Ironically, though the right Optics had taken the first strike from the Pater it was the side less damaged when all was said and done. Higan’s screen was essentially a wave of darkness with one thin strip of light patches about two thirds of the way across if one started by looking leftward. This gave him something resembling vision from between 100 – 120 degrees.

“Optics critically impaired, tactical withdrawal advised.”

“What a little shit.” Higan swore profusely as the chain-gun spat death over the top of his Mech for an additional moment or so. Realising he’d either done enough or Slimy had escaped, the latter being more than likely, Higan began to brainstorm. Somehow a creature with little to no knowledge of Ramor technology had pin-pointed the weakness of his Mech, what a pain in the ass. Still, he had the capacity to defend what little sight he had left, better late than never and all that jazz.

With an extensive knowledge of his own Mech it was fairly simplistic to judge where the Optics were by touch and guess work, the chain-gun ceased firing as the left hand hovered over the damaged eye-ball of the A.S.P. Like a child peeking through its fingers the Mech protected itself from further assault as its pilot decided on what to do next. As he was thinking, Slimy was dropping to the ground after making another timely escape. There wasn’t much point standing around, Higan decided, having the Mech push off the wall with all its strength and lunge forward with a number of great steps and then turn around. If Slimy even bothered with its rock throw it wasn’t going to be hitting the optics at all. The pilot had summarised, correctly, that the one place his enemy wasn’t going to be was directly in front of the Mech, as Slimy would have walked face first into a wave of bullets. What was fortunate was that through pure guess-work, he had to choose a direction to turn in after all, the thin-strip of vision had alerted him to Slimy’s location along the cave wall as his Mech turned rightward. 

It was going to be difficult to keep Slimy in view with barely 20 degrees of vision, but while it was there the Computers reacted with lightning speed. The Mech had barely turned 160 degrees before the right arm automatically adjusted and the rifle levelled at the creature, firing a round through the cave at the beast. His quick forward bound, owing to the mechanical strength of the Mech and its long stride, had gained an additional forty feet of space from the Pater, at least the spot where it was upon throwing its rock at any rate. The creature didn’t have much in the way of options facing his Mech, it would charge him again no doubt, so he readied the cannon.