without need for greeting. "Well, someone tried to help and that machine has gone and ran off with a civilian on its back. I just barely have a visual but if you could try to keep an eye on it that'd be great."

A few beats of silence went by before Munin's voice could be heard. "You do not appear far behind, but I have a canvas of security in the general area if you lose sight of it."

"Thanks."

For its weight it was impressively swift on its feet, but not so much that she couldn't keep up with it. It sped down roads, making what appeared to be chaotic turns and bucks trying to get the unwanted passenger off its back. While she was none too happy about a civilian getting involved with this fight, she was glad to see the drone run further away from the residential buildings and toward the industrial zone. It could have been a coincidence but if it were this civilian's doing, she'd have to thank them after this was all over and they were safe.

It finally slowed in front of the entrance of. Workers and guards ran in directions opposite of the rampaging drone and its rider, who appeared to be attempting to cause some problems on the back of the drone. Ketna hopped off her bike not bringing it to a full stop letting it skid against the ground. Body work could be repaired; it was not the most important element in this scenario. Readying the grapple to potentially join the stranger on the back of the drone, when she closed in it finally managed to buck off its unwanted passenger. Right down into the open doors of one of the nearby warehouses. It as well followed down inside.

"Aaand now our good samaritan has been launched into one of the open warehouses with that drone behind it." Ketna updated with a note of exasperation over the comm. "At least if I can keep it inside I can keep injuries to anyone else to a minimum."

"I'll do some research on the area." Munin affirmed.

Ketna ran past the broken guard rail, running through the large warehouse opening into a metal corridor. Inside she found the civilian still alive, dodging attacks from the machine. They could move, they could get to safety on their own and from what she could tell, there didn't look to be anyone else trapped by it. Not the worst course this series of events could have taken.

Again she used the grapple hook to seize one of the machine's legs, preventing it from attempting to crush the civilian. They turned their head sharply toward the direction of the grapple behind them. They looked about as young as she suspected them to be, she was glad they were alright.

"Get out of here! Go!" Ketna shouted, wrestling to keep the machine in place.

Not needing any more instruction, the civilian scrambled to their feet running for the door while Ketna wrestled with the drone. The civilian had only just barely crossed the threshold when a door erupted from a slit in the ground and collided with the top, sealing Ketna in. The good news was that the civilian was likely safe, the bad news was with these very suspiciously timed developments, that 'civilian' was likely a plant and this was a trap.

Frustrated at her own letting down of her guard, her yank of the quadruped this time was more anger fueled than the last, making it more effective in ruining its balance than she had the first time. In the time it spent falling forward, Ketna dropped the grapple, rushing forward to leap on its head and jab a knife into the soft covered portion of its neck. It sparked and lurched but now that Ketna was here, there was little it could do. She found the marked panel that covered its CPU, retching it open and thrusting the same knife down in it, robbing it of its ability to function, freezing to a stop in place. In the end it was nothing more than a mobile nuisance and that only served to annoy her further.

With nothing else pressing to resolve right there, she took time to walk back to the entrance and inspect what exactly had sealed her in. The door was heavy, thick metal, too thick to bend on her own. There wasn't any panel on her side of the door, either it had been designed explicitly to only be opened from the outside or if there was one, it had been removed. She felt along the walls searching for cracks, tapping the walls only to find the sounds of the wall to be solid. Heavy poured concrete by the look of it, and she didn't have the tools or the time to break through it to potentially get at the door's controls. Might as well test her reception to see if she could still communicate with Munin.

"Hey Munin, you there?"

Something didn't sound right when she opened up the channel to speak and as she waited, no response was heard. Once more she attempted to hale her compatriot.

"Munin?"

Nothing but static answered her call.

That seemed clear enough indication there was some very strong interference, it was unlikely she would be receiving any outside help from her own line. A cursory scan of the area didn't bring up any other networks so wherever she was, was deliberately closed circuit. If there had been cameras she could have used their line to hack into whatever wired network there was but there didn't seem to be any cameras that she could find.

Ketna gave herself a stretch before walking down the hall to whatever it was she was being funneled to and get it over with. This wasn't the first time someone attempted to lead her to her death and it certainly wouldn't be the last. She had to give credit, they seemed to know what they were doing, most wouldn't have bothered to take out the cameras but it was always possible they got careless and put a camera somewhere else. Just one hardwired device was all she needed to get into the network and unravel whatever well-laid plan they had.

The quadruped that had led her here was meant for mobility and to be physically cumbersome, and not much else, whatever was intended for her was wherever this 'warehouse' led to. The hall itself declined downward, ensuring the whole structure was well below the surface. Strolling leisurely down the hall she began making idle bets on what could be down there. A larger, more advanced version of the drone she tracked, perhaps? Or some other experimental automaton. It could even be some person stupid enough to think they could take her in a closed fight. Or just a good old-fashioned tank. No, it couldn't possibly be something that simple if whoever was behind this had the foresight to go to the lengths that they already had.

While she placed her personal bets, she visually scanned the walls and ceilings for anything that could prove important. But all she found were uniformly dispersed small vents. None of them were anywhere near big enough for her to get into so that wasn't going to be very helpful. Possibly a small drone could make their way through one of them, not that she had one on her. Though it was odd that there were so many vents, ventilation for underground structures was important but this almost appeared to be overkill.

She continued on the length of the corridor toward the bright light that emanated from the open archway at the very bottom. She had not yet arrived at the entrance when she could hear idle motor whirling and other familiar ambient noises of idle robotics. Ah, how clever, apparently this elaborate setup was to railroad her into an enclosure with multiple combat drones. Slowing her steps she made her approach to the archway, hugging the wall to sneak a look into the room to get a count of just how many there were. When reaching its edge, she slowly peered around through the open entry way into the room.

There were an assortment of mechs and robotics in the room, stacked in tiers, all facing the entrance. Agile units in front, mid-range and heavy combat units in the middle, and heavy artillery in the back, specifically two walking quad tanks that she could see by the look of it. The room itself was mostly barren, nothing but pillars to support the underground structure, and a high vaulted ceiling and bright fluorescent lights. It was without a doubt, an arena specifically intended for this. The upside was, if all communications were cut for her, the drones wouldn't be sending any active communications either. Which meant they wouldn't be transmitting any video, it might even be a chance to finally go all out. It would be a difficult fight but still within the means of what she was capable of overcoming.

In her assessment her helmet leaned out enough to alert some of the forward guard, and all at once they began to stir. The overwhelming sound of mechanical movement echoed about the walls of the large room. Bullets and lasers ricocheted off the wall and floor edge, trying to take a shot at her in the brief window of time they had before Ketna pulled her head back. No sooner had she done so then she heard the faint whistling of a very familiar sound. She put distance between herself and the entrance before the missile hit the wall, spraying shrapnel indiscriminately from its impact point.

Oh good, explosive ordinances in close quarters, this should be fun.

Not wanting to waltz right into an alert group of drones, all targeted on a single entrance, Ketna hung back and waited for them to come to her. But despite the movement she heard in the room beyond, none of them set foot through the entryway. Whoever programmed them made them smart enough to not path through the room into the corridor where they could be picked off by her. Instead they began to stack up near the entrance, attempting to find line of sight from that one spot.

Slowly, bullet and laser fire spewed out from the entryway in her general direction. At the angle she was, she wasn't at risk of taking a direct hit and they remained at a stalemate. Awkward as it was to sit there, she could theoretically just wait it out till munitions depleted and batteries ran low. But the sound of the heavy tanks that made their way through the sea of drones closer to the entrance indicated this would not be an option.

An explosive in the small corridor would be especially dangerous in this setting. Limited mobility and the tight space meant that shrapnel damage was almost guaranteed for any impact she wasn't 30-40 feet away from. This was likely a deliberate choice to flush her out of the corridor and into the room and it was working. New plan, dash into the room, past as many units as possible, before the walking tanks start taking pot shots into the corridor.

Still safe in the spot hugging the wall, Ketna waited for the heavy units to get as close as they possibly could. When she saw the edge of what was likely the weapon used for the rockets, she made her dash. The most difficult part about the maneuver was compensating for the lower back injury from the night before. Her speed and size was her advantage, even with the swift units they couldn't keep up with her in her first launch over the tops of some of the medium units that had taken to the front of the ranks. Over the head of one and then the other shoulder to shoulder until she landed on the arm of the unit with the heavy artillery. Heated blades were a simple and effective weapon against constructs, even with the reinforced joints, the right stab severed the connection from the arm to the launcher, a jump to the next launcher and it was disabled in the same simple movement.

In the time she had disabled one of the heavy units, the other had taken aim at her position on it. Whoever had constructed their AI did not seem to give them the most rudimentary form of friendly fire detection, which would prove to be much in her favor. Other smaller units attempted to climb the large one to get to her, others firing at her as well, but she remained, barely staying out of range until she caught sight of the heavy unit letting off another explosive ordinance. A timed jump and she was out of dodge of the initial impact but the combined force of the explosion from the fired rocket and the remaining artillery launched her through the air to the other side of the large room.

Ketna managed to reduce the force of the impact through a roll as she hit the ground but it was nonetheless a rough landing. The upside was that the majority of the units were all still piled around the entrance and this explosion had not only taken out a chunk of those units but also given her substantial distance between them and her. The heavy unit was slow to reposition itself but the medium units had already turned to fire in her direction, and the fast units were already scrambling to close the distance between them.

Taking cover against the nearest support column provided Ketna protection against the ramping volley of bullets in her direction. There she waited for the fast units to close in before she made her move, their bodies would provide all the cover she needed when she made her way to the remaining tank. Things were going well, far as she was concerned.

The helmet hid the grin beneath it when she heard the mechanically swift motion to land an attack on her. This was what she had been waiting for. She always felt she did her best work surrounded. Moving from target to target, working on pure instinct, the rush at its height sated that innate craving to hunt, to kill. A dodged jab, rolling into an uppercut ripping the 'head' off its body. Another lunge deftly dodged to the side, grasping the arm to her side using strength, weight and momentum to spin it into the attack from another, letting it go to roll under the fire from behind that she heard and felt the moment she moved. Always moving, from metal body to metal body, keeping them in between her and the advancing medium and heavy artillery that closed in.

In seconds mechanical bodies dropped too damaged to keep up with her, and she had danced her way from one side of the room to the other. The injury to her back ached and throbbed, stitches long since torn in the process of combat, warmth of the blood against her back served as motivation to take out all her latent anger about the night before on the automated army in front of her. The units had closed in enough that she could make her move again against the remaining tank.

This time the medium units she had used as involuntary ladders before were more keen to her intentions, putting effort into shaking her off, one attempting to slam her to the ground the moment she jumped to its shoulder. Ketna dodged being pinned to the ground by way of reaching around the top of the unit to the shoulder on the way down, another nearby threw a metal arm down to slam against her, which she leapt out of the way of for it to collide with the unit beneath her. The tank had pivoted enough to aim its center mounted machine gun in her direction, careless of whatever else got in its way as it chased her down.

Ketna weaved herself between units utilizing the indiscriminate fire to take out as many enemies as she could on her way to the tank's legs. Speed and agility made it easy for her to use the back of another striking machine to jump up and onto one of the leg segments of the tank. Units below fired at her, bullet spray bouncing off the tank's metal, just missing her or glancing off her own armor if they hit at all, but it was far too late to stop her from what she had set out to do. Much like with the other tank, a well placed jab where the 'arm' met the body and the first set of rockets were disabled. Wasting no time, Ketna ran to the other side of the top of the tank to disable the other set of rockets, putting an end to one of the more pressing threats in this trap she found herself in.