[color=76D0FF]”There they are! Heading one-seven-three, about 1500 meters out and coming fast.”[/color] Marit called out to her lancemates and the tank, hastily putting on seat straps she’d undone to make the wait more comfortable. Arming Archie’s weapons and opening the missile doors, her mighty steed stood up, bristling with missiles and started making his way to the riverbank. Marit used the time it would take the dead meat to get in missile range to divvy up the first targets between her launchers in her mind and deciding on who the next unlucky set would be, prioritizing anything that looked like it could store a reasonable amount of explosives in covered places and ignoring the trucks that had their beds obviously devoted to carrying weapons. A deep rumble of jump jets signaled the Shadow Hawk started its attack. [color=76D0FF]”Right bank, call out targets if you start getting swarmed.”[/color]

As Archie passed the dam, Marit switched on the loudspeakers still installed from the Knights’ policing days on Espia. [color=76D0FF]”AVC security forces, this is…”[/color] She briefly hesitated about using her name out in public. OPSEC was scripture, never know who’s listening and where their loyalties lie. [color=76D0FF]”...callsign Giggles, Gawain’s Green Knights. We’re here to protect this dam from a suspected Heavenly Sword attack, we’re on your side.”[/color] She hoped to clear any possible misunderstandings, unsure of how much the workers had been told. As the stampede approached and Rivers and Steel Rain started tearing into them to bunch them up, Marit flicked the relevant switch to enable weapons locking and the targeting reticle immediately lost its mind. [color=76D0FF]”Wha- Ah, fuck it…”[/color] She mumbled as she gave up on the LRM targeting, Archie picking up into as fast a jog as he’d manage back up a hill to get a better view of the targets for dumb firing.

She hadn’t even made it ten paces when a pair of PPC shots soared across the field and clearly hit something important. With the jamming clearing up, clear line of sight became a comfort instead of a necessity and Marit turned Archie around and back to the riverbank, switching the targeting systems back on, this time acquiring a solid lock as she winced at the Buckshot Boys’ chatter. Slowing to a crawl once she reached the water, she wiggled Archie’s foot with each step to settle it in the silt as she walked him waist-deep into the water, submerging the two additional heat sinks in the legs to further help with heat dissipation. She hoped nothing would happen that would force her to ford the river, unsure of the depth. Were rivers deep under a weir and shallow above it? Shallow under and deep above? Damn Comstar Primers could’ve mentioned that. Advancing a bit downstream, she figured that she had a margin of 90 meters where she could use both missiles and lasers, and by gods she was gonna use it. Soon two medium lasers pierced the darkness, one going low and carving up the dirt while the other one found one of the jeeps, followed by Archie’s three launchers set to chain fire and wide dispersion, their targets chosen to emulate a creeping barrage that swept through the religious traffic jam. A quick glance at the thermometer warned her that she overestimated the cooling a bit, with some of the myomer bundles already starting to show signs of cramping up. [color=76D0FF]”Do we want any of them alive for a chat?”[/color] She asked about the stated secondary objective, seeing as they were rapidly deleting their candidates.