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[img]https://imgs.search.brave.com/11CLemGvKTMWI2RA-Zc5oInpeEj9dWAdTC2VR2SBHls/rs:fit:860:0:0:0/g:ce/aHR0cHM6Ly9pLmV0/c3lzdGF0aWMuY29t/LzQzMDg4NDk5L2Mv/MTAwOC8xMDA4LzEy/MTQvMC9pbC80NTgy/OTQvNDkwMDQyMDU2/Ny9pbF82MDB4NjAw/LjQ5MDA0MjA1Njdf/M3h2ay5qcGc[/img]
[h1][color=blueviolet][b][u]The Killing Fields[/u][/b][/color][/h1]
[url=https://youtu.be/ICqsuSOfsa0?list=PLED07D7ADEF957788](Mood Music)[/url]
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The Blackout's DCA caused a low hum inside of the cockpit of the MAS. The special armor trapped the heat inside of the unit to mask its thermal signatures which made Hex sweat, even when the air conditioning was cranked to max. With the Blackout knelt down to one knee with its LR-90 propped up on some wreckage, it looked like another piece of rubble within the destroyed firebase, the automatic color and texture changing plates of the DCA ensuring it blended in with the surroundings to combat the naked eye. The MAS itself was motionless. The faceplate of the MAS' head had split in four quarters to reveal an advanced sensor array capable of seeing through the atmospheric distortion and noise. It waited like an ambush predator for its next prey.

Leah turned her eyes to a screen on her right to check on the status of her funnel drones. They were all docked with her backpack unit and quickly recharging for another deployment. And they would be deploying again soon. Leah heard a chime as her sensors spotted something. She looked back to her main display, seeing a battlegroup highlighted in red on her main display. It was a whole damn mechanized infantry company closing in on Rhino and the new guy. While that might only be a minor pain in the ass for those two, the backing of a complete squadron of Fenrirs would most certainly complicate things. Leah reported it immediately over the team net, [color=blueviolet][b]"7th, Hex. Enemy battlegroup spotted southeast of my position at Grid 366 045. Eight times Fenrirs and one full mech. inf. company. Moving East in battle formation. Rhino, Rook, looks like they're committing to a frontal on your position. I've got 'em sighted in on their flank and will engage, but I suggest you take up some positions and get ready for a slog. Over."[/b][/color]

Hex selected the nearest of the eight fenrirs as her first target, her displays zooming in on the machine as her targeting reticle switched on. With an atmosphere and a gravity well in play, her reticle was much more complex. The targeting gratical accounted for the planet's atmospheric density and gravitational influence as well as distance and the target's direction of travel to ensure an accurate shot. The Blackout's firing computer corrected for all the variables to ensure the aiming was properly zeroed in for Hex. She heard a tone in her helmet that signaled she had a clean shot. Before pulling the trigger though, Leah deployed the drones again. They detached from the Blackout's backpack and fanned out before racing toward the APCs rushing her teammates' position. Once the drones were deployed, Leah turned back to her main target.

With a squeeze of her trigger, the LR-90 let out a thunderous boom. The shockwave from the muzzle blew bushels and tree aside, and the shock absorbers in the Blackout's legs pressed into the muddy earth below with force, causing the mud and dirt to splat outward from the Blackout. The 90mm sabot round travelled straight for three of the five kilometers between the Blackout and the fenrir. The round began to lose energy and start dipping on its trajectory exactly as the firing computer had calculated. With the battlegroup unaware that they were in the sniper's killzone, the first fenrir stood no chance. The round, a hot white line in the air, punched through the side armor of the fenrir, sparks and fire blowing out the opposite end as the round punched clean through. The explosive decompression of the pressurized fenrir cockpit signaled to the witnesses of the sudden shot had outright killed the pilot. The impact of the shot caused the fenrir to lurch to one side as its boosters continued to propel it forward. It slammed into the ground, dirt and mud blowing out from the heavy machine scraping into it. The boosters continued to fire on full, pushing it further along until a large clump of trees entangled and halted the cored out machine.

The next two fenrirs in line saw their teammate on the flank go down, making them immediately react by veering off from their battle line and taking positions behind large rock formations. [color=tan][i]"Where the hell did that come from?! Did anyone see where that came from?!"[/i][/color] one of the pilot's asked over their net.

[color=tan][i]"Negative Two-Seven! I've got no visua-"[/i][/color] [i]SCRRRR-[/i]

Another round said through the head of the second fenrir, knocking it back out of its cover and exposing its core for a third round to punch through the torso of the MAS. A fireball blew out the back of the fenrir as the impact of the superheated sabot round pierced the fuel cells of the fenrir's boosters. Metal creaked and howled as the fenrir tombstoned onto its back, lifeless. [color=tan][i]"Shit! Two-Actual! This is Two-Three! Eight and Six are down! We've got some sort of AT on our right flank. No visual, I say again, no visual!"[/i][/color]

Two-Seven lowered his MAS further against the rock formation to keep its critical components obscured from the enemy fire coming from the northwest. A small sensor arrow rose up from the fenrir's shoulder to peer over the rocks in an attempt to discern the position of their assailant. But instead of finding his enemy's firing position, he found eight small drones flying low over a tree line in a fanned out formation, bound for the transports his squadron was meant to be escorting. But the flank had collapsed and been pinned down, leaving the left flank exposed. [color=tan][i]"Shit! Hostile fast movers closing in on the transports! Unable to support!"[/i][/color]

The drones spotted their first target, an APC charging across open ground to deliver its payload of infantry to the feet of the Secutor and the Venator. The crew of the transport heard the report on the net and began turning its turret to face the threat, but before the turret could acquire its first target, the drones had unleashed their first laser volley. The unshielded, light armored transport didn't stand a chance from the convergence of several lasers. Four glowing hot lines traced along the hull of the transport, parts of the armor totally melting and exposing the soft bodied infantry inside to the extreme heat of the directed energy. The APC ignited and rolled to a halt, a column of black smoke rising from the husk of the vehicle.

Sergeant Reymers sat next to his comrades in their own transport. He glanced to his right, seeing the turret of their transport spinning and hearing the commander give firing orders to his gunner. The rest of his squad turned their heads too as the thirty millimeter cannon opened up, filling the troop compartment with heavy [i]whomp whomp whomp![/i] as the transport's gun fired at whatever they were engaging with. Business as usual for mechanized infantry. But everyone could hear the crew commander's yelling become more and more frantic as the gun fired, and sergeant Reymers knew something wasn't going well. Then he spotted the sidewall of the crew compartment rapidly begin to glow orange, then white. The armor melted and exposed the crew for just a moment to open air before the troops immediately behind the melting armor were vaporized. Sergeant Reymers could barely process what was happening before he too was slagged by the lasers. The transport went up in a fireball as another one of the drone's lasers hit the turret's ammo magazine, causing it to cook up and send a column of fire through the turret hatches and into the air.

Two-Seven watched as two transports under his charge were minced to pieced by the fast moving drones. The transports couldn't afford to stop though. It was open ground and too far to the position for the infantry to dismount early. Their defense was their speed, and they were helpless against the airborne threats unless the MAS's could keep their predictable and vulnerable battleline in lock-step with them. But that only left them open to the sniper fire that picked apart the left flank of the battle line. He tried to move out from his cover to rejoin his squadron, but at he did, a sabot round traced a hot line along his front armor and took out the hand of his MAS, the cannon in that hand dropping to the ground. He pulled his MAS back behind the rocks and cursed under his breath. He was thoroughly pinned down. Then he heard a whistling sound for a split second for feeling a light impact on his MAS. An alarm went off, telling him of an impact. But after a quick systems diagnostic, things returned green. Well... Except the missing hand.

Hex watched as her stiletto missile connected with the shoulder of the fenrir in cover. Immediately she was greeted with a data feed on one display as the stiletto went to work breaching the fenrir's firewalls. The target outline of the fenrir appeared through the rocks now that the stiletto had breached the fenrir's systems. Even with the full knowledge of the MAS' posture behind the hard cover, Leah wasn't able to get a clear lethal shot on the MAS. She could send some drones, but she needed them to harass the transports to buy the Secutor and Venator time to prepare to receive them. Leah reached over and flipped a few switches in her cockpit, changing her radio channel to the fleet in low orbit as her SFCC expanded from her shoulder. There was a nearby destroyer supporting another UEE battalion as they pressed into Gelcastre's perimeter defenses, the EENS St. Joshua. Using the SFCC, Leah overrode the St. Joshua's fire control. [color=blueviolet][b]"St. Joshua this is 101st operator Hex, 7th Squadron. Authority: Obsidian. Fire mission, over."[/b][/color] Leah sent the loc-stat of the stiletto'd fenrir to the destroyer.

She received a prompt, albeit frustrated response. [color=white][i]"Hex, this is St. Joshua. Authority recognized. You have the guns. Over."[/i][/color]

In low orbit, the lower dual laser cannon turret of the St. Joshua traversed and locked onto Hex' target. Her HUD cycled to show her firing data from the St. Joshua, along with an augmented reality display of the cannon's firing line. Once the lines fell over the AR silhouette of the hunkered down fenrir, Hex heard a tone in her helmet and pulled the trigger.

[color=white][i]"St. Joshua. Shot. Out."[/i][/color]

Within a second of that report, a bright lance of energy pierced through the clouds and melted the fenrir down to just a set of legs in the center of glassed earth, heat ripples distorting the air around the site of the orbital strike. [color=blueviolet][b]"Hex, target destroyed. Your cooperation is much appreciate, St. Joshua. Hex out."[/b][/color] With that, Leah relinquished control back to the St. Joshua so it could continue with its own operations.

She turned her attention back to the rest of the battleground, seeing that her drones were still engaging transports. But the main body of the force had gone into some low ground, obscuring the Blackout's view of their battle line. [color=blueviolet][b]"Rhino, Rook. Hex. I've softened 'em up for you. I'll maintain overwatch while you meet 'em. Over."[/b][/color]
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