Something of a side-note about Emiya using guns, here. I've gotten a few comments about Emiya not being experienced with guns, which is not exactly true. In Fate/Extra you'll see him with a scoped rifle and in CCC he'll decorate the My Room wall with numerous guns(both relatively mundane and somewhat fantastic; that sword revolver looks rather strange!) and he even has a slightly nerdy moment with Hakuno where he starts talking about handguns and how cool they are, before backtracking and saying that he doesn't particularly like them or anything.
So yeah, he's good with guns, it's not just been translated into English yet :V
;
Emiya pressed the haptic interface button on his omnitool; the call immediately dialing.
They had pulled back from the road, as during the duration of the conversation over the comms it would be impossible to shut down their suits to avoid detection if someone came passing by. Or rather, it would cut short the communication which would be bad, as he only had one shot at this.
"Gunnery Chief Thomas speaking."
"Serviceman Emiya calling."
"Alright, what is it? Keep it short, serviceman, we're busy here." The voice at the other end of the comms said.
Shepard kept looking at Emiya with intent eyes, listening in to the conversation while holding so quiet that she was almost stopped breathing.
"Sir, I have a bit of problem with a gun. The safety software doesn't seem to be working properly, so I don't think I can use it, sir." Emiya explained.
"Hmm? The safeties are off? Are you sure the gun still works? Gun malfunction as a result of a failed hack is still a part of the simulation." Thomas answered, seeming to grow more interested in the conversation. A faulty gun could cause personnel injuries if left un-attended, after all.
"Yes, sir. It fires just fine, but the velocities exceed the norm."
"That shouldn't be possible. Outside of very specific weapons platforms, the hard cap on velocity should not be possible to remove. What weapon are we talking about here?" The skepticism was clear in his voice now.
"It's a sniper rifle, sir." Emiya said.
The comm went silent. Shepard looked alarmed at Emiya, as after five seconds still no response could be heard.
"Yeah, about that, Serviceman Emiya, you grunts don't have access to that weapons platform; you don't even have the training for it. Your waste of my time has been noted and you will be called in for a disciplinary hearing following this—"—boom!
Emiya pulled the trigger.
The silence on the other end of the comm was almost deafening and Emiya had to hold back a smirk.
"Sorry, sir. My finger slipped."
"...Hold up, let me pull up your camera feed..." Thomas said and there was another moment of silence. "—Serviceman... newest batch, pistol and light hardsuit training, no hacking training or software..."
Emiya could barely hear the Gunnery Chief muttering on the other end, as Thomas must have been going through his records. Emiya looked down at the frankenstein of a cobbled-together sniper rifle, waiting for the other end to finish whatever they were doing.
It didn't take long.
"...Holy mother of god, what the fuck am I looking at?"
"Ah, well. We took out a sniper and took his gun. Figured we could use it since our pistols were proving a bit anemic. But as it turns out, the firmware update didn't carry over so it's a bit too—shall we say—vigorous for our purposes." Emiya said, holding back all the smugness that he could. It was barely enough, as there was a certain enjoyment to be had in all this. Beside him, Shepard was grinning from ear to ear.
"Don't... Don't move. Don't hang up. Don't do anything. I need to get a superior officer for this..."
The voice broke off and Emiya then had to smirk. Beside him, Shepard had less success in holding back her mirth as her shoulders were shaking with quiet laughter. A few minutes passed by and Shepard received another update on the happenings in town from Cassani, who remained wholly unaware of what they were doing.
Finally, after ten minutes had passed a new voice came through. A much darker and more somber voice, speaking of years of experience in command.
"This is Major Maeda, what's the problem?"
"Sir, we have acquired a sniper rifle and it's safeties are off, rendering it too dangerous to use. I am requesting some assistance with this; turning off the ID-lock would allow me to use the gun normally." Emiya explained.
"Denied. This was explained to you before; stolen hostile weapons platforms must be hacked using the outlined guidelines; failing that you have ruined the weapon according to the simulation—
"Sir, they've physically bypassed the ID-lock using another gun—" Thomas' voice interjected.
"Which was also outlined in the guidelines under the section Physical Interference. Physically tampering with Alliance Navy equipment is grounds for a disciplinary hearing. That the safeties are off is exactly why these things were taken off the table; playing cowboy with the rules like this gets soldiers killed." Maeda was having none of it.
"Yes, I know that, sir. But—
"But what?
"Sir, they're recruits. E6, the entire team. They haven't been told any of this; they don't even have hacking utilities or the clearance to carry sniper rifles." Thomas explained. That seemed to bring the Major up short, as the comm went silent. "Moreover, the Navy techs have been working on this stuff for decades. The guns should be physically hack-proof with the stuff they have. They've found some loophole or exploit we've completely managed to miss, sir."
Another moment of silence.
"Hmm. I see. Well then, have him called in after the exercise for a briefing. Well done, serviceman, the Alliance is always willing to reward those who help it improve its cybersecurity. Now, if there's nothing else..."
"Actually, I would still like for the ID-lock on the gun to be taken off." Emiya said, before the Major could get off the line.
"Excuse me?" He actually sounded confused, as Emiya had expected. The flipside to the ordered nature of militaries was that often times officers did not come into contact with people who did not follow the exacting rules and protocols that had been set down.
It was the job of the NCOs—the non-commissioned officers who handled the day-to-day business—usually to act as the immediate enforcers, keeping the 'dumb grunts' in line. This meant that they acted as a sort of filter, allowing the officers to retain much of the authority they had without fear of familiarity breeding contempt.
But it also meant that they did not always have the full range of experience necessary to handle an uppity serviceman.
"Well, given that this is a simulation, and I have successfully acquired and re-purposed a weapon used by the opposing force snipers, I believe I should be granted the use of the normal simulated firing operations of this rifle. The only reason it is unusable is because my methods were unexpected and new, which should not be grounds for punishing me." Emiya said.
"And how would denying you this be a punishment? I believe in not already having you sent before a disciplinary hearing that I am being quite lenient on you."
Emiya smirked; an NCO would have simply slapped him down here for speaking out of turn. But this Major at the same time held a respect for his men as well as an unfamiliarity with how to deal with a case such as this.
It gave him the in he needed.
"Sir, the use of physical interference was never explicitly forbidden to us and there is explicitly a side objective listed as appropriating enemy personnel weapons for your own use and study. I have acted exactly as instructed and have the vid feeds to back it up. Certainly, the side objective says to 'hack an enemy weapon successfully', but given that neither 'hacking' nor 'physical interference' has ever been clearly defined for us and that I have successfully managed to appropriate an enemy's weapon, I do believe that I have done no wrong. Any and all wrongdoing is therefore on the parts of those one step above me on the pecking order, for not fully explaining the rules of engagement properly to me.
"Moreover, I have wasted over an hour on this rifle. Time during which we could have been moving towards our RV point for extraction. We have set up an ambush alongside a road to commandeer a vehicle for transportation of a wounded teammate. If we are denied this weapon, the ambush will not only not work but will also have wasted my time, which seems hardly reasonable since I have already demonstrated that I have managed to make it function for me."
Emiya stopped speaking, holding his fingers crossed and Shepard stared intently at the glowing omnitool through which the discussion was being had. A long pregnant silence followed, finally broken by a sigh at the other end.
What had gone unsaid, but both understood implicitly, was that no one explained any of that to first-timers because they were simply supposed to be running around like headless chickens for other people to hunt down.
"Thomas, what do you think?" Maeda asked, the sound of his voice lower as he had apparently turned away from the receiver.
"Sir... I do think it would set a poor precedence for them if we denied their creativity and initiative. Leave a poor aftertaste, for all their hard work, and all that... Sir." Thomas answered in the background. Emiya let out a sigh of relief, as delegating the task of deciding to the Chief could have caused this ploy to backfire massively on Emiya.
"Very well. For the duration of this exercise the use of the Avenger II long-distance rifle will be granted to their team. But given that they lack the training for it, they will require constant oversight. Chief Thomas, given your involvement you will be held responsible for their actions and thus your are re-assigned to keep an eye on them for the rest of the duration of this exercise. I expect you to step in and pull the plug if it is necessary. Understood?"Major Maeda spoke, a tone of finality clear in his voice.
"Yes, sir!" Thomas answered vigorously, the salute almost audible through the comms.
"Yes!" Shepard whispered, fist-pumping with a grin.
The sounds at the other end of the line scrambled, hinting at the Major leaving.
"Well, then. Serviceman Emiya, get your gun back in order and once I have confirmed that it is functional again, you will be granted user access to that weapon." Thomas spoke a few seconds later. "Oh, I will also be henceforth monitoring your activities; don't worry, it's normally just done afterwards when your instructors review your footage, so it's not anything to worry about."
"Yes, sir. I'll get right to it." Emiya said, unable to hold the smirk off of his face. He turned to Shepard who was giving him the thumbs up with a wide smile. He returned her gesture, still smirking. "Alright. Shepard, go fetch Franco while I get these things back in two pieces."
"Gotcha, I'll be back in half an hour." She said, jumping up to her feet and running off. After thirty seconds, she was completely gone as even the sounds of her running were too muffled to be heard through the general cacophony in the distance and the foliage between them.
He unplugged the pistol from his rifle and began to re-assemble the guns back into their original shape and form, while narrating what he was doing for Thomas' and the recordings benefit.
"Christ, how did a fresh recruit like you figure out all this..." Thomas' voice whispered through the comms as Emiya's hands moved rapidly through the parts. Lacking proper tools, he had to use other parts as screwdrivers and his hands like pliers, which forced him to do it in a slightly different order than normally.
It was possible to put that piece back after the other one, even though it made more sense to do it the other way, for example. But doing it like that allowed him to use it first as a shimmy for another part, and so forth...
"Hmm, the comms are still on, sir." Emiya spoke, respectfully. Now that he had someone breathing down his neck in real time, he would have to be extra careful.
If the recordings had been watched afterwards and Emiya had done something out of the ordinary, he would have had plenty of time to figure out and excuse before someone noticed. But now, he might be called in to explain his actions seconds after the fact, which left much less time for inventing plausible explanations.
He was lucky that he had actually been curious about all the things that were required for this little field-adjustment he had performed. There was an extranet trail showing that he had researched and studied all of these things in detail, making it only implausible rather than outright impossible or improbable for him to have figured it out.
"Don't worry about it, serviceman. Just looking here; mind telling me how you figured it out? It would simplify explaining it up the chain of command for me later." Thomas said, chuckling. "I mean, normally we don't get recruits running around with Avengers."
"Well, after I was issued the pistol, I simply read the manual that they gave us access to on our omnitools, sir." Emiya said. It was what he had done, actually. As the pistol had been entirely void of previous history, he had had to actually read the manual to get the full picture.
While slower, it did its job as it was damn well supposed to. So he had learned quite a bit about the pistol and mass effect technology in general after his second and third readthroughs. It helped that standard for manuals was quite high, and that it had been written in language simple enough for even the dumbest recruit to understand the basics.
He had gone beyond the mere basics in his analysis, of course. Weapons were something of a hobby and a point of pride to him and he made sure to understand them. But technically the manual was enough for his explanation.
"After that, I just looked up each part on the extranet and reasoned out how all the parts work from the manufacturers' specs. It wasn't really hard to then compare it to the sniper rifle, since the basics are the same." Emiya said with a shrug, even though he wasn't sure if Thomas could see it.
"Hah, well, the Infiltrators and Engineers will have a field day with this. For once, someone actually read the fucking manual and it ends up being a completely new exploit no one's ever noticed before."
Emiya winced.
He hadn't intended to leave any marks of himself in history or on other people like this, but what was done, was done. To be fair, to him it had seemed a rather simple and easily noticeable exploit in the weapon's design. Even if he had had to go through two simpler versions of it, which had been apparently found before, to get to this point.
Then again, he had a unique way of looking at weapons.
"Alright. It's done." Emiya said, holding up the pistol in one hand and the rifle in the other.
"Good. Now, I'll disable both, so point them at the ground away from you and pull the trigger on both. First the pistol; we're just testing to make sure. At this point if something goes wrong, we're both screwed, you know. Well, more you than me. I'll just have a mountain of paperwork. Actually, less than if you do succeed. Huh..."
"Aye, aye, sir." Emiya said, ignoring the chief's rambling.
Emiya aimed the pistol at the ground fifteen meters away and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.
"Good, everything green. Enabling pistol, safeties on and working. Next the rifle."
Emiya holstered the pistol by his hip; the gun collapsing into a smaller form and attaching itself to the Van der Waals-strip. He raised the sniper rifle, took aim and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened, again.
"Heh, everything green. Congrats, you've got yourself an Avenger II now. I think that's a first, too. Okay, so I'm shutting this line now and I won't be in contact unless something strange happens. If anything is about to go horribly wrong, I'll step in so just act as you would normally."
"Understood." Emiya replied and collapsed the rifle and threw it over his shoulder onto the Van der Waals-strip there.
Now then, time to finalize the ambush and steal a ride.
;
Emiya prowled around, checking and re-checking the location they had chosen for their ambush. The road that went through the jungle was one that offered enough of a detour and concealment from the city, that he had reasoned that some would seek to use it for fear of getting stuck inside the narrow alleyways or crumbled streets.
And in that regard, he had been proven right. Already four different vehicles has passed by since he and Shepard had originally come here.
The road was quite narrow and had plenty of craters and holes, as the heavy rains often bombarded and played havoc on the surface of the packed dirt from above at the same time as plants tried to invade and grow on the open space, their roots pushing through from beneath.
From the sides, plants and undergrowth hung over the road as tall trees formed a wall that made the road almost look like an underground tunnel. Above, a dim line of light ran along the road as on the sides the canopy was thick enough that no direct sunlight could break through.
Emiya inspected the road, specifically the small turn that they had chosen.
He eyed both ways and looked around, noting his surroundings as he waited for Shepard to return. He climbed up the tree Shepard had chosen and checked that the top of the tree was sufficiently entangled with its counterpart on the other side of the road that once one fell the other would follow.
Then he simply moved around, noting details here and there in preparation.
If it came to a fight, knowing where every root and every hole lay could make for the difference between catastrophic failure and resounding success. If he had had some more time and this was a real ambush, he would have dug shallow pits and built rudimentary traps to further restrain passengers of the car at the point where it would be stopped.
But this would have to do.
He then walked up and down the side of the road, fifty meters to both directions of the spot where the trees would fall down on the road. With the sniper rifle, they now had more options, but it also had certain limitations which required careful consideration.
With the low rate of fire, he would need to be at a sufficient distance from the ambush spot so that he could exert pressure on them without having to worry about retaliation, but not so far away that the turn in the road left him blind. For example, lying prone with the sniper rifle, his accuracy would rise up considerably, but it would make it more difficult for him to make adjustments to his aim.
If he was so close that his targets could run over 10 degrees to the side, he would be forced to lift up and re-position the rifle or change his shooting stance.
The further away he was, the longer the distance needed to cover those 10 degrees became, thus giving him more room to work with. The road also worked as a perfect funnel in that regard, giving him a clear line of fire and slowing down anyone trying to flank him if they did manage to get to the concealment and cover of the jungle.
There was also the matter of the range calculations he had previously thought about. A little bit of experimenting revealed that if he switched between aiming at a nearby target and something far off in the distance, the trigger would disengage for a second. But at the distances he would be planning to operate, it would not be a problem. Switching between 10 meters and a 100 meters for example took less than 0.1 seconds for the computer to adjust, which should be fine.
He also had to consider their suits giving them away and how to handle it. Mostly it became a matter of timing. When to turn off and when to turn on; how long it would take and where they should be to avoid lines of fire.
The plan was fairly simple.
He would take position down the road, far enough away that he could use the rifle from concealment. Shepard would hide behind one of the trees by the ambush spot, ready to use her pistol to shoot through the stem of the tree to cause it to fall over and pull the other tree with it, which had also been weakened sufficiently to not resist overmuch.
This part was rather delicate, as even under controlled circumstances getting a tree to fall the way you wanted was always tricky business. This is where the two trees being bound together would help, as they were already leaning into the direction they would be falling towards and would not be able to deviate too much since they would be falling as one.
Emiya had experience with these kinds of traps before; mostly when he simply wanted to deny passage or to repel enemies, as he rarely created or utilized lethal measures. Too indiscriminate for his ends. He checked and double-checked the trees, marking the location that was necessary for the controlled fall for Shepard later.
It seemed to work.
Once the tree-trap was sprung, Shepard would stay down and wait for an opening to act. Since given her close position to the road she would be vulnerable to detection by sensors, which meant some extra care in planning would have to be taken. This would necessitate her kinetic barriers being turned off and her hardsuit and omnitool being in low power mode, which meant she could not be anywhere near the fighting before she turned on her own gear.
Once Emiya opened fire, she would then at a suitable moment spring out and open fire on the ambushed party's open flank as their attention was glued to him. This would allow her to inflict disproportionate amounts of damage, which would allow them to tip the scales of the confrontation.
Finally, Cassani would be placed to hide some ways to the opposite direction of himself, on the other side of Shepard.
Since he was "wounded", he would simply be working as another pair of eyes for them in hiding. Emiya could look out ahead on the road on his side, as could Cassani, while also during the ambush he would be able to look at them from behind and give away positions and maneuvers.
Once Emiya was certain that he had the whole thing planned out, he hunkered down to wait. A while later, Shepard returned. She looked around, not entirely certain if this was the place, as a lot of the jungle looked exactly the same even once you got to know it. She had hardly gotten used to walking through it.
"Here." Emiya said, standing up behind her.
"Whoa! What the hell, don't do that." Shepard jumped a foot in the air, pulling her pistol and dropping Cassani as she wheeled around to look at Emiya.
"Ow. Yeah. Less of this, please." Cassani complained from the ground, spitting at a plant that was sticking into his nose.
Emiya merely smirked and shrugged.
"I tested around a little with the suit some more. I think I've figured out the optimal way of hiding. The boot up takes just 5 seconds, this way." Emiya explained and Shepard blinked, realizing that she hadn't spotted him in her radar despite the relatively short distance between them.
Her toothy grin all but demanded that he show her.
;
The plan was set, he had explained all of their roles and set them up into their respective positions.
Now all that was left was to simply do it.
Emiya inhaled slowly, his ears straining to listen for any unusual sounds above the normal cacophony of the wild-life around them and the fighting in the distance. There had been a peak in conflict half an hour ago but it had died down now, Emiya judged.
There must have been a concentrated effort on the city front by one or more factions.
Still, no cars.
He lay to the side of the road, almost in the ditch as he held onto the collapsed rifle. I hear something.
He tensed slightly, raising his head up until he could see Shepard in her hiding place. They had agreed to minimize comm use, as there would be no way to communicate once they went cold. And there was also no way for them to know whether those could be hacked or monitored, either. That was also the reason why he had avoided explaining anything over the comms, whenever possible.
Opsec starts with the smallest things.
He raised a hand and Shepard nodded in the distance. That was the agreed-upon signal for someone coming down the road from Emiya's way. Since Shepard couldn't look at Cassani while looking at Emiya, Cassani's signal was a loud whistle; the only thing their 'wounded' was capable of doing at the moment, really.
Emiya moved around, careful to avoid disturbing the plants around him as he turned to look down the road. He needed eyes on the vehicle to make a judgment call on whether or not it was a suitable target. It approached; definitely coming down this way.
He raised his hand again; the second signal, signifying to go cold.
Emiya waited until Shepard's presence on his radar disappeared before he turned off his own suit and rolling into the thicket to hide from sight.
The vehicle approached; another six-wheeled car, again without any external guns. But this one had less armor and as he peered he could see inside of it through the windshield. It had at least six seated people, counting the driver as well.
A light Armored Personnel Carrier. Not perfect odds, or even good ones really, but I'll take what I can get. It's already 15:00, we can't waste much more time.
Emiya pushed with his heel against the tree behind him lightly, shaking just it enough for the topmost leaves to just move around. The third agreed-upon signal; this one green-lighting the ambush. He had just enough time to see Shepard's back, before he heard the first muffled report of the pistol.
Someone in the car seemed to notice the sound, but it was too late.
Five pistol shots punched through the already gouged tree's stem and it began to creak, the sounds so muffled that Emiya barely heard them. The timing was a little off, but it was only a bit too early which was still within acceptable limits. The car came driving down the road at a sedate pace, jumping up and down as it rolled over the numerous potholes and bumps dotting the surface.
The trees began to fall, almost agonizingly slowly and the driver apparently noticed as he began to slow down further. But the APC did not stop, Emiya noted as it went past Shepard's hiding spot. He turned around slowly and carefully, still hiding and avoiding looking out too much as he slowly got into position to be able to fire.
The sniper rifle extended and he raised the scope to take a closer look, his finger still off the trigger.
Those in the car must have already suspected something, as trees rarely fall on their own like this. Two of them at the same time, even less commonly. Emiya had a poor shot at the occupants, he noted as he looked through the scope. The chassis was quite thick and angled to deflect rounds coming in parallel with the ground. Moreover, they must have a kinetic barrier as well, he reasoned.
He refrained from acting; patience was key right now.
With a vehicle like that it would be entirely possible to drive over the trees, Emiya reasoned. He exhaled, lifting the rifle and rolling half-out onto the road and setting up his shot in the prone position. The scope came up into his vision again and this time his finger found the trigger, his breathing seeming to slow down so much it almost stilled completely as he began to line his shot.
Emiya's heartbeat began to slow down as he stilled. Now he could only wait.
He eyed the back of the car; the wheels and the roof. He only had one definite shot; the wheels. But if he shot too many and immobilized the car, repairs would slow them down later, and if he shot only one they might just drive off anyhow with their five intact wheels carrying the brunt.
Additionally, he needed to incapacitate the APC with the first shot. If it had strong kinetic barriers, then they could simply drive off the moment they detected danger, while their shields still held.
The car slowed down, though it did not come to a complete halt quite yet. Emiya strained and he could hear some kind of argument from within the car. Someone probably suggested driving over the trees, but someone else was objecting, he guessed from the fragments he could hear.
Emiya waited, not quite lining up a shot yet as he kept his scope at the smallest possible zoom to give him an overview of the car. He was only observing for now, noting the behavior of those inside.
For a car that size, generating a kinetic barrier must be a massive drain. Of course the eezo core could be proportionally much larger than the one in their suits, but this was a lightly armored vehicle anyhow. It would have greater power demands as well.
It would not be able to take a single powerful round from anything Emiya would have aimed at armored vehicles, like tanks. No, this was a faster mode of transport, meant to avoid direct combat and to allow a small team to move around and behind enemy lines. He assumed it fit the role of a lighter vehicle, not meant for frontline combat. It would only have the bare minimum when it came to defense, he wagered. Just enough for small arms fire not to punch through and put the personnel inside in danger.
Just as no one had during his era tried to fit 20mm of steel plating onto a simple pick-up truck or land rover, it would have also made no reason to invest in a powerful kinetic barrier on such a light and nimble looking vehicle. Therefore it should only be just as big as it needed to be. The kinetic barrier would not extend much beyond the surface, if even that since the car did not need to move in ways a human did.
Perhaps it would adjust to something extending past the outer chassis' limits, but perhaps...
Emiya moved his scope to the driver's side, at window height.
Nothing happened, as everyone sat waiting.
Those inside the car had readied their weapons and tools, scanning their surroundings for the ambush that should have already begun. Emiya lay still as a rock, observing the car, hidden beneath the overhanging undergrowth from the side of the road. Shepard was hiding behind the trees, down low to the ground, waiting until something happened for her to safely be able to begin looking for a chance to insert herself.
But nothing happened. Those in the car must have been anxious; their nerves strained. No one jumped out, no one threw a grenade at them. No more trees fell down to box them in. Nothing.
It must have confused the people in the car as they seemed to relax a little. They must have had reliable radars which were currently reporting nothing at all around them. After all, the only active kinetic shields within a kilometer radius of this location were their own.
And no one would be so cocky or dumb as to turn off their shields, right? Once again, Emiya considered how much trouble he might be in for playing around with his hardsuit, but seeing as how Chief Thomas hadn't said anything...
Well, it wasn't a problem for right now. Emiya looked through the scope, observing their body language with the half of his scope that wasn't aimed right at the driver's window. He could tell they were relaxing. They looked around and checked their gear, but there was no danger.
But that was wrong. The most dangerous moment is not when you are your most tense, but when you relax just after you think the danger has passed.
C'mon, be stupid. You're driving a two tonne armored personnel carrier. You already made three mistakes and you're flustered and confused. But you're invincible inside that thing and you know it, be an overconfident dumbass...
And just then, the driver did something incredibly stupid.
He leaned out of the car to look out through the side-window to get a better look. It would have been less than a one second glance at the trees on the road to judge whether they could be driven over, but Emiya had had his scope aimed there already. After all, the only shot that could swing things in their favor would be the one that utterly incapacitated the APC.
He aimed at just the top of the head; as far away from the car; as far away from where he expected it's kinetic barriers to be.
Exhale; respiratory pause; pull—boom!
The head almost jerked forward with the shot, but then went utterly still as the suit simulation pronounced him instantly dead from the perfect headshot. Emiya inhaled, powering on his suit and waiting for the rifle to cool down.
Got the driver. They'll want to leave as quickly as possible; but their radar will only show the one shooter; me. They'll hesitate between counter-ambush doctrine stating to make an immediate break away, or to vigorously counter-attack the lone sniper who just took out their driver. I want them angry and wanting revenge, then.
Emiya lowered the cross-sights, aiming at the rear tire. He angled it such that it would only pop the rearmost one, without hitting the metal rim or the axles. He chose the left side of the car; away from Shepard.
Pull—boom!
A kinetic barrier flashed, but then fizzled out as the sniper rifle's round popped off of the tire gently. Emiya hesitated for a moment, at how easily the kinetic barrier had broken; he had honestly expected more even though he had expected the barriers to be weak.
Well, not that he was complaining.
Pull—boom!
The tire exploded in a cloud of black rubber and dust. The car dropped a little, as the tire that had been bearing weight at the moment deflated with a loud pop. Gravel and sand was pushed up in a small cloud as pieces of rubber landed everywhere.
Inside the car, the passengers' jerked around to stare at the direction of the shot; they had pulled the driver back in as they had just now realized they were in fact under attack and were scrambling to do something. I have their attention. But it wasn't enough; he needed them off balance.
This far none of them quite felt the pressure yet, he needed to do more.
Something dramatic enough to get the passengers' attention, he thought as he inhaled again. Shepard still remained cold, waiting for her opening. The car doors—massive steel slabs that would have been decent protection against even full power mass accelerator rounds—were still firmly shut, with all but the driver's window closed. She wouldn't be able to do a thing until the people in the car came willingly out.
He looked at the shape of the car, considering acoustics as he had an idea.
Even a direct hit will be fine, but the sound it will make inside the car will be quite loud, won't it? Emiya thought, this time aiming at the rear window of the car.
Pull—boom!
Those in the car reeled around again, noticing the impact behind them. The rear-window, a small thing on the large reinforced slab of a door, cracked with a spider-web of threads extending all the way to the corners. Emiya was rather surprised at that; he had expected more of a car's kinetic barriers. Another shot and he would punch through; the full power rifle would have already done so with the first. Someone inside the car shouted, apparently having had enough of doing nothing even as the one in the front passenger seat was trying to get into the driver's seat to allow them to drive away.
The rear left-side passenger door opened and a man jumped out, pulling a rifle off of his back and jumping into the undergrowth for concealment as he went prone. A rapid surge of suppressing fire answered Emiya's earlier taunting shots, forcing him to roll off the road and into the jungle. He collapsed the rifle and quickly crawled for cover as he could hear the two other doors opening and men jumping out to fire at him.
They still hadn't noticed Shepard or Cassani, that was good. And his suit power was finally on at full power, so he wouldn't be dead the moment a bullet hit him, which was always a good thing.
Emiya got up, opening the rifle again as he went to one knee and took aim again. He was half-behind a large tree, taking support from it for both cover and physical support for the sniper rifle. Several bullets hit the tree, gouging out pieces of cellulose and splattering sap everywhere. He could smell the sweet scent in the air, somehow refreshing him as he took aim and lined up his shot.
Pull—boom!
Another shot, this time on the right shoulder of a soldier, causing him to stiffen up and then fall over. His legs still kicked, pushing him forward to the cover of the car, so the shot must not have been deemed instantly lethal.
Emiya could have hit head on, but had deliberately not corrected his aim as he could have, allowing the slight margin of error to be corrected by the auto-aim to a simple shoulder hit. Just good enough of a shot to work, but not so much so as to raise eyebrows. Well, not too many eyebrows and not too much. It wasn't that he was intentionally failing, rather that he was simply half-assing it and not taking the effort to correct his aim at the last second.
Besides, with the sniper rifles rate of fire he would be overwhelmed if all of them rushed him at once. Wounding one would distract the others, causing hesitation and one or more of them to rush to aid the wounded rather than continue to concentrate on offense.
It would buy him more time, in other words.
One of the men turned around to go help the wounded one, leaving now only two shooting at Emiya; one still hiding prone in the undergrowth and another kneeling behind the car's armored frame.
"Two guys taking cover in front of the car. One looks wounded. The other is patching him up, I think." Cassani chimed in from his location, far away from the thick of things.
Emiya leaned back and took cover as an object was thrown his way.
He pushed forward and ran five steps before leaping for cover again as something loud went off behind him. Presumably another grenade of some kind, but it had not affected him.
He turned around and took another shot—boom, kicking off dirt near the kneeling shooter's feet. He took cover again, letting the rifle cool down. Okay, enough missing. They're spread out enough for now.
The last man—no, a woman, stepped out of the car and Emiya took aim and at the sight of a completely open target and pulled—boom!
But this time, the expected result did not occur.
Instead of reeling at the impact or being frozen in place, a purple field of some kind flared up around her, bending light strangely and making her seem hazy and ethereal.
She tanked it? Emiya thought with surprise, collapsing the rifle as he moved to change cover again.
Only, before he could reach the tree some kind of floating blue orb came barreling between two trees, hitting him with the force of a fastball. He raised his arms reflexively for protection as he jumped back to minimize the impact, but what happened next was completely out of his expectations.
He jumped back ten meters.
Or rather, the force had been traveling with made him float backwards, as if he were almost completely weightless despite gravity. He kicked out, struggling to get purchase somewhere— anywhere—as he helplessly floated in the air. At least they didn't have a clear line of sight to him, which meant he was safe for the moment.
Biotics! He had completely forgotten, given how rare they were among humans. But here and now, floating in the air and completely helpless, he realized that that had been a huge mistake.
His mind re-asserted itself as he kicked out to get himself some bearing; the extended limb moving causing his body turn in the air. He had never fought in zero-G, but he had fought underwater. He reasoned it was similar to the time he had been caught and tossed around by underwater currents, completely losing his sense of direction and control.
Calm down and get a hold of something!
Emiya pulled his pistol and aimed at a tree and fired twelve shots in the space of two seconds; giving him just enough of a push to float close enough to a branch as he collapsed and holstered the overheated pistol. He grabbed the branch, swinging to position his legs on top of it so that he could remain there if the weightless state was canceled but also allowing him to kick off if need be.
He looked up. The biotic woman and the formerly-kneeling-behind-the-car man were jogging towards him; he couldn't stay here.
Emiya held tight onto the branch as he tensed his legs and then with all his strength, kicked off upwards. He aimed the rifle straight down and pulled the trigger—boom!, giving a slight boost to his upwards velocity with the recoil and allowing him to pass through the opening in the forest canopy above.
He blinked as the bright light of the un-blocked sun hit his eyes. Here, above the treetops he floated completely weightless. For a moment, he froze time in his own perception just to admire the view. A sea of green as far as the eye could see, shrouded in the golden light of the sun. Then he reached for the leaves and branches below him to keep himself from floating up too high, lest he lose control again.
But the leaves were ripped off as he grabbed them—unable to handle the force he exerted—his heart lurching for a second before he swung out the sniper rifle held backwards; the butt got caught in a branch and he could just pull himself close enough to grab onto the leaves. He struggled for a moment to cancel the spin from swinging out the rifle and then collapsed the weapon, throwing it over his shoulder onto the Van der Waals strip.
He looked forward and grinned. Using both hands he began to half-crawl and half-pull himself forward as he floated weightlessly above the treetops. It was almost as if he was swimming above the ocean he had just beheld.
Behind him, he heard the woman shouting that he had disappeared above the treetops and a second later a rapid fire stream of bullets whizzed upwards in that general area. Leaves and bits of branch were torn loose and tossed around, almost like a small geyser. But the canopy of leaves and branches was enough to blot Emiya out of view and the movements his grabbing of the branches as he pulled himself forward was not enough to reveal his location.
He made some thirty meters above the trees like that, before his weight returned and he fell through the leaves.
Emiya had just enough presence of mind to grab a thick branch and hold onto it, lest he fall and break his legs upon impact with the ground. He looked around and spotted the two who had come hunting for him, scanning the treetops where he had been with their weapons raised.
Emiya pulled the sniper rifle and opened it to take aim, but a burst of rifle fire caused him to duck for cover. Leaves around him were ripped apart and torn loose, as the prone man was standing now by the car and taking pot shots at Emiya.
He almost swung around to take him out, but then he spotted the shadow rising behind the man.
Shepard will handle it. He thought and lined up his sights at the non-biotic soldier with the biotic woman. They had turned around to look at the car, only just now noticing Emiya. He pulled the trigger—boom!
The man froze up instantly and keeled over, before relaxing and laying bonelessly on the ground. The biotic woman flinched, looking between Emiya and her squadmate with wide eyes before she jumped for cover.
Another burst of rifle fire went past him, but none hit him since he was half-hidden behind the trunk of the tree. And then he heard the rapid double staccato pistol-fire and the shouts of surprise from the three still by the car.
Emiya spared a glance that way, noting that Shepard had already taken down the man who had been shooting at him and was now trading gunfire from cover with the man who had dragged off the wounded man earlier. She held a pistol in each hand, rapidly pulling the triggers to compensate for the low power of each individual shot.
I knew it was a good idea to hand Cassani's pistol to her, Emiya thought with a grin. The woman seemed to be completely at ease in the thick of a gunfight, using the two guns without any apparent hesitation or awkwardness as she ran between cover and concealment, denying her opponents even a moment of respite.
A cold shiver went through his spine and Emiya leapt out of the tree without a second thought, landing on an extended branch which swayed and bent under his body. He heard more than saw the impact of something blue smashing into his previous hiding place.
He didn't bother turning around as he jumped again, this time grabbing onto a thinner tree with his arms. The tree bent under his weight, slowing down his fall enough that when he let go the tree was almost parallel with the ground at a height of two meters.
Emiya landed on his back with a painful impact that knocked the air out of his lungs, but he rolled up immediately and took a potshot with the rifle. It hit nothing, but seemed to scare the biotic enough that she jumped for cover instead of pursuing him immediately.
He rolled and got to his feet, sprinting for cover again.
The biotic woman screamed something and Emiya grabbed a half-rotted tree branch and jumped as he threw it behind him. It hit the blue ball that had been chasing him, enveloping it in the weightlessness that had plagued him earlier.
Seems like my guess was correct; it latches onto whatever breaks the surface of the projectile. He thought calmly as he kept running.
He dropped to one knee and took aim, Pulling the trigger at the general direction of the woman, the gun let out another—boom!, making her jump for cover again. She used her pistol to take a few potshots at him, but none came even close to hitting home.
Emiya retreated towards the car, taking shots every few steps and keeping the woman pinned down. Halfway there, he switched from the rifle to the pistol and placed the former on his back as he began to pelt the biotic's general direction with bullets.
He turned around on the road and began to sprint for the car, blinking as he spotted Shepard in the front passenger seat with her gun held to a man's head as he sat in the driver's seat. Their new driver seemingly distinctly uncomfortable with the apparent state of affairs.
"Get in! He's driving!" Shepard shouted and Emiya nodded with understanding as he jumped in.
"Cassani, any problems on your end?" Emiya asked the comms.
"Nope, good to go!"
"Floor it, friend." Shepard said, entirely too smugly as she poked the man at the wheel with her pistol.
"Our agreement?"
"As long as you hold your end." She said, grinning and ignoring the inquisitive look Emiya threw her.
That seemed enough as he floored the pedal and the car began to move, clearing the two trees with a few bumps and some noise of crunching wood beneath their tires, but otherwise without any issues. A testament to the original driver's inexperience that, really.
Then again, given how surprised their chauffeur seemed, perhaps the car wasn't officially rated for something like that. Perhaps their driver had thought they would get stuck, which was why he was willing to cooperate as long as he did not get shot. Regardless, they hit the road and drove the fifty meters to Cassani's location and Shepard ordered him to stop.
Emiya jumped out, taking a prone position with the sniper rifle again as he kept vigil for the biotic woman. Shepard meanwhile, herded out their driver at gunpoint, jumping over the shift-stick to come out through the same door as he had, and then forcing him to grab and carry Cassani to the rear-seats.
Pull—boom!
The biotic ducked, the shot grazing her shoulder. Emiya exhaled, searching for any sign of her as he let the gun cool down again.
"Time to go, Emiya!" Shepard shouted and Emiya obliged, getting up and collapsing the rifle in one smooth motion as he jumped into the car. Their shanghaied driver put pedal to the metal as they shot off at full speed, the car jumping and shaking with the terrible road conditions and the lack of a rear tire.
They drove for five minutes until they came to a Y-shaped crossroad. Shepard ordered him to park the car next to the road and then for him to get out. The driver obliged, his hand inching to turn off the car.
"Nope. Keep it running. You think I don't know we can't start it ourselves?" Shepard asked, prodding him with the muzzle of her pistol.
The driver licked his lips, nervously.
"Think it through, smart guy. You give us a minor inconvenience and get shot. Or you let it go, do as we agreed and you get to run back to your squad. Which choice ends up with your entire squad dead and dying in the jungle and which ends with you getting back in time to patch them up?" Shepard continued, smiling still.
The driver raised his hand, leaving the car running as he exited with a sullen look.
"So why did you grab him? Besides for a driver, I mean." Emiya asked, getting out of the car as he scanned their surroundings.
"He's a doc, I figured he could take a look at Franco." Shepard said, shrugging.
"Sentinel, not doctor. Not even a field medic, I just have the first aid specialization—"
"Yeah, yeah yeah. You're still the only one who can use those medigel you got, so get to it." Shepard said, motioning at the limp Cassani.
The Sentinel frowned, before walking up to Cassani and activating his omnitool. He scanned Cassani and then brought out a yellow bag, labeled clearly 'training tool – NOT MEDIGEL – training tool' in big bold letters.
He applied it and suddenly Cassani took a deep inhale and raised a hand.
"Oh, fuck yeah. I can move again. Wait, my legs..."
"He has a spinal injury, the medigel couldn't heal that." The Sentinel said with a shrug. "Can I go now? I need to—"
"Not so fast." Shepard said, raising her gun again. "Heal him, too, while we're at it."
She nodded at Emiya, who blinked before realizing she was referring to his simulated hip injury. He had long since learned to compensate for it, so it had essentially already slipped his mind. It didn't affect his performance that much and there wasn't any pain to blot out, so it was a minor inconvenience at worst.
"That wasn't a part of the deal, I need the medigel for my squad—"
— Pffftzzz!
The Sentinel fell, his leg failing beneath him as Shepard shot his leg mid-sentence.
"Yeah, that was the deal before I remembered we had more injuries. Now, you're already down two medigel. Want me to keep shooting you until you're down to zero?" Shepard said, smiling sweetly as if there was nothing at all wrong in the world.
The Sentinel gaped up at her, eyes wide open. He licked his lips, his eyes darting between the three who were around him in an effort to find some support against Shepard's demands. But he found nothing, as Emiya merely watched with cool indifference and Cassani was studiously pretending he wasn't a part of this conversation.
The medic swallowed nervously, before nodding. Emiya merely stood by the side, watching the whole event with a sharp gaze. He hadn't expected Shepard to be quite this proactive, but it wasn't like he had anything against it, specifically. Sure, she was kind of skirting morally reprehensible territory here, but this was all just a simulation. No one had actually been hurt; it was just the man himself who had gotten lost in the realism of the situation.
Well, hopefully the only one. Emiya thought as he glanced at Shepard. This is exactly why she would be right at home in wetworks.
With a quick application of the fake-medigel, the servos locking up at his hip loosened up and Emiya could move again freely. He tested his range of motion with a few bouncing jumps and found it satisfactory.
Emiya nodded to Shepard and she half-smiled back at him, seemingly satisfied at the result.
"Alright now, run along before I change my mind." Shepard grinned at the Sentinel, shooing him away with her gun.
He hesitated and then began to limp away. — Pffftzzz!
Shepard shot at the ground at his feet, almost making him stumble and fall again as the dirt exploded into the air in a small crater.
"Did I stutter? Run!" She raised her arms into the air as she shouted, making the man blink. Then she drew her other pistol from the Van der Waals strip at the small of her back and took aim. At that he definitely reacted and began to limp away as quickly as he could.
"Heh, he won't remember to plot against us while he's running. Alright, let's get going." Shepard said turning back around with a refreshed grin. "Besides, he's running in the wrong direction."
She chuckled at that, holstering her pistol again.
Cassani stared at her with wide eyes, muttering 'perra loco' beneath his breath while Emiya nodded at her, ignoring their third teammate.
"Oh, yeah. I got us some more toys to play with. Wanna do your magic again?" She thumbed at the back of the car, where he could see three assault rifles.
Emiya huffed in amusement, shrugging at her with a half-smile. "I shall endeavor to impress. Or at the very least, to meet your expectations."
She, not entirely sure about some of the words he had used, half-frowned at him before shrugging with a grin. "Yeah, you do that and I won't have to shoot you, too. I'm only keeping you around for your magic touch, Emiya."
Again, Cassani seemed to be taking her seriously and seemed to pale a little, but Emiya understood that this was how she was showing affection.
Having grown up on the streets, her socialization was woefully lacking, thus she must be emulating what she saw around her, he reasoned. The bravado and bluster she saw among the other recruits, to her it translated into a behavior that to others must have seemed like near-sociopathic disregard for social conventions.
Emiya hesitated, before sighing. Wondering whether he could let this go on. No, it wasn't something for him to do anything about. That time with the foot had been a mistake on his part. Even so, he could see how she would struggle in the future if this error in her mindset was not pointed out...
He ignored that line of thought as he decided to focus on the moment.
He grabbed a rifle and aimed at the roadside, pulling the trigger... Nothing happened. Not entirely unexpected. "Chief Thomas, sir. I know you are watching and I know you know that I know how to make this thing work."
He waited five seconds and pulled the trigger... Nothing happened.
"Fine. We'll do it the hard way." Emiya said with a shrug. He turned to look at Shepard and Cassani. "Let's get Cassani onto the front passenger seat. I'll sit in the back and get this rifle working so I can talk to the Chief about it. I assume you can drive this thing, Shepard?"
"Nah, but I watched while that guy did and I can figure out the rest." She grinned.
Emiya sighed again, but went with it.
"The chief?" Cassani blinked, asking. But neither bothered to explain as they each grabbed an arm and hauled him up and into the car.
;
They had driven for fifteen minutes now. With Cassani's upper body working again, Shepard had returned his pistol to him and he had then been delegated to map reading.
The amount of roads, old roads, old roads that did not exist on the map and old roads that did not exist on the map nor in reality unless you squinted just right, exceeded all of their expectations. Emiya reasoned that the car would be hunted down sooner or later, so for now they should avoid the bigger roads to make it as difficult as possible for them to be found.
The rifle was much the same as the sniper rifle, with the barrel length, scope settings, shaver and mass accelerator's rate of operation being the chief differences. Thus it only took him the fifteen minutes to get his pistol cannibalized for his little exploit.
He had gotten so used to the process that he could have done it in ten, were it not for the constant bouncing and jostling due to the terrible road conditions. He opened the window enough to stick the barrel out.
"Firing in 3, 2, 1—"—trr'rr'rr'rr'rrtt
The assault rifle spewed supersonic shavings at a considerable rate of fire, even with the short burst he had pulled. It worked just fine.
"Alright, now to call for some tech support again..." Emiya said, setting down the Lancer rifle and pulling up his omnitool again. He dialed the support once again and waited. Thomas picked up immediately.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" He accused immediately.
Emiya stifled the smirk and controlled his face and voice as he waited for a second.
"Well... I won't deny that this is fun, sir."
Thomas gave an explosive sigh, obviously not at all pleased with them right now.
"Who's he calling? Who you calling?" Cassani blinked, trying to turn around as he heard the conversation.
"Mm, right. You weren't in the loop. Franco Cassani, this is Gunnery Chief Thomas, assigned to keep an eye on us because we keep breaking the rules we don't know about." Emiya said, carefully keeping any and all mirth from his voice despite the obviously mirthful choice of words. Cassani merely blinked blankly at that, having no idea what to say.
"So you knew that turning off your shields was bad, didn't you? Even though it was not explicitly mentioned anywhere and you had not been told that, you could infer it, couldn't you?"
"Ah, well. If it works and no one thought to tell me not to... Well, who am I not to abuse the hell out of it?" Emiya said and he could hear Shepard chortling in the front by the wheel as she drove.
"Riiight, and the fact that no one told you how to turn off the shields or how to manually reboot the hardsuit didn't tell you that? That perhaps you weren't supposed to be doing it? You could have gotten killed, for fucks sake, you crazy bastard. You could have gotten your teammate killed!"
"Actually, the hardsuit manual explicitly mentions the feature on page 4041 and refers to the advanced settings in the omnitool, for which instructions are on page 234 of the omnitool guide. And Shepard made the choice herself, fully aware of the risks." Emiya explained, dialing back the ribbing tone and opting for a more neutral and conciliatory one.
"Sure did, sir. Oh, can I ask for the tapes of myself later? I wanna see their faces again when I dropped right on them from nowhere, hehehehe..." Shepard laughed.
"...For fuck's sake... It actually is in the manual. No one reads the fucking manual! Well, apparently except for you! Jesus, I'm gonna have to throw this ball up the foodchain because I have no idea who I'm supposed to chew up about this entire fucking fiasco."
"Couldn't you have just shut it all down?" Emiya asked. He had slightly been worried that that would happen.
"I would have, if not for— What? Yeah, okay, I won't mention it." Thomas began but the cut off to speak to someone next to him. "It doesn't matter. I see you've gotten the assault rifles working, too. Wonderful. I'll unlock them, so long as you promise not to give me any more crazy surprises. I mean aside from stealing a car and putting someone without the training to operate it—or even with a damn license to her name, for that matter—behind the wheel. You scrap that thing and we'll all be paying it off, you hear? Makos don't come cheap, alright? I have enough people breathing down my neck as it is."
"Sure, you got it, chief." Emiya cheerfully promised and the sigh from the other end before the com-line was cut was his only answer. Someone was there, next to the chief? Someone higher ranked than the Chief himself, from the sound of things.
"Sweet. I've wanted a bigger gun since you got one. Was starting to feel a bit jealous." Shepard quipped as Emiya handed her a collapsed rifle, attaching it to her Van der Waals-strips on her back as she leaned forward.
He handed another to Cassani who took it a little bit more gingerly, holding it in his lap as he continued to scan the jungle that rolled by.
They continued on for a little while as Cassani and Emiya compared the maps, trying to figure out the best route ahead. They drove for an hour, taking a long detour around the city and using the smaller roads, often driving through patches of forest to switch between roads to get where they wanted to.
Somewhere along the way, Emiya discovered a manual for the Mako in the glove box. An actual, 'dumb' hardcopy of a manual. Printed on paper and everything. Though it lacked a search function which would have been immensely helpful, Emiya still leafed through it.
He found that there was a transceiver-receiver antenna which allowed the people to control and access the Mako from a distance with their omnitools, so he had them stop for five minutes. Of course, lacking any and all tools for a delicate disassembly, he simply let Shepard grab a rock and smack it loose from the frame.
Emiya could almost feel the Chief judging them from a distance as they did that. But it would be a quick repair job, so he ignored it. Hell, he could do it in five minutes, tops.
As they began to approach the city again, Emiya decided it was time.
"Shepard, we should talk."
"Huh? What is it?" She asked, glancing over her shoulder at him.
"It's got to do with how you act."
She blinked, slowing down and looking at him with furrowed brows. It was the expression he had seen on her face, when he'd confronted her about her leg. Though not quite as guarded; she trusted him somewhat already.
"Yeah, what about it?" She asked, the growing heat apparent to him despite her attempts to sound and be calm.
"Just that you might want to consider how it appears to others." He said, causing her to blink and frown at him as she brought the car to a stop.
"Want to consider how it what?" She turned around fully to stare at him, pursing her lips in dissatisfaction.
"That guy you shot. He'll probably remember you for the rest of his life." He said with a light smile, knowing it would release the tension a little.
"Heh, sure will." She said with a chuckle, before looking at him seriously. She would listen to what he had to say.
"The same way Cassani will remember you." He continued, the man in question flinching a little as he was dragged into the conversation, as he had been trying to pretend he wasn't there.
"Huh?"
"You do realize Cassani thinks you're completely crazy, right?" Emiya asked.
She frowned at him, glancing at Cassani with a side-ways look. "...Yeah, and?"
"Just something I thought you might want to consider. Nothing more." Emiya said with a disarming smile. Shepard stared at him through the mirror, her green eyes boring into him as she frowned deep in thought. She turned to look at Cassani, who was studiously avoiding looking at her. Her frown deepened. "And then there's the fact that treating a prisoner like that is technically a war crime."
"Huh? War crime?" She blinked at him in complete confusion, her brows furrowed.
Emiya shrugged, "Yeah. They might dock us some points for that."
"But... But? I mean, it worked, didn't it?" She didn't sound just as much angry as she sounded confused. It had always worked for her, even before the Navy. It was how she handled herself and had always known. If you wanted something, you had to apply some pressure.
"Yeah, it did. But it still might affect our rating." Emiya said, then turning to look at Cassani. "Among other things."
Shepard frowned, though said nothing.
"How about we eat now? We haven't had a break in a while." Emiya suggested and Cassani agreed immediatly. They broke out the field rations and water bottles, with Shepard eating quietly.
They continued in silence for five minutes, until Shepard looked up at Emiya again.
"Emiya, are we... okay?" She asked, sounding hesitant to hear what he would say.
He looked at her and considered those words. Perhaps he had been too direct?
Emiya hadn't meant to push her buttons this much, but he had considered from what he understood of her that it would be better if she realized this sooner rather than later. This would help her realize that she had been pushing people away, along with what he had actually said.
The way she looked at groups of people; the way she had been emulating that group dynamic with him; the truly satisfied grin she had been wearing all day even through the exhaustion, excitement and exertion.
She had obviously enjoyed working with him more than she had enjoyed any other relationship in her life. But that wouldn't do. He wasn't going to stay with her, after all. No, that was wrong. It wasn't that he was worried about her, he simply—
Emiya sighed, ending that train of thought.
Perhaps he had sabotaged their working relationship now, but given how much serious thought she seemed to be giving his words, he thought it would be for the better nonetheless. She wouldn't be happy if she stayed alone and scaring off everyone with her behavior. Not in the long run. Because he was going to leave sooner or later, she would also have to come to terms with this at some point. Perhaps this was his fault; having approached her in the first place and butting his head into her business without asking for her permission or opinion at all.
But having gotten involved, he would see it through. At least in one form or another.
Seeing her at first, he had felt strange. Nostalgic, in an almost painful manner.
He saw someone pushing themselves forward at a desperate pace, with a single-minded zeal, disregardning everything around them as they simply could not understand the worth of what they eschewed. And he thought that she would regret that kind of life, in the end.
He knew what that kind of life was like first hand, after all.
"Yeah, we are." He nodded as he took a bite out of the dry ration bar and chewed. He looked up, meeting her eyes. "Aren't we?"
She blinked.
She really looked at him, then.
It was a strange realization, that. Coming to terms that he might not understand her thoughts as intimately as she knew them herself. That he might not know what she wanted through simple inference. She looked at Cassani, who was also eating and for the first time realized that she did not understand him at all. Therefore it made sense to assume that he did not understand her at all, either.
And suddenly things that had been out of place, simply seemed to click.
Coming from a world where one lived day to day, always struggling to just make ends meet and acting out relationships in the most superficial of manners, she had never considered that. Never considered that there could be additional layers to interacting with people. That where they had come from, even if they were all in the same place in the present, might greatly affect how they behaved and thought of others.
She knew rage. She knew fear. She knew veiled and hidden hatred; a resolve to lash out when it would not hurt one in return. But this form of deep resentment and unease, which did not manifest outwardly in immediate violence.
This, almost shallow anger that existed in the hearts of others. It was strange.
Those words he had thrown at her before; about always being too wary about everyone around her. She finally understood them.
"Yeah. Yeah, I guess we are." She said, sounding somehow surprised. She looked up at him, then turned to Cassani. "How about you, are we okay?"
"Er... Sure? Yeah?" Cassani hesitated for a second.
Shepard blinked, looking thoughtful. She continued eating, nibbling at a ration bar in deep thought as she muttered, "I guess we aren't, huh..."
Emiya shrugged and ate the rest of his rations. For all the resolution and peace she seemed to have gained from that conversation, all of his doubts seemed to have re-doubled and returned with a vengeance.
Suddenly, he remembered a smile.
Emiya scowled and emptied his water bottle, washing down everything in his mouth along with the grimace that sprung up at the memory.
;
"Alright, show me the building that collapsed." Emiya said after they had finished eating.
Overall their rations were simply terrible. Well, as far as taste went. Nutrition- and energy-wise they were top-notch. So much so that it required an enhanced metabolic system to make full use of all the stuff compressed into those little bars. Still tasted like ash and sand, making Emiya grimace with every bite. After he was finished, he began to plan ahead again.
The Navy also discouraged eating nutrition bars for more than four days in a row, as much like MREs of centuries ago, they did play havoc on your gastrointestinal tract. Due to the heavily concetrated nutrients and lack of fiber it would result in an eventual experience best described as, "shitting bricks".
An increase in flatulence frequencey and amplitude was also a noted side-effect. Apparently. The more things change...
Emiya had pulled up a holographic projection of the map they had received before landing in the city. Cassani hesitated, then looked down at the map.
"Uh..."
Since the map was a picture from orbit, rather than an artificial representation with a legend and a scale, it required a different kind of eye for reading. And it also would not be update in real-time, which meant that he had to annotate the changes that had been wrought. Most of the stuff he had noticed while inside the city, he had merely mentally noted in his mental map, but at this point it was better to keep everything above the board.
Which meant doing it the proper way.
"It might have been this one." Cassani hesitated, pointing at a rectangular building at the North end of the city.
Emiya nodded, considering that. It was obvious that Cassani was not entirely certain, but as long as the general location was correct it would tell Emiya something about what was going on in the city. Where the combat was happening; where a hypothetical shot might have come from by comparing to the positions he remembered from before; what they might have been aiming at and more.
It wasn't much, but on the battlefield when one was completely isolated and without support, considering even the smallest details was vital. But at the same time, avoiding over-extrapolation was important as well. Going off half-cocked because of faulty intel was paramount to assisted suicide.
"We should go around. This thing can go through the jungle roads just fine. Even if we have to take a long route around here," Shepard butted in, pointing at the map as she traced something that might have been a road. "we should still have plenty of time to get to the RV. We've got, what..."
"Three and a half hours left." Emiya answered as she moved to check the time.
"Huh, well..." She hesitated, licking her lips as she shot a glance at Emiya.
There's something she wants, but is hesitating to ask. Emiya thought. Right, the side objectives.
"I'll check the list and see if something pops up. For now, start driving that way. Cassani, strap yourself to the passenger seat and keep an eye open on the right side with the rifle ready. See anything suspicious, just hose it with bullets." Emiya said, sending the annotated map to Shepard's omnitool so that she could read it while driving.
"Drive by-style, eh? Can do, boss. Wish this thing had a radio, though." Cassani said, nodding with some bravado as he patted the dashboard in front of him.
"...Well, I know you have some music on your omnitool, so I won't mind if you listen to it. Just don't bother me with it." Emiya said after a moment of thought, making the third member of their team blink and grin his thanks in return.
It was dumb to listen to music during all of this, but managing Cassani's nerves was important too. Emiya knew that Cassani hadn't enlisted with direct combat roles in mind, so the man wasn't quite as used to this. He had a simple enough role that it didn't quite matter so much, anyhow. As Shepard shot him an inquisitive glance, he waved her away mouthing the words 'just let him' as he did.
She frowned but nodded and began to set up her omnitool with the map in her HUD.
Emiya turned around and crawled through the inside of the car until he reached the back, there he got on his back and began to kick at the fractured rear window. The two at the front jumped in surprise at the first kick and looked at what he was doing, but then turned around to keep doing what they had been before.
Emiya's weird ideas seemed to work most of the time, so there wasn't really a point in questioning everything he did.
Finally, after the fourth kick, the pane came loose enough for the mechanism for opening it to function again. It was a rather simple latch that let the window fall backwards and down, but when locked it would hermetically seal it. In theory it allowed for an airtight vehicle, and it was definitely not something he could have kicked through since it had stopped a rifle bullet.
He opened the rear-window and began to set up his sniper rifle. It wasn't the best firing location, but assuming they would get pursuers sooner or later, then getting it ready now would save time. He tried several positions and anchor points for stability, getting used to how it felt and how he could fire there if he needed to later.
Besides, if someone could shut down the car from a distance like they could start it up with their omnitool, then they needed to have a way of getting out of the car. After all, it was certainly possible that the doors could be locked to the inside as well when it was done.
Always keep your options open.
Finally, he retracted the sniper rifle and collapsed it again. Checking that the window was still loose enough to be closed and opened normally, he closed it to offer them a fraction more protection. Since they didn't have kinetic barriers, getting shot through the back would have been bad.
"Alright, let's go."
The engine hummed back to life as the car began to move forward, having been idling during their break. A quick examination by Emiya had confirmed Shepard's earlier caution as prudent, in that it required a omnitool command to start up the car, along with several other features that they did not at the moment possess.
He would have liked to read through the manual more thoroughly, but for now it would have to wait.
Shepard continued to drive, using the smallest roads and gaps possible, often ignoring the holographic map altogether as she navigated on sheer instinct and gut feeling. She simply chose a heading and then checked that she did not stray too much as they drove on.
At one point, Cassani had objected when Shepard had wanted to drive down a cliff. She argued that if they kept going fast enough, they wouldn't fall off. He argued that she was insane. Emiya reminded her that if they broke the car, they would have to pay for it, which seemed to change her opinion on the matter.
Only a little, it seemed.
She followed the cliff until she found a sheer drop which was much shorter, which she deemed safe enough to drop down from. She didn't bother listening to Cassani this time and Emiya actually felt his stomach drop for a moment there and for a second he had considered Reinforcing the suspensions just to keep it safe.
But luckily, the Mako seemed inordinately sturdy and took the drop without any problems.
Soon they broke out of the jungle and reached the half-plains of old suburban areas, driving through and over old houses and collapsed mansions. This seemed to be especially to Shepard's liking as she whooped and hooted every time something crunched and cracked beneath their massive tires.
Even Cassani seemed to be having fun, though he would have denied it vehemently.
As the looming skeleton of the decrepit city loomed ahead, Shepard finally pulled to a stop as she turned to look at Emiya. She still hoped he would find something. Especially since they had made it in less than an hour through the jungle and suburb.
With over two and a half hours worth, there was plenty of time in her mind for some frolicking around in the city. Emiya shrugged, presenting a mission objective he had chosen among the multitude available to them.
"'Disable communications relay in water tower'... And it's pretty close by, huh?" She read, licking her lips and looking up at him. It was still his choice. He nodded at her, pulling out his omnitool map again.
"We could do it, but it would require some scouting and planning, first." He said, with a serious look in his eyes.
She inhaled and nodded after a second. "Which would need time that we don't have."
Cassani looked at the two of them, confused.
"Huh, what's the problem? We have like two hours, that should be plenty."
"It would be." Emiya said, turning to look at him. "Except we're probably being tracked. This Mako is most likely something that its owners can't afford to lose in the long run. They'll be looking for us."
"And we can't leave it, because moving in the city without the armor just leaves us open to ambushes. Especially with you around, you know." Shepard continued.
Cassani made a noise of understanding and then sat silently. "So we're gonna have to split up? One checks it out while the other two keep moving in the car?"
Emiya nodded.
"Well, it is what it is. Shepard, you keep driving around. Get back in the jungle over there and try to make it seem like you're not just wasting time if anyone is watching. I'd rather not someone come investigate my trail." Emiya spoke, checking his gear. Hardsuit, omnitool, pistol, assault rifle and sniper rifle. Compared to the beginning, his loadout was much improved. "Come pick me up here in half an hour; I'll go and take a look around and see if there's anything we can do."
"We can still just ditch the car and walk to the RV. I... I mean, getting there would be already pretty good. I don't think many would manage in the city, if they were dropped off where we were." Shepard said, not looking at him. Her gauntlet-clad fingers were gripping the steering wheel.
"Maybe. But no harm in just taking a look. We've got momentum on our side. Might as well make use of it." He said, shrugging as he got out of the armored car. Slamming the door shut, he nodded at Cassani and began to jog away. He turned on the comms as he kept going. "And if I don't come back, just head for the RV without me, alright?"
Silence answered him for a good ten seconds, until Shepard answered. "...Understood." and then drove away.
;
Thanks to shadyxlr for consulting and assisting with military stuff, and to PseudoSteak and FourScore for proofreading.
This chapter was one of those weird ones where I wrote it in one sitting, enjoying the hell out of it, but then on going back and editing I re-wrote half of everything at least once because I didn't think it was quite right when I read it again later. Weird stuff, but I need to keep going forward.