The first pair of those automatons begins to cloak after assisting the rest of their kin in changing their equipment, concealing themselves from being detected by the defenders of the house. From here they will make a detour to their objective which is now confirmed to be in the indoor court near the house.
The second pair of the automatons goes into heavy armour form where they have been directed to enter the house from the blown open kitchen to deal with the defenders that are still holing inside there to draw the attention of her forces. She however no longer shows any interest to that decoy but the threat that they pose cannot be ignored for the sake of her mission success.
The third pair of these automatons goes into heavy weapons form with the intention to use superior firepower to overwhelm those defenders outside who are attacking her. For her survival, the immediate threat to her life must be dealt with so that she will be able to enjoy the rewards of her bounty. To die on the job will be pointless even if she is able to complete her mission.
The last pair of the automatons she had left was transformed into assault form where they have armed themselves with short sabres for close quarter battle. Equipped with booster packs to allow them to close in the distance between their enemies, the automatons in this configuration will any enemy who are deluded with their range advantage to be face with a rude awakening before meeting their makers.
Exterminator Team had tried to make an advance at her position, but find it hard as they did not expect their enemy to be heavily armed. The van which carried lesser amount of enemies than the truck actually had a nasty ace inside of it. Aside from being armoured like the truck, there is a weapons platform which acted like a sentry to defend their position.
Placed by the automatons which accompanied it, it consisted of several turrets that are able to provide layered defences to the forces who wish to deny their enemy the right to advance their position & to hold areas of advantage in the battle.
This portable sentry consisted of a micro gun for medium range defence & a flamethrower for short range defence. It is shielded with heavy plating to protect its sensitive parts which the enemy will likely aim to destroy, rendering its function as a defensive weapon to cease.
“I thought we are handling some thugs!” Fly Swatter whined.
“Fuck, me too!” Bug Zapper agreed with his sentiment.
“Not from what I can see!” Rat Bait retorted them.
“Those gadgets must belong to a mercenary company of this frontier world.” Roach Trap informed them of his theory.
“We blow it first & then find out who own it!” Bug Zapper ordered his team.
“Wine Yard, this is Omega. I’m authorizing support strikes.” The Grandmaster gives his permission for Storm Pheasant to use its weapons.
“Roger that Omega, Storm Pheasant is hot & ready.”
“Rat Bait, guide the bird for a meal. I’m going to the safe house to check on Little Lamb.”
“You got it boss.”
Using the marker system built in his helmet, Rat Bait executed his commander’s order without hesitation. His first target to be marked for destruction is obvious, that is the sentry gun deployed by his enemy that is denying his team their victory.
What Rat Bait needs to do is extremely simple, where he only needs to take a peek at the position of the weapons sentry deployed by the enemy for a few milliseconds only. The window of opportunity for an enemy to detect his action is too small, making the means to counter the attack also nonexistent.
By the time the enemy notice his position where he is playing Peeping Tom with them. Storm Pheasant have already made an airstrike with a rocket, which is one of the weapons it is equipped with.
A thundering explosion erupted from the rocket attack from the drone controlled by Wine Yard, resulting in the destruction of the weapons sentry & the van which is being used as cover for the fight between the automatons & the house defenders.
The fire & smoke from the explosion did little to provide a visual screen for both opposing forces as they are equipped with gadgets that are able to augment their vision for effective engagement.
“Bug & Fly, hold your horses!” Roach Trap shouted at them.
Just as when Bug Zapper & Fly Swatter was about to break cover, they stop immediately at the behest of the comrade. Their responses are being replied with rapid gunfire from weapon with a high rate of fire, suggesting that the enemy had deployed more heavy weapons against them.
“What are these bastards thinking?! Hunting a Griffon?!” Bug Zapper cried in irritation.
“Not sure TL, maybe a Chimera.” Fly Swatter voices his annoyance.
“Bug & Fly, you guys better get out of there. Something just changed with these bots.” Roach Trap cautioned his teammates.
“Oh yeah, what did they do? Dress smarter & dance better huh?” The team leader grumbled over what his team member told him.
The moment Bug Zapper is done with his jeers on the matter at hand. He could hear a loud sound of metal being smashed behind him. Both Fly Swatter & him turn around to see what is it that cause it only to be greeted with the sight of two automatons greeting them with their bladed weapons.
Both of these dangerous constructs pounced on them with the blades poised to strike with a deadly intent. Before they could hit their marks, both of their opponents performed a combat roll to evade their attacks.
Bug Zapper & Fly Swatter waste no time in responding to the new threat by attacking them back with their combat knives & pistols. Attacking immediately with kicks, slashes & shots, both of them gave those lifeless beings no quarter in the deadly melee that they demanded from these masters of war.
“Look at what you have done with your sappy mouth.” Fly Swatter scowls at his partner.
“Hey, shit happens.” Bug Zapper replied with a poker tone.
“Boss is going skin you alive for trashing the car.”
“Chill will ya, you know he will cut me some slack.”
While both of them are rambling on the mess they are going to get due to those automatons smashing their recon cruiser. They have been beating the life out of these non-living entities that are not alive at all.
These constructs are indeed built to kill as an apex predator, where they are engineered with the best designs, equipped with the best weapons & gadgets & programmed with the best algorithms.
However, when dealing with warriors that have honed themselves with many years of polished skills & contemplated experiences. They become sparring constructs for Close Quarters Battle (CQB) training which many instructors & trainers use for making demonstration to new recruits who will be walking the path to be the foundation finest in the Realm, Passage & Gate Foundation.
Exchanging blows with those automatons who are challenging Bug Zapper & Fly Swatter are the only means that those master guardians of the foundation to buy time for the sensors in their helmets to assist them to locate the weakness of those dangerous combat constructs.
Multiple blows & parrying were executed by both sides, with one of the opposing forces programmed with a vast sequence of melee attacks while the other with a large pool of martial arts knowledge that are blended to suit an engagement with the enemy depending on the combat conditions. In the end, the fight that lasted less than a minute ended with coup de grace executed by these combat masters.
Bug Zapper who had beaten his opponent into submission on the ground stabbed its head where the cogitator core is located. Without letting that automaton a chance to break free to recover, he empties all the remaining ammunition in his pistol to its chest destroying the computing core inside it, shutting it down for good.
Fly Swatter in the other hand loves to tear his opponent into pieces whenever he is engaged in CQB. Since the start of his engagement, he had been aiming at the neck of his enemy with consistent strikes at the same spot without fail.
Sensing that it is now at its breaking point, he fired his pistol at the automaton till its head is severed from the body, causing it to flail in confusion to search for its head. Kicking the confused opponent down on the ground & holstering his pistol, he cut opened its chest & ripped the computing core out it.
Walking to the head & sheathing his knife into its scabbard, he splits the head by stomping on it & takes out its cogitator core. Holding both cores with his hands, he smashes them at each other, destroying both cores in the process to cause function cease to the construct itself.
Before the duo could look at each other in triumph, they are attacked again by the same gunfire which rocked the battle earlier. Both rolled away into the cover of the trees in the area where they will be safe outside the kill zone of the suppressive fire laid upon them.
“Lock Down out!”
It is Roach Trap & he had used a Lock Down Grenade against those constructs that are firing their heavy weapons at them. The tactical gadget activated, deploying a magnetic field that locks those automatons from performing any action against them.
With little resistance offered by the enemy, the whole team emptied the ammunition in the rifles where they focus most of the fire at the head & chest of those disabled constructs that are sitting ducks in front of them.
“Damn it Roach, what took you so long?” Fly Swatter complained.
“How about you try to crack their field disruptor frequencies instead of me?”
“Ops…”
Upon checking their fallen enemies, Roach Trap who is the team combat engineer found that most of their enemies are non-living beings that are being controlled by someone. The only one dead is the truck driver while the handler of these automatons are missing.
“Exterminator Team, this is Wine Yard, sensors show that remaining enemies have split into two groups. One is entering the house while the other to the indoor court.”
“Copy that Wine Yard. Making pursuit.” Bug Zapper replied to the transmission.
