The heat and power of the detonation ate straight through the arm joint like acid through plastic, and the mobility platform’s flamethrower-equipped arm was blown clean off. It clattered to the floor like a chunk of scrap metal, leaving only a glowing orange stump and damaged, spark-spitting circuitry.
Both Gabriel’s and the mobility platform’s shields had been frazzled out by the feedback interaction and would need a minute to recover. But even though the mobility platform had lost its shields, its armour was still virtually impervious to small arms fire. Even having lost an arm, it was only marginally less dangerous.
After regaining its balance and focus, the mobility platform’s torso swivelled all the way around on its waist to face Gabriel and walked backwards in his direction. Its targeting optics singled him out, painting him with an infrared targeting laser as it lined up a shot with its railgun. In the half second before the mobility platform opened fire, Gabriel noticed something about the glass canopy protecting the pilot: it was cracked.
Gabriel dived to one side as the railgun fired, the shot just missing him as he vaulted over a set of storage crates and into cover. The railgun was a single-shot cannon with a slow rate of fire; a weapon that large could only carry a limited amount of ammunition. All Gabriel had to do was keep the mobility platform wasting its ammo until it ran out. But then the doors on the other side of the testing hall opened and a new group of enemies appeared.
Four lithe figures dressed in beige-coloured flight suits entered, using special jump-packs to soar through the air towards the squad. Gabriel paused for a brief moment to wonder just where this bizarre cult had gotten their hands on so much military hardware before being plunged straight back into the fight.
Two of the jumpers came sailing over Gabriel’s head, landing catlike on their feet and opening fire with sawn-off shotguns. The double spray of pellets battered his unshielded armour to no effect, and he quickly returned fire. To his surprise, all of his rounds hit their mark, punching straight through the faceplate and blowing apart the target’s skull. Dispensing with armour and shielding? In favour of what, being quick on their feet?
As Gabriel dispatched one of the jumpers, the other dropped its weapon and activated a device on its wrist: a portable shield generator that projected a shimmering barrier of energy in an oval shape. Even at point-blank range, it was powerful enough to deflect Gabriel’s bullets, sending them swerving off to each side.
With its personal barrier still raised, the jumper reached over its shoulder with its free hand and drew a sword from its back. A sword? An actual sword? Gabriel wanted to laugh. Instead, he charged at his skinny foe, clenching his fist to unleash his combat claws and finish off his attacker up close.
The jumper bolted forwards at the same time to meet Gabriel head on; in the same motion it activated a switch on the handle of the sword and brought the blade swinging round in an arc to meet Gabriel’s combat claws. There was a high-pitched whining sound as they connected, and the sword’s blade kept on slicing through the air.
Gabriel was stopped dead in his tracks. His combat claws were made of reinforced carbon nanotubing, the same material as his armour. But the sword had cut clean through them, leaving behind three polished stumps. What kind of weapon could do that?
The jumper didn’t miss a beat, completing the motion by spinning on its heel and trying to follow through with a stab to Gabriel’s gut. Gabriel kept enough of his wits about him to dodge the thrust and grab his attacker by the wrist. In the same motion, he kicked the jumper’s legs out from under it and snapped its wrist, catching the sword as it fell from the jumper’s grasp and severing the its arm in one stroke.
Another railgun shot narrowly missed Gabriel’s head and punched a scorching hole in the wall beside him. He rolled into cover, dropping the sword, and picking his gun up off the floor. Keeping low and rushing back around towards the main entrance, he pulled another explosive from his belt.
Gabriel’s earlier shot must have gotten through before the mobility platform’s shielding had activated. Normally for a vehicle that size, the pilot could simply look out through the glass canopy to see, but the enormous spider web-like crack left by Gabriel’s lucky shot made that impossible, forcing the pilot to rely exclusively on the optical sensor suite.
Priming the grenade, Gabriel tossed it at the mobility platform. The grenade’s arc took it straight over the target before detonating. The damage to the mobility platform’s armoured skin was minimal, but the explosive spray of shards hit the optical sensor suite, blinding the mobility platform's pilot. While the wounded mech was still reeling from the damage, Gabriel primed another high-powered shot, took aim, and fired.
A high-powered shot was a single round, flash-forged in such a way as to pierce armour, and accelerated to near-escape velocity. The mobility platform’s shielding was too weakened to block or deflect the shot as it punched straight through the damaged glass canopy, shattering it into thousands of pieces.
The mobility platform froze up completely, the death of its pilot causing it to shut down. As its systems died, the mobility platform’s mechanical legs locked their joints to prevent it from toppling over, freezing the fearsome mech into an awkward-looking pose like a half-finished sculpture missing an arm and a face.
Keeping his weapon raised, Gabriel approached the mobility platform to make sure it really had been neutralised. Through the smoke, he could see the pilot, now a piece of mangled meat with an entry wound through the chest. The rest of his flesh, including his respirator-covered face, had been sliced up beyond recognition by the storm of glass fragments.
But the evisceration of the pilot’s body was nothing compared to his state when he had been alive. Not only was the respirator mask surgically attached to his face, but his entire body was filled with wires and tubes connecting him directly to the systems he controlled. The connections were so extensive that he was literally a part of the machine he piloted.
It was grotesque.
“Colonel!” Bale’s voice came over the comm., “Doran’s alive! Barely.”
Gabriel flinched. It hadn’t even occurred to him to check on his squad.
“Ok, I’m coming over.” he replied.
Gabriel rushed over to join the rest of his squad. He saw the other two jumpers lying dead on the floor. One had been shot through the guts with gunfire, the other had a cauterised neck stump instead of a head. Viker was standing over the headless jumper, replacing his combat knife in its sheath and confiscating the dead jumper’s wrist-mounted personal barrier, whilst Cato and Bale tended to Doran.
Doran lay motionless on the floor where he had fallen as Cato ran his gauntlet over Doran’s body, the sensor suite in his palm interacting with Doran’s own armour to evaluate his condition. As he did, the results were uploaded to each squad member’s suit computers.
The results looked dire.
Doran’s armour had held against the multi-tonne weight and pressure of the giant mechanical foot, and his suit’s shielding had negated much of the crushing pressure applied. But the sheer amount of force brought to bear had still been enough to break his ribcage in numerous places. In spite of his suit’s pain suppressants, the agony of simply breathing would have caused him to pass out. Were it not for his shielding, armour, and physical enhancements, he would have been flattened like a pancake.
“He’s out cold, and his suit’s systems have been badly damaged as well,” Cato explained gravely, “if we don’t get him to a proper medical facility quickly, we’ll lose him.”