Jessica13 nodded and leaned forward a little while the weapon primed.
The hellebore rounds were more than what was required. Three more Lancers and a Balthazar kept an eye on the train and a handful of Watsons began to push the lead car upright where it had toppled in an effort to put themselves in a position to move again.
She was tempted to eliminate the Watsons while they were focused on the car and possibly crush those that supported it, but it wasn't a good idea. Windchime would probably have the same thought and he would be in a better situation to do it.
It was an easy decision to turn her sights to the Balthazar as the rockets flared visibly on its back. He wanted to take to the sky, obviously, but for some reason wasn't able to.
"We might want to help him with that," she said softly and inclined her head as she zoomed in to the rockets.
"Help who with what?" Windchime asked.
Jessica13 didn't answer and merely exhaled a long breath as she squeezed the trigger.
The hellebore round thumped into the fuel line on the rocket and set it off. The fuel didn't erupt as explosively as she had hoped, but there was still some effect. The rockets ignited and the Balthazar elevated abruptly and spun crazily to a height of almost twenty meters before it tilted and plunged to a hard and definitely fatal landing.
The other mechs whirled when they realized they were under fire but again, were unsure of where it came from. She adjusted her position slightly and resisted the urge to simply open fire in a blanket barrage.
Windchime elected to be safe and circled to the other side of the convoy to give himself cover. She looked down the rifle's scope to select another target—one of the Lancers—and decided to use the targeting reticule to put the round inside the cockpit.
The mech fell and remained motionless, and the others turned as they had now identified where the shooting originated from and were ready to retaliate.
Her teammate emerged from behind one of the motionless carts and used his swords to attack the remaining combat mechs with his vibroblades. The weapons sliced through them cleanly and threw up a shower of sparks. Jessica13 wasn't sure why the dry grass didn’t simply catch fire, but that seemed like an irrelevant detail and she pushed it aside.
The mechs were eliminated quickly and efficiently. The Watsons, now unprotected, were trapped under the half-raised vehicle, unable to push it further without help and with no way to release it safely.
She wondered if she should act on her previous instinct but, exactly as she’d expected, Windchime turned and gunned them down in a concerted volley.
The car, only a quarter of the way up, fell again and crushed the mechs under it.
"Nice shooting," he said casually and scanned the area. "I’m fairly sure the coast is clear but I'll check the rest of the train. Keep your eyes peeled."
Jessica13 had heard the term before. Armstrong7 liked to use it from time to time, and she hadn't understood it then either. It sounded both ridiculous and painful, but maybe it was merely a way to say keep her eyes open. If so, why not simply say that?
Either way, she watched warily for any sign of danger as she headed over to the convoy at a leisurely pace to give her teammate time to make sure it was clear.
"Do you think you'd be able to repair it so it can move again?" Windchime asked once he’d checked all the cars. "It would really be terrible to have to drag these all the damn way back."
"I think it should be simple," she replied. "Help me get it up again, and it should hopefully be a matter of welding everything into place. Once that’s done, we can turn the train around and take it to the good folk of Auburn."
It wasn't quite as easy as that, of course. First, the two of them had struggled to raise it onto its wheels, even with his enhanced suit and Mini’s grappler. One that was done, they discovered that when it had overturned, some internal damage had resulted and had to be repaired. The hitch mechanism, however, proved to be far simpler than she had anticipated, so all in all, it took the two of them less than two hours to have everything in running order again.
"We should simply take the same line it used to get here, yes?" Windchime asked as she started the engine.
"I think that would be quicker and lighter on fuel usage, yes," Jessica13 shouted over the roar of the combustion engines.
The cumbersome arrangement and heavy vehicles proved something of a challenge before they were able to turn them, and the sun was already past its peak when they finally began the return journey.
"We might want to pick up the pace," Windchime told her gruffly. "Tinker's just called up. He says the Knights and the Beast have arrived.”
“I thought it would take a few days for them to get there.”
“We all did. They must have been closer than we realized or they pushed hard—probably both, which explains Hammerhand’s reaction.”
“Reaction? What do you mean?” she asked, a little confused as his tone suggested their leader wasn’t happy. In her mind, he should have been delighted at what they’d accomplished, but maybe he didn’t react well to either a hard pace or surprises, even good ones.
“He isn't happy that we took action without consulting him first."
"Does he understand that we couldn't contact him about it for fear of being overheard and that we saw an opening and took it?" she asked. "Oh, and did he mention that small detail of how we actually succeeded?"
"All Tinker said was that Hammerhand arrived and he was pissed," her teammate told her. "I think we'll have the full picture when we get back."
"That sounds like all kinds of fun," she grumbled under her breath, a little resentful
