"You have your targets, ICI will guide you while I take care of these."
["Yes sir~ Terra you need a boost?"]
"Yeah sure."
Putting on a pure white reaper mask Terra walked over to Alice that was currently wearing a powered frame type exoskeleton and extended the massive hand of her frame towards Terra.
"Heading?"
["104. Good hunt~"]
The second Terra grabbed onto Alice's frame and sat a foot onto it Alice used the enormous strength of the exoskeleton to fling Terra over the spectator seating of the area.
["Then I'm going too"]
"Ah, good hunt"
Finding her target running away on the other side of the spectator seating through surveillance footage from the aerial drones Alice jumped clean out of the area herself and landed with the use of the frames build in thrust manoeuvre pack.
The 4 shadows in the left in the area slowly closed in on Dax from across the colosseum area as Dax dropped down his reinforced weapons case in front of him.
"Okay then… Last chance to surrender peacefully, this area has already been surrounded so securely that it would be a statistical abnormality that even a single drop of dead shadow brain matter could ever spill on the street more than a few blocks from this location."
"W-TH-a-Z-hjA!"
In response to Dax's ultimatum, an inorganic and distorted voice spoke out to him from one or all of the shadows as they started multiplying through some sort of magic.
"That's… Fascinating, but I'm guessing that is not a peaceful response, oh well, in the end, it doesn't matter."
Taking that as a sign of aggression the shadows suddenly started rushing towards Dax that in response stepped on the weapons case, making an enormous mass of metal spring out from it that he caught like he had done it a million times before.
"Looks like negotiations have failed."
As the Shadows rushed closer Dax pointed his strange weapon at the closest target.
"In the end, it doesn't really matter."
As he mumbled that to himself the weapon drew fire, producing a terrible sound, like an explosion. First came a short salvo, maybe 5 shots in a short salvo to range the weapon's sights to an awesome effect as it cut through and decimated the closest shadow. Then perhaps confident in his weapon Dax started automatic and continuous fire, making the automatic recoil compensator in the machine gun work as he cut down about 50 of the remaining 100 shadows that crowed the area with pinpoint accuracy.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?"
"WHAT!!? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!"
Panic quickly spread throughout the spectating knightlings while the deafening sound of automatic gunfire rang out, making them unable to even hear their own shouts as they watched the epic destruction in front of them.
"Ahh~ I've missed the smell of chemical propellants and the jingle of the brass as it hits the ground."
Dax apparently had no problem with the deafening gunfire as he rested his cheek on the large leather stock and rapidly switched between targets as the shadows tried to close range in a truly futile attempt often seen throughout history when fully automatic weaponry faces a melee opponent. After maintaining fully automatic fire for half a minute only the original shadows remained behind a fading shield made of a black crystal as all their illusions had been cut down before they could reach Dax.
"Where did all that enthusiasm from before go!!!?"
Feeling confident Dax slowly closed the range while continuing to fire as he left a trail of brass behind.
"OH SHIT!"
But nothing lasts forever and suddenly Dax's weapon stopped firing as the magazine capacity properly didn't stand up to a solid minute of automatic fire. Seeing that as the opportunity, the 4 shadows rushed out from behind their crumpling shield to kill their target before he could reload.
"Just kidding~"
With a fierce smile, Dax turned his sight on the closet target rushing towards him and pulled the trigger.
"A-H-a-zh-ght-AGPR!"
As the high calibre rounds went through it the shadow made a distorted scream as the shadowy goo disintegrated as Dax sprayed down the other shadows.
"4 targets down, requesting Reapers for collection."
[CONFIRMED.]
"Ahh I love this gun, ICI make a few more please~"
[AFFIRMATIVE. 2 ADDITIONAL 0999 SQUAD SUPPORT WEAPONS ADDED TO MANUFACTURING QUEUE.]
Rex-0999 squad support weapon. Also called the zero triple nine, or simply referred to as the squad plasma cutter.
As the machine gun has been a cornerstone of warfare since the introduction of cased ammunition, the Rex-0999 is the latest iteration of the ancient principle of suppressing fire and the simple idea that one can not have too little firepower. Almost a meter long and weighing about 60 kilograms fully loaded, the zero triple nine is in no way a light or small weapon platform, with a curiously wide barrel and strangely large stock, it is a weapon that draws eyes to it, even if it uses outdated chemically powered projectiles. The Rex-0999 fires medium calibre caseless kinetic ammunition supplied form high capacity box magazines at an extremely high cyclic rate, giving it the designation of a squad support weapon from its ability to sustain impressive firepower for extreme periods. The system is helped by it's built in heatsink that surrounds the barrel, and the addition of a heatsink to aid continued operation is not the only improvement on the time aged concept, as the entire system is entirely stabilized and recoilless through a system of springs and electric motors in the stock, trigger action, foregrip and sight, allowing for pinpoint continues suppressive fire where only a part of the weapon moves and the operator remains unaffected and hence giving the platform it's nickname through the practical comparisons to a industrial plasma cutter in its ability to cut tough cover, walls, body armour and flesh alike without issue doing sustained automatic fire.
"I wonder how Terra and Alice are doing?... Now let's return to training! Break out in 4 man cells and try to hit me!"
As multiple cloaked figures emerged from around the colosseum and gathered around the shadows Dax went back to instructing the now terrified knightlings.
---
[TARGET LOCATED: HEADING 031, RANGE 22 METERS, ELEVATION PLUS 5 METERS]
["I see it! Excuse me, coming through!"]
While tracking the shadow Alice made quite a commotion as she ran down a busy street chasing her target that ran across the rooftops.
["Move you the way, please! I'm getting nowhere like this… ICI do you have an idea?"]
Finding it all too problematic to continue the chase as she was continually blocked by curious onlookers and panicked townsfolk Alice slowed down to a jogging pace as she asked ICI for help.
[HERAD TARGET TO MARKED LOCATION, USE OF FIREARMS APPROVED.]
Seeing a marker being placed on her internal HUD it only took Alice a split second to understand what ICI was trying to do and then stopped in place and pointed her arm at the fleeing shadow.
["Firing now."]
Squeezing the trigger on her control pad Alice heard as the suit mechanics disabled the safety on her arm mounted gauss rifle with an audible click as she shot a burst of lead right past the shadow.
["Come on, go that way! Yes! ICI it is moving towards the AO"]
[CONFIRMED, ORDER SENT.]
["Okay~ I'll handle collection."]
After watching the shadow flee over a building top Alice slowed down her pace and started walking towards the plaza in the direction of the fleeing shadow.
As the shadow moved quickly over building tops it soon realized it had lost its pursuer and slowed down before dropping down in an alleyway and undoing it transformation before going out to the plaza right next to it in an attempt to lose the strange knight, it never got further than that, however. Just before it stepped outside the alleyway an intense pain from its gut suddenly paralyzed it as fell over without nobody in the plaza noticing, and the shadow only just saw the source before passing out. It was small, almost invisible, but a small patch of sky directly across the plaza was slightly out of place, and the shadow's intrusion told it that whatever silent projectile had pierced its gut had come from there.
[TARGET HIT, VULTURE MOVING TO OVERWATCH PATTERN.]
Guardian Aerial target surveillance and assassination drone MK:IX 'Vulture'
After their massive success with the Spectre, the Guardian industries spent 20 years perfecting their follow up design that in the end wouldn't replace the Spectre, but complement it. The Swallow, as it was originally named from its profile mimicking the appearance of a long extinct Terran bird, was a definite upgrade from the Spectre. It was faster, more resilient, with sensors multiple orders of magnitude more precise than the Spectres and could even be outfitted to withstand orbital insertion with complementary heat shielding and a zero g manoeuvre pack. All that came at a cost however, the new Swallow was over 10 times larger than the Spector, with a similarly increased price point. Moreover, its large size made it easy to detect, even when the high tech stealth system was engaged, leading to a first mostly unpopular design with few buyers. Something had to be done, after spending 20 years on the project it couldn't afford to fail and after a mere 2 months later a redesign was ready. The stealth system was upgraded, and a recoilless coilgun prototype from the failed Colossus project was downscaled and replaced the more extreme part sensory array making the now renamed Vulture able to perform high value target assassination from the sky while remaining hidden. The system OS was also upgraded, allowing the Vulture to seamlessly integrate with targeting data from Spectres, leading to a hugely popular and effective product that necessitated the purchase of multiple new Spectre UAVs.
---
"ICI I lost him!"
[TRACKING, STANDBY… TARGET LOCATED: HEADING 015, RANGE 40 METERS, ELEVATION NULL.]
"I see him, come here fucker I won't bite!"
Terra had naively assumed that a living shadow would be easy to track, but if not for the brand new custom reaper mask she would have lost multiple times by now. Running through the busy afternoon she almost ran along the walls following the more and more human like shadow.
[TARGET ACQUIRED BY VULTURE.]
"I got this!"
[KILLSHOT ACQUIRED BY VULTURE. 96% ACCURACY ATTAINED, RECOMMEND EXECUTION.]
"That's 4% too low! Give me a better plan now!"
[CALCULATING, STANDBY FOR MANEUVERS… MANEUVER PLOTTED IN AR]
"Are you fucking serious!?"
[CANNOT COMPREHEND: 'serious' PLEASE SPECIFY COMMAND INPUT.]
"You know what I mean! Chance of success is?"
[124.2%. WITH CHANCE OF SUCCESS FALLING 1% WITH EACH 0.5% ERROR OF DEVIATION FROM MANEUVER NODES.]
"Okay then, watch me pull this off perfectly… Start now."
[CONFIRMED... EXECUTE NODE #1 NOW.]
As Terra Received the manoeuvring instructions she drew her pistol and shot two times right over the left shoulder of the shadow, greatly startling it (and the rest of the busy street) and made it run to the right.
"Got him.."
Immediately after shooting Terra's legs started glowing as she set off with the help of strengthening magic, and leapt over a two story building. She landed a few seconds later on the edge of a rooftop and jumped just after, landing right on the shadow with a tackle and knocking the shadow out cold.
"Now to get it back to the church.."
Having neutralized her first target, Terra was momentarily unsure of how to handle it as it was covered in goo like shadow.
"What is happening here!?"
"Shit."
While Terra pondered if it was safe just to pick up the shadow the city guard arrived.
"HEY, YOU! You're coming with us now!"
Spotting Terra standing over a mysterious figure, it took the not so bright guard only a few seconds to find the party responsible.
"Sorry but that's not gonna happen. This is a Galactic Empire matter so stand down."
"A what? Drop the games and come quietly if you don't want any pain!"
Seeing Terra's explanation as an obvious provocation, the guard and the ones surrounding him pointed their spears at Terra that only gave a sigh.
"ICI you handle them, and the transport of this one too."
"HEY! Stop right there!"
[WARNING THREATENING A DIPLOMATIC ELEMENT IS A CAPITAL OFFENCE. STAND DOWN, YOU HAVE 10 SECONDS TO COMPLY.]
Trying to chase down Terra as she was walking away the guard was blocked by a large figure in a pure black robe with a hood that obstructed the figures face.
"HE-"
[AGGRESSION CONFIRMED: CORRECTING BEHAVIOUR]
Before the guard even could start to scream at the cloaked figure it punched him in the gut and seemingly disappeared in the crowd without a trace along with Terra and the shadow.
---
Back at the central church, Alice was the first one to arrive with her target, a result of her dealing with it faster than Terra as she had no issue transporting the shadow bleeding a mix of blood and shadowy goo as she wore an environmentally sealed piece of power armour.
["Oh shit it is still bleeding?"]
Noticing she was currently soiling a priceless rug with blood Alice was greatly confused as she had already administered emergency first aid in the form of a vial of healing nanomachines earlier.
["Shitshitshit-"]
Getting blood all over the floor and priceless rug, Alice hurley moved off the rug and laid down the shadow on a wooden bench and shot it with another vial of nanomachines.
"What is going on here?"
["Ah Rouge~ Or Solaris I apologize… Wait! That can wait for now please help me with this first!"]
The high ranked nun had walked up on Alice before she noticed it and she quickly called out to her before noticing her state and then remembering the present situation as the shadow started bleeding for the third time.
"Normally I would kill you for speaking like that to me, but this looks slightly problematic and should be handled first. If I stop what is causing the continued bleeding on my floor can you handle it from there?"
["Yes please!"]
"Calm down, it's simply some sort of magic tool."
With a wave of her hand, a complex runic pattern trapped in a thin layer of golden crystal appeared in the air over the shadow and started to shine for about 5 seconds before disappearing.
"That should do it. Now please don't make that creature bleed any more on my floor."
Turning around to leave as the shadowy goo finally started to disintegrate, the nun made it about 5 steps before stopping as something metal hit the floor, coursing her to sigh deeply as she massaged her own temples.
"Please tell me that's not what I think it is.."
["It sadly is."]
"... I should have wiped out this country years ago…."
["ICI let me out, I'm gonna puke."]