Embers After Flames, Chapter 13.2 (Patreon)

13.2

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Walter’s Coral Rifle was by far the most obvious of the attacks that came. Fully charged, the beam lanced outwards, stretching a dozen kilometers in a moment.

It punctured straight through one of the taller enemy machines, obliterating its chest in a moment, leaving a wash of plasma in its wake. He followed it up by immediately sweeping to the shot sideways, across the entire length of the group.

Most of them reacted quickly enough to be able to dodge, Boosters flaring as they went upwards, downwards, forwards or backwards. Some, however, had been coming off an attempt to dodge Raven’s Bladewave, and couldn’t quite manage to get out of the way in time.

The beam split them apart as it passed through, slicing off limbs and cutting through Cores... For this particular scenario, with a large number of enemies at a considerable distance, there were few weapons that were as appropriate as the Coral Rifle of the HAL 826.

The rest of the team did have some of them, though.

Carla’s missiles streamed outwards next. They glowed a bright red, spewing out smaller masses of charged Coral, each of which quickly began to independently track towards enemies. This was a new weapon by Carla, which she’d created by fusing the missile weapon of the HAL 826 with the Coral Lightwave tech I had developed. It was, in essence, an area denial weapon, shooting a fire-and-forget missile that would then dump ton of Coral Lightwave projectiles into its vicinity. They were smaller than the originals, but they made up for size with numbers.

The enemy swarm quickly broke up, moving rapidly to get as far away from the Coral Lightwave packets as possible. I made note of the fact that ALLMIND did, evidently, know better than to try and dodge, which undoubtedly meant that she’d been watching back when Ayre and Raven had engaged Balam’s forces in combat.

Troublesome, but it still served a purpose nonetheless. It kept them moving, splitting them up while limiting their options.

Of course, a pair of Coral Lightwave Cluster Missiles wasn’t Carla’s only options. She was also carrying two Coral Siege Missile Launchers on both hands, because she’s a madwoman with no restraint whatsoever. That, in turn, only added more hazards, because they would just hang in the air before shooting off to their targets. Ayre added her own Coral Lightwave pulses to the mix, and then Walter added the HAL’s own missile to it, and there was suddenly a very concerning amount of explosives floating around.

That was, perhaps thankfully, all there was in terms of explosives. Ayre’s gun was a simple Coral Rifle, and Raven’s other two weapons were the Coral Pile Bunker currently stored on the left shoulder, and a Coral Cannon on the right.

It was quite a considerable amount of firepower. Raven did not hesitate to put it to good use.

Raven dove headfirst in the group, launching straight at the largest concentration of units. Everything nearby immediately did their absolute best to try and stop LOADER 4, but that had never worked before and it certainly wasn’t going to start now.

The smaller ones of ALLMIND’s designs flitted forwards, arms configuring and opening up. My prior observations had shown them to be rapid fire, precision lasers, so this behaviour was actually new to me. Even so, it wasn’t hard to recognize the shape that they configured into: simple Laser Blade projectors. Twin blades stabbed forwards, trying to stab and slash Raven, to no avail. Raven slipped around them, LOADER 4’s Coral Lightwave Blade flicking slightly as the AC moved. The small machines fell to pieces.

I’m going to call them ‘Fencers’.

The larger, quadrupedal designs were Raven’s target. They tried to back up, Boosters flaring with sheer force. Over-powered as they were, they actually were faster than Raven’s AC- but they weren’t faster than Raven’s Coral Rifle. One shot punched through the Core of the closest machine, and a capacitor cooked off inside of it. Another shot took out the Laser Cannon as it was preparing to fire, and that proved to be even more explosive. More shots came, Raven exploring the best ways to kill them without requiring much investment. The joints between the Legs and the Core proved to be the best answer, and I dutifully updated everybody else.

‘Turtles’. What else could I call these things?

The flyers didn’t stay still at all, keeping in constant movement around the area. My previous guess proved correct, they did have Plasma cannons for their primary weapon, but as it turns out, their intended usage seemed to be more area denial rather than direct destruction. The plasma shots left clouds of charged particles behind for a few seconds, potent enough that they looked like miniature lightning storms. That, combined with their maneuverability, made their role obvious. They were harriers. Their durability, however, proved wholly insufficient, with only a slight hit being all that was required to take them down.

I hated them already. ‘Gnats’.

The fourth and final set were the weird ones, as their lanky appearances suggested. Much like the Fencers, their weapons were integrated. Unlike the Fencers, their weapons were not designed for simple destruction. Instead, their too-long, too-thin arms incorporated electric field generators, just like the ones that the PCA installed on their REPAIRER drones, except these ones were scaled up ten times over. They had the ability to both project a wide area of electrical interference, and to create focused electrical arcs to singular targets. Their thin frame told the truth of their lack of durability, but it also belied their actual speed, which was shockingly fast for something as tall as they were. The only benefit was their lack of range, limited even for the focused arc attacks they fired.

It took me a moment to decide what I’d name them, but in the end, I chose simplicity. ‘Zappers’.

Raven seemed to hate them from the moment the first one started charging a lightning bolt, because Raven immediately made them the priority target, choosing them over everything else if they were an option. I wasn’t entirely sure why Raven disliked them so much, LOADER 4 had been equipped with Primal Armour, and the same field which protected the mech also provided a nearly perfect sphere of conductive particulate. In turn, while the lightning did sap away at the actual integrity of the Primal Armour, the lightning achieved nothing against LOADER 4 itself.

Was Raven reacting to the lessening of defenses?

... I doubted it. But, the alternative explanations of why Raven might dislike electrical attacks are both too numerous to count and too dark to contemplate. It would explain a few things about the state of Raven’s body prior to me fixing it.

Well, that’s something for later.

Raven went through the enemy group like a blender, tearing them apart in mere moments. Raven was explorative, quickly finding precisely how much force and effort was required to destroy each machine, before providing it as quickly as possible. Watching Raven at work was always a pleasure, but to see this particular group of people working together on top of that? That was quite excellent.

Even better was the fact that they were actually good at working together. Between Raven taking the attention, Walter and Ayre as fire support, and Carla handling both area denial and area of effect, they made a great team.

It didn’t take very long at all for them all to tear through the group that had come to them. Despite ALLMIND’s best efforts, her units proved just as incapable of harming LOADER 4 as every other machine in the world. Very unfortunate for her, and very good for me.

The moment that the last machine had been cut in two by Raven, I updated their waypoints. “Eyes up.” I spoke. “ALLMIND’s machines have entered the Vascular Plant from every direction, and a considerable number of them just changed directions towards you. If you stay where you are, they’ll all hit you simultaneously, so it’s time for some defeat in detail. Destroy the groups while they’re still isolated.”

They shot off quickly, heading to the first waypoint. It was an accessway, which I had already unlocked and opened up for them. It led to the interior of the Vascular Plant, which, in its original form, would have been relatively cramped for a squad of ACs.

After having gutted most of the Coral storage, though?

There were vast chasms of empty space within the structure, which I hadn’t bothered to fill in with anything else. It was labyrinthine, but I’d built it in the first place, so it wasn’t difficult for me to lead the squad through the area.

The first target was similar to ALLMIND’s first group in terms of composition. The only things that changed were the raw numbers, of which there were more, and the area itself. There were corridors to hide in, walls to hide behind, with open gaps and now-pointless tunnels that had once been pipes that the Coral had been pumped through.

The only reason they didn’t fly directly into an ambush is that they made it there before ALLMIND could set one up.

Neither side waited before commencing battle. Raven reacted quickest, firing a fan of beams throughout the area. Most of them found their targets, each one being Zappers. It was probably an even better idea now that they were in an enclosed space, honestly, regardless of whatever it was that drove Raven to choose them above all other targets.

The group split up quickly as ALLMIND’s forces returned fire, all of them moving into cover. Raven chose to go forwards, straight into a hallway that kept LOADER 4 out of the direct line of sight of most of the enemy forces. Walter did similar, heading left to duck behind a wall while taking shots at the enemy forces.

It was Ayre and Carla that had the most fun here, though. Their weapons, after all, were fifty percent Coral Lightwave projectors, and all the cover around here meant absolutely nothing to that.

Carla fired both of her missiles, and Ayre launched her own entire set. The orbs weaved forwards, splitting up as they maneuvered around walls, doorways, corridors, and tunnels. It was pure irony that the cover which would normally protect the enemy’s machines instead became a cage, limiting their possible movements and speed. Naturally, this reaped a great toll, and it was frankly very difficult to imagine an environment that was better for their usage than this.

Again, the squad tore through them quickly, rending warmachines into scrap metal in short order. Still, this took time, and ALLMIND’s other machines were closing in even as they destroyed this set.

I followed their progress as best as I could, looking through the internal cameras and sensors of the Vascular Plant. The squad moved on, and I did the math as to what they would run into next.

I didn’t like the results. “The next battle is going to be exceedingly difficult.” I said, and flicked another waypoint up on their systems. “You’ve got modified C-Weapons coming your way. Expect two SOL models and three SEA SPIDERs.”

They were moving quickly, but not as quickly as they could have been. ALLMIND’s variants seemed to have negatively affected their agility, and she’d had to make up for that by strapping on more mass, in turn making them more awkward than they should have been.

Still, five fucking C-Weapons. Even if they weren’t as potent as they should be, they were still dangerous.

The waypoint I’d sent them was my best attempt to mitigate that. It leads to one of the larger open areas inside the Vascular Plant. That should provide them with enough space to maneuver around, which they’ll definitely need.

I still didn’t know what else ALLMIND had done to them, though. She’s been watching my developments for long enough that I knew she had to have done something, but I didn’t know what.

...

If only that was the end of my problems. Outside Vascular Plant, her other three swarms have been moving around the zones, examining things. Judging by the recent shifts in those movements, though?

She’s found something.