CHAPTER 40
The Sentinal.
Jim Brody was a fairly average-built guy- he didn't look soldier-like, if that was even a thing. He had thin arms, thin legs, and he had a bit of a gut underneath all the overcoat and the combat padding beneath that... But ever since he had been a militiaman, he had beaten all the odds thrown against him.
Brody was seasoned- he had been in the Minutemen for a quarter of his life, and he had walked the irradiated Earth for thirty years by this point. He understood the art of cooperation in a tactically cohesive squad, he understood what it took to kill a man, and he had been using these things he understood his whole career from rifleman, to Corporal of a Company.
Yet if there was one thing, that ole' Brody just couldn't wrap his head around- it was the situation with this... this DEATHCLAW. This monster. A friendly monster. Who had ever heard of such a thing?
For years he always thought those tales from the West were a bunch of bullshit spat out there by merchants stopped on the side of the trail popping pills and smoking funny stuff... Now, he was disproven.
It hit home harder because it took him so long to actually see the truth.
Meanwhile though, there were almost ten people aiming out of windows with Laser muskets and rifles, Jim was flanked by Lieutenant Roe, and she was looking fierce, with a carbine in her hands jabbed towards the big reptile.
The two guys from before that had been following the Corporal when they found Sanford- were now standing by the doorframe of the shop pointing their weapons too- once safety in numbers came back in, they directly disobeyed his wishes- it was interesting.
Sanford had his eyes locked on Roe, her tanned face twisted in a sneer, lips locked shut, green eyes narrowed- she returned the glare with vigor- and throughout the whole thing, the Deathclaw just looked annoyed at having a small arsenal directed at her.
"...So this is this Tobs fella', eh?" Roe eventually broke the silence- taking her hand out from under the grip of her carbine, Sanford noticed it trembling- she adjusted the black trifold on her head. "What's up with this fucking animal?"
"What did she just call me?!" The Deathclaw barked.
The reaction was instantaneous- a varied shifting of weapons, all the guns from the windows raised and the Minutemen behind them looked wide-eyed- Roe backed off a full three steps and was looking down her carbine's iron sights.
"You tell that thing to stay back!"
"Roe," Jim held a shaky hand up- obscured beneath his black officer gloves. "The thing helped break me and the guys out of trouble. T-This is Tobs' we're talking about! When have we heard anything of HIM causing problems?"
"Just stories, I don't know the man myself." Roe snapped.
"Well not to sound conceded, but he's right- I'm not here to get you all killed, I'm here to help you!" Sanford said rather angrily. "That 'Thing'- is a SHE, and SHE, is a Deathclaw that has been living around me and my robot for almost three weeks! We look pretty intact, huh? Put your fucking guns down!"
"No way, man, no fuckin' way." Roe shook her head. "I don't trust it. You're running about with an exo', a monster, and don't tell me that sword right there ain't militia."
She nodded down at the sword magnetically holstered to his hip.
"I know that sword. That was Jarr's sword, from the 9th Company."
"Jarr?" Jim muttered, looking down at the blade. "Where'd you find that, Tobs?"
"Springs Quarry, if the body I found it on WAS this 'Jarr' fellow you're talking about, then I already found him and his guys dead."
"I knew something happened to him." Jim grumbled, his gloved hand splaying over his mouth. "That damned fool."
"W-What? You're just gonna' BELIEVE him like that?" Roe asked. "What's wrong with you, Brody?"
"Roe, you need to calm down," Jim held his hands up. "This Sanford guy, has bailed out the Minutemen more times than any of us would like to admit, he is an ally."
"I ain't never heard of him before."
"Well listen, now that I have a new person deserving the title of- 'Angrypants' -me and my robot's scanner systems say an entire new group of Gunners are coming here, and they have something big, probably a heavy weapon." Sanford pointed for down the plaza, the way the Gunners had taken off when he and Jim had flanked them. "You need to make a choice here- either we get inside that building and hold them off, or you all unpack and make a run for it. We don't have a lot of time here."
"If the Gunners are coming back, we're defending the civilians inside," Roe said. "You're welcome in, Tobs, but that beastie' stays outside."
"If she can't come in, I don't come in." Sanford grit his teeth. "Tell your guys to put their fucking guns down NOW. If you try to shoot her, I will have no problem defending her and killing every single one of you, do you understand me? You won't win. I'll ensure of it."
"Don't you threaten me, tin-can man!" Roe raised her carbine at him. "We'll turn you into a fuckin' strainer pot!"
"Can we avoid this?! For the love of God! We're on the same side here!" Brody roared. "Roe, ALL OF YOU, lower your damned guns! AND TOBS, drop the attitude! WE. ARE. ALLIES DAMN IT!"
"...I like this man." Sanford smiled after a minute. "Fine. This is how it's working, you all hold the building, me and my pals are gonna' fight them out here."
"Monsieur'!" The Deathclaw interjected, starting to back away towards the side- she nodded at the end of the plaza- they heard commotion, faintly. "Tell the cow we don't have time again, she might understand."
"What did she call me?" Roe snapped.
"No time, go! Go!" Sanford brought his Laser rifle in a loose grip- he ran over to the Deathclaw, gripped her one wrist and tugged her after him for a moment until she willingly followed.
The Minutemen flew back through the door- including Roe- Bordy hesitated, caught between running for Sanford or his fellows. Eventually, the argument for his comrades won out- and then the wooden entry slammed, and shifted as they blockaded it with something, presumably furniture.
Sanford sneered at the door, now across the pavement from them, as he and the reptile compressed against the side of one of the buildings at the mouth of the street they had taken to reach the plaza- the one littered with all the bodies back there.
Sanford glanced at the piles of dead back there, and then he turned and watched the smoking crater in the top of the building down the opposite way across from the openness of the plaza entrance. He grumbled and kept his helmet in a peer around the corner.
"Here they come, sir!" Hancock reported. "Ass-whooping time! WOOO!"
The streetway at the other end of the plaza went left and right, and a row of commercial buildings lined it from side to side- beyond, somewhere down either way, they heard footsteps, lots of them- mumbled voices, and the creaking of some mechanical wheel system.
The grumble of a motor- it sounded like something similar to an ATV, or some other small vehicle- not anything extreme, like a car, or an armored thing- that rebounded down to them hollow, and echoing across the urbanscape.
Sanford kept eyeing his scanner- it couldn't determine what the robotic anomaly was- and that meant that Sanford hadn't gotten ahold of the information to download it into the helm's HUD databanks- which meant it was either something he hadn't seen very often, or it was something he had never killed.
He didn't like either possibility.
The grumbling got louder, the footsteps actually got quieter- he turned back, huffed, and looked at the Deathclaw- her yellow eyes locked in a forlorn stare to the pavement at her feet.
She glanced up and blinked to him.
"We'll do our best." Sanford smiled. "We're not going to let some mercs' stop us."
"I hope so, monsieur'."
"We'll do our best." He repeated- peeping out into the plaza again. "God damn Gunners."
The motor stopped, the creaking stopped, the footfalls and voices had stopped.
...There was no one appearing on the other end of the plaza.
Where were the Gunners?
Sanford could hear his own breathing- he leaned farther out and watched the end of the plaza intently.
"...Monsieur'?" She whispered. "What happened?"
"...I don't know... Where the fuck are they? H-Han'? Do you see anything?"
"Gunner fuck-bags have stopped! There's movement in their rear ranks."
"...What the hell?" Sanford grumbled.
bm
bm
-Two thuds, distant.
Sanford jerked his head upwards- he heard whistling.
"FUCK! MORTAR!"
wwwwhhhhhhHHHHM-
BMMM
-The pavement in the center of the street right beside their position suddenly bloomed in a flower of cracked concrete, dust and upkicked soil. Sanford physically placed himself closer to the Deathclaw- her hide brushing against the suit as pebbles licked off the steel and her scales.
For Sanford, the noise faded relatively quickly under his helmet's protective systems that were designed to keep his hearing intact- but for his Deathclaw companion, she curled beside him with a claw clenching one of her horns- a deafening ringing present in her ear holes.
She shook her head and grunted- Sanford stood straighter up, looked down at her, and his gaze was immediately torn away when a second mortar shell landed not anywhere in the plaza, but smack-dab the front face of the carpenter shop.
BMM-sshsksks...
-What few windows on the building that remained un-shattered, now carpeted the sidewalk below with glittering outbursts of millions of shards- a section of the second floor imploded as the shell punched clean through the bricks and detonated inside.
The building vomited a cloud of dust, smoke, flying pieces of debris and bricks- it all disgorged into the air and rained down a clouding, trailing mess onto the street below- again, Sanford compressed himself to his ally to shield her.
BMM
Bmm
bmm
-Three more rounds landed somewhere else close by- Sanford and her were blinded amid the smoke choking the avenue up, thus, they didn't see the exact points of impact.
"-GAH! God-DAMN it-! H-Han'?! Han' where are you?!"
"I'm alright! No shells for me!"
"...Thank God- me and Deathclaw are alright- any scans for the militiamen?"
"-All I know is that somebody in there is dead!"
"...Shit. -Alright, it's irrelevent now, we need to focus on the people we can still save!"
"Aw here we go! Communist ball-lickers entering the plaza! They got some heavy hardware , sir!"
His helmet switched to its night vision filters- and leaning off the Deathclaw, who was recovering beside him- he peered over the corner of their building again- and the plaza was now flooded with a small mob of Gunner soldiers.
There had to be at least thirty of them- at LEAST.
There was a section moving down the shops to the right, and moving down the shopfronts of the plaza down the left- they all had weapons pointed at the smoking building that the Minutemen had been holed up in.
Sanford heard the grumbling of whatever motor he had been made aware of before- he waited for his filters to compensate for the distance in the plaza, and through the smoke around him- what he saw, didn't agree with him at all.
"...Oh Christ," He wheezed. "-You've gotta' be FUCKIN' kidding me."
Held aloft on a tri-fold set of multi-jointed, flexable, all-purpose struts that each were capped with a ball-like black wheel at their bottom ends- a rounded series of layered chassis plates rose upwards and grew in size as their heights increased.
A mesh of red and black wires sprouted from a mechanical box-like structure capping a rounded torso's spinal section- venting structures were protected by the curved, overlapping, titanium protrusions of the body's rib sections.
A round, metal cap- the head -was partially hidden by a bowl-like, upwards-angled girth of a gorget plate- red scanner bulbs obscured by a grill-like pattern of armored bars. Jointed hinge-like shoulders supported forearms of cylindrical steel, laced with support servos- and beginning at the elbow on each limb, the multi-barreled, sneering, black-painted extensions of projectile miniguns were active.
The arms were low enough that they hung the 5'millimeter guns' maws by the robot's hips, just above the suspension- black soot trickled from twin exhaust pipes just barely peeking over its shoulders- and rolling down in the middle of the plaza, was a pre-War, military type Sentry-Bot assault platform.
Sanford hadn't seen an active one of its kind in years.
Painted drab all over, a faded white army star was emblazoned over its left breast- there were words spray-painted all over its arms and torso crudely, things like- 'Gunners'- and -'Deth on'Weelz'- pretty discernable from the distance.
How quaint.
"Shit," Sanford curled back behind the wall. "SHIT."
"M-Monsieur'?" The ringing in her hearing was diminishing enough- she shook her head again, and stood straight up. "-What happened? Are they here?"
"They're EVERYWHERE down there." Sanford muttered. "They have a Sentry-Bot."
"Merde', really?" She gawked. "First the Enclave has them, and now these people have them! Absolutely fantastic!"
"Keep it together, girl," He said. "Me and Han' can fuck up its rear armor- we just need to get a good angle."
"Sir, if it's worth anything- the HAN', has remained unseen up here!" Hancock chimed through his helmet link. "Get Robo-Steroid's attention, I'll whack him with Clarice!"
"Might be all we can do... My rifle won't be as good against the frontal armor," Sanford frowned down at his new gun. The good news was, it was better against this type of thing than say the submachine gun he had been prancing about with.
It seemed everytime he upgunned, the things he came against uparmored.
An arms race between the world and one guy. That guy just HAD to be him.
"What should we do?" The Deathclaw persisted.
"We can't take them head-on," Sanford glanced at the carpenter shop- it disturbed him the lack of gunfire being rained on the Gunners down here from up THERE. "Take that alleyway you found earlier, I'll get the Sentry-Bot's attention."
"That thing has cannons for arms..." She leant over him to peak around the corner- Sanford grunted, and used his pauldron to shoulder her back behind cover. If they didn't move, somebody would see them.
"Take the alley, I'll hit it and run."
"Be careful? Monsieur'?"
"Yep."
The Deathclaw spiraled around, and she was gone in the blink of an eye.
She was fast, man.
"Alright," He breathed. "Here we go... Here we go..."
Sanford closed his eyes.
He heard the grumbling of the Sentry-Bot's engine, the boots of the Gunner soldiers on either side of the plaza- he took it all in, and his heart was sinking lower and lower towards his feet.
Sanford remembered, briefly, the little stroll he and the Deathclaw had taken throughout his old house. Visions of the dusty, blasted rooms, faded recollections of his parents' faces, of his friends' faces...
If he died doing this, he wanted something to smile at against the dark.
So Sanford opened his eyes.
If he died doing this- he'd take as many of these people with him as he could.
Sanford jolted to a half-exposure around the brick corner- he raised his gun, lined up the iron sights- and before him, literally only a few feet away- was an entire squad of Gunner soldiers that had been moving down the plaza's left flank- they all looked up at him- Sanford saw a guy's jaw drop.
He compressed the trigger of his rifle.
PMPMPMPMPMPMPMPMPMPM-
-A concentrated beam of reverberating, rapid-fire flickers of crimson light ate their way down the entire rank and file of the men and women he faced- the closest Gunner vanished from the neck up as a bolt of pure carbon-based energy scythed through his head and collapsed his entire skull on an atom's scale level.
The bodies convulsed, jerked, and crumpled in slow domino-like patterns in a gruesome display of what happened when personnel ran into a meat-grinder
Sanford basically had the power of a machinegun position in his hands- he killed almost all of the Gunners he faced- and the survivors were calling out, firing potshots and scrambling into the little alleys between all the storefronts.
Flesh boiled loudly, somebody was screaming- it was a terrible kind of scream, something you heard when you knew the person was in so much pain that it was disorientating, that they didn't know where they were.
Sanford saw the last body snap downwards- the Laser beams reducing its breast cavity to a gaping ridge of sizzling brown.
Ten or so corpses formed a lane down the sidewalk- two were still moving, that was where the piercing screams were coming from- Sanford saw he had removed a man's arm, and the guy was convulsing like a wounded animal on the ground.
That froze him, momentarily- out in the open -Sanford looked down for only a few seconds, and he saw this other human that he had viciously mauled, lying in the middle of a pile of his dead comrades.
It was... a kid.
The guy couldn't have been older than twenty- he was fair skinned, had brown hair, and he had thin lips- these were spread in a big 'O' shape, his yellow teeth were revealed as his mouth opened as wide as it could go- he just shoved back and forth, back and forth on the concrete. The ragged stub that was his left arm released contrails of crimson- the sidewalk was turning into a spreading pool of spilled life underneath him.
The Gunner just kept screaming. He screamed like a little girl.
Sanford quaked when he was broken from this horror.
CSHM-CSHM
"HOSTILE ANOMALY DETECTED," -The vox amplifiers on the Sentry-Bot proclaimed its loud, bellowing, electronic voice across the plaza- the robot's wheels screeched in a jerking halt, steel whined.
The arms on both sides of the machine raised, and the barrels were rotating faster, and faster, and faster.
Lifelessly, the red scanner bulbs on its tiny head flickered when it spoke again.
"TARGET ACQUIRED. NEUTRALIZING."
Sanford forgot about the boy- the miniguns rolled.
vvmvmvmvmvmvmvmvVMVMVMVMV-
CSSSHHHHHHHMMMMMM
-The rate of fire was so fine, so precise, and so overwhelming- that all Sanford heard was a grinding sound of hundreds of rounds literally being pissed at the brickwork he had been hiding behind- his eyes went wide.
Throwing himself as fast as he could back behind the wall, the bricks shrieked and coughed bouts of dust and pebbles as the twin miniguns ate into everything he had been standing near- they chewed the corner up, they chewed the sidewalk up, they hit everything in the street behind him when he moved.
Hundreds and hundreds of fucking bullets flying everywhere- it only stopped when he got out of the way, and compressed against the wall of the store.
"FUCK! FUCK!" Sanford panted- he took up his rifle, aimed it at the empty space ahead of him, and started backing up- he backed up in the hopes of ANYTHING- the same window he and Jim had jumped through when the sniper shot at them, the alley the Deathclaw had found.
"TAKE THIS, FUCKER!" -He heard Hancock shout all the way up from the roof just above him.
sshhRRRVVVM-CRK
-He jolted his head to follow the sudden mass of movement.
The Sentry-Bot's wheels screeched, the suspension gave off sparks on the pavement as the robot used its excelerator thrusters to roll straight forwards- the massive military robot now sat in the center of the street Sanford was on- it raised its twin miniguns, and Sanford could literally do nothing but press his back tighter against the wall.
sshhhmmmMMMM-BMMMM
Hancock's warhead descended from above in a sooty trail, as always.
It smacked right into the Sentry-Bot's breast- there was shrieking steel, licking flame, a blast of dark smog. He heard the robot's suspension roaring as it compensated for the weight dealt by the impact- gears ground and a zapping complaint of loose electricity.
Sanford bolted towards where the Deathclaw had run off too- he saw the storefront window he had evaded the sniper with earlier- and he leapt through it- his boots thudding on the concrete floor inside.
The Sentry-Bot emerged from the broiling plumage of soot, with shadowy smoke contrailing from a dented, fingered scorch on its collar section- the armor hadn't even cracked.
"...Wedge formation! Bravo flanking! He's in the building!..." He heard the shout come from the street outside.
The Sentry-Bot advanced on slow rolling wheels- a pair of Gunner mercenaries on either side of its position, one guy had an assault rifle, and he footworked right behind the robot's back, aiming the weapon underneath one of its arcing arms.
Sanford aimed out of the window- he drained a potshot from the Laser rifle, and the shots burned into the Sentry-Bot's plating in a cluster of impacts on its chest and waist- the shots flicked pure, glowing red dust, sparks- but after that, the machine didn't even flinch.
CHHHHHSSSSSMMMMMM
-A pair of rounds slapped off of his pauldron- Sanford cursed at the sparks in his vision, he ducked back inside the shop's interior- the window sill screaming as bullets knocked off any remaining shreds of glass still clinging to it, and ate into the bricks.
Some of the rounds clattered away inside the darker insides of the building- Sanford heard the bullets bouncing around through the metal shelves.
Carbine rounds followed up as the Gunners poured ammunition at his position.
He switched the battery coils on the rifle- and as he was doing so, he heard a tiny disturbance.
clk-clk-CLK
-He looked down.
A pair of fragmentation grenades rolled to stillness in the middle of the floor a foot away from him.
"Fuck!"
Sanford hopped backwards, he tore past a shelf, and it clattered onto the floor noisily- but unheard to him, as the grenades went off.
CRAAAAK!
-Dust flew everywhere, the entire inside of the ruined shop flashed white and shrapnel bounced about. If he hadn't been wearing the armor- Sanford would've been grazed by at least three of those many shards. Instead, they bounced off his cuirass harmlessly.
Staggering through the swirling smoke- the gunfire directed at him stopped, the suit whined in his ears about filtering the oxygen passing into his rebreathers- faintly, outside, he heard other forms of weapons fire, shouting- to his dismay, he heard the boy outside, still screaming.
Why couldn't he just... just fucking bleed out already? Just die, and make it stop.
Sanford felt around on the wall he compressed to- he heard wood shutter- and holding his gauntlet there- he tapped his palm on the surface again.
clm clm
-A door. A back entrance.
Sanford looked out into the daylight streaming through the storefront window and the doorway he had vacated- the beams of illumination were mulled by the shadow of the towering Sentry-Bot outside.
Sanford felt around the door for a handle- couldn't find one -and checked it with his shoulder.
PLM! clcmlmclcm...
The door flew open, metal parts ringing away on the ground outside.
Daylight ate into his helm lenses- he blinked- looked around.
He was in an alleyway- the plaza was down by his right, some of the bodies of his recent kills sprawled at the mouth of the way- and to his left, he heard gunfire, shouting- well, he ALSO heard gunfire and shouting from the plaza, but the stuff happening in the alley was closer.
He bolted in the direction of the alley.
"Hancock?! You there?"
"I'm on a different roof, man! Robo-Steroids almost got me!"
"What's happening in the plaza?"
"Minutemen survivors actually thought they'd join the mother-fuckin' party and start SHOOTING! Ha!"
"What are the Gunners doing-?" Sanford was cut off.
BMK!
"-AAGH!"
As he rounded a turn- he ran head first into a Gunner soldier.
It was an older guy- no helmet, a green bandana tied over his forehead- he was bald, had a black patch over one of his eyes and had an army-issue variant combat vest and uniform on.
The Gunner staggered back, holding his head- Sanford stood there in brief surprise- and then he saw his assailant raise a two-barreled shotgun.
Sanford surged forwards- the gun discharged and pebbles flew off a wall to their flank- the Gunner opened his mouth and screamed loudly, defiantly- Sanford wrenched his arm back, and grabbed him by the throat with his other gauntlet.
The shotgun clattered onto the ground- Sanford unintentionally kicked it, and it skipped off to the side.
Struggling only briefly before the suit's augmentation kicked in to aid his strength- Sanford shook the man violently- his yelling cutting in swinging motions as his head was knocked about.
Sanford tugged him forwards- and he brought the Gunner's forehead into an impact with the alley's eastern wall.
PMMF
-The Gunner cried out- and seeing him still alive, Sanford tugged him back, and shoved him forwards again.
PMF
-Now he was faintly TRYING to bellow.
Sanford grit his teeth, brought back the guy's head, even when his knees hit the ground- and he shoved it forwards again, and again, and again.
PMF
PMF
PMF
PMF
PM-chsk
-Blood spattered on the white-colored wall, a fresh rose against contrasting nothingness.
Sanford heaved repeatedly, he stood back and let the corpse fold on the ground quietly.
The suit whirred with each breath he took as he inflated his diaphragm- he looked about the dirt, found his rifle, picked it up, and glanced over it quickly.
"Sir?! What happened?! SIR!"
"...I-I'm... I'm fine," Sanford answered his communications eventually. "...H-Han', what are the Gunners... in the plaza... what are they doing?"
"They're bringing something out to hit the building with! Mounted! It's on wheels!"
"Monsieur'!"
Sanford looked down the way he had originally been intending to head to- the Deathclaw ran towards him, was soon before him, not even minding the body- her claws were ripe with fresh blood.
Sanford peered over her flank- he saw, out in an intersection of passes ahead- a cluster of heaped Gunner corpses.
"...Hancock says the Gunners are gonna' hit the shop with a heavy weapon." Sanford swallowed. "We need to stop them."
"I'm with you, mon ami'."
"...Alright... Let's go..."
He glanced down at the man he had bludgeoned longer than he should have.
-0-0-0-0-0-
Hancock was on the roof of a building near the one he had started off on- he kept his thruster on low power so he could 'Crouch' behind the concrete trim of the roof's edges.
Bullets licked off the trim all over the place- he was pinned- and only when the fire slackened did he rely on his organics scans to aim his Plasma gun over the edge and shoot at whatever pinged positive for a heartbeat.
The Gunners were behind that same damned truck in the edge of the plaza's front- some of them were in alleys on the other side, and apparently Sanford and the Deathclaw had slaughtered a group of them flanking into the right passways.
Down on the ground, one of his shots cracked open a Gunner's head like an egg- and he flipped behind the rear chassis of the truck he had been firing over.
"HA! Headshot!" Hancock cackled. "Take that, Nixson backers!"
His scans showed without him visually identifying- the Sentry-Bot that had chased Sanford down the street at the mouth of the plaza had turned around- it was grumbling back towards the center of the zone from whence it came- both 5mm's were brandished upwards at Hancock's roof- a cluster of Gunners kept in step around its flanks.
Hancock tried to fire off a few shots- his gun venting, and green blobs flying downwards- he actually hit two of the Gunners farther by the robot's right side- but the plasma that hit the robot itself burnt away without any effect.
By this point, the Sentry-Bot was pockmarked with scorches and small black fissures in its hide- and it didn't seem to be acutely aware of any of them.
CCHHHHSSSMMMMMMMMM
-Bullets sprayed all over the place- Hancock practically tossed himself onto the gravel of the roof's flat to prevent himself from getting hit.
"SANFORD! SAN-FORD! HELP ME! I'M GETTING MY ASS HANDED TO ME ON A SILVER-FRIKKIN' PLATTER!"
The gunfire ceased, and Hancock's systems picked up electronic activity from his fellow robot, and his foe.
"My intuitive instincts tell me the shit is about to get real!" Hancock snapped- he raised one of his ocu-lenses over the rim of the roof trim- he saw a blocky, box-like structure rise on bolt-supported stilts from the Sentry-Bot's left shoulder- wires draping and linking it to the back plating.
"BOMBARDMENT PROTOCOL ACTIVATED. NEUTRALIZING."
"HOLY SKUNKS FUCKING UNDER ROOSEVELT'S BARBACUE! -Wait, did Roosevelt even HAVE one?!"
ssshHHMMM
-A pair of spiraling warheads kicked out of the missile pack.
Hancock's thruster ignited- and he tossed away from the rim of the roof, right as the trim burst into a giant cloud of smoke and tossed concrete. The air literaly shifted from the sheer gravitational force of the explosion- and it rose almost a story into the air.
-0-0-0-0-0-
Corporal Jim Brody saw the big explosion from the slanted, near-crushed remnants of the carpenter shop's top floor, right window- he expected that Tobs' robot friend from before, was probably a goner.
The Gunners that hadn't been killed by Sanford's crazed move from before, and from the robot's harassing- were behind the truck, and in leftwards alleys in the plaza below- a pair of them stayed with the Sentry-Bot.
To Jim's dismay, not only had the mortar round caved in most of the ceiling on the second floor- but the blood all over the east wall, and the severed human arm sticking from beneath some 2x4's by his boot- proved to anyone who hadn't witnessed, the death of Neri, one of his soldiers.
Jack and Macksby were dead too, and Kelehan had bled out from his wounds- that left him with seven able bodies soldiers including Roe, and fifteen civilians- unless Sanford figured out a way to kill that robot, they were screwed.
Still, Jim fought his hardest- he leaned out the window with his musket, and fired a fully charged shot at the truck down below- he hit a Gunner square in the chest- he saw the body crumple behind one of the wheels- brought himself back inside the frame to crank the musket's battery mechanism.
"Roe!" He called. "Those civvies' ready for a run?!"
"All set!" -Came from downstairs. They were going to try and run through a back door.
"We'll hold 'em off until you're all outside! GO!" He nodded at Frankie'- a big, redder-skinned guy with a brown beard- and the larger man didn't even acknowledge the nod- he reloaded his carbine, tossed the dead mag away.
"... Set it up! Start fucking shooting!..."
-Jim chanced a compressed glance out the window he crouched beneath, and so too did Frankie'.
There was an uneven plat of metal- it had some kind of drivetrain under it, something from a bike, or a motorcycle- the Gunners had a pair of fat wheels on either side of a makeshift mounting carriage- and welded on a tripod mounting, was a gun long as he was tall.
Two operators- one had a glittering belt of gold over her shoulders, and the other had both hands on a vertically-straight pair of handles on the gun's rear- he reached up and yanked back the big bolt.
The gun squeaked, the barrel rose for the second floor.
It was a .50 caliber machinegun.
CHMCHMCHMCHCMCHMCHCMCHCMCHCM
-The carriage bucked, and soon, bullets the length of his hand were clattering into the building's brickwork- and flew straight through Jim's window sill.
"SON OF A BITCH!" He cried, ducking down- the rounds screaming overhead, around him. "SON OF A BITCH! SON OF A BITCH!"
He squeezed his eyes shut- and the fire slackened briefly.
The Gunner operators lined the .50 caliber up with Frankie's window- and then let loose again.
Inside the carpenter shop, Jim tossed forwards on his stomach when the giant bullets hailed about again- screaming in ricochets off the bricks, tearing into the plaster of the second floor's rooms as they passed through the window.
Jim tried to crawl on his belly for the wooden staircase to downstairs.
Frankie saw his comrade- and panicked.
The militiamen stood bolt upright and went to run.
A single round entered his back, and clipped clean through his chest, leaving nothing but a gaping, black hole and trails of dust from the torn overcoat.
Frankie made a wheezing sound and fell heavily on the hollow, wooden floor- he shut his eyes, grit his teeth- the carbine he held fell away, and his hands quivered over the hole in his chest. He tightened, twitching, and balled up, before he stopped moving.
Jim reached the stairs- he made to stand-
-And a pair of hands shoved him on his knees as a pair of bullets tore into the plaster right over his head.
Roe stood on the steps before him- eyes shining, mouth shut, hands shaking. Jim wrapped an arm over her chest and he tugged her down the stairs with him.
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