Xenotober 2024 Frye & Irina part 8 (no prompt)
a/n: Frye and Irina agree that this mission sucks. Poorly written fight scene. Both of them will be fine!
They proceeded on foot. The Mediators had asked ever so nicely for Frye to leave any team skells parked at the away station. The Mediators had seeded the area with listening devices and pressure sensors and what ever else they had to sniff out the elusive, probably imaginary, xenos. All of the recordings would be drowned by the movement of a single skell, and the equipment would most likely be outright destroyed.
Frye and Irina had no complaint, being used to ground combat. Interceptors fought hard, but their usual targets weren't any bigger than a human bus, and this mission was no different. The target creatures were called Insidia, and resembled armless versions of T rexes. Only a little taller than a skell, they had nothing special about their attacks besides huge jaws of sharp teet. It would be an easy mission but because they were working as a half-team, Frye and Irina needed to be more careful in their roles. Frye could shoot the indigens to get their attention, but he had to restrain himself. No spraying the area with his Gatling gun, carelessly attracting more vicious chomps than the two of them could handle at once. Being able to draw a crowd might be a useful technique, but not tonight. Irina, meanwhile, was the only one with any support skills in her set, and as a result she had to hold herself back. She could have blistered a target with her melee or ranged attacks, as respectable as anything Frye's oversized weapons could provide, but instead she gritted her teeth and waited for his requests. Timed correctly, her special moves could enhance the team or weaken enemies or most importantly boost the nanos busily repairing any injuries to their mims. They both would be mindful and demure if it killed them, but it was doing nothing for their tempers.
"I'm not one to complain," Irina said after their fourth clear, "but this mission bites."
"Being a paragon sucks," agreed Frye. "How do you manage to stay sane up on that pedestal of yours normally?"
"A good team goes a long way," said Irina. She slanted a moonlit gaze at Frye. "A full team is even better."
"We could go back and kidnap a Mediator," offered Frye. He was pretty sure he had just received one of the better compliments in his life, but he wasn't sure. Irina ignored his suggestion and the mission continued.
Their seventh target proved unlucky. For a moment, Frye was positioned all wrong and the creature focused on Irina. Fighting from the back had its advantages but those were erased by a surprise swing of the creature's tail. Frye was sent flying. He thudded against a boulder and the air was knocked out of his lungs. His gun made a small metallic noise of dismay, but worse was the fact that his whole body went numb. While he was struggling to recover, nothing was stopping the monster as it bore down on Irina. Frye forced himself to grab his sword in weak hands and pushed himself back into the fight, knowing he wouldn't have regained his strength by the time he was close enough to hit the creature. Still, he had to do something.
One shot. The animal plowed into the ground, conquered. Irina stared at Frye across the empty battlefield.
"Sweet mother of miranium," barked Frye. "We have got to do some target practice together, because that was beyond awesome."
"Yeah, yeah," said Irina. Her assault rifle dipped wildly and she started to drop to her knees. "I think I need to sit down for a bit."
a/n: See, they're both fine!
Next up: The mission continues, but the target may change.