It turns out the tunnel collapsing was not my biggest problem, that would be the tunnel that opened up behind me, sixes and sixteens spilling out. Behind them stood a monstrosity.
It vaguely resembled the smaller models around it, but it towered over its brethren. Its massive crested head nearly scraped the fifteen foot ceiling, below that sat four long arms which ended in wicked looking scythes. Its main body, beetle-like, was held up by six tree trunk sized legs. The twenty six locked its eyes on me and screamed.
That was a new trick.
The stupidly smart plant must have wanted to try and isolate the two of us and figured I was the easier target. Fuck it, I wasn't going to make this fight easy for it.
Both sides opened up, a mess of projectiles filled the tunnel. “Nyx, shards! And cover!”
Got it
Purchased - Cryo Shard Mines 5 x 5 = 25 points
Auto redeployment enabled
Purchased - Bulwark mobile cover 20 x 3 = 60 points
Points remaining 3413
A series of metal partitions appeared in the tunnel, so I dived behind the nearest one.
“What happened to Sharron?”
Well…
**************
Sharron heard the tunnel collapse, she only managed to half turn before something burst through the wall and threw her further up the tunnel, away from the cave-in. There was a tentacle, almost as thick as her waist sticking through the wall, then another, and another, then dozens of smaller whip-like ones as the Antithesis pulled itself through the wall. It looked like a squid, but it had three bodies connected together by some of the bigger tentacles.
“I remember you, model thirteen, hive guardian. Must be desperate to come out to fight directly.”
Struggling to her feet, Sharron prepared herself for its inevitable charge. “Aeonys let Evelyn know we’ve engaged a thirteen and will work our way around to her ASAP.”
The creature charged and fleshy tentacles met metal ones.
******************
The twenty six drove the lesser models before it, slowly drawing closer; I wasn’t going to go down easily. Calling Spooky over, I grabbed my railgun off its back. As soon as I leaned out the twenty six hunkered down, throwing its talons in front of its face in protection. Apparently it recognised the weapon, not that it mattered. There was a flash as I fired, the twenty six screamed in pain, I could see a deep wound in its abdomen, a grievous one but not critical. I threw the still glowing railgun back to Spooky “Anti-tank gun my ass.”
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It would put a round straight through conventional armor. You just haven’t been fighting anything conventional lately.
“No shit, suggestions?”
One, this is ideal terrain for Bob.
“Really?”
You know how you’ve been complaining about how heavy everything’s armor is? Bobs is thicker. Two thousand points goes a long way.
“Well shit”, I glanced at the giant bear, partially covering me with one of his shields. For the first time I realised that by covering me, he really didn’t do anything to protect himself. Dozens of spines just bounced off him. “Forward big guy.”
Bob’s shield folded up as he strode forward, slowly gaining momentum. A few Antithesis redirected their attacks at him, they didn’t even slow him down. At the last moment his claws extended, glowing red, then Bob’s arms shot forward. The first claw cleaved through the entire Antithesis line before Bob took a step forward and the other claw down from the other direction killing scores more. From my position I saw a model three narrowly miss getting decapitated by the claws, only to be stepped on and crushed by Bob’s advance.
The twenty six danced around, it seemed unsure what to do.
“Bastard, *I* didn’t know he could do that, so there’s no way you could. Don’t deal with surprises very well do you.”
You were worried not even two minutes ago.
“Let me enjoy this damnit”
The twenty six finally decided to meet the threat head on. It rushed out, sweeping down with all four scything arms at Bob’s head at the same time.
There was a loud clang. Bob looked up, unaffected by the attack, then swept both claws up to sever the offending arms. The twenty six cried out in pain, stumbling back, but Bob just pushed forward. Claws swinging back and forth, repeatedly eviscerating the twenty six until it lay still.
I stood up, the battle pretty much finished “Fuck me, he can do that against something in the twenties? Why didn’t you tell me?”
First of all, that was not a combat oriented model in the twenties, and second of all I did show you the claws, you just didn’t believe me.
“Okay, fair. Any update on Sharron?”
******************
Whip-like tentacles slammed against her suit, causing the outer shell to ring from the blows but causing no real damage, that was caused by the larger ones. Two tentacles attempted to restrain, and remove her arms simultaneously. It might have been effective against a lighter armored opponent, or one without other means of defence.
Sharron’s melee tentacles slashed down, biting deep, forcing the tentacles to either release or risk being severed. Meanwhile, the four lasers cut repeatedly into the model thirteen’s main body. Unfortunately they were unable to do extensive damage, the two were locked in combat.
In frustration, Sharron forced her lasers to assist in removing the tentacles, severing them and giving her some breathing room. The cutting tentacles came forward again, impaling one of the bodies, holding it still as she fired round after round into one of the bodies until it lay still.
The lasers worked at constantly cutting away each tentacle that came her way. She repeated the process with each of the remaining body-masses until the entire creature finally died.
“I’m glad that was a young one,” she said, kicking the body “The last one we fought was badly worn down, I really don’t want to face one of those at full strength.”
I doubt it’ll be an issue, you nearly have all the points required for your next suit.
“Excellent, we should get back to Evelyn before anything bad happens.”
About that…