Apex Five: Mech Elite novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Cockpit Only

Friday night the qualifier crowd was half the size of the Cup crowd, and twice as loud.

They had all seen the Ring.

When I walked out of the tunnel in Old Nail, with Hob's new paint still wet on its shoulder, they stood up and chanted my name.

I had never heard that before.

Four years on the Apex Five, and the crowd had only ever chanted Dane's.

"Calder," Ronan said, over our private channel. "Eyes forward."

"I am looking forward."

"You're looking at the box."

I was.

Alder Pryce sat in the chairman's seat with his hands folded and a Pryce Dynamics banner over his head.

Today's opponent was a squad of five frames in Pryce silver, a sponsored team the League had put on the card at the last minute.

The bell rang.

Ronan's black frame walked into the Ring with no crest and no link, and the Pryce squad opened fire on him.

He did not dodge.

He took the first volley on his shield and walked through the second, and he was already inside their formation by the time the third one fired.

It was the most reckless thing I had ever seen a captain do.

"Calder," he said. "Left flank."

I went.

The nearest Pryce frame swung its cannon at me, and I felt a hard cold pull in my chest, the same one I felt at the start of every Apex match.

Then the pull went the wrong way.

The Pryce frame stopped moving.

Both its arms hung down, and its cannon stayed pointed at the dirt.

I stopped, too.

"Ronan," I said. "They're freezing."

"I see it."

"I didn't do anything!"

"Cut it anyway."

I swung the blade.

The plasma edge went through the frame's torso, and the whole thing dropped.

Two more Pryce frames turned on me at once.

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