…
Commander is down…?!
Sam’s heart was now beating out of her chest. Numb by adrenaline and fueled by instinct, she threw her foot down on the jump-boost pedal and guided herself backwards to space herself from the others, seeing a few followed suit. This is not happening- shit-shit-shit keep it together! She quickly let off once she saw her Ai20 match height with the buildings, catching a landing two traffic lights away from the clearing between abandoned cars. As she looked up, she saw rifle fire from the first traffic light area nearest to the clearing. Three of her team were under LTAC fire and were returning fire down the intersecting street.
“Contact! Multiple LTACs! Kappa frames!”
“Requesting aerial interception! Too much on these rooftops!” one of the squad mates shouted.
Think, Sam, think... What did I do in the simulators… Now too tense to feel the queasiness anymore, she quickly jogged her Ai20 up the far-right side of the street while she changed her magazine from dispersal gas to live rounds. She heard the response from the aerial team “inbound on your mark, A Squad” as she stopped at the building’s corner at the intersection, shield up. She docked her rifle to the right edge, locked it in, then pivoted the corner to find three knock-off design LTACs locked in a fire fight with the other remaining three from her squad. As she took aim for the widely exposed leg units and her nervously twitching finger squeezed without thought.
BDA-DA-DAH!! BDA-DA-DAH!!
Feeling the violent recoil pulsating throughout her seat and armrests, she pulled the trigger in bursts, not letting up until she saw the first go down. She backed up, reloaded, and pivoted once more.
Shit,
where the fuck did they go!?” Other
than the one she downed, she couldn’t spot the other LTACs. NOx sensor warnings
showed the trails leading to the opposite side of the building she was hiding
behind. She turned to her three teammates in preparations to join them, but the
second she made eye contact on screen, she noticed they were quickly being
approached by distorted silhouettes mimicking LTACs that registered no NOx
readings. “You three! Behind you!” She quickly brought her rifle around as if to
fire but was unable to pull the trigger both from panic and from not wanting to
hit her teammates.
I can’t shoot! What do I do!? Over the next few moments as she futilely tried to slow her breathing down, each cloaked LTAC swung out large plasma arc bladed weapons, cutting through the arms and legs of each Ai20 attempting to turn around. The scene had her spun further into a daze as she watched her squad mates’ disabled mech arms unable to take proper aim at their point-blank attackers, having white hot blades driven through the cores of each Ai20.
The vital sign markers above her squad-mates’ mechs flashed red that instant.
Sam never once in her entire life pictured seeing someone killed in front of her eyes.
Her
hands and feet failed her, joints stiff as rocks, unable to utter a sound, instincts
once more kicked in as she turned back to the clearing, only to see scattered
remains of the other Ai20s. She felt herself blacking out, heart beating out of
control, cold shivers throughout. No, not like this! her mind raced as a
scream began to rise up through her still tightened airways. But before it
could find its way out of her, the slam of the butt end of a hefty plasma arc
sword against the core of her frame knocked out what wind there was left of it,
and the sudden, forceful impact had her head slammed against the seat backing.
Another
scream that tried to make its way out was once again abruptly knocked out of
her as her head was sent reeling the other way through the whiplash and back
into the front door padding with similar intensity. Through all of that, her
Ai20 had been subsequently driven back against the wall of the supermarket
behind her as a left hook from the cloaked LTAC left a slicing gash in her
unit’s right shoulder, severing all arm movement. In a following sweeping
motion, a heated machete blade drove just over her head underneath the main
camera unit, affixing her to the same wall.
By this point, Sam couldn’t even muster the strength to cry out as her whole body felt paralyzed by the trauma, left in darkness, struggling to breathe.
Am I dead? Am I dying? Am I… am I…
Reaper sat inside the assaulting mech, taking a moment to make sure the pinned Ai20 was still in stable condition before turning to his two wingmen that just finished retrieving their weapons. His scanners also showed no signs of activity from within their cockpits on his proximity scanner. “Alright, that’s a wrap. The rest will be taken care of soon enough down the road.”
“Uh, Reap’? What about that Galeano kid?” Revenant asked with a gesture towards the lone approaching MI-r.
“Negative. We’ve been out here long enough… don’t need any more unnecessary exposure. Let’s get back to camp.”
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