Chapter 112 - Suppressing the Enemy (1/2)

"Railguns? What are those?" Gray asked Caleb.

"I'll tell you all about them after, but basically they shoot a projectile so fast that our uncompressed armor is useless against it."

"Weaknesses?"

"Slight windup time, high energy cost, extreme recoil."

"Oh, so it's not that bad then, you made it sound like we were in trouble!" Gray said feeling a little relieved.

"You do know it'd be the same as having no armor if we get hit with one of those, right?"

"Yep, so don't get hit..." Gray said with a smile.

"Thank you Captain Obvious!"

"I'm only a corporal, not a captain!" Gray said cheekily. "Jokes aside, back away if you can, if they're in a flying-V formation, they probably expect you'll try to swing around behind them."

"So... sit tight?" Caleb said anxiously, not daring to move since the enemy had sights near him.

Gray tried to put himself in the enemy's position, they had a glaring weakness from the rear and it smelled like a trap, but he couldn't figure out what they could possibly have that would make it a trap.

"Am I overthinking it?" Gray thought to himself.

"Keep their attention Caleb, gonna try something stupid!"

"Here I am!" Geoff said with a grin.

"I feel sorry for Beth" whispered Xyra, which both Stacia and Yurika nodded in agreement with.

"Just what I was looking for!" Gray said enthusiastically, "Come on, we're going to give them the obvious! Jono, Paul, try and get to the flank opposite of Caleb and Xyra, let's see if they move!"

"Understood!" Paul said, then Paul's and Jono's mechs continued forward to try and get in position on the opposite flank.

Gray and Geoff proceeded to swing around and try to get behind Kelly's team.

Caleb didn't dare move, but the weather still made the foliage move around him giving him the occasional glimpse of the enemy around him.

Caleb suddenly felt a chill run up his spine, then another double "BRAAANGG" sounded and he felt his mech get pushed hard back from the top and his monitors went black.

One shot missed, but the other hit him square in the head and destroyed his sensors.

"Damn it, I'm blind!" Caleb yelled, as he started to have his mech fall back since they had him spotted now.

Two more shots rang out from the railguns and Caleb's mech suddenly fell on its side.

"They got one of my legs!"

"Just play dead Caleb!" Gray shouted back.

Caleb didn't move once again, but sadly he was blind and could only drag his mech around at this point, effectively taking him out of the fight.

"Xyra, did they see you?" Gray asked Xyra.

"...No, but I am close to Caleb." Xyra said softly.

"Ok, then Paul and Jono, maintain positioning and let's try to funnel them towards the quicksand still. Geoff and I will push them from the back!"

"What about us Gray?" Yurika suddenly chimed in.

"Stay where you are, I might need one of you to do something really stupid later!"

"I like stupid!" Yurika said enthusiastically.

"Huh, no wonder you like Gray." Geoff said with a grin.

"Yep! So let's go be stupid together!" Gray said with a big grin as well.

Gray and Geoff finally swung around behind Kelly's team and were still a few hundred meters from them. Normally they would be able to open fire directly at this range but due to the weather and dense forest they could never hit their target let alone see it.

"So uh, now what?" Geoff asked Gray

"Well, the original plan was to play aggressively defensive. Normally the smart move against a weapon that needs to be mounted like that is to force them to dismount it and attack before they can set it back up. Normally I'd play it passively and take my time to come up with a strategy, so instead we're just gonna go for it!"

"Just go for it? Go for what?"