#redjacks

The Hunter nodded, finally accepting the terms, and taking her leave to the hangar, keeping astutely aware of the pair of robots behind her. To their credit they didn’t clank or make an exaggerated level of noise like she thought they would. They were streamlined and efficient, steps padded with rubber soles and carefully tuned hydraulics. There was a bounce to their movements, somehow, a hiss and slide of their joints and pistons that spoke of propulsion and finesse. Eyahn felt, somewhat, like she had a pair of gazelles at her back.

That could be okay.

Her ship was small, a one man cockpit, but the frames were adapted for transmat, and after a short round of calibrations Little Star was able to transport them to the interior, where they stowed their rifles across their backs with synchronized precision. Each bent their knees slightly and gripped something in the wall beside them to steady themselves, before clicking sounds went up their bodies and their joints locked into place.

Eyahn couldn’t see them as she settled herself in her pilot’s seat. She was stuck facing forwards, and none of the interior’s holographic displays were reflective enough to be useful as a mirror. She fought the urge to look behind her constantly. They were Shaxx’s frames, rescued from Golden Age bunkers and refurbished, refitted, reprogrammed. They worked for Shaxx, she worked for Shaxx, it was a joint operation. She still struggled to grasp the concept.

No one spoke for the hours long ride. Not Guardian, Ghost, or machine, until just a minute out from the designated transmat zone she was compelled to ask: “Prepared?”

“Affirmative, Hunter.” The one called Arcite replied. Masculine voice synthesis, but nothing like an Exo’s. She shrugged off her pilot harness and lurched up to grab the handle installed in the roof of the cockpit. It held her as upright as possible in the cramped nose of the Ceres Gallot, before transmat did it’s work, and she landed two footed on pavement and rotting leaves.

There was soft clanking as the frames settled behind her, unlocking joints and preparing weapons. She tried not to let it agitate her.

“The alpha transmat point is thirty meters forward.” Dahlia informed her flatly. Her voice was not unlike Eyahn’s own, through a radio or voice filter, perhaps. The Hunter found herself drawn more to it, but that wasn’t fair. The frames were built the same, metal skeletons with plasteel armor. Just because one sounded like… familiarity…

She marched ahead, away from the thoughts, following the waypoint Star had helpfully generated. Dahlia followed, taking a beacon from her belt and holding it out with a choppy mechanical gesture. Eyahn accepted it and drove it into the ground, fiddling with the frequency until it flashed green, signaling a connection to the Tower.

“Contacts.” Star buzzed in her helmet. In the same instant, Dahlia shifted position, a quick singular motion. The frame’s weapon snapped to a ready position, and her knees bent, joints relocking in a different configuration. A metallic echo from behind them declared Arcite’s identical movement. A heartbeat later, Eyahn heard the telltale whump of a Skiff breaking atmosphere, the sky bleeding radiation.

Eyahn moved immediately, sprinting into the nearest building and vaulting over a crumbled wall, taking cover in a corner. There was the surprisingly soft padding of rapid footsteps behind her. The two frames were hardly louder than careful Warlocks. She turned her head, caught a glance of Arcite’s stride as he took a position on the side of a doorframe. The fluidity she’d felt before was back, in the way they ran and moved and swayed. Neither of them looked at her, but waited wordlessly. Arcite’s head swiveled, tracking something beyond Eyahn, through the door beside him. Dahlia moved in response, crossing the room and taking a position at a hole in the perpendicular wall.

Eyahn followed, slinking low and pressing herself beside the frame, trying to get a glimpse of what had moved outside. Dahlia took one hand from her weapon and reached a geometric finger towards the Hunter’s head, for a moment appearing like she was pushing the little one aside, but when the finger touched her visor Eyahn saw a flash of an indicator on her radar. Three red dots, approaching. Motion tracker wasn’t registering them, which left one option. Stealth Vandals.

Crouching, Eyahn waited for the pop from her ears before slinking forward through the gap in the wall. She saw Dahlia’s optics track her movement. Outside, she made for the nearest cover, a pile of rubble from the crumbling corner of a former building -that also held some useful height in the area. Handcannon in her grip, she peered at the road before her, watching for any signs of movement, knowing smart Vandals would keep a slow pace to minimize flutter. She brought her head down as her own camoflauge faded, opening a channel to the frames.

Before she even had a chance to think of the right word, the frames guessed her request, and a single shot rang out from Arcite’s side of the building -striking one of the previously unseen enemies in the chest. The beast snarled, it’s form bubbling into view. It took cover when more semi-automatic shots peppered around it. The other two moved quickly, and their positions hazily revealing themselves. One charged towards Arcite, the other -attempting to flank- moved between Eyahn and Dahlia. The little Hunter pounced, drawing her blade and closing the gap with a blink. She dug the knife into the side of the Vandal’s throat, her weight taking it stumbling to the ground as it hissed it’s life into the dirt. Dahlia, in the same moment, came swooping from her doorway, bounding around Eyahn and opening fire on the wounded Vandal Arcite had revealed. More fire from the frames and Fallen screeching punctuated the last enemy light on the radar winking out.

Withdrawing the knife Eyahn darted back to her cover, perplexed to see Dahlia had followed her up to it, while Arcite moved up the opposite side of the narrow street. She had expected them to return to the last held position, instead of smoothly transitioning into pushing the offensive.

There was distant chattering from up ahead, Fallen forces gravitating towards the sounds of gunshots. Eyahn motioned forward for Dahlia, unslinging her sniper rifle from her back. The frame turned and loped down the small embankment, positioning herself closer to Arcite. The two of them were like twin pegs of a tripwire in Eyahn’s mind, and she saw their strategy, surprising herself at how seamlessly she could. The frames were no different than any other allies she’d worked with. She had expected to have to dictate and formulate orders, instead they assessed the situation themselves, and effortlessly made tactical decisions.

Eyahn sat back in the rubble, training her scope through a gap in the piles of rocks. She kept a steady gaze down the overgrown road. In her HUD Dahlia repositioned slightly, and a window appeared to the side, above her motion tracker, flashing for acknowledgement. She blinked at it and a small red-hued video feed opened, showing a pile of rocks and a couple glowing bumps, the outline of a head and shoulder. It was an image of herself, she realized, from Dahlia’s perspective, and the perspective the enemy would see. Eyahn shrunk down and to the side a bit more, watching as her bright shoulder receded from view, and the line of her head was broken more jaggedly by rubble.

She raised a pair of fingers in thanks and Dahlia’s feed flickered away, before reappearing at a different angle. This time the view was in bright blobs of color, from red to yellow to green to indigo. There were hints of shapes, what looked like various plants in yellow, and moving specters of two legged beings in red. One subject turned and Eyahn picked out the stumps of four arms, and it clicked that it must be a Fallen Vandal, seen through whatever strange filters Dahlia’s eyes saw. Once she could identify the shape, however, Eyahn found three other bodies -at least- moving towards Dahlia. A pair of green disc shapes passed in front, and from nubby protrusions on their underbellies she assumed they were Shanks. From around a corner came a sphere, in deep green at it’s core but teal around the rim. Dahlia blinked to a different filter, and the world was refocused in blue-overlaid semi clarity.

What Eyahn had thought was a Vandal was a Captain, evidently, shown by the new silhouette. She didn’t have time readjust her predictions on anything else because the lead Shank had just come into her own view around the bend in the road, passing through the crosshairs of her scope. Dahlia’s feed shut off suddenly, as the Shank paused in its sweep, buzzing near to where the frame stood hidden.

Eyahn did not take the chance that it had noticed her. She shifted her crosshairs and fired, blowing the Shank apart. A roar when up from the Captain, who charged around the corner, ducking low to throw off her aim. It worked, and the shot missed it’s head, ripping a hole in the cloak that trailed behind it. Before she could correct her aim it vanished in a flash of the Eliksni’s version of Blink. It’s entourage moved into her range, and she took a risk, firing her third shot through a Dreg’s head and her fourth into the Servitor before casting her rifle aside. She snatched up her hand canon and rose, shooting aimlessly to give herself covering fire. Arcite and Dahlia were nowhere to be seen.

The Captain charged from inside a building, where his teleport must have carried him. He zeroed in on the sounds of her fire. Eyahn blinked backwards, reloading midair, and as she hit the ground she held her position, feet firm and fired fired fired. He carried only blades, wasn’t a threat to her at range. But the Servitor was feeding his shields, they wouldn’t break-

A sharp crack and burst of fire sounded just behind the Fallen forces. The explosive impact of some kind of grenade cracked the Servitor and set it to whining. The Captain doubled back from where it was advancing on her head spinning between adversary and chaos. In that moment of confusion, Eyahn saw a shadow -Arcite- detach itself from the wall behind the Fallen Captain and drive a wicked combat knife into it’s neck. He held firm as the creature roared and flailed, trying futilely to strike back at it’s attacker. Dahlia, meanwhile, swept from a doorframe behind the rest of the Eliksni force and opened fire. The remaining Dregs fell, the second Shank exploded, and the Servitor followed soon after, each with neat controlled bursts.

Eyahn leveled her hand canon at the indisposed Captain and blew off it’s head, it’s body going rigid under Arcite’s grasp. The framed retracted the knife and stored it back in it’s sheath along his belt. Dahlia scanned the other organic targets, firing a small burst into each head.

“Two hundred meters to transmat point B.” Arcite reported. There was a pause, something extra. Was there a twinge of approval. “Shall we carry on, Hunter Eyahn?”

She waited to answer, reloading her smoking gun. For the first time in a long time, she didn’t want to rush through a team operation. This was a team she could grow used to.

The shadow of the Skiff turned over the city, it’s broadsides showing for a moment as it cast a single half-hearted cannon shot in their direction before thundering away. The burst hit the corner of a building and rained rubble down a few yards from Dahlia. She glanced belatedly in the direction, as though almost bored by the attempt.