[b][u]Outskirts of Kerovnia
Approaching the ruined park
Status: Nominal[/u][/b]

Every shot a wound. Not one round lost without drawing synthetic blood. That was the way of the battle-watcher, honed and practised time and again. A matter of picking her targets, as well - her success might not have been the same against the smaller enemies. But the hellhammer was not meant for them, not when they were spread so wide and under cover of the trees and undergrowth. Unless they closed in, she would have to rely on her more precise teammates to pick them off.

Around, behind her, the forest exploded into flame. Zsresrinn could only faintly see the light of the fires refracting off the fog particles, but she heard the blasts and rushing air, smelled the burning wood, flesh and plastic, sensed the vibrations of heated air. Her symbiotic eyes darted off and rose higher into the air to avoid being smothered in the smoke. Terrain denial, that would work too, and the surprise seemed to have dealt quite a blow. The Reclaimer human clearly knew her craft.

Under cover of the unnatural mist, the vrexul broke into a leaping trot towards where the voice of their presumed ally had indicated. The trees were too thick for something as massive as her to gather speed for a full run, but she could yet make her way ahead in bounds on her powerful hind limbs, propelling herself ahead between, and sometimes through the bushes and trunks. Dead, dry wood loudly cracked under her weight as she jumped onto fallen logs and branches, and saplings fell with piteous crunches as she barreled against them. The continuously spreading fog whirled in dizzying patterns of broken light as the electric-bluish bank rolled together with her body like something out of a hallucination, making aiming directly at her an ordeal for anything with eyes despite the racket she was making.

At length, however, the combined strain of keeping a running pace together with constantly exhaling the shielding vapour began to strain even her enhanced tracheal web. The flow slowed to a trickle, then to intermittent whiffs as weariness mounted with every breath, and the fog thinned as she moved, much of it remaining behind her like a slug’s trail. But by now the edge of the woods was already in sight. With a final push, she broke through the treeline, uprooting a weedy brush that had caught on to one of her legs, and landed onto cracked asphalt with a dull thump.

Remaining still for a few moments to recoup her breath and let her symbiotes catch up with her, Zsresrinn glanced around. Signs of exodus, combat. That gateway ahead must have lead into the park, and the voice in her comms, now unbroken by jamming or the mist’s interference, confirmed it, as did the sight of other members of the team approaching. She spotted the shapes of their presumed allies - they seemed well-armed, but it was not clear if they were numerous enough to hold off the enemy. Better not to take any chances, especially not as -

They came again. The bio-construct she had shot was close on their trail, and the voice in her comms grew alarmed. Now that they were in the clear, she could appraise the damage she had dealt to it more clearly. Its weaponry’s danger was reduced, for sure, but that was not the danger if its sensors were good enough to connect with the unztadtlige far behind. It always amused her slightly, the thought that these beings without psychoparasites had to rely on such crudely simulated symbiosis to project their senses.

Already, the others were moving to intercept the automaton or preparing to shoot it down. Answer coordination with coordination.

“Received,” she clicked at the augmented voidhanger. With a short sideways leap, she brought herself to face the construct across a clear space, getting the charging Sergeant out of the line between them. Her mandibles opened, revealing a soft fleshy surface between the plates underneath them, and like a spiny beast rising from the water a sharp and sleek shape broke through its surface, emerging further out from her carapace. Where the spineblaster had been a blocky, plant-like thing, this was more like a smooth, bony ring of half-organic, half-metallic spikes. Red sparks danced on their gleaming surface, converging into thin beams that gathered on the longer central protrusion, focusing into a thick, radiating cone of scorching energy that flared towards the construct. Dispersion was too high at that range to do any real damage, but the strain on its shield should suffice to weaken it enough for the ‘hanger to take the shot.

“Fire-now,” she scraped again. If they were going to avoid taking more fire, that thing needed to be brought down, and fast.