The shots were good I know they were Simmins mutters as the rat dodges so many of his blasts. The rest of the team manages to do the work though and Simmins uses that and Liam's continued shots on the horror heading towards them to sprint forward into a barricade hopefully unnoticed , quick changing to the Melta as he went and braces the Melta on the barricade aiming at the bastard!
Liam mercilessly sends another tight burst of heavy bolt shells against the abominable Magos. Half of the salvo is absorbed by the literal meat-shields.
Another vanishes in a flash of light never to be seen (or heard) of again.
The remaining two though...
Hit the vile creation and explode fist-sized junks of metal and corrupted flesh out of the abomination!
Beside the (substantial?) damage to the internals, the successive hits also have visibly weakened the Magos' upper-body armor, which is cracked and blasted in half a dozen places...
Then, the drowning binaric cant of Anatoly drones audibly through the chamber - quickly to be drowned by the rattling of no less than four heavy stubber start their work.
One is clearly targeting the last remaining wall-climb-running rat-thing but horribly, horribly misses. The other Servitor though, targets the prone one which failed its jump. Unable to dodge, the rat takes the full brunt of the salvo. With the sheer amount of impacts, some are BOUND to hit critical spots and the cyborg-rat is surely going to *KABOOM*!!
A shower of shrapnel is pattering the defenders alongside the powerful shockwave accompanying the demise of another rat-thing and this time, the Emperor seems a bit occupied elsewhere, as three deadly fragments find their marks!
Cecil goes down hard, bleeding heavily from the face, a portion of her lower jaw-line reduced to a bloody mass.
A similar fate but not as worse is facing Greg the not-much-talkative rifleman. He yells in pain, as a shrapnel takes off his left earlobe, causing a profound bleeding (and most likely searing pain).
And Liam is hit on hit helmet again, this time with even greater force, no doubt due to the closer proximity of the detonation.
Knowing that he cannot hope for a better distraction than heavy bolter fire AND an exploding rat, Simmins sprints out of the gate, down the stairs, past the downed servitor and into cover.
Panting hard and clutching his melta gun in white-knuckled hands.
The fallen Magos shoves aside his bodyguards with a horrid shreak of corrupted binary and faces directly at Liam and Kenneth who stand close together.
Its upper mouth spats a single word in low gothic: Dissolve
Then its lower, even more disgusting mouth opens and reveals a grafted gun barrel of worrying size.
A glowing brown-green ball of ... plasma? acid? whatever comes hurtling out of it at speed and flies straight at the corner of the gateway shielding Liam and Kenneth.
Knowing that they want nothing to do with that, both attempt to get out of harms way, but the disgusting projectile is just too fast and hits the corner before they can get away!
As it contacts the reinforced plasteel, the glob splatters and sizzles everything and everyone within three meters, which includes Liam, Kenneth and one of the combat servitors.
It buuuuuuuuurns.
In so many ways, it isn't remotely funny.
It is hot as hell, singing everything black.
It is dissolving matter like acid, reducing worn armor and clothing in worryingly rapid speed to a gray slime.
And where it touches flesh, the burning sensation actually spreads from the point of impact, meaning it is most likely also poisonous.
The servitor, due to its size and exposed position, naturally takes a lot of it and ... looses the better part of its frontal structural integrity in seconds.
Liam is right side is splattered and everything burns!
Kenneth takes the same but to his left side.
Each round, test Toughness-x.
If you fail, take y unresisted damage.
One successful roll ends this effect.
De-Tox is a common anti-toxin med contained in most med-kits.
The blast approaching Kenneth vanishes some centimeters in front of him, replaced by an absolutly blinding flash of light. Kenneth however stands unharmed from the blast as the energy field fizzles out around him.
Seeing his cover now evaporated, and the magos not in range of his hand flamer even if he moved directly towards it Kenneth moves to the other side of the cover and dozes the incoming rat thing with his hand flamer, while loadly reciting about successful tactics used against magi that fell to the dark powers and wrapped themselves in gross flesh grafts.
Kenneth preaches as he moves to the other side of the cover to burn the rat:
"Hear this! This abomination of a magos is not the first of its kind to fall and neither is it the first to be defeated! Hold nothing back against the monstrosity for it is better considered a tank through it's extensive augmentations! Burn a hole through its armor with everything you have so those with less powerful guns may aim for the breaches you make! Bring explosion to it's inside once a breach is made!"
MacGuyver also takes explosions and gunfire to be just the cover he's looking for and slips out to plant his bomb.
He keeps an eye on his targets to judge if he's seen or not. He finds a sturdy bit of column and sticks his IED to it, then falls back and hits the detonator!
Things happen rapidly, Liam moves, as if by instinct, and barrels into Cecil.
Being hit by a man the size of Liam can't be a pleasant experience, but compared to being hit by shrapnel in the face, maybe preferable after all?
However, being upright during a shrapnel storm isn't so good for Liam.
Being engulfed in plasma however...
It burns!
But...not quite as bad as it could.
Single shot from MELTA
BS 48
Fully Braced +15
Short range +10
Size +10
Size +10
Unaware +30
123
It's hard to miss the screaming monstrosity and so Simmins doesn't A stream of pure flame pounds into the Magos
If he is able to unbrace using his quickdraw the he yanks the melta and runs back to the safest spot he can see on the barrier!
Otherwise he'll take full cover to escape the impending wrath and/or unexpected boom from MacGuyer!
At the moment, Pain coursing through his body but drowned in the waves of adrenaline, Liam probably was gripped by a kind of madness.
His more clinical sense might judge it a battlefield trauma of some kind, but right now, it was euphoria.
A cry of defiance in the face of impossible odds, a wish to simply say "i am here, and I spit in the eye of chaos."
"Whaa-"
Is all Cecil can say as she is unexpectedly tackled aside by the decidedly more massive Liam and crashes to the ground, helmeted head bouncing off the hard rockrete wall with a clang.
Then Liam is hit by shrapnel and then again by the edge of the expanding plasma-acid.
Her mouth agape, she stares up at the man who quite likely saved her life by risking his own right there and then.
Then she pulls hard on his leg, trying to bring him down into cover beside her.
"LIAM!
Enough.
Liam!
Get in cover you stupid, thrice-lucked bastard!"
With the other hand she pulls a krak grenade from her belt, pin still in but clearly ready to toss it at a moments notice.
In the corridor, hell is unleashed against Dark Magos Cellslayer and his bodyguard.
First, in the form of Simmins unleashing his melta at short range.
The beam of superheated air hits the Magos center mass, close to the horrible acid-plasma spitting belly-mouth-gun.
A huge area of flesh, armor-plating and internal cybernetics evaporate in an instant and send the Magos sideways, smoking flesh and ruined pieces of half-molten metal flailing wildly in an attempt to keep him upright.
The bodyguarding rat-thing closer to Simmins is also caught in the melta blast, the other one is (ironically) shielded from it by its master.
Its armor plating is running liquid and exposes horribly scarred and mutilated (and now scorched black) skin below as well as extensive cybernetics. It is not dead but with its midriff severely melted and fused in odd ways, it certainly isn't fine either.
And then, just as Simmins ducks back down, melta whining audibly as it recharges, a massive detonation makes the corridor shudder and eardrums pop.
A former, very sturdy looking abstract statue made from plasteel and adamantium is reduced to a deadly, directed cone of tiny shrapnel flying at supersonic speeds and shredding into the badly mauled foes, bouncing and ricocheting off the hard ground and opposite wall.
The closer rat thing is hit by two particular large pieces and comes apart in the middle, revealing a (now broken open) metal sphere leaking a painful-to-look-at yellow substance which seems to dissolve anything it comes in touch with. This one certainly is done for.
The further off one, is also peppered with fragments, although it still has a mostly intact armor so the effects are not as utterly devastating as for his fellow. It still looks pretty bad though, half a dozen jets of gas venting from ruptures and fluids leaking from shattered piping with sparks flying to boot.
And then there is Magos Cellslayer himself. The energy shield he has in place tries to stem the tide, after failing so miserably against the melta blast, but the shower of supersonic debris proves pretty overwhelming and only the first piece gets deflected, several more hit home and rip deep into his exposed, mutilated body.
It can be no doubt by now, that he is in a pretty bad state.
Blood and other fluids is leaking from several deep wounds.
One bone-sword tipped arm is dangling nimbly at his side.
His entire left side is nothing but a mess of uncontrolled wobbling rent flesh and disconnected augments, only connected to the main body by a couple sturdy cables and strains of sinew here and there.
The force of the detonation also flung him to the ground, nearly crushing his remaining bodyguard beneath.
But it would have (probably) got back to its many feets, if not for a very short and cold string of binaric coming from Anatoly, commanding the two combat servitors to finish the heretec for good.
The badly damaged one, tries and fails to comply. Its weapon limb just does not react as it should, it it fires a long burst - into the ceiling.
The other one however, sends a drilling stream of bullets against the downed heap of flesh and metal, wasting not a single round as it does so.
What would have been a mere annoyance for the Magos before, becomes absolutely lethal now that most his armor and redundant flesh is molten and rented.
After that, the twitching and flailing ceases.
And the horrific rat-things stop moving.
Just a momentarily respite, or is it really over?
Liam's madness subsides at the sight of the dark magos being destroyed, and he shakes himself back into reality.
"Yes...yes...right, back to work then."
Hoping that his comrades can deal with what remains, Liam turns to the bleeding Greg and the shaking Sergeant.
Greg was easy enough to deal with, hell, stitching up a bleeding wound was something he could do in his sleep.
"Easy there, nothing to it.
Nobody who ever lost an earlobe needed to adjust their life much afterwards.
See? Already done, easy."
He then turns to the Sergeant.
Now, Liam wasn't known for his bedside manner, and right now, his smarting skin made him very irritable.
So he leans close, really close, literally getting in the sergeants face.
"We're winning sergeant, and we're surviving, against massive odds.
And you, what are you doing?
Listen to me, as a trained medic, I have the authority to remove you from command and even have you sanctioned.
How do you think the priest would react, hmm?
Nobody noticed yet, so you got one chance, ONE chance.
Pucker up your areshole sergeant, man up or shut up."
Simmins is very confused by the blast and figures his melta had hit something triggering the explosion, in any case, he wasn't going to take anything for granted. He smoothly unstraps his bolter, slaps it down on it's brace and just straight unloads on the two enemies in his sight.
MacGuyver peeks over his cover to see what effect his bomb had and allows himself a quiet smile at all the carnage. Then a stubber opens up not two meters from him and he dives into cover again. He stays very low and works his way around the remains of the blasted sculpture. Seeing Simmins there is a real shock. So it wasn't just me then. he thinks.
He slides out from behind and calls out their friendly indentifier as he lands beside Simmins. Thanks for the assist! he shouts over the stubber as he fires his own hasty shot over the cover.
Simmins almost jumps out of his skin as MacGuyver slides in next to him. Emperor burn me, what're you doing here? he says as his full spray peters away.
Oh you know me. Just making an impression. MacGuyver quips as his shot goes very, very wide.
Simmins puts two and two together based on the way the statue exploded.
The explosion was you? he says. Thought it was my Melta that did all that. he pats the Melta still cooling down beside him.
MacGuyver's eyes open wide. Oh! That's why their armor didn't work as well as I thought! It wasn't there anymore!
I'll keep cracking 'em open s'long as you keep blowing up their insides Mac!
MacGuyver looks slightly concerned. Sorry, that was all I was carrying!
Sgt. Henner eyes snap around and lock into yours for a moment.
You can see blind panic and agonizing recognition of failure in them in the few seconds of your speech.
Then they shut close for a second, then another before opening back up.
The face before you now is nothing but a hollow mask: expressionless.
He gives a tiny nod, then straightens up to take a view out over the battlefield.
Sgt. Henner straightens up behind cover and takes a peek over the barricade to survey the mauled corridor, where SImmins currently is busy playing cross-fire over the fallen heap of metal and flesh.
"What a bloody mess.
Ehm, well done squad.
Enginseer, how is the download process going?
I'd imagine we will get even more company any mome- ahhh.
There they come already."
Following his words, you (probably) look down the corridor as well and notice a flurry of movement.
There are four troopers in the yellow-and-black of the Serenus 1st at dead sprint, followed by what can only be called a frenzied mob.
The mob, while equipped with guns, all have bayonets fixed and run down the fleeing troopers, clearly intending to rip them apart in melee.
The distance is pretty large for now, a little over 200m for now but both parties close rapidly.
At this distance and angle, it will not be too easy firing over the heads of the fleeing friendlies, so you have to place your shots very careful - or let the Emperor figure this out.
"Aww, s###, here we go again."
With that Cecil braces her gun again and fires a shot from her lasgun.
*Crack*
But it falls short and also off target, hitting a statue at the pretty far off wall.
MacGuyver sees the main body refocus downrange and puts two and two together. He pats Simmons shoulder, Enemy Reinforcements! Fall back! I have someone I have to get!
He then doesn't fall back himself, but goes sprinting off toward the enemy!
Since we currently have no incoming fire Kenneth stands tall and bellows:
"One evil falls, another rushes into our sights. You have made his majesty proud already, show him there is more where that came from!"
Liam takes the time to properly set up his bolter, using the tripod rather than just bracing it by hand.
When he let loose, he wanted it to be as devastating as possible.
As he sights down the corridor, he carefully counts the seconds, estimating the range and placing his finger lightly on the trigger.
"Any second now..."
Dammit Mac! Simmins follows MacVyger to see what the hell he's doing and help if he can.
You can barely keep track of him as he runs. The man has a seemingly unconscious knack for breaking sight lines. Soon you spot a bandaged trooper laying against the back of one of the pillars a few meters away.
Alright, let's do the combat drag. Simmins sighs. grabbing the trooper by one armpit and starting the process of getting him back to the barricade.
MacGuyver seems surprised that Simmins is there, but doesn't waste time. He takes the other arm and gets moving!
A handful of precious calm seconds pass by in the blink of an eye.
Preparations are made, wits gathered, status reports asked and given and life-saving errands started.
Anatoly is chirping noisily away in the background, probably asking the little BUGs what is taking them so long. Or checking his latest noospheric updates - who can tell the difference, really.
Your comrades pepper the wall-mounted rat with lasfire.
But it seem pretty inefficient all told.
The M36's just aren't the right tool to put down servitor-mutant-rats it seems.
On the flip side, the massed fire seems to awaken some deep-programming in the motionless rat-thing and it starts moving again!
It drops to the uppermost stair and immediately jumps again, high over the heads of the defenders to land behind them.
Mid-air it also whips with its metal-tail - which barely misses Kenneth's head.
The distinct *zzzzing-SNAP* speaks volumes of its sharpness and speed.
MacGuyver hauls with Simmons, racing to get back to them barricade before they're caught out by charging hereteks.
Simmins is a bit surprised by the adrenalin shot that seems to be coursing through the wiry MacGuyver.
Liam exhales slowly, licks one thumb and rubs it against the crosshairs of the bolter for a little luck, and then fires a burst at the enemy, aiming high to avoid friendly fire.
Facing the decision of trying to shoot a mob of frenzied (but distant) maniacs with pointy sticks or a burning thing known for its exploding capabilities right behind them, it is fairly obvious what most people will do: spread out and shoot the close threat!
And despite the fact that it is getting shot at from several different angles and the encouraging sermons of Kenneth, not a single lasbolt (or heavy-duty cybernetic fist in the case of the close-by combat servitor) hits the servitor-rat!
It moves in such an unnatural, alien way that it seems all but impossible to hit it! Or, it is simply a combination of combat stress, the fear of the damn thing exploding any moment and sheer bad luck. Such things happen you see...
While this is going, Liam has the nerve to send a tightly grouped burst of heavy bolt shells down range. It is a piece of pretty impressive shooting considering the overall circumstances. The bright trails of the bolt's rocket motors streak past the fleeing Serenus' first troopers and find their marks - and blowing each and every one of them into bloody pieces.
Clearly, those are far from well armored and the bolts are basically unhindered in the fulfillment of their bloody work.
The chase continues unimpeded, although you can see the closest Serenus' trooper waving his arms like a windmill while running.
Meanwhile, Simmins and MacGyver makes good progress in carrying back the wounded trooper to the defensive line, getting a good third of the way back done. The much leaner scout surprising the heavier-built gunner. Although considering the weapon load of Simmins, this should not be too surprising. Anyone carrying a heavy stubber AND a melta gun AND a shotgun AND half of a wounded-unconscious trooper simply got to be struggling.
And then, the rat-thing makes a guttural sound, like a mix of coughing and retching with a hint of mechanical bellows at work.
It is followed by a splashing sound as it spews a horrifying yellow-green, sticky fluid over several of the close-by standing persons, including Liam, the earlobe-less Greg, Cecil and the combat servitor.
Not only is this stuff clearly acidic, turning any exposed skin in a blistering mess and any clothing into gloo, but it also seems to be flammable, as it catches fire the moment it is leaving the foul mouth of the rat.
As badly of news this is for the targeted guardsman (as they are also torched) it is even worse for the rat itself. The flames quickly race to the origin of the flammable stuff - which is within the mutated-augmented body itself.
In a second of intense heat the rat is consumed by internal fire, creating a roaring fireball engulfing those close-by: Zulu, Kenneth and the combat servitor.
Acrobatic+10 or Dodge+10 to hit the ground fast. This will reduce the damage taken by half.
You take E, Flame(2, 1)
You are hit by acid on fire on the left-rear.
This deals 5 unresisted damage.
Small mercies though: it would have been toxic if not set on fire.
"NNNNNGGGGH! WHAT THE FRAG!?"
Almost loosing his footing as the air is forced from his lungs, Liam counters the pain the only way he can at the moment, with shouting and rage.
Shouting and sending another well aimed burst down the line, over the head of the Serenus troopers.
He finds himself just a touch annoyed at the windmilling trooper.
Did he really think Liam would miss?
Kenneth stands full on in the blast groaning in pain but standing tall
nonetheless. At least long enough to praise once more
"Arghh... the blaze dishes out his majesties revenge, follow its example!"
Which is an impressive display of willpower but with all that willpower used by standing not enough is left for a truly inspiring praise. That or maybe it is not so inspiring that the ball of fire burned 3 allies along with the rat...
Anyway, while his willpower keeps him um he is not quite stupid enough to keep standing while burning and so after delivering his lines he drops and rolls, trying to put out the fire.
Spurred by a very deep desire to survive. Simmins goes even faster than before.
MacGuyver's strength begins to give out. His legs burn and he grunts in effort, but most of the progress is made by Simmins this time.
Cecil, having been hit by the flaming acid spittle as well, groans in pain as it eats into the left arm and she instinctively lets go of the (not-yet-primed!) grenade she was holding.
"Aaargh-dammit! Liam!
Why are you drawing attacks like a frigging magnet?
And why have I always have to be 'round when it happens?!
You-you-urgh."
Then she grabs her lasgun and drops into a firing position right next to Liam, moaning at every movement of her scorched arm.
It must be pretty uncomfortable actually, considering the exceedingly loud report of a heavy bolter in action.
From the point of view of Simmins and MacGyver, the defensive line just went up in flame and screams.
This has quite some different impacts on the two troopers.
Simmins seems to double his efforts to get them all back.
MacGyver on the other hand clearly is distracted. Slag-jawed? Already looking for an alternative path to get-the-frag-away from this doomed endeavor?
Whatever it is, he isn't nearly helping as much as before and the trio looses speed and wouldn't have made any progress at all without Simmins' efforts.
The trio is currently crossing the weird sigils still glowing on the ground, from where the dark magos and the cursed rats appeared all of a sudden.
You can actually feel the heat they are emanating.
And also a nagging pain in the head, like a needle poking softly at a place somewhere behind your eyes.
Not truly painful but it is there and it is troublesome.
There is still bolter fire coming - so at least Liam is probably still kicking though.
Much to the doom of the crazed lunatics behind you, who are definitely getting closer every second!
Stating that the line is in utter chaos and disarray is probably a bit much - but things aren't far from such a state.
Greg is howling in pain as the flame-acid is eating away the quick bandage-job of Liam and into his previous wound.
Kenneth is shouting and rolling over the hard ground in an (successful) effort to put himself out.
As is the trooper of Probe-1, the one who brought you their team's BUG earlier. He isn't as lucky as Kenneth though and isn't fully able to quench all the flames - and is obviously screaming quite a bit more from the resulting pain.
The rest of Probe-4 has (luckily!) scattered in anticipation of the rat exploding like the others before it, and are now returning to firing positions, navigating around the quickly dousing flames.
Sgt. Henner hurries to the still burning trooper and attempts to help put out the flames - which they manage after another couple of seconds.
At which point the burned trooper falls unconscious from the effort and pain.
Oh, and the remaining servitor is still on fire too of course.
At this point, Anatoly's cold and controlled machine voice comes over the com-beads.
<< Data exfiltration process 67.934 percent completed.
Remaining time estimate: 104.07 seconds. >>
Liam raises an eyebrow (or the remains of one) at Cecil's (probably) rhetorical question.
It wasn't very hard to figure out really, Liam was probably the biggest target, and he also possessed the biggest gun at the moment.
Naturally he would present a very tempting target for attacks.
Also, if Cecil HAD been further away, she would probably be bleeding out on the ground at the moment, or be burned to death by plasma.
And, AND, the last attack had not been in anyway Liam's fault at all.
Clanking the heavy bolter one more time, he fires one last salvo downrange, aware that it might not be possible to reload in time for any more than that.
"That's it, all out.
Someone want to help me relaod, or what?"
As Simmins stumbles on a bit of debris from his improvised bomb MacGuyver is there to pick up the slack! He refocuses on his immediate goal and heaves with everything he has to get to that cover in time!
Another salvo of heavy bolter fire scythes into the rushing mob, taking down another handful of heretics in a splatter of red.
The crowd, still worryingly large and getting closer, it is noticeably smaller than before Liam's one-man-slaughter-show began.
A crude estimate would put the remaining strength of them somewhere between 20 and 30.
One of the fleeing troopers falls slightly behind his fellows, clearly running out of breath or maybe hurting from earlier and is getting simply swallowed by the mob.
A pretty disturbing sight all-told - a loyal, upright defender of humanity being swallowed whole by an overwhelming numbers of traitors...
You notice two man among the crowd who seem better equipped than the rabble around them - and while it is impossible to hear over the weapon fire and distance - they certainly seem to be shouting at their fellows.
It does hurt your brain to look at one of them, which carapace armor seems to be covered in lots and lots of glowing runes.
Simmins, exhausted after his previous effort, must summon all his strength to keep on going.
He only manages to do so with the renewed effort of MacGyver and the trio of troopers pass the fallen dark Magos and the area still covered in runic scripture.
At last, the relative safety of the steep stairs is looming ahead of them.
At the top of which, their comrades start pouring more and more fire into the approaching horde.
Just one more push and they will be at the stairs and then a last effort to get up it and into cover!
With a groan of effort and lingering pain, Greg pulls himself up beside Liam.
"Best I-argh can do for now I guess.
Not trust-argh my aim aim right now..."
From the other end of the defensive line, Sgt. Henner is calling for Liam:
"Medic!
I need a stim-inject for him.
We need all Trooper on their feet for this!"
He points at the trooper from Probe-1 that gone unconscious from being caught in the rat's fiery demise.
Emperor dammit! Things are going south fast now eh?
Seeing as how he is carrying a medikit, and he doesn't know if anyone else have one, Liam quickly dig out a stimm injector for the Sergeant.
"Here! Someone get it to him quickly!"
He then goes back to the reloading.
Simmins is not doing well at all. He needs to get up the stairs, but, they, are, so, steep.
With another herculean effort MacGuyver manages to get their load to the stairs almost by himself. His EVERYTHING burns, his breathing his labored, but still he manages to bark at Simmins. Simmins, Get with it or Emperor help me I'll tell Thud'dr you've requested special education time with him!
Kenneth would very much like to preach about the whole situation... except he doesn't even know it happens because he is still on the floor where the last flames on his robes dwindle out from rolling around.
So he stands up and instead of addressing the situation he doesn't know about he just throws a general inspiration out
"Your comrades are depending on you! Show them what you can do!"
But given what just happened it is not as inspiring as he thought it would be.
Simmins and MacGyver manage to get to the stairs, but there it becomes painfully obvious that they need to change tactics to get upstairs.
The weirdly high and broad stairs are already difficult to climb normally but loaded with an unconscious trooper and a horde of enemies hard at the heels, it is nearly impossible while standing.
With a groan, they set the trooper down and switch from an upright side-by-side to a crouched front-and-rear. Simmins takes the head and shoulder of the trooper and starts hauling, while MacGyver takes the mans bottom and legs and pushes.
Behind the trio, the fleeing Serenus' first and the mob of blood crazed lunatics hard at their heels, are just now crossing the glowing area where the Magos appeared. They will be on you all too soon!
Lasbolts stream down from the defenders in quick succession now, the troopers having mostly returned and properly braced by now.
With the enemy getting ever closer and the seriousness of the situation becoming very clear, they send burst after burst into the slowly thinning mob, taking down a handful enemies, which get promptly trampled by their own.
From behind and above you, you can hear the metallic rattle of heavy stubbers being prepared to open fire.
The remaining Combat Servitor is tracking the incoming mob with his guns - but yet refrains from opening up.
Clearly some kind of condition has yet to be fulfilled...
MacGuyver once again does his part. He doesn't even have breath for spreading now, only grunts and growls as he hauls his charge up to safety!