Baited Trap

There were five of them, they looked to be paramilitary, they used military tactics had weapons that were in decent shape and were all around the same build. They didn't wear a uniform that distinguished them as either corporate or Erep, but that could be because what they were involved with wasn't a sanctioned operation. More dangerously according to Elly they all had EGO devices, which spoke to them possibly being involved with Von Bach. Xanthiana was hiding in the top of the barn, she had her rifle out and a spare magazine sitting near by. The men had arrived in a truck, it looked like they were intending on capturing whoever had arrived to help the farmers based on the non lethal weapons they had out.

"I have checked personnel records, these men were slated to come with Von Bach as a security detail, but shortly after the carrier exploded this group among several others went missing." It was as Xanthiana feared, some kind of staged coup.

"Fantastic, they can't find us with their ego devices can they?" Xanthiana fingered the trigger, the men were smart not to walk in a single line, if she opened up at best she'd get two before they could return fire.

"Negative, I have disabled our locator, it was one of the first things I did back when we landed Xan."

"Perfect, what else do we know about this group of assholes?"

"Checking with the ereps, this group also was a part of a larger group that stole materials and is suspected of killing an erep officer." Xanthiana sighed and pulled up her side arm and put it next to the extra magazine for the rifle, she had the jump on them but if things went south she wanted all opportunities to murder them as efficiently as possible.

"So they have our similar capabilities?"

"Within reason, different EGO devices have different capabilities, if you can remove one I could get a look at their capabilities and specifically adjust my own programming to allow for new ones." Xanthiana shifted, three of the men were standing near each other while the other two were searching the house, if she was going to take her shots it would have to be soon.

"Kind of morbid to rip a fellow ego out of someone isn't it?"

"Its just a tool Xan, you and I are friends, but I understand I'm a tool, I'm used to make you better, if I malfunctioned you would replace me, in a way if you did the same I would replace you."

"That makes me feel so much better." Xanthiana took aim and opened fire, she had four of them in her sights, the fifth had wandered off so she hoped he would show up again once the shooting started. Her opening burst killed two and winged the third in the shoulder, he slumped down trying to find her, she let him be as she turned her attention to the fourth man a casti who ran to help his fallen comrade. She shot him in the back of the head coating his wounded companion with what little remained of his brain.

"Well that ego device is gone, try to aim for body shot kills."

"Where's the fifth guy?" She heard a hammer hit back behind her.

"Nice shooting, throw it away." Her attacker had gotten the drop her, he was standing over her with a leg behind either shoulder and his pistol pointing down at her head. Xanthiana smiled and swung her body knocking him off his feet and slamming into a nearby hay bale. "Wait." He screamed out before she shot him through the throat and kicked his pistol aside.

"He's still alive."

"You said no head shots."

"Well it'll take him one minute and thirty seconds assuming normal functioning cardiac system, maybe shoot him through the temple? It won't damage the EGO." Xanthiana did as she was told and the young attacker stopped moving.

"How's the last guy doing?"

"The surviving member has broken shoulder, his EGO is administering endorphins to keep him moving." Xanthiana took up her rifle and saw him struggling to his feet. She shot him through the knee cap and he collapsed again.

"How about now?"

"He's still combat viable but effectively neutralized, you should kill him."

"I will in time, but first we need to figure out what he knows." Xanthiana reloaded the rifle and made her way to the wounded man, one way or another he'd tell her everything.