[more third person...sorry]
"...remarkably light damage in spite of the durability of the primitive suit, usually one encounters the other extreme on backwaters." Point Commander Harvey noted, "At least, at range. The little girl's ranged weapons hit like...well, a little girl. We have faced civilians with more powerful actual
weapons."
"Yet you were defeated?"
"She tore
my arm off." he said, "and did something to my armor's systems...and I have never seen a mass malfunction of Suit missiles like that! Agh...The suit absorbed the combined fire from my point and it only went
faster, but it was no threat until it was in melee range."
the Medtechs had been permitted to pull the wounded off the field, no fire had been directed at them, and the 'Superheroes' actually held fire until the ambulance was clear.
the show of honor had not been ignored, and so, the battle cluster used the break to spread out their deployment and position to advance, instead of pressing in on the defended hillside.
Harvey's wounds from the brief melee scuffle would require extensive repair-and his were not the only ones. One of his warriors would never be able to use neural integration circuitry again-that energized chain weapon the girl used had fried both suit and man.
all in all, five elementals and all were simply fortunate to have survived.
"Then there is her battle cry, clear as you are standing in front of me, Star Captain..." Harvey continued, "she said 'Good Game Guys'. right into my very own headset, through six layers of advanced encryption on a channel she should not have been able to access!
who says something like that?"
"Someone who thinks this a game, because we have rules...and follow them." Katya speculated.
a child hardened to killing without restrictions, seeing us as playing an expensive simulation game...trying to be a 'good sport'...I want to kill someone, but who? the ones using that child as a soldier, or the ones who warped that child into such a creature in the first place? the more Katya had dug into their opponents...the more certain she was that this world had been
disordered and
desperately needed to be put to rights.
outside the dropship, a storm of consternation from one of the 'mechwarriors on the field, as something sliced into his 'mech's armor, sending heat spikes and overcoming the sinks.
"Fillip, you are 'on'. Cover the Third Battle Cluster's left wing, find and identify the location of the enemy's command and control, and lead warriors in the neutralization." she sighed, "This needs to
end."
***
Fillip had grown up on the South side of Chicago, and while he'd avoided being caught in a gang, and had played football right to a degree and a multimillion dollar contract with the Seattle Seahawks, he never forgot his roots-join the strongest gang in the area and be useful.
The Wolf Clan was clearly the strongest gang. Stronger than the government, he believed, which had been stronger than the street gangs.
and he could be useful here, which means status, security, and safety...and an advanced medicine that could maybe help his mother with her failing organs.
he left the dropship flying low-250 miles an hour, until he saw
her. The white chick in the uncle-sam suit with her patriotic bullshit and her little crew of superpowered kids.
I'm gonna take you out. he had to get past the drones taking off from hidden boxes in the desert landscape though.
he dropped to the ground, and
rushed. Tackle the leader, take her out, the rest will fall down, it works in the hood, it works on the football field...
