She positioned her rifle and looked down the scope, located the cockpit fairly easily, and pulled the trigger. The round drilled through the armor like it was paper and the mech suddenly froze in place and settled into standby mode, possibly waiting for some kind of input from the pilot to allow the AI to take the controls.
"Tinker, there's a disabled Watson out in the minefield if you want to send someone over to take it," she called over the comms and immediately had his attention.
"Will do," he replied. "And if you have helping in mind, the mechs at the front lines need to be resupplied."
"I’m on it," she shouted. "Well, Mini, it’s time to get this Minato to do what she was designed to do."
"Do you think the mech identifies as female?" Mini asked and settled it onto all fours to increase speed to reach the place where they had stored most of their ammunition.
"I don't think it's sentient enough," she responded. "Although all the pilots I knew thought of their mechs as ladies. I think it’s some kind of tradition from before in the Cities-That-Were."
She held on tightly as Mini rushed to the ammo. It looked like a couple of the Auburn mechs that had been designated for support were already making bulletfoot runs.
Jessica13 paused and thought about what they could do next since she would not be able to carry the rifle and the crates on her back at the same time while running on all fours.
"What are you thinking?" Mini asked as they pulled to a halt.
"I wonder if we should sacrifice speed in favor of being able to handle the rifle while we deliver," she told him and moved them closer to the mechs that picked up the ammo crates the combat mechs were waiting for.
"I would suggest being armed as much as possible," he agreed. "Even in close quarters, the rifle can be used to help you to push into places other mechs might not be able to reach."
She nodded, decided to keep the rifle, and used her free hand to quickly load the mag clamp on her back with a couple of the rocket crates the Raptor would be able to use. It was clear that it would be the basis for their current defense, but it wouldn’t be much good to anyone if it had no rockets to fire when Hammerhand dropped his shield.
"Let's go," Mini said.
"Why don't you take the controls?" She highlighted the Raptor for him to take them to.
"What will you do?"
"Well, all things considered, I think we might want to keep a weapon at the ready to hold any potential enemies at bay, yes?"
"That does make sense, yes," he replied, took over the mech's legs and balancing systems, and left her control on the arms intact to allow her to maintain a ready defense against possible action by the enemy.
The earth shuddered when Hammerhand brought his hammer down once more to keep the Lancers at bay, although a handful of them was able to slip around before the shield came up again. The repetitive chatter of their assault rifles attempted to find any weak place on the Excalibur that they might be able to exploit.
She didn't think it was a tactically sound choice since the Raptor actually inflicted the most damage to them while they attempted to push the Knights’ leader back and away. He was essentially the distraction while the others were responsible for the most devastating strikes.
Maybe they simply had no other option. The cornerstones of the Knights' defense were the Raptor and the shield, but there would be a couple more surprises in store for them if they made it through the first line of defense.
Hammerhand liked to say he would hope for the best and plan for the worst, and they had gone through an intense few stages of planning for the attack they knew was coming.
Jessica13 raised her rifle and aimed down the sights while Mini moved them quickly and erratically. He seemed to have a way to calculate the rounds that might be fired at them and avoid those that would be able to punch through the Minato's armor.
It would take a fair amount of power to hit them at precisely the right angle, and the AI used all his algorithms that would keep them safe while they raced into the heart of the battle.
A handful of rounds did manage to catch their armor but ricocheted away. There was the chance that they would strike someone else, but they would be left deformed after they bounced off the Minato and would lose most of their piercing power. While any of them might be lucky, the chances were, with the reduced speed and piercing power, they wouldn’t actually do much damage.
Mini kept them moving at a steady pace but not in a direct trajectory that would take them directly into the firing line. While the intention to use the weapon in tandem with their support function was a good one, she missed her first few shots as she tried to keep herself stable inside the mech.
"Would you like me to take over the shooting capabilities as well?" Mini asked and it sounded like he was a little sarcastic.
"Do you think you can keep us steady?" She growled her irritation and managed not to snap at the AI as they traversed the battlefield. Athena's warriors appeared to have determined the timing the Knights used and a couple of the larger, turret-based mechs began to line up at the rear. From this position, they coordinated their flurries of rockets perfectly to take advantage of the moments when Hammerhand's shield was down.
"I thought you might want to avoid being shot as a priority," Mini replied.
"Are you being sarcastic with me?" she demanded, her good intentions forgotten. "Right now? Really?"
"My apologies. I thought you might want some humor to defuse the tension of our current situation,"
