ARES:Gods of War

Codename:Chatterbox

Gunfire echoed throughout the Square that the two squads advanced down. Both advanced in the form of Wedges, tips pointed toward a Rapture unit of taller, quad-legged mechs with rail rifles mounted to their arms and missile launchers on their backs. Spent casings clinked against the overgrown concrete below as the teams utilized destroyed cars, stands and even the remnants of a collapsed building as cover.

Smaller Rapture units attempted to flank, only to be met by accurate fire from Neon and from Niner, the latter of which still had three barrels to expend, plus almost a thousand rounds of ammunition. Meanwhile, Rapi took cover by one of the collapsed walls and poked out, firing a burst and then ducking back into cover as the return fire of the smaller drones, bullets drilling holes into reinforced concrete.

Layla moved in beside her and dropped to her knees, before leaning over and firing from down low. A burst caught one of the drones as it was pushing through a crack in the wall, disabling its gun. Rapi joined in next and called out, "Focus fire on the Oculus with me, Layla!" to which both girls immediately let loose a half-magazine each into the Rapture's glowing red eye.

It detonated, with both reloading. Layla stood up and pushed inside with Rapi and Pinne, the latter of which led the way with her much heavier armor. Bullets pinged off of highly-reinforced kevlar, while the taller trio of what the group called Thermite Beta units advanced, attempting to sidestep the obstacles. One of them aimed its twin rifles at the Chief, stopping and trying to lead as the Spartan charged forward with Mihara and Yuni right beside him.

The Chief jumped over cover, narrowly dodging both rifle shots, then emptied his magazine toward the machine mid-flight. Yuni and Mihara had time to do as they needed to while it was distracted by one of their two commanders, with the pink-haired petite one throwing her whip forward with a manic grin. She caught one of the machine's legs, wrapping the whip around in a second swing, then thumbed the whip's electrical emitter.

A burst of electricity snapped through the taut whip, coursing into the machine and disabling half of its functions. Chief swiveled about, as he had been running perpendicular to the axis of the whip. He now ran parallel, right toward the machine. A flurry of missiles left the launcher at the back, but the Spartan weaved through the hits, letting them harmlessly detonate behind him before clambering onto it and cocking his balled fist back.

With one harsh hammer blow, the Spartan cracked the machine's Oculus, jumping back and taking cover behind the corpse as the others advanced. Delta's sniper rang out from behind him, catching one of the other two Thermite Betas in one of the rifles. The weapon sparked and shorted, causing the arm to detonate as it tried to fire. The Chief turned about and gave a nod to the girl, before jumping over the corpse of the first Thermite.

Bullets sparked off his shield as the smaller Raptures fired their Machine Guns at him. A pair of flying ones also let loose a barrage of particle missiles, but Cortana quickly disabled their lock systems, forcing them to crash harmlessly into the ground. Rapi and Layla pushed through the building, with Anis joining moments later and firing her launcher. Two explosions flashed and the second Thermite took damage, shrapnel embedding itself into whatever biomechanical systems made up its left-side legs.

It growled, terrifyingly enough, swiveling about toward the trio of Nikke. Niner's Machine Gun roared to life as the girl advanced, a stream of high-caliber bullets cutting into the ranks of the smaller Raptures that also tried engaging her comrades. Chief, meanwhile, clambered on top of the Thermite that'd lost a gun, put the barrel of his assault rifle in its Oculus and opened fire.

Mihara and Yuni joined the other girls as another Sniper shot rang out from Delta. Signal also joined them, before the group broke into pairs. Pinne advanced up to the Chief as the Thermite collapsed, then told him, "Down to slugs, sir!" as she loaded the aforementioned ammunition. Armor-piercing high-caliber slugs would do some damage to the enemy, he thought.