Jessica13 put her rifle on the ground beside the Beast where she would be able to retrieve it later. Mini knew what that meant and immediately dropped the mech to all fours. They surged into a sprint and jumped and dodged as the Knights engaged the attackers. The AI made full use of the uneven terrain and raced around the other support mechs that moved in the same direction.
She chose two of her teammates who were in the most desperate need of ammo and highlighted them for Mini's benefit as well for the other support mechs that needed to know who needed a refill. A couple had their partners in the assault lines and were generally there to keep them alive, whether they needed someone to distract or to run and get them ammo. The coordination between those smaller teams felt akin to family. Their friendship always extended beyond the battlefield.
The idea was appealing. She wondered if she would ever have that kind of chemistry with someone to allow her to work together with them almost exclusively, but she still had to prove herself to the Knights.
With her teeth gritted, she braced herself as Mini brought them to a sudden halt beside one of the mechs that needed ammo the most. He was still firing and engaged three enemy mechs that took advantage of his rationed shooting and tried to drive their attack home.
Instinctively, she moved to pull the crate of ammo from her back but thought better of it.
"Thought?" Mini queried when she hesitated for a moment.
"Distract."
The AI remained in Bulletfoot mode and sprinted to the mechs that pinned her teammate down. She twisted, drew their fire, and jumped into the two-legged mode to barrel directly into the arms of the Lancer closest to her. Mini lowered the shoulders and impacted the midsection of the other mech to drive it back while remaining too close for it to be able to shoot at her with its assault rifle.
They managed to force him back a couple of steps, but the legs quickly locked and after a few more feet of dragging through the dirt, it finally managed to pull to a halt.
She was ready for that and already had the dart engaged to the grappler's gun. Quickly, she lowered it to the mech's left knee and pulled the trigger. The dart punched through the weaker armor and found the hydraulics inside, disabled the mech's leg, and reduced the pressure over the rest of it, which made it less effective overall. Mini pushed them forward again to bulldoze it into its fellows before he turned them to sprint to the Knight waiting for her.
"Nice fighting!"
"Thanks!" She didn't delay, pushed the crate into his hands, and made sure he was reloaded before she raced away to her next load-off. He was out of ammo and fell back as a couple of the townsfolk stepped into the breach that caused chaos in the rest of their line. She yanked the crate off her back and signaled the pilot before she tossed it to him. It landed a few meters away, which was better than hitting him with it, and the Knight moved to reload rapidly and return to the fight.
More alerts for ammo appeared and Mini dropped them onto all fours to rush to the Beast when a completely unidentifiable noise distracted them both.
Jessica13 had no idea what was, but something different now overshadowed the cacophony of war. The sun had begun to rise, although it was difficult to see through the clouds of dust and smoke that shrouded the town, but the odd sound was definitely not her imagination. It seemed to roll over them like a vibration that shook windows and buildings before it settled into the deep thrums of horns blown that grew louder with each passing moment.
She paused and squinted into the sky to see what was happening. It sounded like hundreds of horns blared and drew steadily closer. The blazes on the edge of the town had died down somewhat, and in the gap created in the greenery by the fire, it appeared that a battle of some kind was in progress.
Who could have started a fight out there? In the previous battle, they had managed to win with help gathered by Windchime, but that had been a last gasp kind of effort. Who else would come to help them this deep in Athena's territory?
They hurried to the Beast and she retrieved the rifle from where she'd dropped it and used the scope for a clearer view. These were unfamiliar mechs and looked nothing like the raiders they'd encountered before. They had been put together using anything salvaged from wherever they could find the pieces, and spikes jutted from their armor.
"What the hell?"
She turned, almost unable to believe the evidence of her own eyes when more of the strange mechs pressed into the town and surged through the defensive lines that had been put up by Athena's fighters. They were all lightly armored and moved rapidly in a seemingly disjointed and yet coordinated formation to breach the defenses. Most used buzz tools and vibroblades to slice through armor and peel the pilots out of their mechs.
It wasn't long before they reached the artillery and swarmed over them, climbed up, and severed wiring and hydraulics to bring the heavy mechs down before they advanced on the others.
She wasn't sure how it was possible, but it appeared that someone was helping the Knights. A whole horde of someones, in fact, who were well-armed and well-trained, and even a group of heavy mechs now joined the fray as well. They delivered a concerted succession of shots that destroyed the defensive formations the enemy tried to put in place to counter the new assault.
Hammerhand realized
