While you're theoretically safe for now, having fortified your position to withstand more of SF's attack, you might just be set back to square one if you allow Ouroboros to blow up your fire support. And you don't want them blown up, they're good allies and you owe Groza.
"AA-12, we need to rush in."
"What? Are you insane?!" replied the shotgun "Look how many of them there still are!" there was clear frustration in her voice, but this needs to happen.
"Tiss, Specter, give use cover fire!" you call to your allies. They nod, while your companion only shakes her head. Yet she still raises her shields. That's just like her, disapproving in every way, yet still going along with it.
Standing close behind her, you give the signal with a hand gesture, commencing the maneuver. Just like on previous operations, AA-12 keeps her shields up and infront of her, absorbing the bulk of incoming fire. You use the cover she provides to suppress the enemy, and take them out if the opportunity presents itself. Thankfully, until you reach the lobby exit, most of their fire will come from the front.
"I've got a bad feeling about this Heather."
"It'll work, just like before-"
"There's a lot more of them than before!"
While you can't disagree with her assessment, the SF forces being far more numerous and vicious than on your previous two operations, you can't let yourselves be discouraged now.
[X] "More enemies means more candy for you!"
[ ] "There'll be no candy if we don't push through this!"
[ ] Write-in
"Hnnnngh!" the shotgun groaned, solidifying her stance again. You don't know what it must be like carrying those heavy shields with so many energy rounds ringing against it, perhaps like a motor boat going upstream. Or perhaps it's more like an annoyance, like flies crashing into your face when you're riding without a helmet. A deadly annoyance that could pierce and scorch your synthetic flesh. Either way, it must be hard.
To lay off pressure from your companion, you focus on taking out more of the units shooting at you with the help of the suppressive fire from your other two companions. But every time you hit one, it either gets back up or another takes its place. It's like they mimic the ringleader's persistency and stubborn nature, sacrificing more of themselves just to be a bit more of an annoyance.
Eventually, you finally reach the shattered doors that lead to the outside, but you are now faced with a predicament. AA-12 can only fully block fire for both of you from one direction, and another step forward would give Sangvis attack angles at both your right and your left. You peek over to try and spot Ouroboros, but she's still just a little bit out of your reach. She's no doubt about ready to fire, so you have to do something now. You reload, only two magazines now left to your name. What an unfortunate position, but you've had worse.
Alright, what you need to do now is think. Think fast. Faster than just that, faster than the movement required to evade an attack, but fast enough to think of a plan in a matter of seconds. Otherwise your allies get blown to bits, after which you may not be too far off sharing their fate, and then echelon 3 as well. You'll need quite the bombastic solution for this problem. And that's when it happened.
You watch as the battlefield slowly grows to a halt, as if frozen in time, and not just figuratively. Bullets, raindrops, even pressure waves are stuck in motion, unmowing, yet it's not just like an image. You're frozen too, and although you don't feel like anything in particular is locking you in place, you feel like this pause in the world would be interrupted if you even move a muscle. Your eyes are free of this however, allowing you to observe every inch of this still 3D image. Is this real? How is this happening? Humans might call it an adrenaline rush, but this is far more powerful than that, as you feel completely in control and your mind is sharper than ever. In addition to that, you have no trouble accessing your data on the fly, loading and analyzing what you see immediately. Is this what it is? A hyper speed perception of reality? How did you pull this off?
You almost shake your head in an attempt to focus back on the task at hand. You observe what you can, consider what you can. All enemy positions, all firing lines, all attack angles, every bullet currently flying through the air and the rounds still about to fly out of their magazines. You spot Ouroboros, standing on damaged legs, her clothes torn, aiming weakly with her hand at your allies above. A line of Vespids stands in your way, preventing you from taking successful shots at her from your current position. If only you could get closer, get a better angle. But then there's the problem of being shot to bits by every single unit on the street, as they'd take you as a priority target. As you think differently about the problem, you analyze them. They're more accurate, faster, and ruthless than typical SF you fought, due to the direct control of an on-site ringleader. Even if her body is almost destroyed, the mind seems intact and her anger only gives her focus. However, should something disrupt that focus, it'll snap back at her. Being in direct control means that every unit depends on her, and should their faith be misplaced, they'll all fall for the same mistake.
So, in theory, should you manage to get a shot at the ringleader, the sudden shock should send a disturbance throughout all the units under her command, long enough for a doll that threw herself into the storm to avoid its poorly aimed lightning. And the only T-doll that's currently in a position to do that is…
You feel a sudden burning in your spine, like a fuse that's about to blow. That probably means the end of this adrenaline rush, and marks the point of your conclusion. AA-12 would definitely call this a beyond stupid idea, but you're not one to let go of a prime opportunity, especially if it's practically been presented to you on a silver platter. That's why, once time slowly starts flowing again, and your calculations are already being set into motion, you merely tap AA-12 on the shoulder and tell her to crouch.
"Huh? L-like this...? H-hey, wait!"
Too late, explaining it to her would've taken too long. Using her like a spring board, you jump into the eye of the storm, weapon ready and eyes filled with determination. Time has yet to start flowing full speed again, little droplets of water still passing by your face sluggishly as you fly through the air. You see every unit you accounted for, all of their sensors picking you up, their combined gazes and fire trajectories turning to you. This isn't a question of seconds but milliseconds, but you planned for this. Your crosshairs are waiting for that one target to pop up, the key to surviving this whole ordeal. Her eyes are red, almost glowing, showing clearly how hard she's pushing herself to achieve victory here. A part of you can't help but grin before pulling the carpet from right under her.
BANG!
You held your breath, even if it was just for a fraction of a second. Smoke didn't even have time to exit the barrel of your gun before the bullets you sent out hit their mark. A burst of three, each lodging itself into the ringleader's chest. That's all you had time to shoot before you had to land, positioning your hands to allow for a roll as you hit the ground. Time returns to normal, an audible pop releasing the heat that has been accumulating in your spine. Everything's back to normal now.
As Ouroboros got staggered by your fire, it was a reaction that echoed across all present SF units, a momentary pause in their fire. It's why you haven't been turned into swiss cheese yet, and you prefer to keep it that way, so you don't stop moving even after landing. Your next priority is to get yourself to safety, so you make a mad dash for the building on the opposite side of the street, aiming to jump through the window.
However, you've made one slight miscalculation. Or rather, you did account for it, but hoped the cards would fall more fortunately. Ouroboros had just fired off her explosive artillery as you hit her, but it wasn't all for naught, as you disrupted her aim. You hear the rockets zipping through the air above you, before a bright flash of light envelops the street, explosions raging against the building you just escaped. You can only hope she missed.
You vault through the window, flopping onto the ground and behind the safety of cover. Finally you can take a breather, that whole maneuver having taken quite a lot out of you. Humans would call this "quite a rush" and they'd be right, you haven't had quite anything like this before. At least, you don't think you have…
You check over the window to see how the tides have turned. Ouroboros is nowhere to be seen, and the building's upper floors are on fire. But you don't see Groza or the other two MGs anywhere, so perhaps they evaded the explosions. The streets are still full of SF, and it appears they're back to normal now. They're again laying down fire at whoever is within the building, though you cannot see AA-12 at the entrance anymore. It probably was a little rude, jumping into the fight without much of a word. For all she knows you could've been trying to use your affinity for attracting explosions to redirect the rockets. You hope she at least saw you get to safety before falling back with the others.
You decide to help out by laying down some fire from the enemy's flank. You can see SF starting to enter the building. Has the defense line weakened so much without you, or have Ouroboros' aggression levels hit maximum? Have they retreated? Perhaps the next best course of action would be to finish what's left of her. You would've done it earlier, but had she been taken out straight away, the SF units would've switched to unguided mode immediately and shot you up straight away. Even with lowered intelligence, there were just too many of them to evade otherwise.
As you pepper the SF with bullets, you hear a loud grinding noise from your right. The room you were in was more of a corridor, and at the end of it you saw a circular device struggling to float. You can hear it's gears turning, the loading of bullets.
"You've got to be kidding me."
Well, at least it's just one of those. You take aim and start firing, aiming to break that thing for good. But its armor is pretty thick, despite the damage it sustained. 5 rounds. 10 rounds. 15 rounds. You started running the opposite way as it was starting to get too close. Finally on the twentieth round it appeared to cease function, now just rolling along the ground like a dislodged wheel. But just as you thought the threat was dealt with, you realized the ringleader has caught up with you. How do you know? Maybe by the sharp pain in your thigh, caused by nothing else by a sharp blade. Out of a corner she lunged, sticking your own machete that you looted the other day deep into your synthetic flesh. Your momentum kept carrying you forward, tearing away her grip on it, but you couldn't exactly get far with a piece of metal inside of you. On your second step you stumbled forward and fell, meeting with the hard ground again.
"Got you, you griffin maggot!"
You hear her breathy, irritated voice coming up behind you. She's holding onto the second assault device like a life raft, dragging her along the ground like a creature from a horror movie, her eyes shining red with a toothy grin as her hair hangs loose over her face, the hairpin you stole still in your pocket. You try to reach for your gun, but it has fallen out of your hands, laying a couple meters away from you. And the twin machine guns of her mechanical floating wheel are already locked onto you, almost too close to miss now. You contemplate on whether you should pull the knife out and try your luck, but she'd have you shot by then. So instead, you pull out something else that could perhaps get her to stop. Your trump card.
"... what's that?"
"Oh snakey~ Did you really think I wouldn't bring a gift to our second date?" you manage to smile back at her, shaking the detonator in your hand "You kept sending so many explosives my way, so I brought some of my own. You know, try it your way for once."
"You… the jammer?!"
"Bingo~ One press of this button and-"
"You idiot!" she exclaimed, not even letting you finish. She tries to stand up on her own two legs, even though she's riddled with holes and constantly leaking coolant. Perhaps you could take her, but she's still holding you at gunpoint "Do you Griffin dogs have no brains?! You'd crush your allies and yourself, no doll with even a hint of sanity would ever do that!"
"Actually, a Griffin doll wouldn't have a choice in the matter, so she'd totally do that. Me though…" you winked, even if your face was dirty and rugged "I'm special. You should've been able to tell since our first date~"
"Special? Special?! You're nothing!" she attempts to point at you with her remaining arm, but quickly loses balance and takes hold of the drone again. She might not last long like this anyway, but that doesn't stop her from hissing at your "A speck of dirt is what you are! You achieved nothing, you'll never achieve anything, your only worth is as ground for me to walk on!"
"Aww, snakey... that hurts, you know~ I feel so sad, I might just press this button and-"
"D-don't!"
Finally, the angry facade cracked. This isn't the first time you had to negotiate with a Ringleader. Perhaps you might just get somewhere like this.
"Oh? Does the snake want to apologize?~"
"Ugh…"
You grin, rarely one to hide your smug. But enough of that for now, no need to push your luck. Now you just have to negotiate your escape and…
"Veresk!"
"Huh?" Is that the voice of Groza? It sounds like it's coming from somewhere above, echoing from the streets. Is she perhaps still in the building with the jammer?
"Veresk! If you can hear me, set off the charges!"
"!!!" Ourobors appear surprised as well, hearing your squad leader say that. She turns back to you, her red eyes wide "Don't you dare!"
"That's an order, Veresk! Do it now!"
"Do. Not!"
Of course, you can easily disobey orders, your affiliations weren't ever that solid to begin with. But now you're in a very tricky situation. If anyone is still in the building, their chances of survival would be very low, if not zero. But Groza doesn't seem like the sort of person to put her allies into danger for the sake of the mission, unless… These are orders that came from above, the commander. A safeguard to assure the mission's success, perhaps. There's no way for you to know for sure, but aside from a danger to your allies, it also is a danger to you, as the collapsing building will crush you if you don't start running the second you set it off. Not to mention, you'll lose your bargaining chip. On the other hand, while not setting it off will give you a higher chance of survival, it'd come with its own costs, including the mission's possible failure, the clear disobedience of a direct order, and whatever is left of this ringleader living to see another day. And who knows, maybe Groza has a plan, and by refusing to play along you'd only cause more trouble. Can you trust her as a doll, knowing the nature of your kind?
[ ] Set off the charges.
[X] Don't set off the charges.
