[dcs_p]As she slipped deeper and deeper into blackness, she struggled several times to
clear the mental fog that was now threatening to take her away. Even as she fell
unconscious, Jasmine released a small burst of bullets from her heavy machine
gun. The sound of the large automatic weapon firing did nothing to wake her
from the mental abyss she had fallen into.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]
The sound of gunfire crackled across the sensor displays on Ryan Harrison’s
Longinus armor’s viewscreen, screaming out to him electronically. As he kicked
himself for misjudging Jasmine’s safety, he realized that the gigantic Mech
outside was less of a danger to the woman than the remaining enemy agent that
was hiding somewhere in the building. He quickly decided to go with his instincts
and track down Jasmine. Releasing a few bullets onto the Spider to give it some
additional worries, Ryan quickly jump-jetted towards the hole through which he
had entered just minutes ago. He would drop down into the basement and then
begin the search for Jasmine or her hunter, whichever he found first. He hoped
that the Spider wouldn’t destroy any more of the library. If that did indeed
happen, he and his friends might be buried under the building.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]After falling down as a result of the Spider’s attack on the library’s structure,
Steve had barely escaped with his life. The machine had knelt down yet again,
finding him once more amongst the bookshelves. It had fired both of its primary
weapons, but Steve had somehow survived both shots. After that, the Mech had
tried to physically grab hold of Steve. He had evaded its terrible grasp by first
escaping the Spider’s reach, and then troubling it additionally with a lucky shot to
the machine’s right hip assembly. Steve had finally caused the major damage
that he had originally intended on doing. This had bought him not only time, but
also helped to even the odds between the two fighters. The machine had slid
down onto its side, and was now struggling to return to a standing position
without injuring its leg anymore.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]Realizing that the additional backup Striker hovercraft had arrived at the library,
Steve knew he had to cause further damage to the Mech in order to keep it from
interfering with the Strikers’ escape. Hiding along the west wall of the library, he
fired his next shot into the Spider’s ankle assembly. If he could cripple this
assembly as well, the Mech would barely be able to stand up, let alone take
pursuit of the escaping hovercraft team.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]Suddenly the Spider fired one of its lasers. The weapon hit only meters from his
armor. Steve couldn’t decide if the enemy pilot had located him or if the shot was
a random attempt to scare him into retreating. The less he moved, the better his
armor’s chameleon effect worked. There were only two reasons that it was now
masking him so well. One was that the enemy’s sensor’s had been damaged
when Steve had hit the Mech in the cockpit. The other was that the tiring evasive
actions he had performed had rubbed all but the smallest bits of the fluorescent
paint off of his armor’s outer shell.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]Wasting no time, Steve fired again into the 30 ton machine’s ankle assembly. He
had finally caused enough damage that the enemy would no longer pose a threat
to the hovercraft. It was now time to retreat.[/dcs_p]