Phoenix - the Insilico tales - chapter 10 - "Uprising"
(originally posted on 7/7/2011)
Phee looked nervously down the street toward the border, her finger on the trigger guard of her assault rifle. New in her THiSec role, she stood vigil outside the packed Bowl in combat armor, trying her best to convey some sense of Tokuma confidence after the defeats of the past couple of days. But after setback after setback, she scanned the streets with eager eyes, hungry for any opportunity for payback.
The sound of shots rang out from the just off the border road, just to the northwest. Phee instantly took off running, rounded the corner, and activated her grav pack dash mode. She accelerated nearly instantly to over 100 mph, and then was smoothly decelerated for a gentle landing - in front of the most terrifying thing she'd ever seen. Nearly 3 meters tall and sporting multiple machine guns, the hulking combat droid quickly articulated its guns toward Phee, and opened up at point blank range. Her new battle armor buckled under the punishment, clouds of ablative material bursting into the air as she scrambled backward. Several of the rounds smashed into her thigh, wrecked the battle armor, hammered brutally through her CNT armor plating, and severed a coolant line and several control lines. She limped out of range behind a barrier, pulled her emergency repair kit, and filled the gaping wound with viscous emergency sealant. It quickly hardened to the consistency of rubber, stopping most of the leak.
She gritted her teeth, shouldered her rifle and let fly with a burst of gunfire. Several bullets seemed to strike home, but most deflected off the droid's heavy armor. She crouched quickly behind the barrier as another hail of gunfire raked the air over her head, changing clips as she called out on her wireless comm system "Cait! Help me!" Then she went back over the top through a cloud of exploding metal where bullets were striking the barrier she was sheltering behind, and let loose with another clip full of ammo. She could see a servo went down, one of the droid's arms went limp. Then the deafening roar of an AA12 autoshotgun filled the small alley. Cait had arrived and was firing from the other direction. After a few minutes of combined fire, the droid finally fell silent. Phee gazed over the edge of the barrier to try to figure out what the hell it was, but that's when she heard the distant gunfire from near the Bowl.
"Oh Fuck!" Phee hissed. Cait took off running, and Phee followed behind, hobbling, leaking coolant as she rounded the corner and saw another of the monstrosities in the junkyard. The two cyborgs opened fire on the hulking bot in clear view of the Buddha's Bowl, which had been packed with civilians when the fighting began. They watched the lone Tokuma THiSec officer and her civilian companion struggle to defeat the second droid. Their faces grew grim. An anger which had been welling up in West over the past few days took hold, and that motley crew of ordinary people of the West - workers, criminals, tradesmen, con artists, one by one drew their weapons and took to the streets, just as the Western Front had tried to get them to do.
They advanced toward the limping, leaking cyborg, raised their weapons, and opened fire on her target. Rifles, pistols, even a scythe were employed in the ensuing firefight. The Western Front had been right. The power of the people to turn the tide of battle was the key to power in the West. Together, they walked the streets of their home and systematically eliminated some 10-12 of the beasts.
The power of the people of West had awoken.
Phee looked nervously down the street toward the border, her finger on the trigger guard of her assault rifle. New in her THiSec role, she stood vigil outside the packed Bowl in combat armor, trying her best to convey some sense of Tokuma confidence after the defeats of the past couple of days. But after setback after setback, she scanned the streets with eager eyes, hungry for any opportunity for payback.
The sound of shots rang out from the just off the border road, just to the northwest. Phee instantly took off running, rounded the corner, and activated her grav pack dash mode. She accelerated nearly instantly to over 100 mph, and then was smoothly decelerated for a gentle landing - in front of the most terrifying thing she'd ever seen. Nearly 3 meters tall and sporting multiple machine guns, the hulking combat droid quickly articulated its guns toward Phee, and opened up at point blank range. Her new battle armor buckled under the punishment, clouds of ablative material bursting into the air as she scrambled backward. Several of the rounds smashed into her thigh, wrecked the battle armor, hammered brutally through her CNT armor plating, and severed a coolant line and several control lines. She limped out of range behind a barrier, pulled her emergency repair kit, and filled the gaping wound with viscous emergency sealant. It quickly hardened to the consistency of rubber, stopping most of the leak.
She gritted her teeth, shouldered her rifle and let fly with a burst of gunfire. Several bullets seemed to strike home, but most deflected off the droid's heavy armor. She crouched quickly behind the barrier as another hail of gunfire raked the air over her head, changing clips as she called out on her wireless comm system "Cait! Help me!" Then she went back over the top through a cloud of exploding metal where bullets were striking the barrier she was sheltering behind, and let loose with another clip full of ammo. She could see a servo went down, one of the droid's arms went limp. Then the deafening roar of an AA12 autoshotgun filled the small alley. Cait had arrived and was firing from the other direction. After a few minutes of combined fire, the droid finally fell silent. Phee gazed over the edge of the barrier to try to figure out what the hell it was, but that's when she heard the distant gunfire from near the Bowl.
"Oh Fuck!" Phee hissed. Cait took off running, and Phee followed behind, hobbling, leaking coolant as she rounded the corner and saw another of the monstrosities in the junkyard. The two cyborgs opened fire on the hulking bot in clear view of the Buddha's Bowl, which had been packed with civilians when the fighting began. They watched the lone Tokuma THiSec officer and her civilian companion struggle to defeat the second droid. Their faces grew grim. An anger which had been welling up in West over the past few days took hold, and that motley crew of ordinary people of the West - workers, criminals, tradesmen, con artists, one by one drew their weapons and took to the streets, just as the Western Front had tried to get them to do.
They advanced toward the limping, leaking cyborg, raised their weapons, and opened fire on her target. Rifles, pistols, even a scythe were employed in the ensuing firefight. The Western Front had been right. The power of the people to turn the tide of battle was the key to power in the West. Together, they walked the streets of their home and systematically eliminated some 10-12 of the beasts.
The power of the people of West had awoken.
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