Chapter 27

She still couldn’t hit the serpent machine, but she targeted a group of enemy Level 3 machines hiding behind a sand dune. She fired, not waiting to steady her aim. She hit only one, and it exploded in a spectacular show of orange globs of molten metal. The other enemy machines scattered.

Even after she’d let off that round, the weapon system started beeping again. Kaede was pouring energy into everything, and the enemy machine was quickly losing the tactical advantage. Its shield failed first, and Mari saw bursts of energy as their Level 3 machines started firing on it. The weapons beeped again, just as part of the serpent’s coils slid off Hakusanand into her line of sight.

Mari fired.