The pale, cracked earth barely shifts at the movements of the looming giant gliding across its surface. The titan’s thrusters make a low hum as the sleek white mech barely grazes against the scorched plains, speeding towards its target.

Elara Callisto sits in her cockpit, every click and whirr carefully planned. Her own little symphony, interrupted as her blade slams into the enemy. The loud screech of burning hot metal melting into her opponent’s reinforced armor roared across the desert. Pressing further, she could hear the sweet sound of bubbling metal, as it slid cleanly through the opposing mech’s backside.

The black machine, caught off guard, fell to the ground. Its two comrades turned towards their downed comrade, as a loud thud sounded throughout the battlefield. Elara rips her blade free of the fallen hunk of metal, a satisfying scream of metal being released along with the blade. She slams it back down into the head of the mech.

Another clean kill by the Moonrise, Elara’s pride and joy. Fine-tuned to her exact preferences, she piloted the machine as if it were but an extension of her body. A fast and precise machine, she runs it on the edge of every limit it has.

“Sunset, target two disabled. It’s a Model 3-FG. Fetch, girl.” Elara turns her attention forward, everything else fading away as she focuses on the next target.

The skies seemed to split as a digitigrade mech dashed across the field, bounding towards its partner. It thudded along the ground, springing towards its newly downed prey. It landed on the hulk of metal, slashing into the frontside as it crushed its opponent’s cockpit.

Pyralis drooled in her cockpit, shaking her head out of a trance. Her nose bled a little as she instinctively growled at the heap of metal shown in her display. The Sunset is a wild animal, only directed and led by its beautiful counterpart.

“Moonrise, target two confirmed. And it’s a 4-FG, Ellie.”

The Sunset kicks forward, chasing after the dancing Moonrise on the battlefield ahead. The Sunset was built to pounce, as its internal dense springs allowed it to almost fly towards a fight.

Elara continued to lead her orchestra, blocking incoming shots from a black Imperial mech with her scrap shield. In reality, it was a small, yet powerful electromagnet holding up the pieces of broken Imperial machines, made to take any fire from their still-standing friends. She spent hours tuning it so that the pieces would hold firm, adding pounds of magnetic shielding to her arms to protect her machine.

She slashed against the firing mech, burning through its shields as she let off a small blast charge in her blade. The weapon exploded, blowing the head off her opponent. The severed head slammed to the dirt, as the Moonrise released the now shattered blade.

Every weapon in the Moonrise’s arsenal was rigged to explode at Elara’s signal, multiplying her destructive potential. The blast would also deal with heat-resistant shielding that some of the newer Imperial models they were sending out had.

“Shut up Pyr! Sunset, target three disabled. Cockpit in the severed head, catch, girl. Target one fleeing.” The Moonrise kicked the severed head of her defeated opponent back, as the Sunset leaped up to catch and crush it within its hydraulic jaws. A soft screech was let out as the metal folded and was melted by the furnace that powered the Sunset.

Sunset was equipped with every weapon that a hunting beast should have: sharp oscillating claws to cut through metal, and a huge set of jaws that functioned as an exhaust port, melting high-grade steel that the beast ate. The Sunset could eject some of the ingested material to blast out melted pieces of metal that stick to an enemy machine’s joints and inner workings.

The four-legged beast spit up a heap of melted plastic and metal. It charged up its kinetic accelerators, jumping ahead of the triumphant dancer and toward the only Imperial mech left on the battlefield. The Imperial quickly reacted, ducking and hiding behind a crumbling building, as the Sunset collided into the broken structure.

The wall blew out from under the Sunset as the Imperial blasted its arm-mounted railgun into the beast’s stomach. Chunks of concrete and rods of rebar slammed against the mech as it was regaining its balance, causing a cloud of dust to be thrown up.

“Ellie! Critical damage to my frame, I’m retr-” The feed cut as the enemy slammed into the newly wrecked Sunset.

Communications down. Pyralis must still be okay. She’s taken harder hits. She has to be okay.

“Sunset, come in! Come in Sunset! Please Pyr, respond!”

Running forward, shedding its armor and shield, the Moonrise drew a second weapon, blasting plasma at its enemy, vaporizing the concrete that shielded it. Inside, the pilot shook, panic filling Elara’s eyes. The mech looked almost naked now, the dense plating and arsenal slamming into the dirt below.

“Command! Sunset is down, send backup now! Need immediate assistance!”

The moonrise continued accelerating at the Imperial machine, as it recovered and grabbed the limp and broken mech in front of it, ripping out its metal core, and holding it up. Elara saw the fingers of the Imperial mech begin to crush inwards, as she saw red.

Stand down, Moonrise, or your friend gets it.

The fast-approaching mech quickly stopped in place, still holding its cannon up at the enemy. Elara shook in her seat, the whirring of her machine turning to screams.

“Return transmission. I can blast your Imperial toy you call a mech to smithereens before you even think about crushing her. Put her down and I’ll let you live to tell the tale.” Elara clenched her teeth, trying to hide the fear that spun through her mind.

If you wanted to kill me you would have fired already. Our records of you show you don’t kill, Moonrise. I promise you any nonlethal shot you fire will end in her death. Drop the weapon.

Elara stared at her display, aiming the weapon at the Model 2-GR, Greybird, in front of her. A bead of sweat ran down her forehead, as she closed her eyes.

Inside that machine was another person, who breathed, who could see the error of their ways. They deserved to live. Who was she to rob somebody else of a future? She didn’t know if they had a family. She didn’t know who would weep for her enemy. Her hand shook on her controls, chills running up her back.

She opened her eyes, glaring into the machine holding the only thing that truly mattered.

“Return Transmission. Your records are wrong.”

Click.

===

Please be okay, please be okay. No signs of crushing or deformation around the main part of the core, please be okay.

Elara kicks her way out of the cockpit, running towards the downed Imperial mech. Her legs pound against the dry earth beneath her, her heart beating into her ears. She has to be okay. She’s always okay.

She collides with the fallen core of the destroyed Sunset, climbing on top of it and ripping open the emergency hatch.

Inside is a bloody scene, with Pyralis’s head bleeding and arm bent out of shape. Despite everything, her eyes dart towards Elara as she opens the shell and climbs in. Elara lets out an audible sigh, relieved that she’s still breathing.

“Pyr! Are you alright? Please, please I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” The now sobbing pilot buries her head into Pyralis’s chest. “Please be okay I’m so sorry I was too slow and-”

“Shush. I have a killer headache right now. It wasn’t your fault, I got a little… sloppy. I was just dying to prove myself.” Pyralis chuckles at her own joke, coughing as she feels her arm crunch.

Despite herself, Elara chuckles a bit at her jokes. Healthy enough to have a laugh about herself, at least.

“Shut up yourself, sunshine. Last I checked feral beasts don’t make jokes. Help is on its way, did you bring your medicals?” Elara giggled a little, as Pyr nodded in response.

She glanced around the cockpit, torn and scarred from previous fights. Spotting a little metal box on the wall, she popped it open to see some gauze and an open bottle of painkillers.

“This does NOT count as medicals, this is barely even a quarter of what you were issued! Where’d you even put it?” Despite her nagging, she grabs some stray pills and pops some in her mouth.

“You know how important keeping our mechs light is, y’know? …I might have traded them with Janet for some extra dessert last week, though.” Pyralis weakly replied, coughing a little. “Now be a doll and pass some of the candies, won’t you?”

Elara shot a look at her damaged lover, grasping a few more pills and meeting her eye to eye.

“Those few pounds you save from leaving your medicals are definitely worth the few pounds you put down there from that extra dessert, hmm? If you want your sweets, come and get ‘em!” Elara threw the pills into her mouth and pressed them to Pyr’s bloodied lips.

“Mmph!!!” Pyralis winced as she tried to flail her broken arm, but as Elara gripped her head and moaned into her mouth, she closed her eyes and let herself float away into heaven.

Pyralis unconsciously slipped her tongue into Elara’s mouth, using her good arm to grab her back and push closer. She wrapped her tongue around the little pills in her Master’s mouth, pulling it back and swallowing it along with some saliva. She mumbled a “Thank you,” before continuing to devour Elara’s love.

Elara pulls back, gasping as she stares at the newly deflowered form of Pyralis, ripping off the top of her pilot’s suit. She runs her hand down Pyr’s back, shedding her outer skin as well.

“Be a good dog while I bandage your head a little, okay?” She continues to caress Pyralis’s back with one hand, unraveling the gauze with her teeth and other hand. She reached down and grabbed her antiseptic to spray on the wound. A fine mist of sharp-smelling liquid spewed out of the nozzle, covering the bloody gash in Pyr’s head.

Pyralis whines at the sharp pain flooding her wound and gets up to kiss Elara’s neck. “Yes, master!” She grips Elara’s back, running a line of kisses down towards her chest. Elara lets out a light moan as Pyralis begins to tongue her bare areola, and begins to wrap the gauze around Pyr’s head, lightly petting her hair as she begins to grind on her lap.

She presses her chest into Pyr, squealing as Pyr holds her nipple between her teeth, lightly biting down. “Go- good dog- oh..”

Pyralis meanwhile begins licking her lover’s breast, whimpering as Elara finishes up wrapping the gauze and plants a little kiss on her head. She feels Elara beginning to grind faster, whining needily.

“Please oh god! Please- you’re all mine please…” Elara continued rubbing on Pyralis’s leg, continuing to pet and kiss her head, as Pyralis continued nuzzling and licking her master, her everything.

Pyralis felt a warmth run through her chest as she looked up at her partner, eyes rolling back in bliss and mumbling affectionate words towards her. She would always survive for this sight, for her. She loved her so much.

Elara kept grinding on her lover, as a thought popped into her mind. She didn’t deserve this. Blood on her hands, here she was falling into her lover’s embrace.

Suddenly Elara froze, her bodysuit now soaked between her thighs. She choked, and collapsed onto Pyralis’s shoulder, sobbing. What right did she have to feel this? She just killed somebody and robbed them of everything. They would never feel this pleasure, never fall in love, never even think again. She had to do it, for her. She would do anything to keep Pyralis safe.

Pyr hugged Elara tight, caressing her head. “Miss? Are you alright?” She whined into her ear, slightly confused at the sudden shift in attitude.

“I killed them. I didn’t even know their name.” Elara softly spoke, voice cracking as she squeezed Pyralis tighter. “They were running. Running home.”

She’d never be able to fire that plasma cannon again. It was a murder weapon, tainted by the death of another pilot. Her beloved blade was clean. Destroyed, and never even had to witness her crime.

“I’m so sorry. I had to. They were going to kill you. They wanted to live. They thought I wouldn’t kill them. They were g-” She continued sobbing into Pyralis’s shoulder. She stole a life. She didn’t deserve her love.

Pyralis shushed her broken lover, running her hand through her hair. “It’s going to be okay. You did the right thing. I’m here. I’m alive. You saved me. You didn’t have another choice.” Pyr failed her. She wasn’t able to take it off her shoulders, to keep her hands clean. “I love you.”

Somebody knocked on the side of the metal shell. “Sunset, Moonrise, are you alive in there? This is extraction team H. Today’s code is gray yellow gray.”

Pyralis yelled back, “Both alive, I need medical attention, and Ellie’s going to be coming with me to the medbay. Response code red purple yellow.” Elara pressed her head deeper into Pyr’s shoulder, continuing to mutter apologies.

“It’s going to be okay Ellie. I love you. I always will.”