Three Strikes, Grid Nine, Six Night, and JP had hurried along the narrow streets and found a spot to gather in. They soon realized both Falcon and Blue Man were no longer with them. They’d been so focused on the objective that they had no time to keep tabs on the other two. JP opted to take centre point, motioning to the others of their next move, and planned out the route they were going to take. None objected to his swift taking of command. Their only purpose was the objective and to seize control of the main AI computer complex.
The visuals of his plan downloaded into each of their brains, showing the schematics of the route, the targets in their way, and threats of the situation. Each nodded once it was understood. JP cocked his massive mini-gun and motioned his head to the others to follow behind. No sooner had they started to bolt out of their spot, when a flurry of armed drones came running up the street in their direction. The group was quick to react; they took up formation as a circle and began firing on the various drones charging at them.
JP’s mini-gun laser lay carnage as the drones were sliced into flying debris of hot metal slag. Three Strikes and Six Night were busy, taking out the distant snipers poised on the roof and positioned around the hidden corners of the street. Grid Nine made sure none of the drone soldiers were missed, as he took out the ones that dodged the bombardment the others were inflicting on them. As they continued this melee of suppressing fire. They walked in unison up the street in a slow steady pace. From time to time, they would have to grab a new energy pack and reload their weapons, but they were incredibly fast and easily performed the task with skill.
The drone soldiers kept coming in vast numbers. For every twenty they put down, thirty more came up from behind. The success rate in their visuals was lowering as the calculations of their remaining energy consumption declined steadily. This caused Six Night to suggest to the others (via text to their brain nodes) that they make a run for it, and try to stay out of the line of fire. Grid Nine concurred with that, as did Three Strikes, but JP refuted Six Night’s decision, feeling that it was not his call to make.
Six Night tried to convince the bulky warrior that it was, giving him the instant layout and tactic estimations. He still wouldn’t yield to it. He asserted his authority by commanding them to maintain the barrage and keep firing till the way was clear. This caused some concern from the others. Their internal visuals were displaying the falling numbers of their energy and plausible survival rate from continuing such non-stop weapons fire. Again, JP demanded they keep going. The group had no choice but to comply.
As they continued to progress up the street, they came to a large intersection where there was very little cover to be had. There were some doorways, recessed nooks and a few obstacles they could use, but it would be very little to shield them from every angle. They needed up back to back, still circling around one another and keeping the onslaught of weapons fire going. This was a trap, and they fell right into it. Grid Nine, did his best to keep the drones at bay, but when he looked up, there were some flying smaller ones heading down and making the situation even harder to deal with.
Six Night had to re-strategize the situation, there was no way they could make it out of here and complete their objective in one piece. He suggested to the others that they split up, heading down different areas and forcing the drone army to follow each of them. This would lower the concentration of soldiers and give them a tactical advantage for greater success. JP again, seemed reluctant. But before he could state his disapproval, the others broke away in different directions. Each one took a separate adjoining street and had groups of drones following them behind. JP watched them bravely run and fight as he maintained focus on staying whee he was. With drones above and below, he wasn’t budging from where he stood. This was his new objective. Keeping as many busy as possible, till the end, if need be.
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Falcon fought his way forward, using both firearms and martial arts to clear his path. He glanced back periodically to gauge the oncoming threat of the slow-rumbling thumps of large robots charging behind him. They were sizeable opponents, no doubt the AI’s most lethal arsenal being dispatched, and demolishing structures and other drones in its wake. Energy blasts came streaking by Falcon’s head, as the massive robot targeted him and used its shoulder mounted cannons to unleash a powerful wave of bright green lasers. Falcon dodged them as best he could, all the while trying to take out more foot soldiers and air drones trying to compensate for the missed opportunity.
Falcon tried to sync-up with the other’s brain-nodes, trying to get a signal to them and ping their locations. He got no response. The signal was being jammed, somehow. This didn’t seem possible. Even if there was some sort of jammer being used, their inter-node connection wouldn’t be that disrupted by it. Their brains were heavily shielded, and didn’t rely on a signal tower or satellite system. So long as they were with in distance, a good one hundred square miles, they would have no problem communicating with one another. He moved the frequency around, changing it up from higher bandwidths and then to lower ones. He did everything possible to bi-pass the jammer, but the signal was still being blocked no matter what he tried.
As an android, he could slow down or speed up his frame rate, giving him the ability to multi-task in thought. If he had been fighting humans, this would have been adventitious, unfortunately, he was in mid-battle with other machines, who also had this ability. Before he could switch back, syncing up his mental-cue to the fighting at hand, a drone soldier got the drop on him, as it came up fast and punched him in the head. Falcon was momentarily stunned by this, trying to compensate from the force of it, but the soldier followed through with a combined upper cut, two back handed slaps, and then spun with a roundhouse kick to Falcon’s torso.
There was no way of blocking this swift attack. Falcon was launched across the way, slammed against the street wall, and dropped to his face. He could hear the soldier’s footsteps as it came up to him. Falcon tried to re-align his cognitive functions and rolled over to establish a visual. The image was flipping, the sight of the soldier standing over him fizzling and twitching, the sound crackled with static and squealed in various pitches. He noted the other drone soldiers, a colossal group of them, moving on while this one stayed to monitor him. Falcon desperately tried to raise up his weapon, still firmly clutched in his hand, but the enemy soldier removed it from his hand, as it gave a passive kick and sent the gun out of his reach.
It was looking like this was the end for him. The enemy held out its own weapon, a gun that was integrated into its arm, and powered it up to give the final shot to take him out. Falcon tried to hail his team again and again, over and over, but there was still no response. Falcon prepared his report, downloading all of it in into his central core processor, hoping the blast wouldn’t destroy it, so that it could be retrieved by his superiors back on Earth.
Suddenly, the enemy soldier flinched, its back arced and glance upward. His head was met with a sword that swung down and sliced through, splitting it apart like an apple being chopped. The drone soldier collapsed and in his place, leaping down onto the robotic corpse, was Blue Man. He had double backed to save Falcon. As the other enemy troops saw this, they tried to take on the fierce sword wielding warrior, and were just as equally split apart as their fallen comrade. Blue Man was swift, precise and elegant in his kills. He disarmed the lot (quite literally) with skill and flair that only a well-trained master of the arts could achieve. Falcon watched on, tracking Blue Man’s actions with interest, and tried to download some moves for his own combat techniques.
Blue Man finished up and took out the remaining four soldiers with style. He bounced their energy blasts back at them, slid down along the ground behind them, and used his blade to remove their legs. He leapt back up afterwards, spun around, and then decapitated them; the superior attack was instantaneous, Falcon could see the results when all four dropped to the ground in pieces. Blue Man twirled his weapon playfully about, and stood victorious amongst the fallen enemy. Falcon re-assessed his opinion of him and instantly put him onto the roster for any future missions. There was no way Falcon would go anywhere without this one ever again.