Zephen had spent the morning in the easy stride of his grav boots, making a steady forty four kilometers an hour. He was, perhaps, two kilometers out from the village that had been his planned next destination when the armor's sensors picked up an explosion.
The helmet computer identified the location as the clearing the village was supposed to reside in, and gave an 87 probability that the weapon used was a plasma based infantry weapon.
Stepping up his pace, Zephen covered a kilo and a half at a powered run. Fortune favored him in a small way, in that the clearing was actually a shallow valley. Engaging the camoflage of his armor, he took up a position behind a small outcropping of rock while the armor's sensors reported weapons fire.
Scanning with a small fibre optic camera, he discovered that the village had a bunker with several weapons firing from it, including some sort of rocket launcher. The invaders consisted of five large robots and some sort of armored walker.
In the middle of the firefight, but on the opposite side of another rock outcropping from the attackers, Zephen could make out two huddling humans. The fibre optic had no telescopic abilities, so it was impossible to determine more at this distance. Reconnasaince complete, he stowed the little coil away.
After a brief moment of thought, Zephen flipped the selector on his rifle down to GL and turned off the laser sight. He had no doubt that the machinery out there would sense a targeting laser, and his only hope was in surprise.
Taking a deep breath, he leaned out, and squeezed the trigger, a rapid thumping in the rifle indicating that it was autofiring its three grenades.
In spite of the quickness with which he attacked, Zephen almost didn't get back into cover quickly enough. Two of the robots turned, sensing the incoming attack, and opened fire on his position. Then, the grenades hit. They weren't aimed at his opponents, but rather at the group at large. Zephen had little doubt that the explosives would have killed one of the robots if he had hit it with all three, but he didn't have enough of them to do the job on all of them, nor the time.
His charges hit the ground in the midst of their formation, throwing the metallic menaces off their collective feet. Incredibly, one of the two that was shooting managed to land on upright.
As they fell to the ground, the rocket launcher took advantage, getting off several shots and taking out three of the 'bots. The walker, outside the effects of the blast, leveled a heavy weapon at the bunker, nailing the position where the rocket launcher was with a plasma beam. The robots turned back to assaulting the village, assuming that Zephen had been taken care of.
At that point, it became obvious that they had been toying with the humans earlier, as their fire became much more accurate. The remaining villagers fled the bunker just before something inside of it exploded.
Zephen used this as a distraction, flipping his rifle back to the PBR setting, and making long, scathing bursts at the remaining robots. One exploded under the hail of fire, while the other simply crumpled to the ground.
Unfortunately, as it fell, it landed facing the humans sheltering on the battlefield. One of them, a teenaged girl, startled and scared, broke from cover. As she fled for the supposed safety of the village, the walker turned toward her. The second person, a slightly older boy, saw it, and leapt forward, pushing her out of the way just in time to catch the spattering of lasers from the brute's fire. His body offered so little resistance that the beams punched right through, tearing up long furroughs in the earth behind him. The near miss burned the girl, causing her to fall to the ground, screaming.
At that moment, several rockets streaked from the village itself, blowing the armored behemoth into shards and fragments.
Zephen took a moment to reload. After that, he safed the rifle and slung it onto his back. He also unsnapped his pistol holster, making the heavy Ion blaster ready to draw. He turned off the armor's stealth systems, stepping out into the open with his hands out and away from his body. The villagers, still jumpy from the recent fighting, pointed weapons in his direction, although, with the exception of one of the rockets, not directly at him.
As he got close to the girl, no, he noted to himself, young woman, his psi senses told him that she was in a lot of pain, but no immediate danger. He paused, lifting her up into his arms. Those same life sensing abilities told him that the man on the ground was beyond healing.
His actions seemed to relieve some of the tension in the group as he was approaching. Being careful, he set the human onto the ground. Once she was laid out, he set a hand on her forehead and concentrated. Energy flowed from Zephen into her body, causing her injuries to mend in accordance with what her DNA said should be their proper form. After a couple of moments, she ceased the moaning she had been making even in unconsciousness, and settled into slumber.
Zephen stood, looking over the crowd. A man in his middle years stepped forward, looking over the shortish warrior standing in front of him. The full body armor hid most of the details, although the tail gently swinging back and forth and the digitigrade legs were hard to miss. The helmet painted and sculpted in the form of a snarling tiger wasn't encouraging, either.
"Ah preciate your hep, Mistah. Right kind. Ah'm wonderin if yah could take off tha helmet, though. It were makin us a bit nevous."
Slowly, pulling the helmet up and forward, Zephen revealed that it was a portrait of himself. He was, of course, careful not to snarl.