Like a blazing comet, Ronin shoots out of the sky with the lion in an upside-down fireman’s carry. He aims for the toppled company jeep and crashes into it, the lion taking the brunt of the impact. The vehicle’s gas tank explodes immediately.
[Ronin: Hull Point damage sustained. Armor integrity - 51%. Cockpit breach imminent]
Hanami boosts over to the smoking, burning wreckage and grabs Ronin’s leg, dragging the Mech backwards. The lion is momentarily tangled in the twisted frame of the jeep, smoke distorting its vision.
Hanami aims for the same spot as before—the hip. She fires her Long-Range Cannon. She hits! Another loud crack as more metal splinters off the targeted area.
[37 rounds remaining]
The second lion scrambles to its feet, tries to crawl out of the crater and wreckage. Its head and body are dented, scorched in places. It hobbles as it moves, its hind left leg no longer fully supporting it.
Hanami allows herself the luxury of a thin smile.
Kora backs Templar away from the lion pinned under Bombardier. She lowers her Ballistic Shield and turns it horizontally. Then she rams it straight into the open mouth of the lion. She can hear straining gears as its teeth try to tear through the thick shield, a river of sparks pouring from its mouth as Templar wedges the shield in harder and harder.
Relying on haptic feedback, Reo finds a bundle of cables and wires inside the lion’s robotic skull and pulls them out through the eye socket, gripping them like the strings of a marionette. The lion tries to unleash another ear-piercing shriek but is stymied by the shield pressing into its metal throat.
Across the way, the second lion glares at Ranger and Ronin, testing its leg uncertainly, diagnosing its injury. It turns and slinks off into the jungle, limping as it goes.
Chase fires multiple bursts after it with his Semiauto Cannon. He hits it again with one of the bursts, but it retreats further and further away, disengaging from combat.
[51 rounds remaining]
Hanami sends her drone up and over the jungle, trying to keep tabs on the target. She feels satisfied that it has retreated for now. She sizes up Ronin’s banged up frame.
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“Are you…” she starts to ask over the Comms.
“Yeah, yeah. Just your usual severe head trauma,” Chase answers.
“You are concussed?” Hanami asks.
“Just a joke. Maybe. Let’s go help Reo and Kora.”
Ranger and Ronin boost over to where their other team members have the first lion pinned.
“Hey, watch your fingers,” Chase tells Reo.
Ronin gets on one knee and Chase aims his Laser low at the base of the lion’s neck. He fires a sustained stream and begins slowly cutting through the exposed joint of the neck between the armored plating. The beast issues one more mechanical shriek that dissolves into a bath of digital noise. Chase quickly shuts off the Laser as the head is cut free and Reo holds it aloft by the dangling cables and wires with Bombardier’s remaining hand.
[Laser overheated. Cooldown commencing – 15 seconds]
“Disengage your QPS,” Hanami reminds the squad, and they do.
Reo stares disheartened at Bombardier’s stump while Kora quietly fetches the gnawed-off hand from the grass several meters behind.
“I feel like I just drove a new car off the lot and already dented it,” Reo says glumly.
“Well, to be fair nobody briefed us about killer demon cat robots,” Chase remarks, running a finger over the crack in his cockpit window. “We’ll get your boy patched up as soon as the mission’s over.”
Templar holds the severed hand out apologetically for Bombardier to take. On instinct, Reo reaches with the Mech’s left arm to pick it up, only to realize he can’t. He lets out a deep sigh.
“Er… maybe I’ll just hold on to it for now, ay?” Kora says.
Reo gets a flash of inspiration. He grips the robotic lion head in Bombardier’s right hand and tries positioning it against the stump at different angles.
“Reo? You hear me? Alrighty then, I’ll leave you to it…”
Ranger is turned away, Hanami studying the factory. Kora maneuvers Templar to stand next to Ranger.
“What’s our next move, Girl Boss?” asks Kora.
“We need to go inside the factory and obtain evidence of what happened,” Hanami answers.
“Inside… the crazy death factory….”
“On foot.”
I’d rather shag an emu.
Ronin joins them, surveying the silent building as Reo fiddles with his stump.
“Two of us will need to stay outside on guard in our Mechs. The other two will disembark and proceed together on foot through the factory.”
“You want to split the party?” Kora asks.
Hanami again sends her drone into an automatic high circle over the factory and its perimeter, double-checking its remaining battery life.
[Aerial Topography Drone – 51% battery remaining]
“The other hostile is still out there. It is keeping its distance, for now.”
“I’m game!” Chase says. “Plus, I really gotta pee. But… you’re Squadron Leader, of course. Your call to make. Who’s staying and who’s going?”
Hanami is silent, considering all the permutations.
“Chase will accompany me. The others… Reo and Kora… will be on overwatch. Do a perimeter sweep and then investigate the open loading bays on the west side of the factory. There are seventy-one minutes until sunrise. The mission now is to find any verifiable information about what happened here and exfiltrate ASAP.”