Mozzie had no clue where he was, his disorientation and lack of direction was making the situation all the more hopeless. He looked left and right and saw nothing but thick gas blocking his line of sight to any object more than three feet away from him. The only thing he could see were the god rays penetrating through the thinner areas of the toxic substance around him. The fact that he could barely breathe didn't help either, and his makeshift bandana he used from his ripped sleeve as substitute gas mask didn't seem to help in the slightest.
"Mozzie! Put the mask back on! I'll be fine without it! Please!" Twitch pleaded.
Was she mad? There's no way she'd be "fine" without protection from the toxic gas!
Mozzie ignored her and followed the sun's rays, hoping it would lead him out of the vast land cloud of gas. He stumbled more and more, and his vision began to blacken, but he continued moving, holding onto Twitch as tight as he could. However, though his vision began to fail him, his hearing was still somewhat okay. The explosion earlier definitely caused some ringing, but the earplugs he was wearing in case Ela tried talking to him were top of the line. Unfortunately, he knew he couldn't last any longer, his lungs were failing him.
Mozzie collapsed, and following soon after Twitch, who was putting all her weight on the shorter man's shoulders, did as well.
Twitch grunted and winced in pain as she looked back at her leg, still bleeding through the bandages she hastily wrapped around. She shook Mozzie, yelling at him to get back up, but he wasn't responding to any of her words.
"Goose! Wake up!"
No response.
Twitch grabbed his shoulders, and with all her strength, lifted him up to his feet, and put his arm around her head. She was putting too much weight on her wounded leg, but she battled through the pain. She looked around and noticed that right in front of them was a thinning of gas, possibly meaning they were close to escaping. She took off her mask and put it back on Mozzie and held her breath. If they were almost out, then she may be able to hold her breath long enough to escape.
While proceeding in that direction, Twitch noticed a large figure to her right a ways off, though she couldn't exactly tell what it was. It could have been the front of a van, or a pillar from the remnants of some structure before the airstrike. It was unnerving to her, especially because she swore it was moving. She pressed on and ignored the sight.
"We're almost there Goose, I-ah, damn.,, Just hang in there. I promise I'll stop making fun of your height, just don't die on me now!"
She finally saw the mountains off into the distance, and started moving as quickly as her leg could allow her. She was only some feet away from breathable air, she couldn't let Mozzie die now!
Twitch finally made it out of the cloud and dropped to the floor, completely exhausted. She turned her head to Mozzie, who still exhibited no signs of movement. She got up on her knees and tried resuscitating him, but to no avail. She radioed in with the others.
"Ela! Jager? Anyone there? Mozzie's down, I repeat, Mozzie's down!"
There was no response and Twitch was about to give up until she heard Jager's voice on the other side.
"Twitch? What's happening? Where are you?"
"Mozzie's down! He inhaled too much of the gas! He's unconscious, I'm not sure where I am! What were those explosions earlier?"
"We're stuck in the building! The entrances caved in and now we're planning to head to the upper floors and get out through the windows, a few of us have rappels. The ones who don't are going to have to go with the ones who do, it's gonna take a while, and we may not have much time."
"If you do make it out, I-I. I think we're south of the building, behind an old truck."
"We'll try our best, keep Mozzie alive will you?"
"There's not much I can do here."
"Then do what you can, Jager out."
Twitch pulled out her pistol and checked the area around her and Mozzie. She looked back at the cloud of gas and saw something large moving toward them. The closer it came, the more human it looked. Human, being a loose term for something that big.
Twitch dragged Mozzie behind a destroyed concrete wall, and looked over the edge to see what was moving their way.
It was a massive man clad in black juggernaut armor holding a minigun in one hand and a grenade launcher in the other. He also wore a gas mask to survive within the gas. Twitch knew if he saw her, they'd be done for, that minigun will be able to tear through the cover they're hiding in like tissue paper and that grenade launcher will blow them to smithereens. But how could a human carry all that gear, and still be able to walk around just fine? Not to mention the recoil from that minigun is monstrous, so using it would be stupid if the recoil can't be controlled. That's when Twitch noticed the frame around his body.
"It can't be... An exoskeleton?" she whispered.
"T-twitch. Heh, lingeries are French, right?" Mozzie woke up and slurred his words.
"M-Mozzie? You're alive, thank god, keep it down, we got someone in front."
"Ha, ha, I-I'll show him!" he yelled.
"No, no! Don't!"
Mozzie stood up and took out his pistol and yelled, "C'mere motherfu- holy shit you're bigger than I thought."
The juggernaut turned his head slowly and looked at Mozzie. His grenade launcher and minigun were held onto his chest by straps, so he let go of the launcher and held the minigun with both hands tightly.
BRRRRRRRRT
"Mozzie get down!" Twitch tackled Mozzie.
The bullets went flying inches above their heads, they had to get to some thicker cover or else they'll be paste on the pavement. Twitch was on top of Mozzie, and Mozzie chuckled like a drunken fool, "Here? Now? Twitch you little sl-"
BRRRRRRRT
"Get up and run! I'll distract him! DEPLOYING SHOCK DRONE!" she threw the shock drone over the wall and it landed right in front of the juggernaut, who stopped and looked at it.
Pew
It zapped the juggernaut, but did nothing to him at all. A quick burst from the minigun annihilated the little pest.
"Well it was worth a shot." Twitch sighed
"No, it wasn't." Mozzie whispered.
"Mozzie! I told you to ru-"
BRRRRRRT
Twitch knew they were screwed, with her hurt leg, and Mozzie acting like he's permanently intoxicated, it was only a matter of time before the wall they were hiding behind gets destroyed. Leaving them completely exposed to the juggernaut's minigun which will turn them into jelly.
While the juggernaut was firing his minigun, a bullet from the distance pierced his thick armor and hit his right shoulder. Causing him to stop firing and grunt in pain. It was Glaz, who had managed to move positions and gain a better, more clear view of the battlefield.
"Move now!" Glaz yelled into his radio.
Twitch and Mozzie, who moved rather clumsily, ran to a small store and entered into a backroom to exit from the back. They saw a door with a lock on it, and tried opening it. Mozzie shot the lock off, though the bullet was a tad too close to Twitch's hand, it did the job and the two dashed out the door. While they were running, the store behind them exploded, sending pieces of rubble flying all around. The juggernaut was close behind, standing on top of a mound of debris holding his grenade launcher. He saw the two and fired some more grenades at them.
Some minutes away, Jager knelt next to an injured Ela, applying pressure to one of her wounds, "Easily bruised, huh? Well stop bleeding and let's go find Twitch."
"If you think getting hit by shrapnel and bleeding afterwards is being easily bruised, then maybe."
BRRRRRT
"What the hell? That sounded like an M134." Jager looked toward the sound in the distance.
"Aren't those usually mounted on helic-Ow! Stop squeezing the wound so hard!"
"Sorry, but yeah, they are. But I don't see or hear a chopper anywhere here, otherwise Glaz would ha-"
"We've got someone firing at Twitch and Mozzie! They're pinned down!" Glaz reported, "He's wearing some heavy armor, but looks to be extremely mobile. He's equipped with a grenade launcher and minigun, how he's able to carry all that is beyond me."
"Roger that, we're moving to their position, over and out. You ready Ela? Or are you still bleeding?"
"Don't worry, I'll be fine. Besides, I want to have a talk with Twitch and Mozzie later."
"Oh, don't tell me your still on about that?" Jager smiled underneath his helmet.
Mozzie and twitch slid into cover behind a destroyed van, knowing it won't provide much protection, but at least it'll hide them. For now, at least.
"This guy doesn't give up!" Mozzie remarked.
"He has the advantage in almost every way, we're going to have to wait for backup if we're going to try to take him out."
"Twitch? This is Jager, over."
"This is Twitch, what's going on?"
"We're about 70 feet ahead of you behind the black dumpster, next to the white Lada car."
Twitch looked over and saw Jager and Ela diagonal across the street wave at them from behind cover, "I see you, we'll make our way to you now!"
Twitch checked her surroundings and saw no sign of the juggernaut, and quickly ran with Mozzie to Jager's position across from them. They went from cover to cover, just in case the juggernaut came out into view. They finally made it to Jager and they all entered a small shack next to the dumpster and hid, keeping away from the windows.
"You guys look like you've seen hell. What's going on? Glaz told me a heavily armored monster was after you."
"He doesn't look like a White Mask, but I have no doubt he's helping them. The real question is, where did the White Masks get funding for exoskeletons."
"Exoskeletons?" Ela said, puzzled.
"That man was wearing heavy armor that was capable of blocking our pistol and most likely our rifle rounds. Only Glaz's sniper was able to penetrate it. The monster carried a grenade launcher with a minigun too, along with enough ammo to blaze through us all for both weapons. He was able to run with all that gear on like it was only 60 pounds and not more than 400. Around his body was a metallic frame, an exoskeleton that I've seen several times before, but only as prototypes in military experimental projects. Even Mira tried messing around with one, but couldn't find a good power source for it or make it strong enough to carry more than 200 hundred pounds. He's a walking tank."
In the distance, Glaz's rifle was heard firing several times.
"Sounds like he's dealing with him now. Glaz is the only one who can kill that thing, So I'd say we stay here and wait until Glaz finished him of-." Twitch was interrupted.
"Bratuhas!" Glaz radioed in, "I'm out of ammunition!"
"Oh for fuck's sake." Ela sighed.
"Jager, Ela! This is Thermite! Where the fuck did you go? We gotta get out of the area, Tachanka's jets are turning back around to drop one more load of explosives."
"What? Why?" Jager asked.
"I guess they really want to impress their stupid fucking idol. Oh man am I going to rip that guy's head off."
"Don't you owe him a drink?" Mozzie interjected but was ignored.
Twitch was trying to think of their next course of action. They had to get out of there before the jets return, and they also have to deal with the juggernaut. They had to kill two birds with one stone. But how?
"Wait!" Twitch realized, "We can lure the juggernaut into an area where the bombs of the jets will destroy him."
"And how are we gonna do that without getting ourselves blown up in the process?" Jager asked.
"The gas has yet to clear up, we can use that to remain hidden from the juggernaut. Also, there were several unstable structures there that were large enough to pin a behemoth like him down until the jets arrive. I have a claymore we can blow up next to one of them. If we can get him in the right spot, he'll activate the claymore which will not only damage his exoskeleton, but it'll hopefully cause the structure near him to fall on him."
"Are you fucking kidding me Twitch? We barely made it out alive when we were in the dead center of that death cloud!" Mozzie retorted.
"If you don't want to go back Goose, I'll do it myself, the mask you gave me still works."
Mozzie curled his fists, he didn't almost die for no reason just for her to go back and suffocate if anything happened to her gas mask.
"You know what!" Mozzie yelled, "Gimme my fuckin' mask and I'll show you how me and Gridlock do it! Plus, you're in no condition to do anything with that limp of yours!"
Twitch smiled, "I knew you wouldn't turn this opportunity down."