Quoted By:
The stolen IFF does allow you to make excellent time as the environment becomes occasionally dotted with hab-structures and fields, now that you are closer to the city.
A challenge from a concealed listening post in one of the structures is fooled by the codes of one ‘Captain Elizabeth Dare’, being the pilot of the Black Knight you are impersonating. And the poor visibility prevents a more detailed inspection.
Just one mech on patrol, who is supposed to be in the region, to be called by said listening post to use against sudden attacks.
As your pilot says, it is doctrine. ‘By-the-book’. As she explains the idiom.
Another hour later, you are crossing a large sequence of transit lanes. Much wider than you would have thought, eight lanes across, but what actually impedes your path briefly is a series of power lines on the far side, forcing you to detour for an appropriate crossing point.
The Black Knight does not have aerial maneuverability, so the impact from the landing from taking to the air would break your carefully cultivated mimicry, and breaking them would leave immediate and obvious traces of your passage.
Instead you stalk, following the road temporarily.
“It is an oversight. This infrastructure is set up for rapid mobilization of forces to any point, correct?”
Sophie’s eyes scan the map again.
“Easy, Beta. We’ll find a crossing point soon enough. The wires will go down, then up. It is as you say. City planners don’t want to repair power lines every time the mechs march clockwise.”
Two lights appear from down the road. Ground vehicles approaching from the West, heading towards you and the city. White lights are 1.5-1.45 meters off the ground.
You delve into your Warbook in an instant, looking up the identification of what the potential threat may be, even as your legs start moving the frame off the road again.
“Beta, back off the road. Hold and conceal.”
The lights get closer. Two more pierce the snowstorm. Two vehicles. Three. Four.
An orange light appears on the lead vehicle, winking out.
And you lambaste yourself for not having a better sensor suite installed.
The Predator array prepares to take action, ready to emit a jamming signal to prevent anything from calling for help.
Your pilot’s pulse quickens. The world freezes.
This could be a target of opportunity. One destroyed here is one less to face the Patriots tomorrow.
Many vehicles in the Warbook fit the target profiles right now. It could really be tanks, armored personnel carriers, or simple wheeled unarmed scouts.
So many unknowns, so little information to make a decision.
