[dcs_p]Sawaka pinpointed her mistake suddenly. The Blakists had been hiding a Mech
within the building somehow. How in the name of Kerensky had she missed that?
Had she too been set up alongside the Strikers? If so, was I sent into this trap
on purpose?[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]It could be possible. She knew that much. There was little one in her position
could truly trust or rely on. But an ambush? Why? Had she suddenly outlived
her usefulness or only crossed paths with the wrong people somewhere along the
way?[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]Sawaka knew the Strikers had their own emerging intelligence branch. Was it
possible they’d set her up for her attempt to set them up? She couldn’t believe it,
not now at least. There were many other groups who likely wielded more power
to do such a thing.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]Banishing such thoughts from her head, she quickly began clipping her way
through the high-voltage fence with insulated shears. She would have to look into
what happened at a later, not to mention safer, time.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]Before she’d finished her way through the first fence, a loud voice shouted
through an electronic speaker.
“Get down!”[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]She dropped flat to the ground and rolled on her side opposite the direction of the
warning. A flash of laser light scorched over her left thigh mid-roll, setting the
grass along the fence ablaze. The native grass, a highly flammable species
unique to Irece and selected for its properties, quickly crackled in the high
temperature flames to spread generous amounts of foul smoke into the air. The
dark rusty-colored clouds effectively blinded Sawaka, forcing her to switch to
infrared goggles once again.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]Then she saw the Purifier armor. Surrounded. The suit had come from the
opposite direction of the mechanical voice. Now was the time to panic.
From somewhere within the cloud of smoke directly overhead, a small armored
figure no larger than a suit of PAL body armor leaped down. Its miniaturized fiery
jets briefly scorched Sawaka’s legs as it landed just beside her. Its next move
was much more surprising.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]The small suit’s armor boasted some kind of temporary jump jets along its back,
all of which fired simultaneously to propel it directly into the Purifier’s armored
form. The Purifier, itself a comparatively average-sized Battle Armor, clattered to
the ground in a twist of flaying metal appendages. Its operator quickly recovered
however, bringing the deadly armored suit back to its feet in a single fluid motion.
Before Sawaka could take aim at either armor with her own weapon, a
compressed bolt of air thumped out of the smaller armored figure’s arm gauntlet.
The burst of air propelled a solid 20 cm spike of metal into the Purifier’s armored
mask.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]The Purifier’s faceplate was normally able to withstand fire from most small arms
and even some heavier ones too. It’s ferroglass viewscreen was ingeniously
designed so that nearly any high speed shells would deflect off from most any
angle…save for direct hits from 90 degrees precisely. It was not, however,
designed to deflect depleted uranium bars tipped with steel spikes. The bar slid
almost effortlessly into the faceplate’s window and sunk completely inside the
Purifier’s metallic head.[/dcs_p]