Vreta quickly backed away through the car, then out the other exit into the building. He had taken a hit or two from his brief exposure, but his shields still held strong. Given his weaponry and shield strength, he expected that he was going to be a priority target for these attackers, but there was a way that could work to the advantage of the team as a whole. As long as he could fight smart and withstand the pressure on him, that would be pressure [i]not[/i] on his allies. As expected, the full-powered scattershot blasts from his rifle were most certainly overkill against the enemy’s defenses. At full power, Vreta did have to watch his rate of fire in the scattershot firing mode to avoid overheating, but in any case, Rhia did somewhat dial back the weapon’s output setting. She did not yet have enough data to know the exact efficient power setting, but she would continue to fine-tune it as they went along. 

Fortunately, Rhia had been keeping track of the fight behind them. They were pinned at the moment, and had already taken a casualty due to this “builder.” That was clearly the largest threat, but at the moment Vreta emerged from the car, the builder was still behind cover. As dire as the situation seemed, though, there was a way out. At this moment, there were still just three opponents, including this builder. Any kills they could get would drastically reduce the pressure on them. The hostile soldiers had good cover, but they were shooting from a static position. Rather than trying to use mobility to avoid shots, they relied on their cover being difficult to aim a shot through. Before Vreta was even in sight, Rhia was already running the calculations. 

Given the lack of cover near the car, Vreta simply had to act quickly. As soon as he crawled out of the opening, he got up on one knee and took aim. Rhia had swapped his weapon back to its rifle firing mode, with two-round burst. Vreta did have his limits and still had to fire from a stable position to make such precise shots, but his shields could still take the hits. And of course, Rhia was what fine-tuned his abilities beyond what he could naturally achieve. She calculated the ideal trajectory, then gave him the small nudges needed to make sure he used it. As he was squeezing the trigger, she tightened and relaxed different muscle groups in his arms to nudge the barrel a few degrees in the right direction just before he fired his burst at the rightmost soldier’s head. 

Above all, Vreta was still alert for the builder. If they peered out of cover for a moment, Vreta intended to swap targets immediately. Unless they could confidently survive the damage his weapon could output, the threat would force caution out of this builder as well.