ARES:Gods of War

Keyes

Chief steadied himself. Bullets zipped past him and Sam, with the Spartans taking cover behind a slew of ancient fortifications that lay half-buried beneath the snow. Old, frozen-over sandbags they'd managed to re-arrange into fighting positions, rubble from the research stations nearby and the capsized remains of a beached icebreaker amidst the rock, snow and ice provided the background to the firefight in the Northern gloom.

The Raptures had decided to send more troops their way. Terrifyingly enough, these quadrupedal mechs stood at about the height of a human, oculuses covered by lighter armor, but revealed enough for them to be visible. Their humanoid torsos mounted two guns each on both the arms extending out from the sides, as well as a pair of smaller missile launchers near the hips. They stood at about one and a half times the height of Spartans, too, with black armor plates overlaid onto their endoskeletons.

One of a squad of these mechs swept over toward the Spartans and their Nikke support. The Counters, Luckies and Unlimited all fired their weapons in return as a slew of smaller mechs advanced. Their leading element lay at the rear, a command Rapture rather obviously, sat on two hind legs and peering at them from amidst a crowd of drones. Chief had wanted to try and assault the command unit's position with Sam.

He ducked as his mind remembered why he'd resigned himself not to. He looked to Ludmilla, who dropped a spent magazine to the floor and slammed in a fresh one for her weapon, before asking, "The base is over the hill, right!?" just as Rusty kept flying overhead and firing her weapon, trying to keep the enemy pinned. She gave a couple pings to the crew, but Chief was focused on survival right now.

"Should be, yes!" She replied. The thunder of Alice's sniper filled the air, followed by the hum of the Chief's shield recharging. The blonde-haired Nikke grit her teeth, stood to her feet and opened up again. Bullets tore through the armor plate of the quadrupedal humanoid machines, only for her to catch a couple rounds in her abdomen, too. Delta, beside her, also took a round to the shoulder that threw off her aim, making the young sniper let out a soft swear under her breath.

Signal, quick to her feet, moved up behind cover thanks to her short stature and started trying to patch the girl's injury up.

Sam, who was beside the Chief, murmured, "Running low on mags..." before hearing Neon's shotgun thunder just over his head. The girl shouldered the strange double-barrel gun and slam-fired it. Her hand rapidly pumped the shotgun's pump, spent casings flying from both sides as she peered down its holographic sight, gritting her teeth. High-explosive rounds tore through quite a few of the enemy's troops.

Chief handed Sam a pair of his own magazines, partially thankful MA5B Mags and MA5G Mags were interchangeable. He slammed in his own fresh magazine, peered out and fired a burst at a pair of suicide drones that got too close, detonating both mid-jump, only for a third to pounce on him and try to overcharge its systems. Pinne grabbed it and threw it sky-high, before belting out five consecutive buckshot blasts at it and letting its corpse tumble to the floor.

Chief nodded in thanks, then asked, "Thanks. That's the second time..."

"Third, I think," Pinne smiled, then patted him on the shoulder, "Don't worry about it, Chief, just keep shooting!" and she gasped as a fourth drone pounced her. The Spartan was quicker on the draw, however, pulling his combat knife out of its sheath and slicing the machine's oculus in one strike. It fell, inactive, next to the Nikke who simply smiled at her Commander before continuing to fire.

Alyosha grit his teeth as he sat beside Rapi, his only weapon being his execution pistol. He told her, "Y'know, I might try and ask doctor Halsey to make me some kind of armor... I feel completely useless beyond giving commands here," as he peered over his own cover, an overturned, flattened car of some kind that'd been damaged considerably by nature. Rapi hummed as she knelt beside him, looking up at him.