- I see. I would help you fix all of the machines, but just a small favour. If you are chased already, try to lure all of them at once and hold your position until I can come for help.
- Can. But please be quick.
The message signal turns off. I stand in front of a humanoid, cybernetic Intruder holding a gun.
- Finally, I found you! The higher-ups have planned to isolate the ship and assassinate you, but it seems that you are a step ahead. And you also waste not a small number of our forces. What an accomplishment. - The Intruder injects some sarcastic tone in his speech, but I know that otherwise, they are genuine.
- Thanks. I have heard that countless times from your comrades, and you know their fate already, I assume.
The Intruder seems unaffected by my boasting.
- That is just a fluke. Right now, you are effectively trapped here. Just accept your fate.
Straightforwardly, the Intruder points his gun at me. A red light beam is imprinted on my armour, and the next moment, a rain of projectiles is falling on me.
With my finger snap, a small metallic plate emerges in the air, transforming into a Compact Shield and blocking all projectiles.
In this battle, I am not the only one with an array of equipment to use. Right after the missile spree ends, the boss Intruder disappears from my sight. I look around, but even a shadow cannot be seen.
- Where are you looking at?
A bone-chilling barrel pins the back of my armour. I barely rotate myself before I hear a click of the trigger pressing. A short but intense plasma beam burns everything in its path, and I can see electric zaps in the air as the air particles are ionised and discharged.
With the photon dagger in my hand, I swing randomly before the Intruder manages to keep distance. One of the swings is blocked by something metallic. I can hear the sizzling of metal melting, as well as a characteristic smell. I release my hand, letting the dagger at a high temperature continue to stick on and melt whatever it hits.
The Intruder shows its shape after it has made a leap and kept a distance of at least twenty metres from me. The photon dagger is on its back; according to what I see, it severely damages one of his modules.
The Intruder withdraws the photon dagger from its armour and throws it away. Where the dagger hits reveal even more connections between his modules.
- Now I understand why the higher-ups warn me that I should take extra precautions. You truly have a superhuman reaction time and sixth sense. And you also damage one of the refraction modules. Fine, let's make it real.
The boss just spurts out that I damage one of the modules responsible for its invisibility and thinks that I do not understand.
Once again, the Intruder vanishes in thin air, but this time, I can see very faint traces of it as the light refraction is at lower efficiency. But that does not mean that I can distinguish it from the environment if it moves at high speed. I better run.
With built-in propellers on the protective suit, I flee away, knowing that I am being chased.
- Now, let's fulfil the second objective. - I check the message from the spectacles again.
On my head, there is another wave of raining missiles and drones hungry to plunge towards me. However, I have built up sufficient momentum to evade them all. The randomly hitting missiles trigger consecutive explosions along the way, alerting the other Intruders. And as I must move between different areas, the mobs start appearing.
It is not that they can pose any threat, and I can just kill them, but colliding with one, or wasting everything at my expense, does not sound any right.
I wave my hands, and the SMG-01 sits in my hands, with a massive magazine to fire.
As I flee, a crowd of Intruders starts to form behind my back, led by the boss, followed by what looks like an entire division of Intruders. Above my head, fleets after fleets of drones, rockets, missiles and other kinds of projectile circle above my head.
- How are you planning to get away from us? - I can still hear his voice behind my back.
- I think that instead, what you should ask is how you are going to catch me.
Then, there are ambushing Intruder squadrons whenever I make a turn. These are the ones that I would waste my precious ammunition on. None of them can approach a ten-metre radius without lying on the ground under my gun.
- Come on! You are stepping into the central area, and we can surround you whenever we like here with our numbers. Just stop and surrender.
- If you can, just catch me. Use all of your forces.
I know that they cannot let me run around and rampage the whole town.
The whole area has been trampled by the heavy marching of the Intruders and the holes when their missiles and drones miss me and explode upon contact with the ground.
- Sigh... You leave me with no choice.
I feel the intense heat waves from behind my back. Then, a bright shadowy figure dashes forward, right to my left. Before I can react, I feel a powerful impact on my back. Within a blink, I am blown away, knocking over the bushes. Luckily, the protective suit has sheltered me from any injury. As soon as I stand up, a circular ring of Intruders has already enclosed me, trapping me and the boss, whose cybernetic veins are glowing in a blood-red colour.
I plan to break through the formation and get away, but their numbers make the formation a very thick and dense one. Also, from the surprise attack, the plan will likely fail.
- I tried to hold back and give you a chance to forfeit first, but remember that you have pushed me to this point. You can always reflect on that after you pass away right here.
- And I have no regret.
I stand face-to-face with the Intruder who just triggers its breakthrough mode or some sort, with my weapon ready in hand. It all comes to this.
The boss switches to invisibility mode again, but the last speck of luck allows me to see its barely observable traces and the dim lighting of his veins. My finger is placed firmly on the trigger and ready to fire any second.
The shadow charges forward at lightning speed. Without a care about accuracy, I fire mindlessly. Most of the bullets hit the ground and cause evaporation in the air, some hit the traces in the air and make ripples that quickly disappear.
However, the boss only gives me sufficient duration to swing my gun, taking a hurling slash from the bayonet of its gun. A loud clanking sound reverberates through the air, and the hit is so strong that it pushes me backwards although I try to hold my ground.
Right after that, the shadow plunges at me with a red laser visible in the air, signalling another rain of missiles. I swing my hand to replace my gun with a photon sword. After countering another bayonet swing with my sword, I use the momentum of the hit to leap behind, making consecutive rotations in the air and dodging the series of little explosions on the ground. They blow up dust on the ground, making my vision very foggy.
- Let's make this quick for both you and me. - Knowing that I cannot see anything, the boss charges forward.
Guess it is goodbye then.
Suddenly, there are three bright arrows appeared on my spectacles. They point to the left, and they do not stop blinking. The number of arrows decreases from three to two, and one, followed by a big word: DODGE.
Risking my only chance, I duck and roll to my left side, right before the traces suddenly become visible to me on my right side. The sudden turn makes the heavy chunk unable to make its turn in time, and it smashes into the formation of Intruders.
Then, I can hear a very familiar shooting sound, from a very powerful gun that I know. Except for this time, instead of a tungsten bullet, the projectile looks like a pressurised needle, which pumps a blue-coloured liquid into the cybernetic veins of the boss. It seems to paralyse it temporarily.
The spectacle vision now shows another word in bold letters, RUN.
Understanding where the assistance comes from, I quickly break through the formation of Intruders when they are still confused about the occurrence, making it out safely.
I know that Mirai has been watching, and as soon as I sense no nearby threat, the figure of a blue-haired humanoid robot with her toolkit appears in my sight.
- Hi, Mirai. So, can I assume that your part is done?
- Yes. Now will be the last part of this performance.