It was an imminent head-on collision as things stood. Sam’s radio remained silent, even after the passing seconds as the large plumes of smoke rose from the Assembly Hall’s front-facing end. She normally would have doubted such a call to action, especially having come from her mother, but having rapidly developed such deep detest left her with not a single care. The only doubts that fought their battle inside her head were those of her mother’s and Dani’s condition.
Was her mother’s sudden cut-off nothing more than another loss of connection like before? Was Dani’s vital sign’s cut-off something similar? Nothing felt real; nothing felt like it even happened despite what her mind and memory could try to confirm. All she felt was that detest, and as the Tiger quickly approached, so did the image of his face from what she vaguely recalled nights ago in Bogota. She knew she had him angry as well, and that was what mattered most as it guaranteed her the chance she wanted.
She then noted a sudden change in activity from Sebastian, Renzo, Kaylen, and the few others as they seemed to scatter towards her in response to newly identified bogey markings approaching from the northeast and northwest corners of their engagement zone. She knew she had to end this quickly as she switched focus.
She had been awaiting her fuel cell reserve to recover as the last blast she fired had left it emptied, and as the chime indicated its completion, she quickly hopped off and slowed her descent, taking aim upward in anticipation, touching down a few seconds later. She kept her manual targeting on, still feeling as if Antares spoke to her from miles away, guiding her thumb’s hat switch, placing her reticle just at the topside of a business tower which overlapped the Tiger’s tracking indicator.
And as she slowed to a crawl, it was now of all times that her regret and remorse from earlier reared its head; she knew her mother’s circumstances and Dani’s fate was unavoidable, but Sam still felt it was her reluctance to make quicker and firmer decisions that lead to everything headed toward her.
That included Sebastian and Renzo’s markers, too, pacing towards her in at concerning speeds and bringing up the thought: “What- why are they…?!”
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But she wasn’t the only one aware of their movements. Adrian had sat through similar radio silence after switching to his previous communication channel, listening in on whatever exchanges might occur between Sam and her team. But as he awaited any sign of chatter, updated surveillance information from his previous encounter with Dani’s LTAC showed what only further enraged him, triggering a flashback to his past war experiences along with the thought: [That’s a damned full size military rifle- WAIT!] His eyes widened at the realization the rifle’s frame matched only that of a once-famed hero and mech pilot. [Lance Vrey! That’s the rifle from the Icarus! That bitch- who does she have connections with!? Vincent Vrey himself!?]
He was beyond convinced now that not scattering her brains across the asphalt that one night was the biggest mistake he made. It wasn’t about his pride, values, or image anymore, it was his foolishness. He knew now he allowed the vilest enemy to bear its disgusting fangs in the form of a weapon no one had the rights to lay their dirty fingers on. “You have no idea the hypocrisy you represent holding that thing!” He yelled out in a spat of anger, feeling like his sense of control was eroding. “Do you dare fan the flames of war?! Put that weapon down and maybe I’ll spare you!”
Consciously making the decision to not overthink nor overreact to his threats, she switched her communications channels back on, knowing she’d have to carefully choose every overheard word. “Sebastian! Renzo! What are you doing?! Stay away!” She cried out in fear for losing either (or both) of them, now expecting the Tiger to show up into view at any second.
“No YOU have to run!” Sebastian countered. “We are in retreat- and why did you turn off your communications?!”
Of course, she knew she’d hear both a scolding and the inevitable aftermath having seen the incoming bogey readouts earlier, but she couldn’t leave this one last target alive. This one had to fall, and she just received plenty of confirmation from the Tiger pilot himself that she had the only weapon to stop it.
“I know that! Listen, everyone!” She shouted back in frustration. “Find your own safe exit! I have to handle this myself!”
[The fuck you will!] Renzo stubbornly refuted as she heard a familiar popping sound in the distance as it echoed through the street ways. [If you’re going to spout useless bullshit, put us back on mute! But we’re doing this for Dani and don’t need your approval!]
Perhaps it was the curt response she needed to hear, knowing she felt the same regardless. Rather than waste focus on a response, knowing she had to keep her plans to herself with the danger they’d be listened in on, she instead looked around to see the tufts of smoke rising from three areas a few blocks away as the two continued to close in on her location.
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Those ponderings were then interrupted by Adrian over her line unexpectedly: “So NOW you want to speak!?” She knew he’d be more than pissed off, but it was all she could do to get him to circle back for this one shot.
She then gripped her controls even more tensely, repeating Renzo’s last line in her head several times to keep Adrian’s distractions at bay, nodding with a slow, deep breath. Whatever it was she or they would do would either end in success or their deaths as it was, and there was already no turning back. And with the proximity alarm now blaring from the Tiger’s arrival, she left her spot with faith in whatever it was Sebastian and Renzo had worked out, keeping an apartment building behind her as she kept her reticle just over the top of the same business tower from earlier.
And just as the target readout neared her reticle, she let out a smaller charge from her cannon and immediately lifted both feet from her pedals, sending her back to the ground to avoid a well-timed shot from the Tiger that just passed into view.
And as the top of the tower’s decorative structure had a blast rip through it, sending a shower of rock and concrete into the air, the Tiger’s aim was thrown off just enough to have its shot land well upward as it slammed into the side of the residential building Sam was near.
I hope you smiled for the camera with that one.
And right as she finished that thought, not daring to share even a single word with him, she already had her reticle pulled further upward as she let out a second shot right toward it. And not taking the time to assess the situation, she shifted her focus back to a smooth landing and accelerated toward the nearest smoke site Renzo or Sebastian made earlier, quickly passing Sebastian up on her left. And as she heard more smoke canisters fire off right behind her and distant rifle fire from what had to be Renzo, she immediately felt as if she picked up on their plan.
They really do know what they’re doing! This must be what they used back in Bogota against that A-7!
Just as she turned the next corner with a hard veer and a hand out to catch herself from rolling over, a fountain of asphalt and dirt sent her back upright as she saw the Tiger pass overhead once more, but this time with a small smoke trail attached. Good, I must have damaged it a bit more.
She then fired another smaller charge before hitting the accelerator full speed, buying her a second enough to turn the last corner in expectance he would attempt to block that one. And with the turn successful and now out of his sight, it must have been the outcome. Rifle fire suddenly intensified the moment she made a dash for the smoke cloud, seemingly from two ends of the nearby area. But once she made it inside, she heard the terrifying crackle of plasma echoing several times from the distance, knowing they were shots fired at one of the brothers.
Please, hang in there ten more seconds!! She screeched to a halt with a spin back the other direction, switching her cannon output to maximum active reserve draw. During the switchover, she took a quick glance toward the two brothers’ vital markers, relieved but fingers and joints still trembling wildly. Rifle and NGF carbine fire exchanges continued as the Tiger’s marker suddenly made a turn for her direction, all happening behind the skyscraper in front. She froze up, realizing this would completely throw off her planned shot if he bolted straight for her.
No, wait!
Her fingers furiously went through the controls for her one last hurrah, just as the Tiger rushed overhead with a pair of shots that landed just beside her. Unflinching, she returned fire with her trigger squeezed hard enough to feel like she broke the switch mechanism.
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Something had Sebastian pause in shock and fear, holding his fire to watch the hefty blast well-deflected by the Tiger’s perfectly timed shield maneuver, all at an angle he couldn’t continue cover-fire from. He knew that with that critical miss from Sam’s reserve-emptying blast of that magnitude, the Tiger’s next move would be her end.
“Sam!!” He cried out, feeling the dread of losing two in one morning.
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Adrian almost cracked a smile, pulling his shield aside and quickly snapped his carbine back into its firing angle. He played with fire this whole time, not having faced such firepower since the last war, but once again he escaped the jaws of death and arose victorious. Orsi tried to interfere with his big plan, and now the daughter of Knight as well. Both would meet the same fate, just as he hoped for anyone who would threaten the deserved return of his countrymen to the top.
He pinpointed exactly where that last shot came from, and there was no way the LTAC had any juice left to make a quick dash for it. And as his correct calculations would have it, not a single puff of diverted smoke shot from any direction, confirming his intuition. His trigger finger, however, immediately froze solid in its place, and his left thumb switch fought for priority the instant he felt something awry. There was no time to ponder the sudden bright flash of green from within the cloud, defying every limitation of the common Hexa LTAC’s power diverter. What he saw was a mockery of everything he planned. And before his left hand’s input and common sense could override his now-squeezed trigger finger’s moment of premature victory, a blast of identical might quickly filled his main screen as he felt an incredible force jerk his body forward against his restraints.
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Speechless and still frozen in place, Sebastian felt and heard the deafening shockwave spectacle above, watching the swiftly scattering of molten armor, flames, and smoke-trailed debris fill that area of the sky, not noticing the cockpit ejection sequence that fired the pod out the backside of the Tiger’s carcass right before direct impact. And his vision fell once more to the ground in front where a tower of dust and asphalt rained back down through the silently scattering smoke cloud.
“Sam…” he mumbled, not realizing he was speaking. And once he did, he spoke up louder in desperation, for he knew not where that last shot from the Tiger landed. “Sam!? SAM!!”