Fratricide

7: Down

Normally when a pod went down it was customary for the pilot to send out a distress call for the nearest soldiers to extract them before they were killed or captured. Pilots were valuable, especially one who could form such a strong meld with a machine. Daniel had opted to not send one out given other items of more immediate import, such as not being frozen in a cloud of red concrete. Regardless, control would see the signal fall out of comms and mark his last location, but they would largely assume he was KIA. Sure, someone would check out the pod eventually to see if it was salvageable or needed to be scrapped, but that wasn't number one on anyone's list with the fight going on at the river.

Daniel was behind enemy lines. He must have accelerated down a street for a few hundred yards before crashing into the storefront. After he'd been hit by the rocket he wasn't sure if anyone had seen where he'd gone. Nestled in the corner of one of the buildings just a few storefronts down from his pod, he heard the sharp whine of a jet mount coming down out of sight on the other side of the road. The mount was controlled via a meld, essentially a seat with stirrups on each side and four jet engines, one for each corner. It was a convenient means of transportation for emergency services and law enforcement in many cities, highly maneuverable if not fuel efficient. It was just his luck, there probably weren't many in the city and he happens to catch one's attention. It was doubly unlikely this on could shoot too. 

The pilot carried a shorter variant of the RPG launchers carried by the other soldiers Daniel had seen so far. It had a cylindrical chamber for smaller payloads, more an apparatus for grenades or mortars than rockets. As far as armor went the soldier wore a police vest, a helmet with no face mask, and a set of light jumpers. The jumpers caught Daniel's eye. They looked like advanced leg braces but were, in fact, a more compact form of rig tech that increased leg mobility and strength considerably. The soldier scanned the street from atop his jet mount, he'd located the disabled pod and was undoubtedly looking for Daniel.

As the soldier strafed over to where Daniel was hiding he cocked his grenade launcher, chambering one of the massive rounds into the tubular barrel. Daniel's heart accelerated at the thought of being doused in more fire, this time without metal plating to protect him from being swiftly immolated. He quickly moved behind the next doorway that was covered by the collapsed second story and crouched in the corner. He heard the engine's whine reach its peak just over his hiding place, then continue down the road. He heard a decrease in pitch as the pilot descended to get a better look behind some rubble.

Daniel backtracked and shouldered his weapon. He peeked out from his corner into the street to see the pilot low, looking behind a large collapsed piece of ceiling. Moron. Any dimwit could hear that thing from a mile away. If he had cornered someone, they would be ready to blast him out of the air as soon as they could get a shot, grenades or not. Daniel was more than obliged to do so. He took aim down the holo sights and fired. The fully automatic action spat out tiny silver casings as he drilled the soldier repeatedly in his exposed side, where the armor was attached with straps under the arms but absent of any viable plating. The soldier dropped. Well, he actually crumpled and leaned to the side as the mount throttled to the side and flipped, slamming against the concrete wall. The contact caused one of the engines to ignite and send the vehicle into a tailspin, the soldier was stuck in the stirrups and being whipped around violently. After a few rotations, he separated and flew down the street past Daniel, sliding across the pavement until he slammed into a lay piece of concrete. He wasn't moving.

Daniel turned his attention to the mount. It had stopped spinning once it registered the absence of the pilot and began to descend slowly until it settled on the sidewalk. The one damaged engine was still aflame but began to sputter as it cooled down. Daniel turned his attention to the fallen pilot. Blood was spilling from his side, he'd been hit through the lungs and heart all the way through. He had breathed his last. Daniel walked up to the soldier and sent another round into his face just to make sure he was finished moving and to make himself feel better about having to abandon his pod. The blue flash of the muzzle gave a satisfying report. Daniel knelt down to remove the jumpers, he would take anything to move more quickly. He glanced from side to side periodically to make sure he hadn't been discovered yet. There was enough noise from the frontline no one should have noticed what had transpired.