The noise of battle echoed all around her as missiles kept raining down in salvos. Only now the blue team started to employ counterasures. The dium chs kept zigzagging while the heavies used their prodigious firepower to strike the missiles down.
linda and Janet skillfully navigated forward. They dipped in the many craters to spoil line of sight and hide behind cover in case snipers aid at them. Though not high-powered weapons aid at them, they received sporadic rifle fire from their entrenched opponents. linda resolutely shielded Janet from incoming fire with her shield.
"Their team’s light chs must be engaging the enemy scouts by now." linda noted as the missile fire stopped landing with unerring accuracy. Spoiled by their ECMs, the deadly payloads sprayed down in a wider spread, damaging many chs but not to the point of wrecking them completely.
"What are Jaxon and his flyers up to?" Janet whined as she felt useless trudging behind linda’s shield. Her cannon ch had no chance of firing back against an enemy hiding behind makeshift trenches.
"We’re dueling their fliers. Don’t bother us." The highest ranked player in their team spoke before shutting off his comms.
"Janet, you’re too vulnerable if you go any further. Stay here and provide support, okay?"
As a trained pilot, she recognized her circumstances, so she nodded without a word.
linda already scanned the sight in front of her. "Open terrain. Trenches. A lot of ordnance thrown in our way. I don’t think they want us close."
"No shit lly. The only thing I can do is huddle behind a crater hoping they don’t send arcing missiles at . I really picked the wrong ch for this battle."
A heavy knight bumped next to linda, his shield outweighing even her own. "Hey, what’s the plan?"
"We charge forward. Once we get in their midst, we can turn this situation around. At the very least we won’t be in a one-sided slugfest."
"You heard her lads, follow us!" The knight-type ch yelled as he raised his hamr in the sky and lumbered forward.
linda overtook the heavy ch and kept her shield squarely in front. She checked her sensors to see if their team ca with them, and when she saw they only kept plodding behind craters, she grew agitated. They were close enough for their rifles to deal a lot of damage. She clanged her mace against her shield so hard it almost dented the edge of the giant slab.
"Step on it! Keep running and don’t stop until you get in their faces!"
Though she was just one ch of many on the field, sohow her eye-catching form seed to attract more gazes than normal. Her red crest that made her appear as a valiant warrior inspired others to follow along. Most of them were veterans or expert players after all, so they knew how bad they had fallen into the enemy’s kill zone. They put down their apprehensions and followed after the shield bearers at the front.
Perhaps recognizing that linda’s ch led them forward, the enemy fire started to slant towards her position. She utilized her mobility as best she could, trying to weave to the sides in order to throw off their aim. Nevertheless, she wasn’t as nimble as a light ch, so quite a few cannon shells and laser beams impacted her gigantic shield. One large-caliber cannon round even blasted the right corner of her shield into pieces, almost throwing her off-balance.
"Get on your feet!" The heavy knight player yelled as he interposed in front of her, taking the brunt of the volleys while she regained her balance.
"My shield can still take much more." She pushed past his trudging form and sprinted faster. "We’re halfway. Just a bit more and we can pound their faces."
linda felt an overwhelming desire to crash in their faces. She forgot she was playing a ga, she forgot that her real life wasn’t at stake, she even forgot to take note of the Marc Antony in order to write a report. No, the only thing in her mind was to bull through their firepower.
Her HRF-plated shield started to crack from all the ballistic impacts she received. The laser beams exacerbated the damage by lting the cracks wider. The shield was thick but eventually the fact that it was made out of inferior tals and received a deluge of firepower couldn’t prevent the bottom half from cracking away.
"Fuck!"
The loss of that section threw her off balance, and so sharp-eyed shooters imdiately lowered their aim, hitting her legs. She could manage the laser fire, but the heavier cannon shells further threw her off-balance. Only through skillful piloting did she manage to stumble past the initial seconds. After she regained her balance, she charged forward and closed in on the enemy trenches. She raised her other arm and held up her mace.
"Bash their heads!"
Ragged warcries escaped the throats of the other players in their team as they finally closed the distance. They lost 9 chs throughout the run, but they finally made it to the trenches where the enemy’s ranged superiority ceased to offer a decisive advantage. The enemy team possessed a clear lack of close-ranged fighters. However, a heavy striker appeared before linda and fired his over-sized shotgun at her approaching form.
"I can still take it!" linda said with gritted conviction as she felt her tattered shield fall into pieces. She flung the remainder at the shotgun ch, causing it to flinch for a split second. Her ch’s raised arm began to fall, allowing the mace to travel in a dangerous downward arc towards the enemy’s head.
The heavy striker’s shotgun crunched as linda feinted her attack, successfully deceiving her opponent as she slipped her mace further downwards and cracked his main weapon. However, the lunging strike left her open to a counter attack, an opportunity the heavy striker took as it raised both its arms. The glowing hot holes on top of the wrists spewed a gout of fla as searing as a spaceship’s engine exhaust.
"Ahh!"
linda awkwardly rolled away, throwing mud and burning liquids in every direction. Just as the striker adjusted its aim, a barrage of cannon shells impacted its torso, pushing it back and spoiling its attempts to take its opponent out.
"Thanks Janet!"
"You’re welco!"
Before the other chs in the trench ganged up on her, linda was determined to finish off the striker. She got into its face and smashed the mace against its left wrist, disabling the flathrower. Still moving forward, she used her free hand to grab the ch’s other arm, keeping it from turning the remaining flathrower in her direction.
She then bashed her mace against the enemy ch’s face to disrupt its main sensors before bashing lower in order to disorient the pilot sitting in the cockpit. The heavy striker’s armor largely held against her mace, but the amount of force she was putting in strained the pilot to the point of almost passing out. The shock waves passing through the armor could be deadly in itself once it gained a certain level of strength.
Sure that she knocked out the pilot, linda dropped the unresponsive heavy and turned to face a pair of dium laser riflen. They had qualms about firing at her when she stuck close to their ally, but its defeat left them with a clear line of fire. As she stord over, linda raised her own fists and charged up the power of her laser cannons.
The three exchanged laser volleys. Both sides tuned up their weapons so the damage they all took caused a couple of systems to malfunction. Nevertheless, linda remained steadfast, closing the range until she got into lee range. The two riflen discarded their rifles and unsheathed their combat knives, but before they could do anything, linda shoulder bashed one ch while pounding her mace against the other ch’s grip, redirecting its path.
The ch that received the bash rolled onto its back, its knife only leaving a deep groove off the Marc Antony’s thick front torso. It tried to retrieve a pistol to fire at her, but before it could do so her heavy knight teammate finally reached the trench with an awe inspiring jump that landed onto the fallen ch’s leg, the many tons of weight crushing them into broken parts. The enemy ch was finished.
linda already turned her attention to the other rifleman, who tried to scamper away to higher ground. linda didn’t let off her prey, pouncing forward in order to beat the fleeing ch with her now-battered and misshapen mace.
"Die!" She scread as she crunched the ch’s back plates into deformity. She took advantage of the gaps she created by firing the lasers with her other wrist, burning or lting tons of critical components.
Her team was about to overrun the enemy team, but a barrage of shells and lasers rained down from above. The unexpected attacks threw team blue for a loop, taking the wind out of their frenzied assault. Team red used the opportunity to retreat.
"So much for the top ranked player in our team."
"Fucking lone wolf! Go back to arena if you wanna play hero."
With no fliers left on the blue team, their opponents enjoyed complete air superiority. The red team’s fliers flew so nimbly that it would take a lot of trouble shooting them down.
It was better to chase the ground pounders and finish them off first.
"Don’t let the runners off!" linda yelled as she charged forward even as her ch received a couple of dents from the aerial assault. With a frustrated growl, she prid her shoulder launchers. With the amount of firepower the fliers were throwing in their way, she had little trouble establishing target locks. She instantly dumped her entire payload into the air. Not even looking at whether they reached their targets, linda detached the launchers from her shoulders, freeing up more weight.
"Suppressing their air power." Janet spoke over the channel as their team’s anti-air started to support the team from the rear. Tracer fire from rapid-fire cannons streaked through the air while volleys of missiles tracked the elusive figures trying to cause havoc.
Unfortunately for them, the enemy successfully regrouped to a second line, where a reserve of fresh chs took over from their battered teammates. The fresh round of volleys suppressed the blue team’s advance.
"What are you guys standing for? Get going!" linda yelled as she spurred her own ch forward. The raised her half-wrecked mace with one arm while blasting the enemy positions with laser fire with her other arm. When the laser cannons overheated from the rapid firing, she threw her mace to her other hand and fired with the other wrist cannon.
The Marc Antony always carried heavier armor than usual among diumweights, but the ch’s armor started to show so cracks. Her left eye blew apart while her reactor’s power generation reduced by a third. Nevertheless, she still managed to haul her ch to the second line with both wrist cannons blazing with excessive heat.
The enemy was ready for her. A sword wielder closed in while firing a ballistic pistol. The heavy bullets impacted her ch’s damaged chest, exacerbating the damage and causing her to stagger a little. By the ti the sword wielder closed in, his weapon already aid at the gaps in the armor.
linda threw her damaged mace at the approaching enemy. The weapon bounced off the ch, startling it and slowing down its charge. linda took advantage of the pause to bounce backwards while firing her already stressed laser cannons. The lasers lted the sword wielder’s fra here and there, achieving little effect due to the poor accuracy of the shots on the move.
"There!" She yelled in triumph as she picked up a sword from a fallen ch. With a weapon in hand, she t the enemy ch’s second charge. With so ingenious manouvring, she deftly avoided the charge while parrying the opponent’s blade. At the sa ti, she extended a leg to trip the ch and succeeded. The ch sprawled in the muddy soil as gravity and montum did their work.
"Who else!?" She yelled in the public channel as exulting in her triumph. "Is this the red team’s best?!"
"Your opponent is !" A grizzled voice called out as a sword down struck from the air.
A damaged dium flier slamd down with its entire weight supporting the sword. Having received the alert from her damaged but functional sensors, linda barely managed to dodge to the side, unfortunately leaving her ch’s left arm and a part of the shoulder behind. Despite the catastrophic damage, the Marc Antony still maintained integrity, not having suffered too much loss in performance except for the missing limb.
"So you must be the one who tore our fliers apart." linda noted as she scrambled to perform whatever damage control she could from her sparking cockpit.
"I did my job." The flier replied as he detached the damaged wings from his ch’s back. "Too bad my teammates on the ground are worthless. I’ll just have to sweep you all myself, starting with you and your morale-raising antics."
"You must think highly of if you think I’m able to keep this bunch in shape."
"It also helps that you’re damaged. I’m here to finish you off."
Without any other exchange of words, the two clashed against each other, sword to sword. The flier possessed most of the advantages. His ch was nimbler and still possessed both arms. The pilot also revealed polished sword skills that could only have achieved this state through constant battles.
The ex-flier aggressively sought to tear the Marc Antony into pieces. It took all linda had focusing on defense and firing the occasional wrist laser to hold back the onslaught. The smart play here was to wait until Janet or so other chs ca by to lend a hand.
"I can’t hold on." linda gritted her teeth as she admitted it. She threw away all her reservations and threw her ch forward.
The ace pilot reacted far too quickly, as if already expecting such an action. linda almost couldn’t reach her opponent, so she exerted the utmost of her piloting skill and jumped her hefty ch forwards. The impulsive action caused her to impale her ch onto the enemy’s sword. Nevertheless, she managed to redirect the sword strike into stabbing the less important components such as the energy cells. This left linda’s remaining arm free to chop straight down.
The first chop split the flier’s head in half. The second slash cut through the enemy’s thinner armor and slashed the engines into a ss, immobilizing the ch. The third stab ran straight through the torso and out the back. Red blood faintly coated the sword as she had deliberately aid at the enemy’s cockpit.
With a tired sigh she surveyed the battle. With most of the enemy fliers suppressed, the battle between the ground chs determined victory and defeat. Team red obtained a decisive advantage at the start by disabling many chs at long range. Team blue evidently had the advantage in close-quarters combat, and dished out plenty of payback.
"Did we win?"
Not a lot of chs remained. Shortly after, only one remaining ch from team red still stood on its feet. linda kept back as support, only firing her over stressed wrist cannon whenever an opening presented. A high-powered cannon shell ripped apart a damaged foot, causing the enemy ch to tumble for a bit. The chs fending it off now pounced at it like it was a bowl of caviar. The last of the red team didn’t make it through the dismbernt.
[Team Blue has won the match.]
linda rubbed her eyes as she ca down from the high. "Is the ga always this intense? I enjoyed this match way more than I thought."
Despite its ragged state, the Marc Antony perford well for a discounted 5-star ch. Even in its damaged state and missing an arm, the ch still exuded dominance, especially now that it left the battlefield. It was as if feeding the machine with the flesh and blood of its enemies allowed such a machine to grow.
"That’s just nonsense." linda shook her head. "I don’t know how Ves did it, but I actually want to hop back in and queue for another match."
Janet’s voice popped up from their private channel. "You. Were. AWESO!"
As Janet babbled in the many ways linda pounded her opponents into pieces, the girl in question still digested the previous battle. "I don’t know why but the ga has grown more realistic. I’ve been affected by the realism of this ga."
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