Sniper Nest

"This is a sub optimal route." The EGO device chirped in Xanthiana's head. She was climbing up a ridge, each finger strained from the exercise as the rock face she had chosen was extremely steep, and lacked for proper finger holds. Which made it perfect for an ambush position, but terrible for actually scaling. Xanthiana really felt the extra weight from the ammunition magazines she was still carrying, she also regretted not getting something to eat, her stomach growled more than a few times as she went.

"Only other route was up a mountain path with plenty of cover for the snipers to put a bullet in me six times over."

"You could have taken the snipers rifle, I could have helped you aim if you lack for weapon knoweldge."

"And stay out in the open trying to countersnipe people behind rock faces? That's a suboptimal solution." Her hand slipped and for a brief moment Xanthiana wondered if all that religious bullshit about Irzu was true, and then she found a better grip and went back to the argument with the voice in her head.

"They will have guarded this path Operator Roeyka."

"Highly unlikely, these mutants are former humans and if you humans have shown me one thing over the course of repeated conflicts its that they overestimate their cover, and underestimate the ability for the enemy to flank it." The EGO device took a moment to calculate a response, Xanthiana didn't want to call it thinking, because despite the device having a personality and ability to learn, she didn't believe it actually thought in the way a person did, more like came up with a response based on computation.

"Data processed will update records to match Operator Roeyka's experience with human enemies." It was the closest thing to an admission she was right she was going to get from the EGO device and it brought a smile to Xanthiana's face.

She ascended the rest of the cliff face without further input from her EGO. When she got to the top it was as she expected the mutant snipers were unaware of her presence. There were four of them covering different site lines all tightly grouped next to each other. Xanthiana cursed her luck that she didn't have a grenade, but she did notice a nice ammo cache between them that did include grenades. EGO also noticed the grenades and highlighted them in red.

"Why would they have grenades?" EGO asked confirming Xanthiana's suspicion the device was installed without any kind of combat programming.

"They are positioned to cover sight lines in front and a frontal assault up the path you suggested as an optimal route, rifles for distance, grenades for anyone who gets close enough."

"The grenades will not explode by gunshot."

"Obviously." Xanthiana cursed her luck for not having a knife, but she did have the adrenaline rush the EGO could provide her and that would have to do. "EGO iniate Adrenaline Overdrive please." She could feel her heartbeat accelerating and her muscles previously aching from making the climb were super charged. Rushing forward she got the drop on the first sniper and brought her booted heel down roughly on its neck, she heard a snapping noise and her precence hadn't gone completely unnoticed, the other snipers had turned bringing their rifles to bear on her. She could feel the Adrenaline Rush's effects fading when she snagged the pins off a couple of the grenades and sprinted, hoping the fuse's on the grenades would explode before the snipers could line up shots. Xanthiana made it to the cliff face she'd scaled and thought of throwing herself off it hoping only for a broken leg when the series of explosions took out the remaining three snipers.

"Objective completed Operator Roeyka." Xanthiana smiled the smoldering corpses of the snipers was a welcome sight after all the climbing.

"What happened to my friends?" She hadn't noticed the bit of bunker the hulking figure of the Bioman emerged from, but she did immediately notice the grenade launcher he was carrying when he did emerge.

"Objective updated Opeator Roeyka." The EGO device had a unique way of saying they were fucked Roeyka thought to herself.