>> Battle Mode :: Engaged
LOADOUT - SPOOK Armour :: LMG 'Dominion 5' Exoskeleton
WEAPONS
LMG ‘Red Glory’ SMG :: 220/220
Mode :: [Burst]
Alt Fire :: [Full Auto]
Spare Mags :: 3/4
LMG ‘Executioner’ Pistol :: 14/14
Mode :: [Single Shot]
Spare Mags :: 3/3
LMG Issue Combat Knife
GRENADES
* 2x Frag - Explosive, Concussive
* 2x Stun Powder - Paralytic
* 2x 'Destroyer' - Coded Annihilator Field
* 1x Sensor Blocker
OTHER KIT
* Field Medic Satchel (Basic)
* Infiltrator Toolkit (Basic)
* 3x Mini Flares
Combat narrows your focus to a laser’s edge. The world evaporates. There’s only the fight. There’s only the now. The instant. The hammer of Kami’s boots. The clack of claws, and whisper of pads - tails streaking, as we run.
Zipper screaming “SHIT! SPOOK! Like, go! Go! You’re being flanked!” as his squadrons blast past overhead. He’s already fully engaged - buying us time. I flick my mini-map, and it expands into a full vScreen. Dozens of red dots crawling along a street parallel to our own. Vid-feeds unfurl beside it as we run. A dozen blurring angles of chaos, smoke, and flashes of light. Rocket-bullets streaking past Zip’s drones as darts of light. Screams and blasts of scrambled imagery. All while the street whirls around me. Into cover. Dive right out. Cross over here. Cross over there. Minimise exposure. Maximise awareness. Twitch your gun at every shadow.
That’s what combat really is.
What you remember it as.
Just pure confusion, light, shouting, and noise. Your mind locking down into a tunnel. A narrow path from cover, to cover, as you bolt between wrecks. Scrabbling over the rubble of collapsed buildings. Ever second another heartbeat, slamming in your chest. Ears flicking circles - like radar. Forward, left, right, and back. Turning in to the distant pop and whistle of bullets. To the enemies Zip sees, and the ones he don’t.
I ain’t sure when we ditched the food. Or where.
Or if we thought we were coming back.
Just that, suddenly, nothing matters but getting the Hell outta there. That Zip is screaming directions, and we don’t stop to argue. Not even Badger, now hanging to Demon’s horns - riding his back as we bolt on all fours. “Zip!” I yell. “What the Hell is this? Gangs?”
“I dunno!!!! I dunno! They just- Think, like, t-they were following us! Shit! Shit!”
I turn a corner, then another - hoping to throw em. But too little too late. “Damnit! How did they bloody track us?? I knew Moon would bloody-”
“INCOMING, MATE!!! HUGE DRONE SQUADRON!" He screams in breathless panic. "AND, GOT, LIKE…. FOUR-FIVE GUYS WITH GUNS! HEADING YOUR WAY!!!! LIKE, RIGHT NOW!! SHIT!!! THERE'S MORE! I CAN’T STOP THEM!!! THEY GOT AN ARMY!”
“MOVE!!!” I roar as a pack of cheap little twin-rotor drones go screaming overhead - trading gunfire with Zipper. Two zero-in on Demon, and he pulls Badger under him as they fire. Shielding the kid with his body. I spin out between two broken cars, and feed the bastards all four barrels of my SMG.
Their deaths are instant.
That’s the beauty of high rate of fire - I barely have to aim. I just wrench back that trigger, and mow em down. Fire exploding from vents in the sides of my gun ignites a screaming swarm of small-calibre death. Rocket-bullets punching holes in their thin shells. Bouncing around inside. Mangling electronics. Servos. Everything.
Drones spiral - one crashing into a wall. Others into the ground, or bouncing off cars. Spinning down to their demise as smoke pours from their engines. Kami nudging round cover to support me - laying on a storm of pistol-fire from all six guns. Her punching neat holes in the swarm, as I chew through the masses. Demolishing half the force in three or four seconds. And I think we'll hold it. I'm sure we will.
Right until my quad-mag clicks dry.
"Reloading!" I yelp over comms, spinning back into cover to eject it. Slapping it to my armour, where it sticks, and ramming home a new one. Only two left - I better conserve. I jab a claw into the mini menu floating above the ammo-counter, and the gun flips to what I call 'Swarm Mode'. That sets the main, rear, trigger to deal out [Short Burst]s, and the front, alt-fire, trigger to [Shotgun Mode].
Settings :: Short Burst
Fires all four SMG barrels every time the trigger is pulled.
Settings :: Shotgun Mode
Fire all four barrels, simultaneously.
I spin back out, and restart my rampage. Dropping drones, left and right - fast as I can pull the trigger. Heat and flame blasting from my gun as I break their formation. Murdering multiple drones per shot. Together, we tear them down. Five shots. Six. Seven.
LMG ‘Red Glory’ SMG :: 192/220
Spare Mags :: 2/4
"THEY'RE FLANKING!!" Kami scream, and I track my shots round to blast em away. Eight. Nine-
My gun goes suddenly wild - a double burst - then jams utterly solid. Pumping smoke and sparks from its vents like a furious dragon. “Shit! Shit! Clearing jam!” I scream, diving back into cover as it hisses madly. Multiple bullets ignited, but stuck in the weapon's crucible.
No time to get fancy - I shove the gun in a hole as Kami covers me. Slapping it. Hard. Like it owes me money. Inbuilt diagnostic systems flare the standard, red, ‘OK!’ symbol every LMG gun is stuck on. But then they suddenly glitch. Overridden by a triangle built of eyes and clockwork. Sudden, fresh, messages flooding the corner of my vision:
Condition :: Gun Jam - Red Glory SMG
Common - Mechanical/Software
Rocket bullets are caseless. Therefore all LMG rocket-guns rely on internal ‘gripper nodes’ to restrain bullets as they are ignited. During a burst, or rapid fire, these can become mistimed; causing a jam.
Known Fixes: Clear Jam to cause [Soft Reset].
ERROR :: Burst Overrun - Red Glory SMG
Common - Electronic
Details: [Short Burst] mode fires 4x bullets per trigger pull. However, it can trigger multiple times due to a faulty switch.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Known Fixes: Replace or Mod Trigger Switch. [Hard Reset] rumoured to help,
“Pol, ya dumb metal asshole! I got no time to read that!” I smack the gun again. Any level of reading’s too much in combat.
No time to get fancy. I yank my pistol and charge after the other - dipping in and out of cover. Then, when it's clear enough, I burrow behind a car - unhooking the mag on my SMG, and snapping it to my armour.
“HURRY!” Kami screams as they herd the shorties onward. Tufty bounding and skittering on all fours - over a rough pile of bricks, then under a truck. I pinch both sides of my barrel array - depressing stiff switches - and the whole thing slides off. It's basically just four plastic tubes welded together. The top two a bullet-length longer, to account for the quad-barrel design.
And, currently, still smoking.
Cursing, I flip it to shake out the bullets. A dangerous bloody move, pointing lit bullets at your face. I've heard stories. But this is a dangerous bloody place, and I got no time - so I swing it wild. An unfired round spilling out into the mess, and rolling under a car.
Forget it. But there's one more.
I peer down the safe end - and there it is. Top right chamber.
Too late.
“Second wave!! SECOND WAVE!” Kami screams as I abandon cover, charging right after Tufty. Half a gun in one hand, a pistol in the other. Raw brick skitters beneath me - banging my armoured elbow. We’re getting bloody swarmed - which pressures Zipper to help. Which shunts his battle toward us - giving their main force freedom to move.
Shiiit…..
The barrel 'magnetises' to my armour, and I blur after my crew. Right to the end of the street. Look left. Right. Then run like Hell, cause here the bastards come. Zooming from wreck to wreck as they track us down the street. And what a bloody mess we're in, here. Two of us unarmoured. Me with my gun in bits.
Holy crap.
Echoed nightmares ring though my skull - bullets drilling soft, tender, flesh. Maybe Badger. Maybe Tufty. The kind of horror every warrier gets - where everyone you love is somehow right in the fire-line.
It don’t matter. Not now.
I follow Demon as he blasts his SMG to give buy me time. Enough to stop behind a car. Jam a thin tool in the awkward breach of my gun, and hammer-through the still-smoking bullet. Then shove the damn barrels back on their rail, as my whole team screams at me. Launching into a run, even as I snap it home.
“Hold on!”
## Soft Reset :: [Activated]
## …..
## Recalibrating :: [Crucible Nodes]
## ….
## DONE
Internal panels click and reset. Capacitors humming as it attempts to fire the last round in that [Short Burst] sequence. Then two [Short Bursts] more. It gives up, I slam the mag back in the base - and my HUD reignites over the gun.
Complete with standard counting error.
LMG ‘Red Glory’ SMG :: 220/220
Mode :: [Short Burst]
Spare Mags :: 2/4
Wrong. It's 184, but the gun reset the counter. A shudder shakes through me as I run - shadows of The School boiling up in my skull. Of dark punishments for ‘hording’ and 'stealing' things that never existed.....
I jam it back in the box and run, as more drones come spinning past. Badger hurling little balls behind us that burst with a CRACK and a noxious green WOOSH of smoke. Blotting the drones. Confusing the battle. I spin sideways, and fire as another drone strafes us.
I kill their leader, but there's more. Dozens. Every one ejecting a bomb-load of rocket-rounds that snap across our flank. Cracking brick. Hammering metal. Splattering blue gunk.
But not penetrating. Not my armour. Not the cars. Not anything.
“SOFTNOSE BULLETS!” I scream in utter dismay, as our implants flag the fallen rounds. “IT’S A CAPTURE OP!!!”
"SHIT!" Kami roars. "RUN!"
I snap my gun to my chest, drop to all fours, and utterly book it. Chasing a stumbling Badger ahead of me. Demon grabs him again, and we fly across rubble. Jumping cars. Ripping around fallen buildings and a burst-open bandstand. Each and every one of us locked in a sudden, fatal, panic that could cost us our lives.
Getting killed is one thing. But captured?
That can only mean one thing, and it scares me more than a bullet through the skull. Because the only monsters that want us alive.....
.....are The School.
And what they want us for…. It’s way worse than anything you can picture. So we absolutely pelt it. Ignoring cover. Letting the bullets smash off armour like tiny stones. One erupts by my face, spatting my hand with numbing shards of blue gel.
“SPOOK! MATE! YOU’RE CUT OFF!!” Zipper screams over comms, not bothering one dick of an instant with that avatar. “AMBUSH AHEAD! LIKE, HALF THEIR FORCES!!? MORE!!?”
“SHIT! COVER! COVER!” I roar as more drones come racing down the street. All cheapo twin-rotors. But they’re everywhere. And they’re spitting tiny specks of bright blue at my face. Like mil-spec paintball rounds.
“THROUGH THE BUILDINGS!” Kami yells back, and - holy shit - she’s got a point. Enough explosives, and there ain’t no such thing as trapped. And, thanks to Badger, we got plenty.
....except....
As Zip's scout-drones cross the rooftops, I can already see the enemy troops rushing to cut us off. "Shit! We're gonna be trapped!" Kami screams, and I see the whole battle play out in my head. Us running. Them chasing. Right back to the landing bay.
And then we'll be stuck. Pinned down in our own escape vehicle. More guns, yes, but totally imobile while I prep to take off.
We can't get away.
We're going to have to fight.
“Split up!! Get inside! Use the buildings for cover! We're gonna have to fight this!” I yell, slamming on my mag extension. I shove the others into a run, even as it ratchets into place. Numbers flickering on my HUD.
Ammo :: 432/440 (Extended)
Spare Mags :: 1/4
Kami hurls her cloak to Demon - tiny halos blazing against her body, like targets, as she darts away. I grab Badger and charge the buildings. The kid all panting, and wide-eyed with excitement.
Like it’s all a cartoon to him.
Tufty tries to follow - but I can’t shield em both. "JUST FIND A WAY THROUGH! ANY WAY YOU CAN!"
I jab him at Demon, who takes a flying leap onto a huge pile of rubble. Then up - into an empty second-floor window, shielded by a massive fallen wall.
Not something Badger can do.
Tufty yelps in terror, hops from foot to foot - then bounces up after, into the window. Claws scrabble, tail waggles, and he’s barely gone before ‘less lethal’ gunfire rips across the busted pavement where he stood. Battering off it, and right at my face.
Panic roars, and I hurl Badger toward the ancient shopfronts. Three to choose from - all wide open windows. One collapsed. One blown open. One choked and barricaded with furniture - all chewed up with bullets.
Good enough.
I charge through the open door as rocket-rounds rain. Somehow Badger clung to my chest - and I leap to the side. Landing on ruined tiles and shattered glass cubes. Bullets roar though the bust-open door, and I wince back. Bouncing, heavily, onto the long counter as a drone skims in behind. Slamming bullets off my back. For a split-second I eye the cluttered mass of tables jamming the rear exit. All broken and tumbled. Scattered with bones.
Shiiiit. Nonononono-
The twin-rotor bastards come screaming in after us - forcing me to drop behind the mangled coffee-bar. To ram Badger under the counter - so hard my gun bangs his knee, making him cry. Right as they fire again - wood-effect plastic cracking and splitting beneath hammer-blow rounds. More raining Hell and fury across the dead café. Mashing old pictures. Puffing bits of floor into the air. Pulping skeletons - as if they hadn’t suffered enough. Old walls shuddering as the gel-tips bounce, re-wrecking the whole inside. Thunder, smoke, and threads of corkscrew fire blasting off the top of our shelter.
It stops, fast as it began - drones barely carry ammo.
But they’re disposable, and they come spinning over the top of the bar. Forcing me to wedge Badger tighter as my SMG roars. Bullets pelting. Drones shattering, and tumbling to the ground. Blades snapping as they hit the floor in jerks. I stand, and twist. Ripping through drones as they spit in the door. If it were just me, I’d tank it - but Badger? Without armour? In this? That gel that spreads the impact, but Softnoses still got killing force. A shot to the skull can shatter bone. The eye? Don't ask. And Badger....?
It’d mash his insides.
So I fight.
Ammo :: 374/440 (Extended)
Spare Mags :: 1/4
“Shit! Polybius! Track my damn ammo!” I scream, and reality ‘fuzzes’ around the gun. A secondary, triangular, counter blocking out the bad one. I fire again, even as it does.
Ammo :: 338/440 (Extended)
Spare Mags :: 1/4
That ain’t quite such a happy bloody number - but truth is better than lies any day. I curse the damn drones, and the damn School, and the fact the front door is busted. No way can I keep this up. Two-and-a-bit mags, and I’ll be down to grenades - which ain’t so friendly for me, up close.
But the drones are petering off, so I point my fist at the pile of crap blocking our exit. Firing a tiny robotic bolt, trailing a micro-fine grappling wire. It sticks the plastic, and unfolds prongs - stabbing em deep into plastic, and rooting to it with nano-fiber spikes. One big-ass tug, and the whole thing topples in a mad avalanche of stuff. Another, and I've got a damn shield. I slam it into the door-frame, then unhook the grapple. Hurling lightweight tables at the entry, until I've piled em deep enough to block out the filers.
Clearing a mangled, private, doorway.
“I got an exit! I’m okay! But what the bloody Hell’s going on?”
“Mate, I got no clue-”
“Za-” Demon starts.
"Oh, you'll bloody see...." Kami snarls, jolting me with adrenaline.
“SPOOK-” Badger yells, but I ignore him. Flipping open Zip’s camera feed - which unfurls a mass of virtual screens, all round me. Every one em showing what absolute shit we’re in. I’m talking twenty or thirty aerial bots per one of Zipper’s. Slower ones. Cheaper ones. But just.... so many. And there's even more on the ground. Junker bots. Things with bladed arms. Drone launchers. Plus several, massive, trucks unloading guys with guns. Kids too.
“It’s a freaking invasion….” I whisper, catching Kami’s fuzzy blue outline on a speeding drone. Her invisible leg hooked over the sill - with the blocky end of her massive rifle jutting down the street. Barrel extension on. One boot wedged up on the brick, the other dangling. There’s a tiny second of pause, and then-
BOOM.
Kami shoots [https://images2.imgbox.com/24/69/L7UPxzX9_o.png]
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