Work Text:
A square floated serenely upon the map’s grid, gliding smoothly, carried by the gentle wind. Around it were its brethren shapes: triangles, pentagons, and fellow squares.
The peace was, naturally, disturbed by the rhythmic boom of a Machine Gun’s cannon. The cannonballs whirled forth, impacting the field of shapes with heavy metallic strikes, each shape beginning to crack and rupture under the tank’s relentless assault.
This geometric massacre was happily continued, each shape destroyed registering in the tank’s systems as a satisfactory increase in experience. As it assigned some of its available upgrade points to Maximum Health, its blue, circular hull began to reinforce itself, metal creaking and groaning as it increased in density and thickness. The tank pressed on, driving forward. Passing a lonely group of squares, it lined up its target reticle with the mass of shapes, unleashing a long burst of gunfire from its flared barrel.
Distant, rapid cannon shots erupted in the distance, loudening as they approached.
Mere seconds had passed, the Machine Gun barely perceiving a possible threat before a red streak flew past, the air around it reverberating with deafening blasts. The ground shook as cannonballs flew in all directions. The Machine Gun drove for cover, ducking behind a nearby cluster of pentagons… what in the world was that?
A volley of cannon fire struck the pentagons as the incoming tank hurtled towards it. The projectiles glanced off the heavy shapes, the impacts carving deep trenches in their structure.
The new tank was clearly visible now on the Machine Gun’s sensors: A standard circular hull, a single front-facing cannon barrel, and, most dreadfully, four rear-facing barrels angled slightly outwards, positioned in two groups of two. This could be nothing but… a Booster.
The massive Booster surged forward, propelled by a terrifying volley of cannon fire, barging through the cluster of pentagons. The Machine Gun moved to evade the speeding tank, though to no avail, and the terrible sound of crashing, screeching metal filled the air as the tanks collided, sending the Machine Gun reeling back, its armour scratched, gouged, and dented from the impact. It turned, trying to track the enemy as it looped back around for another strike.
The Machine Gun had nary a moment to breathe before the Booster was once more hurtling towards it. The tanks unleashed streams of cannonballs towards each other, a cacophony of explosions and clashing, sparking metal erupting between them. The Machine Gun began to backpedal desperately, but the Booster only seemed to close in even faster. At the last moment, the Machine Gun lurched sideways, and the incoming Booster ground roughly against the tank’s side.
Internal warning systems blared as the Machine Gun’s self-repair systems intensified their efforts, mechanisms within the tank scraping and welding the internal hull. The loading mechanism was a blur of spinning cogs and shifting arms feeding the tank’s autocannon as the engine roared hungrily beneath.
The Booster banked around, turning to align its forward cannon with its prey. It charged, the rear-facing secondary cannons wreaking havoc on the surrounding area as a maelstrom of cannonballs launched forward, prompting the Machine Gun to retaliate with its own fire. The two tanks clashed once more with a great metallic clang, their hulls slamming together as each unleashed volleys of close-range cannon fire. The Machine Gun backed away, continuing its attack, but the mighty Booster was too fast to precisely track and target.
It watched, almost helplessly, as the booster turned back towards it once more. The Machine gun was battered within an inch of its life, scratched and dented, each thundering cannon strike gradually breaking down its hull. The Booster, as if sensing the tank’s surrender, charged forward with renewed vigour for a killing blow, the Machine Gun firing a desperate barrage as the attacking tank closed in. At the very last moment, the Booster flipped around, unleashing a cataclysmic point-blank barrage of cannonballs from its rear barrels upon the Machine Gun, each projectile shredding away thick chunks of barrel and armour, blasting a gaping hole in the tank’s hull.
The Booster pivoted once more, aiming its main barrel into the newly formed gap and firing a final, finishing blow into the Machine Gun’s delicate internal machinery. A shower of sparks and flying metal erupted from the ruined tank, a horrid grinding screech resounding from the mechanisms as they were blown to pieces, their constituent parts ricocheting within the tank’s internal hull.
A surge of experience flooded the Booster’s systems as the kill was registered. It turned away, having not the time to revel in its kill, rushing away on a trail of cannon fire. Another little tank had registered on its sensors, and it was not one to miss easy prey.