"really?" I quickly pulled the SAR-25 off of my shoulder and put a burst of rounds into an INFINYTUM squad. "I always thought of it as a little unwieldy when used for mid-range stuff." At this point, the INFINYTUM soldiers had been alerted to our presence and position; the normal troops were withdrawing, and a group of Elites, INFIN's answer to the HU Mobile Strike Teams, where approaching. I sent a burst of automated fire at the one at the head, but most of the bullets were deflected by his sword or his body armor. I sighed, then drew my SR-09 and sent a round crashing through the center of his forehead, leaving him to flop lifelessly at the feet of his comrades, who simply jumped over his limp form and continued toward us, swords drawn. I traded my SR-09 for the SP-17 and drew my sword with my right hand; things were about to get messy. I managed to get six rounds into the first soldier, taking about .75 seconds, before their line met with ours. The next few minutes were consumed with hacking, slashing, stabbing and shooting, occasionally ejecting a magazine and replacing it with a new one.
After about three minutes of wading in INFIN soldiers, I was about to cut yet another in twain before there was a flash of red and someone came crashing down on my target from above. Whoever it was stood up and saluted me.
"Jack Rawlings, sir, MST-003 Firestarters. We've been tasked to assist you."
I looked him over: he was wearing a loud orange and red coat that reached down to his knees and did nothing for stealth; A red and black hilted katana was sheathed over his back, and traces of fire swirled around his limbs, obviously labelling him a pyrokinetic. Having finished examining him, I elected to speak with him.
"Son," I said gravely, gently laying my hand on his shoulder, "you just stole my kill."
Jack obviously blanched, drawing out a laugh from me, which restored his grin. "good to see you again, Jack; nice to see your doing well for yourself." I glanced behind him. "now if you'll excuse me for a moment…" I quickly deflected a bullet headed for Jack's back, chuckling at the unintentional rhyme as I did, then shot the soldier who had fired it.
"So, Jack…" I asked, turning back to him, "what's your business here?"
He blinked, and then seemed to remember. "I was sent by Elexion to RV with you, sir; he knows why your here, and he said something about a strategy and quid pro quo…"
"tsk…" I grimaced. "So it's going to be like that?" I shook my head. "So, what does he have in mind?"
Jack pointed to the East. "INFIN soldiers have set up a blockade on all the major roads leading that direction. From what we can gather from orbit, there are a multitude of artillery batteries and anti-orbital guns there that are preventing us from moving heavy vehicles in close or even getting an orbital strike on the position. Elexion would have already ordered a ground assault if most applicable assets weren't already engaged in other areas of the battlefield."
"let me guess." I crossed my arms. "Knight and I are convenient assets that can take said batteries by surprise before the word gets out and the surprise is ruined."
Jack rubbed the back of his neck. "something like that, yeah, but we'll be your backup."
"fine. Wait here." I waded back into the battle, quickly finding Knight standing on a pile of armored corpses, fighting anyone who climbed up. "hey, Knight!" I yelled, cutting a soldier in half as I did; "up for a little artillery raid!?"