@Lord Coake@Letter BeeThere was no doubt in her mind that things had gone to shit,
At least they're not communistsKatherine stood by her latest victim, examining the tool of war that had just nearly turned her into another nameless wasteland pool of gore. Her heavy breathing gave way to a more intuitive approach regarding this new armor. It didn't resemble what she had fought and bled alongside in Alaska, at least.. did it? Her mind was still confused but one thing was for certain, this was definitely a dangerous piece of machinery. What was she to do now, faced with mindless monsters that roamed the wastes, violent humans that cared for nothing but either these "caps" or blood and now she is fighting the very weapon that was meant to save her life...
Kat detached her own armor chest piece and gently placed it upon the ground. Her clothing below was a simple olive green tank top that allowed and outside air straight to her skin. It was uncomfortable to say the least as the gently howling wind from between the buildings cooled down the entire upper half of her body. She focused through it and began twisting the power core from the back of her armor piece. When it finally detached her hands became engulfed in intense heat from the air that escaped the cores resting place. That armor had blackened the bottom of the core and with the urge of pain, she sent that junk flying behind her. She shook her hands and winced in pain, only realizing that it could've been so much worse had she not been wearing gloves but now they were too hot to wear. It was painful either way, leaving the burning gloves on or pulling the gloves off not only slowly blistered her hands but the movement of fabric scraped across the slowly reddening skin. Well, she chose the latter and eventually the pain subsided.
She stood up and made her way to confront the power armor once more, the back plating to be exact. She stood there for a few seconds, staring at the power core sitting calmly inside. There wasn't much thought to this next action as she pulled a small blade from her boot and cut a small bit of fabric from her right pant leg. Enough to wrap around her hand and act as a buffer from the heat of this new core. "figures" she said as the core did not release a torrent of heat but rather a gentle one.
Kat's next actions were quick, adding the new core back to her armor and then fastening it to her body once more and even gave her then cooled glove another chance. She looked about the dead bodies for any viable outfit but there was nothing that caught her eye. Even in this new land full of sorrow and confusion, she still wanted to be -somewhat- fashionable. Perhaps her own desire for things to go back to how it was before the world changed.
All of this occurred to the symphony of death in the background. Her vigilant mind had been processing the gunfire in the near distance, trying to examine it... wrap her mind around the true scale. Then the screams came, forcing her into a combat pose once more. This was a strange moment for anyone, most would not stand there for a moment and contemplate the fact they were alone and then walk into a battle she had no chance of winning.
Sure... why not. As she approached the battle all she could see, hear and even smell was death. Just general feel of people losing their lives filled the air. It was sickening for most but her training had shielded her mind from this horrible attack upon her senses. These were merely casualties at this point as she waded through debris and bodies of fallen victims. Her gun was quickly rose her already prepared rifle up, checking the area through the sights of that Gauss rifle that had saved her countless times now. This was a confusing yet relieving sight to her, power armors resembling the one she had just wrecked fighting others in a organized fashion. This was her calling, organized warfare. It was even better when she heard that sound she had long loved, the wafting engines of a vertibirds' entry to the area. It was even better when it fired its payload towards the nearest enemy which... shit.. was near her position. It was if time slowed as she locked her vision on the white trails that followed the rockets towards her. Her instinct was to watch as a bewildered human but her training sent her diving once more to avoid the rockets red glare. so to speak.
Her dive was a little late as the explosion sent her into a wall. As she came to, her vision was still blurred from the shell shock she was experiencing. Kat began looking around to find friendly soldiers, to check on her comrades.. going so far as to call some of their names. "Harrison!" she shouted, then "Rook! We still have a fight to win-" Her weakened state was fighting her training once more and it attempted bring focus. Sadly the pain that surged through her body had taken control and she found herself on her knees still in a daze.
"Damn damn damn!" she shouted, slamming her fist into the ground with what little energy she had. This new pain from her hand nearly cancelled the other which immediately caused her to regret doing so. This time there was no shell shock, no reverting senses to her orderly life before it was nuked into oblivion. Kat eyes shot wide open before her brow quickly furrowed. She snarled as she reached for her Gauss rifle and then brought it to bear once more. There was no telling who was on what side but she knew for certain that those pricks in power armor reminiscent of that one from before were going to pay. Her focus tunneled on a soldier that was trying his hardest to find cover. She didn't even know if there was armor on him or not. All she saw was a body, a victim for her weapon and it became even more dangerous when she attached a hand band with strange gadgetry over the eyes into place. The vision was clear now, bodies were lit up from its powerful sensors. With this new ability, she calculated rapidly the distance from her to the nearest soldier.
It's almost as if they locked eyes for a moment as the flash from the rifle sent a projectile right between the soldiers eyes. The explosion of this man's skull caused a smirk to cross her dry, cracked lips. Her rifle aimed again towards a lone soldier with what looked like a scoped laser rifle. That fellow was wiring widly into the lines of the other soldiers, the ones that didn't resemble the gunner who had nearly killed her not so long ago. His head was another testament to the still potent weapons of the past. She even tracked parts of the gore that had landed upon a nearby soldiers shoulder. That soldier turned to see what had happened but before he could wrap his mind around it, his upper arm and shoulder seemingly disintegrated which sent his forearm flying away.
"Damn, missed." She said, wiping sweat from her forehead.
It didn't matter though, the guy slumped over cold.
This had happened all so fast that she did have one chance to fire a shot at the vertibirds spacer directly below the blades of its left engine propeller blades. With the speed of her projectile and the reasonable distance between her rifle and the now landed vertibird, she had a highly successful chance of hitting and disabling the aircraft before it could take off again. Luck was always a factor but she would never know if it worked until she pulled a trigger.
The momentary sound of shattering glass filled her ears as she depressed the trigger, sending one of the most powerful slugs in the wasteland towards its target.