720 720 Entryway Clear
Max moved back behind a structural pillar while Nico rolled right and behind the desk to evade the first barrage of Ion Rifle fire.
“Hey, are those human-made rifles? I recognize that energy pattern.” Max called over to his partner.
“Give me a second. I think they are.” She replied, then stood up enough to let her shoulder-mounted weapons blast a pair of attackers and draw another round of fire in her direction.
“They are human-made. But obsolete. I’m not sure where they got them, but they are a Cygnus pattern rifle that has been outdated by nearly a thousand years. Not even the Black Wind Territory would use a rifle design that old anymore.
They’re still deadly, but twenty percent lower output than the modern design, and they were known for malfunctions when damaged.”
Well, that was at least enough information to tell them what they were up against, if not where the weapons had actually come from. For all Max knew, they might have gotten them from the same place they found the Klem, some fallen human world that still had remnants of the military supplies left lying around because they weren’t organic and weren’t of interest to the Klem.
Max leaned right and placed a burst of Lasers into the charging hybrids, distracting them from Nico’s position for a moment but not slowing their momentum.
He couldn’t stay exposed for long with the volume of fire they were taking. This was a Mobile Suit, not a Crusader Class Mecha, and it wouldn’t take that much abuse for long.
With his shield held in front of him, Max shifted to another pillar further away, firing into the crowd as he went and watching in satisfaction as a series of heads exploded.
“Aim high. The bodies are armoured, but the heads are squishy.” He called over to Nico as he ducked out of the way of another barrage of fire.
These ancient weapons, or the replicas of them, were slow firing, and Max estimated that they couldn’t fire more than one round a second from each weapon.
That was a strong advantage for him and Nico since they could outgun even a group this large.
“On the count of three, pop up and fire full speed. We will thin them out while they are confused. I think they’ve lost some of their intelligence.” Max told Nico as he scanned the area for more reinforcements.
“3, 2, 1,” Max turned out from behind the pillar as Nico moved out from the corner of the reception area, and they both unleashed their Laser Arrays into the crowd.
The hybrids split in an instant, charging as they fired their rifles, barely able to overcome their instinct to use their claws to rip these two hateful Mecha apart. Their accuracy on the run was terrible, and some of them had already dropped their rifles to extend claws or draw blades that looked much more dangerous than the relic Ion Rifles.
Now that he could get a good look at them, Max could tell that they really were relics. Time had weathered them to the point of nearly falling apart, even with the attempts to repair them that had been made.
Max didn’t slow his rate of fire as he charged at the crowd with his shield raised and sword extended to his side for a sweeping strike that tore a half dozen unarmoured hybrids in half in an instant. He saw their noses wrinkle at the smell of burning flesh caused by the energy barrier around the sword’s blade, but he didn’t stop swinging until the chaff was dead, leaving him and Nico facing off against a four-meter tall, six-armed Klem.
This creature was definitely intelligent, and though Max couldn’t sense any coherent thoughts, perhaps due to a lack of language skills, the impression that it was planning its attack was strong, and he was still catching glimpses of images from it.
“It’s going high.” He warned Nico a split second before the creature leaped into the air and then used the ceiling to rocket back down at him.
Max rolled to the side and used his shield to block the thirty-centimetre-long claws that tipped the limb closest to him.
The shriek of metal on metal was interrupted by a shriek of pain as Nico unleashed her Lasers into the Klem and then hacked off one of its arms with her blades. That gave Max time to use his thrusters to throw himself back to his feet and begin firing again.
It was fast, slightly faster than the targeting motors in his Laser Arrays at this close distance, and it was doing an incredible job of avoiding taking serious damage from the weapons.
“Herd it toward the corner. I will hang back so that it can’t leap over you and get range again.” Nico called as she backed off to get a good shot at the creature.
Max slammed it with his shield, throwing the beast back into the wall, but before he could follow up, a second mental presence and strong killing intent alerted him to an incoming threat.
“Nico, above you.” He called as he blasted a barrage of Laser fire into his downed opponent.
It was bleeding heavily, and its dorsal armour was shattered in dozens of places, but the Klem wasn’t giving up, right up until Max brought the edge of his shield down on top of its head and crushed its skull.
As it went silent, Max could pick out the rapid exchange of metal-on-metal strikes as Nico fought the newcomer, using her twin blades to fend off six limbs while Max worked to get in position for a killing shot.
Nico dodged to the left and backward, turning the Klem away from Max for an instant as it tracked her, and Max took advantage of the blind spot to shoot the upper two limbs off, leaving it without its strongest attacks and unable to fend off Nico’s next set of attacks, which knocked its arms wide and then put a pair of Laser shots through its chest cavity.
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“Let’s move forward. Gather any data that we can and forward it to the ship and the embargo line as needed.” Max ordered as he shook the green blood off his equipment.