Crackers and cheese

Ward sat down on his Mech’s boot, drinking cold water while the jellyfish worked tirelessly on fixing The Oath’s leg as well as Nomad’s stomach.

Luckily no systems were damaged.

The only serious injury was to the cooling system of Nomad from the injury to its stomach.

But a single jellyfish started to wiggle itself into the open gash and meld with the machinery, sacrificing itself to fix the injury in a lengthy process.

“By the way Louis. Your sword! How did you make it melt the ground? Was it your Cascade? Or could you do it again?” William asked his comrade while passing everyone cold water stored in his mech.

“Oh, my mech does not have a Cascade. I installed more weapons that can work reliably instead. Besides, the built-in Cascade was slower than me. The sword is made in Japan and can extend using the green crystals from defeated Giants. I just added to it another Japanese weapon system called Electric Eel Suit. It lets me ,well…., cover the surface of my Mech and weapons with electric potential. But it makes the mech heat up like crazy.”

Louis explained, seeming really happy that someone asked this very particular question.

To Ward it looked like he waited to give that explanation for a while.

“Damn! Isn’t the built-in Cascade of your frame an automatic targeting system that lets the mech utilize its capabilities to the maximum?” Ward said trying to make sure he understood correctly.

“Yes, but I always preferred to drive manually. More control.” Louis said with a smile

“By the way you Americans have amazing weapons, these Wings of liberty are incredible, even if I have to get a special program that makes it work with meters and not bald eagles per football field.” Louis continued rambling excitedly.

“I thought I recognized the model! I actually have a French system myself; it projects the enemies I face around me in a hologram inside the cockpit. I am gonna butcher the name, but I think it’s called Arc de l’avant-scene “ William replied to Louis’s anecdote with one of his own.

Their conversation lasted for a while until one of the other team members stopped the two dudes from their endless discussion about their fancy guns.

“Captain, I have a question about the fight.” Anya said with a stern expression.

“Sure! Ask away” William replied while accepting some crackers from Kaya with a jar of peanut butter.

“You all talked about the Purple Fallen during the fight, you said they were marked by the Lazers, but when I looked at the lasers they shined on empty floor. You guys attacked air.” Anya said confused.

“No, they were there, Look” Ward said as he connected to his mech with his phone and reviewed all the footage from the fight to find a suitable frame to show from the many cameras The Oath has.

The video showed the monsters clear as day.

“Captain, I don’t have any fancy cameras, just really strong and transparent cockpit. I saw this with my own eyes, the lasers hit nothing.” Anya said slowly as if restraining anger.

“I thought they were just telepaths; you know? “ Ward said with a worried expression. “Reading our minds, knowing our next move and sometimes overload your brain with information to kill you. They should not have invisibility.”

“I think its not invisibility. There is a possibility they are messing with our cameras.” Anya said.

“How? I haven’t fought many of them, I got to fight more of the red ones.”

“ I have a radio in my Cockpit, and it started picking up weird signals in the fight, it was bad enough I had to go back to the vintage CD collection I have.”

“You hear music during fights?” Louis paused on the detail.

“Yes, you don’t?” Anya replied almost shocked.

“Did not think of it. share with the group next time!” he said with a chuckle.

“Anyway, it’s not unheard of that the purple Fallen Hivemind can effect some machines if they are old enough.” Anya returned to the previous subject while giving Louis a reassuring nod

“Then I will trust your judgment completely when it comes to the purple ones. If we see them on camera, I will ask you to confirm their location.” Ward said to Anya as Louis walked up to Kaya who offered him a slice of cheese.

“If we are talking about it, could you all explain to me again what to expect from each color? This was my first fight after all” Kaya said slightly flustered as she started slicing some salami to go along with the cheese.

“First off Ma sœur, you have done well for your first fight.“ Louis said softly.

“I agree, but you need to work on aggression. Your mech has teeth! Use them!” Anya said

“What do you want to know” William replied.

“How are they most likely to kill me? ” Kaya replied.

“ Yellows adapt, greens are big, purple are a hivemind, blues generate electricity, and reds heal” Ward started explaining as he fixed his red hat against the sun.

“The green ones usually get you with their ability to make things grow, its unpredictable at best and claimed the lives of many confident rookies.” Ward started while passing the peanut butter to Louis and taking the cheese from hm.

“The yellow ones usually get the kill by adapting to your main offensive strategy, so if you do the same thing over and over again you will die.” Louis added to the conversion while William bit into his cheese.

“The purple ones get you when the Faraday Cage surrounding your Cockpit gets damaged and they can attack your mind directly. They are also the most coordinated out of the Fallen so their strength is in numbers” William said while thinking of Anya’s comment

“There is a possibility they can mess with our cameras, so be careful” William added

“The red ones get you by exhausting you. The only way to survive is to destroy their brain. Otherwise, they won’t stop. That is why we call them The Relentless. Plus, if they touch your blood with a red crystal, they will change you into one of them” William said as he stared into the distance chewing his cheese, his mind remembering an old friend he had to shoot.

“And lastly are the blue ones. They have the most versatile power; they get you by electrocuting you. Each one has a different preferred method, but it is always a tough fight.” William continued as he shook his head to not get absorbed in the flashback.

“So why did the Yellow ones coordinate so well?” Kaya asked another good question.

“You know why we draw the different kinds in a pentagram?” Anya answered her question with another question.

“No, I missed this class for the final exam in engineering school.“ Kaya replied shyly.

“Every point on the pentagram represents a Fallen type. These types can exhibit all powers from their category, but they can also at times develop powers from the other colors they touch through the pentagram.” Anya tried to explain.

“So, the yellow ones we fought apparently developed some of the powers accessible by their purple variants?” Kaya asked to confirm.

“Yes. They probably joined their minds to the hivemind created by the purple ones. It is also not uncommon for Giants to develop healing capabilities at times.” Anya tried to elaborate.

“As much as I would like to dilly dally, we must get going” Ward said as he noticed the jellyfish finished their work.

“Everyone, get into your Mechs. We go forward after the Giant’s footprints, they seemed to be heading somewhere, I want to know where they were planning to go” Ward concluded as everyone jumped into their Mechs and ignited the engines.