章 22: The Reaver
The road in front was blocked by a mechanical monstrosity the size of a large school bus. It looked like an enormous black scorpion, with 4 pairs of metallic walking legs and two oversized pincers. Its abdomen was made of several segmented metal plates, stacked from one end to the other at an angle. A pair of dark red eyes glowed on top of its head, which was leveled against the ground.
While its entire body was painted jet black, its curved stinger was a bright crimson and glowed at irregular intervals. To any observer, it would appear that its pincers and stingers were its only weapons and it wasn't very effective at ranged combat. This, however, wasn't the case here. The scorpion-like machine had two M234 miniguns sticking out of its mouth.
The machine excelled at both close and ranged combat. Confronting such a deadly opponent all alone was foolish. It still hadn't noticed Kevin as he was standing quite far away and the smog cover made it difficult to spot stationary objects.
Kevin watched the monstrosity searching the adjoining area. It was scanning the lower floors of the nearby buildings, periodically zooming in on one potential point of interest. Both its eyes were equipped with 200 MP lenses, with wide optical zoom, but they didn't have any laser scanning mechanism. It relied solely on tracking its targets through movement.
Seeing that the machine was busy searching through the buildings, Kevin decided to get into a better position, behind a closed recycling bin. He crouched to a comfortable height, just keeping his head raised above the bin's rectangular lid.
He was now in close enough proximity to the machine to prompt a response from his AI.
// Artificial assistance enabled.
Threat detected!
Hostile robot nearby.
Analyzing...
Type: Reaver.
Class: Assassin.
Suggest immediate retreat! //
"I'm not going anywhere," Kevin muttered under his breath.
Though Kevin barely knew anything about this new machine, he wasn't ready to turn tail and run away. He was a cyborg now and this made him overestimate his capabilities. Destroying that Neutralizer in the tunnel had bolstered his confidence and he now felt like he could handle any machine which crossed his path.
Kevin quickly overcame the initial shock of seeing the Reaver for the first time. The machine looked intimidating for sure, but he was ready to face it!
Dismissing the several warning notifications popping up in front of his left eye, Kevin popped out of cover and activated his signal scrambler. He set the target to attack robots and marched ahead fearlessly. It was going to be a walk in the park for him once the Reaver was disabled.
Kevin walked right up to the Reaver and pulled out his Rapid Firing Gatling Gun. He was about to take aim when he noticed that the machine was still moving. It turned around in a flash and focused its eyes on him.
"What the fuck is wrong with the scrambler? Why the hell is it still moving?"
// Autonomous attack robot detected.
Unable to scramble the signal. //
Kevin had made a costly mistake by stepping in so close. The Reaver's eyes were glued to him now, its lenses zoomed in on the new target. Any attempt to run back would spell disaster, so Kevin stood his ground and took aim.
Before the machine could activate its miniguns, Kevin hit it with a blistering shower of lead. The 7.62mm caliber rounds hit with enough force to punch through many layers of steel, but in this case, they simply bounced off the Reaver's armor plates without even denting its body.
The Reaver's abdomen was far too thick to penetrate, so Kevin quickly switched targets and went for its head this time. Since its head was not protected by thick armor plates, it would have been much easier to damage, but the Reaver was well aware of its vulnerable areas. As soon as Kevin aimed for its head, it put its left pincer directly in the line of fire to act as a shield. The high-velocity projectiles kept ricocheting off the pincer's toughened exterior, leaving the Reaver unharmed.
Firing for such an extended duration took its toll on the barrels. Grey smoke fizzled out of them as the gun overheated and sputtered to a stop. Kevin had no option but to retract it and switch to another weapon.
"Activate Auto-targeting Laser Rifle!"
As Kevin's right arm modified itself to assemble the rifle, the Reaver emitted a series of chittering sounds and locked onto him. Both miniguns attached to its mouth spun into action and fired simultaneously at the target in front.
A split-second reaction saved Kevin from being peppered with bullets. He quickly retracted his rifle and took on a defensive stance. Crossing his arms in front of his chest, he held off the gunfire, letting his armored flaps shield him from the 9mm rounds.
Noticing that it had its target pinned, the Reaver skittered forward, pushing the damaged vehicles out of its way. A quick swipe of its left pincer caught Kevin by surprise. He managed to jump in the air just moments before the scissor-like mechanism could grab hold of him. But then the other pincer came in out of a blind spot and clamped onto Kevin's waist.
The razor-sharp edges curved around him, squeezing his body like a tube of toothpaste. His black t-shirt offered little protection as the sharp, cold metal dug into his artificial skin, scraping against his exoskeleton. Kevin struggled to break free, raining down desperate punches which had no effect on the machine.
Though Kevin didn't have a human body, the pressure sensors on his skin went haywire as the pincer squeezed harder. He felt a sharp pain flaring up in his waist and groaned in agony.
"Let go off me, you damn bastard!"
Curses and abuses did little to deter the Reaver. It wasn't an android and had no feelings or sentiments. The sole purpose of its existence was to track down and hunt the humans hiding in the ruined buildings.
// Exoskeleton integrity compromised!
Severe external pressure detected!
Current exoskeleton integrity: 70%. //
"Activate Auto-targeting Laser Rifle!" Kevin grunted.
Luckily, Kevin's arms were still free, and his weapon systems were all online. His right arm quickly reassembled the rifle and gave him a final shot at breaking free. Kevin aimed the laser weapon at the Reaver's face and fired a charged blast!
It tried to shield its head with its other pincer, but the laser blast blew that arm to pieces, leaving it permanently crippled. The explosion rattled its internal circuits, causing a momentary system malfunction.
Kevin kicked as hard as he could and finally managed to break free from the Reaver's deadly grasp. He fell right through the pincer and hit the ground on all fours. His exoskeleton had suffered extensive structural damage. A couple of internal connecting cables had snapped due to the extreme pressure, which caused his legs to become wobbly and unstable.
While the Reaver was still trying to recover from the attack, Kevin had a narrow window to walk out of its target zone. Since the road ahead was blocked by the machine's massive frame, he had no option but to turn back and take a different path.
Kevin tried to break off into a run, but his legs gave way almost instantly, and he fell on the dusty concrete. Grunting through his tightly clenched teeth, he pulled himself back to his feet. This time, he walked with measured steps without putting too much strain on his legs. Even then, all he could manage was a limping gait as he hobbled around unsteadily.
Behind him, the Reaver finished rebooting its system and re-acquired its target. The loss of an arm meant nothing to a machine that felt neither pain nor fear.
A series of shrill chittering noises dinned Kevin's ears as he tried to walk away. His laser rifle was still being recharged and his other weapons were completely useless against such a heavily armored machine. He cursed his own foolish bravado as he struggled to maintain his balance.
クリエイターの想い 
Ashdenroth
Ashdenroth Special Notes:
Reaver: A Reaver is an advanced assassin class robot designed to swiftly eliminate squishy organic targets such as humans. It excels at close-ranged combat and is heavily armored.
They are autonomous robots capable of independent decision making. Unlike the XL11 robots, they can function without direct orders from a human or Android controller.
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