Retreat from the Inb4 Landing Pad - Bakunin fights the Operation Subsection of the Special Situations Section
"Vengeance is mine, I will repay", says the Lord.
-Romans, 12:19
Another explosion shook the support structure where they were hiding, immediately answered by the hiss of sister Lavinia's rockets. Asunción sat in a corner, too worried about the situation reports blinking on her comlog to dust off the debris falling on her from the ceiling.
Where did it go so wrong?
They were about to leave the landing pad with colonel Noovan, and Ellie had even managed to get the Stigmaton moving again, blackened and charred as it was, when the local network had suddenly severed her connection. Before she could wonder whether Brutus had taken back control of the Node, a stream of armour piercing bullets had impacted on their TAG, forcing it on one knee.
From behind the Node control room, the porcelain-like surface of a Marut softly reflected the muzzle flashes of its oversized weapon, the rounds pouring on the smaller war machine in a rain of sparks. The Stigmaton had attempted to return fire, but in a matter of seconds the jury-rigged repairs had started failing, and the faceless TAG had collapsed on the ground, weakly twitching when more shots found its core systems.
They barely had time to get behind cover, as the Marut mercilessly advanced. A nearby Transductor unit stopped transmitting, and then she heard a scream from her left: Horqueta had been hit, all their optical disruption devices rendered useless by the advanced tech of the Aleph demon. Meanwhile, a squad of Dakini had deployed on a rooftop ahead, pinning them in the crossfire.
She turned towards Mother Wabara, crouched behind a ravaged food kiosk, as the Moira's vitals started blinking red on her overlay
"Agatha can you reach Horqueta? Sister Lavinia will suppress them as you run through!"
The Healer nodded gravely, preparing for the dash forward. Lavinia, perched on the top floor of the structure, gave the signal: Agatha burst out of her cover shooting towards the roof, just as the explosive payload of the rocket launcher reached its target, enveloping two of the androids in the fiery blast. She quickly reached the other side of the road, few stray bullets flying in her direction and wildly missing, and kneeled beside Horqueta.
"Punctured abdomen. Serum and stimulants should get her back on her feet, but she'll need surgery back at camp." She spoke calmly in the squad channel while administering treatment. After a few seconds, Horqueta regained consciousness, coughing and cursing in spanish under her breath
"Language." admonished her the older Reverend "Can you stand?"
"Wha... Oh, sorry Mother Wabara. Yes, I can stand just fine, just point me towards that cursed piece of s-"
"We need to clear the roof on your left first, some Dakinis are still operational." interrupted her Asunción "Be careful not to..."
The loud stuttering of the machine gun covered her words, as Horqueta enthusiastically followed her order, resuming her painkiller-fuelled stream of insults towards Aleph's machines. Agatha's words barely filtered over the surrounding noise, as their Cenobite fired more rockets from the floor above them.
"She's gonna get herself killed if she keeps going like this. Her armour is holding against those robots, but if the Marut comes back around..."
As if on cue, the monster appeared again, its long, graceful strides quickly carrying it across the field towards a radar tower on their right flank, where Robin Hook was hiding with the Tohaa colonel. Only after some of the Moira's bullets bounced uselessly against its carapace, the TAG, almost as an afterthought, raised its weapon, and poured into her a torrent of fire.
This time there was no scream: Horqueta's HMG simply fell silent, and her brain activity graph instantly flatlined. Indifferent, the Marut turned towards its next target.
For Asunción, everything became a blurred mess.
She distantly heard Robin calling for help, and someone screaming desperately. On the overlay, everything was hazy and unfocused, as if the images reached her through a veil of water. She felt like she was drowning, and started hyperventilating, gasping for air. Confusedly, she noticed that the android had dropped from the network, and that Adeline and Lavinia were running out into the street.
She didn't register leaving the crumbling infrastructure, nor removing her Custodier helmet, until the acrid smell of burning plastic and the stifling air hit her like a slap across the face.
Someone was dragging her forward by the arm. She shook her head, trying to focus.
All of a sudden, the thunder of gunfire assailed her senses, and she recoiled backwards against a wall, ears ringing painfully. The serious face of Agatha abruptly occupied her field of view, deep umber skin in stark contrast with the white braids and chest plate. She was almost screaming over the shooting, looking her directly in the eye
"You have to get yourself together, lieutenant! They have Noovan and we are taking heavy losses; what are your orders?!"
"I... we..." she stammered, desperately trying to form a coherent thought. More gunfire came from the street behind them, bullets taking away chunks of the wall that they were using as cover. She risked a look over it: Adeline was slumped in the middle of the road, severely wounded, while a Posthuman, its body damaged and warped almost beyond recognition, was dragging the Tohaa colonel towards the intersection, where a cloud of brightly coloured smoke was blocking the Marut's optics. Lavinia was hot on its pursuit, vaulting over burned down cars and rubble.
"We have to deactivate that Proxy." she finally said "We can't extract Noovan in our current state, but maybe he can hide somewhere if we free him. Someone will also have to stop the Marut before it leaves the Eclipse smoke."
"Understood." Immediately answered the few survivors on comms.
"I'll keep the big guy busy, Freya, Lavinia, the other one's yours!" ringed Clara's voice, as the Morlock jumped on the towering war machine in the dissipating smoke. The distraction, however, didn't last as long as they wanted: with an effortless motion, the Marut lifted up the massive close combat weapon in its secondary set of arms, parrying and riposting the nimble strikes of the Morlock. Surprised by the TAG's agility, Clara slightly misjudged the distance, her back step intercepted by a low sweep. The pearlescent blade cleanly cut through flesh and bone, severing one leg and drawing a neat crimson arc on the ground.
In a fraction of a second, the Marut had already acquired the next target, its head turning in unison with its main gun towards Lavinia. The Cenobite tried to roll out of the way, but she was in open ground, and the long burst of fire intercepted her, the impacts flinging backwards her broken form.
The long barrel of the HMG started pivoting again, this time towards the Chimera, that was running at full speed towards the fleeing posthuman, both her and Pupniks under fire from the entrenched dakinis.
"LOOK THIS WAY, HELL-SPAWN!" Resounded Agatha's voice, as the Healer left cover running towards the TAG, heavy hammer in hand. The Marut hesitated, its threat assessment algorithms conflicting with the mission objectives, and in that brief moment, Freya brought up her rifle, and shot.
The Posthuman tumbled to the ground, its battered l-host finally giving in, as the Uberfallkommando herself fell down under the return fire of the nearby Aleph soldiers. Asunción desperately tried to conjure a sensor-jamming program to cover Sister Wabara's advance, but the Marut, sensing her presence through the network, instantly fired an anti-materiel explosive round into her position with supernatural accuracy.
She was blasted to the ground, the world around her shattering with an high pitched whine. Bright lights danced in front of her eyes, and she coughed up blood on the debris-covered concrete pavement. Miraculously, she was still alive, her armour blunting the impact enough to result in nothing more than some cracked ribs.
The Custodier managed to get back up on unsteady legs, and, while the Marut's attention was focused on Agatha, tentatively stumbled away, reaching Ellie, their combat engineer, and a lone Transductor unit that were waiting nearby. They were all that remained of her soldiers.
The young girl with purple-green hair helped her sit on the remote, while in the distance the Marut's flamethrower lighted up the landing pad, enveloping the brave Reverend Healer in scorching white flames.
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