Rex weaved between every blow that came his way. The massive Mahari was fast, regardless of its size. The lack of cannon on its back certainly assisted with its mobility compared to its brethren behind it, but Rex was always one step ahead. He hadn't gone back in for a strike though, and Ardwen watched him from a distance with a bizarre curiosity. It was difficult to figure out exactly how the youth could predict the attacks so well, especially considering how Shotuku had explained Rex to all of them. This was a relative novice, poorly trained, who couldn't stand up to Porter.
And Porter had struggled against a Mahari. He had done it alone, that was true, and he had certainly won, eventually, but it didn't mean he hadn't found it difficult. Ardwen had thought that single feat of defeating a Mahari had been a spectacular accomplishment for the time, but it had taken Porter all of his cumulative experiences and his years of Goliath training in the academy before he had been able to pull it off. What was Rex then? Was this why he had made Shotuku so excited?
There could only be one possible explanation left for Ardwen: chi. It was something he was not familiar with on a personal level. Neither he nor Raul had any latent powers that would manifest through their Goliaths. They had tactical skill and technical skill, but couldn't be granted any further power. Their life could power their machines, but it couldn't do anything beyond that.
Everything Ardwen had seen performed had always stunned him. The things Porter and Chase had been capable of, the power Marian held or the ferocity packed within Riya's body, all of it was phenomenal and terrifying and destroyed everything Ardwen thought about reality every time he saw it. Even Nami, who seemed only to have some minor exceptional abilities, was still a miracle. For a tactician to be able to command a strike that he knew could weave or curve, that was unprecedented. Nobody could plan for that or build a defense for it, and yet, compared to Porter or Riya, it was practically nothing.
"Not fair at all," Rex yelled over the comm network, and Ardwen glanced up to see the shiny Goliath finally attacking back. Rex had deflected one claw, driving it into the Earth and temporarily burying it with the momentum the creature generated. He was now lunging through the air, leaping off the forearm of the Mahari on his path to the beast's jaw. His broadsword swung hard across its face, smashing into its chin before dragging across the bottom of its head, slicing into some of the flesh that dangled down.
But the monster's head was significantly tougher than that. It was largely machine and armor, with only scraps of skin stretched tightly across fragments of it. It would take something far more powerful if Rex wanted to penetrate its defenses, and Porter had had to use a unique strategy in the past to puncture its heart. Rex's clouded mind would never see that far ahead. He would just try to murder it, however he could. That was the data Ardwen had on him from the tapes. That's what he was expecting, and while he had briefly hoped that maybe, just maybe, Rex would somehow be able to break through, he now had to go back to his original thought: this was a terrible thing.
Rex had no inherent strategies. If you couldn't overpower a Mahari, and nobody other than Marian probably could as far as Ardwen knew, it was going to take some sort of tactful approach. Brute strength was not going to take out something nearly twice the size of a Goliath. Bahari were enough of an issue, and while their biologically-infused machinations were slightly weaker than the average Goliath, they were still tough, and that toughness definitely scaled with size.
This fact was becoming increasingly more apparent as Rex duelled with the beast. He would continue to avoid each swipe at his machine, but his counters would bounce off harmlessly. Each time he failed he seemed to grow a little angrier, and the next retaliation blow would come even faster, a bit harder, and yet still nothing happened. He could not break through a monstrosity.
"Riya, can you focus fire on our friend in the back there?" Ardwen directed the young woman as he started to recalculate. He had hoped he would be able to include Rex in any plans to take down a Mahari, but it seemed the youth was a lost cause. However, he was a salvageable lost cause, as his constant attacks against the leading Mahari kept it at bay. If he was always going to dodge everything anyways, they could take a gamble and abandon him, focusing their efforts on the remaining Mahari. Its cannon was a much more significant threat anyways, as it could always attack even when held at range.
Riya complied with the command, unloading another barrage of missiles into the air that screamed through the air towards their targets. The miniguns strapped to the Warlord slowly shifted, their hail of fire now striking the further target. As the range increased, the individual bullets became significantly more inaccurate, but it wasn't important to Ardwen anymore.
"Raul, I need strikes on its legs, bring it to the ground, even if only for a moment," Ardwen continued. The older pilot complied silently, dashing off to answer the deeper threat, his plethora of weapons primed. "Nami, if you can shoot a straight line to the core, that will work, right?"
"Right, but I'll need to pick some different ammunition." Nami trailed off as she began cycling through menus on the viewscreen.
"Don't take piercing, let's go with something explosive."
"It won't go very deep," Nami answered, her concerns written all over her face.
"It doesn't have to break through it, but if we can detonate near the core and rupture its heart, that should be enough to kill it. I hope at least." Ardwen reached up as he spoke and began to fiddle with his own controls, prepping Mother Gaia for faster movements and calling in his floating orbs.
"Why wouldn't I just take a piercing round then and go straight through?" Namic cocked her head to the side, her wide eyes genuinely confused.
"What if you miss?" Ardwen tilted forwards in his controls, beginning the spring towards the further Mahari. "It's just a game of percentages for me, the explosive shot seems less likely to fail."
"If you say so." Nami shook the doubts out of her head and selected the appropriate round. She left her sniper rifle dangling down beside her Goliath's leg. The side of her machine opened up, reaching out to connect with her weapon as it began switching ammunition for her, moving away from the usual concentrated burst of energy she could fire. "What are you going to do then?"
"I'm going to play mobile distraction." Ardwen turned on the jets across the back of Mother Gaia, rocketing forwards away from Riya and Nami. While he certainly couldn't touch Porter's speed, his Goliath was the second fastest on the team in a straight race. Both Raul and Rex were significantly more agile, but the lightweight nature of Ardwen's battlesuit meant he could always pick up more speed than most expected from someone who so rarely moved.
Raul had closed the gap on the furthest Mahari, diving underneath it as he slid through its legs. He whipped his massive shuriken to the side and it bounced off the monster's leg whipping back around to be caught. The creature seemed to give out some sort of snort, but otherwise was unaffected by the attack. If Rex couldn't break through it with his enormous broadsword, it was tough to imagine a shuriken doing better.
That didn't stop the ninja from his efforts. He leaped up from the underside of the Mahari and rolled away to reposition and consider a new approach. Ardwen watched it all, but he always kept the majority of his focus on the beast's cannon, waiting for the moment when it would begin to retaliate. A barrage of explosions ripped across the flesh of its back, as another round of missiles from RIya hit their mark. The Mahari certainly noticed those, letting out a howl. Its head swung around, eyes seeking out whoever had hurt it. Ardwen wanted to ensure he was the first thing it saw so it could come after him.
Unfortunately, the plan was a success, and an enormous ballistic shot out of the monster's back as its cannon roared to life. The bullet arced through the sky before plummeting down towards Ardwen. He had a few different references already pulled up for determining the blast radius of a Mahari bullet, ready to zoom out from underneath the ordinance at the last moment. There were already enough reports that the rounds fired had biological components to them and could make slight variations in trajectory to chase a target. That, or they could shift to a different one entirely, and that would null this entire plan for Ardwen.
As the bullet drew in closer, Ardwen ignited his jets once again, taking off. The detonation was instantaneous behind his back, and he felt the concussive force striking into his battlesuit, rattling him deep in the cockpit. He was propelled forwards slightly faster and struggled to regain his balance and footing.
Warnings were already going off though throughout his device. Another shot had been taken while he had been dodging the first one. It seemed the dance had begun. Ardwen glanced over his shoulder towards the Mahari, noting that Raul was still trying his best near its back haunches. Riya seemed to be aiming up high, trying to keep the monster down as it protected its face, while Nami was waiting for her moment to fire, keeping her barrel pointed at the Mahari's head at all times.
Ardwen ran out from under another blast, and now he couldn't stop, sprinting full tilt to avoid a barrage from the monster. It had fired off numerous blasts from its cannon, no longer concerned with trying to conserve energy. If the first attack missed, it was going to launch every attack possible at once. While Ardwen had calculated for this risk, it was his toughest option, as he didn't have the agility of his compatriots. He could run straight very fast but he was going to run out of room soon, diving into a wall of Bahari he certainly would not survive in.
"Cables in place," Raul reported. Ardwen didn't want to look behind him anymore, pulling up the feed from Raul's machine instead to examine the work the young man had done. Multiple tethers crossed between the Mahari's legs, twisting around each other and linking to create a web. All it would take now would be a large push.
"I'm coming in then." Ardwen perked up at hearing Riya's soft voice, suddenly filled with determination. Coming in? That didn't make much sense, unless she was referring to some larger weapon she could fire. Ardwen checked over his local maps, and quickly took note of the fact that Riya's Goliath was moving, and moving fast. It had engaged into a full charge, heading directly for the monster in the rear.
The Warlord definitely had the capacity to push a Mahari, if only slightly. Its bulkier frame and increased weight would certainly have an impact when it hit. It just also exposed the major immobility of the battlesuit if it got in too close, and if she missed or couldn't topple the beast, its retaliation would be fierce and unavoidable.
Ardwen didn't have a chance to interject though. He was doing his best to veer right without losing speed, trying to avoid the wall of Bahari as best as possible. There were still multiple living bullets up in the air with his name on them, so he couldn't stop to observe his comrades, and it had taken him a second to even process what Riya was doing.
A screech went out through the air, a feral howl that intertwined with the groan of a machine. At first, Ardwen imagined it would be coming from the rear Mahari as it toppled to the ground. But he realized it was slightly too loud for that. It sounded much closer than that. Was this something happening to the Mahari that Rex was duelling? Had they taken too long?
The Warlord fell to the ground on Ardwen's screen, as he continued to watch from Raul's perspective. The Blue Blur lifted simultaneously, leaping up onto the back of the Mahari and delivering a body check. Riya would have rolled into its legs, and the combined effort knocked the creature down to the ground. Raul withdrew his shuriken and slammed it down into the monster's back repeatedly, doing his best to keep it down for even one extra second as Nami lined up the shot.
"Do it," Raul called out, leaping from off the creature as Nami pulled the trigger. Her explosive round tore through the creature's eye, piercing down into its enormous chest cavity, burrowing as far as possible before it slowed. The ammunition detonated inside the monster, its outer flesh rippling as it shook to its core. The Mahari shuddered for a moment, but did not rise again. Ardwen watched it all unfold from his viewscreen, and he noted the rapidly forming pool of blood around the edges of the creature's chest. It seemed it had worked.
With no more possible bombardments, Ardwen was able to slow down, letting the last shot rain down substantially closer to him. He was confident in guessing their explosion radius, and he was running out of room anyways. He didn't have much of a choice.
The screech tore through the air once again. It knocked Ardwen from his momentary reprieve. He had noticed he was breathing heavily, his body tiring from the burst of exertion mingling with the stress of executing the plan. But he didn't have the time to recover. He needed to focus on Rex now and saving his remaining teammate.
Ardwen spun himself around, seeking out the remaining Mahari. It only took him a few seconds to find it, or what was left of it at least. Rex was standing on the monster's shoulders and back. His battlesuit was covered in blood, streaks splattered across his armour, thick trails dripping off his edges. It was a bizarre sight to take in, the pristine design of his technologically advanced warmachine mingling with the raw brutality of the gore he was coated in.
There was no head to the Mahari. It's enormous skull had crashed into the ground, and its body was now collapsing down behind it. Rex had hacked the monster's neck to pieces, leaving behind a jagged cut where he had constantly attacked until it was over. The sheer spectacle of it took Ardwen's breath away, and he had to pause to take it all in. He just couldn't imagine the pure voracity it would take to cut through the enormous Mahari. Its armour was thick, its biological muscle fibres woven in tightly with hardened steel. It was just impossible to think about.
Rex stepped down from the creature, walking away from it without a word. Riya instantly opened fire at the stump that had once been its neck. Her bullets tore through exposed sinew and machinery, eating away at it until she ruptured the core. Had she not executed it so swiftly, they all knew it would rise again in short order. Only the core could truly end the life of these twisted creations.
Ardwen cycled over to the view of Rex in his cockpit. There was nothing but silence inside. The boy within the machine was sitting in his chair, virtually unmoving. His chest rose and fell with his breathing, but he did not do anything else. His eyes stared straight ahead, empty. There was nothing inside the young fighter, nothing seemed to power his unbelievably explosive actions. It was as if, briefly, his entire person was lost when he was in combat.
From previous experience, Ardwen knew it would now take some time before Rex would be fully functional again. It was like pulling someone from a deep sleep. It took time to wake them, time to get them to be cognisant of what was going on around them. Now was that stage for Rex. And that wasn't good, because they were far from finished with their fighting. While taking down the Mahari was a victory, there were still hundreds of Bahari swarming around them, and they wouldn't pass by forever.
Ardwen now had to consider where he was going to turn to to get them out of the situation. They were still fairly far from the Breach itself, which meant it was easier to get to allied forces. They just had to be able to cut a path through the masses if they were going to escape at all, and they would have to hope for the best.
A bright light shot through the sky, pulling Ardwen back into reality. He glanced up and saw the light hovering, a golden glow that slowly descended from above. It was directly above the Breach. And nobody could take their eyes off it. Even the swarms were slowing down, suddenly concerned with the disturbance in the air.
Sigma would be purple. The light his jets could produce was consistently purple, every time. The golden shine was unique and unknown, produced by something nobody could identify. It was nothing Ardwen was familiar with, and he found himself drawn into staring at it, awe taking over his usually sharp mind.
But there was something wrong with what was going on. The light was attractive, and it bathed everything in a golden shine, and yet it disturbed Ardwen. It was off. It felt wrong and strange. And it needed to be corrected.
"Sigma," Ardwen said, opening up his communication line with the android, "what's going on?"