[SCRAP MARKET, MARKETPLACE]
Elin took stock of the area. One hostile, moving to take up position by the entryway. Popping out of cover, she fired a burst of bullets towards Wyatt. The bullets hit home, but Wyatt's clothing stopped the shots from penetrating. Cursing, Elin dropped back into cover.
Syderis looked down his scope at the Institute troops beneath him in the street. Pirose had already run off, down an alley, but the squad tracker displayed on his retina showed Raptus' position in that same alley. That was either the worst-car or best-case scenario for them - Raptus would be the most capable of capturing her, but he was also the most capable of killing her. Not to mention the most likely.
All he could do was he would put the mission before his compulsions.
He drew his thoughts back to the situation with which he could deal. He recognised Elin Duvares, a strong member of Marquese's force indeed. Beside her was what seemed to be a young girl, though there was something off about her, something that Sy couldn't place. He decided that the girl would be the easiest to take down.
His thumb flicked back the safety on the side of the railgun, and his hand tightened around the grip. A full metal jacket round was already in the chamber, and he was hidden behind his cover atop the building in stealth.
Now all that was left to do was to take a breath, let it half out... and pull the trigger.
The gun made little more than a metallic clang and the sharp crack of the projectile breaking the sound barrier, and it rocketed at hypersonic speeds straight towards the girl's head.
INA reacted to the crack, and began to move. Unfortunately for her, the projectile was moving too fast, smashing into her head and dealing heavy damage. She wasted no time in tracking the source of the attack. Based on the angle of the damage in her head, the attack would have originated from that building. INA raised her arm and fired a counter beam towards the supposed location of the unknown assailant. Perhaps a surprising split-second reaction could catch this opponent off-guard. The laser burned a hole in the wall near Sy, but failed to hit her target.
As Elin's bullet hit Wyatt he had to take a step backwards from the unexpected force.
He then quickly looked at the source of the bullet, seeing Elin take cover.
Wyatt ran towards her while trying to make sure he wouldn't be an easy target.
There was now no time to form the AI, he needed to get to his target ASAP and hope he can finish her of with his knife before she can get another shot at him.
Elin watched wide-eyed as the Partition agent charged at her holding nothing but a knife. Was he seriously just a distraction to give the sniper time to finish them off? Elin sidestepped the attack deftly, before slapping her hand onto INA's chassis. One of her vials of repair nanobots was already loaded, swarming over INA towards the damage caused by the sniper bullet.Thankfully, the robots were capable of knitting machinery as well as flesh, and went some way towards restoring the damage dealt to the synthetic soldier. "Forget this guy," Elin shouted to Ina, "Go deal with the sniper!"
Syderis could see now that this wasn't a girl, but some freakish drone. Her head was a mess of circuitry and metal, yet she still was functioning, and he imagined she was a tad hardier than the average drone.
Wyatt... wow. That was quite the pathetic show, though luckily Duvares hadn't touched him. What she did was still fairly troublesome- healing the drone, namely. Some kind of nanobot solution was repairing the damage, but he could see she only held two more of those vials. He considered his options. Try to take out the drone while she chased after him and Duvares would be unlikely to be able to heal her too, especially if Wyatt proved somewhat less unskilled. It was that, or move a lot less, and take out the medic that might prove a problem for him otherwise.
He decided on the former course of action. It was often a rule that he followed to take out the weaker target first, then focus on the big bastard second in this kind of situation.
"Wyatt, I'm going to need you to distract Elin, maybe even do some damage." He radioed over, inaudible to those without their frequency and its encryption.
"I don't think she's too much of a heavy hitter, but she's damn resilient. I'll be taking out the drone-girl while you do that. Once she's down, I'm coming back for you. Just be careful."
Now, with Wyatt informed, he began his move. He didn't have an FMJ round ready, and was out of stealth, so he could only hope that his standard shot could deal some decent damage by using his retinal augmentations to pinpoint a critical spot in her body. The shot hit home again, this time striking the torso of INA. More sparks flew from the damage.
That done, he slung his rifle onto his back, and got damn well moving. He hadn't missed the captain ordering an attack on him, and he didn't intend to be there for it.
INA had expected the attack this time, now knowing of the sniper's presence and location. If left to a drawn out fight, she knew this individual would eventually manage to kill the both of them and probably anyone else leaving the building. Perhaps it wasn't the safest plan, but she'd have to put everything into one shot. INA faced towards Sy as he began to make his escape, redirecting as much power as possible into the laser, the targeting subroutines and her reflexes.
Wyatt knew he was in trouble, his attack was a total failure.
His only hope was that Syderis plan worked.
Wyatt quickly decided that the best way to distract Elin would be to form the AI.
If nothing else, it might tank a few shots that where supposed to go his way.
As the AI took form Wyatt felt himself getting weaker, the newly formed wolf wastes no time and immediately prepares to attack.
INA focused her targeting on Sy, raising her arm and pointing the laser straight towards him. To anyone else, the wolf suddenly forming in the peripheral vision would've been a terrible distraction, but INA was focused on the shot that would likely make the difference between life and death for her; perhaps Elin as well. Pushing the thought of the wolf aside, she focused the available power into the beam and fired. The beam flashed across the battlefield at lightspeed, burning its way through Sy's clothing and piercing deep into his abdomen. The smell of charred meat wafted its way up to Sy's nostrils. Nevertheless, he remained standing.
Elin, keeping one eye on the outcome of the shot, assessed Wyatt. The wolf seemed more threatening, but Wyatt himself appeared more drained than before. The generation of a digital weapon - that was a very interesting piece of tech, though it would probably be a power hungry bit of kit. Still, if it could be recovered, preferably with the user alive...
Elin made her judgement in a flash. She had seen the laser burn into the sniper, and she knew that his presence made the completion of nearly every facet of their mission significantly harder. He had hidden his presence from them before, and likely would again if given the chance. INA had flushed him out, and Elin had no intention of letting him go to ground again. Pivoting on her heel, she dropped into a firing position and fired off a volley of bullets at Sy. The bullets struck home, but with significantly less power than the laser. The sniper's armour absorbed the force, stopping the projectiles before they could do so much as break the skin.
"I NEED BACKUP! WOUNDED AND UNDER FIRE, I REPEAT, NEED BACKUP!" Sy shouted into his radio, running for his life. He had a bad wound in his side and it hurt like utter hell, especially whenever he took a step, which he was doing a lot right now, running as he was. That damned freak and her captain had him nearly dead, and the only way that he could survive now was evidently to get the hell out of there.
"I'm leaving the combat zone. I'm critically injured and can't take another hit. Commander, you're needed here, URGENTLY!"
Being left alone by Syderis, Wyatt quickly needs to think of something.
He could try to run away as well but they have guns and thus he doubts he could escape.
Wyatt's fear is that his only hope to survive is to stay and hope that he can survive long enough for backup to arrive, if it will even come in the first place.
He then remembers that Raptus was already pissed at Syderis before he decided to flee, now Raptus is probably in the worst mood ever.
If Wyatt flees as well and he somehow manges to escape they both probably won't not enjoy the time with Raptus afterwards.
Realizing this fleeing looks a lot less appealing.
Wyatt decides to run towards Ina and attack her with his knife.
If it doesn't kill her it might wound her enough to let the AI Finnish her or if things go sour and he needs to flee wound her enough that Elin will prioritize healing her instead of chasing him.However, with INA having diverted max power to her reflexes, she effortlessly sidestepped the knife attack.
Wyatt curses as he fails to land his attack.
Before he could do anything else the AI rushes in.
Wyatt knows that if the wolf fails to take Ina out it is pretty much over for him. He makes himself ready to run while asking in the radio if backup is coming.
The wolf makes itself ready to jump towards Ina, its plan is to use its weight to push her over while biting wherever it can.
As it jumps it recognizes that Wyatt wants to make a run for it but it has no time to calculate if it would be better to kill Ina or wound her enough that she can't fight anymore and use her wounds as a distraction.
The plan stays unchanged, bite as often as it can where ever it can while getting her to the ground. As the wolf lunged forwards, digital fangs open wide, it was surprised to find that it's target had, just like before, effortlessly sidestepped the wild lunge. Where once there was target, there now was empty space.
As the dagger-clutching rebel engaged INA, her expression began to morph as the distance closed. Her face twisted with an almost impossible rage, which was odd considering her perfectly dull expression otherwise; even after getting shot. Only after the wolf-like creature forced another backwards movement was she able to regain enough senses to remember what she was doing. Without a word, INA bolted away towards the building which the sniper appeared to be fleeing from. Simply by turning around, the rage softened significantly and it continued to melt away with each stride. Soon, the outline of Syderis could be seen, running desperately for his life.
Elin shouted over the communications link. "INA! Cease pursuit! It's too risky with your current levels of damage!" Growling, she turned on Wyatt. If INA were to be caught in an ambush with her current configuration, she wouldn't last long at all. Ignoring the digital frequency weapon, she turned on the operator and opened fire, almost as much to vent her frustrations as to do damage. Unlike her last shot, bullets shredded through his clothing, piercing into Wyatt.
As INA closed in on her target, she knew it wouldn't be much longer until he would likely launch a last-chance attack, and the anger growing on her face would make that even more likely. Plus, she shot him; there's that too. In their weakened state, another shot from either one of them would likely mean the death of the other. Suddenly, INA stopped in her tracks, raised her arms to the sky, and shouted in an enraged tone that sounded more like a battle-cry than an apology, "Ina is sorry for your damage!"
Sy was still running as fast as he could with the damage he'd sustained, but what the drone shouted almost made him stop. It certainly made him look around, to see her having stopped dead still, as she screamed her message at him. It was almost as if she was trying to be human, but was a poor replica with plenty of faults - perhaps the damage to her head had caused this behaviour.
Unltimately, Sy decided he didn't care enough to stop and see what she had to say. She had stopped, so, brilliant, he would not, and he kept running, diving into alleys where he could.
Wyatt though that Ina would try to attack him as soon as she had a chance, instead he saw her run away. Probably towards Syderis.
Which was probably a good thing for Wyatt.
Before he could adapt to the new situation he felt a sudden pain, the other shot at him.
Right now, together with his AI it was two versus one but the other might come back and if that was the case he would be fucked.
Even if Syderis managed to take the droid out while it was chasing him it was unlikely at this point that Syderis would come back.
The other thing he could do is be like Syderis and run away. Have his AI attack anything that want to chase after him.
If the AI manages to do enough damage to someone he could just turn around and finish the job.
This was probably a lot safer as the AI might take a few hits that otherwise would go towards him.
Wyatt decided that he liked the running away more, sure right now it was a two versus one but for how long? And it isn't even that much of an advantage as his opponent only needs to take him out to win.
While Wyatt runs away, the wolf runs towards Elin.
This time he goes for her legs as his goal isn't to kill her as soon as possible but rather to prevent her from chasing Wyatt. Elin cleanly sidestepped the wolf, spraying bullets at it as it flew past. The bullets dug into the side of the wolf, but didn't penetrate the armoured shell.
INA stared off at Sy as he turned, not bothering to stop; not that she could blame him for that. As INA lost visual contact, the rage once again melted back into her standard dull expression. She stood there for a few moments, letting her arms drop back down, and finally began a moderately-paced run back towards the market.
