"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?"
"You know Geoff, just run in, attack, and see what happens."
"Gray! That's not a plan! That's just stupid!"
"Well, I did say we were going to be stupid together."
"Whatever, your fault if we get blasted!"
Gray and Geoff ran towards Kelly's team as best they could with the wet ground and the trees. The only saving grace they had was that the storm covered their sound pretty well. They started to get glimpses of Kelly's team and knew that the next tree they passed could expose them.
"Don't think, just bust out and open fire. Caleb, Xyra, I bet those fancy guns are fragile!"
Xyra and Caleb didn't reply, but they knew what Gray was getting at.
Gray and Geoff both pushed past one last tree and found themselves a mere 100 meters from Kelly's team.
"Open fire!" Gray yelled.
Gray and Geoff didn't waste any time, took quick aim, and started firing at Kelly's team. Like a well-oiled machine, Kelly's team rotated and brought two of the railguns to aim at Gray and Geoff.
On a whim Gray dodged to his right and saw his left arm lose it's lower arm after hearing the now familiar sound of the railgun firing.
Geoff seemed to be luckier as he had stepped in a deep puddle causing his mech to drop down slightly and the shot grazing his shoulder armor.
"Wow, these things are scary!" Gray thought to himself.
As Gray and Geoff were attacking from the rear, Xyra had crept slowly forward to peek through the trees. Caleb had also dragged himself forward into range as well, but he was unable to aim his current weapon while blind and instead had to rely on sensors only.
"...taking the shot..." Xyra whispered.
Xyra wasn't aiming for the mechs, but she was aiming for that glowing blue spot on the railguns. She released one shot from her battle rifle and managed to hit the glowing blue spot, causing electricity to arc from the gun to the mech being used as a mount. The lights on the mech being used as a mount went dark and the mech using the railgun was unable to dismount the railgun from the mech.
Seeing one of the railguns get disabled, the third railgun was quickly adjusted for where the shot that disabled the first came from.
"...I'm spotted..." Xyra said with a slight hint of worry.
Caleb started to fire wildly at Kelly's team, not really aiming, but it did draw the attention of the third railgun, which with the wail of a shot managed to hit Caleb's mech on the torso leaving it dead.
"...Thank you Caleb..." Xyra whispered
Xyra then took careful aim again and was able to hit the glowing blue spot again on the first railgun that was still taking shots at Geoff and Gray. The electricity didn't arc this time, but it stopped glowing effectively preventing the railgun from building up the charge to fire.
"Geoff, aim for the last railgun when it opens fire on Xyra!"
The remaining railgun adjusted its aim for Xyra after destroying Caleb and Geoff started trying to hit the railgun as well.
The remaining 4 mechs of Kelly's team without railguns stood up and pulled out their heavy battle rifles, one of the railgun mechs pulled the heavy battle rifle off of the disabled mech and took aim and Geoff and Gray also.
Gray and Geoff may have had lighter battle rifles that did less damage, but they could aim them better and at longer ranges. Most of the mechs shooting at Gray and Geoff were only able to chip away at their armor, but Gray wasn't able to aim as well without one of his arms.
"I did it!" Geoff shouted excitedly as he watched electricity arc from the final railgun, shorting out the mech being used as a mount.
"Great! Paul, Jono, collapse!"
"Way ahead of you!" Jono said as both him and Paul broke through the trees and started raining fire down on Kelly's 6 remaining mechs.
"Xyra, collapse as well!"
"..."
"Xyra?" Gray checked his team list and saw a red X on Xyra's picture. "Damn, they got her first."
Gray was now worried that they might push to where Caleb and Xyra were last at since it was slightly elevated ground. "Geoff, starting moving towards Xyra and Caleb's last location, everyone maintain enough distance to limit the effectiveness of their battle rifles now."
"Sounds good! We trying to push them towards Yurika and Stacia, right?" Paul asked.
"Yes! Begin suppressing them!"
Geoff, Paul, Jono, and Gray used their lighter weapon's range advantage and would advance or retreat to keep Kelly's team to an ideal range for them. They finally managed to take down one of Kelly's mechs and it fell in front of the others making it harder for them to advance.
"Ok! Keep this up! They're going to have to push forward soon!"
Gray was getting excited, but he did his best to maintain his excitement as the battle was now just entering the peak.
"A cornered animal is the most dangerous kind." Gray thought to himself expectant of how Kelly would respond now that her plan appeared to be messed up.