283 Purge 2

Stacking up for entry Solaris took the opportunity to ask if Dax was okay after getting hit multiple times when clearing out the gunmen hiding behind hostages.

"Yeah, small calibre weapons like this are no issue at all."

With a confident smile on his face, Dax hit his chest a few times to make the handful bullets which had harmlessly deformed after hitting, piercing his clothes and outer skin, stopping short after hitting his qiton muscles which acted like high grade body armour. 

"... This entire thing is going a bit too well, be ready for anything."

Picking up Dax's barely audible whisper, Solaris put herself on high alert as she breached the east stairway with Dax and 3 policemen. 

"Now for the hard part, look alive people."

Finding the first floor door armoured, Dax placed shaped charges on the doorframe and blew in the door before Solaris realized what he was talking about, but when she moved in together with him and the policemen and took a look at the inside of the high density residential block she realized what he was talking about.

(What the hell is this!?)

While the outside of the building had looked somewhat organized, the inside was far worse. What must have been hundreds of years of organic growth and decay cobbled together with a lack of building regulations had worked together to produce what Solaris could only describe as a vertical city inside the high density residential block. Apartments and stores of different sizes were woven together with small plazas all fit haphazardly inside the apartment block's honeycomb like support structure, making for a natural maze with potential ambushes and kill zones all around. Confusing architecture aside there also was the problem of the numerous civilians still inside the block that the imitation Hellwalkers easily blended in with, as Dax had said: this is where the fun truly began.

-

"Lilly are you still alive!?"

"Yeah! Although that might change shortly!"

Pulling back from the corner of the concrete pillar she was hiding behind just as a large chunk of it was shot out, Lia tossed out a flashbang to hopefully suppress the opposition before she peeked out from behind cover, quickly shooting down a dozen or so Reaper drones which were continuously swarming her and Lilly's position.

"We need to kill the drone operator!"

"Yeah, no shit! Stop backseat driving and just focus on keeping your buddy there alive!"

Not even 5 minutes after arriving at their objective located in an automated industrial area, the group Lia and Lilly were leading had already suffered heavy casualties as the area was home to a swarm of Reaper drones which were firmly under the control of the imitation Hellwalkers.

(These things are so annoying!)

While the shots she had placed on target would have killed any living opponent, the Reaper drone displayed the frankly absurd sturdiness born from innovations in armour together with a heavy reliance on redundant systems which was the pride of REX-Delta who had designed it as the drone lost one of its arms, suffered crippling internal damage and had its head shoot clean off, but it still continued to move.

[God you're looking pathetic down there Lilly~ Luckily your favourite big sister is here to help you~]

(... Why did it have to be her of all people?)

Sighing internally as she heard a bright and energetic voice coming from a speaker somewhere in the air above her, Lilly glanced up to find some kind of craft hovering in the air about 1 kilometre out.

"You're just here to test that craft right? Then please get that over with already!"

[Boo!~ You're no fun! But you still owe me after this~]

Not getting the reaction she had hoped for, Mu puffed out her cheeks in frustration as she set her newest prototype craft to fully automated instead of bothering to control it personally.

(You're lucky both I and Dax like you so much Lilly, otherwise, I wouldn't do you the service of revealing Lazarus' first dedicated close air support vessel.)

While Mu went back to her other work, her newest prototype went into action.

[IMI ADVISING ALL GROUND PERSONAL: DANGER CLOSE.]

While IMI's synthetic sounding voice announced its intentions, the prototype craft cut all power to its propulsion as its nose mounted Menhit rotary cannon spewed out 60 mill anti tank rounds at a staggering speed of 6.000 rounds a minute with near pinpoint accuracy. Launching smart flares to throw off the drones targeting it while making rapid irregular movements, the Lazarus prototype made quick work of the Reaper drones which had made Lia and Lilly's lives so difficult for the past 20 minutes.

"T-that sure was impressive…"

Emerging from his cover after making sure that all the drones had been destroyed, one of the surviving policemen couldn't help but mutter those words in awe.

"Well, it is a Lazarus prototype, so that's to be expected."

Giving the craft which just saved her life a somewhat annoyed glance, Lilly checked how many full magazines she had left before getting back on her feet, looking to the large factory which was their initial target.

"Lia are you good?"

"Yeah, let's get this mission over with. Division 14 on me, Lilly will splinter."

Assuming the surviving members of Division 14 would just continue on with the mission in spite of their losses, which they obviously wouldn't. 

"Yeah, not so fucking fast lady! The-"

But before heated protests broke out, the sound of a sonic boom together with an unnerving silence brought all that to an end before it even started. Quickly tracing the source of the sonic boom to the target factory, Lia's cybernetic eyes focused on a small hole which had suddenly formed in the door of one of the larger loading docks, before she worked out what had just happened, the sound of the Lazarus prototype crashing into the ground made her realize what was going on.

"GET DOWN! HEAVY WEAPON!"

Following immediately after Lia's warning, another sonic boom, the results of a railgun firing, once more rang out and one of the surviving policemen were completely erased together with the concrete block he was standing near. Having fired a second shot from cover, whatever had destroyed their air support decided to move out. With a sound like far off thunder rumbling, a gigantic mechanical hand suddenly broke through the cargo door, followed immediately by another hand of the same massive size which ripped the steel door apart like it was made out of cardboard.

"A T-Titan… What the hell is that doing here!?"

Dropping his rifle in disbelief as he recognized the massive behemoth of a drone tank hybrid which was emerging out from the factory, the last uninjured policeman lost all will to fight as the 8 metre tall Rex-delta mark 17 drone pointed a group of its turret mounted heavy machine guns at him.

"Watch out!"

Springing into action, Lia knocked the policeman aside just as the area they had just been was decimated. Unperturbed by its prey momentarily evading its machine gun fire, the gigantic Titan drone shook the earth as it took another step forward, its countless red eyes fixating on its new target.

"Oh shi-"

Finding herself staring down the Titan all of a sudden, Lilly wished she was allowed to use magic as she jumped to the side with all her might, evading a burst of fragmentation grenades fired from the Titan's array of multi purpose automatic grenade launchers.

"How the hell are we supposed to kill this thing?!"

"No idea! Start by trying to shoot it until it's dead!"

With no other options available to them, Lia and Lilly started the rapid process of emptying their rifles in the general direction of the truly massive target presented to them, but even such sustained fire proved to be ineffective against the Titan's armoured exoskeleton, even when switching to newly designed Lazarus armour piercing rounds.

"DAX HELP!"

Breaking her gag order out of panic as the Titan pointed its railgun towards her, Lilly didn't really expect to get any help, but unexpectedly some help did show, just not what Lilly would have seen coming.

[IMI ADDRESSING ALL UNITS: GAG ORDER 41 NO LONGER IN EFFECT.]

Following that single message from IMI, Lilly's fear evaporated as her usual smug smile returned.

With the retraction of gag order 41, or as Dax called it: 'the-don't-fucking-use-magic-I-swear-to-god' order retracted Lilly or Lia no longer had any reason to fear the oversized hunk of soon to be scrap metal standing in front of them.