"Engaging evasive maneuvers," Mini announced and shifted rapidly in place. The first round of flechettes hammered into the side of the Minato. None of them pierced the armor but a few were embedded and pushed Mini's balance off a little until he managed to engage the rest of the mech. A tongue of flame lashed out at them as he crouched but she could still feel the heat of it, even from inside.
It was instinct more than anything that made her pull the trigger on her rifle and she was almost surprised by the kick as the round fired. Pure luck or her recently discovered instinct delivered a round inside the Cinder's armor, where it caught one of the large gas tanks on its back.
A second ticked by as a series of chain reactions sparked after the round broke the containment of the fuel for the thrower. Then, in a bright flash of white light, it erupted across the mech and the force hurled Jessica13 onto her back.
"Shit!" she shouted and struggled to pull the Minato onto its feet.
The Excalibur reacted quickly to the sudden heat around it and released a cloud of steam from its cooling vents. The explosion did far more damage than Jessica13 had thought it would, especially to the fallen Cinder, and while the armor kept Hammerhand mostly intact, there appeared to be enough damage for him to finally have to address it. Sections of his armor were still ablaze, even with the steam rushing around it.
She managed to stand although she still struggled somewhat with the off-kilter balancing systems, disengaged the air gun from the dart, and used the blasts to put the fire on Hammerhand's armor out.
It worked, even though she needed to try it a couple of times before the flames around his legs and ankles were finally extinguished, although it had spread slightly into the trees and shrubbery around them.
"Are you all right?" she asked over the comms. "I don’t see much external damage from here, but you might want to run some diagnostics."
A moment of silence followed over the line.
"I have some heating problems," Hammerhand finally answered and sounded strained. "The shield won't hold like this for much longer. We need to get back to the secondary position. Prepare to fall back. Repeat, all Knights, prepare to fall back."
Jessica13 didn't want to leave the man alone but it was an order. She could see that Athena's fighters had been dealt with and the Knights hastily gathered what could be snatched in an instant before the Raptor uprooted from its defensive position and began to move back.
"Now, Jessie!" Hammerhand roared and startled her into action. She gave the nearby fires another hasty blast of air before she jogged away to join the others.
Chapter Thirty-Three
As she had anticipated, Hammerhand was the last to withdraw. His shield was overheating and there was more internal damage than she had actually realized, which meant he suddenly struggled to hold Athena's men back. A few of them began to attack the hedgehogs that protected his flanks rather than the shield itself. He held his position for as long as he dared before he dropped the shield and pulled away.
He wasn't about to retreat without a parting gift, however. A small group of invaders rushed forward, expecting some kind of victory, but the Excalibur stopped suddenly and drew all eyes to the hammer that arced lethally from above. Two of the Lancers weren't able to pull away when the others scrambled to do so.
They were conveniently positioned one directly behind one another and the weapon crushed them both with ease to leave nothing but scrap metal where they had stood.
Thin trails of pale white smoke issued when the Raptor launched a series of rockets once it was set up again for combat. The small group of Knights stood around it for protection. The two long-distance shooters from the Knights opened fire. It didn't take much to acquire a good target as Athena's men were thoroughly bunched in the confined space.
The hope had been that they could plug the hole with broken mechs, but while the strategy was sound, it made no allowance for the determination of the enemy. They simply plowed through and over the fallen and while their passage was temporarily slowed, it wasn’t delayed sufficiently. Jessica13 fell back and reloaded her rifle quickly before she did what she could to hinder them a little more.
As had been the case with the earlier battle, the Raptor dealt most of the damage and fired volley after volley of rockets to destroy as many of the mechs that surged toward them as possible.
Once the enemy were out of the funnel, however, it became more and more difficult to target them in larger numbers. They were able to spread out and take proper combat positions to advance on the town of Auburn.
Jessica13 glanced briefly at the Knights, who stood their ground despite the fact that they were outnumbered. It seemed almost ludicrous that they could stand and wait so calmly for their attackers. That kind of courage wouldn’t be found anywhere else, especially since they rallied in defense of someone else's home.
She had no idea what would happen to them, but at least they were fighting for something that mattered.
Their courage helped to quell her fear as she grasped the weapon in her hand and tried to steel herself against the sight of the advancing army. Rather than dwell on the overwhelming odds, she focused on identifying the more vulnerable mechs and continued to fire as many rounds as she could to keep up with the advance of their attackers.
"You have to be careful or you'll run out of bullets," Mini pointed out.
"What the hell else would you have me do?" she snapped.
"Maybe play the role this mech was meant to," the AI suggested.
She sighed because she knew he was right but didn’t want to admit it as she peeled away from the
